GEONEWS The newsletter of the IUPUI Geography Department Fall, 1999 Editor: Joyce Haibe

A Note from the Chair:

Welcome to the third Fall edition of GEOnews. After three excellent years for the department, Tim has stepped down as Chair and somehow I find myself writing this brief note! As usual things are busy around the department. We have a group of very active Majors, a new faculty member, a new teaching lab is being constructed (to be shared with Anthropology), and there are a host of new research projects, courses, and collaborations on campus and beyond. The international flavor of the department has been enhanced further by the addition of Nadine Martin, our new lecturer in Physical Geography, and the return of Rick Bein following his three years in the south Pacific.

One of the nicest aspects of the last couple of months has been the number of alums who has dropped by and/or e-mailed with news. We hope others will follow suite; we really do enjoy hearing what you are up to and where you have been. I very much hope that many of you will join us for at least one of the events we have planned: the GIS open-house (Nov 19th); the inaugural departmental bus-trip (Nov 21st); and the host of events organized by the club. We remain open to suggestions about events, this newsletter, and the department in general. Do email or write to me! Catherine Souch (csouch@iupui.edu)

Geography Awareness Week

The theme for the 11th annual Geography Awareness Week (Nov 14-20) is "Geography & Technology: Think the world of your community" which will highlight the impact that technology has had on our lives, resulting in changing perspectives, or concepts, or definitions of community.

This year the department, in honor of the first "GIS day" (Friday, November 19th), will host an open house focusing on GIS and its applications. This is being sponsored nationally by the National Geographic Society and Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), and locally by the Schneider Corporation, IUPUI's Geography Department, and the Geography Educators' Network of Indiana. The event, to be held in SLA's Social Science Computer Classroom and the University Library, will feature workshops for K-12 educators and the general public, and a series of short presentations and displays by state agencies and private companies. Information on jobs and internships will be advertised. A full list of those attending is presented on the department's web site (http://www.iupui.edu/~geogdept/gisday). If you are interested in contributing and/or attending, PLEASE contact Jeff Wilson (jeswilso@iupui.edu; 274-1128) or Joyce (geogdept@iupui.edu; 274-8877) ASAP.

Make A Fashion Statement (Well, support the department)

This year, the department will be selling T-shirts to promote Geography Awareness Week and the Department. The cost is $10 (plus $1 for postage, if you want them sent to you) (checks payable to Geography Department). Sizes are L, XL, and XXL, available in white (with a blue and green logo "Without Geography We're Nowhere").

Sign Up for the First Annual Department Bus Trip!

Thanks to the generous response of many of you to last year's mini-fund drive, we are offering our first Department bus tour of geographic sights in and around Indiana. This year's trip will be a one-day affair to south-central Indiana, on Sunday, November 21. We will meet in front of Cavanaugh Hall at 8:45 a.m. to leave at 9:00 a.m., then return by 6:00 p.m. The route will include a cross-section of southern Indiana physical geography: the Knobstone Escarpment and Brownstown Hills, a prairie nature preserve in an old pioneer cemetery, the caves and sinkholes of the Mitchell karst plain, and an attempt to find the fabled Lost River. We will also make several cultural stops, including a winery tour and a stop for seasonal produce (apple butter, persimmons, and sassafras tea). The bus will be provided by the Department from our new trips fund; those who go will need to buy lunch and perhaps a small fee for a cave tour or winery tour. We are still planning the detailed stops at this point.

We hope to make this a pleasurable tips, combining learning, good food, and friendly conversation. Please join us! To RSVP or find out more, please contact Joyce Haibe (274-8877; geogdept@iupui.edu) or Tim Brothers (274-1101; tbrother@iupui.edu).

Geography Club

The club has already made one trip this year. They went to a cornfield maze in the shape of Larry Bird, located in Cambridge City. They will be going to Chicago on December 4th for the day only. Last year's trip was very successful and everyone (truly) had a good time. This will be a chance to do some "almost-last" minute Christmas shopping, take in a museum, wander around the city, or anything else that blows your hair back (even if you don't have any). Cost of the trip and time of departure will be determined at a later date. The club will be using an IUPUI van to make the trip and there will be a sign-up sheet in the Geography office (CA 213) starting around mid-November. If you are interested in participating, call the geography department office at 317-274-8877 or e-mail geogdept@iupui.edu.

In the spring, March 10-14, 2000, the club is planning a trip to Washington, D.C. This is during spring break. If you are interested in going along, let us know by e-mailing one of the club officers, (jeiteljo@iupui.edu, lugnut1012@aol.com, or kjswenso@iupui.edu) or by contacting the Geography Department office (274-8877).

And of course, they will be taking their annual rafting trip to the New River in West Virginia in May.

Department Activities

Last spring we had another very successful picnic. Faculty, students and alumni alike attended and played volleyball, croquet, and ate some really great food. We hope to do it again this spring so watch for news about time and place.

Geography Educators Network of Indiana

GENI moved back to Cavanaugh Hall this summer. They are now located in CA345. The phone number remains the same as before. We are glad to have the GENI offices so close and convenient to us again.

The GENI has several opportunities for pre-service and in-service educators in the coming academic year. First, the Indiana International Forum, of which GENI is a member, and the Indiana Humanities Council will be offering the annual "Internationalizing Curriculum" Conference, Thursday, December 2, 8:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m., at the Indiana Historical Society building; for more information, contact Nancy Conner at (317)638-1500. Also, St. Mary-of-the-Woods College will host another "Weekend Workshop in Geography", February 18-20; for registration details, visit the GENI web site or call Sherrie Cheesman, (812)535-5159. This is a great opportunity to obtain LOTS of classroom-ready materials and to share with colleagues.

On Saturday, February 26, a "Multiple Intelligence's and Geo-Thinking" workshop will be held at Jackson Elementary School in Valparaiso, Indiana; Ruth Johnston will lead participants through a series of hands-on activities demonstrating affective multiple intelligences methodology. For more details, contact Ruth at ruth@rjohnston.net or (219)766-2468.

Thinking ahead to next summer, McCutcheon High School will host a ten-day Summer Geography Institute, June19-30; geography credit may be obtained through IUPUI or Purdue University. The Institute is open to all; lots of hands-on experiences, field work, presentations, and resources will be shared with participants. For more details, call Lou Camilotto at (765)743-3002.

Student News

Jay Eiteljorge and his wife Kristen are expecting their first child in June. Jay plans to graduate in May.

Lucy Abel has been traveling from east to west this semester. She spent time in both California and Cape Cod this fall.

Mychelline Fiadhiglas spent this summer doing an internship with the Division of Nature Preserves. She mapped occurrences of endangered, threatened, and rare species in high-quality natural areas. She acquired experience in conservation biology and land protection priorities.

Jennifer Woolson also did an internship during the summer, working at the Eagle Creek Nature Center. She cared for the animals inside the Nature Center and conducted classes for children, both in and outdoors.

Emily Kempf traveled to Cuba this summer. She reports that "Cuba is awesome" and hopes to return at some time in the future.

Heidi Herndon and her husband Greg toured the East Coast and Canada for two weeks this summer. Heidi fell in love with Toronto.

News From Our Alumni

Alysia Wilson (99) is currently serving as an interpreter at Bandolier National Monument, New Mexico.

Dennis Eads (99) is attending graduate school at Florida Atlantic University and escaped Hurricane Floyd and its fury.

Allen Thompson (99) is working at ASI, formerly MSE, in the photogrammetry department doing digital mapping/editing work. Allen's parents will be coming from Australia in February to visit their new grandchild, who is due January 9th! The Thompsons are very excited!

Dan and Jenny (Diekhoff) Johnson (98) have a new baby Johnson, Mallory Patricia Johnson, born October 19 at 2:24 a.m., 5 lb. 9 oz. and 19 inches long. Dan is working at the University Library and Jenny is one of many former majors working at Hamilton County. The just recently bought their first house.

Marie Kemple (83) is now the GIS Manager for the Franklin Township Assessor, the fastest growing township in Marion County. She also has a new grandson to keep her busy.

Doug Campbell (87) is a Senior Environmental Manager for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

Charles Peoni (92) is a civil engineer with The Corradino Group.

Jim Hayes (99) started graduate studies at ISU this August. May was a big month for Jim; he graduated from IUPUI and his wife, Beth, had a baby boy, named Joseph.

Fred Metcalf (98) continues his studies at Central Washington University. He came back for a visit this summer while he was helping his brother move from Ohio to California.

Faculty Spotlight Nadine Martin

This summer, the Geography Department happily welcomed a new faculty member, Nadine Martin, as lecturer in physical and human geography. She is currently teaching G107: Physical Systems of the Environment and the accompanying lab. In the spring she will be teaching a new course, G305: Environmental Change: Nature and Impact. She obtained her B.A. and M.A. from Universite Laval in Quebec. Her Ph.D. research, done at the Universite de Montreal, looked at the turbulent flow structure of ice-covered rivers. Nadine is interested in environmental issues such as how flow structures under the ice may influence fish behavior and migration patterns and the restoration of fish habitat. She spent a three month study-visit at the geography department of Lancaster University (United Kingdom) in 1996. She is fluent in both French and English, which has given Tim Brothers and some of our majors an opportunity to practice their French.

In her spare time, she enjoys movies and Indian cuisine but currently is spending most of her spare time trying to complete her doctoral dissertation. She is looking forward to her first vacation in several years, which she will spend in the Cayman Islands over the Christmas break. If you get a chance, come in and meet our newest faculty member.

Faculty News

Rick Bein has returned after sending 3 years in Papua New guinea. Both he and his wife are experiencing reverse culture shock after being away from the U.S. for so long. But Rick got right back into the routine of teaching, with hardly a chance to catch his breath. After an around-the-world trip to the Philippines, India, Australia, Hong Kong, Macau, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Italy, he barely had time to unpack before he had his first class. And YOU think it's hard to come back after a summer off. Rick has applied for and received a Rotary Fellowship to return to Papua New Guinea for the Summer of 2000.

Tim Brothers made his annual research trip to the Dominican Republic, with trips to Haiti and Cuba thrown in for good measure. Tim and Jeff Wilson received a grant from the National Geographic Society to study vegetation differences between the DR and Haiti. Then Tim went to Cuba to visit a biogeographer he met several years ago, with the idea of developing a physical geography course on the Carribean.

Sonja Duelberg spent the summer here on campus, learning programming and system administration. She has tendered her resignation, effective May, 2000. As a result, we will be searching for a new urban geographer to join the department in August, 2000.

Tom Fedor spent time in Milwaukee, visiting family and attending some of the plethora of festivals in Wisconsin. He and his family moved into a new house this fall.

Following an early summer trip to the Everglades, to assist in the collection of a core recording the sedimentary deposits of Hurricane Andrew, Catherine Souch spent much of her summer writing up research on the heavy metal contamination at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Interspersed were two trips to England.

Jeff Wilson traveled to Hispaniola this summer where he met up with Tim to continue their research on land cover dynamics along the Haitian/Dominican border. They spent most of their time traveling through the Haitian countryside collecting field data and familiarizing themselves with the landscape. In addition to field work, they made some excursions along the route to visit some of Haiti's interesting landmarks including La Citadel La Ferriere and the Sans Souci Palace of King Henri Christophe, Basin Zime (Haiti's "most beautiful" waterfall), and various sites in the capital city of Port Au Prince. He has also initiated a new research project designed to look at land cover dynamics in central Indiana. This work will be based on comparison of historical aerial photography and modern satellite imagery.

Jeff and his wife Rose moved closer to Indianapolis this summer (Avon, IN) where they are struggling with the rigors of growing an new lawn and keeping their dog from tracking mud on the carpet.

Bob Beck's full-time appointment with the department ended with Rick's return, but he will continue to teach for us part-time. He will still offer many of his very popular courses, such as Geography of North America, Rural Landscapes, and House Types of North America. His interest in gardening remains unabated and he putters around his greenhouse every chance he gets.

Bill Giles went to the Everglades this summer to count alligators, but wound up counting mosquitos. Also, he visited the grave of that famous explorer/geographer, Meriweather Lewis and the monument to that famous sailor, Popeye. Bill toured a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright houses in rural western Pennsylvania including the famous Falling Waters and increased his cultural awareness by visiting the Andy Warhol Museum.

Mark Rockeymoore switched employment from the POLIS Center to the City of Indianapolis where he does GIS training. He continues to teach G110: Intro to Human Geography for us. He spent the summer teaching, working, playing with his infant daughter and watching her grow. His mother came from Texas for a visit during the summer, mostly so that she could shamelessly spoil her granddaughter.

Courses for Spring

We will be offering a new 3 credit hour course G305: Environmental Change - Nature and Impact. This is a new course focusing on natural and human induced environmental change, its causes and implications. Topics to be covered include the greenhouse effect and stratospheric ozone depletion, local and regional air quality, acid rain, deforestation, floods and drought, sea level rise, ice caps and glaciers melting. For information, contact Nadine Martin, 274-8867, or e-mail nacmarti@iupui.edu.

Tim Brothers will once more be teaching G446: Cultural Biogeography. This advanced seminar-style course explores human alteration of biotic (plant and animal) patterns, focusing on some new topic each time it is taught. This semester, the course will examine human alteration of the North American biota, including vegetation change, plant and animal extinction, and the spread of weeds and pests. Depending on student interest, the course will include an optional semester-end field trip. For more information, e-mail Tim Brothers or phone 274-1101.

G323: Geography of Latin America, taught by Rick Bein, will examine current cultures and how they developed. The class will look at national and regional variation in terrain, climate, natural resources and economic and social life in Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and South America. Rick has spent a great deal of time in different areas of Latin America and has a perspective based on experiences in the countries to be studied. For more information, e-mail Rick Bein or phone 274-1100.

Bob Beck will teach G326: Geography of North America on Monday evenings and Jeff Wilson will offer G335: Environmental Remote Sensing on Thursday evenings. For more info on either of these classes, phone 274-8877 or 274-1128 respectively.

Job/Position Availability

If you hear of jobs (part- or full-time) at your institution/organization, please let us know about them and we will use the e-mail distribution list to advertise them to students. If any graduates would like to be included on an electronic job announcement list, let us know and we will add you to our list.

Whatever Happened To...?

We have lost contact with several of our graduates. Does anyone know how to contact the following people? Stephanie Boyer, Jill Bowman Browne, Greg Bredenkamp, Terry (Tess) Christie, Phyllis Delmonte, Joseph Gwinn, Samuel Hulse, Julie Luther-Sullivan, Melinda Marsh, Brad Meeks, David Reifeis, Frederick Smith, or Daiman Stewart.

Please keep us informed about changes of address and let us know what you're doing now so that we can tell your story in a future newsletter. Send us your mailing address, place of employment and/or graduate school, and your e-mail address or web page. We want to keep in touch! You can also find us on the Web at http://www.iupui.edu/~geogdept/geog.html