SOU climatologist Greg Jones says global warming is affecting apples, grapes and other fruit
Nature August 15, 2013
https://www.nature.com/news/climate-change-threatens-crunchy-tart-apples-1.13567
SOU professor Craig Wright entertains with his band Spawn of Satin tomorrow night as part of the Institute for New Writing/Ashland
Daily Tidings August 15, 2013
https://www.dailytidings.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130815/ENTERTAIN/130819994&template=printart
Alumnus John Reid, former editor of the Medford Mail Tribune, loses battle with Parkinson’s disease
Longview Daily News August 14, 2013
https://tdn.com/news/state-and-regional/oregon/former-editor-of-medford-paper-reid-dies-at/article_62b60ab7-907c-55d2-be08-a66b96b34b14.html
Kids attend veterinary medicine summer camp at SOU
Mail Tribune August 13, 2013
https://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130813/NEWS/308130319
Writers from across the country gathered on the SOU campus this week
Mail Tribune August 11, 2013
https://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130811/NEWS/308110348
65 years of emerita professor Betty LaDuke’s art on display at SOU’s Schneider Museum
Mail Tribune August 11, 2013
https://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130811/LIFE/308110306
 
SOU climatologist Greg Jones on the effects of forest fire smoke on wine
August 11, 2013
https://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20130811%2FNEWS%2F308110340

Online

Former SOU School of Business Dean Raj Parikh is the new dean of the Walker School of Business and Communication at Mercyhurst University in Erie, PA
GoErie.com August 11, 2013
https://www.goerie.com/article/20130811/BUSINESS05/308119959/Mercyhurst-names-new-dean-of-school-of-business-communication
Raiders
Raiders are #14 in preseason football rankings
Mail Tribune August 13, 2013
https://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130813/SPORTS/308130327
Full version of print clips
Spawn of Satin
August 15, 2013 2:00 AM
Southern Oregon University’s New Institute of Writing will sponsor an open dance party featuring guitarist and songwriter Craig Wright’s new music project featuring Paul Turnipseed on guitar, Thomas Mackay on vibes, Joe Cohoon on upright bass and Mike Fitch on drums. Expect to hear some original tunes as well as “familiar covers, lively neo-retro, never-heard-before nostalgia and memories of the future,” Wright says. The party starts at 9:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 16, at Club 66, 1951 Ashland St. There is no cost to attend.
Arf school
Kids attend veterinary medicine camp at Humane Society
By Janet Eastman
Mail Tribune
August 13, 2013 2:00 AM
Trinity Stewart and Ella Bloom have been best friends since preschool because they are both crazy over creatures.
So instead of staying inside this summer watching reruns of “Animal Planet,” the 12-year-olds participated in a weeklong veterinary medicine camp offered by Southern Oregon University Youth Programs.
For a week, they spent afternoons at the Southern Oregon Humane Society in Medford, taking in the sights and scents of dogs and cats, and learning about pet physiology and how to interpret animal postures.
“You can tell if a dog is nervous if he stays still and puts his tail under his bottom,” says Trinity, who attends McLoughlin Middle School in Medford with Ella and would like to be a veterinarian or volunteer for the Peace Corps someday.
The girls, along with a dozen other students ages 10 to 14 enrolled in the July 29-Aug. 2 course, also studied a model of a dog skeleton and the similarities of animal organs, muscles and soft tissue compared to humans.
“Dog appendixes actually do something, unlike ours,” says vet tech Kayla McLean of the Animal Medical Hospital in Ashland.
McLean fascinated the hopeful dog docs by showing them a cat heart floating in a jar and X-rays of a canine’s fractured leg.
She then told them to volunteer at an animal shelter or clinic, and take science and math classes to eventually get a job working with critters.
Programs such as vet med camp engage, educate and challenge children, says Stephanie Butler, SOU’s pre-college youth programs coordinator.
Experts recommend kids participate in fun educational activities during the summer to prevent learning loss, also known as “summer slide,” when classes start up again in September.
The vet med campers are among 600 kids enrolled this summer in SOU’s hands-on day camps and classes, which cover a variety of fields, from law to music.
An additional 400 youngsters are participating in activities during the day and getting an early taste of college life by sleeping in the Ashland campus dorms and eating in the cafeteria.
Last week, high school students shadowed health care professionals as part of Camp M.D. (Medical Detectives).
This week, about 100 Latino students in seventh through ninth grades are taking math, creative writing and dance classes on campus.
One of SOU’s residential camps, called Academy, has been orienting fifth- through eighth-graders on campus life and learning for 33 years.
“Young people who attended our programs as youth are now returning, filled with enthusiasm to teach for our programs because their experiences were so memorable,” says Butler.
Ashland mom Roxanna Stapp required her four children to take summer classes of their choice offered through SOU, the Ashland Family YMCA and Ashland Parks and Recreation.
“Summer can be a good balance between relaxing, recharging and keeping active,” she says. “They take a music, art or theater class that interests them now but may connect to their education or career in the future.”
She has noticed that starting the new school year is less stressful on her children because of their summer courses.
Her son, Kyle Storie, 14, attended band camp earlier this summer and then vet med camp.
Afterward, while vacationing on a ranch, she noticed that Kyle could read fear in a calf separated from its mother. The Ashland Middle School student caught and calmed the animal and returned it to its mother.
“He was confident in knowing what to do,” says Stapp. “He was also comfortable feeding pigs.”
Kenn Altine, executive director of the Southern Oregon Humane Society, says the vet med camp is a broad-based look at a career working with animals. And more.
“Our biggest hope,” he says, “is that these children have a better understanding of animals, their moods and needs, and learn that pets are more than cute puppies. There are shy dogs and freaked-out cats who need their help.”
After five days of instruction, Trinity and Ella were ready to shake off any hesitations they had about putting Dexter, a mix of poodle, terrier and Jack Russell, into a tub and shampooing his black fur.
Together, they reassured the 1-year-old pup as they brushed him. Then they wrapped him in a towel, and Dexter relaxed in Ella’s arms.
“I can’t believe no one has adopted him,” she says, holding him like a swaddled baby. “He’s so easy to take care of.”
Reach reporter Janet Eastman at 541-776-4465 or jeastman@mailtribune.com.
 
 
 
Keep kids’ brains active
Experts recommend children do the following to prevent learning loss over summer months:

• Join a summer reading program
• Explore parks, nature preserves
• Visit museums, cultural centers
• Practice math skills while baking, shopping, playing board games

Southern Oregon University Youth Programs offers classes and camps for elementary to high school students. Summer courses continue through Friday, Aug. 23. Call 541-552-6452 or seewww.sou.edu/youth/summer/index.html.
The Southern Oregon Humane Society accepts volunteers at 2910 Table Rock Road, Medford, 541-779-3215, www.sohumane.org. Volunteers ages 12 to 15 must be accompanied by an adult.
Children enrolled in Southern Oregon University’s veterinary medicine camp were given this information from the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association about keeping pets safe and healthy:

• Exercise a pet but not in the midday summer heat or on hot pavement.
• Feed a pet a balanced, nutritious diet.
• Provide a pet with plenty of clean, cool drinking water.
• Never leave a pet unattended in a vehicle.
• Protect a pet from sunburn with pet-specific sunscreens.
• Have a pet examined yearly to help detect problems.
• Vaccinate a pet against potentially deadly diseases such as distemper, parvo, panleukopenia and rabies.
• Keep a pet free of parasites, including fleas, ticks, heartworm.
• Spay/neuter a pet.

Information at https://oregonvma.org/care-health/summer-pet-care-tips
Writers will gather for SOU conference
Workshops, readings and more scheduled for weeklong event
By John Darling
for the Mail Tribune
August 11, 2013 2:00 AM
Noir Night readings at a local bar, a walking tour of literary spots and talks by nationally noted writers highlight the first Institute for New Writing, which starts Monday at Southern Oregon University.
The weeklong conference provides workshops in short story, poetry and noir for undergraduate and graduate credit. But it also offers activities for the public, such as Noir Night — “flash readings from the dark side,” or three-minute readings of poetry, fiction or dialogue in the mood of hard-boiled detective stories — starting at 10 p.m. Monday at Omar’s restaurant, 1380 Siskiyou Blvd. There’ll be jazz and a cash bar, too.
“I suspect we’ll get a lot of interesting stories from the dark side of human experience,” says Robert Arellano, director of SOU’s Center for Emerging Media and one of the institute’s organizers and speakers. The readings are free.
Thirty students from as far away as the East Coast and the United Arab Emirates are enrolled for the workshops, which include Arellano’s exploration of noir, SOU professor Craig Wright’s “Advancing Constructions of the 21st Century Short Story,” and SOU associate professor K. Silem Mohammad’s “21st Century Poetry and the Inheritance of Experimentalism.”
“We saw an opportunity, with the beauty of Ashland and the strength of the writing faculty, to create this year-round institute with a summer conference, as they are very popular with people working on manuscripts and for aspiring writers as well,” Arellano says.
Arellano has written six novels, including “Havana Lunar,” a 2010 Edgar finalist. Mohammad has written three books and experiments with revolutionary poetry forms such as flarf, which is composed of words plucked from random Internet search results. Wright is the author of the short story collection “Redemption Center,” a songwriter and current Pushcart nominee for “The Things Other People Do.”
Afternoon panels, which are open to the public, will focus on defining the new institute, the state of the language, the future of fiction and “Digital Textuality and Noir.” The panels are from 2:15 to 3:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday at the Hannon Library on campus.
Readings take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday at SOU’s Schneider Museum of Art, followed by a reception and social time. Wright and his band will perform at a 9 p.m. Friday dance party and open mic at Club 66, 1951 Ashland St.
Arellano will lead a walking tour of literary spots in Ashland on Saturday, starting at 9 a.m. at the Ashland library, 410 Siskiyou Blvd. The tour will stop by the house where Vladimir Nabokov wrote “Lolita” and include the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Lithia Park.
The institute closes Saturday afternoon with INWApalooza, a literary festival featuring noted writers Kevin Killian, Vanessa Place and Sharon Mesmer. Killian is part of the New Narrative literary circle in the Bay Area. Mesmer is a noted poet and teacher in New York. Place is a criminal defense attorney and a director of Les Fiques Press. The festival will be from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Schneider museum.
“If you’re a writer, all roads lead to Ashland next week, whether you enjoy reading literature or want to discover a new interest in writing,” Arellano says. “The evening events are going to be darn fun. It’s one of those perfect examples of SOU’s commitment to creativity with community and we hope to make it an annual event.”
John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. Email him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.
Institute for New Writing
The schedule of events is at https://sou.edu/inwa/schedule. For more information, call 541-552-6260.
 
Sorrow and Joy
Artist Betty LaDuke has been inspired by normal people around the world
By John Darling
for the Mail Tribune
August 11, 2013 2:00 AM
For 65 years, with no agent or gallery representing her, Ashland painter Betty LaDuke has been creating her colorful images of common people, farming, peace, spirituality and the Third World.
Now 80, the tireless and soft-spoken LaDuke presides over a dazzling art retrospective of her life at Southern Oregon University’s Schneider Museum of Art, stretching from her first pencil sketches of working people in her native Bronx in 1948, then paintings from her first scholarship in Mexico in 1953 and onward, with long and creative stays in Africa, India and Latin America — and a study of farm workers in the Rogue Valley.
An SOU art professor from 1954 to 1996, LaDuke says her work shows “how people need each other. It shows we’re not isolated beings. We need to have compassionate understanding and not dwell on rights and wrongs. It’s about the ability of people to connect. There is great sorrow, but also great joy, and that usually happens when we see ourselves as part of the larger whole.”
Her vividly colorful works show people at work in fields, tending flocks, cuddling their babies and grieving their losses in war and as refugees from it, something she saw up close in Eritrea, at war for 30 years with neighboring Ethiopia.
Her “Dreaming Home,” 2001, shows a clearly sad couple with many children standing in a strange land, with little hope of going home, she says, because of the proliferation of land mines.
LaDuke has tried to show “the real world around us … and the people we normally don’t get to see.” They wear common peasant clothing and do their daily chores with the placid expressions of people who don’t know they’re being painted. They’re often surrounded by spirals and zigzags, fanciful birds and stars and people painted within people.
Her “Creation Dance,” 1972, from India, shows Shiva dancing, but as a full-breasted nude female, instead of the traditional male, and standing on a turtle, representing Earth, with a giant black bird behind her.
“I’ve made her into a goddess, celebrating life and dance. I love that energy I found in India,” says LaDuke.
Her acrylic, “The Healer,” from Nigeria, shows an exulting shaman full of lizards, snakes and birds, with an eye in his hand and crescent moon on his head.
“He’s an herbalist, the person who knows all about natural resources, who makes concoctions to heal people, not only the body but the soul,” she says.
In “The Tree of Life,” a mother is the tree, surrounded by images of sorrow, the white-clad mothers who have lost husbands and children to war, she says, noting that branches spring from her body, speaking of eternal renewal of life and “the possibility that the next generation will find ways to stop war.”
Many of her paintings of farming in the Rogue Valley are on permanent display at the Medford airport. Showing the planting and harvesting of regional crops, some are at the Schneider show.
LaDuke has never tried to market her art, preferring to show it in public places and universities rather than having it end up in private homes, she says. Much of it will be donated to SOU and other Oregon universities.
“To view the work of 65 years spent making art is both a humbling and inspiring experience,” wrote acting museum Director Erika Leppmann. “As Betty LaDuke and I looked through stack after stack of drawings, then etchings, racks and racks of paintings, and then the work in progress in her studio, I was overcome by the energy, industry and passion evident in the work and the artist.”
LaDuke’s exhibit will be on view from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays at the Schneider Museum through Sept. 14. A special showing for farm workers will be held from 2 to 4 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 18. A gala showing, featuring many other artists, musicians, poets and the Ashland International Folk Dancers, will be held from 7 to 9 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 25.
John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. Email him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.
 
If you go
What: Exhibit of 65 years of art by Betty LaDuke
Where: Southern Oregon University Schneider Museum of Art
When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays through Sept. 14. A special showing for farm workers will be held from 2 to 4 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 18. A gala showing, featuring many other artists, musicians, poets and the Ashland International Folk Dancers, will be held from7 to 9 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 25
 
A hazy harvest?
It’s too early to tell whether wine grapes will taste better with smoke
By Janet Eastman
Mail Tribune
August 11, 2013 2:00 AM
Open a bottle of cabernet sauvignon from the Rogue Valley’s 2009 vintage. Does it taste like black current, spice and tobacco?
If so, those flavors came from the grapes and toasted oak barrels, not from the smoke that hung in the air for a week before harvest.
Wine and smoke, you see, have a complex relationship.
Sooty air can change wine, but it takes time. As of now, two weeks after lightning started five major wildfires in southwestern Oregon, the region’s grapes haven’t been kissed deeply with smoky lips — yet.
There have been short-term impacts. In vineyards from Ashland to the Applegate, unpredictable conditions are forcing weddings, concerts and fundraisers indoors.
And vineyard crews are suffering from burning eyes and that logy feeling from exposure to the smoke.
Last week, vineyard manager Chris Hubert of OVS Results Partners sent workers home under a pall of smoke. They are now back, tucking in grapevines but safely wearing respirators.
As for longer impact, winemakers and grape growers are searching through the gray air for good news.
 
If the smoke scatters soon, it might have helped enhance the flavor of the wine grapes. If the fires get worse, no one wants to predict the outcome.
“We would be happy to see the smoke go away, but I think it will have a positive effect on the grapes unless there is persistent smoke and more fires,” says Don Moore of South Stage Cellars, whose family owns 300 acres of grapevines from Talent to Jacksonville.
Until now, grapes were ripening two weeks earlier than past years.
“Reducing the sun right now will keep the sugar levels low and add unique characteristics and thorough ripening to the flavor,” says Moore.
Jean-Michel Jussiaume, the longtime winemaker at Del Rio Vineyards in Gold Hill, says Oregon wineries will have to deal with some telltale signs of smoke, due to the length, timing and size of the fires.
But, he adds, no one will know the complete story until harvest and a few years after the wine has developed.
“As I approach each harvest, I will be patient and make the best of what nature has to offer,” he says.
 
As viticulture experts calmly wait out the hanging haze, they are explaining that there are two types of references to smoke when it comes to a glass of wine.
The classic cigar smoke or leather aromas come from the process of aging wine in oak barrels.
Smoke-tainted grapes, which the Rogue Valley has never experienced, can retain unforgiving odors of ashtray, screeching rubber tires, disinfectant or charred meat.
“Southern Oregon has had fires and smoke events before with little to no smoke issues in wines,” says Greg Jones, a Southern Oregon University professor and research climatologist who has spent time with the world’s foremost authorities studying smoke’s effect on wine.
“There is no reason to think that this year is any different,” he says.
Wildfires swept through Southern Oregon in September 2009 and smoke settled for about a week over ripening grapes. But it wasn’t heavy and it didn’t stay long enough to make a significant impact.
In 2002, the Biscuit fire blazed nearly 500,000 acres in the Siskiyou National Forest and left a lingering mark on the landscape.
Winemakers hoped the constant layer of smoke and haze in August and September would allow for even ripening to the clusters.
 
Vintner Donna Devine pressed smoke-affected cabernet sauvignon grapes grown at Troon Vineyard in the Applegate Valley and hoped for the best.
Troon’s current winemaker, Herb Quady, then cellared the wine and when it was ready to be released, the winery decided to call attention to its blazing past. Its name: Biscuit Fire Reserve.
The label had red flames in the background. It’s now a collector’s item, once fetching $700 a bottle. Some of the proceeds from that year were given to firefighters, a tradition that Troon continues.
Wine appreciator Kim Hosford, 48, of Talent says that the Troon Biscuit Fire cabernet was one of the most memorable wines she has tasted.
“It was the summer of 2006 and I went winetasting with a group,” says Hosford. “The Troon staff told us about this wine and when we tasted it, it had a distinctly smoky flavor but not overwhelming. The smoke added another layer of complexity. We bought a few bottles and drank them.”
Grape grower Don Moore remembers selling out of South Stage Cellars’ 2002 syrah by winemaker Linda Donovan because of the lightly smoked taste.
Timing and talent, experts agree, are everything.
 
Grapevines are most susceptible to smoke compounds from veraison through harvest, says Del Rio’s winemaker Jussiaume. Veraison, which is occurring now, is when the grapes start to get soft and change color.
Fire particles are absorbed by the plant and accumulate onto the grape skin, but not the pulp. If necessary, smoke damage can be reduced or avoided by limiting the juice’s contact with the skins.
But, says Jussiaume, red grape skins deliver color and tasty tannin, and some of the molecules that are responsible for the smoke taint are identical to ones in oaked wine and found naturally in some grape varieties.
“The difference is their concentration,” he says. “That is why the influence of smoke, in the best case, can also participate in adding to a wine’s complexity.”
Winemaker Quady is also taking a wait-and-see approach.
“While it’s certain that the smoke will have some effect on the character of the vintage, the type and magnitude of the effect remain to be seen,” he says. “Let’s see what it’s like at the end of August. If we’re still wearing respirators, then we’ll have an idea.”
Reach reporter Janet Eastman at 541-776-4465 or jeastman@mailtribune.com
 
 
 
 
 
Science of smoke on grapes
Climatologist Gregory Jones in Southern Oregon University’s Department of Environmental Studies has studied wine grapes around the world. He’s been monitoring the region’s smoky conditions and offers this timeline:
Summer 2013: Warm, dry conditions.
July 26: Dry lightning sparks fires and smoke settles over inter-mountain valleys due to normal summer high pressure and inversions.
Late July: The Applegate, Illinois and Rogue valleys see more smoke than the Umpqua Valley because of north-to-south air flow.
Now: Fires in isolated areas are hard to contain when vineyards are most susceptible.
Fall: October rains may have to snuff out fires.
 
Raiders are No. 14 in NAIA preseason rankings
August 13, 2013 2:00 AM
ASHLAND — The Southern Oregon University football team won’t need record-shattering performances this season to get the NAIA’s attention. If a national ranking is any indication, the Raiders already have it.
At No. 14, SOU was included in the NAIA Football Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 Poll for the first time since 2004, the national office announcedMonday.
The Raiders, in their third year under head coach Craig Howard, began fall camp on Saturday and will host their season opener on Aug. 31against Frontier Conference foe Rocky Mountain (Mont.). Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Mel Ingram Field in Grant Pass.
The Raiders went 9-3 to land at No. 5 in the final poll of 2012 after sharing a Frontier Conference championship, making an appearance in the national quarterfinals and averaging 642 yards of offense per game to establish a collegiate record. They broke into the rankings at No. 23 following a 4-2 start and went on to win their next five games.
Morningside (Iowa), which needed overtime to eliminate SOU in a 47-44 quarterfinal decision and went on to play for the national title, was voted into the NAIA’s top spot with 280 total points and four first-place votes. Second-ranked Marian (Ind.) received eight first-place votes but just 267 points.
At No. 7, Montana Tech will start the season as the highest-ranked Frontier Conference squad. Carroll (Mont.), which with Tech was tabbed by coaches as the conference’s co-favorite, is No. 12.
SOU will make its Raider Stadium debut against Montana Tech on Oct. 5.