By Madelyn Braho · Staff Writer
Students gathered in Sticht Lecture Hall Wednesday evening to listen to professors talk about anything except what they teach.
Ed Talks is an event the Student Government Association hosts every semester, where three Grove City College professors give presentations like Ted Talks on any subject they wish.
This time, students listened to talks by Dr. Erik Bardy of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Richard Sabousky of the Department of Education and Dr. Ryan Kelley of the Department of Management & Marketing. They spoke about sailing, perception and barbecue.
Bardy, who “wears many hats” by his own account, advises multiple dance-related clubs on campus, as well as engineering-related programs. His talk, “Engineering Principles in Sailing,” covered the layout and maneuvering of ships, including how engineering comes into that.
“I can’t help but make this an engineering talk,” he joked.
The engineering portion included formulas for maximum ship speed, as well as some diagrams just for show.
“I am not explaining all those vectors, I just put them up for the ‘ooh ahh’ effect,” Bardy said, proceeding to ask the audience to “ooh” and “ahh.”
Bardy began sailing in the summer of 2019 after his summers were no longer taken up by an engineering event in France. Now he, his wife and daughter all sail Lake Erie on their boat, the Mersea. “Mer” is the French word for sea, making the ship’s name a pun.
Sabousky, a professor of education, discussed the “crisis of perception:” how people’s perception of the world is distorted, especially when it comes to media.
He explained how algorithms push extreme content to keep people engaged, resulting in a perceptual shift — the extremes of an idea are considered the common opinion.
This matters especially to Sabousky because of his work with people with disabilities. He gave an example of this perceptual shift in the case of vaccines “causing” autism. The original study, which proposed that idea, was retracted because it suggested a false causal link, but due to social media spreading headlines about the study “proving” vaccines cause autism, the idea persists.
The solution to the perception crisis, Sabousky argued, was to ask for the evidence, no matter who is telling you something.
“I’m hoping that you, as Grove City students, are smarter than the average bear,” he concluded.
Kelley, assistant professor in the Marketing & Management Department, gave the last talk.
“I really do enjoy smoking … meat,” he began.
“Smoke Break” followed Kelley’s journey in learning how to make Southern-style barbecue. He first tried brisket in college while on a date with the girl he would eventually marry, who was from Texas.
“There are two things you need to know about Texas. First, you don’t mess with Texas,” Kelley said. “I don’t have time to explain that. The second is that beef is king.”
Kelley tried making brisket for his family in college with a $250 smoker from Walmart, underestimating just how long it would take, and it was a “complete and utter failure.”
But Kelley tried again, eventually learning that, unlike what people online might say, it isn’t the sauce or the seasoning that makes good barbecue, it’s fire. Over time, he learned how to control wood fires to make the best brisket. Now, he and his family sell the brisket he makes at fairs and night markets under the name of Pletcher’s Barbecue, his mother’s maiden name.
The current barbecue “revolution” ushered in by the Traeger smoker concerns him, however. Unlike the fire box of smokers he learned to barbecue on, which requires hours of supervision and time to learn how to control, the smoke pellet Traegers need no such effort.
This simplification signals an erosion of a willingness to do things the slow way, according to Kelley.
“Have we lost the ability to suffer and fail and learn from it?” he asked.
That is why Kelley relishes the time it takes to smoke meat, up to 24 hours sometimes, with the 500-gallon propane tank he bought off a “hillybilly” in West Virginia.
After the last of Q&A portions held after each talk, the night was finished with students competing for prizes in a quiz on the presentations.
