NEWS IN BRIEF
Regents approve naming rec center for Ambler
The Kansas Board of Regents has approved the naming of the David A. Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center at KU.Ambler retired in 2002 as KU’s vice chancellor for student affairs, a post he held for 25 years. Among his many accomplishments, he helped secure student approval to build the $17 million student recreation fitness center, which opened in 2003 and is maintained and operated by student fees. A 44,000-square-foot addition is scheduled to open in summer 2008. The $6.3 million addition will include a gymnasium expansion, a running-track extension and a new multipurpose area with two racquetball courts.
During his tenure at KU, Ambler oversaw a comprehensive restructuring of the student affairs division that brought to a close the original dean of men and dean of women organizational structure. As vice chancellor, he established many offices and services on campus.
Applications sought for opportunity fund grant
Applications are now available for the Educational Opportunity Fund. All departments, units and organizations on the Lawrence campus are eligible to apply. Applications and information may be picked up at the Student Senate office, 410 Kansas Union or in the Office of Student Financial Aid, 50 Strong Hall. Application deadline is 5 p.m. Feb. 8. All grants are for the 2008-09 academic year. Individuals may not apply; the grants are for administration to students on the Lawrence campus by a department, unit or organization. Call 864-3710 or e-mail drhodes@ku.edu. with questions or requests for application.
Research, Grad Studies convocation Jan. 29
The Office of Research and Graduate Studies’ convocation will be 3:30-5 p.m. Jan. 29 at Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union. The program will include updates on research and graduate education at KU and feature presentations by three faculty members on the integration of research and graduate training: Barbara Kerr, psychology and research in education; Holly Storkel, speech-language-hearing: sciences and disorders; and Paul Hanson, chemistry. A question and answer session will be followed by a reception. For more information, contact Kevin Boatright, 864-7240 or kboatright@ku.edu.
KU hosts international faculty orientation
KU was the site for an orientation program for 69 junior faculty members from the Balkans and former Soviet republics Jan. 7-13.At the request of the U.S. Department of State and the American Councils for International Education, KU’s International Programs office coordinated the week-long Junior Faculty Development Program orientation that helps the fellows acclimate to the United States and its higher-education system before they go to their host institutions for the semester.
Orientation activities included presentations about intercultural conflict, higher education and American society. The development program increases access to academic resources and new educational perspectives and promotes the development of a growing network of academics in the United States and the countries represented. More than 40 KU faculty and staff volunteers collaborated with members from the American Councils for International Education.
Four fellows stayed at KU to work with faculty members in the School of Law, the Department of Communication Studies and the School of Education.
KU has hosted fellows since the development program began in 1991. This was KU’s second time to host the orientation. The Applied English Center hosted 19 of the fellows for a month before the orientation for language and culture instruction.
EAT plays to compete in Kennedy Center festival
Five plays written by three creative writing students are competing in various playwriting categories at the regional conference of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, which takes place Jan. 20-26 in Omaha, Neb. All five of the plays were written in classes taught by Paul Lim, the Chancellors Club Teaching Professor in the Department of English. Lim founded English Alternative Theatre in 1989 to produce the plays of his students. To date, English Alternative Theatre has sent 24 student-written plays to regional theater festivals, and five were subsequently presented at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.In 1996, Lim was awarded a gold medallion by the Kennedy Center for his work with student playwrights.
TEACH program funds open to future teachers
The College Cost Reduction and Access Act established the TEACH Grant program providing $4,000 a year to individuals who agree to teach under specified conditions. The grant funding may not exceed $16,000 for undergraduate or post-baccalaureate study, and $8,000 for graduate study.The TEACH Grant program begins with the 2008-09 award year and is targeted to academically qualified students who are willing to make a commitment to teach full-time for at least four academic years within eight years of completing the program of study for which the TEACH grants were received. Recipients must teach at a school serving low-income students and must teach a high-need subject.
New York Times lauds Spencer retrospective
The Spencer Museum of Art’s major retrospective on Aaron Douglas has concluded its run in Lawrence and now hits the road for stops in Nashville, Washington, D.C., and New York, but the attention keeps pouring in. The New York Times Sunday Book Review on Dec. 2 included a favorable mention of the exhibition catalogue, co-published by the Spencer museum and Yale University Press, in its “Holiday Books: Visuals” column.Reviewer Steven Heller wrote, “Another omission from ‘Graphic Design: A New History’ is Aaron Douglas (1899-1979), an African-American painter and book-jacket designer who created a startling array of stylized images for books of the Harlem Renaissance (including ‘The Black Venus,’ by André Salmon) as well as magazine cover lettering and illustrations.
Fortunately, in ‘Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist’ (Yale University/Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, $60), edited by Susan Earle, his stunning drawings, paintings, typography and woodcuts are reprised.
KU Medical Center videos win national awards
“Living with Heart Failure,” a series of patient-education videos created by KU Medical Center staff, has been named a finalist in the prestigious Freddie Awards. The “Freddies” are the pre-eminent awards for medical videos, DVDs, CD-ROMs or Web sites that address health or medical issues for consumers or health care professionals. Other finalists include CNN and the Discovery Channel.The videos were produced as part of a $3.5 million grant by Carol Smith, professor of nursing, and Edward Ellerbeck, chair of preventive medicine. The grant is titled “Heart Failure Group Clinics: Rehospitalization Prevention Clinical Trial.”
Email Page
Print Page