 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||
In Brief
AROUND CAMPUSUniversity to celebrate legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. The University is planning numerous public events to celebrate the University’s Human Rights Week 2007. Most events are free and open to the public. For a complete and updated listing of events, visit www.uiowa.edu/~mlk/schedule.html. Event highlights include:
Robillard named UI vice president for medical affairs University of Iowa Interim President Gary Fethke has announced the appointment of Jean E. Robillard, dean of the UI Carver College of Medicine, as vice president for medical affairs. In this role, Robillard will head an administrative structure to better integrate three UI patient care organizations: University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, the Carver College of Medicine, and University of Iowa Physicians. Robillard, a pediatric nephrologist whose work focuses on the developmental physiology of the kidney, has been dean of the Carver College of Medicine since 2003. The appointment to vice president for medical affairs is for a three-year term, during which Robillard will remain dean of the College of Medicine. For more information, read the University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2007/january/011107vp-announcement.html. Art Building West receives 2007 American Institute of Architects Award The University’s new Art Building West, designed by internationally acclaimed architect Steven Holl, has been selected for the Institute Honor Awards of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The awards represent the profession’s highest recognition of works that exemplify excellence in three categories: architecture, interior architecture, and urban design. This year, 29 winners worldwide were selected from a total of nearly 700 submissions in the three categories. Art Building West is the only building in Iowa to receive a 2007 Institute Honor Award from the AIA. In September, the building had received an Honor Award from the Iowa chapter of the AIA in September. The building is featured in the January 2007 issue of Architectural Record. Pulitzer prize-winning critic Blair Kamin notes that the building “winningly navigates a third way between over-the-top expressionism and prosaic functionalism. Holl hasn't just made a knock-your-eyes-out building, a dynamic collage that wears a reddish-brown jacket of oxidizing steel and seems at home soaring over a old quarry pond. He's made a real place, one that painters carting around their canvases actually seem to like." The new building houses classrooms, studios, the new Art Library, gallery space, and faculty and administrative offices. The building's total space of 69,000 square feet includes 13,000 square feet of library space, 7,800 square feet of studio space, 2,405 square feet of classrooms, and a 2,600-square-foot auditorium. A QuickTime slide show of more than 100 photos of Art Building West can be seen at http://www.art.uiowa.edu/ABW.mov. Other photos are posted online at http://www.uiowa.edu/~fyi/issues/issues2006_v43/06052006/photo-feature.html. See where you're parked on UI waiting lists Beginning Jan. 16, a new online service from UI Parking and Transportation will let UI faculty and staff members check their status on parking lot waiting lists. The service is available on the University’s Employee Self Service site to permanent faculty and staff members who work 50 percent time or greater. The service allows individuals to check their place on waiting lists, review parking facility eligibility, and add or delete their names on waiting lists. Emergencies: Who you gonna call? If you’re afraid of ghosts, there are the ghost busters. But for all other on-campus emergencies that require law enforcement and in the case of fire, ALWAYS call 911. Emergency situations should be reported to law enforcement by dialing 911. When 911 is dialed, the Iowa City Police Department will receive the call and contact the University Department of Public Safety (DPS) using a dedicated line between the two departments if the incident is located on University property. The 911 call also will appear on a computer screen in the DPS dispatch center. For building emergencies, call (33)5-5071. Building emergencies include those problems that can cause escalating damage to University facilities and property if not attended to quickly. An example of a building emergency would be flooding, as from a toilet overflowing. Facilities Management has someone on stand-by 24-hours per day, seven days per week, to respond to emergency situations. For emergencies of this nature, always dial the Work Control Center at (33)5-5071. During normal working hours (Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.), your call will be answered. After hours and weekends, you will get a recorded message that will prompt you to press “0” to speak to someone directly about a building emergency. Staff Council nominations due All P&S and special services staff members not covered by a union contract can nominate themselves and other staff members for election to Staff Council. Nomination forms will be sent to all eligible staff this month. Staff Council is an elected body representing approximately 5,000 nonbargaining P&S and merit supervisory exempt/confidential staff members. Staff Council members do not make policies but advance staff concerns and ideas to the University’s central administration and make specific recommendations for policy changes. Staff Council is made up of one representative for every 100 employees or major fraction thereof in the following categories: professional administrative and academic; professional health care and nursing (nonunion); professional research; and special services (merit supervisory exempt/confidential). Members attend a monthly two-hour meeting and serve on at least one committee. More information is available on the council’s web site: http://www.uiowa.edu/~staff/index.html. Weston human rights essay competition under way The University of Iowa Center for Human Rights is accepting submissions for the third annual Burns H. Weston International Human Rights Essay Prize Competition. The competition is open to all registered students of The University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa. Applications are available for download at www.uichr.org. Deadline for submissions is Feb. 1. The competition is intended to promote and recognize student scholarship on human rights issues and ideas and to encourage continuing advancement of the field of human rights. Two prizes will be awarded: $750 to an undergraduate and $1,000 to a graduate or professional student. Undergraduate essays should be a minimum of 12 pages, and graduate or professional student essays should be a minimum of 25 pages. Eligible essays can discuss current events or history. They may explore public policy, the arts and humanities (including law), or any other subject area. Submissions also may be papers previously produced for class assignment. The only requirement is that the essay address international human rights. For more information, contact the UI Center for Human Rights at (33)5-3900. Training begins for advocates of sexual assault victims Training begins Feb. 5 for volunteers interested in helping victims of sexual assault. The UI Rape Victim Advocacy Program (RVAP) 32-hour advocate training course teaches volunteers how to handle all aspects of sexual assault cases. To apply for the RVAP volunteer program, contact the volunteer coordinator at volunteer-coordinator-rvap@uiowa.edu or (33)5-6001. UI Confucius Institute offers Chinese language instruction Whether traveling to the 2008 Beijing Olympics or visiting China on business, Iowans ranging from junior high students to senior citizens soon will have the opportunity to learn Mandarin Chinese, the language spoken by more people than any other in the world. The University of Iowa’s Confucius Institute will offer four sections of beginning Mandarin Chinese in each of two sessions this spring. The seven-week, noncredit courses will be held in Iowa City at Phillips Hall on the UI campus and in Davenport at West High School, 3505 W. Locust St. To enroll in any of the Beginning Mandarin Chinese sections, visit http://www.uiowa.edu/confucius/courses.html and fill out a registration form. Forms can be emailed to confucius@uiowa.edu or faxed to (33)5-3345. Payment by check, made out to the Confucius Institute, is due on the first day of class. For more information on The UI Confucius Institute, visit: http://www.uiowa.edu/confucius/. Writing University web site launched Renowned UI writing programs have a new unified presence on the Internet with the launch in December of the Writing University web site at http://www.writinguniversity.org. The Web site not only provides a handy portal to the UI writing programs—including the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the International Writing Program, the Nonfiction Writing Program, the Iowa Playwrights Workshop, the Translation Workshop, and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival—but also centralizes writing news, lists upcoming events, and provides access to a wealth of writing materials such as texts, journals, lists of Iowa-connected writers and publications, historic videos, and archived audio. Teaching and learning workshops begin soon The UI Center for Teaching has announced its spring series of teaching and learning workshops for faculty members and teaching assistants (the three-part Enhancing Teaching by Telling Stories workshop will be open only to faculty members). Workshop topics include developing a syllabus, fostering visual literacy, and blogging and podcasting as teaching tools. Complete workshop descriptions, including locations, are on the Center for Teaching web site at http://www.uiowa.edu/~centeach/events/s07.html and are included in the poster mailed to all faculty members and teaching assistants in January. Participants may register online at http://itsnt166.iowa.uiowa.edu/GenChem/CfT/register/CfT_register.html or by calling (33)5-6048. Call for applications to human rights director position The UI Center for Human Rights invites nominations and applications for the position of director. Information about the center’s mission can be found on the center’s web site: http://www.uichr.org/. The search committee will begin screening applications Jan. 22. Nominators should provide a letter explaining their support. The nominee will then be contacted and encouraged to apply. Candidates should send a letter of interest referring to the required and desirable qualifications listed in the job description and describing his or her vision for the mission and work of the center. Candidates should also submit a CV and the names of three references. Materials should be sent to: Christopher Squier, Chair; UICHR Director Search Committee, N419 Dental Science Building, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1010. Keeping the University in the Loop Last month, a University of Iowa office opened in the heart of Chicago’s downtown Loop to provide better service to an area that's home to almost one-third of the University's undergraduate students and more than 21,000 alumni. It’s the University’s new Chicago Center, located on the 27th floor of 150 N. Michigan Avenue. Tom Rocklin, UI associate provost for undergraduate education, says the center’s primary purpose is to recruit highly qualified students to The University of Iowa from Chicago-area high schools, and to help UI students and alumni find internship and career opportunities with employers in the Chicago area. For more information, read the University News Services release at http://www.news-releases.uiowa.edu/2006/December/121406ui-chicago.html. Take credit for your work Ever wonder how to get your publication or award listed in fyi? Just tell us about it. We rely on faculty and staff members to send their own submissions to the fyi Publications & Creations and Offices & Awards columns. For publications and creations, include the complete citation of your work. If there are coauthors, be sure to indicate which are Iowa faculty or staff, along with their departments. Priority is given to work less than six months old. For offices and awards, let us know about any prizes, awards, and appointments to state and national organizations. Due to volume, we cannot list grants, conference presentations, planning committees, UI recognitions, awards given by student organizations, scholarships, or awards received while a student. Send your submissions by campus mail to fyi, 370 PCO; by e-mail to fyi-mail@uiowa.edu; or by fax to (38)4-0055.
DISCOVERIESBlue-light special: Skin cancer therapy The addition of photodynamic, or blue light, therapy at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics is helping dermatologists ward off skin cancer in patients with actinic keratoses. Also known as solar keratoses, these scaly bumps range in size from pinhead to one inch and appear primarily in sun-exposed areas on the face, ears, head, lips and back of the hands and forearms. If left untreated, an estimated 10 percent of these precancerous lesions may eventually evolve into a type of skin cancer called squamous cell carcinoma. The hospital has treated about a dozen patients since acquiring the technology in the spring, says Vincent Liu, clinical assistant professor of dermatology in the UI Carver College of Medicine. For more information, read the University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2006/december/122806photodynamic-therapy.html. UI Virtual Soldier Research featured in Jan. 24 lecture The University of Iowa Virtual Soldier Research (VSR) program will hold its first annual public lecture in Shambaugh Auditorium, UI Main Library, Wed., Jan. 24, 4 p.m. The lecture will showcase research developments and achievements, highlighting areas such as predictive dynamics, hand modeling, posture and motion prediction, and muscle and physiology modeling. The lecture will demonstrate and explain the application of VSR 3D human modeling in the automotive, earth-moving equipment, military, ergonomics, and safety fields, as well as research progress in leveraging game technology for science, 3D human modeling, real-time interactive human natomy, and other areas. VSR is an independent program in the Center for Computer-Aided Design of the UI College of Engineering. Researchers seek ways to keep teen drivers safe Corinne Peek-Asa, a researcher in the UI College of Public Health, has received a $750,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to improve teen driving skills. Peek-Asa, director of the UI Injury Prevention Research Center and professor of occupational and environmental health in the College of Public Health, and her colleagues will collaborate with Vidya Chande, medical director of the Emergency Department in Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines. The three-year study will involve 250 parents of newly licensed teenaged drivers. For more information, read the University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2006/december/121806teen-driving.html. UI researcher finds CEO merger incentive is to diversify wealth New research by a UI business professor shows that many corporate mergers and acquisitions are driven as much by the desire of CEOs to diversify their personal stock holdings as they are by market opportunities, sometimes to the detriment of stockholders. Anand Vijh, professor of finance in the Tippie College of Business, says that this phenomenon is largely a response to the significant increase in the number of corporations that now pay their CEOs stock or stock options as part of their salary packages. Vijh and his co-researcher, Drexel University business professor and 2005 University of Iowa PhD alumnus Jie Cai, tracked more than 8,800 firms and 250 corporate acquisitions between 1993 and 2001, the years that corporations began to rely more and more on stock and stock options to pay their executives. For more information, read the University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2006/december/120806merger-incentive.html. Taxpayers beware! Law professor finds pitfalls in refund loans If you’re thinking about putting that tax refund in your pocket early with a loan, you may want to think again. A University of Iowa law professor says taxpayers should fight the temptation because for most consumers, the costs of a refund anticipation loan (RAL) outweigh the benefits, especially for those eligible to receive the Earned Income Tax Credit. "Refund anticipation loans aren't a good deal," says Katherine Porter, an expert in bankruptcy and consumer law who studies the links between bankruptcy and credit. "With an RAL, you forfeit a significant fraction of your refund to the lender; you are paying for the privilege to borrow from yourself." RALs are a service offered by many commercial tax preparation companies in which the company advances a taxpayer their refund with a short-term loan, after ubtracting a fee. But Porter says that many times the fees are so high they wind up eating a significant amount of the refund and give the loan a triple-digit annualized interest rate of 100 percent or higher. The loan programs also hurt all taxpayers because RALs are used especially heavily by low-income taxpayers who receive the Earned Income Tax Credit. For more information, read the University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2007/january/010507tax-loans.html. African American artifacts featured in UI Libraries' online exhibit A new online collection from University of Iowa Libraries features digitized photographs, clippings, newsletters, and other historical materials documenting the experience of African American women in Iowa during the 20th century. The African American Women in Iowa Digital Collection, on the web at http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/aawiowa, is a collaborative project coordinated by the Digital Library Services department of UI Libraries. Featuring digitized material from the Iowa Women's Archives and the African American Historical Museum and Cultural Center of Iowa, the collection includes items dating between 1924 and 1970 that were formerly owned by Iowans ranging from sorority girls to civil rights activists. For more information, read the University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2007/january/010507library-exhibit.html.
TRANSITIONSUI flag-lowering policy The United States flag flies at half-staff to recognize the death of a UI student or member of the UI faculty, faculty emeriti, or staff. It is not lowered for retired staff members. The flag flies at half-staff for a designated 24-hour period beginning at 8 a.m., Monday through Thursday. It is not lowered Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, because there is no staff person available to do this. Any requests to have the flag lowered other than the above should be forwarded to the University president’s office for consideration. The president’s office sends a letter to the family of the deceased stating when the flag will fly at half-staff. Deaths
|
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
.jpg)
