News Briefs

There goes the neighborhood The Shambaugh House, home of UI President Benjamin Shambaugh and Bertha Shambaugh from 1902 until Bertha’s death in 1953, has survived many incarnations. It served as a guest house, the International Center, and recently was the home of the UI Honors Center. Now it’s taking on another tenant in another location. On Jan. 8 it was moved from 219 N. Clinton St., between Old Brick and Daum Residence Hall, to the corner of Clinton and Fairchild streets, where it will become the home of the International Writing Program (IWP). The previous site will serve as a parking area for the Jacqueline Blank Honors Center and the Pomerantz Center, a career services building. The IWP hopes to move into its new home by late spring. Photo by Tim Schoon.

Old Capitol architects chosen

With the recent selection of OPN Architects, Inc. of Cedar Rapids to head the Old Capitol restoration efforts, the University is one step closer to rebuilding the historic dome that was destroyed by fire on Nov. 20. The firm also will repair water damage resulting from efforts to put out the fire, as well as additional building improvements. OPN has been involved with other projects for the University, including the old Hydraulics Institute building remodeling and the School of Journalism project. Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, Architecture & Engineering, which has extensive experience with historic structures, will provide further assistance in the restoration efforts.



Brokaw funds UI scholarship

NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw has established a scholarship fund for American Indian students at The University of Iowa.

Brokaw, anchorman and managing editor of NBC Nightly News, established the Tom Brokaw Scholarship Fund for American Indian Students through a $50,000 gift to the UI Foundation. He attended the University in 1958-59 and has since maintained interest in and ties to Iowa.

“From my years spent in South Dakota and elsewhere, and over the course of my career as a journalist, I have seen the kinds of opportunities that quality higher education can provide for American Indian students,” Brokaw said. “I am especially happy to be able to provide such opportunities for these students at Iowa, an institution that was formative in my own education.”



Three win NEH fellowships

Three faculty members in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences have won research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Each fellowship carries a $40,000 award to support a year of research.

Richard De Puma, F. Wendell Miller Professor of Art and Art History, will conduct research for the writing of a book on Etruscan forgeries created in Italy between 1850 and 1950.

Elizabeth Heineman, associate professor of history, will work on a project examining the expansion of sexual consumer culture in Germany after World War II.

Adriana Mendez Rodenas, professor of Spanish and Portuguese, will work on Transatlantic Pilgrims: European Women in Latin America, 1822-1907, a study of five representative travel writers to Latin America whose voyages spanned the birth of the republics to the transition to modernity at the turn of the century.



UI Press offers new books with local ties

In Benjamin Shambaugh and the Intellectual Foundations of Public History, author Rebecca Conard examines the key role played by this former UI president and professor of history in the development of the historical profession.

Alan Henkin, UI professor in the College of Education, has written Smart School Teams: Strengthening Skills for Collaboration. He and co-author Jay R. Dee’s skill-teaching book is designed to help members of school teams prepare for and adapt to collective work.

Finally, The Guide to Iowa’s State Preserves by Ruth Herzberg and John Pearson is a comprehensive guide that enables visitors to plan active and informative visits to sites that highlight Iowa’s natural and cultural heritage.

All three books are available at bookstores or directly from the University of Iowa Press by calling 800-621-2736.



Ida Beam proposals due

The Office of the Provost is seeking nominations for the 2000-2001 Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professorships Program. Proposals are due to DEOs by Feb. 1, to deans by Feb. 8, and to the Provost by Feb. 20.

The program funds proposals that bring to the University scholars of distinction who offer something new and interesting to undergraduates as well as graduate students, colleagues, and the public at large.

Guidelines and information are available at www.uiowa.edu/~provost/idabeam or by contacting Jan Swartzendruber at jan-swartzendruber@uiowa.edu or (33)5-0146.



TIC welcomes new tenant

Applied Fullerene, a new company that will develop advanced scientific instrumentation, is the newest tenant of the Technology Innovation Center (TIC), The University of Iowa’s incubator for new business ventures that use advanced technology.

Applied Fullerene will develop scientific, industrial, and technological testing equipment based on fullerenes, a new chemical technology where carbon-based atoms form geometric meshes that can be molded into different shapes.



New Media Day 2002

Once again, the University of Iowa’s New Media Coalition will present New Media Day. This day-long event, on Feb. 28 at the Iowa Memorial Union, will showcase new and emerging digital technologies and the ways they are being used on campus.

This year’s program will feature a keynote address by Tony Paustian, executive dean of the new West Campus of the Des Moines Area Community College. Featured presentations will address topics including digital video, e-books and other e-resources, wireless networking, academic integrity issues in the digital age, electronic portfolios, and more.

Registration is free and open to the entire campus community. To register, visit www.uiowa.edu/~nmc/nmd02.



Staff Council seeks nominations

All professional and scientific and special services staff members who are not covered by a union contract are invited to nominate themselves or other staff members for election to Staff Council.

Nomination forms will be sent to eligible staff members in interoffice mail. They must be returned to the Staff Council office, 380 IMU, by Feb. 8.

Staff Council is an elected body that represents approximately 4,000 non-bargaining professional and scientific and merit supervisory exempt/confidential staff members.

The council has a substantial impact on the teaching, research, and service goals and outcomes of The University of Iowa. As a University-wide representative body, Staff Council members promote communication among staff, central administration, Faculty Senate, and Student Government.

Staff Council members do not make policies, but do advance staff concerns and ideas to central administration and make specific recommendations for policy changes.

Staff Council is composed of one representative for every 100 employees or major fraction thereof in the following categories: professional administrative and academic; professional health care and nursing—non-unionized; professional research; special services (merit supervisory exempt/confidential).

Members attend a monthly two-hour meeting and serve on at least one internal committee.

More information is available at the Staff Council web site, www.uiowa.edu/~stafcnsl.



Old Cap focus of exhibition

In light of the fire that destroyed Old Capitol’s dome, University archivist David McCartney and libraries staff member Denise Anderson have compiled an exhibit focusing on the building’s heyday.

This display is free and open to the public. It is located on the third floor of the Main Library.

Mementos on display include a 1923 general lightning blueprint produced around the time of the first great restoration, memorial badges, and an 1863 New England Fire and Marine Insurance Certificate.