A SPECIAL TIME FOR SPECIAL PEOPLE
More than 2,000 athletes from throughout Pennsylvania will participate in the annual Special Olympics Pennsylvania's Summer Games, beginning today, June 7, through Saturday, June 9, at the University Park campus. This is the 14th consecutive year Penn State has hosted the games, and many of the 5,000 volunteers, coaches and spectators work for or are students at the University. For more information on the Summer Games, visit http://www.paso.org/events/summer.html.
EQUAL DOLLARS BUT NOT EQUAL TREATMENT
Consumer discrimination may be alive and well in the marketplace, notes Jerome D. Williams, associate professor of marketing in Penn State's Smeal College of Business Administration, in a chapter he co-authored for a recently released book, Marketing and Consumer Identity in Multicultural America (Sage Publications, Inc.). Generally speaking, African Americans believe there is discrimination in the marketplace while White Americans think that race has no impact on services provided, says Williams. In addition, Williams was a co-researcher on a survey of 1,000 households to determine perceptions of discrimination in the marketplace in which 86 percent of African Americans surveyed disagreed with the statement that all customers are treated the same in retail stores without regard to their race, while only 34 percent of whites disagreed with the statement. Of course, surveys only measure attitudes about differential treatment in the marketplace, not actual discrimination, Williams notes. For the full story by Steve Infanti, visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/news/depth/june01/equal.html.
REDUCING EMISSIONS MAY NOT REDUCE POLLUTION
Municipalities seeking to limit harmful air pollution typically target primary pollutants with the assumption that limiting sulfur dioxide, for example, will limit the formation of sulfate particulates in the air, but a team of Penn State meteorologists suggests that, depending on the location, other pollutants may actually be the limiting factors. Ariel Stein, graduate student in meteorology, and Dennis Lamb, professor of meteorology, looked at the variety of pollutants that figure into the formation of sulfate particles--including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds--and reported their findings May 31 at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Boston. The researchers found that the reactions involved are not linear and that reducing one component does not always reduce the target. They also realize that controlling a specific emission is not always possible. For the full story by A'ndrea Elyse Messer, visit http://www.psu.edu/ur/2001/lowersulfate.html.
ALZHEIMER'S IS TOPIC OF SPANIER CALL-IN SHOW
Coping with Alzheimer's disease is the topic of the next edition of To the Best of My Knowledge, Penn State President Graham Spanier's monthly call-in show airing at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 19, on WPSU-FM (91.5, 106.7, 95.1, 90.1, 100.9 and 104.7) and WPSX-TV Channel 3 in central Pennsylvania. Joining Spanier to discuss strategies for coping with Alzheimer's as well as the current understanding of the cause of the disease will be Steven Zarit, professor of human development at Penn State, and Creighton Phelps, Director of the Alzheimer's Disease Centers Program at the National Institutes of Health. Listeners and viewers with questions or comments are encouraged to join the discussion by calling (800) 543-8242 during the one-hour simulcast. Internet users worldwide will be able to link to sound and pictures from the program at http://www.psu.edu/ur/tech/tech.html; and they will be able to contact the program via E-mail to mailto:response@psu.edu.
COMMISSION FOR ADULT LEARNERS TAKES TO THE ROAD
Collecting information that will enhance adult learners' services throughout the University is the goal of a series of focus groups to be held this summer by Penn State's Commission for Adult Learners at the Harrisburg, Shenango and York campuses. The commission's data collection committee, with assistance from Donna Queeney, associate professor of adult education and chair elect of the commission, has developed a series of questions focusing on campus recruitment practices and socio-economic climates. A report detailing the focus groups results will be prepared this fall. For more information about the commission, visit http://www.sa.psu.edu/cals/commission/. Penn State's Center for Adult Learner Services, which helps adult learners who are thinking about beginning or returning to college or transferring from another institution or Penn State location, is at http://www.sa.psu.edu/cals/.
STUDENT CURATORS LEARNING ON THE JOB AT MUSEUMS
Nine Penn State students are among those selected to work at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission this summer. The students will hone their curatorial skills at various small museums situated in and around Pennsylvania. Students selected to participate are: M. Nicole Bangert, a graduate student at Penn State Harrisburg; Kevin Borove, a sophomore at Penn State Worthington Scranton; Natalie Branco, a junior at University Park; Aaron Dawes, a sophomore at Penn State Erie; Joseph Jarzab, a junior at Penn State Erie; Jennifer Kasunick, a graduate student at Penn State Harrisburg; Kim Samilo, a graduate student at Penn State Harrisburg; Amanda Weimer, a sophomore at University Park; and Matthew White, a junior at University Park. For the full story, visit http://www.psu.edu/ur/2001/histmus.html.