INDIANA -- In a wide-ranging Sept. 14 interview, Indiana University of Pennsylvania President Michael A. Driscoll addressed an array of issues, from energy-industry drilling in the Marcellus shale to students carrying guns on campus.

Driscoll, 51, an electrical engineer by training, took over the helm of the State System of Higher Education's largest of 14 campuses on July 1. In his 10 weeks on the job, he had become a prominent and familiar figure to news media and community groups alike.

Driscoll's half-hour interview with The HawkEye, led by journalism student Sean C. Yoder, took place in a spare, high-ceilinged board room down the hall from the president's second-floor Sutton Hall office.  He sat back in a cushioned chair and gave brisk responses to questions on a half-dozen topics of campus and community interest. Occasionally Driscoll alluded to the University of Alaska, where he presided before arriving in Indiana, and to government policy makers in Harrisburg and Washington.

The HawkEar's third radio-news show of the spring season featured a preview of the 35th Annual Appalachian Studies Conference scheduled for Indiana University of Pennsylvania on March 23-25, 2012.

Interviewees include IUP English professor James M. "Jim" Cahalan, an organizer of the event, and Si Kahn, singer-songwriter and conference keynoter.  Hear Kahn's songs "Government on Horseback" and "Talking Politician" from his "Politics" recording.  Reporters:  Jake Williams and Charlene Wilson-Adams.

The HawkEar's next show is scheduled to air March 29, 2012, 4-5 p.m. For more information, contact Dr. David O. Loomis at the IUP Journalism Department, phone (724) 357-4411 or email doloomis@iup.edu .

Listen to the show.HawkEar March First.mp3.

HawkEar March First.mp3

Track: Marcellus Shale.mp3 

Last week, "Global Alert" previewed the Nov. 3-5 Indiana University of Pennsylvania symposium on economic, environmental and political issues involved in drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus shale formation in Pennsylvania's bedrock a mile underground.

This week, we review a highlight of the week's events - the Nov. 3 screening in Eberly Auditorium of the award-winning documentary film "Gasland" and the panel discussion and debate that followed. "Global Alert" producers Garritt Fleming, Rob Miller and Kevin Smith recorded and reported the action and reaction.

Track: MarcellusShaleSymposium.mp3

The program previewed the Indiana University of Pennsylvania  Marcellus Shale Symposium scheduled for venues on campus and around Indiana on Nov. 3-5.

Guests included:

• State Rep. Dave Reed, R-Indiana County, and
• IUP anthropology professor Amanda Poole, Ph.D., a symposium organizer

Recorded interviews with members of the Indiana County League of Women Voters' Marcellus Shale Committee also were aired.

The Oct. 24 "Global Alert" show is the second on the subject of Marcellus shale drilling for natural gas in western Pennsylvania. The first program aired  Nov. 15, 2009.

Track: Environmental Projects .mp3

The third show of the "Global Alert" fall season fell on Oct. 10, 2010 - 10/10/10. This day coincided with worldwide environmental demonstrations coordinated by 350.org, a non-profit environmental group devoted to action on global climate change.  

The 10/10/10 "Global Alert" show focused on two environmental projects at IUP:

•       a plan to install by next year a "green roof" atop Weyandt Hall, the sciences building at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and
•             a question about IUP's recycling program:  Are the university's plastic and metal beverage containers being dumped in the county landfill?

"Global Alert" producers interviewed two campus experts on the green-roof project -- IUP biology professor Timothy J.  Nuttle and biology student George E. Tickerhoof.

"Global Alert" producers also interviewed journalism student Elizabeth A. Proffitt, who is working on an investigative story for The HawkEye . The story is looking at a discrepancy between what Indiana County officials document and what IUP officials say about campus recyclables. Are they being dumped in the landfill?

The show concludes with a 10/10/10 commentary by "Global Alert" producer Jessica Potter.

Listen to the hour-long show LongacreBivensRecording.mp3.

IUP Student Government Association President David Bivens and Vice President Andrew Longacre were interviewed live on the Global Alert show aired Sept. 26, 2010, on WIUP-FM.

The 2010-2011 student-government officers  responded to criticism of the SGA from a former member, answered students' questions and addressed a widespread lack of awareness of SGA among constituents. 

WhileYouWereGone.mp3

"While You Were Gone ...": This first-of-the-fall-season show of the award-winning "Global Alert" news program on WIUP-FM inventories the physical changes around campus during the summer of 2010.

The campus also had a personnel change. IUP President Tony Atwater resigned June 9 after five controversy-wracked years. On Aug. 1, interim President David J. Werner moved into the chief executive job in Sutton Hall. This is his second interim posting at IUP: He served as interim provost in 2007-2008 following Atwater's suspected sacking of Provost Cheryl Samuels.

"Global Alert" producers and IUP students put wide-ranging questions to Werner, live in the studio six weeks after his return to campus.

"Global Alert" producer Mike Wilson hands off the PAB award to communications media professor Zachary J. Stiegler, Ph.D., faculty adviser to WIUP-FM, Davis Hall, May 7, 2010. Photo by David Loomis.

INDIANA -- The Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters has honored for excellence a student-produced news program aired on WIUP-FM (90.1).

"Global Alert," a live hour-long Sunday-morning show sponsored by the Indiana University of Pennsylvania chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, won the association's Outstanding Radio Public Affairs Program award in its 2010 Excellence in Broadcasting Competition. The Hummelstown-based association announced the award in a March 24 release.