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Vol. XXIX No. 6February 10, 1999
http://www.umn.edu/urelate/brief/1999-02-10.html
Other issues
Editor: Maureen Smith (612) 624-2801

Regents meet this week. Committee of the Whole meeting Friday will include updates on the molecular and cellular biology and digital science initiatives, an annual report on the status of the U's research by VP Maziar, a report on a capital improvement plan community strategy by VP Gardebring, and a presentation on the south mall. Faculty, Staff, and Student Affairs Committee Thursday will review tuition structure for semester conversion and hear discussion of graduate student issues and graduate assistant experience.

General counsel Mark Rotenberg met with the Faculty Consultative Committee (FCC) Feb. 4 to discuss several issues of concern to faculty. His office's client is the U as an institution, not any individual, he said. On the litigation side, when his office takes an adversarial role, he said, it is clear who is being represented.

In most cases before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the faculty member will be represented by private counsel (an almost universal practice now, unlike in the past) and Rotenberg's office will assign a lawyer to represent the dean or other administrator. Question then is whether it is fair and gives the appearance of fairness for Rotenberg--or Jim Borgestad, on contract to his office--to provide counsel to the president at a later stage. Rotenberg said the practice is to erect a wall between him or Borgestad and the lawyers representing the dean. Court of Appeals in a unanimous interpretation permitted Rotenberg to provide advice. FCC members said this does not take care of the perception of bias, and Rotenberg agreed that this is something to work on.

Governance of the Academic Health Center (AHC) has been one major focus of Faculty Consultative Committee (FCC) attention since last fall. Principal concerns include erosion of departments and colleges, perceived centralization of resources and authority in the senior VP's office, and lack of effective consultative mechanisms for faculty in AHC units. One outcome is that FCC, in concert with senior VP Cerra, will begin holding a series of workshops with AHC deans, department heads, and faculty about implementing an effective consultative system. More details in Feb. 2 Faculty Governance Update, an electronic newsletter sent to faculty.

The third FCC meeting on the intellectual future of the U, with VPs Bruininks and Cerra and associate VP Victor Bloomfield, was Jan. 28. The operation, strengths, weaknesses, and future of the academic department was the focus. All agreed on the importance of the department to the health of the U; questions about how it should be sized, funded, and run need examination.

Institutional relations under VP Gardebring is being reorganized and will incorporate units of the former U Relations (UR). Activities will be organized in 4 groupings: government relations, including state and federal relations, led by associate VP Donna Peterson; community relations, with Ann O'Loughlin as coordinator; news service, with Scott Elton as acting director; and marketing and communications, with Tom de Ranitz as director. UR director Marcia Fluer has been assigned to the Academic Health Center. News service director Bill Brady is leaving to serve as communications director at Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning. U of M Alumni Association and U of M Foundation continue to report to Gardebring.

Update to U-wide policy library includes new policies on sexual harassment, faculty development leaves, and public access to U information. An important change to the internal access to U information policy will provide employees with greater access to U information. See What's New section of home page at http://www.fpd.finop.umn.edu/. This page also features "easy to find" policies organized by everyday work processes. Policy and process development office offers paper index to all U policies or e-mail notification of changes. To receive index or e-mail, call (612) 624-1611 or e-mail process@tc.umn.edu.

American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant applications are being accepted until April 1, 1999. This grant is for instructors and assistant professors without independent national funding who are engaged in cancer-related research. Cancer-related research includes analysis of developmental biology, gene regulation, or alternation of intracellular or extracellular processes that may lead to improved understanding and/or therapy of potential or actual oncogenic events in prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells. Funding is available up to $20,000. Applications may be obtained by calling (612) 626-1926.

CROOKSTON--A demonstration of music and dance featuring the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle will be presented Feb. 15 at noon in Bede Ballroom, free and open to the public. Program begins with a Hardanger fiddle concert by Olav Jo/rgan Hegge, a tradition bearer from the district of Valdres, Norway. A champion dancer along with his wife Mary, he will dance the Valdresspringar accompanied by fiddler Karen Torkelson Solgaard of Minneapolis.

Farm Alarm: Coping With Stress, a theatrical presentation that addresses stress reduction and safety messages to farm families, will be presented in Thief River Falls Feb. 18 at the Northwest Technical College and at UMC Feb. 19 in the Salhlstrom Conference Center, Brown Dining Hall. Both performances are at 6 p.m. and are free and open to the public. A light supper will be served, also free. Farm Alarm is part of a new U of M Extension Service project. "Early in this project, I talked with dozens of people to find out which farm health and safety issue they are most concerned about," says project coordinator Carolyn Weber. "The response was overwhelming--stress."

Citizens from Crookston and north Minneapolis had a conversation on Minnesota Public Radio Feb. 9. Citizens gathered at 133 Kiehle Hall and at Lucille's Kitchen in north Minneapolis for a live on-the-radio conversation about what they have in common. Conversation began in June when both communities were part of a citizens' forum discussion that also involved sites at Duluth, Rochester, and St. Paul. Citizens at Crookston said they discovered some things in common with citizens at Lucille's Kitchen. Sponsors decided to continue the conversation.

DULUTH--Federal court judge Paul Magnuson dismissed all counts of the Title IX lawsuits filed against UMD. Court recognized that, instead of discriminating against women, UMD had increased athletic opportunities for women by adding soccer in 1994 and elevating women's hockey to varsity status. Court held that the plaintiffs--current and former UMD students--presented no evidence that UMD intentionally discriminated against women athletes. Earlier the court had dismissed all damages and class action claims by Jennifer Thompson, Renata Lindal, and Ginger Jeffrey. In the Feb. 3 action, the court also rejected damage claims by Julie Grandson.

MORRIS--A public reception for the 8 Morris campus faculty who were inducted into the U's Academy of Distinguished Teachers will be Feb. 15 at 4 p.m. in the Humanities Fine Arts gallery.

Center for International Programs and International Study and Travel Center will host an International Country Fair Feb. 15, 6-8 p.m., Student Center. Students or faculty who have studied/traveled abroad will be represented.

UMM Retirees Association and the Heritage Preservers, comprised of several senior citizen groups, will present the 2nd of 6 programs on the topic, "Children: Their Heritage, Our Future." A forum, "The Troubled American Family: Which Way Out of the Storm?" will be Feb. 24, 1:30 p.m., Morris Senior Center. Convener will be Bettina Blake, professor emerita of French, assisted by John L. Anderson, retired science teacher, Morris Area Schools.

TWIN CITIES--Rhonda Drayton and Guillermo Sapiro, assistant professors in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, are among the 60 young scientists and engineers nationally to win Presidential Early Career Awards in Science and Engineering. Awards guarantee $100,000 of research support for 5 years. Awards are being presented today (Feb. 10) at a White House ceremony. Nominees are selected by federal agencies from a list of young researchers who have already received grant support from those agencies. Winners are selected by the White House Office of Science and Technology. "We hit the jackpot, getting two of these awards in one department," said department head Mostafa Kaveh. "The future of any department rests heavily on its young faculty, and it's wonderful to have young researchers and educators get national recognition and support to jump-start their efforts."

Events: U Symphony Orchestra, Feb. 12, 7:30 p.m., Ted Mann Concert Hall, free."Interdisciplinary Approaches to Race, Ethnicity, and Migration: Works in Progress in Graduate Student Scholarship" by graduate students Kazuyo Kubo (East Asian studies), Taku Suzuki (anthropology), and Yuichiro Onishi (history), Feb. 19, 3-5 p.m., 140 Nolte Center.

Announcements: Program in Human Rights and Medicine announces 3rd annual human rights internship competition; $3,000 per internship will be awarded to full-time students for projects with organizations whose work focuses on persons at risk of unfair treatment under our health care system. Call (612) 626-6559 or visit the Web site at www .umn.edu/phrm. Application deadline is April 15.Campus Involvement Center is accepting calendar items for the 1999-2000 academic year for inclusion in the 1999-00 Gopher Guide, a calendar and resource guide for students. Calendar items will be accepted through Feb. 22 via the Web at http://www.umn.edu/cic/GopherGuide, e-mail cic@tc.umn.edu or fax to (612) 624-9124.Correct number for information about laser vision correction offered by the Department of Ophthalmology is (612) 626-5010. Incorrect number was in last week's Brief.