international experience and help the former Soviet-satellite state improve health services. The Weber State group worked with doctors and nursing students at The Children’s Center for Radiological and EcologyDependent Diseases. They hosted _ a workshop at the Institute for Medical Studies at Chernovtsy University and visited the Cardiocenter of Chernovtsy, the City Hospital and the Children’s Regional Center. Couple Donates Scholarship Money Jack and Nancy Behnken, president and treasurer respectively of American Nutrition Inc., makers of “Atta Boy” dog food and other animal products, have donated $10,000 for scholarships in engineering technology. The interest from the donation will fund one scholarship per year. Mr. and Mrs. Behnken, though not alumni, are members of the Wildcat Club. Mr. Behnken was a guest lecturer in the Ralph Nye Executive Lecture Series in the College of Business & Economics and has helped with the ASWSU Crystal Crest Campus Awards program. Mr. and Mrs. Behnken live in Ogden.» Campus Adds Two Buildings Construction workers are adding two major buildings to the campus this summer. An $11.7 million student services building will be the largest addition and will house several student-related services including admissions, registration, financial aid and academic advisement. The 375-foot-long, two-story structure will be located between the Shepherd Union and Miller Administration buildings. Workers expect to complete the building by August 1995. Workers also have almost finished a $2.7 million addition to the Marriott Health Sciences Building. The addition will be two stories high and mirror the architectural design of the Marriott Building. The 18,000square-foot structure will be terraced in a hillside between the Marriott Building and the Swenson Gymnasium. It will house dental hygiene and clinical laboratory technology. 4 | TEXT TALKER— For four hours a day, Clix Byrne opens the eyes of understanding for blind students by reading, out loud, their textbooks. Volunteer Becomes Eyes of the Blind Clix Byrne has read more textbooks than a college librarian. In the past 20 years, he has turned the pages of some 600 volumes. And he has read every single word — out loud. Mr. Byrne, a 72-year-old Navy veteran, acts as the “textbook voice” for blind students at the University. Each morning, he sits alone in a soundproof studio making audio recordings of the books he reads. The titles are enough to daunt even the most determined of readers — “Transformations of Consciousness,” “Foundations of Parasitology,” “Structure Cobol.” But Mr. Byrne not only reads the words, he also explains the graphs and describes the pictures on each page. Campus administrators estimate he has helped about 150 students receive a college education. “Clix Byrne probably is the most educated person on campus,” said Jeff Morris, coordinator of the University’s services for the physically challenged. “He has read across every field of endeavor from freshman to graduate studies .” Mr. Byrne devotes four hours a day to recording books. Since 1974, he estimates he has spent almost 30,000 hours reading for the blind. “It makes my brain dizzy and my voice hoarse,” he said. “But I wouldn’t want to quit. I enjoy my job.” Cindi L. Vega, a sophomore in elementary education, said Mr. Byrne’s textbook readings are the | key to her academic success. She listens to the recordings and meets with Mr. Byrne after class to review professors’ handouts and visual aids, In her geology class, Ms. Vega had to identify 12 different rocks each week. She finished the assignment before many | sighted students, she said, because Mr. Byrne repeatedly described the rocks to her in | terms she could not mistake. Nursing Students Visit Ukraine Four nursing students and two faculty members spent two weeks this spring in Ukraine ' evaluating hospital patients and Chernoby! survivors. The group provided healthcare information, medical supplies, hygiene kits, toys and 600 hand-made quilts to five hospitals in Chernovtsy, Ukraine. Their visit was the first step toward an exchange program that would give nursing students ‘Unitrust’ Gift Totals $120,000 Janet S. Sessions, a volunteer with the University’s Alumni Association, has donated $120,000 to the University through a “unitrust.” A “unitrust” provides income for donors while they are alive and income to the University after they die. The donation will provide money for faculty development, scholarships and equipment purchases in the microbiology department. Mrs. Sessions previously donated $75,000 to the University through a “unitrust.” g Students Win International Title Students at the University have built an electric car that is more economical than gasolinepowered vehicles, a feat that helped them win the international “1994 Hybrid Electric Vehicle Challenge” in June. The victory gave the University its second international title in the three-year _ competition. Last year, Weber | State placed second in its class. Besides winning first-place overall in its class competition, the 11 University students also won first place in three individual categories: best range vehicle, most energy efficient hybrid | electric vehicle and lowest- | emissions vehicle. Founding Dean Gave Two Decades of Service To Improve Health-Care Quality in Rural Utah by Mark Saal hen Reed M. Stringham stepped down as dean of the College of Health Professions last July, he left in his wake educational programs that have benefited thousands of what he calls the “geographically disabled.” For more than two decades, Dr. Stringham made it his personal practice to prepare qualified health-care professionals — especially for small towns. Dr. Stringham recalls that when he first became dean of the college, more than tongues were depressed in small-town health care. Rural hospitals were dying and doctors were moving away. And Weber State was contributing to the problem. “Students would come into the city to go to school and never go back,” Dr. Stringham said. “In essence, our training programs were taking health-care people out of the places that needed them most.” The solution was to develop an outreach program that took training to small towns, according to Dr. Stringham. If students could get health-care training in their hometowns, he reasoned, they would stay and “the health-care level would then rise.” In 1973, the University began offering nursing programs in small towns. Today, most of the disciplines in the College of Health Professions have outreach programs. Dr. Stringham believes the outreach programs have been effective. Larry Putnam, administrator of a rural hospital and medical HEALTH EDUCATOR— Founding Dean Reed M. Stringham reviews with Julie Arslanian, nursing department office supervisor, his efforts to build a statewide program of health education. “I feel very fortunate. Most people don’t have the opportunity to start from ground zero.” center in southern Utah, agrees: “Our success over the past five years has nothing to do with money or high-tech equipment. Our success is based on the ability to homegrow nurses and keep them in the area.” Mr. Putnam says that in the five years the University has offered nursing programs in southern Utah, the hospital has created a mobile clinic, added four physicians, built a birthing center and offered many additional health services. “The bedrock of our small health-care system is the quality of registered nurses trained through Weber State,” Mr. Putnam says. Dr. Stringham believes one of the strengths of the University’s College of Health Professions is this emphasis on rural students. “We’re not as hung up on academic tradition,” Dr. Stringham said. “We focus on industry needs and the student.” Dr. Stringham was founding dean of the College of Health Professions. He was hired in 1969 to create a health school, and he has been the driving force behind the college since then. “There was no allied health program in the state at that time,” Dr. Stringham recalls. “I feel very fortunate. Most people don’t have the opportunity to start from ground zero. “What I feel best about is setting a vision for our faculty and staff in creating quality health-care education and quality health-care personnel,” said Dr. Stringham. Although he vacated the dean’s post last July, Dr. Stringham stays busy. He continues his part-time dentistry practice, and he’s preparing to return to the classroom in September. “T like to teach,” Dr. Stringham said. “That’s one of the reasons I stepped down.” Dr. Stringham plans to use interactive computer programs in his classes to discuss human dignity, an area he believes health care has ignored for too long. “How many times do we see a doctor’s waiting room overflowing because he scheduled patients at the same time?” Dr. Stringham asked. “How many times have we called patients by their ailment, rather than by name — ‘That gall bladder down in 211°? We don’t really pay much attention to the dignity of one another.” Dr. Stringham sees big changes on the horizon. He hopes allied health-care personnel — those not on the physician level — become active participants to make these changes. “We need to restructure the way we deliver education and look ahead with vision to the future,” he said.