Latest news with #OhioWesleyanUniversity
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ohio college presidents among signatories against Trump administration ‘overreach'
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — More than 150 colleges and universities signed a letter Tuesday condemning the Trump administration's attempts to control higher education institutions, including at least four in central Ohio. The presidents of Capital University, Ohio Wesleyan University, Denison University, Otterbein University and Kenyon College signed alongside leaders of large public universities and small liberal arts schools alike, including the University of Dayton. The letter, organized by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), condemns overreach and the use of public research funding as a means of coercion. 'We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight,' the letter reads. 'However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses.' OSU investigating hidden cameras in Morrill Tower 'American higher education is the envy of the world, and that's because there has been a long and productive partnership between higher education and the U.S. government,' a spokesperson for Kenyon College said. So far, the Trump administration has paused or threatened to pause billions of dollars in federal funding for universities in an effort to 'root out' antisemitism and DEI on college campuses. The Trump administration has tried to get Harvard to shutter its diversity, equity and inclusion programs and successfully implemented a list of demands at Columbia last month. 'It's also because students across the nation have been free to explore their own academic and career interests and scholars have been free to pursue research that advances society,' Kenyon's spokesperson said. 'We believe both are worth preserving.' Ohio Wesleyan President Matt vandenBerg said challenges to higher education are threatening academic freedom and university missions. He said the letter emphasizes productive engagement between universities and government entities. 'The list of signatories is impressive and growing, and it reflects widespread concern from across the higher education landscape,' vandenBerg said. 'This is a rare and important moment of solidarity in higher education, and Ohio Wesleyan University has an important role to play in sharing this message.' Ohio State faculty to vote on joining Big Ten coalition against Trump's actions Ohio State, which did not sign the letter, was singled out by the Trump administration twice: once for alleged antisemitism and once for alleged discrimination for partnering with a nonprofit encouraging minority students to get their PhDs. A White House spokesperson told NBC News that the Trump administration is 'standing up for equality and fairness and will not be swayed by worthless letters by overpaid blowhards.' AAC&U said it will continue to accept signatures from current leaders of colleges, universities and scholarly societies. Denison University's president, for instance, signed after the letter's debut. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
National Geographic
05-03-2025
- Science
- National Geographic
10 lizards were smuggled into Cincinnati in a sock. Now there are tens of thousands.
Native to Europe, common wall lizards are growing bigger, faster, and more resilient in Ohio. Scientists say the city itself may be driving their evolution. A Lazarus lizard suns itself on a warm rock in Burnet Woods, one of many European transplants that have taken over Cincinnati, Ohio. Scientists say the city's hills, aging infrastructure, and even its climate have helped them thrive. A Lazarus lizard suns itself on a warm rock in Burnet Woods, one of many European transplants that have taken over Cincinnati, Ohio. Scientists say the city's hills, aging infrastructure, and even its climate have helped them thrive. A Lazarus lizard suns itself on a warm rock in Burnet Woods, one of many European transplants that have taken over Cincinnati, Ohio. Scientists say the city's hills, aging infrastructure, and even its climate have helped them thrive. A Lazarus lizard suns itself on a warm rock in Burnet Woods, one of many European transplants that have taken over Cincinnati, Ohio. Scientists say the city's hills, aging infrastructure, and even its climate have helped them thrive. For more than 70 years, thousands of common wall lizards, known as Lazarus lizards, from Europe have made Cincinnati their home. Even through record-low temperatures and snowfall, they've managed to survive—and multiply. But how did these Mediterranean reptiles gain such a foothold in a Midwestern city? It all started with a 10-year-old boy and a sock full of lizards. In 1951, George Rau Jr., whose stepfather, Fred Lazarus Jr., founded the retail chain that would later become Macy's, smuggled 10 Italian lizards home from a family trip in Lake Garda and set them loose in his backyard. He had no idea he was unleashing an ecological experiment spanning decades. Today, their descendants number in tens of thousands—if not hundreds—of thousands. Declared 'permanent residents' by the Ohio Division of Wildlife, they scurry across sidewalks, cling to brick walls, and flourish in an environment that seems much different than where they're from. How did Cincinnati become their perfect home? Why Cincinnati is the perfect lizard habitat Although Cincinnati is not 'traditionally thought of as lizardy,' it has proven to be a haven for the introduced lizards, says Eric Gangloff, a biology professor at Ohio Wesleyan University. He has spent five years studying the lizards in Cincinnati, and before that, he researched them in their native European range. In the 1980s, researcher S.E. Hedeen discovered that Cincinnati's climate is remarkably similar to that of Milan, just 70 miles west of Lake Garda, where the lizards originated. Their year-round temperatures vary by only a few degrees Celsius, and precipitation levels stay within the same 10-centimeter range each month. (A dog-size lizard is threatening the U.S. South. Can it be stopped?) But climate isn't the only reason these reptiles have flourished. Cincinnati's landscape has turned out to be an ideal substitute for their native habitat as well. 'Cincinnati is extremely hilly, and a lot of the old neighborhoods have stacked-rock retaining walls,' says Jeffrey Davis, a herpetologist who has been monitoring them since the early 2000s. Many of those walls have no mortar or cement between the rocks, which 'makes a zillion little nooks and crannies and crevices that the lizards can dart into, and it also gives them access to the underground,' where they go in winter, he adds. 'It probably isn't terribly surprising to [biologists] that they survived, because they were pre-adapted,' says Davis. 'The thing to me that is so surprising is the density of the populations.' This species, Podarcis muralis, has also been found in other areas of Ohio and on Vancouver Island, Canada, but no other population is believed to be as prolific. (Here's why you should never release exotic pets into the wild.) In some neighborhoods, as many as 1,500 lizards pack into a single acre, far more than their typical density in Europe, partially due to the reduced threat of predators and parasites. Even the Torrence Court neighborhood, where Rau Jr. first released them, remains a lizard hotspot. Evolving lizards After decades in Cincinnati, the lizards may be evolving to better navigate their urban world. Gangloff oversees a team of student researchers—dubbed the 'Lizard League'—who study the reptiles in a lab, testing how they respond to different environmental conditions. So far, they've found that the animals are getting larger and developing longer limbs, possibly to help them run from house cats, their primary urban predators. After subjecting the lizards to various temperatures and wind speeds, hypothesizing that they would select cooler temperatures in higher winds to conserve hydration, the lizards did the opposite. And despite prolonged exposure to heavy metals in the city, the lizards seem unaffected. (Here's how animals are adapting to the rise of wildfires.) 'One of our experiments involved running lizards on treadmills to test their endurance and see if the levels of lead in their blood had any effect on this, because we expected that there would be some kind of association there,' says Emma Foster, a neuroscience junior at Ohio Wesleyan. 'And we found that the lizards didn't seem impacted by the lead toxicity at all.' Since 2022, this research has been funded by a four-year grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation, which 'seeks to identify the reasons that this species has flourished in novel urban environments on a new continent after an introduction of so few animals.' The entire population in Ohio is believed to have spawned from just three individuals of the original 10. Beyond solving the mystery of Cincinnati's lizard boom, this research could have broader implications—including for human health. While mice are the widely preferred model organisms for biomedical research, Foster says, 'there is also value in studying unique features of animal brains that are less similar to the human brain.' If the lizards are more resilient to heavy metal exposure, then how could that translate into a drug for humans? 'That's very far in the future,' she says, 'but thinking broadly, that is where this kind of research could go.'
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Ohio native takes care of animals at Cook Museum of Natural Science
Feb. 15—From amphibians to reptiles to all the creatures living under the sea, Kelly Geck takes care of them all at the Cook Museum of Natural Science, and the Ohio native said she finds the ecosystem in Morgan County and the surrounding area fascinating. "I knew that I wanted to work hands-on directly with animals and a more variety of animals, so that's why I moved down here and I found this job," Geck said. Geck, 29, was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, and received her Bachelor of Arts in zoology and a minor in anthropology and sociology in 2017 from Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. One of her first professional jobs was at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium, where she started out working in the gift shop in 2012. After receiving her degree, Geck began submitting multiple online job applications until the human resources department at Cook Museum reached out to her. "As soon as I got off the phone, I had to google Decatur," Geck said. "So, I didn't know much about the job until I applied, but once I came down here — I wanted to see the place before I actually moved — I fell in love with it." She moved to Decatur in 2019, starting out as an associate at Cook Museum and then working her way to her current position as live animal care manager. "I was an animal care associate and then I became the aquatic specialist, and then the live animal manager," Geck said. Geck said with her multiple duties at the museum, she can wear "lots of hats," and not only nurture and care for the animals who live there but also educate the museum's visitors about their lifestyles and habitats. Geck said she has enjoyed her life in the South and said a positive distinction between Alabama and Cleveland is the conversations she has had with Alabama residents, who "want to be involved and learn." "Southern hospitality is absolutely real, and I have loved every minute of it," Geck said. One of her favorite Southern attractions is the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, and she described Alabama as the "Amazon of the United States." "Alabama has so many different habitats," Geck said. "We have mountain systems, we have beach systems, we have rivers, we even have a little desert area. There's so many and a lot of animals will migrate here and migrate through Alabama, which is super cool." — Busy job Geck said she starts out her day early by arriving at the museum at 6 a.m. "The first thing that I do are animal checks to make sure they are all OK, including our aquatic ones and our offsite facility ones," Geck said. "I also do filtration checks to make sure everything is running the way it is supposed to." After a brief meeting with her employees to assign tasks, Geck splits them into teams. One group is responsible for terrestrial animal care and the other is responsible for aquatic animal care. Geck has become a valued employee, according to Scott Mayo, museum executive director. "Kelly is so dedicated and hands-on in her role as the manager of her department," Mayo said. "I'd say she was elbow-deep but that's not enough. She's fully submerged, especially when conducting a maintenance dive in the tank in the Oceans Exhibit. "What she does extends beyond just her department, though. The animal care team is an integral part of the group, along with our educators and guest services staff, who serve our guests and field trips and camps. It's a big job and Kelly and her team jump right in every day." — Losing a friend One of the museum's most beloved aquatic animals died right before Thanksgiving, a non-releasable Kemp's ridley sea turtle named Kale who they adopted from the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center in 2020. Geck vividly remembers the day she traveled to Virginia to get him. "I've been with him every step of the way," Geck said. "I got really attached to him." When Kale died, Geck said she was devastated but had started to notice his decline shortly before his death from bone tissue infection. "He had what is called osteomyelitis and it was presenting itself in lesions on his shell," Geck said. "Most of his sores were healing and Decatur Morgan Hospital was super great and let us go in and take CT scans." Geck said Kale stopped eating during the summer of 2024 and more lesions appeared on his shell and so the turtle was relocated to the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga to be closer to veterinarian, Dr. Christian Keller. Geck said he fought a hard battle, and he was "still in her heart." "I have always wanted to work with sharks, my whole entire life that was the goal," Geck said. "I never thought I'd be working with a sea turtle ... a whole new door in my heart just totally opened up for (Kale)." — or 256-340-2442.
