AU Trustees Approve Reduction of Academic Programs

The Ashland University Board of Trustees recently voted to “sunset” twenty undergraduate degree programs.  Sunsetting means that current and incoming students will have the opportunity to fully complete their majors, but students will no longer be accepted into these programs after the current incoming fall class.  Information about this decision can be found on the AU website and Facebook page.  This post is intended to provide some clarity regarding the impact on programs housed within the Kettering Science Center. 

 

The Bachelor of Science with majors in Geology, Geoscience Technology & Management, and Physics will be sunsetted, in addition to the minor in Physics.  The Geology minor will continue to be offered, as will the geology and physics courses that are required by other programs.

 

All majors within the Department of Biology/Toxicology will remain.  Likewise, the Bachelor of Science with majors in Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Forensic Chemistry will continue.  The Environmental Science Program will also remain.  The potential for a revised EVS/Geochemistry track has received support from the administration.

 

In science education, the two BSEd majors in grades 7-12 Integrated Science and Life Science will continue, as will the science concentration for the middle grades major.  The BSEd programs in Chemistry Education, Earth Science Education, and Physical Science Education will be sunsetted.

 

The news of the discontinuation of academic programs is personally and professionally disappointing to students, alumni, faculty, staff, and friends of Ashland University Sciences.  Feel free to contact me at if you have questions.  My colleagues and I are working to create the safest and best possible experience for our new and returning students this fall.

 

We hope to see you or hear from you in the coming year.  As always, thank you for the support.  

 

Dr. Rebecca Corbin

Chair of the Department of Chemistry/Geology/Physics

AU research sparks further investigation of a public health threat

Scrap material used for cookware in 

Cameroon includes old engine parts

In 2013, Dr. Jeff Weidenhamer was contacted by Perry Gottesfeld of Occupational Knowledge International with a question about the safety of cookware.  Mr. Gottesfeld was working with colleagues at an NGO (see: http://www.crepdcm.com/) in Cameroon to reduce toxic exposures from lead paint, when questions were raised about the possible hazards of the aluminum cookware that most people there use.  In Cameroon, and throughout the developing world, the recycling of scrap aluminum into cookware is a widespread practice.  After a preliminary investigation we learned that source materials can include items such as old engine blocks, radiators, and computer parts.

Pots awaiting sale in a Cameroon market

Dr. Weidenhamer and several AU students – Peter Kobunski, Alison Biro, and Meghann Fitzpatrick – along with AU colleagues Dr. Rebecca Corbin and Dr. Michael Hudson, set out to investigate the hazards of this cookware by looking at the metals that leached from the pots in dilute vinegar solutions that mimicked mildly acidic solutions that are often used for cooking.  Working with Mr. Gottesfeld, and beginning with cookware from Cameroon and then ten other developing nations, they found a number of cookware items that released toxic levels of lead during simulated cooking.  The worst was a pot from Viet Nam that yielded more than 1400 micrograms of lead per serving.  Other metals detected in the leachates of some pots included arsenic and cadmium, and almost all of the items released levels of aluminum that exceed World Health Organization guidelines. 

The studies, which have been published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, have encouraged researchers in Cameroon, South Africa and other countries to conduct follow-up studies to assess the hazards of this cookware. 

Dr. Weidenhamer notes that it is not often that undergraduates can participate in research that has such direct and immediate impact on public health.  Two of the students involved in this work are pursuing medical careers.  Perry Gottesfeld comments, "Dr. Weidenhamer took on this research without hesitation and now we have seen these important results replicated by independent researchers in at least five countries demonstrating the significance of the work by he and his students."