An Oregon Department of Transportation workshop in Kidder Hall takes advantage of OSU’s video streaming technology. In the center, Larry Christianson of ODOT moderates on-line comments from workshop participants in other parts of the state and makes sure they’re included. (photo: Theresa Hogue)

Tucked into Kidder Hall, Media Services is quietly working to put powerful digital tools into the hands of faculty members, and to find ways to use new technology to supplement traditional instruction. For John Greydanus, Director of Media Services, the point of embracing digital technology is to simplify and automate workflows, while providing the latest teaching tools.

“The only way to take full advantage of the new Web environment,” Greydanus said, “is to make sure users can manage their own resources, and don’t require a great deal of technical knowledge to post, distribute or use online media.”

In early 2007, OSU began working with Apple to launch an iTunes U site for posting videos and podcasts, but the project hit a snag when the Oregon Department of Justice raised concerns about the ownership of lectures and university intellectual properties when hosted by Apple.

As the legal battle dragged on, Media Services began looking at how to create a “Web 2.0” environment at OSU, which would do more than deliver podcasts to iTunes. After consulting with users across campus, they created a series of tools that do everything from allowing users to embed video clips into their own web sites, to streaming live events, posting classroom lectures to BlackBoard and videoconferencing.

The biggest project, and the one that impacts the largest portion of campus, is the Media Manager, a tool which automatically encodes media files into a format that can be played in Flash player. Students, staff and faculty can use their ONID logins to access Media Manager, upload their digital files from their cameras or computers, and get back code that they can embed into Web sites ranging from OSU Web pages to Facebook, as well as providing a postable URL to access the video.

The application was developed by Robert Hopson, former CWS system administrator, who created it using open source code.

Even though Greydanus has not yet heavily advertised Media Manager, there are already more than 1,500 videos loaded by users, with another 50 to 75 being added each week. One of the advantages of using Media Manager is that videos can be posted directly to OSU sites, so that viewers aren’t guided away from OSU and to a location where the university can’t control the content, or what else is being advertised alongside the university-produced videos.

Another Media Services innovation is the use of Podcast Producer, an Apple product that can be built into classroom teaching stations. It allows professors to record their lectures while also capturing whatever is being projected to the class, whether it’s a Powerpoint presentation, a document or even a DVD. The professor doesn’t need to do anything to use Podcast Producer, it will automatically begin recording when the lecture begins, and will later post the captured lecture onto the professor’s BlackBoard account.

It’s a much simpler way to record lectures that doesn’t involve staff attending classes to videotape instructors, Greydanus said.

“It captures classroom lectures in a cost-effective, scalable way.”

Media Services is also providing live video streaming from two live on-line channels. There is a live chat feature that accompanies the live streaming, allowing far-off viewers to participate in real-time during events. During a recent Oregon Department of Transportation workshop that was streamed around the state, ODOT moderator Larry Christianson fed on-line questions to the speakers, allowing those watching to have a say in how the workshop progressed.

Christianson said since ODOT has started offering workshops at OSU with the video streaming option, a growing number of participants have chosen to watch from home, what he calls “the environmentally and travel friendly option.”

“These guys were so good,” he said of OSU Media Services, that they’ve kept coming back to use the Kidder Hall facilities.

Media Services also uses something called a Tandberg Content Manager to automatically capture and archive videoconferences so that students and staff who missed classes and seminars can review them later from their computers.

By putting power into the hands of users, as well as automating many systems, Greydanus’ staff accomplished their original goal.

“We started out looking for the right mix of digital tools to capture and distribute media,” said Greydanus. “It wasn’t always easy but I believe we have a tool set that allows OSU to become an active Web 2.0 institution.”

~Theresa Hogue

More than 950 magnets create electricity behind Nathan Henshaw and Ean Amon, graduate students, as they test OSU's wave energy generation buoy. (photo: Ed Curtin)

Two research directors at Oregon State have signed on to an urgent letter to President-elect Barack Obama asking to include the ocean in the mix of renewable energy sources that merit funding for future research.

“During the campaign, we heard him speak of solar, wind, and geothermal energy,” said Bob Paasch, interim director of the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center. “Now we’d like to hear solar, wind, geothermal – and ocean.”

Paasch and George Boehlert, director of OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center, signed the brief document, “Ocean Renewable Energy: a Shared Vision & Call for Action,” along with 22 other key leaders representing environmental groups, academics, energy developers, investors, and utilities.

“It is critical to get these diverse parties together early in the game,” Boehlert said, “because we don’t want a spotted owl situation.”

“We want the energy developers to communicate with the environmental groups now to minimize confrontations later in the game,” he said. “Most everyone agrees that renewable energy is a good thing, but it must be done with adequate protection of the marine environment. Many other government actions, such as streamlining the permitting process, will facilitate proper development of this industry while including input from all ocean stakeholders.”

The project, facilitated over nine months by the Environmental Defense Fund, addresses one of the key challenges of the Obama Administration: growing the economy while securing a clean energy future for the United States.

Wave energy buoy off Newport lights its own lamp as dusk settles over the Pacific. (photo: Al Schacher)

“We’re looking for more funding on the federal level for environmental impact research and public outreach,” said Paasch.

Ocean renewable energy research is at a point where wind energy was 35 years ago, he said.

“The U.S. was the leader,” Boehlert added, “but the nation stepped out of the picture and Denmark, Germany, Holland, and others became the economic drivers of what is not a major worldwide industry.”

Ocean energy is in its “infancy,” both OSU directors agree, and because it is only now developing, there is a need to help bring the best and most innovative ideas to fruition – with government support, whether through tax credits or other incentives, Boehlert said.

“Ocean energy won’t ever be as big as wind,” said Paasch, “because wind blows in all 50 states and only a few states touch the oceans.”

OSU's wave energy generator buoy is pulled beneath the Yaquina Bay Bridge on its way into the Pacific. (photo: Larry Pribyl)

(To view a five-minute video clip of Oregon State’s wave energy generator buoy being deployed, click here.)

“But OSU can do it all: engineer the best technologies, study the environmental impacts, and do the community outreach to provide the state and coastal communities with the information they need to make good decisions based on sound science,” he said.

Boehlert agrees: “OSU is one of the nation’s strongest universities in ocean and coastal sciences.”

With the colleges of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Science, Agricultural Science and Engineering, and multi-disciplinary units such as Sea Grant, the Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies, Marine Mammal Institute, NNMREC and HMSC, “we have virtually all the elements necessary to move the marine renewable energy agenda forward,” he said.

“Our state is clearly a leader” especially given the Governor’s strong agenda, including the Oregon Wave Energy Trust, the director of the Marine Science Center said.

The letter to Obama, the leaders of such groups as the Central Lincoln People’s Utility District, the Environmental Defense Fund, Pacific Gas & Electric, Global Energy Horizons Inc., Portland General Electric and the Surfrider Foundation, make numerous key points, including:

• The need for a framework for testing and demonstration projects to determine whether technologies can be commercialized without unacceptable environmental risk;
• Expanded federal assistance is needed to finance state-of-the-art energy demonstration projects;
• The ocean is a renewable energy source, which could in turn become a significant source of green jobs for the U.S.;
• A number of bureaucratic and regulatory bottlenecks could be removed under existing laws and rules;
• The diverse group itself demonstrates that people of good faith can work together to help create a sustainable energy future for America and the world.

Chief mover behind the letter was the Environmental Defense Fund, Boehlert said. “They brought the parties together and conceived the idea, for which their efforts should be applauded.  It is significant because there is otherwise no mechanism to make this happen.”
~ by Ed Curtin

The document, along with the cover letter, can be downloaded at Ocean Renewable Resources Letter.

Catherine (played by Vanessa Oberlin) frets over her predicament while David (played by Jeff Nichols) pleads his case. (photo: Ed Curtin)

And you thought the election campaigns were tough.

Well, to break the stress and strain of life as winter descends upon us, OSU’s University Theatre presents beginning tonight Larry Shue’s wildly comic farce The Foreigner.

Set in a fishing lodge in rural Georgia, The Foreigner demonstrates with nonstop hilarity what devilish deeds can be revealed when people think that their new guest doesn’t speak a word of English.

Passing himself as a visitor from some unknown exotic foreign country, sweet and unassuming Charlie (played by Matt Bradley) is inadvertently witness to backstabbing, double-dealing, two-faced maneuvering and triple-crossing until the play’s crazy climax and the ultimate resolution.

The Foreigner humorously confronts bigotry in its most blatant forms, and after one evening

Froggy (played by Nicholas Sheler) tries to reassure Charlie (played by Matt Bradley) that he is, indeed, safe and far from his unfaithful wife in the hills of Georgia. (photo: Ed Curtin)

performance, the theater will be devoted discussing the issues of racism and intolerance, said George Caldwell, director and professor of theater in the speech communications department.

Performances will be Nov. 13, 14, 20, 21, and 22 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 16 at 2 p.m. in the Withycombe Hall Main Stage Theatre, 30th Street and Campus Way. The play runs less than two hours and is rated PG-13 for mild language.

Throughout the play’s run, the papers of the Corvallis Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Essay Contest will be on display in the theatre lobby, and the winners of past contests will be introduced before the Nov. 21 performance.

After the Nov. 21 performance, and theater-goers will be invited to join the open discussion addressing the  elements of bigotry brought forth in the play as well as the words of Dr. King.

In the play, its setting nestled in the foothills of Appalachia, Charlie’s old army buddy, Froggy (Nicholas J. Sheler) introduces him to the proprietor of the fishing lodge, 72- year-old Betty (Arianne Jacques), as a harmless foreigner who understands nothing of the United States, its customs or its language.

As the ultimate innocent bystander, Charlie in turn befriends Ellard (Bryan Bernart), who is described as “a little slow;” becomes smitten with Catherine (Venessa Oberlin), the pregnant girlfriend of the local preacher; observes firsthand hypocrisy in the actions of Reverend David (Jeff Nichols); and overhears a plan of his own possible lynching by the town redneck (Jason Myers) and the members of his “invisible empire.”

Of course, everything comes to a crashing, comic head when the lodge is besieged by a hoard of local yokels in the final scene, Caldwell said.

All performances have been sponsored in part by the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commission of Corvallis. The Nov. 21 show also will be interpreted in sign language.
Ticket prices for The Foreigner are $12 for adults, $9 for seniors, $7 for students and youth, and $5 for Oregon State University students.

Tickets are on sale at the Withycombe Hall Box Office noon- 5 p.m. Monday – Friday. They also may be purchased online at www.oregonstate.edu/dept/theatre

View a short excerpt of The Foreigner here.

Director George Caldwell introduces The Foreigner here.

Ancient tree stumps emerged at Neskowin, providing OSU researchers with an opportunity to explore the history of climate changes in Oregon. (photo: Harold Zald)

(Note: This commentary returns to the “front” page of LIFE@OSU online to give readers a chance to see a special television news report about the “Ghost Forest” at Neskowin. Click on the video link at the end of this article. — Editor)

The Oregon coastline at Neskowin is always an awesome sight. But when storms recently eroded portions of the beach, they revealed remnants of an ancient forest, its 2,000-year-old stumps rising from the sea.

Anyone could appreciate their ragged beauty, and they’ve been called “a tribe of dignitaries . . . from the ancient past.” But they are more than that. They also carry a story about their time, one that may reveal important scientific information about ancient climate as well as what caused their death, perhaps a major earthquake and subsidence (in this case, a major decrease in land elevation). At OSU, researchers and graduate students in the College of Forestry began a program to sample a few of 200 stumps — but it was criticized in both news and editorial articles, and temporarily halted.

Many scientists at OSU and the Pacific Northwest Research Station of the USDA Forest Service highly support this sampling project. They constitute some of the nation’s leading forestry, climate and ecological researchers. They wisely recognize – as did the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department when it originally approved the study – that tree rings from these ancient stumps could provide invaluable data to help understand not only past climate, but also verify our future climate models, and learn more about geologic events in Oregon coastal areas.

One researcher – a participant on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – has pointed out that these old trees lived in a climatic period before the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age. The climate then may have been quite similar to ours now, but without the effects of the Industrial Revolution or elevated greenhouse gases. Such data may help answer important remaining questions about the veracity of human-induced global warming – the natural, year-to-year, and decade-to-decade climate variability, and the effects of ancient El Niños and Pacific Decadal Oscillations (a pattern of climate variability).

People and nations around the world are debating climate change, what is causing it, what the future may hold and what to do about it. These are absolutely not trivial issues. At stake is everything from our transportation system to our food supply, the survival of species, jobs and our economy. As scientists we must help answer the remaining questions about climate change, sooner rather than later, and we need to get the answers right.

Ancient -- 2,000 years old! -- tree stumps could provide valuable information for the debate on climate change. (photo: Harold Zald)

The researchers who used a chain saw to cut wedges from 3 out of 200 stumps – a total sample would have used 20-30 of the stumps — were using a standard approach that had been carefully considered. Conventional coring was not working because the stumps were too old and decomposing. Other approaches to obtain samples might be possible. But ultimately, this research is important and our understanding of complex climate issues can be no better than the data upon which it is based.

This is a rare opportunity to get important data. It may not last much longer. The same erosion that exposed these stumps to a level rarely if ever observed is now causing rapid decomposition. This will eventually destroy the stumps completely. For good reasons, this project and others like it should continue. The ancient stumps at Neskowin carry a message from the past, one that science can help us interpret to improve our understanding of climate change and our policies.

by Hal Salwasser, dean of the College of Forestry at Oregon State University

Esera Tuaolo, former OSU and professional football star, returned to campus for a discussion of gay, lesbian, and bisexual athletes in sports. (Photo: Greater Talent Network, New York)

Athletes who happen to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual: It was a topic no one in the room lost interest in over the course of three-plus hours.

And in the end, while no one left with any easy answers, they did hear one clear message — respect the privacy of others and value your teammates.

Helping anchor a panel for OSU’s “National Coming Out Week” observances was Esera Tuaolo, the former Oregon State football star and Super Bowl defensive tackle for the Atlanta Falcons. He made his first appearance on campus since going public with his orientation in 2002.

Tuaolo, who graduated in 1991 and was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, joined Kirk Walker, head OSU softball coach, and Julie Williams, teacher and coach at Corvallis High School, at the Memorial Union discussion, one of two mandatory attendance classes for OSU undergraduates.

“Don’t judge others,” he said in response to a question asking if gay and lesbian lifestyles ran counter to Christian principles. “Please, read your Bible and lead your own life as you should.”

“Everyone in the room learned they will have teammates dealing with a lot of sexuality issues, and they may never know it,” Walker — who came out in 2005, the same year his team made its first appearance in the College World Series and he and his partner adopted their daughter — said after the panel discussion. “Yet no one needs to find out because athletics and sexuality are not mutually exclusive.” Walker is the only known openly gay NCAA Division I coach in the country.

Students coming to OSU may feel physically safer in Corvallis than elsewhere because it is “a rare little pocket of acceptance,” said Williams, the recipient of several awards for advising gay and lesbian students at CHS.

But students’ emotional safety is another matter when others turn a blind eye and feel uncomfortable addressing the matter, she said.

The best strategy for dealing with questions of sexual orientation is to be “very individualized,” Walker said. This is especially true for those working with those students: coaching them, teaching them, helping them register for classes, serving them lunch.

“It’s not like there is a door, where you are either ‘in the closet’ or ‘coming out of the closet,’ ” the softball coach said. “Athletes have different degrees of comfort and should only take the steps they feel comfortable with.”

Among the suggestions for coming out at OSU:

• Find someone to talk to, even if they don’t have much to say in response.
• Seek out allies — a family member, someone from your hometown, a coach or a teacher.
• Visit or call OSU’s Pride Center: 737-6342. Oregon State was named one of the top 100 campuses in the U.S. for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues in 2006 by The Advocate, a national gay news magazine, and the Pride Center is a safe place for students to discuss their orientation in private.

The gender issue also fits into the sexual orientation issue, Williams said. For men, being gay is often seen as degrading, and for women, being lesbian could be a “step up” on the playing field.

“But it hurts the female who tries too hard, gets too strong and gets the message she must be a ‘dyke,’ ” she said. “That causes women to cut back on their training, which actually hurts their athletic abilities.”

During the week’s activities, professors distributed 300 ribbons as a pledge that their classrooms are safe for gay students. Given the demand, they could have given out two or three times that many ribbons, Williams said.

The strange thing is, she said, only about 20 percent of the population is probably absolutely gay or absolutely straight. Most people fall on a continuum. “You can’t tell me sexual orientation is a dot,” she said.

People need to understand it’s still risky to be openly gay in America, Tuaolo said. That’s why gay athletes should never be “outed” at a time other than their choosing.

“It doesn’t matter who you are,” he said. “Coming out is difficult.”

Since declaring his sexual orientation, Tuaolo has worked with the National Football League to combat homophobia in the league and is a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation.

In 2006, he sang the national anthem at the opening ceremony of the Gay Games, a quadrennial Olympics-style event, and testified at a legislative hearing in opposition to anti-gay-marriage bills.

Tuaolo’s autobiography, “Alone in the Trenches: My Life as a Gay Man in the NFL”, was released in spring 2006, and he has spoken out against the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy of the U.S. military.

~ by Ed Curtin

Esera Tuaolo passionately describes his early childhood fears and professional football panic, and ponders what his life story would have been “if I could have been myself.” Click on this link   EseraTuaolo then on the orange podcast button below his photograph in the right column.

That’s the message delivered by five student athletes and a coach to members of the Faculty Senate earlier this month. Consider it almost a plea for understanding, they said, despite the stereotype held

James Dockery, OSU Football

by some that “just dumb jocks” live and play on the south side of the tracks that cut through campus.

Participating in programs that leave them far from home and campus, practicing and training all year long, and constantly carrying close to a full load of academic classes, the five said they have become experts in time management and problem-solving skills.

“You’ve got to realize there’s no off-season,” said James Dockery, a junior in business administration and cornerback and safety on the Beavers football team. In season practices, games, travel, weight training, team meetings, physical therapy must be fit in with at least 12 hours of credit.

Throughout the rest of the year, with conditioning, additional weights, and rehabilitation from injuries, the course load is even greater, said Dockery, who came to OSU from Palm Desert, Calif.

Braden Wells, a senior in speech communications, credits his “theories of conflict and conflict management” class as being “most relevant to my life.”

Braden Wells, OSU Baseball

Learning the skills to talk with professors, work out schedules for assignments and participate fully in classes is a balancing act he and the some 500 other student athletes must learn to not only stay eligible for their sports but also complete a successful college academic career, said Wells, who is wrapping up his baseball career as an undergraduate assistant. He is from Glendale, Ariz.

“Some people have the perception athletes are trying to get away from the responsibilities of class,” said Terry Liskevych, head volleyball coach and moderator of the Faculty Senate presentation.

Except for a very few, perhaps, all are balancing their time in the limelight of their sport, their academic studies, and the sometimes unyielding demands from their coaches. “It’s not a democracy out there,” Liskevych said. When a coach requires a practice session that overlaps several classes, it is the individual student who needs to work out the conflicts.

Strenuous schedules also rub emotions raw, he said. Student athletes have a deep drive for success in both arenas, the classroom and the playing venue, he said. “And when you’re playing in the Pac 10, these are the best athletes outside the pros.”

“That’s quite a burden on these 17- to 21-year-olds.”

High tech has helped 21st century student athletes, said Josh Tarver, a senior on the men’s basketball team. “The Internet has made things easier on the road since papers can be submitted electronically when we’re traveling,” the Jesuit High School of Portland graduate said.

Terry Liskevych, OSU Volleyball coach

Blackboard programs that allow students to take part in online class discussions and YouTube videos that allow out-of-classroom access to classroom content “definitely help,” said Dockery.

Liskevych asks faculty and staff on campus to consider three points when dealing with student athletes:

 Listen. “That’s my main thing. Take the time to hear what an athlete might be asking. How can they make up an assignment? How can they get to the point where they can successfully complete a course.

 Understand the time commitment, during the season and throughout the rest of the year.

 Know that at least 95 percent of the athletes are not trying to get out of anything.

“Progress has been made; our graduation success rate is getting higher and higher each year” for both men’s and women’s sports, the volleyball coach said.

By problem-solving and communicating their needs to others, he said, “these students are becoming the functioning adults and citizens our country needs in the future.”

~ by Ed Curtin

A video interview with James Dockery and Braden Wells is available by clicking here: Student Athletes on Balancing Time

A Faculty/Staff Fitness Pilates class, taught by Carey Hilbert, is in progress in the Women’s Building. (photo: Hiroko Shimura)

For almost 25 years, the program has served the health, fitness and well-being of OSU’s faculty and staff.  In those years, the program has gone from 10 activity classes per term enrolling 100 participants to more than 30 sessions each quarter serving more than 800 participants.

Bill Winkler, a retired professor and coach for the OSU swim team, and Michael Maksud, emeritus dean of the then-College of Health and Human Performance, started the program in the spring of 1984. Today, the College of Health & Human Sciences initiative is one of only two such university programs offered in the United States.

Despite its success, program director Rochelle Schwab wonders if many at OSU even know that the program exists.

“People often get confused between Dixon Recreation Center and this program,” said Schwab.  Both promote fitness for faculty and staff. “Dixon, however, is a student-funded program, which does not enable them to provide classes and different services for just faculty and staff.”

Bill Winkler, retired, teaches a swim class at Langton Hall pool. (photo: Hiroko Shimura)

Faculty/Staff Fitness program classes cover a broad range: from cardio kickboxing to tennis to pilates to aqua aerobics. Paul Marinello, a Business Affairs assistant manager and participant in the Core Stability Ball/Yoga class, said, “Pulling me through the winter blues, the fitness class was a true reprieve from the demands of the desk and persistent rains.”

Marinello is not alone. In a survey of program users, participants characterized the classes as “a very valuable part of my working life.” “It helps me stay healthy and makes me more productive,” one respondent wrote. “It allows me an opportunity to interact with people from all over campus and to make connections that I would not otherwise be able to do.”

In addition to activity classes, Faculty Staff/Fitness offers quarterly blood screenings, as well as blood pressure and pulse-rate checks, all of which are free of charge. Class costs have been kept affordable, and the program has no membership fee. On average, each class session costs about $2.50.

Classes are held in Langton Hall and the Women’s Building, usually around 7 a.m., noon, and 5 p.m. to make it convenient for working faculty and staff to participate. Faculty/Staff Fitness is available to all employees, their spouses/partners, graduate students, and retired employees. For more information, call 737-3222.

~by Hoda Eslamizar

]]> http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/lifeatosu/2008/facultystaff-fitness-program-nearing-25-years/feed/ 0 http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/lifeatosu/2008/hino-gets-the-blues/ http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/lifeatosu/2008/hino-gets-the-blues/#comments Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:50:44 +0000 theresa.hogue@oregonstate.edu http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/lifeatosu/?p=542

Jeff Hino showcases his old National steel guitar. (photo: Bob Crum)

It was a cathartic moment in 1991 when Jeff Hino walked into a Seattle music store and saw it hanging there on the wall.  Possibly from Blind Boy Fuller, an original great blues-man from the 1930s and 40s, the 1934 National steel guitar with two bullet holes through it was “like an old friend,” recalls Hino.  “It spoke to me with its gutsy, soulful sound that carries the blues right to your heart.”

And if you listen to the music of Jeff Hino, learning technology leader with Extension Experiment Station Communications, and his musical partner Dave Plaehn, who graduated from OSU with a Ph.D. in math, you’ll find that the old slide guitar blends right in with their unique style of blues.

“We bring our own identity to old blues songs,” said Hino.  “We create our own experiences based on the greats like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and Bukka White before us.”

“Jeff is good at improvising,” said Plaehn. “He’s one of the best slide players in the state.”

In their first homespun CD “On Your Bond,” Hino reflects that it felt right to be their flagship.  “It’s about trust and helping each other.  It is spiritual,” he said.  The CD earned critical acclaim with its mix of rural and urban blues and simple acoustic approach.

In their latest release, “Can’t Get My Rest,” they featured more original songs, more musicians and added color from additional instruments such as drums that they didn’t have on their first CD.  The sound ranges from country blues to pop blues to R&B.

Like most kids, Hino recalls, he was attracted to music in middle school.  He started with an electric guitar and played in the equivalent of a “garage band” in high school.  By his senior year, “we were the best rock band in Taiwan,” said Hino.

When he moved to Arizona to attend college, Hino experienced a big shift from rock to Americana, country and bluegrass.  He sold is guitar for a banjo, and when he played, “It resonated with the sense of being American,” recalled Hino.

By the mid-70s, Hino was attracted to Corvallis because of the folk music scene.  He moved to play banjo and dobro (a resonator slide guitar) for the Highwater String Band.  By the late ‘80s, he became interested in acoustic blues.

“The release of the Robert Johnson CD was really a milestone for me,” said Hino.  “It was inspiring to hear original artists from the ‘30s like that.”

Jeff Hino and Dave Plaehn have been performing acoustic blues since 1990. Their next local performance is on Nov. 22, 8:30 p.m., at Big River Restaurant, Corvallis. (photo: Bob Crum)

Then, in 1990, he joined Plaehn, a singer/songwriter and harmonica player.  “People enjoy the interplay of Dave’s harmonica and my steel guitar.  The energy and fusion of blues, country, etc., is the heart of what we do.”

With a master’s degree in educational media and experience as a library media specialist, Hino went from substitute teaching when he moved to Corvallis to working for the College of Forestry as a hands-on media specialist.  From his start at OSU in 1984, he eventually rose to COF media center director in 2002. Recently, he joined the EESC to help them use technology to better communicate Extension information across Oregon.

“My job, and my music, feed my creative side each in different ways,” said Hino. “In my job, I bring new ideas on how to deliver information using new methods.

“Music is a social outlet for me. It is incredibly rewarding being with other people in a variety of musical spaces.”

On a recent trip, he carried a ukulele on his back as he visited the Karen tribe in the hills of Thailand.  “I played an elephant folk song and some blues in the jungles of Thailand and they started playing (Eric) Clapton!”

“Music is just this incredible shared experience for everyone,” said Hino.  “It is a voice through which you can speak with anyone, and they can appreciate it. It is a wonderful feeling.”

(Not playing? Right-click here to download the MP4)

“My grandparents started taking me to OSU football games when I was 6 months old, and to OSU basketball games when I was 9 months old,” Hollis said.  “I come from a sports family and I love it!”

Malisa Hollis produces the TV show “Beavers All Access” for Fox Sports Net.

Her passion for sports is evident, and as the coordinator of video production for OSU’s athletic department, it couldn’t be a better fit.   Since graduating from OSU in 2001, Hollis mixes together team highlight tapes, fundraising tapes and produces the TV show “Beavers All Access” for Fox Sports Net.

Co-worker Jeff Taylor says, “She’s an encyclopedia for OSU athletics.”

“She is very knowledgeable technically and her creative editing skills are phenomenal,” said intern Matt Riley.

“Malisa is really a special, special person for Athletics and probably taken for granted sometimes just because of her commitment to her job,” said Steve Fenk, assistant athletic director. “She goes beyond the call of duty every day. She is an extremely talented producer, works under incredible deadlines and often works through the night. Even when exhausted she still has a smile and is willing to help in any way.”

Hollis’ life-long love affair with Beaver sports began with her grandparents, Bert and Shirley Babb, who have deep roots at OSU. Bert’s father, Graydon Babb, played baseball for the Beavers, and Bert himself was going to pitch for OSU but a serious car accident derailed that plan.

Malisa Hollis with family friend, Ralph Miller.

The Babbs not only have season tickets to Beaver football games, but also men’s and women’s basketball, gymnastics, wrestling and baseball.

Hollis’ grandparents were good friends with Ralph and Jean Miller.  “I’d be with my grandparents in the summer time, and I remember being around coaches all the time.  A lot of people see Ralph Miller as cranky, but he was gentle and grandfatherly to me.  He never treated me like a tag-a-long.”  (Hollis and Miller share the same birthday–March 9.)

Hollis’ heart, though, is reserved for Gary Payton.  Even though she was only 10 years old, Hollis remembers sitting next to Payton on the bus on the way to a practice before the 1989 NCAA Tournament.  “He was my absolute idol; I had a huge crush on him,” she recalls. “It was really cool.”

But it’s the football games Hollis recalls the best.

The biggest game to her is the 1998 Civil War game.  “We hadn’t had a winning football season in 28 years,” said Hollis.  “Oregon was heavily favored, and we had taken a beating by their fans for years.  After OSU won in the second overtime on a Ken Simonton touchdown, people were tearing up turf and tearing down goal posts.  It was intense, emotional and as much energy as you’ve ever seen.  It didn’t matter if we lost any after that– 44-41 said it all.”

In 1999, Hollis recalls the Beaver’s ending a 20-year losing streak to California.  “Grown men were rushing on the field crying.  So many times we couldn’t win and now it was over,” said Hollis.  The 2006 win over USC also stands out in Hollis’ mind.  “We beat the number one team in the country.”

Asked if she plans on making all the home football games the next 29 years, Hollis replied, “I hope so. I’d love to be able to do that.”

~ by Jeanne Silsby

Video

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2006 baseball champs

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2007 baseball champs

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Ken Simonton breaks the streak

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Beavers break USC’s win streak in 2000

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Beavers win the Sun Bowl in 2006

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’98 Civil War win

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Gary Payton in Beaver orange

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