The Capital Times
Vol 32, No. 2
Provost Leventhal steps down after
Says institution improved under her leadership
Yvette Martin
Staff Writer
Provost and Dean Ruth Leventhal
will be leaving Penn State-Harrisburg at the
end of the calendar year, but will continue to
pursue a university teaching career in biology.
She is "stepping down from adminis
tration," not retiring from the academic life,
she said.
Leventhal has been provost and dean
here for 10 years here, outlasting the average
dean stay of 21/2 years.
Although she said she feels the insti
tution has improved under her leadership, she
feels it is time to move on. The decision to step
down enables Dr. Leventhal to pursue her
main interest: biology. With her Ph.D. in
Parasitology, (the study of parasites), she plans
to join the staff at Hershey Medical Center.
Multi-media enhancements ready PSH for future
Renee Jackson
Staff Writer
Penn State Harrisburg has a new pro
gram of multimedia and communications re
sources that will help students to access infor
mation and assist instructors in enhancing
their teaching presentations.
Howard Sachs, Associate Dean for
Research and Graduate Studies, said that teh
program began with Dean-Provost Ruth
Leventhal, made a commitment to connect all
faculty at Penn Statc Ilarrisburg to the Univer
sity Park mainframe.
`That gives everybody access to the
so-called 'lnformation Super Highway' ,"
Sachs explained.
The plan developed from this com
mitment into a project that involves an on
campus multimedia development center, spe
cial multi-media-enhanced classrooms, elec
tronic mail, and new CD ROM databases in
the library, Sachs said.
`The real power of multimedia is to
take a subject that is difficult to teach and bring
it alive," Sachs said.
Penn State Harrisburg students will
benefit from this project with multimedia
enhanced classrooms such as the one already
in operation in 211 Olmsted.
"Those classrooms are examples of
what we're going to do more of in the future,"
Sachs explained. He also said that at least one
more classroom of this type will probably be
established this year.
Students will also have the use of
another part of the project, a CD-ROM local
PSH offers special health servi
Matt Fisher
Staff Writer
The Health Services Office (located
at w-102 Olmsted) provides a wide variety of
services to students. Health Services allows
students to acquire information regarding per
sonal health care, dealing with illnesses, pro
moting good health, nutrition, acquiring medi
cation, accessing medical attention, and cur
rent issues and events in health care.
One of the many services available to
students is the self-treatment center in the
lobby of the Health Services Office. The self
treatment center is a walk in lobby which
students can access from Monday through
Thursday from 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The
facility allows students to conveniently stop
by and pick up non-prescription medication,
coupons for medication, and information on
file in the following areas: Women's Health,
Men's Health, Breast Health, HIV/AIDS,
Nutrition, Minority Health, and Pregnancy.
Students are also encouraged to fill out a Self-
Assessment Checklist to determine whether
they should schedule an appointment or sim
ply pick up some medication or information.
The Health Services Office at PSH
serves over 5,000 patients a year, that's 25-30
students each day it is open. Injuries treated
typically include trauma, burns, bike injuries,
sports injuries, and contagious illnesses with
Leventhal came to PSH from Hunter
College in New York City, where she was
Dean of the School of Health Sciences and
Professor of Medical Sciences. She also served
as Acting Dean of the School of Allied Medi
cal Professions at the University of Pennsyl
vania.
Leventhal has earned several awards
in science and has a M.B.A. and Ph.D. from
the University of Pennsylvania. She is also co
author of "Medical Parasitology: A Self
instructional Text."
Leventhal said she has dedicated her
life to higher learning for herself and her
students. Her advice to PSH students is: "Be
passionate about your career; love what you
are doing. It's your only chance for success."
She takes pride in three specific ac
tivities of her administration here: the recruit
ment of excellent faculty, the physical devel
opment of the campus and the outreach pro
grams that created more partnerships with the
area network in the library. It will allow them
to call up databases such as Modem Language
Association papers, dissertation abstracts,
ERIC (an educational database), and several
in business. The databases will offer thou
sands of pages of infolination on each CD.
In addition to being able to use the
Electronic Mail system from dorm rooms and
homes to access campus databases and to
perform other types of communications, stu
dents will soon be able to call up their own
records, with a program called OASIS. They
will be able to access information such as a
degree audit and the courses they need for
graduation, Sachs said.
This will "allow you to be little more
in charge of your education," he explained.
For faculty, the new multimedia en
hancements will serve many purposes, includ
ing a training application, Ken Voneida of
Penn State Harrisburg's Whitaker Multimedia
Development Center said.
Both campus faculty and teachers
from some area school districts will be able to
"create interactivity between the students and
the instructor," Voneida explained.
The new Whitaker Multimedia De
velopment Center, funded by the local
Whitaker Foundation and the college, was
established over the summer in W-311
Olmsted.
The room is now a resource center
serving two purposes—support for the facutly
here as well as for three area school districts:
Middletown Area, Steelton-Highspire and Har
risburg.
"Projects that used to take teams of
individuals years to do can now be accom-
symptoms such as stuffiness, sore throat, and
headaches.
In addition to these daily services,
Health Services also has clinics offering blood
pressure screenings, Flu immunizations, and
TB (Tuberculosis) Tine Tests. Flu immuniza
tions are especially important for students to
keep in mind because living in crowded cam
pus conditions allows the flu to spread very
quickly and easily. This year, students should
devote special attention to flu immunizations
because two new strains have occurred in
addition to the already existing strain. It is also
important for education students and other
students who will be spending time in public
schools to have recent Tuberculosis Test re
sults.
Health Services at PSH has also recently be
come affiliated with The Family Medicine
Center of Middletown. Through this affilia
tion, students can now access the attention of
a Medical Doctor by appointment from 8:30
a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thurs
days. The benefits of having MDs available
are almost unlimited. Medical Doctors can
provide counseling and services regarding
stress related issues, for which they can order
prescriptions such as anti-depressants. They
can also provide services to students who
require assistance in dealing with Upper Res
piratory Infections (bad colds) and Sinusitis in
cases in which non-prescription medication
has not cured the cold within 7 days. They are
CARPE DIEM
Dr. Ruth Leventhal resi,
local community
Leventhal would like to see the school
continue its current development. She said she
plished in months," William Henk, Division
Head of Behavior Sciences and Education,
said of the center. Henk is in charge of the
development of the center.
The center currently uses both IBM
and Macintosh platforms for teachers' use.
With the resources available, teachers can
develop ideas into applications they can use in
their classrooms, or wherever they wish to use
them, Voneida, who operates the center, said.
The center provides software that
can be integrated from many different types of
sources such as animation, carts, photos and
illustrations,
The software has three dimensional
capability. Also 'self-contained' software is
provided for the school districts (who are
working mainly in the area of mathematics) so
that students can make private use of learning
materials, Henk said.
Technology software and instruc
tional design work together in the multimedia
center project, Henk explained. Teachers from
the area schools involved in the project were
brought here over the summer to learn how
toouse the resources.
The Whitaker Multimedia Develop
ment Center, a key part of the overall multime
dia and communications enhancement project
at Penn State Harrisburg, will have a dedica
tion later this fall. Meanwhile, both students
and faculty will have the current resources for
a wide variety of uses.
"I would like to see faculty utilize
this in their instructional curriculum; it's some
thing that is capable of presenting ideas in a
way that is more understandable," Voneida
said of the center at W-311.
ces for students
also available for consultation and assistance
with STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases),
general health issues, and treating injuries
which require the attention of a Medical Doc
tor. Reproductive Health Issues are also at
tended to and prescriptions relative to such can
also be filled. In the event of an illness or
accident that could be classified as an urgent,
non-emergency, students should schedule an
appointment at The Family Medicine Center
of Middletown as soon as possible if the Health
Services Office is not available or closed. The
center offers reduced student rates and is open
until 8:00 p.m. daily. As with the Health
Services Office, students need to make sure to
call ahead and schedule appointments.
Other services offered by Health Services in
clude nutrition seminars and counseling (by
request). This month, Health Services will
also be sponsoring a Weight Watchers pro
gram on campus beginning September 27th.
The group will be meeting from 12:00 p.m. to
1:00 p.m. on Tuesdays for ten weeks in the
EAB. Students interested in the program must
pre-register with Health Services and are in
vited to call with any questions or concerns.
During the week of September 19-22, from
5:45 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., the University Physi
cians Center, in conjunction with the Hershey
Medical Center, offered free prostate screen
ings. Prostate Cancer is the second most
Health Services continued on page 2
hopes her successor will maintain the growth
that she believes has taken place under her
leadership.
But Leventhal's tenure at PSI-I has
not always been tranquil. She has sometimes
had a tense relationship with The Capital Times,
PSI-I's student newspaper.
The resignation of Humanities Pro
fessor and Capital Times adviser Peter Parisi
over after being denied tenure in 1993 left
some PSH students disgruntled.
According to Leventhal, the story
about Parisi in the last issue of The Capital
Times was incorrect.
"I was misquoted, and I am unhappy
with that article," Leventhal said. "Dr. Parisi
seems to he a martyr for the students; he was
well liked."
Staff Photo
In the Sept. 14 article, Dr. Leventhal
is said to have refused Dr. Parisi's tenure
because he did not do enough research and
publication.
Problems in Meade Heights
Cathy Nolan
Campus maintenance and housing
policies are among several student concerns
addressed recently by Joanne Coleman, man
ager of Housing and Food Services.
In an interview with The Capital
Times, Coleman discussed several issues con
cerning campus maintenance, including hous
ing repairs reports and new policies on oppo
site sex housing in Meade Heights.
Coleman said that housing and main
tenance are totally self-supporting, relying
fully on the housing charges paid by students
each semester to pay salaries, and all repair
costs. All expenses are covered from this
fund, including lawn maintenance, repairs to
all houses, and full-time salaries for herself,
four maintenance workers, and all employees
I 1 Poison [ivy] is only poison to people who have an allergy to it ft
- Joanne Coleman, Manager of Health and Food Services
In reponse to why the campus doesn't spray for poison ivy in Meade
Heights in a September 22, 1994 interview,
10 year stay at PSH
Staff Writer
Capital Times editor Erik Mein re
sponded to the charge, saying that Leventhal
never commented about the original article
concerning Parisi's resignation in September
1993. Parisi told the Capital Times that the
lack of research and publication were the reasons
Leventhal gave him for his tenure denial.
A reported rape at the Capital 1. anion
Building last year during daylight hours also
brought some controversy to campus.
Leventhal still calls the incident "very
strange" and said she continues to be puzzled
and concerned that no one heard or saw any
thing related to the assault. She referred any
other questions about the incident to Police
Services.
A search is currently underway for
Leventhal's sucu.ssor. About 120 people have
applied for the position so far.
The new provost and dean should be
in place at the beginning of the 1995-96 school
year.
of the dining hall and the Lions' Den. have
been neglected, such as windows not latch
ing, or not closing at all, or holes in walls or
ceilings, Coleman said many of these prob
lems are subcontracted out to other compa-
"At the beginning of school, when
we clean, we try to look for repairs, but since
we don't live in the house, you don't always
notice things," Coleman said. "'When you
clean during the day, you don't notice that
this switch doesn't work, or that light doesn't
work."
Coleman said that although the last
few weeks have been busy, most work orders
requested on check-in forms have been com
pleted, with the help of the four-person, full
time maintenance staff, and additional help
brought in to clean the Meade Heights resi-
Meade Heights" continued on page 2
October 5, 1994
Erik Hein