Communications

THE MORNING CALL
The United States must open a dialogue with North Korea to obtain peace with its communist regime, former President Jimmy Carter said Monday at Lafayette College. “I can tell you that what North Koreans want is a peace treaty with the United States,” Carter said, “and they want the 60-year economic embargo lifted against their people so they can have an equal chance to trade.”

WFMZ-TV CHANNEL 69 NEWS
Former President Jimmy Carter spoke with admiration about America’s accomplishments during an outdoor address Monday afternoon at Lafayette College, but he also sounded like a parent talking about a gifted child who had yet to reach his or her potential.
About 3,000 people — many of them bundled up in winter wear to ward off a brisk breeze — gathered on the college’s newly renovated Quad to hear Carter deliver the first-ever Robert and Margaret Pastor Lecture in International Affairs.
“I am very proud of America, but there are things we can do to improve our own nation,” Carter said during a 55-minute presentation that include brief formal remarks and answers to written questions submitted from students, faculty and administrators. (story and video)

THE EXPRESS-TIMES
Carter said the country hasn’t had an environmental leader since former President George H.W. Bush.
“We need to stop and think what is there about America that can be improved,” he said. “I’m not criticizing America because I know America is the greatest nation on Earth.”
Carter was Lafayette’s inaugural speaker in the Robert and Margaret Pastor Lecture in International Affairs. Robert Pastor, a 1969 graduate, worked for Carter in both the White House and later at The Carter Center, Carter’s human rights organization..

EASTON PATCH
Carter said the nation needs to work on improving its human rights record, singling out issues such as drone “executions,” prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay without trial, and America’s status as the only country in the Western world using the death penalty and as world leader in incarcerating prisoners. Carter—whose lecture drew more than 3,000 people to the campus quad—also discussed his work with the center that bears his name, which works to promote human rights around the world.

THE EXPRESS-TIMES
Data scientists at the brain training company, Lumosity, felt traditional college ranking methodologies relied too much on standardized test scores and non-cognitive metrics such as student-faculty ratios and capital endowment rates.
So they used “cognitive training games” to evaluate 60,000 students at 411 colleges and universities. The games measured intelligence in the five areas: speed, attention, flexibility, memory and problem-solving.
The academic institutions with the smartest students in the Lumosity study were MIT (1), Harvard (2) and Stanford (3). Lafayette College was No. 22 and Lehigh University was No. 32.

THE HINDU
Nandini Sikand, assistant professor of film and media studies, is choreographer for the opera: “Phoolan Devi: The Bandit Queen”. A multi-media chamber opera in the making, it is co-sponsored by the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC) and Da Capo Chamber Players. In Sikand’s choreography, the goddesses Durga, Kali and Bhairavi change qualities and countenance, as Phoolan Devi’s life unfolds.

THE EXPRESS-TIMES
Lafayette, at least in the past two years, seems to be outpacing arch rival Lehigh University in bringing in the big names. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, as well as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and renowned primatologist Jane Goodall all spoke at Lafayette in April.

News outlets around the world, including USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, The Globe and Mail in Canada and Khaleej Times in the United Arab Emirates, featured former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s visit to Lafayette College Monday, the same day his political predecessor Margaret Thatcher died at the age of 87.
A video by the Associated Press of Blair’s eulogy is posted on a wide range of online news sites, such as Yahoo New Zealand, AOL On News, and The Telegraph, U.K. and has garnered hundreds of thousands of tweets and chatter on social media, including a retweet by Bloomberg News, with 856,070 followers.

THE EXPRESS-TIMES
In a flipped classroom, short video lectures are viewed by students at home before the
class session, while in-class time is devoted to exercises, projects,
or discussions. Teachers using the concept say it allows them to spend class time digging deeper into concepts with students, who then retain information better. The concept requires about year of preparation, says Alan Childs, director of Center for Integration of Teaching, Learning and Scholarship.

WFMZ-TV CHANNEL 69 (story and video)
Jane Goodall said her love of wildlife started in her earliest days. As a toddler she took a handful of earthworms to bed with her, only to quickly return them to the dirt outside after her mother’s explanation that the worms would die because they needed the earth. At age 7, she discovered Dr. Doolittle, and then Tarzan, which first inspired her interests in Africa, despite some disappointments they held for her.
“What did [Tarzan] do? He married the wrong Jane,” Goodall said in her speech to a crowd of 1,800 in Kamine Gymnasium.