Inside IUPUI Impact Person of the Week

As a Wayne Township school principal, Nicole Law considers it her job to help her Garden City Elementary students confront challenges and pursue their dreams — and that's a subject Nicole knows quite a bit about.

Throughout her life, the former IUPUI student and IU School of Education graduate has battled Sickle Cell Anemia, a painful genetic disease. But Nicole's determination and dedication in battling the disease — her personal "no-excuse" credo — has helped her build an atmosphere of achievement for Garden City students, many of whom must overcome the challenges of a life of poverty. The impact of her work and that of her staff recently earned Nicole the prestigious 2008 Milken National Educator Award — nicknamed the "Oscars of Teaching" — making her one of an elite group of educators that are helping shape the academic future of America.

Handmade Treasures for Sale at Nov. 22 Fine Arts and Crafts Fair

The IUPUI Staff Council will host its first Fine Arts and Crafts Fair on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2008, in the IUPUI Campus Center, located on the southwest corner of Michigan Street and University Boulevard.

Shoppers can choose holiday gifts and one-of-a-kind handmade items offered by more than 40 crafters and artisans from around the state. A team of jurors from the Staff Council committee has hand-selected each vendor to ensure quality items are featured.

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IU Dental School "Assembly Line" Builds Emergency Kits for Red Cross

Fourth-year dental student Tracy Jenkins had a great idea and decided to run with it. He soon learned that plenty of other people at the IU School of Dentistry were eager to jog right along beside him.

Working through the IU dental school's chapter of the Christian Dental Students' Association, Jenkins and Dr. Henry Lancaster, the organization's faculty sponsor, put out a call for donations of travel-sized toiletries and other items suitable for the personal hygiene kits that the American Red Cross distributes to community residents when they are displaced from their homes by disasters. Jenkins got the idea to assemble hygiene kits from his past experiences with Eagle Scout service projects.

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IU Dental School Periodontics Professor Named Department Chair

Lawrence Goldblatt, dean of the Indiana University School of Dentistry, has announced the appointment of Dr. Vanchit John as chair of the school's Department of Periodontics and Allied Dental Programs.

John was first appointed to the IU dental faculty in 1996 and had been serving as the department's interim director since the retirement of Dr. E. Brady Hancock in the summer of 2007. As chair, John will continue to serve as director of predoctoral periodontics.

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Celebrated Local Entrepreneur Brings Expertise to Informatics Classroom

Mark Hill, managing partner of venture capital firm, Collina Ventures, LLC, will again be teaching the art of entrepreneurship in a popular class offering next semester (Spring 2009). The course, Entrepreneurship-Informatics, focuses on three key themes associated with starting an information technology company: The Value Proposition, Funding, and Teamwork.

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PRSA Selects Bob Dittmer as Recipient of the 2008 Lloyd B. Dennis Public Affairs Award

Robert E. Dittmer is the 2008 recipient of the PRSA’s Lloyd B. Dennis Distinguished Leadership Award. The award honors Dittmer for significant contributions to the public relations profession and strict adherence to ethical standards. Dittmer is instructor of public relations and director of Public Relations Graduate Studies in the School of Journalism at IUPUI.

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Indianapolis Tennis Center WTT Team Competes at Nationals

IUPUI Surplus Public Auction, Saturday, Nov. 15

Join Anna McDaniel for a TRIP Dialogue Space Lunch

New Airport Opens Nov. 12, 2008

New at Chartwells: Caribou Coffee Holiday Drinks, November Limited Offers

Reading at the Table

Scholarship at Lunch Time

Traffic Alert for Michigan and New York Streets

Students, Schools Urged to RISE to the Challenge

A new IUPUI initiative will help increase student participation in experiential learning and brand the degrees they receive as unique in the minds of employers who want to hire people who "can do" what they have learned.

RISE to the Challenge, a major 2008-09 academic plan project, focuses on making IUPUI's undergraduate educational experience distinctive by taking advantage of IUPUI's institutional strengths, its urban setting, and its mission as a civically-engaged urban research university, said Mary Fisher, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Associate Dean of the Faculties, and Professor of Nursing.

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IUPUI Promotes Traffic Safety Partnership

IUPUI has seen an increase in pedestrian and bicyclist involved traffic accidents in 2008.

The IUPUI Police Department wants to remind everyone that traffic safety is a partnership between drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists. This effort is a continuation of a pedestrian safety effort initiated by IUPUI last year when crosswalk improvements were made and speed awareness activities were conducted.

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