*This article originally appeared in the Auburn University Newsroom*

Apple CEO and Auburn alumnus Tim Cook spoke exclusively to Auburn University students April 6 as part a visit to The Plains. His lecture, “Conversations with Tim Cook—A Personal View of Inclusion and Diversity,” was hosted by the Student Government Association.

More than 350 students attended the event, where Cook was asked questions from Auburn’s Associate Provost and Vice President for Inclusion and Diversity Taffye Clayton, as well as from students in the audience.

Cook began by telling students the world is more intertwined and global than ever. Therefore, they need to have a deep understanding of cultures around the world in order to be successful.

“Having perspectives and having an understanding that people may be different from you is important. Not everybody has a Western view of the world. Not everybody has a Southern view of the world,” Cook said. “I have learned to not only appreciate this but to celebrate it. The thing that makes the world so interesting is our differences.”

For Apple, Cook says this mentality of diversity is vital in forming teams who work on projects from tech development to marketing.

“We believe that you can only create a great product with a diverse team,” Cook said. “That is one of the reasons that Apple’s products work really well because the people working on them are not only engineers and sciences, but artists and musicians. It is this intersection of the liberal arts of humanity with technology that makes products successful.”

Cook explained that diversity in his teams means more than its traditional definition.

“We believe that diversity is not only the things you can see when you look at people, but it’s the invisible things as well. We take a very broad view and say diversity of life experiences,” Cook said.

He continued by emphasizing the importance of embracing other cultures and having a global mindset.

“If you’re like me, you will always prefer home. It’s the feeling I get when I come here to Auburn,” Cook said. “However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t love understanding how the Italians, Japanese or Chinese live. There are some great people in the world. Getting out and understand other countries, being intellectually curious is incredibly important.”

Cook then discussed American free speech, highlighting the importance of American civil liberties and how they define American culture and ideals.

“My own view is if you think about what it means to be an American, the first thing I think about very quickly is freedom,” Cook said. “I think as citizens, we should take the broadness possible definition. That means, allowing for a lot of things that we don’t like or agree with, because we need to challenge our own thinking and allow for the possibility that we’re wrong sometimes.”

Tying this advice into the political tension on many college campuses, Cook said that students from both ideological spectrums should listen and engage in healthy and respectful debate.

“I know on campuses there is this tension between conservative and liberal, and I would encourage students everywhere to, instead of tension, for the liberals to listen to the conservatives and the conservatives to listen to the liberals. And actually show the country that not only can ideologies exist but if they interface, they can come up with incredible ideas and move forward,” Cook said.

Cook told the audience he believes each generation has the responsibility to enlarge the definition of human rights.
“Sitting here today, you and I wouldn’t be on stage, and several of you in the audience wouldn’t be in the audience if people before us hadn’t worked hard to define human rights,” Cook said. “I feel a tremendous responsibility to really reflect on what I can do to help enlarge the definition of human rights.”

SGA President Jacqueline Keck said the event showed students’ willingness to engage in a discussion on inclusion, diversity and equity.

“It is students who are going to move this conversation forward,” Keck said. “We encourage students to take what they’ve heard in this talk and spread it to different groups on campus.”

*This story originally appeared in the Auburn University Newsroom*

When a new medication comes to market, Richard Hansen wants to ensure it is safe and effective.

“Drugs are complex. We assume that drugs on the market have a tremendous volume of research and that we know everything there is about the use of those drugs,” Hansen said. “However, the reality is that there is some information that we do not know. That is really what I’ve focused my work on, helping to address some of those questions.”

Hansen, a department head and the Gilliland Professor in the Department of Health Outcomes Research and Policy in the Harrison School of Pharmacy, recently received the Creative Research and Scholarship Award for his work focused on population-level assessment of the benefits and risks of drug treatments. He has been named dean of the Harrison School of Pharmacy effective May 15.

His research uses resources from programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross and Blue Shield that provide anonymous medical records that Hansen’s team analyzes. With these, he cross references the success of new drugs on the market and discovers new findings on medications that have yet to be fully tested.

“What we’ve been able to do is turn that data into meaningful information. We try to capture the full extent of a drugs risk and benefit profile at the population level,” Hansen said. “When looking at one patient it is pretty difficult, but looking across millions of patients you can start to see associations that otherwise may not be evident.”

Over the last 7 years at Auburn, Hansen’s work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, the National Pharmaceutical Council, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Hansen said his team continuously submits grants and looks ahead to its next project.

“I felt that if we were really going to advance the field, we needed to push the envelope for receiving grants,” Hansen said.

“We ask ourselves how to reinvent the wheel and figure out how to keep that program going. It’s fun.”

He has been published in multiple medical journals and aims to reach audiences outside of the pharmacy discipline.

“It helps spread my information to people that may be the most impactful in making decisions,” Hansen said. “I think that is part of the tactic that I use. I target the audiences that might be able to use this information in different ways such as doctors or policy makers.”

Beyond his research work, Hansen serves on various committees, is a member of professional associations and mentors graduate pharmacy students.

“I try to get graduate students to think about questions that are meaningful to them and their career pursuits,” Hansen said. “Sometimes, that is the hardest thing. I make them think a little bit ahead of finishing their degree and figure out what is going to make them passionate about their careers.”

Hansen said he is thankful for the Creative Research and Scholarship Award because it shows that his work is valued.

“Overall I think we all work really hard but rarely celebrate each other’s success, so it is good to have a program to celebrate not just someone’s award but the success of everybody involved,” Hansen said.

*This article originally appeared in the Auburn University Newsroom & OAnow.com*

Auburn University agriculture alumna and Kenya native Esther Ngumbi recently received the Emerging Sustainability Leader Award at the sixth World Sustainability Forum in Cape Town, South Africa.

Ngumbi, along with a fellow recipient, split a $10,000 award sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute’s Sustainability Journal, an international scholarly publication covering environmental, cultural, economic and social sustainability.

The award encourages new initiatives in sustainability with the ultimate aim of transferring research to sustainable practices and societies. This goal aligns with Ngumbi’s research efforts in developing sustainable farming practices through her work as an Auburn doctoral student and postdoctoral plant pathologist.

“The award is important because it re-inspired and reenergized me to continue on with the work that I am so passionate and committed to—solving one of the most pressing global sustainability issue of our world, that of hunger and food insecurity,” Ngumbi said. “I felt humbled and honored because the World Sustainability Forum appreciates the efforts, love and commitment that I have put to champion for a hunger-free, food-secure world.”

Ngumbi was the first in her native community of 22,000 to receive her doctorate, completing it in entomology from Auburn’s College of Agriculture five years ago. Since receiving the degree, she has founded a model primary school in her home village of Mabafwemi, secured a $10,000 grant to build the village’s first library and works daily to teach the people of Kenya efficient and sustainably farming techniques.

“With this recognition, I hope to continue pushing for this sustainable movement,” Ngumbi said. “I will keep inspiring and mobilizing people to take action against food insecurity and hunger and work to ensure a future of healthy, nutritious food for the world’s growing population. This is arguably the world’s most pressing sustainability issue.”

*This article originally appeared in the Auburn University Newsroom*

Auburn University’s Office of Information Technology has partnered with Ricoh printing company to bring students two new services this semester: PrePay Printing and Kiosk Printing.

“We had requests from students to have color and duplex printing available at more than one printer on campus. So with this new system we found a manageable way to do this across campus,” said Seth Humphrey, manager of web and mobile development for the Office of Information Technology.

PrePay Printing allows students to set up a prepaid account online by logging in with their username and password.  After the account is set up, students can print by emailing documents to emailtoprint@auburn.edu, print directly from an on-campus lab computer or set up a printer queue on their personal Windows or Mac computers.

Kiosk Printing is a separate process and is paid with credit and debit cards. To print from these stations, students will have the option to email documents to print@printme.com, or use the mobile app, USB drives and cloud services.

The two systems have separate queues. Therefore, students who email their documents to either the PrePay or Kiosk queues have 24 hours to visit an appropriate printer to release their print jobs.

For a list of PrePay and Kiosk locations, as well as instructions for installing the printer queue, visit the TigerPrint support webpage.

The new system also includes price changes. Black-and-white copies are 10 cents per sheet or 18 cents for double-sided printing; color printing is 50 cents per sheet or 90 cents for double-sided printing; and scanning is free.

Ellyn Hix, director of user services for the Office of Information Technology, said the office expects a slight learning curve with the new systems.

“One thing we want to stress to our students is that if you have any color at all in your document, you’ll be charged for a color document,” Hix said, in reference to emailing a document to the printers.

Students using the PrePay printer queues from an on-campus computer or their personal computer should double-check the printer settings to use black-and-white by default to avoid paying charges for color printing.

Neither system will be billed to a student’s eBill, allowing fewer holds on accounts due to printing charges. “Funds for the prepaid system, as well as charges at kiosk printers, are all run through Ricoh alone,” Humphrey said. “This way, the charges are no longer associated with the university and will not prevent a student registering for classes due to a hold on their account.”

Hix said the Office of Information Technology welcomes feedback from students.  “We want to work with everyone to make the new system easy,” Hix said.

For a step-by-step process on each printing system, visit the TigerPrint webpage. To provide feedback, email tigerprint@auburn.edu. For help from a Ricoh representative, email www.ricohhelp@auburn.edu.

*This article originally appeared in the Auburn University Newsroom*

Auburn University’s Student Government Association hosted its 67th annual Hey Day celebration Thursday on the Student Center green space, bringing the Auburn Family together with a day dedicated to promoting a close-knit community by simply saying “Hey.”

Students throughout campus wear nametags and are invited to enjoy entertainment and free food while getting to know each other.

2016’s theme was “Saying Hey Since Back in the Day,” with the tradition of Hey Day dating back to the end of World War II.

“We chose that because so many people come out to Hey Day on the green space and think it’s just a random day that we wear name tags but there’s a lot of history behind it,” said Connor Porterfield, director of Hey Day. “It started because when the soldiers returned from the war, the students at Auburn wanted to find a way to greet them properly.”

Beyond the nametags and greetings, this event has evolved into a full-day event.

2016 featured performances from Auburn’s hip hop dance team AU Rhythm, the Auburn cheerleaders and the Auburn University Tiger Paws. SGA also offered pizza and drinks to students in attendance.

The Hey Day committee had a photo booth set up for students to use as a way to associate the theme of “Saying Hey Since Back in the Day,” and students also had the chance to play with adoptable puppies from the Lee County Humane Society while on the green space.

SGA President Jesse Westerhouse encourages the student body to participate in the yearly event.

“Hey Day embodies what it means to be a part of the Auburn Family,” Westerhouse said. “Students should come to Hey Day to make a new friend, enjoy entertainment from Auburn students and to be a part of such a long-standing tradition. It is exciting and fun and we want every Auburn student to get a ‘Hey’ and give a ‘Hey’ to somebody new.”

Kathryn Grace Faulk, assistant director of Hey Day, emphasized that the Hey Day tradition reaches beyond the students.

“Hey Day is all about the Auburn Family and how we can allow for everyone to feel welcomed,” Faulk said. “It doesn’t only reach the students but the faculty and staff as well. It is such a special tradition that everyone in the Auburn Family loves because it truly shows how much we care for one another and love our school.”