Trustees Grapple with Cuts (up^)
Trustees and administrative leaders spent a grueling two days at the December 4-5 Board of Trustees meeting grappling with a financial crisis made more challenging by newly announced cuts from the state for the current fiscal year and the news that still further rescissions were likely to come. As they continued their planning for fiscal 2010, trustees were looking at a projected $28 million budget shortfall. Full story at http://www.uvm.edu/theview/article.php?id=2867.
MLK III to Highlight 2009 Holiday Commemoration (up^)
Human rights advocate and community activist Martin Luther King III will speak on Thursday, January 22, at 4 p.m. in Patrick Gymnasium as part of a multi-day celebration honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,. There will also be a special guest performance by the Burlington Ecumenical Gospel Choir. The event is free and open to the public but does require tickets, which will be made available according to the following schedule: Beginning Monday, January 12, tickets will be available to UVM students, faculty, and staff (one ticket for each UVM ID). Saturday, January 17, tickets are open to the general public with a limit of two per person. To find out more please contact the Hoffman information desk, Davis Center at (802) 656-4636. More information at http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=News&storyID=13214.
Student Newspaper Captures National Award (up^)
The Vermont Cynic, UVM's student-run weekly newspaper, placed among the top five weekly university tabloid newspapers at the National College Media Convention's Best of Show competition in Kansas City, Misssouri. The contest, which draws entries from around the country, is judged by local journalists and national judges based on criteria ranging from news value to photography to leadership. The top five newspapers in the competition, sponsored by Associated Collegiate Press and College Media Advisers, were from Guilford College in North Carolina, the University of North Florida, York University in Toronto and Elon University in North Carolina. The 6,000-circulation Cynic placed fifth in the 4-year weekly tabloid category. More at http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=News&storyID=13036.
UVM Scientist to Lead $5.5 Million Study on Arctic Meltdown (up^)
Across the Arctic, permafrost seems to be getting a lot less permanent. As stretches of once-frozen tundra melt, the underlying soil can collapse, leaving behind a bumpy landscape of hollows, hummocks and sinkholes that scientists call thermokarst. To understand the ecological impacts of these thermokarst failures, UVM watershed scientist Breck Bowden has begun a four-year research study. He's leading a group of 13 investigators from 10 universities to northern Alaska. Funded by $5.5 million from the National Science Foundation, $1 million of the grant will come to UVM. Full story at http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=News&storyID=13270.
$1 Million Grant to Launch "Universal Design" Program (up^)
A three-year, $1 million U.S. Department of Education grant won by UVM's College of Education and Social Services and Center on Disability and Community Inclusion will speed UVM's ability to integrate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) into its instructional ethos. The grant is timely: the reauthorization of the Higher Education Opportunity Act by Congress this summer mandates that all colleges receiving federal funding adopt the principles of UDL. Full story at http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=News&storyID=13019.
Scholarship Honors Former Vermont Education Commissioner (up^)
University of Vermont mathematics professor Kenneth I. Gross and his family have established a scholarship fund at the University of Vermont to honor the memory of Marc E. Hull, former Vermont Education Commissioner and one of Vermont's most beloved educators. In recognition of Dr. Hull's significant accomplishments and his impact on education in Vermont, Kenneth and Mary Lou Gross and their daughters Laura and Karen have established the Marc E. Hull Scholarship Fund with a $100,000 endowment. Though his untimely death in 2003 at age 61 deprived Vermont of a gifted educational leader, Marc Hull left a lasting impact on the quality of Vermont schools and advanced the ideal that every Vermont child should have access to a first-rate education. Full story at http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=News&storyID=13065.
UVM Offers Support for Vermont’s Refugee Community (up^)
According to Karen Fondacaro, director of UVM's Behavior Therapy and Psychotherapy Center, 50 to 80 percent of refugees — currently numbering some 5,000 in Vermont — are estimated to have significant mental health issues, primarily post-traumatic stress disorder, and symptoms related to anxiety and depression. So in July 2007 she stepped into the void. With a team of passionate graduate students, she launched Connecting Cultures, a groundbreaking clinical science program with three components — community outreach, direct mental health services, and research — that will allow them to formally assess their approach and offer a map for other refugee resettlement communities. To Fondacaro, the psychological and physical, spiritual and cultural are inseparable, fundamental aspects of survival. Full story at http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=News&storyID=13143.
Grasso Featured in EPA Report on Science Advisory Board Accomplishments (up^)
A soon-to-be published report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognizes the service and accomplishments of EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) members, including former SAB chair and dean of the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, Domenico Grasso. Grasso, an environmental engineer, served as vice chair of the EPA Science Advisory Board and chair of the EPA Science Advisory Board Committee on Valuing the Protection of Ecological Systems and Services from 1998 through 2007. He is also chair emeritus of the SAB Committee on Environmental Engineering. Grasso is featured in the report, "Science Advice for EPA — Current and Future Challenges," along with EPA Science Advisory Board colleagues from Harvard, Carnegie-Mellon, Stanford, Georgia Tech, and the World Bank. More at http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=News&storyID=13145.
Vega: Vermont’s Virtuoso (up^)
It seems somehow unlikely that trumpet virtuoso and lifelong New Yorker Ray Vega, one of world's great jazz and Latin jazz artists, would trade 47 years at the center of the jazz universe for a new start in the slightly smaller world of Burlington, Vermont. But the newest member of UVM's Jazz Studies Program, who began teaching at the university in September, has his reasons. Vega has been an admirer of the state and city since 2002, when he began serving as guest artist for the Flynn Theater's annual Latin Jazz camp, which brought him to Burlington from his home in the South Bronx for several weeks each summer. When a position opened in the Jazz Studies department last year, Vega jumped at the chance to move his young family to the area, to join an up-and-coming jazz program, and to immerse himself in a small but dynamic music scene. Full story at http://www.uvm.edu/theview/article.php?id=2849.
Winter Sports Update (up^)
Winter teams are in full swing, with the exception of the ski team, which begins its carnival season on January 23. The men's hockey team is currently ranked No. 11 in the country and is 9-3-2 overall and 6-3-1 in Hockey East — good for second place. The men's basketball team has played a tough non-conference schedule thus far and owns a record of 4-3 on the year. The Catamounts took Maryland into overtime on the Terps home floor and were also impressive versus George Mason at Patrick Gymnasium. Vermont opens up America East action on January 8 at Binghamton. The women's basketball team currently owns a record of 5-3, and its next three games are against Kent State, at Louisville, and at Florida. The Catamounts begin their conference schedule on January 7 against UMBC. The indoor track and field teams swept Hartford in the season opener in one of two home meets at Gardner-Collins Indoor Track and Field facility. The team returns to action on January 12 at the Dartmouth Relays. The women's swimming and diving team is 6-1 overall and 4-1 in America East and is unbeaten in its last five meets. The Catamounts return to the pool on January 10 at Dartmouth.
In Memoriam (up^)
The UVM community this fall: mourned the death of three students — third-year students Katherine Bichsel and Charles Ryan Frazier and second-year student Dustin Lussier — and two faculty and staff colleagues, Dale Kleppinger, Adjunct Professor in the School of Engineering, and Sarah Cooley, Senior Research Administrator in the Office of Sponsored Research. Their memory was honored with a moment of silence at the conclusion of President Fogel’s remarks during the December meeting of the Board of Trustees.
Campus Kudos (up^)
David Brock, assistant professor of rehabilitation and movement science, is lead author of a paper for publication in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health. Titled "Association Between Insufficiently Physically Active and the Prevalence of Obesity in the United States," the paper will be published in January 2009. Brock's co-authors on the study are Charles Cowan, former chief statistician for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and U.S. Department of Education and David Allison, president-elect of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity.
Kevin C. Chiang, associate professor of business administration, had an article accepted for publication in the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics. The article is titled "Discovering Reit Price Discovery: A New Data Setting.”
Mary Cushman, professor of medicine, and Neil Zakai, assistant professor of medicine, are co-authors on a paper in the October 2008 Journal of the American Geriatrics Society titled "Anemia Is Associated with the Progression of White Matter Disease in Older Adults with High Blood Pressure: The Cardiovascular Health Study." Cushman was also named the chair of the American Heart Association (AHA) Council on Epidemiology and Prevention. With this post, she serves on the Science Advisory and Coordinating Committee (SACC) of AHA. SACC reports to the AHA Board of Directors and in that function, serves as the final review group for all science statements or comments arising from the AHA, which publishes about 50 Scientific Statements and Guidelines each year.
Christopher Francklyn, professor of biochemistry, and Anand Minajigi, graduate student in biochemistry, published a paper titled "RNA-assisted catalysis in a protein enzyme: The 2′-hydroxyl of tRNAThr A76 promotes aminoacylation by threonyl-tRNA synthetase" in the November 7 Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).
John Hughes, professor of psychiatry and psychology, authored a paper that was recently identified by Essential Science Indicators as the highest cited paper in the research area of Nicotine Replacement Therapy, an honor which also indicates it is one of the most-cited recent papers in its field. Titled "A meta-analysis of the efficacy of over-the-counter, nicotine replacement," the paper was originally published in the journal Tobacco Control in March 2003.
A Q&A piece with Hughes, as corresponding author of this "Fast Moving Front" article is posted on the Thomson Reuters ScienceWatch® website for November 2008.
Jack Leahy, professor of medicine and chief of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism, is lead author of a November 21 Journal of Biological Chemistry paper titled "In Vivo and in Vitro Studies of a Functional Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor γ Response Element in the Mouse pdx-1 Promoter." Co-authors on the study include Dhananjay Gupta, postdoctoral associate in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism; Thomas Jetton, associate professor of medicine; and Mina Peshavaria, research assistant professor of medicine.
Awards and Honors
Robert Manning, professor of natural resources, is the first winner of the George Wright Society Social Science Achievement Award. This new award was established by the GWS Board of Directors to recognize outstanding achievements in social science research that influences management of parks, protected areas, and cultural sites.
Wolfgang Mieder, professor of German and Russian, published “Proverbs Speak Louder Than Words” Folk Wisdom in Art, Culture, Folklore, History, Literature and Mass Media, a collection of ten essays illustrating the significance of proverbs in the past and present. In addition, he contributed an article to a volume dedicated to the Nobel Prize-winning German author Günter Grass.
Jane Okech, assistant professor in the Counseling program (IPS) and her collaborators Megan Johnson (Cross Roads Counseling Services & Counseling Program Alumni), Deborah Rubel (Oregon State University), Randall Astramovich and Wendy Hoskins (University of Nevada, las Vegas) were honored with the Western Association for Counselor Education & Supervision (WACES) 2008 Research Award. The award recognized the contribution of their empirically based article “Doctoral research training of counselor education faculty,” which was published in the December 2006 issue of the Journal for Counselor Education & Supervision.
Mark Youndt, associate professor of business administration, was appointed to the editorial board of Journal of Management Studies, a global journal with a long established history of innovation and excellence in management research. Youndt and coauthors Caroline D’Abate (Skidmore College) and Kathryn Wenzel (Vitale, Caturano, and Company), had an article titled “Making the Most of an Internship: An Empirical Study of internship Satisfaction” accepted for publication in the Academy of Management Learning and Education Journal.
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