Chinese calligraphy imported to the University of Maryland

In the halls of the Art Sociology building during Maryland Day Zhu Xiadong held his Chinese calligraphy exhibition called Expressive Inky Space of Black and White: Caligraphy and Painting Exhibition.

Born in Shanghai, Zhu received a Bachelor of Arts in Archeology and Museology from Shanghai University. A native Chinese speaker, Xiadong found himself in the halls of Maryland because of his wife.

Xiadong’s wife teaches at the Confucius institute at Maryland, the President of the Institure knew he was coming and asked him to exhibit his knowledge of calligraphy.

The Office of Chinese Language Council International helped establish the Confucius Institute at Maryland to promote the understanding of China today through study of Chinese language, culture, ethics and philosophy according to the website.

Calligraphy can take on many forms

Chinese calligraphy dates back to 3,000 years ago and is an art form taught in classes in the Art Sociology building.

“Each character has a specific meaning,” Xiadong said. “The combination of several characters come together and represents another meaning, a whole sentence.”

Xiadong explained that the black and white space in the calligraphy is about creating a balance aesthetically. The characters form to create art.

The art represents something bigger because each character represents a term but you can also look at the whole piece as a sample of art.

“For a viewer, if they understand the meaning of each character they have two ways of appreciating the painting,” Xiadong said.

Students who came to the exhibit were able to experience a new type of art that they had not been previously exposed to.

Students interpret Chinese calligraphy as abstract art

“Although I didn’t understand what each character meant, it is easy to appreciate the beautiful lines and strokes of each painting,” student Lexi Levy said.

Xiadong had a translator with him who was helped the artist answer any questions that people may have about the works.

 If someone didn’t understand what a Chinese character said, Xiadong’s translator could help with the explanation but it is not necessary to know what each character means.

The artist explained that calligraphy in itself is art enough and deals with main elements of art like color, balance and line.

University of Maryland's campus faculty help prevent sexual assault and rape culture

University of Maryland’s facilities help prevent sexual assault

According to a study produced by the Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation one in five women have been sexually assaulted during the past four years of their college education.

Sexual assault is defined by the Department of Justice as any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities such as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling and attempted rape.

At the University of Maryland the Office of Civil Rights and Sexual Misconduct defines sexual assault as any time of actual or attempted sexual contact with another individual without that person’s consent.

These two definitions are similar and now the University of Maryland’s Title IX office is taking these definitions extremely seriously. The number of students expelled at the University of Maryland for sexual misconduct in a one-year period  beginning July 2014 reached its peak. From July 2014 to June 30, 2015 there were three expulsions for sexual assault and two suspensions for violating the university’s sexual misconduct policy.

Many people credit this improvement in policy to the Title IX officer Catherine Carroll who put these sexual assault investigations into place.

Ten Women Plan opens the discussion of UMD’s rape culture

“I feel safer on campus knowing that there is a resource to go to if I ever have a problem with a man at a party,” sophomore Margo Bernhaut. “Knowing that the Title IX office is there makes me feel like there could be an actual person to stop sexual violence.”

Bernhaut is in charge of her sorority’s chapter of Ten Women Plan, which is an open forum that facilitates a discussion for sexual assault prevention. Sororities and fraternities alike participate in this discussion for sexual assault prevention and attempt to reduce the number of assaults on campus.

Dana Wimbish is the adult facilitator for the Alpha Epsilon Phi’s sorority Ten Women Plan. Wimbish is there to speak with the students on the issues that are facilitating sexual assault on campus.

“We talk about what to do and how to avoid situations that lead to the rape culture,” Wimbish said. “We talk about hook up culture and rape myths.”

The casual hookup culture impacts rape and sexual assault

According to the Washington Post- Kaiser Family poll, the casual hook up culture is one of the factors that are influencing sexual assault.

At a Ten Women Plan discussion with Alpha Epsilon Phi and the fraternity FIJI, they got together to speak about the consent conversation that students aren’t having before they decide to proceed in a sexual relationship with one another.

“It was really interesting to hear what the boys in FIJI said because they think if a girl agrees to come back to your apartment they will definitely want to sleep with you,” senior Nicole Kloorfain said.

At the meeting Wimbish asked why there wasn’t a conversation between two people when they were about to engage in sex. The consensus of the group was that asking someone out loud if they wanted to have sex was kind of a mood-killer and an awkward conversation to be had. 

“We go to parties and there is so much alcohol thrown in our faces that people aren’t making the best decisions due to their levels of intoxication,” Kloorfain said “People don’t want to slow down and ask about having sex.”

Resources available to students on campus

Ten Women Plan is just one of the options the University has opened up to its students to help facilitate the sexual assault conversation.

“There’s a lot of resources on campus,” Wimbish said.  “The Title IX Office of Sexual Misconduct will help guide students if they are sexually assaulted by another student, staff or faculty member.”

Another resource on campus is at the health center Campus Advocates Respond and Educate to Stop Violence is there to respond to incidents of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, stalking and sexual harassment affecting all genders of the University community. CARE is also there as a resource to help educate people about sexual assault.

Senior Sydney Shale worked as a peer educator for Sexual Heath and Reproductive Education (SHARE) and dealt closely with sensitive cases surrounding sexual encounters.

“I would probably go to the CARE resource,” senior Sydney Shale said. “I would feel most comfortable going to them to help me through the process."

CARE’s website wants to help students from the ground up on any sexual assault advice and students can find more information about them through their website, http://www.health.umd.edu/care.

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Record high temperatures effect winter wardrobes and retailer's net sales

Record high temperatures effect winter wardrobes and retailer's net sales

by Phoebe Dinner 

The average temperature in the month of December was 51.2 degrees in Washington DC. That is 11.5 degrees warmer than normal for the area. As nice as it is to walk outside in December without a winter coat, retailers depend on cold weather to sell their clothes.

 There is a difference between a cold day and climate change according to Tim Canty who is a research assistant professor in atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Maryland.

 
“The climate is changing and humans are responsible for the rise in temperature,” Canty said. (Tweet this)

Climate change is not something felt within one day, it is an event that is decades in the making.

Climate change directly effects economy

Although the effects of climate change are gradual, this past winter season sales decreased for many fashion retailers.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration October 2015 was the number one warmest month compared to the 20^th century average temperature.

October is the end of the third quarter fiscal year for retailers and Gap Global’s net sales were down to $1.4 million from $1.5 million in 2014.  Banana Republic Global’s net sales fell to $627 million from $706 million. 

There was a similar decline in sales at Macys. At the end of the fiscal year’s third quarter. Macy’s net sales went from $6.2 million in 2014 to $5.87 million in 2015.

After the 2015 holiday season Macy’s comparable sales declined by 5.2 percent in the combined November/ December period, according to the press release from Macy’s inc.

Terry J. Lundgren, Macy’s Inc. chairman and chief executive officer said in a press release that Macy’s Inc. was particularly disadvantaged by the historically warm weather. He also said about 80% of our company’s year-over-year declines in comparable sales can be attributed to shortfalls in cold-weather goods such as coats, sweaters, boots, hats gloves and scarves. 

Macy’s Inc. announced after this decrease in earnings that they will cut over 4,000 jobs.

Retailers adapt to climate change

“What we’re seeing for sure is that the summer season is longer and if you’re locked into the old fashion way of doing it [retail] then you better adapt,” Ross Salawitch, professor in the department of atmospheric and oceanic science at the University of Maryland said.

Walking along Mckeldin mall at the University of Maryland in late February one can see students wearing T-shirts and jeans without much concern for the weather. Retailers now have to respond to this seasonal change in demand.

“When I am shopping for my winter wardrobe, I’m not going to buy a new winter coat unless it’s going to be consistently cold,” University of Maryland senior Jaimee Schuster said. “If the forecast is calling for 65 and sunny, I’m not buying a scarf just because it’s January.”

Businesses are going to have to adapt to this new kind of business model that revolves around the warming earth. Gap, Inc. won’t stop selling warm and cozy cable knit sweaters next season but beyond that is unknown.

Studies show video games can prevent eating and weight disorders

Video games are proven to prevent eating and weight disorders

By Phoebe Dinner

In the United States 20 million women and 10 million men suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder during their lifetime, according to a Textbook in psychiatric epidemiology. The journal titled Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking proves that augmented reality and virtual reality impacts eating and weight disorders.

                                                                                        photo by: Getty Images

Surprisingly, it has been proven that there is potential that the social virtual world can increase an overweight adult’s desire to exercise and improve their diet.

This result confirms that people who like virtual reality video games are able to improve exercise efficacy and support weight loss. Another study supported this with evidence that people who viewed their weight-reduced avatars ate less ice cream in a taste test and was more likely to choose a sugar-free drink as a reward.

This study shows that people are more inclined to conform to his/her digital representation, which means that virtual reality could help shape peoples behavior.

Even avatars that are not human can positively impact the gamer. A study showed that even a virtual pet in the form of a mid-sized dog could improve fruit and vegetable consumption for young children.

 

Virtual reality can alter the mood of the participant

There have been test results that conclude virtual touch could be a good method to measure attitudes, emotion and social interactions that individuals have with overweight people.

Augmented reality food stimuli were proven to be as satisfactory as real food and it triggered a similar response.

 There is potential for virtual reality to actually enhance attention distraction in overweight children. This causes overweight children to better enjoy exercise.

According to data from the Gallup Organization in the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, the US adult obesity rate in 2013 was 27.2%. Showing that there is a problem in obesity numbers.

Eating and weight disorders treated with virtual reality

Findings revealed that after participants embodied a skinny virtual body there was a decrease in the ratio between estimated and actual body measures.

A specific study aimed at assessing the experience of the body and its behavioral and emotional correlation in a virtual reality module showed that the virtual reality model addressing negative experience of the body would potentially enhance the long-term desire of standard cognitive- behavioral therapy.

Dependency on mobile devices threatens the future of human contact

Rise of dependency on mobile devices impacts students at University of Maryland

by Phoebe Dinner 

Among young people, 15% of Americans ages 18-29 are heavily dependent on their smartphones for online access, according to the Pew Research Center’s study.

At the University of Maryland students are assessing the future of news media and realizing that their number one source of news is right in their pocket.

“I always check the news on my phone,” senior Yasmine Guedalia said. “I rarely go to a newsstand to buy a newspaper because everything I want is at my disposal.”

According to the PEW State of the Media 2015 USAToday.com has the top digital population followed by NYTims.com and DailyMail.co.uk. This means people are checking their phones to get their news rather than buying an actual newspaper.

Even though these papers also have a very large paper circulation, their online traffic is growing. When people are commuting to work they are checking their phones for the news that people used to get on their cell phones.

Growing demand for mobile news

The Mobile Audience is also expanding. Overall, 64% of Americans now own a smartphone, which is an increase from 58% the year before.

In a study conducted about young people and cell phone use, it showed 93% of 18-29 year old smartphone owners used their phone at least once to avoid being bored. People in this study said that they did this on average 5.4 times in a one-week time period. 47% of young smartphone owners used their phone to avoid interacting with people around them.

Senior Jaimee Schuster admits that she will use her cell phone to avoid speaking to others.

"Your phone just makes it easy to avoid people, which isn't necessarily good but it is a problem of our generation," Schuster said.

This study just proves what people already know about the younger generation using smartphones. People are using their phones as a crutch to avoid social interactions.

Positive emotional effect of mobile use

In regards to the emotions that smartphones evoke, words like “productive” and “happy” almost 80% of the time. Younger owners are proven to enjoy their time with their smartphones more than the older generation of smartphone users.