IN THE NEWS. Fariborz Ghadar, the Schreyer Chair of Global Business, and Harvard professor Pankaj Ghemawat wrote an opinion piece in today’s Wall Street Journal (July 27), "Hey, Deutche Telekom: Bigger Isn’t Necessarily Better." The two were also cited in an article on "Relentless Expansion" in the July 13 Wall Street Journal. They are authors of "The Dubious Logic of Global Megamergers," published in the Harvard Business Review. Go to http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/products/hbr/index.html for a summary
NEWSWIRE PLUS: CRANE TO LIFT SCOREBOARD
NewswirePLUS is bringing Beaver Stadium renovations to your desktop. The installation of a new 130-ton scoreboard, which will feature video replay capability, is scheduled to take place on Sunday, Aug. 6, weather permitting. Lifting the scoreboard into place will be a mammoth 1,000-ton, 340-foot tall crane – one of the two largest cranes in service in the country. For multimedia coverage of the event, go to NewswirePLUS at http://www.psu.edu/ur/stories/StadiumExpansion/index.html
SUMMER COMMENCEMENT AT UNIVERSITY PARK, AUG 5
Penn State will hold 2000 summer commencement ceremonies at University Park on Saturday, Aug. 5. As of July 14, an estimated 13 associate, 1,239 baccalaureate and 596 graduate degrees will be granted. Undergraduate ceremonies will begin at 10:30 a.m. in The Bryce Jordan Center and The Graduate School ceremonies will begin at 2:30 p.m. in Eisenhower Auditorium. Throughout the Penn State system, an estimated 237 students will graduate with associate degrees, 1,417 with baccalaureate degrees, and 756 with graduate degrees, for a University-wide total of 2,410 summer graduates.
HONORARY DEGREES FOR A HEAD START FOUNDER, JAZZ GREAT
At University Park, the Undergraduate Commencement speaker will be Urie Bronfenbrenner, a developmental psychologist, a founder of Head Start, and the Jacob Gould Sherman Professor Emeritus of Human Development and Family Studies and of Psychology at Cornell University. He will also receive an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree. The Graduate School Commencement speaker at University Park will be William "Billy" Taylor, jazz scholar and performer who is the Wilber D. Barrett Chair of Music at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale. He will also receive a Doctor of Fine Arts degree. For information about Urie Bronfenbrenner, go to www.people.cornell.edu/pages/ub11/. For information about Billy Taylor, go to http://205.153.39.175/programs/btaylor/billy.html For longer version of the story by Amy Neil go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/2000/graduationhonorarydegrees.html
200 TO GATHER FOR FIRST IST FACULTY ACADEMY
Two hundred educators from more than 50 colleges and universities around Pennsylvania will gather at the University Park campus on Wednesday, Aug. 2, for the first IST Faculty Academy in Information Technology. Sponsored by the School of Information Sciences and Technology. The two-day conference—Roadmap for Success in the 21st Century Classroom—is meant to provide faculty members and administrators the tools and knowledge they need to effectively use cutting-edge learning technologies. "Professors and college leaders everywhere are wrestling with the complex issues surrounding information technology and its use in teaching," said Fred Loomis, director of the IST Solutions Institute and coordinator of the Faculty Academy. The ultimate beneficiaries will be the students attending the Commonwealth’s colleges and universities. Organizers plan to make the Faculty Academy an annual event and create an ongoing community of practice. For more on this story by Charles DuBois, go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/2000/istfacultyacademy.html
STUDENTS MEDIATE CONSUMER CAMPLAINTS
The State College office of the Bureau of Consumer Protection is a unit of the Ebensburg Regional Office, which covers nine counties and annually receives some 3,000 complaints from residents who have problems with goods and services or company advertising. And lately, many of those resolving complaints are Penn State students. "Their first concern is to try to resolve the consumer's problem," E. Barry Creany, senior deputy attorney general in the Bureau of Consumer Protection and director of the Ebensburg Regional Office, said, and they have produced tremendous results." The student mediators have freed up agents for investigative and educational work and at the same time, students receive real-life experience and are given a great deal of responsibility. The student mediators come from a number of colleges, including the College of the Liberal Arts, The Smeal College and the Schreyer Honors College. On average, there are 11 or 12 mediators in the office each semester. According to Elena DeLuca, law school resource coordinator in the College of the Liberal Arts, volunteering in the complaint mediation unit gives students a taste of working in a legal environment and a taste of Pennsylvania law. She said it also helps with their written and oral skills and helps them refine their research skills. Go to the full story by Bill Campbell at http://www.psu.edu/ur/archives/intercom_2000/July27/complaint.html