Ohio Eminent Research Professor of History Alfred Eckes was among
a panel of presidential historians discussing the Republican primary race
on PBS' "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer" Feb. 28. Eckes also topped
The New York Times op-ed page Feb. 27 by asserting that Patrick Buchanan's
trade views "are consistent with those of a long line of Republican
leaders." Eckes, author of Opening America's Market: U.S. Foreign
Trade Policy Since 1776, wrote an editorial detailing the history of
Republican support for high protective tariffs and how Buchanan's philosophy
"best exemplifies Republican thinking on trade issues."
Eckes was quoted in a Page One story in the Feb. 22 issue of the Wall
Street Journal. Buchanan had referred reporters to Eckes' book during
the New Hampshire primary. The Journal called Eckes the "former
International Trade Commission chairman . . . who started his ITC tenure
as a free-trader and left sympathetic to import barriers after touring beleaguered
Maine shoe factories."
Associate Professor of Physiology Anne Loucks' study of hormonal
changes in women who exercise heavily and eat very little was featured in
a story that was transmitted on the national wire of The Associated Press.
Newspapers nationwide, from the Miami Herald to the Tampa Tribune
to The Oregonian in Portland, carried the story.
With a $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Army, Loucks aims to help the Army
refine nutritional guidelines so that servicewomen can better protect their
reproductive and skeletal health while preparing for military activities.
Loucks has researched why women competing in some of the most physically
demanding activities suffer from cessation of the menstrual cycle, a condition
known as amenorrhea. The condition had previously been attributed to low
body fat or the stress of exercise, but Loucks found that low caloric intake
was the probable cause.
Distinguished Professor of History John Gaddis is back in the
news, attracting interviews with the Christian Science Monitor and
the Washington Post. In a Christian Science Monitor story,
Gaddis described a decentralization and genocide that has developed from
social disorder.
"Horrors can arise because people like Hitler order them to take place,
but horrors can also percolate up from below," said Gaddis, a diplomatic
historian. "If you look at what's happened in Yugoslavia, it's a democratic
form of genocide that's set in motion because people hate each other so
much."
Washington Post staff writer John F. Harris interviewed Gaddis for
a story about President Clinton's increasing confidence in foreign affairs.
The growth in Internet use by the general population has produced an
unexpected result - World Wide Web addiction. Enter Rich Barrette,
an Ohio University graduate student in computer science, part-time employee
of Communication Network Services and creator of "Webaholics,"
a tongue-in-cheek home page with links to Barrette's favorite Web sites.
The page, accessible from Ohio University's home page (http://www.ohiou.edu),
was featured in the cover story of USA Today's Jan. 16 edition, headlined
"Are heavy users hooked or just on-line fanatics?"
The Dec. 18 issue of Newsweek also mentioned Barrette's "Webaholics"
home page in a story and noted that it had attracted more than 200,000 users.
Southeastern Ohio puzzlers had a breeze with a clue in the Jan. 16 edition
of The New York Times crossword puzzle: "Bobcats of college
football." The four-letter answer was "Ohio."
Puzzle Editor Will Shortz says he thumbed through a world almanac and discovered
Ohio University's mascot was the bobcat, and a new puzzle clue was born.
Local newspapers and the Columbus Dispatch ran brief stories on the
"Ohio" puzzle. The Associated Press distributed a lighthearted
story on the puzzling mention of the Bobcats to newspapers and broadcasters
statewide.
The Public Broadcasting System, the New York Post and Voice of
America are among the latest national and international media to cover Tuning
in Trouble: Talk TV's Destructive Impact on Mental Health, by Ohio University
Psychologist Jeanne Albronda Heaton and former university administrator
Nona Wilson. The book, published in September, claims talk TV can be damaging
to the viewer by providing a distorted image of the mental health profession.
Heaton was featured in an hour-long PBS-TV program, "Freedom Speaks,"
which focuses on First Amendment issues. The program was distributed to
PBS subscribers nationwide Jan. 13. A story in the New York Post
on why Americans go on TV to air their personal problems quoted Heaton extensively,
and she also was interviewed in Athens for a program on Voice of America.
Heaton told the New York Post that mental-health care professionals
on talk TV are "asked to wrap up incredibly complicated situations,
and if they say anything less than a sound bite, they're cut off."
A reporter for American Health magazine's December issue quoted Heaton,
as did radio reporters who interviewed her by telephone from Melbourne and
Adelaide, Australia.
Associate Professor of History Steven Merritt Miner, who specializes
in contemporary Russian history, wrote an opinion piece for Newsday
after the Russian elections in December, and was interviewed by Voice of
America. He also wrote a column in the Los Angeles Times on reelection prospects
for Russian President Boris Yeltsin. . . .
Margaret King, professor of early childhood education, offered a
few tips on improving toddlers' mathematical skills in Working Mother, a
monthly magazine with a circulation of 850,000. Among King's tips: recite
nursery rhymes such as "one, two, buckle my shoe" and play the
game of "This Little Piggy." . . .
Schuyler Cone, assistant professor of human and consumer sciences,
was the source for opinion on possible changes in Naval Academy uniforms
for women published in the Washington Post, the Detroit News
and Free Press, and the Tampa Tribune. Cone has studied the
history of women's military garb. . . .
A Philadelphia Inquirer story on how to teach writing referred to
Ohio University. OU has hired Suellynn Duffey as a writing coordinator
in an effort to enhance writing instruction offered to undergraduates.
This story was compiled by Dwight Woodward, BA '81, MAIA '89, MSJ '89. He is national media liaison for University News Services and Periodicals.
