No more hard-hat work zones for biological sciences
department
For the first time in six years, those who work,
study, and teach in the buildings that sit on the
corners of Dubuque Street and Iowa Avenue no longer
have to contend with the noise of construction disrupting
their daily routines.
This fall, workers added finishing touches to a
renovation project on the complex of buildings that
houses the biological sciences department of the
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The project puts in closer proximity the work of
faculty and staff in the department’s various
facilities, including the microscopy and imaging
facility, the greenhouse, the computer classroom,
the biological sciences library, and the Roy J. Carver
Center for Comparative Genomics.
The project to improve the biological sciences buildings
involved remodeling the old Biology Annex and completing
Biology Building East, a 56,000-square-foot building
that first opened for classes during the 2000 fall
semester and that houses five new classrooms, an
auditorium with the latest in presentation technology,
state-of-the-art research labs, a greenhouse, and
a conference room.
The project also involved renovation of the 1902-vintage
Old Biology Building to accommodate faculty offices
and 13 state-of-the-art laboratories.
Workers also upgraded labs, offices, and classrooms
in the Biology 1 and Biology 2 buildings, originally
built with federal funds in 1965 and 1971, respectively.
“All of our faculty are now together for the
first time, and our facilities are second to none,” says
Linda Maxson, dean of the College of Liberal Arts
and Sciences. “New facilities and new faculty
have given a new vigor in the department, and I expect
many new collaborations.”
Study abroad numbers steady in spite of security
concerns
During the first full academic year after the terrorist
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, UI students continued
to take advantage of opportunities to study abroad,
and their number even climbed in 2002-03, in line
with national trends, according to figures from the
UI Office for Study Abroad (OFSA).
The trend surprised UI OFSA director Janis Perkins
and her colleagues at other institutions, who had
thought that 2002-03 study abroad numbers might drop
because of post-Sept. 11 terrorist concerns.
“Students became a bit more curious about
the rest of the world rather than just being concerned
about security or terrorism,” Perkins says.
In the 2002-03 school year, 917 UI students studied
abroad, an increase of 7 percent over the previous
year. Of these, 652 were undergraduates, an increase
of 10.3 percent, and 265 were graduate students,
one student less than the previous year.
The Open Doors 2004 annual report on international
education by the Institute of International Education
for 2002-03 found there was an 8.5 percent increase
of U.S. higher education students who received credit
for study abroad in 2002-03, for a record level of
174,629. This number is double what it was 10 years
ago.
At Iowa, 64 percent of undergraduate study abroad
destinations in 2002-03 were in Western Europe. The
top five Western European countries were the United
Kingdom, Spain, Italy, France, and Ireland.
Although the report found Western European countries
continued to top the list of destinations for U.S
students abroad, there was also an increase in diversity
of destinations.
Of the leading 20 destinations in 2002-03, seven
of the 11 destinations with double-digit increases
were outside of Western Europe.
“This year, we are continuing to see a healthy
increase in the number of students studying abroad,
and this is in spite of a weak economy and on top
of being a nation at war, among other factors that
might otherwise discourage students from going abroad,” Perkins
says.
UI general counsel to resign
Mark E. Schantz, who has been University of Iowa
general counsel since 1992, announced in November
that he will resign from his position effective June
30, 2005, and will begin a phased retirement program
by rejoining the faculty in the College of Law as
a lecturer.
A search committee will recommend a successor prior
to Schantz’s departure from the office, according
to UI President David Skorton.
Schantz was appointed general counsel in 1992 by
then-President Hunter R. Rawlings, after Schantz
had served in the capacity on an interim basis.
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