Past Issues

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1. Top Stories

MINNESOTA STATE LEGISLATIVE SESSION BEGAN FEB. 2. It is a capital bonding year and expected to be a short session. President Bruininks made the case for full funding of the U's capital budget request to the House Higher Education Finance Committee at a hearing held on campus Feb. 3. For information on the U's request, go to http://www.umn.edu/govrel .

GOVERNOR PAWLENTY HOSTED U AND MAYO CLINIC OFFICIALS Feb. 3 to announce the first research grants awarded by the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics. Four collaborative projects will share $3 million provided by the U, Mayo Clinic, and the state. Recipients are teams of U and Mayo researchers working on cardiovascular disease, prostate cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and obesity. For more information, see http://www.ahc.umn.edu/news/NewsFiles/partnership020304 .

PRESIDENT BRUININKS'S SPEECH AT THE MINNEAPOLIS CLUB Feb. 4, "The University of Minnesota: An Update on a Statewide Resource," will focus on challenges and opportunities facing the state's only land-grant, research institution. It will be his first address to the group since becoming president in February 2003. For more information, see http://www.ur.umn.edu/unsreleases/find.php?ID=1142 .

2. News and Announcements

LEGISLATIVE CALL-IN DAY FOR THE U will be Feb. 5. Faculty and staff are urged to call their legislators and ask them to support the U's full capital request. For more information, including your legislators' phone numbers and talking points, go to http://www.supporttheU.umn.edu .

U's COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE (CALA) maintained its place as 13th in the nation out of 130 programs ranked by the Design Intelligence organization; its facilities were ranked 1st. Among public universities, it ranked 7th, and 2nd in the Big Ten after Michigan. CALA information is on the Web at http://www.cala.umn.edu .

CHILD CARE RESOURCE AND REFERRAL SERVICES became available Feb. 1 for faculty and staff on the Crookston, Duluth, Morris, and Rochester campuses. All employees can receive help finding child care from CareQuest, which provides quick access to current openings in licensed child care and tailors requests based on location, type of care, hours, smoking or pet concerns, and special needs. CareQuest has been serving Twin Cities employees for 11 years. For more information, see http://www.umn.edu/ohr/worklife/childcare%20resource.html .

UPLAN SATISFACTION SURVEY DEADLINE IS FEB. 6. Take five minutes to rate your experience in a UPlan medical option for 2003. The Benefits Advisory Committee will use survey data acquired to maintain quality of UPlan medical options. Survey is on the Web at http://uplansurvey.umn.edu .

FINANCIAL ONE STOP enables departments to find out how to do financial tasks and complete them more easily and efficiently. Tasks include traveling on U business, generating revenue from external sales, and more. For more information, see http://process.umn.edu/groups/controller/documents/main/osf_home.cfm .

NEW AND UPDATED POLICIES have been added to the U Policy Library on the Web, which contains all Board of Regents, Faculty Senate, and U-wide policies. Changes include modifications to U real estate policy, new policy for conducting research on human embryos and stem cells, and more. For more information, see "What's New" on the Policy Library site at http://www.fpd.finop.umn.edu/groups/ppd/documents/main/policyhome.cfm .

3. Campus Events and Information

U-wide Event:
STUDY ABROAD CURRICULUM INTEGRATION CONFERENCE will be Apr. 15-17. It will showcase shared efforts of all U campuses and will respond to national interest in the U's effort to meet its goal of study abroad for half of graduating seniors. Deadline to register is Mar. 1, but space is limited. For more information, see http://www.Umabroad.umn.edu/conference .

TECHNOLOGY-ENHANCED LEARNING (TEL) SEMINAR SERIES continues this spring, free for faculty, staff, students, and the public. Topics include inquiry-based learning (Feb. 4), learning technologies and public engagement (Mar. 4), student views of TEL (Mar. 30), and disciplinary TEL teaching communities (Apr. 27). For more information, see http://events.umn.edu/event?occurrence=374913;event=104365 .

TECHNOLOGY-ENHANCED LEARNING GRANT PROGRAM 2004 assists faculty members with TEL projects. Deadline is Feb. 17. For details, see http://dmc.umn.edu/grants .

Crookston:
NEWLY ESTABLISHED REGIONAL U OF M EXTENSION CENTER IN CROOKSTON will host an open house on Feb. 12, 2-4 p.m., at the center's new office suite, 251 Owen Hall, UMC campus. Faculty and staff of center invite all members of the UMC campus community and the region to attend. Regional centers are described on the U of M Extension Service Web site at http://www.extension.umn.edu/changes .

Duluth:
SUMMER APARTMENTS ARE AVAILABLE TO RETIREES for five-, eight-, and ten-week rental periods. Requests are now being accepted by UMD's Summer Housing Office. This year marks UMD's 28th year of offering summer housing for seniors. For information, call 218-726-7390, fax 218-726-7142, e-mail sumhsg@d.umn.edu, or see http://www.d.umn.edu/housing/summer/ .

"MAKING CHOICES: WOMEN SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS TALK ABOUT CAREER CHOICES AND ISSUES" will feature a panel of professional women representing industry, government, consulting, and higher education, Feb. 10, 6 p.m., Kirby Student Center ballroom. Informal discussion will follow. Free and open to the public.

Morris:
AN IRON CHEF COMPETITION at UMM on Jan. 28, organized by student Keng Vang, was a benefit for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The competition and an Asian ethnic dinner theater at a Morris coffeehouse are part of Vang's project through the Minority Mentorship Program. His mentors are Siobhan Bremer (theater), Carol McCannon (Student Activities), Aaron Wise (Sodexho Campus Services), all of UMM, and Pat Flicker at the Common Cup Coffee House. For more information about the Minority Mentorship Program, see http://www.mrs.umn.edu/services/msp/mmp.htm .

HAND-HELD CELL PHONES, old and new, are being collected at UMM in support of the work of Someplace Safe, formerly the Fergus Falls Women's Crisis Center, in collaboration with the Morris Lions Club. Phones are distributed to women in crisis so they can call 911. UMM will also be a collection site for obsolete eyeglasses. Both projects are coordinated by Community Service and Volunteerism in the Office of Student Activities. For more information, see http://www.mrs.umn.edu/academic/fclt/ocsv/index.html .

Rochester:
NEW STUDENT SERVICES DIRECTOR is Kendra Weber. She will serve prospective and currently enrolled UMR students. Her duties will include managing student services operations, including academic advising, program registration, and admission; conducting institutional research; and acting as the student liaison for UMR students and other U campuses. Weber earned a master's in counseling and student personnel services from Oklahoma State University and brings more than nine years of college and university-level experience to her new position.

Twin Cities:
COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS ELIMINATED THE GRADUATE PROFICIENCY TEST for a second language Jan. 27. Second-language proficiency remains a requirement for a bachelor of arts in CLA and can be demonstrated by course work or the widely recognized Language Proficiency Exam. For more information, see http://www.ur.umn.edu/unsreleases/find.php?ID=1132 .

A CAMPUS COMPUTING NETWORK UPGRADE--"Gopher GigaNet"--is coming soon. The first shipment of equipment is due in mid-February. Networking and Telecommunication Services will provide informational seminars before installation begins. For more information, see http://www.umn.edu/nts/networkupgrade/ .

DIGITAL MEDIA CENTER FACULTY FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM provides faculty members with release time to research the impact of digital technology on teaching and learning and to design and share new processes. Application deadline is Feb. 20. For more information, see http://dmc.umn.edu/fellowship .

CENTER FOR WRITING'S SPRING WORKSHOPS for faculty, TAs, and other instructors in all disciplines will include teaching with writing in the lab sciences (Feb. 11), teaching writing in multisection courses (Feb. 18), and writing as a means to learning (Mar. 5). For more information, see http://writing.umn.edu/home/events.htm . To register, call 612-626-7579 or e-mail writing@umn.edu .

"COPS, DONUTS, STUDENTS, AND CHILI"--a free lunch to express appreciation to students and build community--will be sponsored by the Minnesota Student Association, the Minneapolis and U police departments, and the Office of Student Affairs. Feb. 4, 12-2 p.m., Washington Avenue Bridge near Northrop Mall.

"GENE(SIS): CONTEMPORARY ART EXPLORES HUMAN GENOMICS" showcases powerful new artwork created in direct response to the Human Genome Project. Lectures and special events are planned. Jan. 31-May 2, Weisman Art Museum. See http://www.weisman.umn.edu/genesis/index.htm.

SEE MORE TWIN CITIES EVENTS ONLINE at http://events.tc.umn.edu

Brief is compiled by University Relations at the University of Minnesota. Gayla Marty, interim editor. Ann Freeman, managing editor. Please send comments, questions, or submissions to Gayla Marty at marty001@umn.edu . All Twin Cities event submissions are handled through the events calendar at http://events.tc.umn.edu .

To receive Brief as a text-only e-mail, contact Gayla Marty, interim editor, at marty001@umn.edu .

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