EARLHAM COLLEGE PODCAST - BIOLOGY FIELD STUDIES

(Length - 14:00) In this episode, we visit with John Iverson, professor of biology and director of the Joseph Moore Museum at Earlham. One of the nation's most-respected herpetologists, Iverson describes his nearly 30 year long field studies of turtles in the sandhills of Nebraska and of rare iguanas in the Bahamas. Each year, Iverson takes Earlham students on these field expeditions and these exceptional hands-on experiences have become one of the hallmarks of an Earlham education in the sciences. Junior Erika Phelps joins us to give her impressions of her fieldwork experience in the Bahamas and Polly Wilde lets us in on a few events happening "around the heart."

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STUDENTS, FACULTY STUDY TSUNAMIS IN JAPAN

Earlham seniors Katie Delbecq and Wesley Nutter, along with Assistant Professor of Geology Andy Moore, spent a portion of their summer on one of Japan's northernmost islands researching historic tsunami size and frequency.

DUO WITH EARLHAM TIES PRESENTS CONCERT AND CONVO

Singer/songwriter Carrie Newcomer joins author/musician Bill Harley for an evening of story, song, truth and tall tales on Wednesday, Dec. 3, in Earlham College's Goddard Auditorium. "An Evening with Carrie Newcomer and Bill Harley" is part of the College's Artist and Lecture Series and begins at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $5 for adults and $3 for seniors and students and are available by calling 765/983-1373.

"TEMPLATES GALORE" - NEW WAYS TO APPROACH PUBLIC DISCLOSURE

Earlham President Douglas C. Bennett calls for more accountability and transparency for colleges and universities as a way to respond to the public's increasing demand for reliable information about the institutions. In the November/December edition of Change magazine, Bennett outlines new ways in which information can be disclosed, especially looking at the wide array of Web templates now emerging.

RATHER THAN CHANCE RANKINGS "BLENDER," EC'S BENNETT PREFERS NSSE NUMBERS

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) has released its annual report on how students are engaged in both academic and extracurricular activities. These are considered to be significant indicators of educational quality. NSSE tries to provide more details of how students see the schools that they attend. In a report in Time, Earlham President Douglas C. Bennett says that NSSE is preferable to rankings, such as those produced by U.S. News & World Report of which he has long been a critic. "If you mix a whole lot of random data in a blender, like the rankings so, what you get is a single composite score that doesn't tell you anything," says Bennett. "Looking through all the NSSE data paints a college's personality much better.

Additional information: Earlham's NSSE results

MANY COLLEGES WORRY ABOUT PROVIDING AID IN GOOD ECONOMIC TIMES AS WELL AS BAD

Belt-tightening is happening at colleges and universities nationwide and many are looking at way to preserve financial aid, according to an article in the New York Times. Earlham College President Douglas C. Bennett, along with the presidents of Brown, Williams and Amherst weighed in on the subject. Bennett, who says that Earlham has been working on a long-term readjustment to its approach to financial aid for about two years prior to the current economic downturn, thinks that "need-blind" is not always the highest of high grounds. Earlham, says Bennett, is particularly interested in its ability to enroll and graduate low-income students and meeting their financial needs.

NEW TSUNAMI RESEARCH IN "NATURE" CO-AUTHORED BY EC GEOLOGIST MOORE

Geologists have found evidence of the most recent predecessor of the 2004 Indian Ocean mega-tsunami thought to have killed more than 220,000 people. The research, co-authored by Earlham College Assistant Professor of Geology Andrew Moore and published this week in the prestigious journal Nature, suggest that Indian Ocean tsunamis on that scale occur every 600–700 years. An article about the published research along with a video presentation and an audio podcast are available by following the link above. Nature does not e-publish journal contents without a fee.

LEADING EUROPEAN QUARTET TO PERFORM

Lively chamber music from the Carmina Quartet will fill Goddard Auditorium on Tuesday, Nov. 11, as part of the College’s Artist and Lecture Series. Tickets are available at Runyan Center Desk and cost $5 for adults and $3 for seniors and students.