Twelve New Students Inducted into Lambda Pi Eta

On Monday February 16 at 7:00 pm, eight Ashland University students humbly arrived to the Kate’s center to graciously be inducted into Lambda Pi Eta. Of these eight people, many came with supportive friends and family members to share this special moment with them as Department Chair, Dr. Theodore Avtgis, stood at the door to kindly greet them. As faculty members were making last-minute arrangements to the room, the scholars began to patiently take their seats as they waited for the ceremony to begin. President Lauren Fattlar and Vice-President Nell Cronin stood eager to introduce the beliefs that their chapter is based on and announce their new inductees to their audience.  Faculty Advisor to Lambda Pi Eta, Dr. Dariela Rodriguez began the ceremony with opening remarks and then handed the ceremony over to Fattlar and Cronin.

Lambda Pi Eta is a group of people who strive for excellence in all aspects of education in communication. This chapter is recognized as the official Communication Studies honor society of the National Communication Association. The ideas and beliefs that this chapter was founded on are based on the three modes of persuasion that Aristotle described in his book The Rhetoric. These three modes of persuasion are Logos, Pathos, and Ethos. Logos refers to logic and aids in problem-solving, Pathos relates to emotion and stirring up the passion of the audience, and finally, Ethos refers to the credibility and ethics that is initially established with the audience. Founded on these ideas, this chapter was initially started by the University of Arkansas in the Department of Communication in 1985.  By 1994, the chapter was established as the official national communication honor society for undergraduates. At this point in time, there are now 344 active chapters around the world who share the same six goals of Lambda Pi Eta:

1. To recognize, foster, and reward outstanding scholastic achievement in communication studies;
2. Stimulate interest in the field of communication;
3. Promote and encourage professional development among communication majors;
4. Provide an opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas in the field of communication;
5. Establish and maintain closer relationships between faculty and students; and
6. Explore options for graduate education in communication studies.

The qualifications that are needed in order to be a member of this chapter are not exactly easy to obtain. These requirements include a minimum GPA of 3.25 in communication studies. The full-time student also must be a communication major, have completed at least 60 credit hours of undergraduate courses, and also have successfully completed at least 12 credit hours of communication courses.

As the ceremony began to induct the new members into the Alpha Alpha Rho Chapter, one candle was lit for each of Aristotle’s mode of persuasion. As each name was then announced, the inductee accepted the certificate and the red and white honor cords that were then placed around their neck by Advisor Dr. Dariela Rodriguez. Along with these eight people that were inducted, there were four others that were unable to attend, making this the biggest inductee group Ashland University has ever seen. This record-breaking group consists of Taylor Campbell, Joel Gregory, Joyce Grendel, Halee Heironimus, Jacob Krupp, Paige Lamb, Emily Miller, Lauren Miller, Megan Salatino, Emma Tappel, and Madison Wright. This driven group of people will now take their ideas and beliefs to help Lambda Pi Eta grow and thrive to the best it can be. Congratulations to these twelve individuals on their accomplishments and hard work.

Three AU Communication Students to Present at URCA

URCA, also known as Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Symposium, will be held at Ashland University on Wednesday April 8th. This University-wide conference gives students the opportunity to present their research and concepts that they have worked on leading up to this point. These categories can range from the fine arts, the humanites, the social sciences, and the natural sciences. Three students in our Department of Communication Studies (DOCS)  program will be scheduled to present this day.

Sophomores Haley Pittman and Courtney Troyer have worked together to prepare and present "Then and Now: The Kardiac Kids," while Senior Lauren Miller will be presenting "Obama and Isis." Their abstracts are available to be read below.

 Then and Now: The Kardiac Kids

Courtney Troyer and Haley Pittman  

Students’ Majors: Sport Communication and Public Relations (CT); Sport Communication, Public Relations, and Health and Risk Communication (HP)

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Dariela Rodriguez, Communication

"The 1980 Cleveland Browns, commonly known as the Kardiac Kids, was a team to remember for the dedicated fans of Cleveland.  Giving fans a last minute victory was a reason enough to go into “kardiac” arrest, quickly to earn the respectable name.  This nerve-wracking but victorious team directly connects to the concept of a sports hero in mythology and how people treat this concept as if it is their religion.  The concept of mythology dates back to the age of the ancient Greeks.  In Greek mythology, heroes were seen to be bigger than the average man, achieving historic accomplishments, victories.  In the world of sport, the sport heroes were created in the same manner. Although many sports heroes may not be victorious with every move they make, they will always be looked back upon and be remembered as legendary because of their accomplishments.  Without the product of the media in today’s society, these sport legends would not be as recognizable and made to be who they are today.  As we move forward from 1980 away from the Kardiac Kids, statistics show that the “Kardiac Kids 2.0” are on the rise in the Brown’s 2014 NFL season. In preparation for our analysis of this topic, we researched old articles and stories that were written about the 1980 Browns team.  We then continued to search for articles that were written during the 2014 season about this years’ Cleveland Browns to show the comparisons that were being made between the two teams."

Obama and ISIS

Lauren Miller  

Student’s Major: Health and Risk Communication

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Dariela Rodriguez, Communication

"Through great events in time, the media has adopted the techniques of media framing and agenda setting to effectively report the news. These techniques allow the media to emphasize topics and frame specific parts of a story. However, such framing often results in a bias towards one party over the other. For example, news affiliates such as NBC use agenda setting to downplay the actions of one political party by highlighting specific quotes or phrases. Media framing has also been used as effective tool drawing attention to specific parts of a story. In recent months, an organization known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has made its presence known to the world through wartime acts and plots intended to bring harm to westerners. Agenda setting and media framing have been the key components to how the media has portrayed and reported news about ISIS. A content analysis of news stories garnered from news websites (e.a., Fox News, CNN) indicated that Americans are at risk for being swayed in the direction of the news source political affiliation.  Regardless of the media outlet, viewers only have a short segment to which they can create their own opinion on the matter."

Avtgis Honored with Academic Mentor Award

Each year, students are invited to nominate Ashland University faculty members for a prestigious Academic Mentor Award. Faculty members who are nominated have served as mentors to their students and have provided a track of excellent educational experiences for their students that include guidance, challenges, and opportunities above and beyond the classroom. These mentors have helped students to achieve not only academic excellence, but have been counselors to these students throughout their years at Ashland University. This year, senior Nell Cronin nominated Dr. Theodore Avtgis, chair and professor of communication studies, as her mentor.

Avtgis was one of eight faculty mentors honored at the 29th Annual Academic Mentor Awards recognition luncheon held on January 30 at the John C. Myers Convocation Center.
 
 "It truly is an honor to be nominated and selected for the Ashland University Academic Mentor Award by Nell. Nell was the first student I recruited to AU. Over the last four years we have worked on many projects and I consider her my academic daughter. To see how far she has come in that time is the biggest reward. The fact that she attributes even a small amount of her success to my influence is truly humbling," says Avtgis.

Nell Cronin is from Cincinnati, Ohio. She is a senior double majoring in public relations and strategic communication and health and risk communication.
She presented Avtgis with an engraved silver plate and her nomination letter during the luncheon.

Avtgis, who came to AU in 2011, received his Ph.D. from Kent State University in 1999 and has assisted on the faculty of St. John’s University, West Virginia University, and the University of Akron. He has presented over 115 conference papers and has had the opportunity of publishing over 55 peer-reviewed book chapters and articles.