This Month's Top Stories . . .
Tragedy Strikes at Redstone Apartments (up^)
A carbon monoxide leak at the privately owned Redstone Apartment complex on Sunday, January 30, left one resident dead and sent six others -- three of them UVM students -- to regional medical facilities for treatment. Four of the hospitalized were released to their families the same day. UVM student Kerry Anne McCarthy, 20, of Montpelier, Vermont, was in critical condition for several days but showed remarkable improvement by the middle of the following week and was released to her family on Thursday, February 3. She is expected to make a complete recovery. Ginger Aldrich, 22, of Waterford, Vermont, remains under evaluation at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire. Killed in the incident was Jeffrey Rodliff, 23, of St. Johnsbury, Vermont. The carbon monoxide leak is believed to have been caused by a problem with the heating system of the building, part of the Redstone Apartment complex. Redstone Apartments are located on University of Vermont land leased to a private company that owns and operates the facility. In response to the incident, all residents of the complex were evacuated, and students returned to the complex only after the owner had replaced all heating systems and installed carbon monoxide detectors throughout all buildings, and all appropriate local and state officials, including the Burlington Fire Department, officially found the apartments safe for occupancy. The University community was kept up to date on developments in the incident and subsequent investigation on the University Communications website at http://www.uvm.edu/news/.
Commencement Speaker, Honorees Announced (up^)
Ruth Simmons, president of Brown University, will deliver the graduation address at the University of Vermont's 2005 Commencement on Sunday, May 22. The ceremony will be held on the University Green, a tradition renewed with the university's 200th commencement a year ago. When Ruth Simmons assumed the presidency of Brown University in July 2001 she became the first black woman to lead an Ivy League institution. Simmons' story, her rise from a Texas sharecropping family to the Brown presidency, has made her one of the nation's most inspiring and visible higher education leaders. In addition to Simmons, honorary degrees will be awarded to Lilian Baker Carlisle, a well-known Vermont historian, author, and antiques appraiser; Herbert Bormann, professor emeritus at Yale University and a pioneering ecosystem ecologist who has devoted much of his career to the study of New England's forests; Thomas Cech, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1989 and president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and Adam Clymer, veteran New York Times journalist now serving as visiting scholar and political director of the National Annenberg Election Survey. Read more at http://www.uvm.edu/news/?Page=News&storyID=5814.
UVM Again a Top Peace Corps Producer (up^)
The Peace Corps, the United States government's international service program, announced in January that the University of Vermont had returned to its top 25 list for volunteer-producing colleges. UVM ranked 24th for medium schools, a position shared with Duke University, Emory University, Harvard University, and Marquette University. Twenty-three alumni of each of these institutions currently serve as Peace Corps volunteers. Since Peace Corps' inception, 670 Vermont graduates have volunteered to spend two-year terms overseas working on issues including education, health, HIV/AIDS education and prevention, information technology, business development, the environment and agriculture. The University of Wisconsin at Madison was the overall top producer for large colleges, with 123 volunteers serving in the field. For medium schools, UVM's category, the University of Virginia provided the most current volunteers at 84. The University of Chicago is atop the small-school volunteer list with 39. Small schools are those with less than 5,000 undergraduates, medium-size schools are those between 5,001 to 15,000 undergraduates, and large schools are those with more than 15,000 undergraduates. See the complete list at http://www.peacecorps.gov/news/resources/stats/pdf/schools2005.pdf.
Civil Rights Case Puts Professor's Book in Spotlight (up^)
Emeritus Professor Howard Ball doesn't pull any punches when expressing his feelings about the recent indictment of Baptist preacher Edgar Ray Killen for the orchestration of the murders of three young civil rights workers by Klansmen in 1964. "It was nice to finally see (him) in chains," he says. Ball is an expert on what is considered one of the nation's most notorious civil-rights-era crimes, which was the subject of the 1988 film "Mississippi Burning." The re-opening of the case just months after the release of his latest book, Murder in Mississippi: U.S. v. Price and the Struggle for Civil Rights (University Press of Kansas) on the 40th anniversary of the murders has kept him busy as an expert commentator on the case for major media organizations nationwide. Ball has followed the case most of his life hoping for another trial. Full story at http://www.uvm.edu/theview/article.php?id=1468.
UVM Student on NBC's "The Jane Pauley Show" (up^)
First-year student Ashleigh Crowe appeared on an episode titled "Changing the World" of NBC's "The Jane Pauley Show" on January 31. Crowe, who was featured on the program with her younger sister, founded an international charitable group known as Ashleigh's Student Army when she was only 12. She asked the show's audience to join her still-thriving cause to prove that "by helping to change a small corner of the world...teenagers can make a positive difference in society." Crowe, 19, and her sister Amanda, 14, were lauded as being "nationally recognized for the outstanding volunteer services, which they began when they were only in elementary school. From book drives to building houses in the Dominican Republic, these two will inspire you to stop putting it off and lend a helping hand." Read more at http://www.uvm.edu/theview/article.php?id=1501.
UVM Center Earns Higher Education Excellence Award (up^)
The Center for Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Vermont is among the winners of the 2005 New England Higher Education Excellence Awards announced by the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE). Established in 1994, the center integrates UVM and community expertise to promote sustainable farming systems throughout Vermont and New England. "The UVM Center for Sustainable Agriculture is a true leader in sustainable agriculture in New England," commented NEBHE President and CEO, Evan S. Dobelle. The awards ceremony takes place February 25, 2005, at Boston's Fairmont Copley Plaza. Full story at http://www.uvm.edu/news/?Page=News&storyID=5909.
UVM People in the News (up^)
Research in Brazil's rain forest led by James Petersen, associate professor of anthropology, was the subject of a lengthy feature article in the December 3 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education. Petersen and colleagues are excavating sites rich in terra preta, fertile soil that they believe indicates the existence of early civilizations in the region. "We're providing the proof," said Petersen, who has spent the past ten years conducting research in the Brazilian Amazon. For other recent stories by and about UVM people in the national and regional news media see http://www.uvm.edu/news/?Page=News&storyID=5774.
Basketball Catamounts Slated for Several National Telecasts (up^)
UVM's men's basketball Catamounts are on a tear and will appear on several
nationally distributed television programs in the coming days and weeks.
With an 82-55 victory over Stony Brook Wednesday evening in Patrick
Gymnasium, the Cats extended their record win streak to 15 and now share
with Utah the nation's second longest active winning streak, behind
Illinois (24). Vermont's T.J. Sorrentine (Pawtucket, R.I.) and Taylor
Coppenrath (West Barnet, Vt.) are now the nation's top-scoring duo. The
Catamounts lost the first televised matchup against Boston University on
Saturday, February 12, adding the first loss to the team's season record
and ending its run as the lone unbeaten team in the America East. UVM
still holds a one-game lead over BU in the division standings. This
Saturday, February 19, the Catamount men will take on the University of
Nevada as part of ESPN's "Bracket Buster Saturday." The game will be shown
on ESPN2 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time. UVM is the first school from the
America East conference selected for the annual event. Details at
http://www.uvm.edu/athletics/mens_basketball/?Page=News&storyID=5915.
The men's hoopsters will also be featured on "The Season," a nationally
televised show produced by ESPN that runs weekly on ESPN2. The Catamounts
will be featured in three episodes of the popular show with the first
airing on ESPN2 on Tuesday, February 15, at 11:00 p.m. (all times Eastern)
with a replay on Wednesday, February 16, at 2:30 a.m. The second show will
be on ESPN2 on Tuesday, February 25, at 11:30 p.m., with a replay on
Friday, February 25, at 1:30 a.m. The final episode will be on later in
March. Details at
http://www.uvm.edu/athletics/mens_basketball/?Page=News&storyID=5917.
Campus Kudos (up^)
Samuel Asiedu-Addo, a visiting faculty in residence at Africa House and lecturer in mathematics and statistics, was selected as a "modern-day technology leader" by the Council of Engineering Deans of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The award will be presented at the 19th annual Black Engineer of the Year awards conference luncheon February 18 in Baltimore.
Gale Burford, professor of social work, published a chapter titled, "Steun van de gemeenschap en steun van een professional: wat helpt wanneer?" ("Community care and professional care: What helps when?") in Van je familie moet je het hebben: Nieuwe perspectieven in de jeugdzorg en het jeugdstrafrecht.
Sara Helms Cahan, assistant professor of biology, and colleagues from the University of Lausanne, University of Arizona and Ohio State University, published a paper titled "Loss of Phenotypic Plasticity Generates Genotype-Caste Association in Harvester Ants" in the December 29, 2004 issue of the journal Current Biology.
Michael Caputo, director of information technology at the College of Medicine, and Dr. Michael Ricci, Roger H. Albee professor of surgery, co-authored a chapter titled "Trauma and Emergency Care" in A Guide to Getting Started in Telemedicine, which was recently published by the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Daniel Gade, Emeritus Professor of Geography, published an article, "Tradition, Territory, and Terroir in French Viniculture: Cassis, France, and Appellation Controlee," in Annals of the Association of American Geographers Vol.94 (2004), pp. 848-867.
Berta Geller, research professor of family medicine is a co-author of a December 16 Journal of the National Cancer Institute article titled "Biennial Versus Annual Mammography and the Risk of Late-Stage Breast Cancer."
Elizabeth Greene, associate professor of animal sciences and Extension equine specialist, and Josephine Trot, a post-doctoral associate, published a paper, "The Self-Guided Horse Facility Analysis: A Proactive Safety Education Tool for Equine Facilities," in the December issue of the Journal of Extension.
Kenneth Gross, professor of mathematics and education, has been appointed by the United States Department of Education to the steering committee that will advise the department on a new Title I initiative in mathematics. Title I serves 15 million students in 48,000 schools in 13,000 school districts.
Jane Kolodinsky, professor and chair of Community Development and Applied Economics and co-director of the Center for Rural Studies, was awarded the 2005 American Council on Consumer Interest's Applied Consumer Economics Paper award for her article, "Affect or Information? Labeling Policy and Consumer Valuation of rBST Free and Organic Characteristics of Milk."
Third-year medical student Arash Koochek was named a member of the National Institutes of Health's 2004-2005 Clinical Research Training Program class. CRTP is a year-long residential program designed to attract the most creative, research-oriented medical and dental students to the intramural campus of the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland.
David Maughan, research professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, is co-author of a report published in the January 20 issue of Nature titled "Molecular dynamics of cyclically contracting insect flight muscle in vivo." Maughan and colleagues at Illinois Institute of Technology and Caltech hope that their findings will aid in understanding human heart function.
Barbara McIntosh, associate professor of business administration, has been appointed by the National Council on the Aging board to the NCOA's Leadership Council. She has also had an article, "Measuring the Nursing Workforce: Definitions and Pilot Survey Results," accepted for publication in Medical Care Research and Review. Co-authors include Kyndaron Reinier (College of Medicine), MaryVal Palumbo (College of Nursing and Health Sciences), Betty Rambur (College of Nursing and Health Sciences), Jane Kolodinsky (College of Agriculture and Life Science), Laurie Hurowitz (Area Health Education Center) and Takamaru Ashikaga (College of Medicine).
Wolfgang Mieder, professor and chair of German and Russian, has published an article on "Der frühe Vogel und die goldene Morgenstunde: Zu einer deut¬schen Sprichwortentlehnung aus dem Angloamerikanischen" in Etymologie, Entlehnungen und Entwicklungen. Mieder also edited The Netherlandish Proverbs: an International Symposium on the Pieter Brueg(h)els, an illustrated volume of the proceedings of the international symposium held at UVM last year.
Giuseppe Petrucci, assistant professor of chemistry, received national recognition for his work developing the PERCI aerosol mass spectrometer to analyze organic atmospheric particles in the "Analytical Currents" section of the journal Analytical Chemistry.
Dr. David Rettew, assistant professor of psychiatry, is lead author of a December 2004 Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics paper titled "Associations between Temperament and DSM-IV Externalizing Disorders in Children and Adolescents." The paper's co-authors include Catherine Stanger, research associate professor of psychiatry, and James Hudziak, associate professor of psychiatry.
Annie Stevens, assistant vice president of student and campus life, was selected to be one of three senior student affairs practitioners for the American College Personnel Association, the nation's largest student affairs professional organization.
Robert Tyzbir, professor of nutrition and food sciences, was awarded the 2004 United States Department of Agriculture's Food and Agriculture Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award in a ceremony at the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges annual meeting in San Diego. Tyzbir also published an article in the charter issue of a new sports magazine, Varsity New England.
In Memoriam (up^)
A memorial service for Emily K. Fletcher was held on Friday, January 28, at the Ira Allen Chapel. Fletcher, a 21-year-old junior double-majoring in nutrition and food sciences and dietetics, died in a car accident near Bethel, Maine on December 18. She was on her way home for the holidays.
Virginia Davis Cochran '50, matriarch of the legendary "Skiing Cochrans" family, died Saturday, February 5, 2005. She and her husband Mickey Cochran '48 had close ties to the University of Vermont over many years and shared an honorary degree from UVM in 1986 for their contributions to Vermont skiing. Mickey Cochran died in 1998.
Dateline UVM Would Like to Hear from You (up^)
Send comments, questions, and address changes to Dateline UVM Editor Jay Goyette (jay.goyette@uvm.edu). To indicate your preference of HTML or text, or to unsubscribe from Dateline UVM, send an e-mail to: Dateline@uvm.edu
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