11th Annual Science Night at Reynolds

To a packed house, Reynolds Community College recently hosted its 11^th annual Science Night in the Lipman Auditorium on the Parham Road Campus.

After a welcome and introduction by Professor Karen Neal, Professor Shalini Upadhyaya entered the stage to her favorite song, “Uptown Funk.” During her presentation, “Just in case you need it: An immigrant’s humble request to stay ahead of the game,” Upadyaya gave a brief overview on how she became a professor at Reynolds and then went into detail on how society has become dependent on antibiotics and what it is doing to our health longevity. Upadyaya’s presentation included a short video on different cultures and how health is playing a major role in each of them.

The next speaker was Dr. William Mott with his presentation “Making sense of senescence: aging with dignity, style, grace and confidence.” He went into detail describing the stages of growing older and how aging accelerates after the age of 30. Mott showed pictures of the oldest living people in the world and stressed that having an active and healthy lifestyle has kept them alive for over 120 years.

Following an intermission, Dr. Jarrod Hunter continued the program with his presentation “Mouse Party: The neuroscience of drugs and abuse.” Dr. Hunter spoke about takeover drugs and how drug abuse can hold a person’s mind and the effects of abuse in general.

The over 400 students that attended enjoyed an entertaining and informative evening and also were treated to refreshments provided the college’s Culinary Arts students during the intermission.

Recyclemania at Reynolds

 

Recyclemania is a nationwide collegiate competition that encourages students and faculty/staff to get involved in the recycling initiative and expand their knowledge along the way. With over 450 colleges participating nationwide, Reynolds decided to get involved this year. The Environmental Sustainability Committee volunteered to help the Recyclemania Reynolds team put together the 9 week competition full of events.

Each week, a different event helped to motivate the Reynolds community to get involved in recycling. The first two weeks campus-wide surveys were conducted to help gauge the knowledge of recycling. From there, weekly events were geared towards spreading knowledge and increasing awareness. Along the way, students, faculty and staff participated in recycling, using social media to get involved, and many came out to see faculty and staff members tear through Mt. Trashmore retrieving items that were discarded but could have been recycled. The college tracked how many tons each campus recycled each week to add an element of an intercampus competition along with the nationwide competition. 

Mt. Trashmore went off without a hitch on March 17 and Recyclemania 2015 at Reynolds is coming to a close. As one of only 16 community colleges participating in the country, Reynolds has done an outstanding job partaking in this competition and setting a precedent for years to come.

Next week will be the last week of Recyclemania with one last chance to participate on campus. There will be recycling bins in designated locations around each campus to encourage everyone to bring in their recycling from home or even encourage some spring cleaning in your desk. This is the final opportunity to participate in this competition and the last opportunity for Reynolds to push ahead of other colleges. 

Recyclemania is a great way for every college to expand their environmental knowledge and recycling habits. Although this is just the first year for Reynolds, the college will be participating for years to come and aiming to beat more colleges in the future. To learn more about Reynolds Recyclemania, visit www.reynolds.edu/go/recycling. 

Reynolds Police offers department specific training

To ensure the maximized safety of students, faculty and staff, the Reynolds Police Department is currently offering customized training for college departments.

“While we have a number of standardized safety procedures at the college, it is also important that each individual knows their responsibilities within their work area should there be an emergency,” said Reynolds Police Lieutenant Milton Franklin.

The Police Department recently spent three days of interactive training with the college’s library staff providing guidance and instruction for a hostile intruder/active shooter situation.

“Since Reynolds libraries are the place for students to congregate outside their classrooms when they are on campus, it is crucial that the library staff knows how to guide them to safety when emergencies happen,” noted Hong Wu, Director of Library and Information Services.

Library staff members received two hours of safety training that included a comprehensive review of college protocol and addressed general guidelines and suggestions specific to their work locations.

“Most importantly, they (Reynolds Police) walked through each library with the staff and laid out a workable emergency plan based on the specific layout of each library,” said Wu. “These training sessions are extremely helpful and have received lots of compliments from the library staff. I would like to commend Chief Ronca and Lieutenant Franklin for the excellent safety training sessions they offered to the library staff.”

To request customized training for a specific department, contact Lieutenant Milton Franklin at mfranklin@reynolds.edu or call 523-5219.