[September 27, 2013 — Life@OSU] — Until Sept. 24, Josh Bowen and Steven Ruzicka had never met in person. Josh lives in Yucaipa, Calif., and Steven is from Issaquah, Wash. But a mere 1,200 miles is nothing in the age of social media, so the new roommates had plenty of time for Facebook exchanges before they stood face to face in their door room in Wilson Hall.
Although both Josh and Steven say they would probably have chosen to live on campus anyway, this is the first year that true freshmen, that is, those just arriving from high school, are required to live on campus at Oregon State University.
Josh’s mom, Beverley Bowen, is pleased that her son will be in a residence hall during his first year.
“I worry about him less,” she said. Instead of focusing on the trials and tribulations of apartment life, Josh will be able to focus more on his studies, and given his science-heavy first term, the computer and electrical engineering student will need all the help he can get.
Read the full article here.
[Life@OSU, Feb. 20, 2013] — Oregon State University dining centers and shops benefited from a little expertise from Cornell last week when Kathryn Hoy of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs came for a visit. Hoy was invited by the Moore Family Center and the College of Public Health and Human Sciences, as well as the Be Well Healthy Eating committee.
An expert on how layout, design and product placement affect the healthy eating habits of children, Hoy was able to provide input to UHDS, MU and student health services representatives on a number of campus eateries and stores, which they may be able to incorporate into changes that will increase the sales of more nutritious food items.
Hoy works with Brian Wansink at Cornell, who has done landmark work in healthy eating and developing smarter lunchrooms. Normally her area of expertise is grade school children but she was able to adapt much of what she knew to the college setting.
At Pangea, for example, she suggested that the restaurant feature less nutritional information and more photos of healthy meals, and offered ways to make healthy offerings appear to be the economic as well as the smarter choice.
Read the full article here.
