DISPATCH FROM SOUTH AFRICA: POOREST OF THE POOR
A small class of Penn State students is spending two weeks studying post-apartheid media systems in South Africa. Led by Anthony Olorunnisola, professor of communications, and funded in part by the Schreyer Honors College and the Office of Educational Equity, the students have agreed to give Newswire readers a glimpse into their experiences. The second dispatch is from Amanda Wetzel, a Schreyer Honors Scholar and senior who is majoring in international politics:

Soweto – With the fall of apartheid, black citizens can move freely about the country. As a result, “informal settlements” have developed in former black townships like Soweto, the closest black township to Johannesburg. Local guides took us to sites where some of the worst abuses of apartheid took place. We visited a Catholic church where police murdered hundreds of black African children who were holding an anti-apartheid meeting. The history of the place was moving. You could feel the pain in the building as our guide spoke of his friends who died in that demonstration. Within the history of repression, however, the guide showed us hope found in a World Children’s Organization marker, with a message for peace. It’s remarkable that, given all of the violence against black South Africans, a relatively peaceful transition continues.

I was not prepared for the level of poverty that I witnessed in the informal settlements where children defecate on the streets, people live in makeshift shacks, and a non-governmental organization (NGO) provides one daily meal to sustain the settlement children’s nutrition. As we drove through this settlement, children ran to our van. If 30 percent of the world’s population lives in poverty, we met some of the poorest of the poor in South Africa--we met people who need more assistance than I could ever have imagined. We met people living with the AIDS epidemic, but who must first worry about providing their children with water.

For the full dispatch, visit http://www.psu.edu/ur/2002/africadispatchindex.html.

METRO AREAS DIFFER IN RECEPTIVITY TO IMMIGRANTS
Immigrants to the United States find the most welcoming climate from native residents of cities mostly on the East Coast and in the Midwest, according to a Penn State study. Of native-born Americans living in the 20 major metropolitan areas, those in Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Seattle and Washington, D.C. are the most open to immigrants. Positive attitudes toward immigrants are also to be found in Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh and St. Louis. On the other hand, native-born Americans living in Dallas, San Diego, San Francisco and Tampa express the least receptive attitudes toward immigrants, while citizens of Boston, Houston and Los Angeles have generally cool attitudes toward immigrants. Gordon F. De Jong, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Demography, and Quynh-Giang Tran, doctoral candidate in sociology and demography, co-authored a paper on the topic for a recent issue of Population Today. For the full story by Paul Blaum, visit http://www.psu.edu/ur/2002/Immigrants.html.

SMEAL’S “SURVIVOR”-LIKE CEO SIMULATION RETURNS
“Survivor” is back on CBS and in Penn State’s Smeal College of Business Administration. The CBS show places contestants on an island for a shot at a million-dollar prize, while “Smeal Survivor II” puts 21 students in the roles of CEOs who must navigate an ever-changing business landscape. Just like on the hit show, participants are “voted off” by their peers. “This program gives students the opportunity to test their mettle as CEOs by challenging them to cope with and react to the driving forces that will transform the business world,” explains Jackie Fowler, coordinator of student organizations for the Smeal College. The event, co-sponsored with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, will take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 2, in the Nittany Lion Inn Ballroom on Penn State’s University Park campus. It is free and open to the public. The simulation accelerates time through the next 25 years as seven global revolutions challenge the strategy of international leaders in commerce. For the full story, visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/news/depth/march02/survivor.html.

MARKER LECTURES IN MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES BEGIN
William Timothy Gowers, the Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University in England, will present the 2002 Russell Marker Lectures in the Mathematical Sciences March 11-14 at Penn State. The series of four free public lectures on “Combinatorics and its Connections with Other Fields of Mathematics” is sponsored by the Department of Mathematics and the Eberly College of Science. The series includes a lecture for a general audience on “Can Mathematics Be Taught?” at 8 p.m. today (March 11) in 109 Osmond Laboratory on the University Park campus. Growers also will present three specialized lectures, all in 109 Osmond Laboratory at 4:30 p.m., including “Arithmetic Progressions of Length Three” on Tuesday, March 12; “Arithmetic Progressions of Length Four” on Wednesday, March 13; and “What Can Be Said about a General Banach Space?” on Thursday, March 14. For the full story, visit http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/MarkerMath3-2002.htm.

“PRESIDENTS, POLITICS, AND POWER” SERIES OFFERED
Theodore Roosevelt assumed the presidency in 1901, following the assassination of William McKinley. A Republican, Roosevelt shocked big business by immediately bringing suit against J. Pierpont Morgan, Amercia’s most powerful financier. This action was the opening salvo in a broad series of federal initiatives designed to regulate the power of businesses that dominated turn-of-the century America. Roosevelt is the focus of the first in a six-part film and discussion series on “Presidents, Politics, and Power: American Presidents Who Shaped the 20th Century.” The series is free and open to the public, and will be held in Foster Auditorium, 101 Pattee Library on the University Park campus. The first film is offered at 7 p.m. today (March 11). The series is a partnership between Schlow Memorial Library and the Social Sciences Library of Penn State’s University Libraries. For more information, visit http://www.libraries.psu.edu/crsweb/docs/presidents or call (814) 865-4861.