Archive for February 22nd, 2008

Michael Goodwin

Published by Rachel Beanland on February 22, 2008 in Features. 0 Comments

By Billy Finn

A voice rumbles through the dimly-lit hallway leading to the dressing rooms beneath the stage of the Alice Jepson Theatre. It is a deep and clear baritone, reciting vocal exercises and running lines for tonight’s dress rehearsal of “Amadeus.” The words seem unintelligible.

The voice belongs to Michael Goodwin, this season’s Equity artist-in-residence at the University of Richmond. He is starring as Antonio Salieri in “Amadeus,” as well as teaching a course in acting.

Goodwin has been offering his talent and services to the University for several years and has performed in UR productions of “Gypsy,” “All my Sons” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Fortunately for him, his acting credits go far beyond the stage of the Alice Jepson Theatre.

Though you wouldn’t necessarily recognize him on the street, Goodwin has made a successful living as a working actor. Since high school, he has traveled throughout the country, performed in repertory companies, Broadway shows, television and film. He has worked with everyone from less talented theater students to award-winners Anthony Hopkins and Clint Eastwood.

He has been on TV shows such “Law and Order” and “St. Elsewhere” and in movies including the recent “New World.”

Goodwin is a man teetering on the edge of obscurity and fame, although that is not what interests him. Tucked in the corner of the men’s dressing room in the Modlin Center running lines and waiting for the costumers to finish the alterations on his pants,
Goodwin is focused on his character, his work and his job as a professional actor.
Life as an actor is never easy and Goodwin admits that luck and chance play an unfortunately large part in the business.

“You go to New York these days and unless you’re plugged in with a major agent, you’re going to have a tough time,” he said.

Every actor’s journey is different, he said. Each artist must struggle to create a life for himself and to decide how important that art really is. For Goodwin, he made that decision longer ago than he will admit and has never looked back since.

Born in Virginia, Minn., Goodwin moved with his parents to Seattle at an early age.
While attending Ballard High School in Seattle “some time during the 50’s,” he came across Earl Kelly, the school’s drama teacher.

Kelly instilled the actor’s passion in Goodwin and became, as Goodwin describes it, “one of those great inspirational types.” Kelly taught Goodwin and his peers the basics of acting and turned the group into a sort of miniature repertory company.

After high school, Goodwin enrolled at the University of Washington and began studying theatre there. Shortly after, however, Goodwin realized he didn’t see eye-to-eye with the school’s theatre department and dropped out.

Goodwin’s departure from school coincided with his enlistment in the Air Force.
“I got a notice for a physical for the Army,” he said. “This was during Vietnam and so I enlisted in the Air Force.”

Goodwin’s plan was to serve in the Air Force before moving to England to study and try his luck as an actor overseas.

Before leaving for service, Goodwin heard that the Seattle Repertory Company was auditioning for new members. Quickly, he went back to Earl Kelly and asked him if he should audition.

“[Kelly] didn’t tell me what to do,” he said. “But, he did tell me ‘don’t come back in 20 years and complain to me about how you never auditioned.’ So I went.”

Stewart Vaughn, then the director of the company, auditioned Goodwin and was impressed with the young actor’s work.

“He asked me where I had studied and I said, ‘Ballard High School,’” Goodwin remembered with a laugh. “He said, ‘no, I mean what conservatories have you worked in?’ I said, ‘I haven’t really worked anywhere.’ He couldn’t believe that.”

Shortly after, Vaughn offered him the job, a job which Goodwin had to decline.

“I told him I had enlisted in the Air Force and was leaving the country for at least a year,”
Goodwin said. “He threw me out of the theatre and told me never to waste his time again.”

A week after getting thrown out of the theatre, Goodwin got a call from Vaughn, who apologized and told the kid to keep in touch when he got back in the country.

After a year of service in the Air Force, Goodwin returned to Seattle and Vaughn quickly added him to the company.

“I never did get to England,” Goodwin said. “I got the job and went to work right away.”

Goodwin worked steadily with the company for a short time before leaving with Vaughn for New Orleans early in 1966, where he earned membership in the Actor’s Equity Association, the national actor’s union. After a year in New Orleans, Vaughn matched Goodwin with an agent in New York City.

The agent, Sean Cistene, put Goodwin to work as soon as he got to New York in the spring of 1967. The fledgling actor’s first TV gig was on Walt Disney’s Wide World of Color.

“I never stopped to think if I was getting in easy or what was going on,” Goodwin said.
“I just figured ‘that’s the way it is.’”

Goodwin’s career in the City from 1967 to 1992 was a steady rise from summer stock theatre to residences at repertory companies to off-Broadway and some Broadway productions and finally to television and film.

Since 1967, Goodwin has been engaged in what he calls the “agent dance.” Since Cistene’s retirement, the actor has had six or seven agents in his career.

“It’s all part of it,” Goodwin noted after struggling to remember his latest agent’s name.
“These days I’m so far off the path being down here in Virginia that they’re not working too hard for me. Every once in a while I’ll get a call. They have nothing to lose by keeping me around.”

Goodwin’s first expedition to LA was in 1974. In six months, he had managed to grab one part, a small recurring role in the well-known series “Kojak,” before returning to New York disillusioned.

Back in New York, Goodwin landed a recurring role on the popular soap opera “Another World.” Though some actors scoff at the time they had to spend on soaps, Goodwin remembers his almost two-year stay on the show with satisfaction.

“Working on soaps is pretty exhausting,” he said. “We shot those shows like it was live theatre. It was the first show of its kind to run for an hour and we were mostly Broadway actors working on this thing. It was a good bunch of people and we had fun with it.”

Goodwin said that first experiences with television is the reason why he feels a course on the subject is so important and one that he is happy to teach at UR.

“I almost tossed my cookies the first time I saw myself on film because I thought I was so over-the-top,” he said with a laugh. “So I really had to edit myself and sort of ‘earn while you learn.’”

Goodwin said that the show itself required so much rehearsal and work that most of the film actors quit, leaving only the Broadway actors, who were used to the pressures of a live show.

“We shared the tape machine for that show with the evening news,” he said. “I think in about a half a year of taping the show we maybe stopped filming three or four times in that entire span. It was a great training school for me.”

By 1978, Goodwin had begun to make LA a regular stop again. He landed a role on the new series “Strike Force,” a police drama, in 1981. The show only lasted a year and afterward Goodwin found himself bouncing around roles in some of the famous 80’s TV series such as “Remington Steele,” “Magnum PI” and “Dynasty.”

During his time in LA, Goodwin abandoned the stage. For six years, he devoted his energy to TV and some film before finally returning to New York in 1991 to a production of “Betrayal” at the Longwharf Theatre. The production received critical praise and renewed in Goodwin a love for live theatre.

After the show’s six-month run ended, Goodwin got an offer from Theatre Virginia in Richmond to do the play “Other People’s Money.” Though Goodwin thought his stay in Richmond would last as long as the show’s run, he immediately fell in love with the town.
After a year’s residency at Theatre Virginia, Goodwin found himself without a job when the company was forced to close in 1992. Left without steady work, he relied on a “fair amount of film work” during the 90’s that came through the area.

“I had always planned to go back to New York,” he said. “But I kept getting these film roles around here and my wife and I just sort of settled in here.”

After a few years of living and working in Richmond, Goodwin was contacted by the University of Richmond and was asked to take part in a pioneering program at the school.
Dr. Dorothy Holland, a retired actor now serving as an associate professor of theatre at UR, remembers her first encounter with Goodwin.

“I first met Michael in 1999 at a departmental meeting,” she said. “That was my first year at UR so we both had that “new-guy” sensibility. I liked him immediately.”
In addition to his affable personality and sharp sense of humor, Holland was impressed by Goodwin’s intense professionalism and extensive talent.

Goodwin and another working actor, Irene Zeigler, were the first Equity artists in UR’s history to assume residencies at the university. In 1999, the pilot program began with the two actors teaching courses in acting basics and performing in the school’s productions of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” and “All My Sons.”

“We were the guinea pigs,” he said. “Me and Irene. That show [“Virginia Woolf”] ate us alive, man.”

Holland remembered Goodwin’s work that first year with admiration.

“He just nailed his role in “Virginia Woolf,”’ she said. “That spring I directed “All My Sons” and Michael played the father. [He] brought such breadth and integrity.”

Goodwin returned to UR three years ago and performed in “Gypsy” while teaching basics of acting and acting for the camera.

“I was thrilled to be able to teach that class,” he said. “There’s such a huge difference between the two mediums. In film, everything’s scaled down and you really have to work off yourself and trust yourself.”

Goodwin spoke passionately about the need for the course and how well UR students have received it both times he has taught it.

“The kids here really pitch in and make it a lot of fun,” he said. “This issue certainly has to be addressed because two-thirds of the stuff you’re going to go audition for is in TV and film. Stage has diminished greatly and I continue to be impressed by these kids’ ability to jump in and switch gears like that.”

UR junior Sean Hudock took the course this spring and starred alongside Goodwin in Amadeus as the title character.

“At first, I was very intimidated by him,” Hudock said. “He was built up as this big-time actor and he has that voice. The first time we met, he congratulated me on my work in the production of “The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial” earlier in the semester and said that he was proud of me.

“That was when I realized what he was about. He is so nurturing of young artists and just so supportive. He challenges you to trust yourself and grow and I think every person in that class this year came away with a lot from him.”

Goodwin’s journey is in some ways the journey all actors must take and Goodwin is more than happy to give some hard-earned advice.

As for his own career, Goodwin doesn’t have much planned at the moment.

“We’ll see what becomes available for me,” he said. “Even though you never retire in this business, I kind of see myself winding down a bit. Part of me wants to work my way back to New York and start building some credit with my agent again. Who knows?

“You get used to the lifestyle down here,” he continued. “I mean, look at this spring we’ve got down here right now. The beat goes on. I preach to these kids about selling themselves and getting out there so I probably should follow my own advice.”

Though the instability and pressure of life as an actor would scare most away, Goodwin seems to relish it.

“Like I tell these kids, if this is what you want, do whatever you can,” he said. “That’s the life of an actor.”

Home sweet dorm

Published by Rachel Beanland on February 22, 2008 in Features. 0 Comments

By Laurel Merkel 

Room 134 Thomas Hall, also labeled Suite 129, is a rowdy room. People are always going in and out. You can hear laughter and shouting coming from their windows at all times of the day. Posters of mountain landscapes decorate the cream walls, and sheets cover the couches. It is a typical dorm room, just a little bigger. But it would have to be…for the home of the Mayes family.

Had you ever wondered who the little children are that play around Whitehurst?

Or who gets the special “reserved” parking spots outside of Weinstein Hall?

Dr. Rick Mayes, a political science professor, and his wife Jennifer have been living in Thomas Hall for four years as part of a program on campus called the College Fellow Program. Their two sons - Tim, 5, and Ben, 2 – are part of the Mayes mix in the hall.

“Ben’s a pure ‘Thomasite’,” said Mayes. “He knows nothing else.” Tim, the eldest child, was born in California while Mayes was teaching at Berkeley. Mayes graduated from the University of Richmond in 1991 and was an adjunct instructor here from 1999-2000.

Mayes said the family moved into Thomas because they “were broke. Berkeley was expensive.”

Steve Bisese, the university’s vice president for student development, said the College Fellow Program was designed to have Mayes be available for students and to plan programs.

“He’s [Mayes] a great guy- students appreciate that,” said Bisese. “He opens himself up outside of the classroom…everyone knows him.”

And his children.

“They live right beneath me; you can hear them [the children] yell,” said Phil Colon, a sophomore. Colon said, “It’s a tease” when he can smell the Mayes’ family cooking waft up through his windows on the second floor. Will Bradley, another sophomore who lives in Thomas Hall said, “I figure we must bother them more than they bother us.”

Jennifer Mayes said they couldn’t really hear people in the dorm. Rick Mayes agreed, and thinks their family must be the loudest group that lives there. Even so, there are perks for students. For example, Bradley said he enjoys playing with the kids’ toys that get left out.

“It’s been a terrific experience for them and for the students,” said Dr. Catherine Bagwell, a psychology professor who co-teaches Mental Health and Policy with Mayes.

Bagwell met Mayes about four years ago, the summer that Mayes returned to Richmond.
She said that he is a “real engaged, smart, fun person” and that he has planned some wonderful events and built strong relationships.

“It’s a win-win situation for everybody,” Bagwell said.

Another colleague of Mayes is Dr. Jennifer Erkulwater, who was hired the same year as Mayes. Erkulwater said that Mayes called her up to say hello because he thought they might be colleagues.

“It was a sweet gesture,” said Erkulwater, who later said that she found out that “that was typical of him.”

“It’s neat to have a professor like that…students are very lucky,” she said.

A professor living in a college dorm is a good idea, according to Erkulwater. She thinks it is great for students to see that their professors are people, too.

“It allows professors to get to know their students and vice-versa,” she said.

Besides getting to know students, another aspect that Mayes thinks is great is that he does not have to worry about maintenance, whereas Erkulwater will occasionally gripe about her roof leaking.

Mayes said that the minute they moved in, they loved it, especially his commute every morning (just across the road). Mayes said that he gets a lot of time with students and family. He just got back from a trip to Chicago with seven of his students. They were visiting and researching Hope Meadows, a world-famous foster care home, and Children’s Memorial Hospital. Mayes also holds book discussions in his home.

“This is what Jefferson wanted at UVA- to be close,” he said. Oxford and other schools have similar systems, he said, where professors live the same way that their students do. He feels that he can teach better if he knows his students better.

“The campus is a really nice place for the kids,” said Mayes.

The ease of finding a babysitter, the laundry facilities, the commute to work, and no maintenance worries: how many more perks could there possibly be? There are plenty more. The Mayes family knows when there will be scheduled fire alarms. They have air conditioning whenever they want it, free utilities, UR cable, a big kitchen with a table overlooking the bell tower, their own bathroom, and a coffee shop close to their home.

They are also surrounded by activity at all times. Mayes likes living in Thomas Hall, but said that it would be quite different if it were Gray Court, a freshman boys’ dorm.

Mayes said it is funny to hear students on their cell phones. He sometimes can’t believe all that is said. He also gets a kick out of the drunken students that come back from the row and other social events at night.

Change is coming, though, next year. Mayes said that five years is the maximum amount of time that they will stay.

“I can’t live here forever, unfortunately,” he said. “Five years…time to grow up.”

Rugby is for women, too

Published by Rachel Beanland on February 22, 2008 in Features. 1 Comment

By Mandy Sciacchitano

An old European saying claims that rugby is a “ruffian’s sport played by gentlemen.”

Well, it’s time for the gentlemen to move over and share the spotlight with the women because women are redefining the boundaries of how the sport should be played. Rugby is increasingly gaining popularity as a sport for women, too, and, although many people don’t know it, the women’s rugby team at University of Richmond is swiftly breaking all of the stereotypes.

The first women’s rugby team at Richmond started in the spring of 2003. That’s when a group of freshman girls who met during sorority rush week and knew a lot of men’s rugby players decided they wanted to try a different sport, said senior Liz Dunham, one of the team’s original players.

Dunham said none of the girls knew how to play, but one of Richmond’s men’s rugby players helped them out.

“We had a student here from the guys’ team that had too many concussions, so he was our coach,” she said. “He taught us the fundamentals, but you can’t really learn rugby through practice, so we had games and scrimmages and learned that way.”

The game of rugby is like a combination of American football and soccer, except it is almost completely opposite. The “forwards,” who are the offensive players in soccer, are actually the defensive players in rugby, and the “backs,” who are the defensive players in soccer, play offense in rugby. More than that, there is one key difference: the ball can only be passed backward.

The field is called a pitch and the ball looks like a football, but fatter, junior Virginia Bunker said.

There are 15 people on the pitch for each team — eight forwards and seven backs—and the object of the game is to cross a line (like an end zone in football) and place the ball down to score. Where you place the ball down is where you kick for extra points, junior Kathryn Joyce, president of the women’s rugby team, said.

Learning the game of rugby requires learning a new set of vocabulary words.

First, there’s the “scrum,” which takes place when there is a penalty or when the ball goes out of bounds, Bunker said. In the scrum, the 16 forwards (eight from each team) drive against one another and fight for the ball.

“You basically bind onto each other and bend down real low,” Bunker said, “and the ref says ‘Hold. Engage.’ and then you push against each other.

“The hooker tries to ‘hook’ it with her foot, and you try to push it back with your feet to the scrum half so she can pick it up and get it out.”

In addition to “scrum” and “pitch,” another important rugby term is “ruck,” which is what a team does when its player in possession of the ball is tackled by the other team.

“In order to gain possession again, you have to push against the other team where the ball has been down—kind of like the line of scrimmage,” junior Carrie Dyer said.

“Whoever wins the ruck will gain possession.”

Neither male nor female rugby players wear any padding, so players have to be tough in the face of so much contact.

“Football players have it so easy compared to rugby players,” said junior Kate Harmon, Bunker’s roommate.

Bunker added, “In one of the games a girl fell on the ground and was bleeding from the head … but she’s OK now. Stuff like that is pretty common.”

Rugby is a physically demanding game, but Joyce said that one of the common misconceptions is that people often get injured.

“It’s just a violent game, and if you play it properly no one should get hurt,” she said.

“It’s aggressive and it’s tough physically, but it’s not like someone has to get
injured at every game. There’s more to the game than just tackling people; there is skill involved.”

The physical nature of the game and its male-dominated history leads to another stereotype that plagues the women’s rugby team, especially on the Richmond campus.
“The stereotype is that rugby women are manly women — butches,” Bunker said.
“But our team is very feminine. We have a lot of small women.”

The women who play rugby at UR are a lot shorter and smaller than the women on other teams. The average size of the team may have something to do with the type of students who attend Richmond.

“At Richmond the stereotype is to be as skinny as possible, which doesn’t really help our chances when we go up against 300-pound girls,” Joyce said.

But smaller means faster in the world of rugby and the Spiders have learned to use the size disparity to their advantage.

“We are a faster team,” Joyce said, “whereas the other girls are bigger and can’t run as fast for as long.

“We usually use our speed, quickness and running the ball . . . it works sometimes. During the fall semester we only lost two games.”

Coach Rudy Miller, who has been with the team for two years, sees the average size of the team as a positive attribute.

“UR women don’t fit into the classic mold,” he said in an e-mail response. “We are generally smaller than many teams, but the girls are faster and fitter than many teams.”
Part of the reason that the rugby team is so stereotyped on campus may be because students just don’t know a lot about the game. Rugby doesn’t have as large of a following in the United States, partly because Americans grow up watching American football.

“It’s just cultural differences,” Dunham said. “It’s what you grow up with. In high school here you don’t have a rugby team, but in Europe you can play rugby in middle school, so I guess more people know about it.”

According to USA Rugby Online, American football has its origins in rugby. As the popularity of rugby spread throughout North America, each region changed the rules to fit their style of play. Eventually two completely different games emerged: Canadian football and American football. Both resemble rugby, and to this day, some of the official rules derive from those of rugby.

Despite the strong connection to football, rugby is still so relatively unknown in
America that there are no professional teams, Miller said.

“Rugby is structured a lot like soccer,” he said. “You have small clubs and large clubs and out of these, clubs players are selected to represent the U.S. internationally.”

The first United States women’s rugby team to compete internationally, The Eagles, was formed in 1987. It quickly launched itself onto the world circuit as a powerhouse, winning the first official World Cup in 1991. It finished second in the two subsequent World Cups, and the team’s official website states that it “set the standard for international competition, leading an ensuing wave of women’s rugby growth and game development worldwide.”

Hundreds of colleges nationwide currently boast a women’s rugby team, but most are not at varsity level.

The Spiders women’s rugby team plays in the Virginia Rugby Union (VRU), which includes school such as William and Mary, Mary Washington, Virginia Commonwealth University, Longwood, Radford and Virginia Tech—all club teams.

The sport’s national organization, USA Rugby, launched a program in 2003 called the USA Rugby College Commitment. According to the USA Rugby web site, the program has the aim of “improving the quality, image and awareness of college Rugby on campuses across America,” and is assuming a leadership position at club-level college sports.

Although the program hasn’t yet made it to Richmond, the team has launched a campaign to promote itself on campus.

Team members hold information sessions twice a semester for girls who are interested in playing but don’t necessarily know what rugby is all about. Members also hang banners in the Commons advertising weekend home games and hang up fliers in the hallways and bathroom stalls all across campus. They also have a couple of fundraisers in the works for the upcoming semester.

“This semester we tried to do a Jello wrestling fundraiser,” Joyce said, “and a lot of people heard about it and were going to come out, and that was exciting because it was a lot of people that probably hadn’t heard about our team, but were going to come out anyway.”

Currently, the biggest advertising asset the team has is word-of-mouth, which also serves to break many of the standing stereotypes about the kind of women who play rugby.

“If you are friends with people who play, you know it’s not the stereotypical team,” Bunker said. “But if you don’t have friends, you’ll think that it’s just big girls out there beating up on other girls. It’s hard to recruit with an image like that.”

Through the team’s advertising efforts, the Richmond student body is slowly learning more about and embracing the game of women’s rugby.

“I think it is pretty well respected,” Dyer said, “and I think people look at the girls’ team as being pretty unique since rugby is a sport that is so synonymous with guys.”

Miller thinks that the team has been gaining respect and popularity thanks to the “fun factor.”

“These girls have a blast both on and off the field,” he said. “Rugby is something everyone should try. Someone said to me once that rugby is like crack. I guess in some ways I agree. It is a very addictive game.”

It must be very addictive if the UR women’s rugby team, which doesn’t hold tryouts and was non-existent just four years ago, has escalated to be one of the best teams in the conference.

“The girls started off having a general interest in the game and became one of the most competitive teams in their division,” Miller said. “They are stronger, faster and are becoming real students of the game.”

As a quote on the team’s official website reads: “The only trophy we won that day was the blood and sweat we left on the pitch…. and it was enough.”

Productivity suffers when students engage in multitasking

Published by Rachel Beanland on February 22, 2008 in News writing. 0 Comments

By Amy Demoreuille

Despite popular belief, multitasking reduces productivity, with clear implications for workers and college students alike, according to new studies and research reports.

Multitasking occurs “when people are simultaneously performing multiple tasks or rapidly switching between multiple tasks so that it seems that they are performing them at the same time,” Shamsi T. Iqbal (cq), a student at the University of Illinois (cq) at Urbana-Champaign (cq) and researcher on multitasking, said. Human beings can naturally multitask if there are no conflicts between the visual, auditory and motor channels, she said.

Multitasking increases performance and efficiency but becomes a problem when people’s actions exceed the limitations of their processing resources, she said. “In those cases,” she said, “it is postulated that processing resources from one task is usurped from another, potentially resulting in decreased performance for the second task or both.”

David E. Meyer (cq), a cognitive scientist and director of the Brain, Cognition and Action Laboratory (cq) at the University of Michigan (cq), has been quoted as saying: “Multitasking is going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes. Disruptions and interruptions are a bad deal from the standpoint of our ability to process information.”

Multitasking is “illusory at best,” Jonathan B. Spira (cq), chief analyst and CEO at Basex (cq), a business-research firm, said. “The brain doesn’t multitask. It is capable of one task at a time.”

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Many people would be wise to curb their multitasking behavior when working in an office, studying or driving a car, neuroscientists, psychologists and management professors say in a recent New York Times (cq) article.

Multitasking is a problem at the University of Richmond (cq) because people think they’re better multitaskers than they are, President William E. Cooper (cq), a psychologist, said last week. Multitasking gives people the false impression that they’re working effectively and they can’t have breakthroughs in their work without full concentration, he said.

Out of 17 Richmond (cq) women interviewed, 14 often multitask while they work and 13 think it negatively affects their work. Two women think that the quality of their work is just as good when they’re multitasking, it just takes them longer. The rest agree that they are much more productive and produce better quality work when not multitasking, and when multitasking, work is often “rushed, of poor quality, incomplete and sloppy,” sophomore Elizabeth Robinson (cq) said.

Rene Marois (cq), a neuroscientist and director of the Human Information Processing Laboratory (cq) at Vanderbilt University (cq) said in the same New York Times (cq) article: “A core limitation is an inability to concentrate on two things at once.

We are under the impression that we have this brain that can do more than it often can.”
Scott Allison (cq), a psychology professor at the University Richmond (cq) says: “We live in a society in which people have the illusion that they can do many things at the same time as well as they can do them separately. The truth is, work performance suffers when people multitask. Not only that, but multitasking can cause stress.”

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In 2005, Glenn Wilson (cq), Reader in Personality at the Institute of Psychiatry (cq), University of London (cq), gave an IQ test to a group of people who were to do nothing but take the test. A second group then took an IQ test while distracted by e-mails and telephones. The first group scored an average of 10 points higher and the second group scored an average of six points lower than a group in a similar study that had been tested after smoking marijuana.

Technology serves as a lubricant and keeps knowledge flowing, but it has increased the variety of ways someone can interrupt or be interrupted, according to a report by Spira (cq) and Joshua B. Feintuch (cq) from Basex (cq).

Everyday in the workplace, workers divert their attention to interruptions and other distractions that consume about 28 percent of a worker’s day, or 2.1 hours including recovery time, based on surveys and interviews of workers by Basex (cq). American company workers waste about 28 billion hours a year and assuming a salary of $21/hour, the cost to business is $588 billion, according to a report by Basex (cq).

A recent study of Microsoft (cq) workers found that they took, on average, 15 minutes to return to serious mental tasks after responding to incoming e-mail or instant messages.

About 55 percent of workers respond to an e-mail shortly after it is received and only 30 percent answer when it’s convenient, according to research by Basex (cq). Interruptions can be unimportant, urgent or both because many workers can’t differentiate, Spira (cq) said. Degrees of interruption include personal importance, group importance and organizational importance, he said. Personal importance is how critical an issue is to an individual, group importance is how critical an issue is to a group, and organizational importance is how critical the issue is to the overall problem, he said.

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Responding to interruptions is part of human nature, and the most difficult to resist are those that entertain us, he said. Total interruptions, dominant interruptions, distractions and background activities are the four main types of disruptions, he said. Total interruptions, such as an active phone conversation or a thought-intensive game, completely occupy the conscious mind and thwart any thought relevant to the original task, he said.

Dominant interruptions, such as walking outside or recreational web browsing, largely occupy the mind while the task at hand develops in the back of one’s mind, he said.

Distractions, such as instant messaging, “do not stop one from consciously working on the original task but do draw attention away from it so it proceeds more slowly or less accurately,” he said.

Background activities, such as listening to music, are less-obvious but divert some of one’s attention away from the original task and slightly reduce speed and accuracy, he said.

Interruptions can also be passive or active, he said. Passive interruptions are triggered by technology or another person, while active interruptions are “initiated by the very person who chooses to be interrupted by them,” he said.

About 94.5 percent of workers consider an interruption by a superior acceptable, 87.2 percent consider an interruption by a colleague acceptable, 90.8 consider an interruption by a subordinate acceptable and 62.4 of workers consider an interruption by a friend for a non-work or non-business related question acceptable, according to a recent survey by Basex (cq).

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Multitasking shrinks brain capacity instead of enlarging it and people can’t multitask and learn new things, Cooper (cq) said. The only way to learn things in depth and be original is to resist multitasking, he said.

Marois (cq) conducted a study with three other Vanderbilt (cq) researchers where they measured how much time is lost when a person tries to handle two tasks at once. They found that when participants were given two tasks at once, their response was delayed up to a second more than when they had to do each task separately. This one-second delay could be fatal while driving 60 mph, Marois (cq) said.

Out of the same 17 Richmond (cq) women interviewed, 15 said they talked on the phone while driving and only two said they talked only when necessary. Three of the women have had cell phone related close-calls and two have actually had serious consequences. Sophomore Colleen Muldoon (cq) leaned over to get her cell phone and almost hit a car, junior Katie Vaska (cq) stalled out while driving stick shift and talking on the phone, and junior Mahima Ratnaswami (cq) has drifted into another driver’s lane during a phone conversation, they said.

Senior Catherine Estevez (cq) said once she reached over to get her cell phone when it fell on the floor, “blew right by a speed trap,” and received a $200 speeding ticket, she said. Sophomore Jane Crifasi (cq) ran through a red light once while talking on her cell phone, but luckily there wasn’t an accident, she said. Other women note that they do stupid things while driving but acknowledge the fact that they may not notice, they said.

6

Many believe that today’s youth are the most adept multitaskers, but a study conducted at the Institute for the Future of the Mind (cq) at Oxford University (cq) found that a group of 18-to 21-year-olds and a group of 35-to 39-year-olds matched in speed and accuracy when given a list of images to translate into numbers using code, while they were interrupted by phone calls, instant messages or text-messages.

Some Richmond (cq) women have good strategies for focusing on their homework. “I try to give myself time limits for how long I’ll work,” Vaska (cq) said.

“I’ll work for an hour and a half and then take a break or finish this subject and then do something else. I get a lot more done quicker that way and I tend to stay more focused when I am working.”

Listening to music or multitasking a little can be used as “a jolt of caffeine” to get you started working but you should stop multitasking as soon as you start to seriously work, Cooper (cq) said. Multitasking on a basic level, such as walking to the dining hall while talking on your cell phone, is acceptable because one action is automatic while the other requires consciousness, he said.

People should manage the technology that surrounds them when working or driving, such as not listening to music with lyrics, checking e-mail once an hour at most, and not talking on the phone while driving even if using a headset, according to a recent New York Times (cq) article.

Some universities block internet access in certain courses and have other policies that will prevent multitasking, Cooper (cq) said. If multitasking becomes problematic at Richmond (cq), the university could address multitasking in orientation and offer a seminar, he said.

7

People don’t know the consequences of multitasking and people can make them aware by discussing and writing about the problem, Spira (cq) said.

Brain scans, social networking algorithms and other new tools should help provide a deeper understanding of the brain’s limits and potential and a new organization, the Institution for Innovation and Information Productivity (cq), has been created to sponsor such research, according to the same New York Times (cq) article.

Multitasking has existed since the beginning of time and as time progresses, there are more opportunities to multitask, Cooper (cq) said. People need to be careful how they use the technology available because multitasking is something that could literally affect the evolution of our species, he said.

Kelsey Blank, face-to-face interview
President Cooper, face-to-face interview
Jane Crifasi, e-mail interview (jane.crifasi@richmond.edu)
Catherine Estevez, e-mail interview (catherine.estevez@richmond.edu)
Jen Forde, face-to-face interview
Hayley Fowler, face-to-face interview
Jackie Gunderman, face-to-face interview
Ali Hoffman, e-mail interview (ali.hoffman@richmond.edu)
Aurie Horn, e-mail interview (aurie.horn@richmond.edu)
Shamsi T. Iqbal, e-mail interview (siqbal@uiuc.edu)
Alexandra Jenkins, face-to-face interview
Kathryn Joyce, e-mail interview (kathryn.joyce@richmond.edu)
Colleen Muldoon, e-mail interview (colleen.muldoon@richmond.edu)
Julia E. Nouss, e-mail interview (julia.nouss@richmond.edu)
Mahima Ratnaswami, face-to-face interview
Elizabeth Robinson, face-to-face interview
Allison Scott, e-mail interview (sallison@richmond.edu)
Jonathan B. Spira, e-mail interview (jspira@basex.com)
Caroline Stutts, face-to-face interview
Emily Tiernan, e-mail interview (emily.tiernan@richmond.edu)
Katie Vaska, face-to-face interview
Lohr, Steve. “Slow Down, Brave Multitasker, And Don’t Read This in Traffic.” The
New York Times, 25 March 2007.

8

Spira, Jonathan B., Goldes David M. “Information Overload: We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us.” Basex Report, March 2007.

Spira, Jonathan B., Fientuch, Joshua B. “The Cost of Not Paying Attention: How
Interruptions Impact Knowledge Worker Productivity” Basex Report, September 2005.

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine names UR 22nd in the country

Published by Rachel Beanland on February 22, 2008 in News writing. 0 Comments

By Morgan Walker

The University of Richmond now outranks schools such as Boston College, Johns Hopkins and Cornell on Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine’s list for the best value in a private university.

Richmond sits in the 22nd spot on the April 2007 list, up 10 spots from the last time the ranking was released in January 2004, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine’s associate editor Jane Clark said.

Kiplinger’s editors chose the University of Richmond from a pool of more than 1,000 private liberal arts colleges and universities based on academic quality and affordability, according to the magazine’s website. When assessing where a school will fall on the list, the editors weigh the two factors as two-thirds for academic quality and one-third for affordability, Clark said.

The assessment of the academic quality involves looking at the university’s admissions rate, average SAT and ACT scores, the student-to-faculty ratio and the four and five-year graduation rates, Clark said.

The affordability of the school factors in the total costs of the school, the cost after need-based aid, the need met by the university, aid received from grants, non-needbased aid given to students, and the cost after non-need-based aid, Clark said.

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine is a well-respected ranking and these things help market the school, Richmond’s President William Cooper said. “Kiplinger’s compares us to major research universities,” he said. “To be on the same page as some of those distinguished universities and to outrank them is an honor.

“We are becoming increasingly legitimate as a national university. We are in the hunt and we have to continue the momentum.”

This publication will help the university get a certain amount of attention and if you look at all the rankings out there, Richmond is always in the top tier, Richmond’s Director of Media ands Public Relations, Brian Eckert, said. “Independent endorsements without our participation always gives us something to market,” he said. “And it all contributes.”

The University of Richmond responded quickly to the release of Kiplinger’s April issue and added this honor into its marketing strategy for prospective students. “We used it on Saturday at an open house,” Cooper said.

Although receiving a spot on the list of the top 50 best values in private universities is an honor, no ranking is perfect, Cooper said. But Kiplinger’s is pure and legitimate ranking compared to something like Fiske’s Guide to Colleges or Princeton Review, he said.

When students choose a university, they are buying a relationship, Cooper said.
Just because a school is in the top 10 of every ranking does not mean it’s the school for you, he said.

Parents always tend to focus on the school’s ranking compared to other schools, Betty Schneider, Langley High School’s career center counselor said. Langley High School is in McLean, Va. Schools create competition by focusing on the rankings, she said.

“Rankings don’t help the applicant, they help the school,” Schneider said. “My job is to focus on the student’s perspective and these rankings just create unbearable competition for the students.”

Ranking is a big factor for the parents, Andrea Milam of Lexington, Ky., said.

Milam has two daughters: Lauren, who is a first-year Westhampton College student on a partial dance scholarship through the University Dancers and Ally, who is a junior in high school interested in attending Richmond in the fall of 2008.

“What makes a parent willing to pay $45,000 a year is something like a ranking,” Milam said. “It is what pushes it over the edge when compared to other schools. This ranking has been an affirmation that the school is worth the money. It illustrates the school has goals.”

Full and partial scholarships through sports and other related activities are not the only ones given out to students at the University of Richmond. One out of every 15 incoming freshman receives the Richmond Scholars Scholarship, which offers full tuition based on merit. Other scholarships come from the Presidential Scholarships, National Merit scholarships and the Bonner Scholars Program, according to the university’s website.

What makes the University of Richmond stand out is that it gives more non-need based aid than most of the other school’s on the list, Clark said. In fact, Richmond’s website says that the university gives financial aid through grants, loans, scholarships and other sources to 65 percent of its students. The university is also one of only 21 of the top 50 universities to guarantee 100 percent of need-based financial aid, according to Kiplinger.com.

First-year Westhampton student, Kelly Behrend of Mount Holly, N.J., is here on a full scholarship through the Bonner Scholars Program. “Bonner Scholars is a merit-based scholarship for community service and need-based financial aid,” Behrend said. “Without Richmond’s extensive financial aid opportunities, I would not have been able to attend this university.

“Richmond was able to acknowledge my financial need and my merit as an applicant and was able to meet it 100 percent. I am so grateful the university was recognized for the amazing efforts it is making in helping students achieve their academic goals.”

In the event of a tie between two or more schools, Kiplinger’s assesses the average debt at graduation and the overall quality of the school based on other rankings, Clark said.

Because the school’s overall quality is involved with most national rankings, the university is making efforts to improve the quality of life on campus, Jessica Ruzic said.
She is president of the Westhampton Class of 2010. “The Westhampton College Government Association is working hard on creating a livable environment for the students,” Ruzic said. “Administration works on making sure this school is affordable and academically strong, whereas we can help by improving the quality of life through projects such as the new Weinstein Center for Recreation and Wellness.”

Current students at the University of Richmond put emphasis on Richmond’s ranking when applying to graduate programs at other schools, Westhampton College Junior, Alison Andolena, said. “As a junior who is going to be applying to law schools next fall, a ranking that is higher than other well-known schools is definitely a good thing I am going emphasize in my applications,” Andolena said. “Hopefully, it is something that will end up helping me.”

Richmond is definitely in the running to outrank other schools in the future, Clark said. The university’s only weak spots when compared to other schools are the admission rate and the four-year graduation rate, she said.

The University of Richmond admits 47 percent of its applicants each year, giving it the second highest admissions rate in the top 25 schools on the list, according to
Kiplingers.com. Schools such as Harvard University, Columbia University, and
Dartmouth College rank higher on the list and have admissions rates lower that 15 percent, Clark said.

Also, the four-year graduation rate is not as competitive as others, Clark said. If the university can become more competitive in these two fields, the ranking is likely to rise in Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine’s list of the top 50 Best Values in Private
Universities, she said.

Perfectionism keeps the “freshman 15″ at bay for many at UR

Published by Rachel Beanland on February 22, 2008 in News writing. 0 Comments

By Ryan Clark

Perfectionism drives a number of students at the University of Richmond to lose weight instead of gaining the “freshman 15,” Westhampton College Dean Juliette Landphair said in an interview last week at the Deanery.

The “freshman 15” that some college students gain has become more like five pounds for women or seven pounds for men, according to a recent Brown University research study.

The study revealed that one out of six freshmen gained 10 pounds or more during their first year and 6 percent gained 15 pounds or more, Stanford University nutritionist Vivian Crisman said. A joint study by Brown University and Purdue University revealed that students continue to gain two to three pounds in their sophomore year, Crisman said.

On average by the end of sophomore year, males are 9.5 pounds heavier and women are 9.2 pounds heavier, said Jackie Beckham, a Baylor University research assistant. The Brown University study showed that freshmen men gain most of their weight at the beginning of the first semester and then gradually gain more weight, but women tend to gain most of their weight in the first semester and then slowly even off, Beckham said.

It’s important to adopt a healthy lifestyle because college is the time when students establish eating and fitness habits that they’ll follow for the rest of their lives, said Pete Anderson, a professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Many students find it hard to eat healthily because it’s the first time many of them have lived away from home, said Patricia Beffa-Negrini, a University of Massachusetts research associate. Students want to explore their freedom and there is no one to stop them from eating brownies, ice cream and French fries for dinner, Bethesda, Md. dietitian Ann Litt said to USA Today.

College students also have hectic and irregular schedules, she said, and they tend to graze instead of actually sitting down for a meal. An article from the Seattle Post- Intelligencer revealed that portion control was one of the most critical strategies in maintaining weight in buffet-style dining halls where the food supply is endless.

“Most adults don’t know what a typical portion size is,” said Dr. Alene H. Waller, the University of Richmond associate medical director. It’s easier to regulate weight when you pay attention to portion control, she said.

But dining hall food is not the only reason that college freshman tend to gain weight, Crisman said. A change in eating behaviors and habits is a great contributor to weight gain, she said.

The cause of freshman weight gain is a combination of late-night snacking, easy access to alcohol, social eating and less exercise, Crisman said. The stress of living away from home and going to class can also take a toll on freshmen, Beffa-Negrini said.

Many students eat because they are sad, lonely or bored and food comforts them, she said.

“Unless you want to be a Sumo wrestler, don’t eat at night,” Beckham said.

Many students snack late at night after drinking. Students must watch out for alcohol’s appetite-enhancing effects, said Pittsburgh nutritionist Leslie Bonci.

Access to beer, drinking habits, and not having enough time to get to the gym all cause collegeweight gain, University of Richmond junior Renee Wilson said.

In order to avoid weight gain, Bonci recommended that students eat breakfast every day, focus on portion control by always measuring food out, never eat out of a bag and to set limits when eating with friends.

Trying to lose weight seems to be an issue bothering students at Richmond, said Peter LeViness, the director of Counseling and Psychological Services. CAPS’ mental health surveys revealed that about 20 percent of male undergraduates and 50 to 60 percent of female undergraduates said that they often had concerns about dieting or trying to lose weight, he said.

Many students gain weight because they are taking in more calories than they are burning off, LeViness said. “An inconsistent sleep-wake schedule may also increase food cravings, especially for high-calorie foods,” he said.

“Students cut back on their physical activity when they get to college and you hear much more concern about people trying to lose weight,” University of Richmond sophomore Ali Scuderi said. “You do see quite a few people who could have eating disorders.”

CAPS recommends that students try to exercise about four to six times a week,
LeViness said. Students should treat this time like an academic class that they make a priority during the week, he said.

Most students who want to lose weight at Richmond are not seeking to lose a lot of it, but just enough to get back to a weight where they feel comfortable, said Carolyn Powell the University of Richmond nutritionist. “Most of the students I see for weight gain are athletes who have trouble keeping on weight from all of the calories they are burning,” she said.

John Denton, Richmond sophomore, said: “I think that more guys gain weight in college than girls. Guys want to look buffer and eat a lot of protein, while girls want to have a thin ideal body.”

Weight loss is a bigger issue than weight gain at Richmond because many students are driven by perfectionism, Landphair said. “Like Duke and more selective institutions, students here tend to be more perfectionistic,” she said.

In a 2003 Duke University report, undergraduates said their social atmosphere was characterized by “effortless perfection,” Landphair said. Students felt there was an expectation to be “smart, accomplished, fit, beautiful and popular, and that all this would happen without visible effort,” she said.

Rebecca Bacheler, Richmond sophomore, said, “There is a lot of stress because of the pressure put on by the intense academics here, which definitely causes more drinking and over eating or an excess of working out to relieve stress resulting in weight loss.”

Whenever students are prescribed medication, their biggest concern is whether it will make them gain weight, Waller said.

Landphair didn’t see the issue of weight as a big problem at Richmond despite this research, she said. If it posed a threat to many students, the university would have addressed it, she said.

Some students gain weight because of inconsistent eating patterns where parents aren’t regulating meals, and alcohol use, Landphair said.

An extra 100 calories can lead to a 10-pound weight gain in one year, Powell said.
There are “Feeding Fitness” options in each dining location on campus that label food choices containing 30 percent or fewer calories from fat per serving, Powell said. “With the opening of the newly renovated Heilman Dining Center we concentrated on updating our menu and offering a wide variety of healthier items,” she said.

Students gain weight by eating on the go, Richmond Health Educator Tracy Cassalia said. Students eat very little throughout the day and then are starving at night, she said.

Drinking is another source of empty calories, Cassalia said. Even though it says “light beer,” it still has calories, she said. Being able to drink beer three nights a week can make it difficult for some students to maintain their weight, Amy Bastianelli, Richmond senior, said.

But part of adulthood is learning to live independently and how to use self control, Landphair said.

Richmond used to include physical education as a general education requirement, but with the Weinstein Center there is no need for that anymore, Landphair said.

Even though students do not have to complete a physical education course at Richmond, they are required to complete wellness classes before they graduate, Cassalia said.

“Richmond is ahead of the game compared to some bigger schools,” Cassalia said.

Students can meet with nutritionist Carolyn Powell or work with personal trainers, she said.

The opening of the Weinstein Center has inspired students to stay fit, Powell said.
“Just getting to the gym is the hardest part,” she said. “Having a new facility, which leaves such a positive impression, definitely helps keep students motivated and keeps them coming back for more.”

Seattle University lets students receive a physical assessment and then work with faculty to create a workout plan. The university is working on receiving computer chips that will plug into equipment for students to track their physical progress, said Mclean Reiter, the manager and sports physiologist at Seattle University.

“We are currently working on a partnership with the hospital, where the lab is located, to allow the clients and students to use the Technogym equipment,” Reiter said.

“Technogym is an exercise equipment company that interfaces with a smart card.”

The smart chip acts as a type of personal trainer that tells students how many sets and reps they need to do, Reiter said. If a student doesn’t complete the number of reps set by the chip, it will recalculate for the next workout, he said.

Columbia University’s online system called the “100 m.i.l.e. (miles I logged exercising) club,” inspires students to workout at least 100 minutes per week, according to the article. Students log the minutes they spend exercising on the internet. “I’ve been more diligent about working out since the new gym opened,” University of Richmond sophomore Alex Hogan said. “It has much more availability for machines, space and the times it is open.”

One of the most important aspects of college is becoming aware of eating and fitness habits because adults who start putting on weight at a young age have a hard time losing it later, Waller said.

Where are you going to school?

Published by Rachel Beanland on February 22, 2008 in News writing. 0 Comments

By Amy Burlage 

Teams can also hold fundraisers. Gill said that the crew team recently raised$52,000 in a fundraiser. The club sports program recently started an annual letter-writing fundraiser to friends and family of club members requesting donations to their team, Recreation and Wellness Director Tom Roberts said in a telephone interview.

“We are going to continue to try and increase funding, to look for new ways to
distribute funds,” Roberts said.

The more participation a sport has, the easier it is to get funding, Celander said. Sports teams with representation on the executive council (ice hockey, women’s water polo, rugby and crew) get an inside view to funding and therefore know when and who to ask for money, he said.

“The Sports Club Council is made up of four elected positions and the most interested clubs get represented,” he said. “It hurts other clubs because clubs on the council know when the money is around before it gets exhausted.”

Next year there will be an additional $10,000 set aside for travel safety, according to the Funding and Distribution chart.

Celander said the clubs need more money so they have options for how to spend it. Patrick Hyde, the secretary of the council, agreed, and said the new travel budget is the biggest improvement he has seen in his UR career because it allows more flexibility with annual and raised funds to be spent on facilities, equipment and other needs.

Until now, the school administrators have charged 40 cents per mile for two 12- passenger vans and an Expedition, which offer limited use to club sports as well as outside organizations such as the debate team, according to Alec Smith, treasurer of the council and former crew team president.

“Renting a charter bus can cost a team up to $4,000, and students caravanning pose a huge risk,” said Smith.

Four to five UR teams travel across the country, and a few have gone to national tournaments, but more teams would be able to go with more transportation funding, according to Gill.

Elizabeth Simpson, the vice president of the council and president of the Women’s Water Polo team, said: “The (College of) Notre Dame water polo team travels to the West Coast every spring break and when they come back to the East Coast, they have so much more experience and beat all the East Coast teams…UR teams are competitive but they can’t win districts or nationals without travel funding.”

The women’s water polo team has been able to travel to Puerto Rico, the University of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida and Tennessee in recent years, according to Simpson. As Celander found out shortly after arriving at UR, teams such as ice hockey require individuals to pay $1,000 dues so that they can have opportunities to travel to places such as Atlanta, Florida, Arizona and Pittsburgh.

Only when all of the Sports Club funding is exhausted are teams able to seek other resources for money, according to Hyde. The Richmond Dean’s Office funded the men’s rugby team to travel to regional championships, he said. Increasing funding and support is “always difficult” but it is becoming easier because the large percent of students involved makes club sports more visible to the administration, Roberts said. He says that the administration realizes the benefits of club sports to the university, and is satisfied with their support.

“Tom Roberts is bringing about attention to sports clubs around the university,” Gill said. “The publicity is showing the influence club sports play on campus.”

Gill says that the current funds are finally reaching an adequate level where every club gets represented fairly based on how much work they put in, and the university is “very supportive” in encouraging them to continue growing.

Amelia Wolfe, the recreation and wellness office manager, said that quality club sports that offer opportunities to travel and compete at more intense levels are extremely important in terms of students deciding on UR and retaining them.

Gill said club sports are becoming “more and more essential” for incoming students, most of whom were varsity athletes in high school and want the opportunity to continue playing without the stress of a collegiate varsity team.

“Some kids won’t even consider a school without a club program,” Celander said.

Beyond the physical and mental benefits of a club team, members find a social network away from Greek life that they immediately connect with, according to Hyde. Students become closer with their teammates by working hard for a common goal, he said.
Student support is very large for club sports, and that shows with almost perfect club attendance at all meetings, said Roberts.

The most obvious sign of increasing support is the construction of the Weinstein Recreation and Wellness Center, said Roberts. This building will have a club lounge with work stations, mailboxes, storage and a place for clubs to meet and hang out, he said. It will also have a gymnasium and multipurpose room for club practices. Although UR has struggled to create a credible and strong club sports program in its recent history, the community is currently filled with club sports enthusiasts and administration and students who are dedicated to creating a great program for the future of the university, Gill said.

Now that Celander is graduating from the University of Richmond, he gets asked the frightening question for college seniors; “Where are you going to get a job?” The same thing that was on his mind while choosing colleges still has an impact on his career choice: ice hockey. Celander said that he talks about the 106 games he played at UR in every single job interview he attends. Club hockey has not only been a resume builder, he said, but a way for potential employers to get a look at his character and leadership abilities.

For many students, club sports are more than just exercise.

“Being part of a club sport is an important way to keep a balanced life… to take a break from the overwhelming work most of us have,” said Simpson.