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News in Brief
AROUND CAMPUSUniversity of Iowa to present Celebrating Cultural Diversity Festival Feb. 22 The University of Iowa will host the 20th annual Celebrating Cultural Diversity Festival from noon to 5 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 22, at the UI Field House. The festival provides an opportunity to promote the more than 100 diverse nationalities represented in the student body through performances, food, informational sessions, and more. The event is free and open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to bring canned food items that will be distributed to community shelters and food banks. Featured performances this year include BF Burt, Turkana, Charism, Acoustic Mayhem, Java Jews, Argentine Dance Group, Noopur Dance Group, Filipino-American Society, Shira Bellydancing, and Bharatha Natyam. Informational sessions on Gullah and Buddhist cultures will also be offered, as well as demonstrations on kung fu, hapkido, and Vietnamese traditional dance, and swing and Latin dance lessons. The event will also feature sales of food and arts and crafts from around the world and special programming for children. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/february/021209diversityfestival.html.
Shock Doctrine author Klein to give lecture Feb. 18 Award-winning author Naomi Klein will give a lecture highlighting her international best seller, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 18, in the Main Lounge of the Iowa Memorial Union. Klein will discuss her prestigious writing career during her talk, which is presented by the University Lecture Committee and is free and open to the public. Klein is an award-winning journalist, syndicated columnist, and author. For more information and a complete listing of upcoming lectures, visit http://lectures.uiowa.edu.
UI Libraries digitizes rare Abraham Lincoln artifacts In celebration of the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth, the University of Iowa Libraries has digitized more than 1,000 artifacts related to Lincoln and his time for its new Abraham Lincoln Digital Collection, which explores the life and legacy of one of the nation's most notable presidents. The digital collection at http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/lincoln provides integrated access to a variety of Lincoln materials across three manuscript collections held in the University of Iowa Libraries' Special Collections department. Highlighted are two defining issues of Lincoln's presidency—the Civil War and railroad expansion—as well as his tremendous legacy revealed in materials amassed during the past 100 years by noted Lincoln collectors. More than 800 items drawn from the James W. Bollinger collection are featured in the digital collection. Bollinger (1867–1951) was a lawyer and judge from Davenport who spent a lifetime amassing books, journals, letters, pamphlets, and memorabilia by or about Lincoln. Upon Bollinger's death, the collection was bequeathed to the UI Libraries, where it has been continually developed. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/february/021109lincoln.html.
Staff Council voting open: vote today UI Staff Council is accepting ballots for Staff Council elections until Feb. 26 at midnight.
Law journal to present symposium on international financial crisis Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems, a journal at the University of Iowa College of Law, will host a symposium to examine the causes of, and cures for, the international financial meltdown from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 20, in Boyd Law Building. The symposium, titled "Global Meltdown: Examining the Worst Global Financial and Economic Crisis Since the Great Depression," is free and open to the public. Top scholars in international financial law will discuss how the housing bubble in the United States spread to create a breakdown in global finance, how national and global regulators have responded to the crisis, and what remedies may be applied to fix this situation and prevent future crises from arising. Visit www.uiowa.edu/~tlcp/html/symposium_2009.html for more information about the symposium.
Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center offers monthly tips Each month the staff of the Cancer Information Service at the University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center publishes a Cancer Prevention Tip. To see this month's tip on products with hormone ingredients and past tips that provide guidelines for living healthier, cancer-free lives, visit www.uihealthcare.com/topics/medicaldepartments/cancercenter/cancertips/index.html.
Check out encore screenings of films from Landlocked Film Festival Iowa City's Landlocked Film Festival will hold a Landlocked Encore Screening of Lost Nation: The Ioway and This American Gothic, at 2 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 22, in the Iowa City Senior Center in downtown Iowa City. The screenings are free and open to the public. Lost Nation will start at 2 p.m., with This American Gothic to follow around 3 p.m. This American Gothic is a documentary film by UI faculty member Sasha Waters Freyer, who will be on hand to answer questions after the screening. Visit www.landlockedfilmfestival.org/index.htm for more information about the Iowa City Landlocked Film Festival.
Momentum Plus grants encourage diversity outreach, disability awareness Applications are now being accepted by the Iowa Momentum Plus program, which offers competitive grants to University of Iowa researchers, scholars, and artists seeking to incorporate diversity outreach in their work. Sponsored by the Offices of the Special Assistant for Equal Opportunity and Diversity/Associate Provost for Diversity and the Vice President for Research, the 2009 Momentum Plus competition grants are inspired by the Iowa Promise, the UI Strategic Plan for 2005–2010, which includes diversity as a main strategy for achieving excellence. This year, the grants are being used to promote a specific theme: integrating disability awareness and inclusion as an integral part of diversity strategic goals. Faculty and staff can use the grants to develop a new or existing course on disability topics, conduct preliminary work on an external grant related to disability, or develop training for on-campus disability services. Awards typically range from $2,500 to $7,000 each. Some $40,000 in total grants have been awarded to date. Applications are due Friday, Feb. 27, to the Office of Vice President for Research and awards will be announced March 20. See http://research.uiowa.edu/vpr/?get=ipmp-awards for more information.
See what Learning and Development courses are right for you UI Learning and Development, a unit of Organizational Effectiveness, provides professional development services to faculty and staff. There are many learning opportunities that will support your professional development and growth. Look for classroom instruction on leadership issues for managers, frontline supervisors, human resource professionals, and office professionals. Check out the following links:
DISCOVERIESTests may predict driving safety in people with Alzheimer's disease Doctors may soon be able to use certain cognitive tests to help determine whether a person with Alzheimer's disease can safely get behind the wheel, thanks to research led by a University of Iowa biostatistician. The research was published in the Feb. 10 print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. In the study, 40 drivers with early Alzheimer's disease and 115 elderly drivers without this diagnosis underwent a combination of off-road tests that measured thinking, movement and visual skills. The participants also drove a 35-mile route in and outside a city. Driving safety errors were recorded by a driving expert, based on a video review of the drive. The study's author, Jeffrey Dawson, associate professor of biostatistics in the UI College of Public Health, and colleagues found that drivers with Alzheimer's disease committed an average of 42 safety mistakes, or 27 percent more errors than those made by the drivers without Alzheimer's disease, who committed an average of 33 safety errors on the test drive. The most common mistakes were lane violations. For every five years older the participant was, the number of safety errors went up by about two and a half, whether or not the driver had Alzheimer's disease. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/february/021009driving_safety.html.
Public Policy Center issues evaluation of IowaCare health plan In its report evaluating the IowaCare health plan for uninsured adults in the state, the University of Iowa Public Policy Center found that the program is providing health care coverage for uninsured Iowans, many of whom have never had health insurance. The program was found to have met the needs of two-thirds of the previously uninsured Iowans with chronic illnesses, while the other third had problems accessing health care services. The Public Policy Center found that IowaCare successfully enrolled a larger than expected number of patients, especially those who have chronic illnesses. It also provided coverage to enrollees who had been without any health insurance for more than two years. While IowaCare meets the needs of about two-thirds of enrollees, the other third have some problems accessing services in Iowa City and Des Moines. For example, about one-third of those outside Polk County sought urgent and routine care from a provider outside the IowaCare network because they needed to travel to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for services. For the full findings, read the University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/february/021009iowa_care.html.
Effects of smoking linked to accelerated aging protein A University of Iowa study is apparently the first to make a connection between a rare, hereditary premature aging disease and cell damage that comes from smoking. The study results point to possible therapeutic targets for smoking-related diseases. The investigation found that a key protein that is lost in Werner's syndrome is decreased in smokers with emphysema, and this decrease harms lung cells that normally heal wounds. The findings appear in the Feb. 6 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. People with Werner's syndrome begin aging rapidly after adolescence and typically die from cancer or heart disease in their 40s or 50s. The condition is different from progeria (Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome), which causes even earlier premature aging and death at about age 13. Werner's syndrome affects an estimated one in 200,000 people in the United States and is more common in Japan, where up to one in 20,000 individuals are affected. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/february/020609smoking.html.
TRANSITIONSCarolyn Jones to step down as dean of College of Law Carolyn Jones, the first woman to serve as dean of the University of Iowa College of Law, has announced she will step down from leading her alma mater in summer 2010 and return to the faculty. Jones has been dean since July 2004, when she succeeded William Hines. A native of Carroll, Iowa, Jones received her law degree from The University of Iowa in 1979 and her undergraduate degree in 1976. Following her graduation from the UI College of Law, Jones worked as an attorney in Sioux City for three years before joining the academic ranks. She was on the faculty at St. Louis University and the University of Connecticut before returning to Iowa. Jones's legal specialty is tax law, and her research specialty is the legal history of American taxation. She has contributed to five books on tax law and is the author of numerous scholarly articles on the issue. She has also made numerous presentations about tax issues, estate law, and Social Security. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/february/020609jones_law.html. Deaths
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