Note: This afternoon and tomorrow morning, we will have Newswire briefs on Board of Trustee action. Friday afternoon’s Newswire will focus on President Spanier’s State of the University Address, which he gives at 4 p.m. in Eisenhower Auditorium and is open to the public. An ice cream social at Eisenhower begins at 3:15 and everyone going to the address is invited.
WHITE AND NON-WHITE STUDENT SEGREGATION ON THE RISE
With falling White student enrollment shares in U.S. metropolitan public schools, segregation between White and minority students is on the rise, a Penn State researcher says. "School segregation between Whites and non-Whites -- presumably ended by federal legislation and court rulings in the sixties -- is making a noticeable comeback, primarily due to residential housing patterns and population shifts from urban to suburban school districts. In some cities, the U.S. Supreme Court has authorized a return to segregated neighborhood schools. This resegregation trend may require a return to desegregation initiatives that two decades ago were thought unnecessary," says Dr. Sean F. Reardon, assistant professor of educational theory and policy and sociology. The study of 217 U.S. metropolitan areas by Reardon and fellow researchers makes clear that the most rapid changes in racial and ethnic diversity are occurring in metropolitan areas. For the complete story by Paul Blaum, go to: http://www.psu.edu/ur/2000/schoolsegregation.html
"CROSS TALK" PLAYS ROLE IN TISSUE SWELLING
"Cross talk" between pairs of the smallest blood vessels plays a role in producing tissue swelling at acute inflammation sites, say Penn State bioengineers. Dr. Norman Harris, assistant professor of bioengineering and director of the project, says, "Our novel finding is that communication between pairs of venules and arterioles facilitates signaling to capillaries to release the fluid which causes swelling into the tissues. The idea opens up new routes of investigation for possible interventions to deal with undesirable swelling associated with inflammation." The Penn State bioengineers detailed their results in a paper, "Requirement of Arteriovenular Pairing for Increased Capillary Filtration during Acute Inflammation," in the current issue of the journal, Microcirculation. Jason Barnidge, who recently earned his master’s degree in bioengineering is also an author on the paper. For a longer version of this story by Barbara Hale, go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/2000/swelling.html
MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING COURSES GET NSF GRANT
The National Science Foundation has made an award of nearly $370,000 for the development of a program of three courses, including a computer lab and software, in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The program focuses on integrated education by implementing computational courses on thermodynamics, kinetics, and materials design. Professors Zi-Kui Liu, Long-Qing Chen, and Karl Spear, the curriculum designers, will initially teach the courses and later integrate them into the core components of the upper-level undergraduate curriculum. The Schreyer Institute for Innovation in Learning assisted in the design of the assessment plans and will consult on the program evaluation during the implementation, and the World Campus will study the feasibility of marketing the courses to industry and other universities. For more on the Schreyer Institute, go to http://www.inov8.psu.edu/index.htm. For more on the department, go to http://www.ems.psu.edu/admin/Matsci.html.
SEPT. 9, 10 HORT SHOW TOURS INTERNATIONAL GARDENS
Visitors can take a gardening tour around the world without leaving Pennsylvania's borders at Penn State's 87th annual Horticulture Show. The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 10, in the Ag Arena The show, sponsored by the College of Agricultural Sciences' student Horticulture Club, focuses on "Landscapes of the World: Uniting People Through Horticulture." Many of the displays feature themed gardens designed to showcase how different nations approach landscape gardening. The themed gardens will include a Japanese meditative garden, an American vegetable and landscape garden, an Australian garden, a Mexican tropical garden, an English formal garden and an English children's garden, which features a hedge maze. For more, go to http://www.aginfo.psu.edu/News/august00/hortshow.html.
SWASY TO SPEAK AT PENN STATE FORUM, SEPT 29
Reporter, author and Penn State alumna Alecia Swasy, is the next guest speaker for the Penn State Forum lecture at noon on Friday, Sept. 29, at the Penn Stater. The topic of her presentation is "Corporate Stupidity."She is assistant managing editor at the St. Petersburg Times and is author of "Soap Opera: The Inside Story of Procter & Gamble" and "Changing Focus: Kodak and the Battle to Save a Great American Company," both published by Random House. The Penn State Faculty Staff Club Forum is a lunchtime speaker series partially sponsored by the Penn State Bookstore and is open to the public. Tickets are $11 and include lunch. Reservations can be made by mail or by stopping by the Faculty Staff Club office at 103 HUB-Robeson Center. Tickets will be on sale at the door on a first-come, first-served basis. Lunch begins at 11:30 a.m. followed by the speech and a question-and-answer session at noon. For more information call (814) 865-7590 of go to http://www.psu.edu/dept/fsc/monthly.html
DAILY COLLEGIAN CREATES SCHOLARSHIP
The Daily Collegian has given $35,000 to Penn State to create the Collegian Alumni Hall of Fame Scholarship. The annual scholarship will provide recognition and financial assistance to outstanding graduate and undergraduate students who are members of The Daily Collegian's staff and who have a demonstrated need. The scholarship was named for the Collegian's Hall of Fame, which was established as part of the newspaper’s 100th anniversary celebration in 1987. The Collegian traces its history to the founding of the Free Lance in April of 1887. Gerry Hamilton, general manager of the Collegian, says working on the newspaper can be a large time commitment for students. Many must take on part-time jobs in addition to working for the paper and going to school full-time. To read the Collegian on-line, go to http://www.collegian.psu.edu.
COLLEGE TRADITIONS CONTEST ON ESPN.COM
Between now and Dec. 1, ESPN.com is holding the Tostitos College Football Sweepstakes for the best college traditions in three rounds of voting. Penn State’s entry is the flipping drum major, who does a forward roll at the 50-yard line and lands in splits — the quality of the landing is said to forecast the outcome of the game. In the first round, Penn State is pit against the "hook’em horns" sign that University of Texas fans make as they cheer. To learn more and to cast your vote early and often, go to http://promotions.go.com/espn/tostitos/frontpage.html
GIFT FOR STUDENT AID BRINGS WEISS GIVING TO $10 MILLION
William L. and Josephine Berry Weiss, Penn State alumni and longtime supporters of the University, recently pledged $3 million for student aid in the Colleges of Engineering and the Liberal Arts. Their pledge brings the total of the their commitments to the University to $10 million. William Weiss, chairman emeritus of Chicago-based Ameritech, an information and communication management company, is a 1951 graduate in industrial engineering and has served on Penn State’s Board of Trustees since 1994. He also served as vice chair of leadership gifts for Penn State’s Grand Destiny campaign, which aims to raise $1 billion in private support during the seven-year period ending June 30, 2003. Jo Weiss is a 1950 graduate with a degree in the liberal arts. For more on this story, go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/2000/7septbotweiss.html
STUDENT AND ALUMNI CAREER SERVICES A PSU PRIORITY
In 1999, 26,533 Penn State students participated in more than 400 career outreach programs and seminars at the University - a 6 percent increase in participation over the previous year. The Board of Trustees today (Sept. 7) heard an update on Penn State's Career Services from Jack Rayman, director of career services and affiliate professor of counseling psychology and education. Deborah Marron, director of alumni career services; and Monica Shutte, graduate student and student representative on the Career Center Building Committee also spoke Penn State's Career Services is one of the largest and most comprehensive career centers in the nation and had more than 1,130 employers conduct 20,578 student interviews on-campus last year. For the full story, go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/2000/7septbotcareer.html
EATON OUTLINES PROGRESS, CHALLENGES AT THE LIBRARIES
With information technology becoming an increasingly important component of teaching and scholarship, Penn State's libraries have made major improvements over the past 10 years to be able to operate in the high-speed environment of networked information. Nancy L. Eaton, dean of University Libraries, told Penn State's Board of Trustees today (Sept. 7) that the upgrades at the libraries provide state-of-the-art library services, including the delivery of electronic information. Eaton said that the libraries are moving from a philosophy that stresses local programming to a philosophy that stresses integration of software packages and inter-operability across software and hardware platforms. The libraries' original Library Information Access System (LIAS) -- an early pioneer in automated library systems -- has evolved from being a local system running separate functions to an umbrella system that includes a growing suite of applications software. For the full story, go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/2000/7septboteaton.html
DICKINSON LAW SCHOOL BENEFITS FROM PSU AFFILIATION
The Dickinson School of Law of The Pennsylvania State University continues to reap the benefits of its affiliation with Penn State while embracing the challenges of providing a high-quality legal education in an increasingly technology-driven environment, law school dean Peter G. Glenn told the Board of Trustees today (Sept. 7). Efforts in admissions and fund-raising of the law school are particularly successful in the wake of the merger that became official July 1. Overall applications have increased 75 percent in four years, including a 35 percent increase in the past year, and the credentials of the 184 members of this year's entering class have been higher. These successes are matched by an impressive increase in giving to the school. Recent gifts have created two endowed professorships, one endowed faculty chair and a scholarship program, which partially funds the tuition of three law students per year. Total giving to Dickinson since July 1997 is in excess of $11 million. For the full story, go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/2000/7septbotglenn.html