Fall 2004

The Annual Newsletter of the Department of Geography and Geology at Western Kentucky University.

inside...

Welcome to the New Faculty..........................

Revised Geology Program..............................

Adventures in the Geosciences ..............................

Faculty Activities..............................

Alumni News ..............................

Electronic Alumni News Form (SEND IT IN TODAY!) ..............................

Fall 2003 Geogram..........................

A Letter from the Department Chair

Dear Friends,
        2003-2004 proved to be another very successful year for the Department of Geography and Geology. Highlights of the year’s accomplishments include the following events and activities:

The Department’s Geography program has been designated for "enhancement" in WKU’s program review process just completed for the 1998-2003 period.

54 students attended eleven professional meetings and conferences, with 45 students presenting research papers or posters.

Majors and minors in the Department increased by 25 % over the previous year.

57 students participated in study-abroad programs, field camps, and field trips during the year, with an additional 200+ students visiting Mammoth Cave National Park as a requirement for the Physical Geography Gen. Ed. course.

Faculty and students were featured 30+ times in media print and online articles.

The Department awarded 21 GIS Certificates this year, while another 24 students have completed half of the certificate requirements.

Three students earned first-place awards at the annual Sigma Xi student conference; 4 students won awards at the Kentucky Science Academy meeting.

Eight faculty visited 16 overseas locations for research, professional development, conferences, study-abroad programs, study tours, and collaborative activities, including three separate visits to China.

Michael May won the Ogden College Award for Public Service, in recognition of his efforts to promote sustainable development in the community and region.

54 students were actively engaged in applied research under faculty supervision through the ARTP and through externally funded research projects.

Six undergraduate and graduate students have been accepted to advanced graduate programs beginning this Fall.

Grant funds from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), along with internal support, secured an advanced Mesoscale Meteorological Model to enhance student and faculty research.

A Geology alumnus was featured prominently in a Smithsonian Air and Space Magazine article on asteroid impacts.

A geology faculty member won a research award from the Oak Ridge Associated Universities for a multidisciplinary project in Java, Indonesia.

More details about the Department's exceptional performance during the academic year can be read in the Annual Unit Productivity Report available online in Adobe PDF.

        Faculty continued to excel in scholarship, research, and professional development, convening and/or participating in myriad professional workshops and presenting approximately 45 papers at local, regional, national, and international conferences. Faculty also were significantly engaged with the local community, serving on committees, task forces, running for public office, participating in WKU-sponsored community outreach events such as the Far Away Places series at Barnes and Noble, sharing geoscience expertise on WKYU-FM’s Midday Edition program, and giving talks at churches, community organizations, and for service groups.
         Three faculty also served as editor or co-editor of professional academic journals, eight faculty reviewed manuscripts for academic journals or publishers, and one faculty is a co-author of a chapter in a new textbook titled Geography in America in the 21st Century, published by Oxford University Press. Faculty research articles appeared in such diverse outlets as Applied Geography, the International Journal of Climatology, and the Journal of Hydrometeorology, among others. Twelve faculty research articles or book chapters are either currently in review, revision, or awaiting publication; one of the Department’s newest faculty published a chapter titled "The Colorado River Delta of Mexico: Endangered Species Refuge" in WorldMinds: Geographical Perspectives on 100 Problems.
         At the end of the Spring 2004 semester, the Department recorded 211 majors in geography (172 in 2003), 46 in geology (38 in 2003), and 72 total minors (52 in 2003). This is a 25 percent increase in declared majors and minors over the 2002-2003 academic year. The Department graduated 31 students from its major programs between August 2003 and May 2004, and it has a target of 40 new majors each year to maintain the numerical strength of its programs.

         The students and faculty of the Department of Geography and Geology again have performed exceedingly well over the past year. We have each and every one of you to thank for helping to build the Department into what it has become--the best in the state and one of the very best in the nation. We look forward to hearing from you this coming year.
Best Wishes
David J. Keeling
Department Head

** Special Event: Geography and Geology Departmental Tour (Including our new GIS lab and Centers for Applied Research)
Time: 1:00 - 2:00pm
Location: Meet on 3rd Floor EST Building
** Special Event: Homecoming Tailgating
Time: 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Location: DUC South Lawn - Join us at the Geography and Geology Alumni Tent.
Enjoy good food and old friends. Meet the departmental faculty and current students.

         The Department of Geography and Geography takes pride every year in the quality of its graduating seniors. Students graduating from the various program tracks offered by the Department must pass rigorous course requirements, satisfy applied skills components, and maintain their overall GPAs. All this is often in addition to outside employment demands, public service, family duties, and service to the Department and College. Each year, the Department recognizes its outstanding seniors at a public presentation by presenting them with awards and certificates. The recipients of the Department’s highest honors also receive recognition at the University Awards Ceremony.
         For the 2003-04 academic year, Mollie Laird received the Outstanding Geology Senior Award, presented by Dr Andrew Wulff. David Logan received the Ronald R. Dilamarter Outstanding Senior in Geography Award, presented by Dr Stuart Foster. Mark Graham and Jenna Medlin both received the Outstanding Geoscience Graduate Student award, presented by Drs Katie Algeo and John All respectively.

Dr David Keeling presents Mark Graham with the Outstanding Graduate in Geoscience Award
at the Graduate School Award Ceremony, April 2004.
Congratulations to ALL our Outstanding Students!

         As politicians debate the implications of the recently published 9/11 Commission Report, NAFTA celebrates its 10th anniversary, and an historic Free Trade Agreement with Central America is signed, few questions are being raised about the links between free trade and global terrorism. The nature and implications of regional and global differences in the impact of trade policies and practices routinely have been minimized by those who seek to understand the links between development and terrorism. Although rhetoric about trade relationships, tariffs, subsidies, and the impacts of labor and job redistribution runs high, discussions about the geographic or spatial impacts of free or global trade are barely heard. Regional trade-association acronyms such as NAFTA, CAFTA, EU, APEC, or ECOWAS presume an unproblematic and homogeneous environment for trade relationships. Indeed, marginalized peoples in marginalized regions of the world often are explained away as simple economic units than can be "developed" with the right combination of free trade, financial reform, and democracy.
         Some commentators have gone so far as to announce the end of the nation-state as we know it and the elimination of geography as a barrier to free trade. Even the 9/11 Commission argued that modern terrorist threats are defined more by societal fault lines than by the boundaries between states, intimating that political-territorial units are not as important as they once were. Socio-economic differences between Chiapas and Tijuana, or between southern Afghanistan and Kabul, can be eliminated by open and free global trade, with the stark realities of the internal geographies of political states dismissed as minor challenges to the forces of globalization. The conventional mantra is that globalization strategies, combined with strong regional trade alliances, will eliminate the tyranny of space and provide equal trade opportunities for all societies, thus reducing the threat of terrorism. Barely acknowledged by free-trade proponents, however, is the reality that the world’s 210-plus political states continue to exert significant sovereignty over internal and external relations, including trade. Also frequently ignored are the geographies of difference that shape all states, from the most advanced industrial centers of the world to backwater societies struggling with disease, isolation, and inadequate infrastructure. The global reality is that a powerful relationship exists between trade, terrorism, and the geographies of difference.
         Understanding the geography of free trade, globalization, and terrorism becomes critical when development challenges are analyzed in terms of regional differences. Economic models developed for Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, or Nigeria, for instance, typically assume a uniform national geography, with regional differences explained away simplistically and uncritically. Political and economic analyses of Iraq that focus on introducing democracy and building an economy that can be regionally and globally integrated tend to ignore the country’s internal geographies. Not only are there geographically significant ethnic and religious differences that argue against a U.S.-styled democracy, there are also major physical, resource, and infrastructure disparities that require a level of spatial development not anticipated by current plans. In regions such as Africa and Latin America, geographic disparities are so profound both within and between countries that an investment of at least two trillion dollars in basic infrastructure would be required just to prepare the regions adequately to take advantage of free trade opportunities.
         Over the past two decades, the United States has championed the principles of free trade, globalization, and democracy internationally with barely a hint of a basic geographic understanding of national and regional differences. What the 9/11 Commission cites as a failure of imagination is, in reality, a stunning level of geographic ignorance about how the world works. Economic collapse in Argentina, terrorist attacks on New York, nuclear rhetoric from North Korea, ethnic butchery in the Sudan, and societal meltdown in Haiti all are symptomatic of policies that demonstrate a profound geographical naiveté about socioeconomic differences within political boundaries and across the globe. Even the advent of new technologies such as Geographical Information and Global Positioning Systems (GIS and GPS) that continue to enhance our knowledge of the evolving global mosaic has not encouraged among planners and policymakers a heightened awareness of spatial differences. Successful free and fair trade, meaningful regional development, and economic integration that improves the lives of all citizens regardless of their geographies can only be achieved if geographic differences are recognized in meaningful ways. To achieve that goal requires policies and strategies that are geographically informed and not geographically ignorant. Until this goal is achieved, the threat of terrorism will remain significant and high.

Note: A Version of this commentary appeared as an Op Ed in the San Francisco Chronicle, August 3, 2004, p. B-9. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent the views of the Department or university.

ANNOUNCING!

THE KENTUCKY CLIMATE CENTER
by Stuart Foster

         The KENTUCKY CLIMATE CENTER, with help from the Center for Cave and Karst Studies, recently purchased three automated weather stations. Each station will be equipped with sensors to measure air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, wind speed and direction, precipitation, and soil moisture. Data will be transmitted and ingested in a database at the Kentucky Climate Center. One of the stations will be installed at the Lost River Cave and Valley. The other two will be located in neighboring counties. Combined with the recently commissioned Climate Reference Network station near Mammoth Cave National Park, these stations will help to provide weather and climate data for the Barren River area. As Dr Foster notes, these new stations will serve two important roles: “first, they complement efforts by the Barren River Area Development District (BRADD) to implement hazard mitigation planning in the region; and second, these stations represent a pilot project through which we can develop expertise in building and maintaining networks.” For more information about the Kentucky Climate Center, contact the Kentucky State Climatologist (stuart.foster@wku.edu) at 270-745-5983.

         The Geology degree program is emerging from a two-year review with a new look. Here are the details:
         The current Geology degree program was implemented in 1992 and was designed with four distinct options: Fossil Fuels, Environmental, Hydrology, and Traditional. Each option diverged from a common core curriculum of 28 hours and each was technical in nature. The degree program was intended primarily to prepare students for professional practice or to gain entry into competitive graduate schools.
         Since 1992, several significant developments, affecting either the program itself or the geology profession overall, have necessitated a substantial curriculum reorganization. First, Kentucky, along with 30 other states, now requires its professional geologists to become registered in order to practice. The criteria for achieving professional registration include passing the standardized, 8-hour ASBOG exam, which covers specified content areas. The emphasis that each content area receives in that exam is based on a detailed, "time on task" survey completed by thousands of practicing geologists across the nation. Second, Kentucky’s certification process for high-school science teachers has been returned to the specific science disciplines. Previously, only a "life sciences" or "physical sciences" certification had been available. The discipline-based certification that includes geology is called "Earth and Space Science" and requires a broad, flexible program for Kentucky’s pre-service teachers. Third, the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) established an annual graduation benchmark that defines "productive" baccalaureate programs in the Commonwealth. This requires the program to appeal to a broader clientele in order to graduate twelve geologists every year. At present, none of the six geology programs in Kentucky meets this goal but this Department ranks a very close second to the University of Kentucky in graduation rate. Fourth, the Department has been fortunate in attracting Dr Andrew Wulff, a very experienced hard-rock geologist, to a tenure-track position last year. He has contributed many valuable fresh ideas and perspectives to the curriculum revision process. Finally, the Geology program wanted to increase its cross-discipline synergies by including more skills and techniques courses from other subject areas, especially geography.
         Clearly, the existing Geology program was no longer sufficient because the profession had moved toward more rigorous requirements, while the Department also needed to create more generally appealing and flexible options. Thus, the Geology faculty began a detailed review of benchmark geology programs across the region including their staffing, number of majors, and curriculum. Geology faculty also visited nearby competitors such as the University of Kentucky, University of Southern Indiana, and Vanderbilt University. Two years ago, the program adopted a standardized geology ACAT exam as an exit assessment to be taken by every graduating senior. It evaluates achievement in nine geology content areas. And last October, Dr. May and I sat for the ASBOG registration exam in order to assess the alignment of the program’s curriculum content with professional expectations. To summarize, we found that the geology program's technical content and other cognate requirements for the major aligned well with comparable universities. The Department has an above average number of majors in the program, but it is below benchmark average in faculty to staff the geology program. The program’s graduating seniors ranked above the national average on the ACAT assessment in both years, and Dr. May and I passed the ASBOG registration examination!
         The final result of detailed curriculum deliberations has been a retooling of the four program options. They are now named Earth and Space (Teacher), General Geoscience, Professional, and Extended Professional. All still spring from a common core curriculum (now 20 hours), but their total program hours and related requirements vary considerably. Two new courses are added to the common core: Introductory Field Techniques and a new course, Professional Preparation in Geology. The latter is a capstone course that includes senior assessment and the college-to-career transition in its content. Two of the new options, Earth and Space and General Geoscience, are broader based and will lead to a B.A. degree in Geology. Both the University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky University already offer a B.A. degree in their programs. The program’s new Professional and Extended Professional options are technical and will result in the B.S. degree in Geology. Students in these options will complete math through calculus and must complete either the Department’s 12-hour GIS certificate or a summer geology field camp. The Professional option requires a minor program, while the Professional Extended option will allow students to take additional geology courses in place of the minor. Any other courses that may be specified within an option are intended to increase flexibility and opportunity for the students involved. With these changes, the Department is confident of attracting more geology majors, better engaging them with their studies, and bringing them successfully to graduation. The Geology faculty and students are fully committed to helping the university achieve the goal of its vision statement: “Western Kentucky University aspires to be the best comprehensive public institution in Kentucky and among the best in the nation.” If you would like to know more about the new geology degree program and its various options, please contact me at kenneth.kuehn@wku.edu or (270) 745-3082.

         This past summer, nine students, David Keeling, Will Blackburn, and Debbie Kreitzer visited the British Isles as part of the Department of Geography and Geology’s annual study abroad program. Students studied Human Geography, Physical Geography, and the Geography of the British Isles. The group left Nashville on June 1st and traveled via Atlanta to Manchester, England, and from there traveled by train to accommodations in Liverpool. For the first seven days of the program, the group took a flying visit to London and the traveled around the central England area. In this region of the British Isles, the students studied subjects like urban renewal, the geography of music (the Beatles, in particular), and the global economy. Students also experienced the natural beauty of popular spots like the Lake District, Scafell Summit (one of the three highest peaks in the British Isles) and the Yorkshire Dales, where they studied subjects like glaciation, biogeography, and tire repair strategies!
         After leaving England, the group spent six days in Aberystwyth, Wales, staying in dorm rooms at the University of Wales, which is situated on a hill overlooking Cardigan Bay. They were able to visit Snowdonia National Park (centered around Snowdon, one of the three highest peaks in the British Isles and the highest in Wales), the town with the second longest name in the world (at least according to sources) (Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (Thailand has the longest)), and the first iron bridge, among other places. In this region, students studied Welsh nationalism, transportation issues, the industrial revolution, weather and climate patterns, and national park management.

The group near St Paul's, London          The group then spent six days in Scotland, in the village of Corpach in the highlands, just a few miles from Ft. William. A few students were able to climb Ben Nevis (the highest peak in the British Isles). In this region, students were able to visit Fort William, Oban, the Isle of Skye, and Loch Ness. Students studied oceanic and atmospheric circulation, deforestation, Scottish nationalism, and how individual industries (like whisky distilleries) affect the local economy.
         Next, the group took a ferry across the Irish Sea from Troon to Belfast in Northern Ireland, where they studied Irish nationalism and politics. The next six days were spent in the Republic of Ireland. The group stayed in Limerick and visited the Dingle Peninsula, Cork, Cobh (last stop of the Titanic), Galway, and the Connemara Peninsula. In this region, students studied themes like immigration, the impact of the European Union, the geography of tourism, weathering and erosion, and fluvial geomorphology. The group returned to Nashville on June 28th, with everyone involved having had a wonderful time. This study abroad experience exposed students to global issues in a way that is impossible to duplicate in the classroom. Stay tuned for information about next year’s study abroad experience in northern Argentina and Chile. Alumni are invited to participate in the Department’s study abroad programs. Just contact the office (270-745-4555) for more information or visit the Department’s website!

Halfway up Snowdonia in Wales
Surveying the Roman Wall in Chester.

ENVIRONMENTAL GEOLOGY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
By Andrew Wulff

         Drs Wulff and Groves co-led a challenging and fun departmental fieldtrip centered on a traverse across central California during the Fall 2003 semester. Each student picked a specific topic to become the “expert” on, gave a presentation to the entire group, and led the discussions in the field. After flying into Ontario airport, the group ate at In-And-Out Burger (for most their 1st time) and proceeded across Cajon Pass. Smoke billows and a phalanx of choppers in the sky pointed out the beginnings of a wildfire, one of the first in a disastrous fall season in southern California. The group traveled past the great solar collector in the western Mojave and proceeded to the Coso geothermal field to observe an active volcanic field, boiling mud volcanoes, and one of the largest geothermal energy plants in the world. From there, the group proceeded to Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park and joined a very large group of western geologists gathered for a FOP (Friends of the Pleistocene) trip that included the Quaternary features, caves, rocks, and everything else in the park.
        From there, the group hurried across the Central Valley to the central coast, where students looked at the beautifully exposed rocks of the coastal ophiolite suits (stacks of pillow basalts, ultramafic rocks, blueschists, rodingite dikes, and folded pelagic sediments). A trip across Tehachapi Pass gave the group a chance to examine and discuss wind power and the California Aquaduct system, and collect ulexite, colemanite, and other cool minerals at a rockin’ rock shop by Boron. The trip back across Cajon Pass provided an opportunity to look at the San Andreas Fault and rocks of the San Gabriel Mountains. A lot to pack into a fall break!!
        Each student contributed pictures, notes, a roadlog, and background to a field guide, which was put together under the leadership and guidance of the great group of graduate students on the trip. The guidebook is available through the Department. An amazing T-shirt and large format poster on the wall in EST on the 3rd floor are very tangible products of the trip. Details and photos from the trip can also be found online .
        Dr Wulff hopes that this sort of opportunity will become a hallmark of the Department – whereby graduate and undergraduate students will have the opportunity to travel and examine in some detail areas of interest. The students were able to take charge of much of the trip and the experience and results were fantastic!! If any alumni have ideas for future trips – please let the Department know!

Continue Forward to Section Two, and ACCESS THE PDF VERSION ONLINE NOW.

GEOGRAM is designed, edited, and produced for the Department by Dr David J. Keeling.
david.keeling@wku.edu
Editor's Webpage
Copyright: Department of Geography and Geology, 2004
Posted on 9/7/04