1|- l a: E“: i : EEI campus@technewsiit.com TeChNEWS I Tuesday, September 15th, 2015

IDEALS study to explore student perspectives on diversity

Kori Bowns
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The Interfaith Diversity Experiences
and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS)
will be measuring the worldview and
perspectives of this year’s incoming class as
they progress through their time at Illinois
Institute of Technology.

The survey, conducted in
partnership with North Carolina State
University, New York University, and Interfaith
Youth Core, is currently available for first-
year students and will be administered again
at the end of students’ first and fourth years

at the university. According to Interfaith
Youth Core’s website, IDEALS aims to “better
understand student encounters with religious,
spiritual, and worldview diversity across the
spectrum of American higher education.” The
information collected by the survey will be
available to universities to help campuses like
IIT determine which practices and initiatives

'related to interfaith diversity are most effective

and beneficial to the growth of students.
Illinois Tech joins over 130 other
institutions across the country that participate
in the survey, which allows administrators to
compare students’ experiences in a variety
of different higher education environments.

This list of universities participating alongside
IIT includes large state schools, small private
schools, urban schools, rural schools,
religiously-affiliated schools, and everything in
between.

According to Lynne Meyer, IIT’s
Director of Spiritual Life and Diversity, the
IDEALS study will “help guide efforts to ensure
students have access to innovative educational
programs and experience a positive campus
climate.” Meyer says the survey will take about
15 minutes for students to complete and will
ask about experiences with different religious
backgrounds as well as current opinions. She
adds that both religious and nonreligious

perspectives from students are important for
the study. Meyer also hopes that all students
encourage first year students at IIT to complete
the survey—“The higher our response rate, the
more useful the resulting data will be.”

In order to complete the IDEALS
study, first year students can visit tinyurl.
com/IllinoisTech-IDEALS. The survey is
currently open and will close on September
21. All students who complete the survey
will be rewarded with a $5 Amazon gift card.
Questions can be directed to Lynne Meyer at
lmeyer2@iit.edu.

Illinois Tech chapter of Electrochemical
Soc1ety organizes on campus

Kori Bowns
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

According to the organization’s
website, The Electrochemical Society (ECS)
is an “educational organization concerned
with a broad range of phenomena relating
to electrochemical and solid—state science
and technology.” This year, a collection of
IIT students interested in the ECS national
organization are starting a local chapter on our
campus.

Yue Li, one of the students involved
with the formation of the IIT ECS chapter, says
the new student organization aims to bring the
goals of the national ECS chapter to students
on campus. “Our chapter is a local student
organization for promoting electrochemical
areas and enriching students' life,” said Li. He

also says that the chapter will help members
make connections in academia and industry to
further their professional development.

“To achieve these goals, we will
focus on activities such as inviting researchers
from industry and academia to IIT for
presentations and talks or consultations with
students regarding their careers, and holding
events such as conferences where students can
network with professionals in electrochemical
areas,” said Li.

According to the students forming
the organization, students with a variety of
interests are welcome to join the IIT ECS
chapter. Li said, “Students who are interested
in electrochemical research and those who
are interested in start—ups related to batteries,
fuel cells, solar cells, and dielectric technology
and want to know more professionals in the

electrochemical fields are all welcome to join
us.”

Majors relevant to the interests of
ECS include chemistry, chemical engineering,
materials science, physics, mechanical
engineering, environmental science, electrical
engineering, and even business and food
science. Currently, the students involved in
organizing the chapter are primarily graduate
students, but they hope to gain undergraduates
as well and aim to be a diverse collection of
students.

The organization isn’t yet an official
student organization at IIT, but the students
working on its formation have been hard
at work with planning and publicity. The
organization already has 15 students involved
and is hoping to attract more students in
coming weeks. IIT ECS also has a website set

up for their chapter, iitecs.org, where students,
staff, and faculty can learn more about the
organization; news stories and events relevant
to ECS will also be posted on the website in the
future.

The organization has also recruited
two IIT faculty advisors, Vijay Ramani,
Hyosung S. R. Cho Endowed Chair Professor
of Chemical Engineering, and Adam Hock,
Assistant Professor of Chemistry. The group
of students will be presenting to the Student
Government Association Student Senate in
the future regarding their goals, recruitment
strategies, and programming ideas in order to
be fully approved as a new student organization
at IIT.

 

   

 

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