megannetFiled under: Article | Tags: accident, blankenship, don, facebook, JMC, journalism, kent, Kent State University, KSU, massey mine, mining, news, newswriting, steinmetz, student
Professor’s Facebook group rallies +2,800 member to search for change
By: Margaret Thompson
After the coal mining accident where 29 workers were killed in early April, a history professor decided to create a Facebook group to raise awareness about the situation.
Melissa Steinmetz is passionate about politics and teaching history. In her US Modern History class she allows students to discuss current news topics in relation to the history they are learning.
“My real fondness or my emotional connection to labor history in the late 19th century is the idea that there is a group of hard working individuals who are being treated so poorly by the owners of corporations and have no where to turn but each other.” Steinmetz said. “The government wasn’t helping them. The owners weren’t helping them. Everything was about profit for the owners.
“FDR showed us that the government can do effective things to help the population, to help ordinary people. It’s my fervent wish that the government would do more to protect working Americans.”
Steinmetz said a class discussion on this what led her to create the Facebook group “Don Blankenship is a criminal. Charge him with manslaughter.”
Don Blankenship is the CEO of West Virginia’s largest coal producer, Massey Energy Company. After the explosion at the company’s Upper Brig Branch, where 29 workers were killed, attention was focused on Blankenship.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration cited the Upper Big Branch mine 458 times in 2009 and 117 in 2010 with violations of health or safety standards, rules, orders, or regulations.
Graph taken from MSHA webpage concerning Upper Big Branch Mine.
Blankenship has been known for aggressively appealing mining safety violations.
Steinmetz said she believes these problems should be prevented and it is Blankenship’s responsibility to correct violations, not simply appeal them. For this reason she said she believes Blankenship should be held responsible for the deaths of the 29 miners.
“It seems that the strategy of Massey has been to appeal these violations rather than take care of the issues,” Steinmetz said. “Massey has been criticized, and Blankenship in particular because of some comments he has made, for putting profit ahead of worker safety.”
Steinmetz said the problems the mineworkers are facing today are similar to the Progressive era labor issues she teaches to students.
“We were talking about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in 1911, where 146 workers died.” Steinmetz said. “The owners of the factory were charged with manslaughter and they, of course, were found not guilty. But similar ideas were going through my head as I was thinking about the miners and getting increasingly angry that workers are still facing issues related to safety that are rooted in the late nineteenth century.”
“I was feeling very powerless and just feeling sad sitting around the house thinking about what I could do,” Steinmetz said.
This is when she decided to check Facebook to see if there was a group she could join about the issue. Unsatisfied with the groups she found, Steinmetz decided to create her own group about Blankenship soon after the accident.
“I maybe expected maybe 10 or 15 people to join and we could talk about the incident and whether there was anything we could do to be politically active,” Steinmetz said. “But what happened was at this point I think there over 2,700 members.”
Of the close to 3,000 members in the group now, Steinmetz said the father of one of the miners joined along with Rose Harlow, aunt of the president of the United Mine Workers of America.
In a Facebook interview Rose Harlow expressed her support for the Facebook group.
“I think the Don Blankenship Facebook group is the best thing formed to get the word out about him,” Harlow said. “He is the reason our coal miners lost their lives, because he is only cares about the money and not the safety of our coal miners and he needs to be put in jail.”
Harlow shared her personal experience as a mineworker.
“I worked as a underground coal miner and of course we had a union to protect our rights and if we felt anything was unsafe we did not have to work in unsafe conditions. We had a union fireboss who checked the whole mines for all unsafe conditions and gases before we ever entered the mines.”
Harlow draws her opinions about today’s mining situation form her family history.
“My children’s great grandmother Sarah Blizzard and Mother Jones fought to organize the union here in West Virginia, when the union was first organized,” Harlow said. “Their Great uncle Bill Blizzard was tried for high treason for organizing the united miners workers at Blair Mountain in West Virginia.
“I believe that if the miners are going to work in the non union miners that congress is going to have to step in and put higher regulations on these non union mines. I believe Don Blankenship should have charges brought against him and stand trial.”
Several students from Steinmetz’s class have joined the group. Sophomore Integrated Social Studies student, Kirk Marsh said he joined the group to support its views.
“Don Blankenship only cares about himself and his loved ones,” Marsh said. “He only wants to make money and isn’t thinking about all the people he killed or hurt by cutting corners. He is a corporate criminal.”
“I think the Facebook group was a good idea and it was awesome our class discussion inspired it” Marsh said. “I feel like I am a part of it so that’s why I joined.”
Many of the Facebook members are from West Virginia and coal mining families.
“[They are] people who talk about the fact that their relatives years and years ago were lost in mining disasters and that it is almost part of their family history, this shadow of mining danger,” Steinmetz said. “But they really talk about their anger that this has not been solved yet, that it is 2010 and this has not been solved yet.”
One of the solutions members have come up with is making it mandatory that all miners be members of a union. There was not a union at the Upper Big Branch mine, which some blame the poor working conditions on.
According to Mine Safety and Health Administration reports, the Upper Big Branch mine has had consistently higher amounts of citations, orders, and safeguards than the national average since 2006. In 2009, the Upper Big Branch mine had close to 57% more violations than the national average.
“The only other solution I can imagine of is the federal government being very, very aggressive in enforcing safety regulations and really shutting down mines that continue to have a pattern of violations”Steinmetz said.
Steinmetz said she is looking for ways to use the group to create a change in how mines are kept safe and who is held accountable for their accidents.
“There is a real sense in the group as a community that we should be able, no matter where we are from geographically, to combine our collective efforts to either to increase awareness that people, especially in West Virginia, all over the country are incensed that this happened and to put some pressure on the justice department to go forward in investigating Massey in particular.” Steinmetz said.
Filed under: VLOG | Tags: facebook, JMC, journalism, kent, Kent State University, KSU, news, newswriting, student
Behind the Headline.
Current Article: Professor interview
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Funny video by Auto-sync the News: Auto Tune the News #10: Turtles
Filed under: Article | Tags: architecture, architecture lecture, JMC, journalism, kent, Kent State University, news, newswriting, stephen cassell, student
New York Architect Inspires Students to Design Big and Small
New York Architect Stephen Cassell lectured students on three of his current projects.
By: Margaret Thompson
Architecture students were inspired to enjoy designing projects of all scales. Approximately 70 architecture students took time out of their St. Patrick’s Day festivities to listen to the principal and cofounder of the New York-based Architecture Research Office speak about the variously sized works the firm has designed.
Dwarfed in size by Cartwright Auditorium’s large projection screen, Stephen Cassel presented three of his current projects. “I like to work on projects of different scales,” Cassell said. His firm designs projects ranging from single-family houses to entire city plans.
In the dimmed auditorium, architecture students sat quietly listening. Some were reclining in their green holiday attire, while others hunched over their sketchbooks taking notes.
Cassel received his BA in Architecture at Princeton and his MA in Architecture at Harvard. At the lecture, he presented his office’s present works, one of which was just finished earlier in the day.
The first project, R-House, was winner of a competition to create a sustainable one-family house in Syracuse, NY.
Cassell explained the three Passivhaus Principles his firm applied to the project to make it sustainable. These include heat recovery, passive solar energy, and super-insulation.
Students gasped when Cassell explained how these principles affect the house. The R-House is “so well insulated you have to pump air from outside to make sure you have enough oxygen,” Cassell said. “Basically you could heat this house with a hair dryer.”
With the Passivhaus Principles applied to the structure, Cassell estimated that the energy cost would drop close to 70%, or 90% with a renewable electricity source.
“We designed it so it can be modified,” Cassel said.Because the R-House won the competition, it is currently under construction.
The second project Cassell presented was Five Principles of Greenwich South, which includes identifying solutions for the development of a 41-acre area in Manhattan.
Lack of connection of the area through streets and different structural typologies on the four sides of the area are challenges Cassell faced with the project.
The five principles of the project include encouraging an “intense mix of uses” for the area, connecting the area through street planning, building for a high population density, and creating a reason for people to “come and stay” Cassell said.
To fulfill these principles the Architecture Research Office gathered ideas through a “brain trust” of various community members including restaurateurs, writers, and environmentalists.
“A lot of what you do are the questions you ask,” Cassell said.
Some of the proposed solutions included a building that would support the raising of sheep in the city, a large open market, and a huge weather balloon installation. Cassell showed images of each of these to the amusement of the audience.
The Architecture Research Office also set up large information stands around the area for locals to interact with and to raise awareness of the proposed solutions for the area.
Five Principles of Greenwich South is in the process of being implemented through eco-friendly street environments.
The final project Cassell presented was Rising Currents.
Rising Currents addresses the possibility of rising waters in the entire lower Manhattan area.
Cassell said the area is in danger of flooding due to its change “from a natural landscape to grid.” This change he explained affects the interaction of the area with water.
Over the next one hundred years the sea level in the area will rise six feet Cassell said. A category two storm in the area would create a flood area and sewage problems Cassell said.
To combat this Cassell and his firm plan to add a “porous green street system,” which will absorb excess water, and an urban estuary.
Rising Currents includes various levels of water distribution and protection.
Cassel ended his speech by showing the dramatic difference in size of the three projects in scale to each other. He advised architecture students to have fun while doing their work, whether it is as small as a single-family house or as large as a city.
Cassel spoke on March 17 as part of the CAED Spring Lecture Series.
Filed under: VLOG | Tags: alex koch, architecture lecture, esplanade extension, JMC, journalism, kent, Kent State University, news, newswriting, stephen cassell, student
Behind the Headline.
Current Article: Architecture Lecture
Status: Completed
Link of the Day: http://inogolo.com/
Link to article in Daily Kent Stater: http://issuu.com/kentwired/docs/040710
Link to Stephen Cassell’s site: http://www.aro.net/
Filed under: VLOG | Tags: architecture lecture, JMC, journalism, kent, Kent State University, news, newswriting, stephen cassell, student
Behind the Headline.
**Sorry Youtube isn’t working for me to insert the link of the day, but it is listed below.**
Current Article: Architecture Lecture
Status: Pre-lecture
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Filed under: Article | Tags: alex koch, esplanade extension, facebook, JMC, journalism, kent, Kent State University, news, newswriting, renovation, second life, student
Virtual Kent to aid public discussion on esplanade extension
A Kent graduate student is using his thesis project to allow public discussion on the proposed esplanade extension.
By: Margaret Thompson
Alex Koch’s graduate architecture thesis project is about more than just a great design. He wants to get students involved in planning the extension of the esplanade.
“Just because somebody isn’t a designer or an architect doesn’t mean they can’t have really good ideas about how the community could be shaped,” said Koch.
As his thesis project, Koch is investigating the current Esplanade Extension project recently funded by the government with a $20 million grant.
“There is a plan that Kent State put forward saying that they want to extend it [the esplanade] into downtown, but they also want to create this bus depot/hotel/conference center/university building area,” Koch said.
He also said the university seeks to make a defined “entrance to campus” through the extension.
Koch is using the university’s plan as the basis for his thesis project. He created a virtual section of the renovation area on Second Life, a virtual world online.
Koch’s thesis calls for students and local residents to view the virtual world at Secondlife.com and then to discuss their opinions on a Facebook group titled “Kent State Second Life Project.”
Koch said the virtual world is “this experience because you can see what it is like before it is actually built.”
“I’m trying to take advantage of Facebook’s discussion boards,” Koch said. After individuals walk through the project on the Second Life site they can “come back to Facebook and discuss their likes and dislikes” Koch said.
Koch said he plans to use the suggestions to alter the original plan.
“I know what I’d like to see there, but live up in Cleveland; I used to live in Kent; I’m a Kent State student, but there’s a lot of other people in Kent-I’d like to know what they would like to see,” Koch said.
“What I am really hoping is that by the end of the semester I can get feedback from people and say, ‘this is a very different plan that what you had originally proposed. Here’s what everyone is saying. Take it or leave it, but this is what the students want,’” Koch said.
Several dozen people have already joined Koch’s Facebook group to share their opinions on the extension plan.
Koch’s Facebook group indicates that his plan is simply for his thesis and holds no guarantee that it will become a reality.
However, he said his professors at the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative are the local architects working with the original plan and that they are genuinely interested in his findings.
“What I can do is present Kent State with my findings,” Koch said.
Koch’s architectural adviser David Jurca explained the requirements for Koch’s thesis. Jurca said fall semester “students get the opportunity to craft a thesis question.”
For Koch this involved researching various virtual games in which to create his project. “A lot of it was filtering video games,” Koch said.
“The idea is the you can look at a TV screen, you can look at a monitor and in your head you can actually go in that space,” Koch said.
He is working to answer the question of how virtual architecture affects an individual’s thoughts on it.
Jurca said his role as adviser is to help Koch “hone in on design and decisions.”
While Jurca said architects do use tools to show their plans in virtual landscapes, he said has never seen it specifically used as Koch is using it, to “help public dialogue” before construction.
Jurca said spring semester the students implement their research. For Koch this is setting up the Second Life site and Facebook page where, “other people can come in and talk to others and experience the design before it is built,” Jurca said.
At the end of the semester Koch will report on his findings and present his proposal for a changed plan. He will graduate in May with a Masters in Architecture and Urban Design.
“Kent State is expanding,” Koch said, “and if students can influence that and tell Kent what they want, I think, ultimately it would have a much more successful project, “Koch said.
Filed under: VLOG | Tags: alex koch, esplanade extension, facebook, JMC, journalism, kent, Kent State University, news, newswriting, renovation, second life, student
Behind the Headline.
Current Article: Architecture Project
Status: Interviews completed, in the process of writing
Link of the Day: Online Journalism Blog
Link to hearing aid museum article in Daily Kent Stater
Architecture project on Facebook: Search “Kent State Second Life Project”
