News in brief
 Rob Towey helps gather bee balm and yarrow seeds along the Ice Age Trail in Dane County as part of the Law School’s first community service day for first-year law students. About 300 students fanned out in groups of 25 to 12 locations in Dane County to paint, clean, prepare food, fix wheelchairs and sort clothing, among other volunteer activities. Photo: Jeff Miller |
LEADERSHIP
Search underway for nursing dean
The search to hire a new dean of nursing is progressing. A 19-member search and screen committee formed this summer by Chancellor David Ward is now accepting applications and nominations for the position.
Vivian Littlefield, one of the university’s longest-serving administrators, will retire Dec. 31 after 16 years as dean of the School of Nursing. Her successor will lead 56 faculty and instructional staff, along with 46 support staff.
The school is one of the first to offer off-campus study through the use of technology, and today has an established World Wide Web-based distance education program with other UW System schools. The school has steadily increased its federal funding and private support, has increased its doctoral students from five to 30 and now has a growing number of postdoctoral fellows doing research.
Applications and nominations can be sent by Friday, Oct. 1, to Search and Screen Committee chair Patricia Becker, 133 Bascom Hall. The committee will recommend finalists to Ward, who will select the new dean.
In addition to Becker, search committee members are faculty members Steven Ackerman, Linda Baumann, Barbara Bowers, Judith Broad, Richard Burgess, Lawrence Casper, Mary Keller, Linda Oakley, Susan Riesch, Sandra Ward, Melvin Weinswig, Thelma Wells and Mary Willis. Academic staff members are Sybil Better and Kathleen Cantu. Student members are Becky Allord and Carolyn Krause. Judy Aubey is the community member.
COMMUNITY
LGBT issues coordinator named
Sara Hinkel has been named lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender issues coordinator at the University.
Hinkel is scheduled to start work Monday, Sept. 13, in the Dean of Students Office. She will be attending the Dean of Students Office Annual LGBT Welcome Reception and Resource Fair, Tuesday, Sept. 14, 4:30-6 p.m. at Memorial Union.
For the past two years, she has been the director of student activities and leadership education at Edgewood College in Madison. Before that, from 1994-97, she coordinated the Diversity Resource Center at UW-La Crosse. “We are very pleased that we have been provided with the resources to develop this initiative,” says Mary Rouse, an assistant vice chancellor and dean of students. The position is funded through program revenues, not state tax money or tuition.
The hiring of a full-time LGBT issues coordinator achieves one of the recommendations in the Faculty Senate LGB Issues Committee report issued in April 1997.
Gas container still missing
University Police continue to investigate the disappearance of a container of dangerous gas from the loading dock of the chemistry building.
The gas container, about a foot tall and shaped like a propane cylinder, contains the chemical nitric oxide, which may be fatal if inhaled and causes severe burns and respiratory tissue damage. Chemical safety experts are worried a thief may potentially have mistaken it for the gas nitrous oxide, or “laughing gas,” which is in vogue as a recreational drug.
The cylinder was discovered missing Aug. 30, says Peter Reinhardt, assistant director of the UW–Madison’s safety department. The gas is used in small amounts some chemical research, but only under ventilated fume hoods and with proper protective clothing.
To offer information on the disappearance of the canister, call 262-2957 or 262-TIPS. No questions will be asked if the container is returned.
ON CAMPUS
Economists to issue forecasts
Four economics experts will present analysis and predictions at an executive briefing Friday, Sept. 24, at the School of Business.
At “Economic Outlook: 2000,” economists and economic journalists will forecast the future of the regional, national and the world economy, especially the last quarter of 1999 and the first three quarters of 2000.
The event will be held from 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. in Morgridge Auditorium in the Business School’s Grainger Hall, 975 University Ave. The economists are Bruce Upbin, Midwest bureau chief for Forbes Magazine, Chicago; Matt Bishop, American finance editor for The Economist; Clare Zempel, CFA, chief investment strategist, chief economist and vice president, Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc., Milwaukee; and Don Nichols, professor of economics and public policy, and director of the La Follette Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy.
The conference costs $275 per person, with a discount available for two or more from the same organization. Information: (800) 348-8964 or visit: http://www.uwexeced.com.
 Simon says With a slide of his 36-foot sailboat displayed behind him, Arctic explorer Alvah Simon delivers the Chancellor’s Convocation address to new students and others Sept. 1 at the Kohl Center. Simon, author of “North to the Night: A Year in the Arctic Ice,” discussed his experiences surviving five months of isolation high above the Arctic Circle. The slides come from images made by his wife, Diana White Simon. Photo: Jeff Miller |
Lectures to examine Holocaust
Aspects of memory, education and community will occupy the 1999 Jewish Heritage Lecture Series, sponsored by the George K. Mosse/Laurence A. Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies.
The first lecture, Tuesday, Sept. 14, will consider “The Battle for the Memory of the Holocaust.” Guest scholar Michal Govrin of the School of Visual Theater in Jerusalem will talk about the impact of the Nazi atrocities 50 years later on moral behavior, religious beliefs, and personal and collective memory.
Zev Garber of Los Angeles Valley College will approach the Holocaust from a different perspective Thursday, Sept. 30. His lecture, “Shoah at the University: New Considerations in Holocaust Education,” will examine various academic approaches to teaching such an emotional and sensitive subject.
The final lecture of the fall, “A Global Community: The Jews from Syria,” will use the Jewish community in Aleppo, Syria as a model for maintaining cultural cohesion in the 20th century. Speaking Tuesday, Nov. 16, will be Walter Zenner, an anthropologist at State University of New York-Albany who specializes in Jewish life in the Middle East and urban anthropology.
The free lectures, open to the public, begin at 7:30 p.m. in Memorial Union. Check Today in the Union for location.
Conservator to describe Abe’s cleaning
Cameron Wilson, a professional conservator from New York City, will give the well-known statue of Abraham Lincoln a gentle cleaning Sept. 21-25, and he’ll lead an informal on-site discussion of his work at noon Thursday, Sept. 23.
The Elvehjem Museum of Art will sponsor the free talk. The statue is about to be cleaned for the first time because the bronzed likeness of Lincoln is coated with a patina of corrosion that’s very bad for its long-term survival.
Wilson was asked by the university to save Abe from eventual disfigurement. The statue is minutely corroding away with each drop of acid rain. If left to its own devices – and how many of those does a statue have? – Abe will start to lose his features to the predations of pollution.
“Maintenance of the Lincoln statue is part of our stewardship as its owners,” says Russell Panczenko, director of the Elvehjem Museum.
Evacuation drills scheduled
Evacuation drills will be conducted on campus Sept. 14, 15 and 16. Exact times will not be announced.
Safety Department personnel and the Madison Fire Department will act as monitors on each floor of a building, and it will be necessary to run evacuations throughout class periods.
At the time of the evacuation, faculty members should direct students to an alternate exit, assuming the generally used exit is blocked because of fire or smoke.
“When the fire alarm sounds, we expect, and will appreciate, as complete an evacuation as possible, subject to the proper security of experiments in progress,” says Rhonda Lenerz, Safety Department.
Building occupants should move at least 100 feet from their building and remain there until an all-clear signal is given. The total exercise should not take more than 10 minutes, Lenerz says.
UPDATE
Speakers hit the road
The Speakers Bureau, starting its first full school year of operation, has already given new voice to the Wisconsin Idea.
Based in the Chancellor’s Office, the Speakers Bureau began last semester to send university speakers across the state. They have spoken to service clubs and other organizations of all kinds.
“We’ve selected a cadre of speakers on a host of topics,” says Susan Stein, director of the Speakers Bureau. “The one thing they all have in common is their commitment to UW–Madison and its role in Wisconsin as a resource for a lifetime.”
Venues so far have been diverse, including the Geological Society in Racine, the Brown County Bar Association in Green Bay and the Appleton Evening Lions Club. The topics vary with the speakers, but a consistent message has been the value of UW–Madison to the state.
Stein says the feedback from groups has been very positive: In fact, several clubs have sent second and third requests to the Speakers Bureau.
Other benefits of speaker placement, says Stein, have been positive local press coverage and a strengthening of the university’s ties to community leaders.
Participants in the Speakers Bureau since its inception in January include: David Armstrong, Stephen Barclay, Pat Berry, Will Bleam, Bob Bock, John Bollinger, Bradford Brown, Nick Cahill, Kevin Check, J. Frank Cook, Ken Davis, Werner De Bondt, Joy Dohr, Pete Dorner, Eugene Farley, Linda Farley, Susan Farmer, Phil Farrell, Betty Ferris, Laura Hartman, Marcy Heim, Dianne McAfee Hopkins, Charles Hoslet, Art Hove, David Jarrard, John Kaminski, Phil Keillor, George Kliminski, Beth Knetter, Tim Kratz, Jim Leary, Roger Maclean, John Mathis, Mike Moss, Bruce Murray, Ron Numbers, Linda Oakley, Jean O’Leary, Ruth Olson, Steve Price, Bob Pricer, Noel Radomski, Charles Read, Ann Schensky, Megan Schliesman, Don Schutt, Rob Seltzer, Bill Sonzogni, Noel Stanton, Bill Strang, Monica Theis, Joe Von Elbe, David Ward, Klaus Westphal, Eric Wilcots, John Wiley, Ann Zanzig and Tom Zinnen.
Biotechnology training renewed
A National Institutes of Health grant that promotes graduate training in biotechnology has been renewed for an additional five years, says bacteriologist Timothy Donohue, who directs the program.
At more than $980,000 per year, the UW–Madison grant is the largest program of its kind in the country. Funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the program supports 33 graduate students each year. Those students come from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, the College of Engineering, the Graduate School, the College of Letters and Science, and the Medical School. The UW–Madison Graduate School provides matching support to help administer the training program.
“The program’s objective is to develop a new cadre of scientists and engineers whose training and experience cross traditional academic boundaries,” Donohue says. “As we enter the 21st century, there is an increasing need for cross-disciplinary teams of scientists and engineers to work closely on biomedical and agricultural problems. This program prepares students to function at the interface between the biological and physical sciences.”
Graduate School Dean Virginia Hinshaw said the program is “highly successful in many dimensions,” including its cross-disciplinary emphasis, strong partnerships with industry, diversity, enthusiastic leadership and research.
During the past 10 years, more than 120 UW–Madison doctoral students from more than 20 different graduate programs have been trained by the program.