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It does get better
A Jan. 28 Reuters article about a new study of bullying and its impact on members of the LGBTQ community included commentary from Caitlin Ryan, director of SF State's Family Acceptance Project. The multi-year study found that LGBTQ youth suffer psychological distress due to bullying but the impact of that distress decreases over time. The study also examined the importance of support for bullied youth. According to Ryan, the study's findings highlight the need for creating accepting environments in the nation's schools -- a challenge not all schools have been up to so far. "There are thousands and thousands of school districts," Ryan said. "Many school districts have stepped up and done a good job, but others have not."
Civil rights and historic wrongs
On January 28, Professor Emeritus of Communicative Disorders Stan Goldberg was profiled by the Sausalito Marin Scope. The profile covered Goldberg's career while touching upon his experiences as a young activist in the civil rights movement. "We marched peacefully until we were told to disperse," he said of an Alabama rally he took part in in the 1960s. "The mounted police came and everyone sat down, thinking we would be gently arrested. That didn't happen. The horses came full charge and [police] began beating [us]. It was indiscriminate use of batons against the white northerners, blacks [and] children, as well." Goldberg said he later became a speech pathologist because "I felt like I was changing a life. I felt that way for every day of my 30 years of practice."
Acquiring trouble
A Jan. 29 article on the website CIO.com featured Professor of Management John Sullivan. The article, which explored the effectiveness of acquiring startups in order to bring new talent and energy into an older company, quoted Sullivan on the challenges of such acquisitions. Sullivan saw these moves as risky: A startup's key personnel might leave the company, making the acquisition doomed to failure. "It's hard for a large nontechnology company to recruit tech talent," Sullivan said. "Doing this is even harder."
Con of the dead
A January 30 report on KTVU's evening news featured Associate Professor of Cinema Aaron Kerner. Kerner discussed Walker Stalker Con, a convention that drew thousands of "Walking Dead" fans to San Francisco's Fort Mason Center. "They are all products of our culture and reflect who we are," Kerner said of zombie TV shows and movies. Though some people may look at them and see silly horror stories, Kerner says there's more there if one is willing "to dig through the rubble and to find the cultural artifacts that are hidden within the films themselves."
For more media coverage of faculty, staff, students, alumni and programs,
see SF State in the News.
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