Aspects of Leadership

The LRU Business Council and the Alex Lee Foundation will sponsor a series of discussions on leadership throughout the next few weeks. This on-going event began last week with LRU President Wayne Powell and will continue this week on Wednesday, September 7 with Boyd George, President of Alex Lee Inc.

Next week's discussion will be lead by Tony Rose, Catawba Valley Medical Center President and will be on Wednesday, September 14. This program will continue until October 26th and is meant to help participants reach a better understanding of leadership so that we may practice it more effectively.

Each event will begin at 6:15 p.m. in the McCrorie Center, Fintel classroom. The series is free and open to the community.

LRU Partners with High School to Develop Outstanding Programs & Students

UCHS students Troy Barker, Lisa Emerson, and Alec Hass look on as UCHS board
chairman David Reitzel and L-R provost Larry Hall sign the partnership agreement

Lenoir-Rhyne University has entered into a formal partnership with University Christian High School in order to further develop a high quality faith-based high school curriculum for students in the greater Hickory area.

Established in 2009, University Christian High School’s (UCHS) mission is to provide a Christ-centered education that inspires students to excellence in academics, moral character, and servant leadership.

UCHS offers an advanced and highly academic curriculum in partnership with L-R. Students at UCHS have the opportunity to take a greater variety of advanced classes than any high school, public or private, in the area. Through dual enrollment opportunities, UCHS students have the opportunity to graduate with up to 30 college credit hours, which is included in the tuition cost of the school.

This partnership allows Lenoir-Rhyne to provide greater opportunities to high school students and to better prepare them to succeed at a four-year institution after graduation. L-R has dedicated a classroom/lab area for UCHS science classes to ensure update-to-date resources are available to the students in their education.

Beginning with this school year, UCHS will be located at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, across the street from L-R. The proximity of the high school to Lenoir-Rhyne allows for easy access to the college classes that juniors and seniors take.

More information about University Christian High School can be found on their website at www.uchigh.com. The high school is still accepting applications for the 2011-12 academic year.

Xi House Demo

Xi House in the process of being torn down to make room for the
new residence hall. Construction on the new hall will begin later
this summer (Photo credits: Rich Duncan).

LRU, We Have An App For That!

The free app is designed to provide an abundance of information to prospective students, current students, alumni, and the Hickory community. Photo credit: LRU Marketing

Available this week in the Apple App Store is the official Lenoir-Rhyne University app. The free app is designed to provide an abundance of information to prospective students, current students, alumni, and the Hickory community. The app can be downloaded on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

The app is well timed as summer finds new students preparing to come to campus in August and they want to explore their new university.

“Though the official campus visit is an important tool, it was a logical step to create an on-line self guided tour and offer other information geared toward a generation that thrives on technology,” said Mike Langford, director of marketing and communications at L-R. The app was developed by the L-R marketing office in collaboration with Slicker Interactive, a Charleston, SC based company that specializes in innovations for Apple products.

The L-R app puts everything you need to know on the go right into your hands. Whether it’s a prospective student wanting to take the self-guided tour or learn more about academic majors, a current student wanting to check out the discounts available from local businesses or the dining hall menu, or a member of the Hickory community wanting to see when the next concert, theater production or sporting event is, it can be found on the app. Text, photos, and videos give the user the sense of being right in the heart of campus.

“With one swipe or a tap, prospective students can explore each residence hall, learn more about a degree program, read the campus newspaper, and so much more,” explained Langford. “There’s also the added feature of calendars of community, cultural, and sporting events for everyone to stay up to date on programs.”

The app uses GPS navigation to mark buildings on the Google map to help users find specific places on campus, to locate athletic complexes on campus, and to show the location of businesses offering discounts to current students.

LRU will release a similar app for Droid devices in the fall that will include the same interactive features as the Apple version.

LRU Holds Graduation Ceremony

Kelly Medley, Senior Class President addresses fellow students
during the graduation ceremony on Friday, May 13. Photo credit: L. Harris

Houston Named New LRU Head Football Coach

Photo credit: LRU Athletes

Lenoir-Rhyne University has named Mike Houston its new Head Football Coach today. Houston becomes the 18th coach in the school's history. Houston replaces Fred Goldsmith, who announced his retirement last week after four seasons at the helm and 45 years of coaching.

Houston has been Lenoir-Rhyne's Defensive Coordinator and Secondary Coach for the last four years (2007-10). On February 4, 2010, Houston was elevated to Assistant Head Coach.

Under Houston's leadership, the Bears' defense had one of their best seasons in recent memory in 2010. Last fall, Lenoir-Rhyne led the South Atlantic Conference in total defense (276.6 ypg) and finished fourth in Division II in rushing defense (75.7 ypg).

Senior Nursing Students Engage in Mini-Disaster Simulation

Photo Credits: Senior Nursing student, John Wallace

The senior nursing students engaged in a mini-disaster simulation on campus on May 2. Students were assigned to protray either a patient with a given injury or a nurse in selected community or hospital role .

Students assigned to the patient roles, with the help of Dara Swift and Tabitha Toney, nursing instructors used make-up and propos to simulate the real injuries. Those assigned to the nursing roles set up decontamination sites, triaged patients at the site, dispatched patients to the hospital, triaged patients in the emergency room and dealt with worried families and patients.

Following the simulation all students participated in a debriefing. Such simulations help students develop the skills necessary to be valuable employees in the event of a real disaster. The students did a fabulous job portraying real patients with injuries

Campus Read Book Announced!

The Lenoir-Rhyne University 2011 Campus Read book will be The Other Wes Moore: One name, two fates by author Wes Moore. Workers install new banner on the outside of the P.E. Monroe Auditorium. Photo credit: L. Harris

Correction to the May issue of The Rhynean

The Rhynean incorrectly announced Professor Michael Dugan’s retirement from LRU. Mr. Dugan will be returning to LRU in the fall in his capacity as Business Professor. The Rhynean sincerely regrets any inconvenience that this report might have caused.

LRU Students to Present Posters on Public Health Preparedness

The Lenoir-Rhyne University Master of Public Health program and the Solmaz Institute for Obesity at L-R will host a joint poster session on Thursday, April 28 at 3:00 p.m. in the McCrorie Center on campus. The poster presentations will be followed by an open house at the Solmaz Institute, also in the McCrorie Center. Attendees will have the opportunity to see the new facility prior to the Institute’s grand opening in the fall.  Both events are open to the public.

The Master of Public Health graduate program began at Lenoir-Rhyne in August 2010.  This first group of students will be presenting their final Environmental Health risk assessment poster presentations focused on public health preparedness.  In light of such disasters as the radiation emergency in Japan, the Malaria outbreak in Haiti, the BP oil spill, the Katrina aftermath, H1N1, SARS, and September 11, emergency preparedness has become an important public health priority.  Student posters will share a statement of the risk or hazard being invested, a discussion of the legal, political, and social issues affecting the problem; strategies for addressing the problem; an assessment of how the hazard is currently being addressed in a local context; gaps in current practice; and recommendations for the future. 

Topics being explored include tornado safety for a long term care facility for older adults, emergency preparedness during a hurricane for Catawba County’s homeless population, needle safety for clinicians at a local hospital, mental health preparedness for both children and adults during emergencies, radiation as a threat to food security, preparedness for patients with Type 2 diabetes, and chemical spill safety at a local factory.

On behalf of the Solmaz Institute for Obesity, undergraduate sports nutrition students will present their final poster presentations on sports specific nutrition recommendations for the following L-R sports teams:  men and women’s lacrosse, men’s soccer, men and women’s tennis, baseball, softball and women’s basketball.  Posters will focus on the nutritional needs of collegiate athletes specific to their sport.  Information will include dietary needs for daily intake, pre-performance, during performance, and post performance.  Hydration and ergogenic aids will also be highlighted.

This event is the first of many which will reflect the important relationship being established between the Dietetic Internship and Master of Public Health programs.  Collaboration between these two programs symbolizes an understanding of the importance of obesity prevention not only for individual health but also the greater public health infrastructure. 

Obesity is one of the three factors (physical activity and smoking being the other two) driving the prevalence of four chronic diseases that account for 50% of all mortality (Healthy People, 2011).  To address the myriad of factors which lead to obesity takes a systems approach that considers not only individual behavior, but also the environment, social determinants, genetics, and health policy.  These factors are addressed in both the Dietetic Internship and Master of Public Health Program.