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Auburn President Jay Gogue and Dr. Mary Rudisill visit with Morehouse College students.

October 2008

Their findings went global as print, broadcast and internet media outlets from Maui to Australia, from USA Today to The Brunei Times, developed a flip-flop fascination.

When biomechanics doctoral student Justin Shroyer recreates the study on a smaller scale on Thursday, Oct. 16, it will enable several Morehouse College students to see the world of opportunity that exists within the Department of Kinesiology's graduate programs. A dozen students and two faculty members from Morehouse College's Department of Kinesiology, Sports Studies, and Physical Education will visit campus for a graduate school recruitment day. After arriving on campus at 9 a.m., they will tour research labs at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum and observe and assist with motor skill assessments of preschoolers from Auburn Day Care Centers. In addition to meeting College of Education faculty members, they will also learn about the Department of Kinesiology's graduate school offerings in exercise science, health promotion, physical education and athletic training.

"We're hoping to inspire a couple of those Morehouse students to consider kinesiology for their master's program,'' said Dr. Mary Rudisill, Wayne T. Smith distinguished professor and head of Auburn's Department of Kinesiology. "The No. 1 goal is recruitment of students, but we also want to start a partnership with Morehouse and allow students and faculty members to see what kind of research activities go on in our department.''

Rudisill said the Department of Kinesiology has made a concerted effort over the last three years to recruit potential graduate students from Atlanta-based Morehouse, the nation's only all-male, historically black institution of higher learning. Rudisill and Dr. Jared Russell, an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology who received his bachelor's degree at Morehouse, have worked to strengthen the relationship between the schools.

"Since I've been department head, there has been a graduate school recruitment day at Morehouse,'' Rudisill said. "Our department has been represented by Jared and I. Last year, we talked about having a partnership and having it go both ways.''

In addition to recruiting graduate school candidates, it opens the door for research collaboration between faculty members at both institutions.

The Morehouse students will be able to participate in such a partnership when preschoolers from Auburn Day Care Centers arrive on campus for motor skills assessment testing. Shroyer, a member of the research team that presented the flip-flop study findings at May's annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in Indianapolis, will provide an example of that research, which tracked such elements as stride length and gait pattern.

In this case, Shroyer and the visiting Morehouse students won't be the only ones in the room thinking scientifically. During their motor skills testing the preschoolers from Auburn Day Care Centers will participate in their own version of the flip-flop study, using shoes donated by Stride Rite.

"We thought the children could follow up with their own study,'' Rudisill said. "We do motor skills assessments with the children each year as part of the physical education program. We've run motor skills programs for them twice a week for many years, so we finally decided it might be good for them to see where we come from. We're going to have them wear shoes and flip-flops and have them tell us which they consider better for running.''