Dr. Mindy Haar On Food Myths and Overeating in Cosmo, Elle

Sep 23, 2014

"The majority of American women get twice as much protein as they actually need," says Mindy Haar, Ph.D., director of.program development in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences, in "14 Supposedly Healthy Foods That Dietitians Never Eat" in both Elle and Cosmopolitan.

Haar notes that protein powder is not a necessary, even if women are active and work out frequently.

Cleansing diets, particularly those that permit only juice, are another fad to avoid, she says, noting that "there is really no such physiological phenomenon as a 'cleanse.'"

Haar was also quoted in a separate Cosmopolitan article about unrealistic serving sizes.

 

Klotz Offers Time Management Tips for Freshmen

Sep 22, 2014

"Enchiladas and Engineering? Pizza and Poetry? Form groups to study and make it social too," advises Anne Marie Klotz, Ph.D., Dean for Campus Life at NYIT's Manhattan campus, in an experts' advice column in NerdScholar on time management tips for freshmen.

Klotz says study groups allow students to talk with each other and work through their assignments.

Klotz also advises students to take breaks from study hours and classes and to use the breaks as rewards to help keep focused and motivated. For extra motivation, add positive reinforcement. For example, if a student focuses better while listening to music, he or she should create a short study playlist.

"Commit to doing homework each night until the playlist is over," she says.

 

Anid Letter to NY Times: How to Succeed in College

Sep 18, 2014

“In my welcoming remarks to the class of 2018, I told the students three things,” writes School of Engineering and Computing Sciences Dean Nada Marie Anid. "Always ask for help; make friends, and be engaged," she advises in response to “It Takes a Mentor,” by Thomas L. Friedman. 

She continues, “And, yes, it is personal attention that touches students’ lives. The caring, the mentoring — in particular for girls and underrepresented minorities. Without mentoring, they are disengaged. The results? They lose interest and can’t commit. Their confidence plummets and they lag behind.”

 

Office of Career Services in the Wall Street Journal

Sep 11, 2014

NYIT's Office of Career Services was prominently featured in a Wall Street Journal At Work blog on the methods universities use to entice students to think about career planning.

Featuring a photo of Dean of Career Services John Hyde with a life-size Anchorman character Ron Burgandy cutout, the article noted that college career offices are developing creative ways to help students understand the importance of internships and job search techniques.

The Ron Burgandy cutout is a mascot in the office, and often appears in "selfies" that students take. NYIT career service leaders dress up the cutout for occasions and help maintain a "professional yet fun" atmosphere that attracts students to learn more about the services offered, according to Assistant Dean of Career Services Amy Bravo.

The Office of Career Services recently announced that NYIT interns have earned more than $1 million at paid internships since 2009.

 

NYIT Global Programs Cited in Forbes

Sep 10, 2014

"Higher-learning institutions can make their degrees more engaging and hands-on by blending the traditional economic and business dogmas with real-world, practical experiences and operational challenges, which will help to better prepare students for the working world," says writer, scholar, and entrepreneur Emad Rahim, Ph.D. in a Forbes article, "Ten Ways Universities Can Improve Entrepreneurship Education."

Rahim made special mention of NYIT in his tip advising schools to foster global exchange with other institutions, noting later in an email interview that "you have a strong global reach in experiential learning when it comes to entrepreneurship education."

In his Forbes article, Rahim notes: "The concept here is to broaden the exchange program to other institutions, inviting students with varied cultural and professional backgrounds."

 

Anatomy Professor Jonathan Geisler Comments on New Dolphin Fossil Discovery

Sep 09, 2014

New findings of fossils of three dolphins in the Pisco-Ica destert in southern Peru are helping researchers determine how the ancient species were related to today's endangered South Asian river dolphins, according to College of Osteopathic  Medicine Associate Professor Jonathan Geisler in Live Science.

Geisler, who was not involved in the study, was consulted for several articles on the new findings because of his expertise in the evolution of whales, porpoises, and dolphins.

The new findings, says Geisler "help flesh out this pretty poorly known extinct family that helps tie this oddball living species into the evolutionary tree."

Geisler and colleague Brian Beatty, Ph.D., recently won a National Science Foundation grant to study cetecean echolocation and evolutionary transformations in the skulls of whales, porpoises, and dolphins.

 

William Scheckel Provides Tips for Healthy Social Media Use

Sep 05, 2014

"No one posts their crabgrass on Facebook. So when you can't help but feel envious that so-and-so did this or that, remember there's a big part of their story you'll never see," says William Scheckel, adjunct professor in the College of Arts & Sciences, in an article on best practices for healthy social media use on QualityHealth.com.

Scheckel was the main source of information for the article, which focused on "FOMO," or the Fear of Missing Out, connected to social media use.

To combat feelings of negativity about posts, Scheckel advises Facebook users to post their own positive news as a way of increasing social interaction and communication. And, he adds, be happy for those whose postings you view.

"These are the friends we've chosen to connect with," he says. "Their successes -- their joys -- are ours."

Scheckel also provides tips for helping kids to stay safe online. He advises the at parents begin talking to children at an early age about their online activities. Parents should urge children not to post things that the child would not want many others to see since posts can be forwarded and sent out widely. Help them avoid drama, he adds, by suggesting they turn off their computers if online conversations get heated. And, says Scheckel, make sure children understand that the Internet is not the place to meet new people.

 

Dr. Ross-Lee on Graduate Medical Education in The DO

Aug 29, 2014

"The fact that there is inadequate accountability and transparency creates an environment in which the Graduate Medical Education (GME) system is not aligned with the direction that American healthcare is going," says Vice President for Health Sciences and Medical Affairs Dr. Barbara Ross-Lee in an interview with The DO, the official magazine of the American Osteopathic Association.

Ross-Lee was the sole DO on an 18-member Institute of Medicine committee that released a special report on graduate medical education. The report called for freezing Medicare's $14 million GME support and using some existing funds to establish innovative programs that better reflect the culture and health demographics of communities.

"We need to establish residency programs in communities and develop incentives for students to stay in these communities and to go into the generalist disciplines of family medicine, pediatrics, and general internal medicine," says Ross-Lee.

Ross-Lee notes that osteopathic collaboratives now in place, which offer residents multiple locations to serve in institutions beyond large teaching hospitals, are a model for graduate medical education.

"I remember somebody on the committee saying, 'The DOs are doing what we're tryig to get the rest of the system to do.'" says Ross-Lee.

 

Dr. Hadjiargyrou on Race in Live Science

Aug 29, 2014

"...data show that the DNA of any two human beings is 99.9 percent identical, and we all share the same set of genes, scientifically validating the existence of a single biological human race and one origin for all human beings," writes Life Sciences Chair Dr. Michael Hadjiargyrou in an op-ed posted on livescience.com. "In short, we are all brothers and sisters."

Hadjiargyrou says the notion of separate races is a social, rather than scientific, concept.

"Over centuries, people have used the word to divide us into black, white, yellow, red, and other distinctions in order to fulfill selfish goals and objectives," he writes. "Whether those goals were to subjugate various groups of humans, deem them inferior or simply discriminate against them, the reality is that billions of people have been directly affected as a result of the misuse of the word race. The end result, in its extreme form, has led to a plethora of existential crises such as segregation, slavery, violence, wars and genocides."

Hadjiargyrou says "society must be relentless" in eliminating the word "race,"

"We must all realize that the faster we eliminate the use of the word that drives a wedge between people, the better our world will be: More peaceful and prosperous and with equality and mutual respect"

 

Stan Silverman on Online Courses

Aug 24, 2014

Stan Silverman, director of NYIT's Technology Based Learning Systems, sounded a cautionary note in a Newsday story (subscription required) about the development and content of online courses at local universities.

"In looking at the landscape of online education, in bigger institutions they are hiring course designers to build the courses and then handing them off to faculty who teach off those courses," Silverman said in the article.

At NYIT, where the number of online courses has grown from 133 in 2008 to 178 last spring, Silverman said faculty members develop the content and design their own online and blended courses.