“Fair Districts” Works To Ensure Fair Elections By Leslie Evans On July 27, 2017, Eileen Olmsted, current Membership Director for the Pennsylvania League of Women Voters and an Osher study leader and volunteer, spoke to a large Osher gathering in McConomy Hall about the practice of “gerrymandering” and explained what the organization Fair Districts PA is currently doing to correct the practice. She enlisted everyone’s help in solving the problem. Since the July lecture, numerous headlines and articles about gerrymandering have appeared in many newspapers across the country. What is gerrymandering? Gerrymandering is the manip-ulation of electoral district lines to benefit one political party or person. The party in control can choose their own voters and guar-antee the outcome of elections long before a vote is cast. Both Democratic and Republican party

PPpr-r-r- leaders have been guilty of work- ing behind closed doors to draw lines for the purpose of keeping incumbents in power. Ms. Olmsted explained two methods of manipulation that have been used in Pennsylvania: “Cracking” is splitting a popula-tion and spreading its members among several districts where they become an irrelevant minority, and “Packing” is concentrating the voters of one party in as few districts as possible. She explained why gerry-mandering has become more

dangerous in recent years. New mapping and data-mining tech-nology allows for easily drawn new boundaries to include or exclude voters in a voting district. This practice can not only keep incumbents’ seats secure but also minimize their accountability. “Data mining” is the ability to use the enormous amount of information that is being gath-ered through various means including social media to iden-tify pockets of voters to include continued on page 4

Fall 2017

It’s All TalkThe Newsletter of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at

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From The President

By John Olmsted Have you tried out our Adiron-dack Chairs? In celebration of our 25th Anniversary, your Board approved the donation of 25 chairs to CMU, to be placed around campus in inviting locations. The chairs are a big hit with CMU students, faculty, and staff, as well as with Osher members. Every time I walk across campus, I see people sitting in“our”chairs, some deep in conversation, some reading or texting, and some just relaxing. The chairs are so successful that we are donating another five chairs to celebrate the 50th An-niversary of CMU's creation through the merger of the Mellon Institute and the Carnegie Institute of Technology. Watch for lemon yellow ones to appear soon. To me, these chairs are sym-bolic of the symbiotic relationship that we enjoy with our host institu-tion. We rely on the university to provide the environment within which Osher at CMU thrives, and

our presence on the CMU campus enriches that environment in many ways. This symbiosis was present from our very founding, which occurred because of the dedication to lifelong learning on the part of university and alumni, as well described in the last newsletter. Our collaborations are poised to increase significantly in the near future, because of several initiatives that your Board is currently pursuing. These involve space, fund-raising, and serving CMU alumni. Lyn and I have met several times with key personnel in the Provost's office, including our two CMU liaisons: Amy Burkert (Vice Provost for Education) and Becky Culyba (Director of the Office of the Provost). They have arranged meetings with other key members of the CMU administration to explore how we can work together on these initiatives. Each of these meetings will include a key Osher volunteer in addition to Amy, Becky, Lyn, and me. Although our plan for new space is well-conceived, we need to ensure that our new facilities dovetail with the campus design standards. To that end, we are meeting with Bob Reppe, Director of Campus Design and Facilities Development. Bob is a Study Leader and good friend of Osher. Tony Poli, an Osher member and architect who has worked on our space plan, will also attend. Knowing that we will need to raise substantial funds to pay for the renovation and outfitting of any new space, we are planning a capital fund campaign. CMU has

tremendous fundraising expertise, and we will be meeting with representatives from University Advancement to explore how that expertise can be put to work in our campaign. The meeting will include Jane Cordisco, Board member and Chair of our Capital Fund Planning Committee. With the opening of our membership to members of the CMU community, we anticipate significant growth in the number of Osher members who are CMU alumni. This group provides us with an opportunity to collaborate with the CMU Alumni office on jointly sponsored activities. Jeffrey Swoger, Board member and Chair of our Strategic Plan-ning Committee, will join us in a meeting with the Assistant Vice President for Alumni Relations to explore this collaboration.

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The Joys of Travel By Joan Morse Gordon It all started over dinner with friends in January 2016. Ross and his wife had signed on with another couple to a Viking ocean tour of the Mediterranean sailing from Rome to Barcelona. Barcelona. A place I had always longed to see. Soon I’d lured my friend Sheila Kaufman into accompanying us, and I called Viking, giving them Ross’s information, and we pro-ceeded to register. Skip ahead to this February, a few weeks before sailing. Dinner once again with Ross. We started to compare notes on off-ship excursions. “Our first port is Naples,” I said, “and Sheila plans to see Pompei.” “No,” says he. “It’s Malta.” Slowly it dawned on us that we were not to be on the same ship, but on sister ships, both going from Rome to Barcelona one day apart. Too late to change either reservation. Our party of six be-came a party of two: Sheila and me. Although independent feminists, we both realized wistfully how the addition of males, of couples, would have given the voyage a certain panache. We soldiered on despite plane cancellations and no luggage awaiting us in Rome. Abetted by the ship’s emergency kits, con-sisting of toothbrush, toothpaste, and a razor, we lived in our travel-ing clothes for three days until the luggage caught up with the ship in Sardinia. By this time we ques-tioned why we had packed so much stuff. Brief excursions ashore had their moments, mine mainly of being shoved from the rear onto the

high step of one of eight waiting buses, and straggling in the rear with my walking stick. On our last night in Barcelona we finally did meet up for an elegant tasting dinner with Ross and Company, and it was lovely. On my return, during one Saturday morning Olmsted bridge foray at CMU, I started comparing travel experiences with other Osherites and discovered I had had a relatively uneventful and easy time of it. Eileen Olmsted’s trip to Cartagena earned her a damaged foot. Errol Miller spent 24 days coughing with an upper respira-tory infection while touring Aus-tralia and New Zealand. Halfway through her tour of Argentina, Diane Wakefield tripped going into an elevator in Buenos Aires, breaking six ribs and puncturing a lung, Barbara Heitzenroder’s fall in Saint Martin caused a concussion with ensuing complications. Just imagine their nightmare return flights and painful recuperation. Thank goodness! Yes! Barcelona then was wonderful! I’m thrilled to have experienced Gaudi and tapas and more. I admit that I have been extremely fortunate in have lived abroad and travelled widely earlier in my life. But from now on I think I’ll be watching Rick Steeves and Rudy Maxa on TV lead me vicar-iously around the world while I stay safely at home contemplating my next Osher classroom adventure.

In Barcelona, Casa Sagrada basilica by Gaudi

Casa Batllo by Gaudi

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“Fair Districts” Works to Ensure Fair Elections continued from page 1 in safe districts, allowing incum-bents to ignore voters’ issues, refusing to listen or compromise. The voters’ perceptions that legis-lators don’t listen to them result in voter apathy. Because gerrymandering ensures safe seats, often there are no candidates willing to challenge the incumbent. In the 2016 general election incumbents ran unopposed in almost half of PA House and Senate races, adding to the vicious cycle of unaccountable govern-ment. With increased sophistication of computers and data analytics even more gerrymandering may occur in 2020. Undisclosed outside money makes it easy to finance these efforts. One clear message in Olm-sted’s lecture was that voters should choose their legislators; legislators should not choose their voters. Gerrymandered district lines weaken the power of its voters. No other democracy allows legisla-tors to draw the lines that govern their own elections. If party leaders continue to determine dis-trict lines, this conflict of interest will undermine the integrity of our elections. Because gerrymandering deliberately devalues our vote, the practice is a threat to democracy. Gerrymandering doesn’t just affect who gets elected—it affects how they govern while in office. If they know their seat isn’t locked in, they’ll have to vote more in line

Eileen Olmsted at the lectern with the wishes of their constit-uents. Those elected from gerry-mandered districts often avoid talking to “the other side.” Gerrymandering in Pennsylvania Pennsylvania has some of the most gerrymandered congressional districts in the country. They twist and turn in odd shapes drawn to either include or exclude voters depending on their registration (“packing” and “cracking”). That intentionally dilutes the voting power of the minority party. Republicans hold 13 of the state’s 18 congressional seats. How can gerrymandering be “fixed”? Fair Districts PA is a nonpar-tisan, citizen-led, statewide coali-tion working to create a redistrict-ing process that is transparent, impartial and fair. In order to change the current system, there has to be an amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution. Fair Districts has proposed such an amendment, and the proposal has been codified into two legislative

bills currently pending in the PA State Legislature. Fair Districts PA supports PA SB 22, a bipartisan proposal introduced by Senators Lisa Boscola, a Democrat, and Mario Scavello, a Republican, in February 2017. A mirror bill was introduced n the House by Rep-resentative Steve Samuelson, a Democrat, and Representative Eric Roe, a Republican, in April 2017. Each bill must pass in two con-secutive legislative sessions without ANY changes and then must be voted on in a referendum by the voters of Pennsylvania. The Fair Districts priorities for reform embodied in the legislation are: 1. Assigning the redistricting power to an independent commission of citizens. An independent, impartial citizens’ commission can end “closed-door deal making” with clear standards that will guide the process that could eliminate the conflict of interest inherent in the current redistricting system. No politicians may be involved in the process. 2. Establishing transparency via public hearings and access to district maps as they are being developed. 3. Holding public hearings across the state that ensure citizen participation. 4. Enforcing a strict timeline for completion. 5. Addressing other causes of districting unfairness. Redistricting should create districts equal in population, as compact as possible, and as continued on page 5

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“Fair Districts” Works to Ensure Fair Elections continued from page 4 possible. It should not divide municipal boundaries. It should allow minority representation as required in the Voting Rights Act. District elections should strive to be competitive to keep government representative for its citizens. The process for creating fair districts is geometry; it is easily done with the same computer technology used for gerryman-dering. It is not rocket science as some politicians suggest. Ms. Olmsted mentioned the PA court case in 2011when a piano teacher drew and presented a map that would work. The presiding judge asked why the legislature couldn’t do what she did.. What can we do? 1. Visit FairDistrictsPA.com to learn more and sign up to support its efforts. 2. Voters from both parties should urge their representatives to take action on House Bill 722 and Senate Bill 22. The bills are currently in the State and House Government Committees. At the moment the committee chairs are not willing to to give these bills a hearing on the floor of the Legis-lature. Voters lose when leaders ignore us. Ask your represent-tatives in the House and Senate to bring these bills to the floor and to vote in favor of Senate Bill 22 and House Bill 722. This pair of bills is the best chance PA has had in dec-

decades to enact redistricting reform in PA. 3. Provide a venue for a Fair District presentation. Perhaps your book club? 4. Suggest places and events where Fair District can display their materials. 5. Get your borough, township, city council to pass a resolutions in support of HS 722 and SB 22. 6. Endorsements from civic, professional, church and business groups are helpful. 7. Use FaceBook and Twitter to share posts and invite friends to Fair Districts PA. 8. Demand new voting machines that include paper trails.

Other court action against gerrymandering. Courts have already made judgments against racial gerry-mandering. Justices are consider-ing how far gerrymandering has to

go before it becomes uncon-stitutional. In a similar action, not related to the work of FairDistrictsPA, the PA League of Women Voters has recently filed a case in Pennsyl-vania similar to the Wisconsin case which is currently pending in the Federal Supreme Court. The suit asks the Court to declare the 2011 redistricting plan to be unconstitu-tional because it unfairly draws districts favoring one party over the other.The LWVPA case is current-ly before the Commonwealth Court in Harrisburgh. On November 9, 2017, the PA Supreme Court ordered the Commonwealth Court to expedite its decision on the case. A decision is expected before the end of the year. “The voters deserve to have this case resolved in time for the 2018 primary election so they can vote for representatives that reflect their needs,” said Mimi McKenzie, legal director of the Public Interest Law Center, which filed an appli-cation for extraordinary relief on October 12, 2017. “We are deter-mined to ensure that a new map that complies with the constitution is created for the next election,” she said. If a constitutional amendment doesn’t pass in the next two legis-lative sessions, then we’ll have to wait until the 2030 census to have another shot at it.

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Writing for Self Discovery By Bruce Goldstein

Bruce Goldstein It's Wednesday morning and the eleven people in the Osher course Writing for Self Discovery sit around a table in Hunt Library sharing stories about their lives. The purpose of the class is to help people gain a deeper understand-ing of their lives through writing, and to help them write about their lives in a way that will connect with other people. I’ve led this course half a dozen times both at CMU and the Univer-sity of Arizona, and I’m always im-pressed by people’s willingness to share their experiences, thoughts, and feelings, Two students in the class, Aryeh Sherman and Myra Mamo, have agreed to share the essays they wrote for the assign-ment in which they were asked to write about something they are dealing with right now. Here they are:

Clear My Mind By Aryeh Sherman Thoughts are cascading in my mind—it’s bewildering. Maybe walking will clear my mind? I grab my backpack and begin walking to my class. I’m standing in front of my house. I think: My garden tells me that life is renewable. I mulched our garden, planted ferns, a Valley Rose where our Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick used to be. There were three Walking Sticks in our neighborhood. One up the street, ours and another in Mellon Park. They’re all gone from a disease. What a shame. We bought a Valley Rose. We liked its name, size, leaf and flower. I dug a hole through weeds and layers of clay. I found pieces of our shale roof and small chunks of coal buried in the soil. I found a huge root in the bot-tom of the hole. I cut it. Did I condemn our maple to a slow death? I decided not to plant there. I covered the hole up. I dug another hole. Planted the Valley Rose, planted ferns, trimmed the rhododendron. Mulched. Weeks later the weeds pushed through the mulch. One by one I pulled the weeds out. I like garden-ing. The garden is my teacher. I walk a block. I think some more: I slept restlessly last night. Tossing and turn-ing, I pulled the blankets off my wife, Shellie, during the

Aryeh Sherman

night. I thought I’d sleep better once I retired from work. Was it worth it, retir-ing? I like things the way they are now, though I know the way they are won’t last. The house won’t last, too much maintenance. When we were young we lived in a row house in Northeast Philadel-phia. It was inexpensive, near my parents, and convenient. The house was small for a family of five and a dog. Now we have plenty of room: a house with a garden, trees, a garage and storage. We live on a beautiful street with museums, stores, parks nearby. The kids are on their own. The dog is dead. We won’t last. “You’re 71! Can’t believe it.” Three people said that. Sometimes I feel my age. I feel my days are numbered. Shellie’s days are numbered. Though her cancer’s gone for now, five years ago, the doctor said, “It’ll keep coming back.” She’s had ups and downs since then. My friend Nimo has numbered days. He lives with unbearable pain. continued on page 7

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Clear My Mind continued from page 6 Now he’s in hospice and within the week, he’ll be gone. I went to comfort him. But he comforted me. I can’t bear it. We laughed, told stories. I hugged him, hiding my tears. I felt his bony body. I tried to be gentle. It was hard to let go. I cross a street. “I love you,” I hear a mother say to her daughter getting on a school bus. The mother follows the bus with her eyes, waving. “Good-bye,” she whispers to the bus as I pass by. Five minutes later I stop and, in a panic, think: “Did I bring the assignments for today’s class?” I look in the backpack. No assignment! I call myself “idiot, stupid, senile.” I turn around and walk home quickly. I look for the assignment in the house. Can’t find it. I hesitate. I look in my backpack again. It’s in another pocket. A fresh op-portunity to judge myself! Am I losing my mind? Leaving home for the second time, I begin my walk again. I clear my mind. I breathe deeply, look up at the tones of the sky, feel the air pass gently over my face, smell the decaying leaves and plants of autumn. Maple leaves fall, covering the lawn, my plantings, and the side- walk. The crisp air is refresh-

ing. The season is slowly transforming our world. With the changing colors and angle of the sun I see features of houses and gardens that I never noticed before. I relax in the boundless splendor around me. I let my thoughts flow. This time I don’t judge myself. My thoughts drift off like the breath entering and leaving my body. I feel at peace. The losses, the anger, the fears, the judgments, the dreams and hopes that clouded my mind clear, and I see an abundance of joy. Like my garden, we’re bound in a cycle of life. I accept the losses because I see that loss can give way to happiness and happiness can lead to loss. Without both we’re nothing.

My Journey By Myra Mamo “Life is a journey, not a destination.” Ralph Waldo Emerson’s eloquent statement describes my life today. I am a widow, now 4-1/2 years. For 4 of those years I felt like I was climb-ing a steep hill, struggling every step. Day-to-day life was progres-sing slowly, but without a sense of purpose, and certainly no joy. My only joy was in the form of memo-ries I shared with my husband, Paul and my daughters. The glue that bound us to our friends suddenly

Myra Mamo became unstuck. Without Paul, the relationships we shared with friends had vanished into thin air. I felt I was no longer welcome and found myself feeling awkward at events with couples. It was a hor-ribly lonely feeling. With stran-gers, I felt very vulnerable. “Surely they are out to take advantage of me,” I thought. And I felt I could never trust anyone again or feel an emotional attachment to anyone like I had with Paul. I quit answer-ing the phone and tried to exclude myself from life. Time does have healing powers, and in the past six months, my pain from grieving has eased somewhat. I feel like I have finally reached the peak of a steep hill. As I look down from the peak I realize, “I cannot have reached my destination. I am not dead, and my journey has taken me to a point where I can now see that there are many options to choose from.” The journey with Paul was fabu-lous, but it is over and to move forward, I have to find a new continued on page 8

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My Journey continued from page 7 direction I spent many years volunteering with the garden club, church, and hospital, but now I needed to back off and figure out what made me happy. Making me happy had never been a priority because it was always about the family. My two girls, now grown, were on their own, living their own lives. Dif-ficult as it was to think of my hap-piness, I knew I had to fill my time with “me things.” I immersed myself in activities that were mine and not ours. One day, I noticed that I felt amazingly free. The air smelled fresher; the weight of everyday activities seemed to have lifted, and I could come and go whenever and wherever I wanted. I became aware that my journey had changed its course. I met new friends in my tennis group and we started biking. This was a first step into my new life. My no-frills Raleigh bike could barely keep up with their pro Canyon, Pinarellos, and Cervelo bikes. Nonetheless, they included me, and we took to the trails. I was greeted with trees that lined the trails and rode along the Youghio-gheny River, which sloshed over rocks creating white caps. The fresh air filled my lungs. These new sights and sounds invigorated me. I thought to myself, “What a wonderful feeling to be alive again.” Such a novice I was, being ensconced in the scenery, I quickly came back to reality when my tire slipped on the leaves and I wiped out. I sat there laughing, in tears,

with only my pride injured. It was the best day I had in the longest time. Soon after, I befriended a widow, Rose. I knew that she understood what I was going through and thought maybe we could help each other. We went to a cyber security seminar at the Duquesne Club. As we mingled with several people during the cocktail hour, Joe, the gentleman who invited me, was paying a lot of attention to me. Rose quietly said to me, “Myra, he’s interesting, I think he likes you.” I was dumb-founded and retorted, “That is impossible!” The evening pro-gressed, and Rose’s words kept swirling in my head. I began to feel like a giddy 20-year old. My stomach was in knots. After the event, Joe took us through some of the many rooms of the club, show-ing us the extensive painting collection. He pointed out Otto

Kuhler's 1934 etching of the magnificent George Westinghouse Bridge, with its central arch fram-ing the Edgar Thomson plant. He explained that the painting captured two of the industries that made Pittsburgh great: steelmaking and bridge building. I went home feel-ing like a light had been turned on in my life, and my feelings had suddenly been allowed to awaken. It wasn’t important whether Rose’s intuition had been right or wrong, and I may never know if Joe was interested in me, but what was important was the realization that I was able to feel excitement from attention from a man again. Though I will always love the life I had with Paul, I now know that I have not reached my destination. Maybe I am ready to continue living my life and could let someone else in. Maybe my journey in a new direction is just beginning.

In the big white tent on the CMU campus, Osher members celebrated at the Back-to School Picnic on August 28.

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Words and Music By Joan Gaul How do you choose an Osher course? Want something you know a) a little about, b) nothing about, c) all about, d) not enough about. I chose two that fell between a) and d): “Great Modern Lyricists” because my mother knew the words to just about every popular song written from 1920 into the 1950s, and sang them, around the house, with feeling; “Some Musical Considerations of Jazz/Swing” because I had been listening to it for a long time and liked what I’d heard.

Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz Each class turned out to be a major and delightful surprise. Paul Roth’s “Lyricists” because he not only covered Irving Berlin, Oscar Hammerstein, Lorenz Hart, Ira Gershwin, and E. Y. “Yip” Harburg, but he did it with information and clips from way back and yesterday. Eye problems cut Joe Lagnese’s two jazz classes to one, but that one featured a live octet and girl singer.

Imagine, in Roth’s class a young Ethel Waters singing “Supper Time” in 1933, Al Jolson doing "Brother Can You Spare a Dime?” Groucho Marx and brothers interpreting “Lydia the Tattooed Lady,” Fozzie Bear and Jean Stapleton joining in “Play a Simple Melody.” And on and on for five weeks. What hilarity. What joy. What nostalgia when a young Judy Garland sang “Over The Rain-bow” in the movie, and what pathos when she sang it for the last time on an NBC special. I looked around the room during the Wizard of Oz clips. People were remembering. During Jazz at Mellon Institute there was a quick history of jazz and its interpreters, beginning with Scott Joplin’s Ragtime through Dixieland, the Blues, Swing, the Big Bands, Cool Jazz, into the 1950s when popular music underwent a sea change, and beyond. Osher members were mov-ing. No one actually got up and did the Lindy in the aisles, but there was foot tapping, shoulder shaking, picture taking, and head bobbing. Hard to sit still. Happy people in happy classes. What a delight. Two classes that made you glad you had taken them. On reflection, two classes whose instructors not only had a background but had invested consistent interest for many years and a good bit of time in research. Paul Roth said, “I am not a creator. I am a transmitter.” His affection for music, lyrics, and the performers who sang them began at his grandfather’s movie house in Lawrenceville, where he spent his Saturdays. Paul sang and took lessons and loved playing, but reality struck in high school. He majored in physics. However, he kept on playing, did radio shows, and amassed a collection of records and sheet music, recently

donating 4,000 records to Stanford. Professionally, he taught computer science at Pitt. Joe Lagnese tells a similar story. He grew up listening to, playing, and loving music. When the time came for a serious life decision—math or music; a summer at Juilliard con-vinced him it should be math. He be-came a civil engineer who designed waste water treatment plants, opened his own business, and continued to consult until he was 80. Music con-tinued throughout. He has lectured with CDs and taught with his trio and his Octet, Swingtet Eight. The others in the Swingtet Eight can tell similar stories, a love of music, professional training, a busi-ness career, and a continuation in music. Two of them are still working: one teaching computer science at Car-negie Mellon and the other in IT at Bayer. What next? Paul Roth’s next class will include Johnny Mercer, Frank Loesser, Cole Porter, and some Holly-wood composers. Joe Lagnese is think-ing about a book to “pull it all together,” and although jazz has become a niche music genre, he will continue to play jazz.

Illustration on www.Swingtet8.com

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Volunteers Greeted And Treated At Ice Cream Social By Filomena Conti If you're an Osher@CMU volunteer, you didn't have to go "trick or treating" this past October 31st evening. That afternoon, volunteers were invited to the annual Osher Ice Cream Social at the Rangos Room in the Cohon University Center. They enjoyed a comfortable Halloween celebration. The room was decorated with pumpkins on white-covered tables, and the room had silver and orange decorations. You could choose your own seat at any one of the tables and join your fellow volun-teers. At the ice cream table you could choose vanilla or pumpkin-flavored ice cream, or both. Then you could decorate the ice cream to your heart's content with chocolate or caramel sauce, nuts, and candy sprinkles, and finish with whipped cream. There were two sheet cakes to celebrate Osher's 25th Anniver-sary: one white and the other chocolate. It was enjoyable to relax and chat with fellow volunteers. Or you could play Bingo or participate in a 50/50 Raffle ($1)

This was a fun afternoon for all of our volunteers, since the plan-ning and execution of this event was carried out by the Osher office staff: Lyn Decker, Director/Reg-istrar; Chris Dashti, Assistant to the Registrar; Chelsea Prestia, Admin-istrative Assistant; and Wyatt Walter-Dawahare, Technical Support Specialist. Lyn announced that she and the staff wanted the Osher volunteers to be their guests and to thank us for what we do for our organiza-tion. What a pleasant way to cele-brate Halloween!

At the Ice Cream Social: seated, from left: Lyn Decker, Chelsea Prestia; standing, Wyatt Walter-Dawahare, Chris Dashti

New Members Meet

On November 15, 110 new members, 13 Osher Board members, and 4 staff members gathered at the Posner Center. In the photos: from left, Marlene Haus, Jane Klivans, and Sarah Angrist at the refreshments table; President John Olmsted addresses the gathering, which is seen seated in the third photo. Other Membership Com-mittee members who helped with the event were Linda Bishoff, Roz Goorin, Shirley Schwartz, Alan Schwartz, and Dee Kaufman.

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It’s an Epidemic! By Jeffrey Swoger Throughout the history of our organization, there have been a few members who have signed up for a course and never shown up. For the most part, their numbers have been relatively small. Suddenly, this fall, the number of no-shows has reached epidemic proportions, sometimes equaling half of the enrollees or more. Like any epi-demic, it is both unwelcome and potentially dangerous to the health of our organization. Speaking as an instructor, this is both mysterious and quite dis-heartening. I am hard-pressed to decipher how a member would sign up for a course and never attend. All of the VOLUNTEER instruct-tors I know spend countless hours creating their courses and deserve

more respect that to have members sign up and not attend. In courses where there is a waiting list, this action deprives students who are anxious to take the course a chance to do so, since few are willing to enter a course in the second or third week. The number and variety of courses we offer here at CMU are the hallmarks of our program. We depend on volunteer instructors to make this happen. These instructors are the lifeblood of our organiza-tion. If the current trend of no-shows continues or escalates even further, it might well discourage volunteers from offering courses, which would be a severe blow to the future of our program. Membership in Osher is a privilege that carries certain responsibilities. One of them is to

respect fellow members. Another is to participate in furthering our mission of providing high-value learning opportunities to our members. Attending courses that you have registered for is a concrete way to meet both of those responsibilities. Finally, Osher is currently working closely with CMU to obtain new and bigger quarters for our programs—it is our number- one priority as an organization. Attendance issues like the one that has become an epidemic this term are decidedly unhelpful to this ef-fort. Please don’t enroll in courses you are not going to attend, and if you do enroll thinking you might attend, please drop before the first class meeting out of courtesy to the Study Leaders and members on the course waiting list. We can do better, and we need to do better. From the Osher Website (www.cmu.edu/osher)

CMU Campus Tours Now Open to Members & Prospects

Tours of the CMU campus will be given by members of Osher at CMU on select dates. To sign up for a tour, or to volunteer to lead a tour, go to our website: www.cmu.edu/osher. If you require mobility assistance, the office will be scheduling mobility-friendly tours on an as-needed basis.

Intel ISEF Pittsburgh Seeking Judges

We would like to invite members of Osher at CMU to judge at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the world’s largest pre-college science competition, which is returning to Pittsburgh in 2018 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. This competition brings together 1700 students in grades 9-12 from 75 countries, regions, and territories. These are the best and brightest in the world, having won at local, regional, state, and national fairs to get here.

Judges are required to have a B.A., B.S. or a master’s degree with a minimum of six years related professional experience OR a Ph.D., M.D., or equivalent. Judges are expected to be available from Tuesday afternoon (register no later than 5:00 PM) May 15 through Wednesday evening May 16, 2018 to complete their judging assignments. Judge training is available. Parking and all meals are provided free. Check the Osher website to register and find more information.

Judging at Intel ISEF is wonderful experience. The students and judges consistently rank the judging experience as the high point of the fair.

Register Here

Please direct any questions to judging@societyforscience

Carnegie Mellon UniversityHunt Library4909 Frew StreetPittsburgh, PA 15213-3890

Non-Profit Org.U.S. PostagePAIDPittsburgh, PAPermit No. 251

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie Mellon

Hunt Library 4909 Frew Street Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 412 268-7489 www.cmu.edu/osher

Officers John Olmsted, President Alan James, Vice President Rosalie Barsotti, Secretary Greg Wright, Treasurer

Staff Lyn Decker, Executive Director/Registrar Chris Dashti, Assistant to Registrar Chelsea Prestia, Administrative Assistant/ Publications Editor Wyatt Walter-Dawahare, Technical Support Specialist

Published once per trimester for members of Osher

Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie Mellon

It’s All Talk

Editor Rosalyn Treger

Staff Filomena Conti Leslie Evans Joan Gaul Joan Morse Gordon Contributors Byron Gottfried Jeffrey Holst John Olmsted Jim Reitz Helen-Faye Rosenblum

Contact us: itsalltalkcmu@gmail.com