K-State Current - March 24, 2021

K-State Current is a weekly news update for the Kansas Board of Regents to apprise the Regents on a few of the many successes and achievements made by K-State faculty, staff and students.

K-State News

K-State First Book selects 'The Marrow Thieves' as 2021 common book

Kansas State University and K-State First have selected "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline as the 2021 university common book.

"The Marrow Thieves" is an award-winning and bestselling novel that tells the story of a dystopian future where humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming. The protagonist, Frenchie, struggles to survive in a world where the Indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream.

K-State First Book will celebrate the 2021 selection in the fall semester with multiple in-person and virtual events, including an online visit with the author. More event information will be shared as details are finalized.

A virtual information session for faculty and staff will be from 12:15-12:45 p.m. on Wednesday, April 7. The session will help faculty and staff learn more about "The Marrow Thieves" and how to incorporate the book into their classes and programs. The session will be held through Zoom and interested faculty and staff can register to attend at tinyurl.com/ksfbookinfo2021.

"'The Marrow Thieves' tackles serious and consequential social issues, such as climate change, racism and social justice, for example. Yet it is also a genuinely beautiful book about families, extended families of choice and fate, as well as the bonds of friendship, marriage, and love," said Greg Eiselein, professor of English and director of K-State First. "Although 'The Marrow Thieves' is set in a dystopian future, it's really a novel about our past and the problems facing us now. I think our students will find the book relevant and thought provoking."

K-State First Book, the all-university reading program that is part of K-State First, selects a common book for the academic year and coordinates classroom and campus activities to correspond with the reading. K-State First Book provides incoming students with a shared academic experience that they can discuss with professors, staff, administrators and other students when they arrive on campus.

The 2021 K-State First Book selection committee — comprised of 36 students, staff, administrators and faculty from two campuses — spent the last six months reading more than 32 books on the theme of "Community": books that introduce readers to the ways we come together to support each other, how we build community and how it changes the world.

"The selection committee felt this would make a great common book," said Tara Coleman, chair of the K-State First Book committee and associate professor at K-State Libraries. "It's an engaging story that centers Indigenous people and addresses issues students, faculty, and staff want to discuss on campus. It's the first book we've selected by an Indigenous author and will give us an opportunity to make connections between our community and the community of the story."

K-State First Book will partner with several university and community organizations to coordinate programming for the 2021 common book. Programming partners so far include the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art; the Center for Advocacy, Response and Education, or CARE; the Department of English in the College of Arts and Sciences; the Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, or MANRRS, chapter in the College of Agriculture; the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering; Diversity and Multicultural Student Affairs; the Richard L. D. and Marjorie J. Morse Department of Special Collections with K-State Libraries; the Staley School of Leadership Studies; the Indigenous Faculty and Staff Alliance; and USD 383.

Programming partners will plan a lecture, panel or other kind of event that draws on the expertise of that group to help the campus and Manhattan communities experience "The Marrow Thieves" in a new way. K-State First Book will provide publicity support for the event and programming partners receive three to five copies of the 2021 selection to share within their group in advance of the fall semester.

"The 2021 book selection allows us to continue conversations from the past eleven years of K-State First's common reading program as we explore themes connected to community, family, history, story, and the environment," said Karin Westman, chair of the K-State First Book PR/events committee and department head of English. "Our 2021 selection also asks us to engage directly with the past, present, and future of Indigenous peoples across North America, including here in Kansas."

Interested departments or groups should contact ksbn@k-state.edu to join the effort for the 2021 selection.

More information about the K-State First Book program, the 2021 book selection and resources for its inclusion in fall activities and classrooms is available at the K-State First Book website, k-state.edu/ksfb.

K-State Alumni Association is No. 1 in Big 12 for membership yet again Once again, the K-State community has demonstrated it is among the most loyal fan bases in the Big 12 Conference. The K-State Alumni Association has earned the No. 1 spot among the Big 12 institutions for the percentage of graduates who are members of their respective alumni associations — a spot the K-State Alumni Association has held more than 20 times since the conference was formed in 1996.

“We are thrilled to see how loyal and supportive the Wildcat Community is,” said Amy Button Renz, president and CEO of the K-State Alumni Association. “I often say we have the best alumni in the country. Your continued support of the K-State Alumni Association demonstrates exactly that.”

“We are proud to support a strong membership program with nationwide benefits,” said Megan Reichenberger, associate director of membership and marketing for the Alumni Association. "Thank you to all of our members who continue to support us and make what we do possible."

Membership in the K-State Alumni Association is open to anyone who wishes to support K-State, not just graduates and former students. To learn more about the membership benefits or to become a member today, visit www.k-state.com/membership.

K-State Faculty Highlights

K-State librarian receives $100,000 IMLS grant to improve environmental research

When most students and researchers log into a database and begin their research, they typically search by keyword, subject, author or possibly a specific journal title. But now, a new grant-funded project will help create the capability for researchers to search for articles by location or environment.

K-State Libraries academic services librarian Livia Olsen, in partnership with the University of Idaho, was awarded nearly $100,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to plan for a web application that will offer researchers a portable and flexible way to improve the ability to search and discover agricultural and environmental information.

"Changes to JournalMap, the web application we are developing further, will help improve finding articles by geographic region," Olsen said. "For example, a researcher could easily find articles that were published in a specific country or region. The tool even allows for searching by type of environment, altitude and biome, among several other classifications."

K-State Libraries IT staff designed and created the Croplands Research Database, and have maintained it for nearly 10 years. Once the new version of JournalMap, along with its application programming interface has been fleshed out, IT staff will update the Croplands Research Database to include features such as automated article importation and assignment of a controlled vocabulary using crop system spatial data layers and geotagging.

"The addition of filters like climate and soil type can help searchers find other parts of the world with similar circumstances so the research might also be relevant," Olsen said. "While the focus is on the ecological literature, location is important to many other disciplines. It basically makes searching for relevant research much easier."

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's libraries and museums. It advances, supports and empowers America’s museums, libraries and related organizations through grantmaking, research and policy development. Its vision is a nation where museums and libraries work together to transform the lives of individuals and communities. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow IMLS on Facebook and Twitter.

K-State Student News

Doctoral student receives American Geographical Society Awards Council Fellowship

Hilda Onuoha, doctoral student in geography, is one of four recipients of the 2021 American Geographical Society Council Fellowship.

Established in 2013, graduate students from universities around the world are eligible to apply for the $1,500. award. The society will recognize the fellowship recipients during its annual Fall Symposium, streaming online Nov. 15-19.

Onuoha's award will fund part of her doctoral research titled, "A Spatio-temporal Valuation of Grassland Ecosystem Services in the U.S. Great Plains."

"My research is on the analysis of long-term grasslands conditions in the U.S. Great Plains and how any changes in grassland conditions impact the provision of benefits grasslands provide for humans," Onuoha said.

"Members of the American Geographical Society Council believe that supporting researchers who address contemporary issues is fundamental. To ensure the health of the discipline, we must support young scholars," said Marie Price, chair of the Selection Committee and president of the American Geographical Society. "We are delighted to fund four promising young scholars in their field investigations through the AGS Council Fellowships and we look forward to reading about their discoveries."

Interior architecture & industrial design graduate students represent K-State at national conference Jacquelynn Ruww, left, and Robyn Fritze, right.

Graduate students from the interior architecture & industrial design department from the College of Architecture, Planning & Design attended the Interior Design Educators Council annual conference, March 1-5.

Held since 1963 by the council, the conference is a platform for more than 300 interior design educators, practitioners and graduate students to meet and disseminate research on current topics related to interior design teaching and learning as well as professional practice.

Two students in the department were chosen to present their research.

Jacquelynn Ruwwe, a fifth-year graduate student, St. Joseph, Missouri, presented "Defining the Post-COVID Restaurant Interior with an Adaptable Design Mindset." This research focused on the paradigm shift that is being experienced in restaurant interiors and functionality following the recent impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Nine restaurant owners and managers of local, regional and metropolitan businesses were extensively interviewed during the process and the in-depth analysis was translated to a 17-item design guideline for post-COVID restaurants.

Robyn Fritze, a fifth-year graduate student, Andover, presented "A Guideline for Designing Environments for Mental Restoration With Natural World Blend." This research investigated the optimal ways to integrate natural world elements into college interior spaces to help students manage their stress levels and improve the state of their mental wellbeing. Based on attention restoration and stress reduction theories, a 66-question visual preference survey was developed. According to the responses of 86 participants, a seven-item guideline for creating a natural world blend in college interiors was devised.

"Both Jacquelynn and Robyn presented their research with professionalism and reassurance, a staunch reflection of their design education at the College of Architecture, Planning & Design," said assistant professor Kutay Güler, major professor for the students. "They received a lot of curious questions as well as positive comments on their research. We are currently working to extend and publish both research works in high-impact academic journals."

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