More than 700 junior high and high
school students participated in the 1999
Indiana State Science
Olympiad Tournament March 20 at IUPUI.
The Science Olympiad is a national
event created in 1983 to increase interest in science among young people and
serve as an alternative to traditional, single discipline science fairs.
Participants in the state tournament have advanced from eight regional events
held at colleges and universities throughout Indiana last month. Olympiad
events test students in biology, earth sciences, chemistry, physics, problem
solving and technology, as well as teamwork, group planning and cooperation.
Winners of the Indiana Olympiad go to the national tournament in May, held this
year at the University of Chicago.
***
Circle of the Path, a
short documentary that uses a music video format to examine environmental
degradation through the eyes of Native Americans, has won its producer, IUPUI
senior Susan Green, a prestigious award from the Academy of Television
Arts & Sciences.
The academy, best known for
television’s Emmy awards, last month awarded Green second prize in the music
category of its 1998 College Television Awards Competition. Circle of the
Path uses footage of pollution in northwest Indiana to illustrate
Native American chants as well as music Green wrote and performed. Green is
director of the Environmental
Fund for Indiana, which raises money to battle air, water and land
pollution and promote conservation of natural resources.
Green’s reward for her second place
finish is $1,000 worth of film stock and a trip to Los Angeles this month for
the awards ceremony, which will be attended by academy members and
entertainment industry executives. For
more information about the awards, visit http://www.emmys.org/releases/2-12-99.html.
***
The School of Public &
Environmental Affairs was host to two issue-oriented colloquia last month.
Members of the Indiana General Assembly, distinguished SPEA
alumni and faculty and national policy experts met at the Indiana Government
Center to explore using conflict resolution in state and local government,
enhancing public service with electronic media, using new technology to enhance
public safety and managing the state’s budget surplus. Peggy Boehm, director of the State
Budget Agency, State Rep. Jeffrey Espich, Gail Bingham, a
national expert on environmental dispute mediation and Dr. Ned Lamkin,
president of the Indiana Employers Health Care Coalition, were featured
speakers, along with IUPUI faculty including Herb Blitzer, director of
our Institute for Forensic Imaging, John J. Krauss, associate director
of our Center for Urban Policy and the Environment, and Lisa Bingham,
director of the Indiana Conflict Resolution Institute.
Indiana's Attorney General Jeff
Modisett, who teaches the course “Tobacco in America: Lungs, Liars, and Lawyers” in the IU School
of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI, invited 10 fellow attorneys
general, and representatives of 16 other states to meet on campus recently to
discuss ways to deal with problems arising from magazine sweepstake
contests. The day‑long meeting of
the National Attorney Generals Sweepstakes Subcommittee heard from
representatives of three industry trade groups, postal inspectors who
investigate scams and victims of sweepstakes marketing strategies.
***
What is being called the most
advanced research and education information network in the United States, the Abilene
Project, began operations last month. The National Operations Center for
this next generation Internet, which currently serves 37 universities across
the country, is located at IUPUI.
IU, Qwest Communications, Cisco
and Nortel Networks are partners in this three-year project to build a
backbone network for Internet2. The Abilene Project operates at 2.4 gigabits
per second, meaning it is about 45,000 times faster than a 56K modem. IU and
IUPUI provide the Abilene Project with engineering, testing and asset
management services. More than 70 Internet2 universities and research
facilities will connect to the Abilene network by year’s end.
For more information about IU’s
central role in the development of Internet2, go to http://www.indiana.edu/~uits/cpo/abilaunch/.
Women’s History Month at IUPUI
kicked off with a discussion of Herstory: A Leadership Legacy
that included U.S. Congresswoman Julia Carson and Paula
Parker-Sawyers, director of the IUPUI Office of Neighborhood Resources and
Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Diversity. Women’s History Month events continue with a presentation by Kellyanne
Fitzpatrick, CNN political commentator, on March 29 at University
College. “Herstory: A Women’s
History Exhibit” that looks at feminine myths and stories through oil
and acrylic paintings by Georgia artist Sloan Borochoff and Virginia
Artist Mary Nash are on display all this month at the IUPUI Cultural
Arts Gallery in Room 115 of University College.
***
The Jaguars men’s and women’s
basketball teams finished their first season of NCAA Division I competition
with identical 6-8 records in Mid-Continent Conference play.
The men’s team, 11-16 for the season, finished fourth nationally
among Division I teams for three-point field goal percentage. IUPUI junior Rodney
Thomas recorded the nation’s best individual three-point shooting
percentage at 52.2 percent.
While the women’s team was
eliminated in the first round of the Mid-Continent Conference tournament
last month, their 10-16 record includes a 65-59 regular season victory over
conference champion Oral Roberts.
Sophomore Angie Watt averaged 13.7 points per game, led the
Mid-Con in three-point shooting percentage, and was named to the all-conference
team.
A record, sellout crowd of 2,000 cheered for the Jaguars at the IUPUI
gymnasium during homecoming games last month against Valparaiso.
***
IUPUI’s Homecoming also saw the
dedication of a plaque at the Natatorium honoring the late Michael A.
Carroll, Mike’s family, and donors for an endowment in his name that
provides a full scholarship to one IUPUI student-athlete each year. Among his
many contributions to IUPUI, Mike was the founder of what used to be called the
Metros Athletics Club. His wife, Linda, is assistant director of
athletics at IUPUI. In 1998, the
Trustees of Indiana University honored Mike by naming the IU Michael A. Carroll
Track and Soccer Stadium at IUPUI in his memory.
Our thanks to Jim Morris,
chairman of IWC Resources, and Owen “Bud” Melton, president and CEO of
First Indiana Bank, for their help in establishing the scholarship fund.
***
The IU School of Nursing’s Shalom Health Care Center has
opened a third clinic at Farmington Middle School in Eagledale. Established in partnership with the United
Way of Central Indiana and Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS), the
clinic will provide neighborhood-based health care to low-income residents. Attending the Open House last month to
congratulate the Shalom Center founders (nursing professors Sandy Burgener and
Su Moore) were Pat Pritchett, IPS superintendent, and Virginia Caine, M.D.,
director of the Marion County Health Department.
***
In another community-oriented
collaboration, Butler University and the Purdue School of Engineering
and Technology at IUPUI will offer a dual engineering degree program
next fall.
Students will be admitted concurrently to IUPUI and
Butler and earn a bachelor of science degree from each institution. The Butler
University degree will be in liberal arts with an emphasis on basic sciences
such as biology, chemistry and mathematics. The students also will earn a
Purdue University degree from IUPUI in electrical, mechanical or general
engineering.
This program, expected to enroll
200 students by 2004, will provide central Indiana an important pool
of talent for our health and technology industries.
***
The Maynard K. Hine Medal from
the IUPUI Alumni Association., which ordinarily honors alumni for exemplary
service to the campus, departed from tradition this year to recognize current
and retired faculty -- not so much for their work in the classroom but for the
deep and abiding commitment they have shown to the campus and its students in a
broader sense. Each has formed a strong
career-long attachment to IUPUI and helped IUPUI become the thoroughly engaged
urban university we have always aspired to be.
The Hine Award honorees were James
R. East, founder of IUPUI’s Weekend College and Learn and Shop programs and
devoted Boys Club volunteer; Jean Hutton, associate professor emerita of
nursing and mentor to care givers over two generations; and William N. Kulsrud,
leader of our faculty’s role in moving our athletics program to Division I —
something that may have an enormous long-term impact on our university. My congratulations and thanks to all!
Gerald
L.Bepko
Chancellor