Kristi King and Michelle Marie are excited to offer a new option for student parents needing to work out at Dixon. (photo: Theresa Hogue)

Busy student parents who just want a little time to fit a workout into their schedules can now do so without having to worry about finding a sitter. “Our Little Village,” a drop-off childcare center funded by student fees, has expanded from its first location at Valley Library to a new second location at Dixon Recreation Center. The centers allow student parents the freedom to study or workout for an hour or two while their children are taken care of by OSU students and staff.

“Student parents already have their daily and weekly childcare needs sorted out (during work and school hours),” said Michelle Marie, chair of the OSU Student/Parent Advisory Board. “The goal for the library and Dixon centers is to make these facilities available when they don’t have childcare.”

Sometimes, just having that extra spare hour to exercise or study can make a huge difference in the life of a student parent.

“Both sites are not meeting the entire need of student parents, but it’s what we’re able to do with the resources available,” Marie said. “The holy grail would be drop-off day-care all the time so that it would be available for everything that’s happening on campus.”

Kristi King, who runs both centers, has a staff of 14 student workers who provide childcare and educational activities. A majority of the students are majoring in education or human development and family sciences, which means they get direct experience working with kids.

“The benefit to student workers is they can take what they’re learning in the classroom and put it to practice,” King said. And the children benefit from a childcare center that is not only safe and accessible, but offers educational activities as well.

The new drop-in childcare center at Dixon is bright and cheerful. (photo: Theresa Hogue)

Kate MacTavish, an associate professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Health Sciences, was given a Family Friendly Faculty award earlier this year for her support of student parents. She attended the grand opening celebration of the Dixon Our Little Village, and said she remembered what it was like being a single mother and a graduate student, and she always tries to extend as much support and understanding to student parents as she can.

“I’m always happy to make accommodations for child or parental care,” MacTavish said. To not take family priorities into consideration when working with student parents, “You’re asking people to deny part of themselves,” she said.

Tom Kirch, director of OSU Recreational Sports, said the childcare center answers a need that he’s been hearing for some time from student parents who want to work out at Dixon.

“They say ‘I don’t have a chance to work out because I have this barrier,’” he said, so offering up a space to create Our Little Village was a natural fit. What was once a small seating area behind the staircase on the lower level of Dixon has been transformed into a daycare center, complete with a snuggly little carpeted alcove under the staircase that makes a great play space.

“There’s a whole focus around health and well being on campus,” Kirch said, and making sure that all students have the opportunity to use Dixon is a priority. Plus, it’s good for children to see their parents make exercise a priority, he said.

“This is modeling by the parents to their children that they have to take care of themselves,” Kirch said.

~Theresa Hogue

Troy Snow, facilities and operations coordinator for Recreational Sports at Oregon State University, chats with student employee Luke Thomas, who is working at the counter of Dixon Recreation Center. Snow oversees 80 student employees and enjoys the mentorship aspect of his job. (photo: Theresa Hogue)

Troy Snow has a smile and a laugh for every student he passes at Dixon Recreation Center. That’s not surprising, since as the facilities and operations coordinator for Recreational Sports, he oversees 80 student employees, providing mentorship as well as giving them leadership opportunities.

“I love every minute of it, especially my interaction with students and making a small impact on who they are as individuals,” Snow says.

Student workers are in charge of many of the day-to-day operations of Dixon, and Snow supports and advises many of them.

“Our focus is to empower students,” Snow said. “We’re student focused and that really clicks with who I am. To see what they can accomplish is amazing.”

Snow, a native of Puyallup, Wash., came to OSU after graduating from Washington State University. He started working at Dixon as a graduate assistant, but eventually moved into a full time position with Recreational Sports. At first he split his time between sport clubs and facilities, before he landed his current job.

In addition to the regular operations at Dixon, his students are currently helping with two major projects on campus: the renovation of the turf fields to the west of Dixon and the renovation of the McAlexander Field House.

“The work was driven by students,” Snow said, and the projects will directly benefit students by improving recreational facilities on campus.

Although only a small percentage of the student workers Snow oversees will actually go on to a career in health or fitness, he believes the skills they’re learning on the job will translate into any career they pursue. Students participate in hiring other student workers, in supervising students, and can introduce new programs or ideas that are often adopted by the department.

One of Snow’s favorite parts about the work is the student-developed mentorship program now in place in Recreational Sports. Student supervisors are paired with new student workers to help them transition into the department, but the supervisors are also paired with administrators in order to receive advice and support. This two-way mentorship also benefits the participating administrators, Snow said, adding that he always feels he learns from his interactions with them.

Snow’s participation extends beyond the walls of Dixon. He recently became the Regional Representative for Region VI of the National Intramural and Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA). He is the first chair of the newly formed NIRSA Member Network, and has presented at national conferences.

His work with national organizations furthers two goals. It is a place to exchange ideas and advance recreational sports as a whole, but it’s also an opportunity for Snow to share the work being done at Oregon State.

“OSU is viewed as a leader in the field because of our tremendous students, my colleagues and our programs,” Snow said.

When students have the chance to attend conferences, they also realize that Oregon State has a strong reputation among other colleges, and he said they often return with a great pride of going to Oregon State and working in Recreational Sports

“Each one of them knows that they are a very integral part of what we’re trying to do,” Snow said.

~ Theresa Hogue

First Healthy Habits Day held at Dixon Rec Center
The first annual Healthy Habits Day is here. Come explore what health means to you and the community. Different information about all types of health: mental, physical, emotional, environmental and more will be provided by the OSU campus and the surrounding Corvallis area. The event takes place May 16, and is hosted by Dixon Recreational Center and OSU Community Service Center. Entrance to Healthy Habits Day is free from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. It takes place at the Dixon Recreation Center.

Talk on brain and arousal featured in zoology talk
Dr. Donald Pfaff from Rockefeller University will be coming to give a talk as part of the Zoology Department Seminar Series on May 18 at 3:30 p.m. in ALS 4001. His talk is titled “Waking up the brain: Generalized and specific CNS arousal”.
Pfaff has been a leader for several decades in research exploring how the mammalian brain receives and processes hormonal signals to construct both simple and complex behaviors.

20th century history of oceanography explored at conference
A conference at OSU on May 14-15 will focus on the emergence of oceanography in the mid-20th century as a critically important science. The event coincides with the 50th anniversary of oceanography at OSU.
Naomi Oreskes, a historian of science known for her role in demonstrating scientific consensus on climate change, will give the keynote address, “The Crucial Experiment that Wasn’t: Acoustic Tomography of Ocean Climate,” 4 p.m. May 14, in the Memorial Union Journey Room. The conference is free and open to the public.
The conference, “American Oceanography at Mid-Century,” will examine how oceanography emerged in the 1950s and 1960s as an important discipline. Speakers from several institutions around the country and abroad will present sessions on May 15
Craig Biegel, a scientist from Florida State University, will open the May 15 session with a presentation titled “A Visionary at Work – Wayne V. Burt, the Early Years at Oregon State University,” in which he describes the origins of oceanography at OSU and one of the pioneers who helped establish the nationally recognized program at the university.
The conference is sponsored by the Horning Endowment in the Humanities and the OSU Department of History, and supported by the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences. The conference schedule is available online at: http://oregonstate.edu/cla/history/lectures/horning/conf_08_09.php

Nita Phillips, administrative program assistant, and Hayden Murphy, speech communications major, say they have mutually benefitted from the mentoring program.

Dixon Recreation Center hires about 300 students every year. And one of the first connections they make is with Nita Phillips.

OSU senior Hayden Murphy met Phillips shortly after beginning her job at Dixon during her sophomore year. “When anybody had questions like ‘where do I find this?’ or ‘what do I do about that,’ Nita had the answers,” she says.

Phillips, an administrative program assistant, and Murphy, a speech communications major, were later officially paired in a mentoring program between administrative and student staff at RecSports.

Phillips says part of mentoring was simply exposing students to new experiences.  For example, Murphy is a center manager and supervisor, as well as the student chair for the RecSports board of directors. So in addition to handling day-to-day operations — like opening and closing facilities, supervising other student employees, providing first aid and resolving conflicts among players —   Murphy has had to learn about budgets and the administrative functions of the department that most students never see.

“Students like Hayden have already shown they have excellent leadership qualities and skills,” Phillips says. “As mentors, we try to help them with the day-to-day things they have to learn and do.”

Phillips admits she was hesitant at first to joining the mentor program, thinking “What do I have to offer?” She didn’t realize going in “how much my life would be enriched just by the interaction,” she says. Her concerns about having a structure or program model for mentoring “just melted away” once she and Murphy got to know each other.

Murphy credits Phillips with helping her become a more open person, more willing to meet new people and try new experiences. This past year, she took on an internship for the Rose Festival, even though it involved commuting back and forth between Portland and Corvallis every week. And she’s learned that it’s OK to be firm and say “no” sometimes, even if Phillips doesn’t exactly do that herself.

“She never says no!” Murphy says with a laugh. Phillips laughs, too. “I know that’s what you’re supposed to do,” she admits.

Murphy has also had opportunities to mentor others, so she’s seen both sides, and she says, it’s helped her be much more successful at running her life over the past year.

“You learn so much from other people’s experiences — what they did and what worked,” she says. “I hope I bring that perspective to others as much as I use it.”

In the end, Phillips believes being a mentor has given back much more than what she’s put in. For one, the energy and drive she’s seen in Murphy and other students inspired her to go back to school, something she’s doing a class at a time every term.

“It’s such an enriching process to be a part of these students’ lives,” she says. “Sometimes, it’s just the small things. It doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to be there for somebody.”

~ by Gary Dulude