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News in Brief
AROUND CAMPUSBudget web site features statement about employee salaries, Mason's remarks to appropriations subcommittee University of Iowa officials are communicating budget messages to faculty, staff, students, and alumni through a budget updates web site, http://budget.uiowa.edu. New entries on the site involve the following topics:
Click here to subscribe to the budget updates web site's RSS feeds.
What is your college or unit doing to mark the flood anniversary?
UI Health Care leaders announce voluntary cost reduction moves UI Health Care leadership have announced three voluntary cost reduction initiatives estimated to save a total of $2.6 million. First, more than 40 of the most senior management leaders of UI Health Care will take a voluntary pay reduction of 5 percent for the remainder of FY 2009 and through FY 2010, which ends on June 30, 2010. These positions include the vice president for medical affairs, the dean of the UI Carver College of Medicine, and the chief executive officer of UI Hospitals and Clinics, as well as associate vice presidents, assistant vice presidents, associate deans and other senior leaders from UI Health Care. Further, this same senior management group will forego any annual salary increase on July 1, 2009. In addition, the senior leadership group will also not receive any incentive compensation in FY 2010 related to FY 2009 performance. In past years, senior leadership at UI Health Care has had 20 percent of their pay "at risk" based on achievement of overall organizational and individual goals. Past practice has been that such "at risk" incentives are paid after the end of the fiscal year in which the goals were achieved and the incentive compensation was earned.
UI Libraries bringing books to you UI Libraries has partnered with Central Mail Services to deliver books to UI campus offices, including the Oakdale Campus and University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Once a book is located in InfoHawk, click the link for "Request Delivery." Users will be prompted for HawkID and password. Then delivery location can be specified—to another library or your on-campus office. With a few exceptions, the book will be delivered in a couple of days. To learn more about this new service, contact Amy Paulus, head of Access Services; or the Subject Specialist in your discipline (www.lib.uiowa.edu/services/subspecialists.html) to schedule an office visit. You can also check the delivery services web site, www.lib.uiowa.edu/circ/deliveryservices.html.
UI Museum of Art to open IMU and Levitt Center galleries The University of Iowa Museum of Art (UIMA)—whose former building was severely damaged during the flood of 2008—has received an Emergency Flood Assistance grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to help turn the Iowa Memorial Union's (IMU) Richey Ballroom into an art gallery. This gallery is one of three on-campus spaces specifically designed for classroom use that the UIMA will open for viewing this year. Two of the new art venues will be on the IMU's third floor; the third will be in the Levitt Center for University Advancement's Stanley Gallery. Though the new UIMA spaces will be open to the public, they have been designed first and foremost with the educational needs of students and faculty in mind. Viewing hours will be announced prior to the opening of each space. The IMU's Richey Ballroom will house a broad, thematic selection of works from the UIMA permanent collection that will be used for classroom instruction. Also, the approximately 1,600-square-foot Black Box Theater, located just south of the Richey Ballroom, will periodically serve as a space for educationally oriented and faculty-organized temporary exhibitions. The Levitt Center's Stanley Gallery, slated to open in March, will serve as a third on-campus space for the UIMA, housing African art selected from the museum's collection and a private collection to coordinate with current African art classes. Much of the museum's collection of African art was donated by the gallery's namesakes, the Stanley family of Muscatine, whose members have been among the university's most generous benefactors. Renovation of the Richey Ballroom is scheduled to begin this spring with the goal that the gallery will be open for classes by fall 2009. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/march/030209uima-galleries.html.
UI community invited to session today on Iowa City-Chicago Amtrak proposal The Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce invites University of Iowa staff, faculty, and students to a community meeting today, Thursday, March 12, to learn more about a proposal for Amtrak passenger train service that would connect Iowa City to Chicago through the Quad Cities. The meeting begins at 4:30 p.m. at the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce, 325 East Washington Street, Iowa City. Chamber staff will share the proposed rail line route and depot envisioned in downtown Iowa City. Ridership, cost, and timeline of the project will be discussed. For more information contact Kelly McCann, 319-337-9637 or kelly@iowacityarea.com.
Campus, public invited to UI forum on flood mitigation March 26 The University of Iowa's Flood Mitigation Task Force and Campus Planning Committee will host an open forum at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 26, in the University Libraries' Shambaugh Auditorium. The hosting groups will provide updates about the ongoing process of evaluating options and strategies for protecting the campus from future flooding. The forum will then be open to questions and comments from the audience. All interested members of the community including UI faculty, staff, and students, as well as other residents of the surrounding area are welcome to attend. For more information, contact Gregg Oden, 319-335-2455 or gregg-oden@uiowa.edu.
Group invites flood victims to use writing for healing University of Iowa faculty, staff, and students affected by the flood of 2008 are invited to share their stories of the disaster and its aftermath through written expression or journaling in a safe, supportive community for six weeks starting March 26 at the Johnson County Crisis Center, 1121 Gilbert Court in Iowa City. Hosted by the center, the Swept Away-Brought Together writers group is open to people with all levels of writing skill. It will meet from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on six consecutive Thursdays: March 26 and April 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30. Group members will be invited to share their heart's needs and use poetry, prose, and essays as a source of healing and recovery and as a creative way to make meaning out of life's traumatic circumstances. Participants will be encouraged to record events, describe places and belongings, and explore emotions, thoughts and beliefs that came with the waters of last June. To reserve a spot contact Diane Yagla, flood case advocate, 319-351-0140.
Faculty invited to take classroom to the world, submit short-term study abroad proposals The University of Iowa Office for Study Abroad is accepting proposals from faculty for short-term (defined as two to three weeks) study abroad programs that will significantly extend and expand existing UI courses offered for undergraduates during the fall 2009 semester. Proposals may offer students opportunities to conduct research abroad that is related to course goals, extend classroom learning to sites of study, or otherwise expand the course objectives. Proposals will be reviewed by faculty serving on the UI Study Abroad Advisory Committee, the interim associate provost/dean of International Programs, and the director of study abroad on the basis of feasibility and connection between the UI course and overseas component. Extensions of one to two UI courses will be funded for fall/winter 2009, with travel taking place in late December to early January. International Programs will cover supplemental stipends and travel expenses for instructors. Contact Janis Perkins, director of the UI Office for Study Abroad, at janis-perkins@uiowa.edu for more information and a proposal form. The deadline for proposals for spring semester courses is March 27. Successful applicants will be notified by April 10. For more information on study abroad, visit http://international.uiowa.edu/study-abroad.
Heed the call for Improving Our Workplace Award nominations Do you know a staff member or a team whose efforts have made a lasting difference at the University? Here is an opportunity to recognize the exceptional value they have provided in your area. Nominate them for the Improving Our Workplace Award (IOWA), a campuswide recognition program. For nomination forms, visit www.uiowa.edu/hr/iowa/index.html. The deadline for submissions is March 16.
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:
DISCOVERIESState Health Registry provides latest on cancer in Iowa The number of cancer deaths and new cancer cases in Iowa is projected to remain the same as last year, but cancer could soon exceed heart disease as the leading cause of death in the state, said an expert with the State Health Registry of Iowa, located in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Iowa College of Public Health. The annual "Cancer in Iowa" report also highlighted the value of state and national cancer data sources, which help advance efforts to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer. In particular, such resources can help identify and reduce disparities in cancer care. The report, based on data from the Iowa Department of Public Health and the Iowa Cancer Registry, includes county-by-county statistics. The report is available online in the "publications" section at http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/shri/ or by calling the registry at 319-335-8609. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/march/030909cancer_registry.html.
UI study: electronic medical data improves operating room scheduling Franklin Dexter, University of Iowa physician and expert in operations research, and colleagues have devised a way to use electronic medical data to make inroads into one area of medicine in which it has been notoriously difficult to control costs—operating room (OR) and anesthesia scheduling. The changes help OR managers better estimate how long a particular case will last, making it easier and more cost-efficient to schedule subsequent cases in the same room. The new system, which Dexter described in the March issue of the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia, combines information about a patient's vital signs in the OR with historical data about how long cases typically last and applies statistical mathematics to provide realistic estimates of the remaining time needed for an on-going OR case. Critically, this information is updated continuously as the case continues—a process that is currently done manually. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/march/030509scheduling_study.html.
New insights on heart's "fight or flight" response to stress Even for those without a heart condition, it's a peculiar feeling when your heart races in response to stress. That pacing change happens in part because of how the enzyme calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaM kinase II) is called into action by the body's "fight or flight" stress response, University of Iowa researchers have found. The finding challenges traditional concepts of the heart's peacemaking function and adds support to the idea that finding ways to inhibit CaM kinase II could help control heart rate problems in people with arrhythmias and other heart conditions. The study results appeared March 10 in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Previous understanding of the heart's pacemaking functions was focused on beta-adrenergic receptors, said Yuejin Wu, the study's lead investigator and a research scientist in internal medicine at the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. In a recent study from Germany, a mouse model that was missing the gene for the pacemaker ion channel surprisingly responded normally to the drug isoproterenol. Similar to adrenaline, isoproterenol can increase heart rate. This response meant that the ion channel, by itself, does not explain the physiological "fight or flight" heart rate response. Based on this observation, Wu and other colleagues in the lab of the paper's senior author, Mark Anderson, head of the UI Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, developed mice in which the CaM kinase II function was inhibited in heart cells. When these mice were exposed to the adrenaline-like agent isoproterenol, the stimulant's effect did not occur. As a result, the mice without CaM kinase II function had much slower heart rates than mice that had normal CaM kinase II function. The finding underscored that CaM kinase II activation can increase heart rates. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/march/031009fight_or_flight.html.
Children, teens most likely to survive nontraumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest Children and adolescents are twice as likely as infants or adults to survive a nontraumatic, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, a University of Iowa–led research team has found in one of the largest studies of this type of cardiac arrest. The investigators also found that the survival rate for this type of cardiac arrest for infants younger than age 1 was lower than the survival rate for adults. The findings, which have implications for improving treatment among young patients, were published online March 9 by Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. The type of cardiac arrest cases studied were not caused by respiratory arrest or traumatic injury but occurred outside of hospitals. In particular, the study found that 6.4 percent of pediatric patients versus 4.5 percent of adults who experience out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survived to be discharged from the hospital, a statistically significant difference. The findings refute a widespread misconception that cardiac resuscitation in not effective in young people, said Dianne Atkins, the study's lead author who is a professor of pediatrics at the Carver College of Medicine and a pediatric cardiologist with UI Children's Hospital and the UI Heart and Vascular Center. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/march/031009cardiac_survival.html.
Study links inflammation and calcium signaling in heart attack A new study led by University of Iowa researchers has found an unexpected new link between inflammation in heart muscle following a heart attack and a previously known enzyme called calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II or CaM kinase II. The findings also reveal the involvement of an immune system gene—complement factor B—that has been implicated in other inflammatory diseases. The study, published online March 9 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, suggests that CaM kinase II inhibition could be a therapeutic target in heart disease, but by previously unknown pathways. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/march/031009heart_attack_signal.html.
TRANSITIONSWelsh named founding director of UI Institute for Biomedical Discovery University of Iowa President Sally Mason has named Michael Welsh the founding director of the University of Iowa Institute for Biomedical Discovery (UIIBD). The appointment took effect Jan. 1. Welsh, a professor of internal medicine and molecular physiology and biophysics, who holds the Roy J. Carver Chair in Internal Medicine and Physiology and Biophysics, is director of the UI Cystic Fibrosis Research Center and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. As director of the UI Institute for Biomedical Discovery, he will report to Jean Robillard, UI vice president for medical affairs, and collaborate with scientists and academic leaders across the campus to establish the UIIBD. The UIIBD will provide, in a single facility next to the Carver Biomedical Research Building on the health sciences campus, a unique environment in which a broad spectrum of University researchers and scientists can collaborate to explore high-risk, high-yield scientific questions in the life sciences. Welsh's primary leadership responsibilities will be to recruit outstanding scientific leaders to head the institute's various areas of primary focus: neurosciences, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, imaging, and regenerative medicine. He also will help define and promote the culture and vision for the institute throughout the UI community. The facility will house laboratories and office space dedicated to cutting-edge, cross-disciplinary research in the biomedical and life sciences, involving scientists from across the entire campus. The building is part of a larger University effort to bring together scientists from multiple disciplines to pursue research leading to new treatments for patients, create new educational opportunities for students, and bolster Iowa's economy through new jobs and business partnerships.
Moeller named Tippie associate dean of undergraduate program Lon Moeller has been appointed associate dean of the Tippie College of Business and will oversee the university's undergraduate business program. He succeeds Beth Ingram, who was recently appointed interim associate provost for the University. Moeller, a clinical professor of management and organizations, first came to the University as an undergraduate student. He received his bachelor's degree in business in 1982 and his MBA from the Tippie College of Business in 1984, and his JD from the UI College of Law in 1987. He worked as an attorney in Iowa and Wisconsin before returning to the Tippie faculty in 1999.
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