Alumni Association | Hawkeye Sports | National News | News Services | Photos | The Foundation | U of I
Blind professor helps others see another side to disabilities
Earlier in his career as a writer and college professor, Steve Kuusisto lost his job in a round of budget cuts. Blind since birth, Kuusisto contacted an agency that served people with impaired vision to ask for help transitioning to a new academic position. Their advice to him: "There's a factory down the road that makes plastic lemons. They hire blind people." Kuusisto managed to avoid the plastic lemon factory and unfold an impressive career as an author, educator and advocate for people with disabilities, a path that recently led him to the University of Iowa. More >>
Audio slideshow: http://www.uiowa.edu/~fyi/issues/issues2007_v44/02182008/fyi_story/
Photo gallery: http://www.uiowa.edu/~fyi/issues/issues2007_v44/02182008/photos/photofeature021808/index.htm
Professor: political punch lines are problematic
John Edwards' $400 haircut, Hillary's near-tears or George W. Bush's latest slip of the tongue make fine fodder for wisecracks by Leno, Letterman or Conan. But late-night comedians' constant shots at politicians do more damage than you might think, a University of Iowa professor asserts in his new book. More >>
Department of American Studies: http://www.uiowa.edu/~amstud/
UI students to 'Pay It Forward' on spring break service trip
Instead of basking on a beach over spring break, a group of University of Iowa students are performing community service projects across the United States as part of the Pay It Forward Tour March 13 to March 21. More >>
Students Today Leaders Forever: http://www.stlf.net/
Video Feature: New UI Golden Girl offers baton-twirling classes, carries on tradition
University of Iowa Hawkeye Marching Band Golden Girl and baton-twirling champion, Chelsea Russell, is putting her skills to good use by helping young students learn to twirl. Russell offers baton-twirling classes every Thursday night on the main level of the UI Field House through UI Recreational Services. Her hope is to inspire young twirlers in Iowa to improve their skills and have fun. More >>
Division of Recreational Services: http://www.recserv.uiowa.edu
UI Libraries' new digital collection features African-American women
The stories of African-American women are told in a new digital collection from the UI Libraries, "African American Women Students at the University of Iowa, 1910-1960," featuring 150 digitized artifacts, including photographs, scrapbooks, correspondence and oral history audio clips. More >>
Iowa Digital Library: http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/
UI researchers receive grant to develop enhanced prostate cancer vaccine
University of Iowa College of Pharmacy researcher Aliasger Salem, Ph.D., and UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine researcher David Lubaroff, Ph.D., have received a two-year, $337,500 exploratory grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop an enhanced vaccine to treat and prevent prostate cancer. More >>
Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center: http://www.uihealthcare.com/depts/cancercenter/
UI study: low-income women more likely to suffer from postpartum depression
Poor women in Iowa are much more likely to suffer from postpartum depression than their wealthier counterparts, a new University of Iowa study shows. In the study of 4,332 new mothers from four Iowa counties, UI psychologist Lisa Segre found that 40 percent of Iowa mothers with a household income less than $20,000 suffered from clinically significant postpartum depression. In contrast, only 13 percent of new mothers with a household income of $80,000 or more were considered clinically depressed. More >>
Department of Psychology: http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/
Study: rare syndrome provides clues on obesity, blood pressure
University of Iowa researchers have found a clue about how resistance to the hormone leptin might disrupt the brain signals that tell the body when to stop eating. The research, which focused on the rare genetic disorder Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS), also found an association between leptin resistance and high blood pressure. The findings, which were based on mouse models developed at the UI, have implications for treating BBS as well as obesity and high blood pressure in people without BBS. More >>
Department of Internal Medicine: http://www.int-med.uiowa.edu/
Video feature: Dancers in Company kicks off season
Dancers in Company, the University of Iowa Dance Department's touring repertory company, kicked off its 2008 season with its "home concert" March 6-8 on the UI campus ahead of its tour of Iowa and the Midwest, which runs from March through June. More >>
Department of Dance: http://dance.uiowa.edu/
2008 Iowa Summer Writing Festival is now accepting registrations
The Iowa Summer Writing Festival at the University of Iowa is now accepting registrations for its 2008 sessions. Weeklong and weekend workshops including fiction, poetry, nonfiction and playwriting will run from June 8 through July 25. In all, 130 noncredit workshops will be held. More >>
Arts Iowa Calendar: http://www.uiowa.edu/artsiowa/
Iowa City in list of top 10 up-and-coming tech centers (Forbes, March 10)
Iowa City is ranked eighth in a list of the top 10 up-and-coming tech centers, saying the city is "a hotbed of new technologies in health care and renewable energy." The Grow Iowa Values Fund puts up $2 million a year to support the IOWA CENTERS FOR ENTERPRISE at the UNIVERSITY OF IOWA. Philip Auerswald, professor of public policy at George Mason University, surveyed regional innovation trends across the U.S. and made the list of up-and-coming tech centers. More >>
Iowa Centers for Enterprise: http://www.enterprise.uiowa.edu/
Oscar-winner Cody is UI alumna (Chicago Sun Times, Feb. 26)
A story about screenwriter Diablo Cody, who won an Oscar in February for best original screenplay for her movie "Juno," notes that she is a graduate of the UNIVERSITY OF IOWA, where she hosted a pre-dawn radio show. More >>
The Writing University: http://at-lamp.its.uiowa.edu/virtualwu/index.php
Frantz: nursing faculty shortage 'a crisis' (Omaha World-Herald, Feb. 22)
A story about Iowa's nursing shortage notes that the University of Iowa, the state's largest four-year nursing program, turns away about 63 percent of its applicants annually. RITA FRANTZ, the school's dean, said she can't boost enrollment until she finds qualified teachers to fill about 10 positions, most of which have been vacant for several years. In all, Iowa has about 100 nursing faculty vacancies, according to the Iowa Nurses' Association. "We have a crisis, literally, in the area of faculty shortage," Frantz said. And the real trouble may be yet to come. The university's nursing faculty, like many others across the country, is made up mostly of 50- and 60-year-olds nearing retirement. More >>
College of Nursing: http://www.nursing.uiowa.edu/
Coffman: senior bands benefit older musicians (CNN, Feb. 22)
A story about the New Horizons International Music Association, which sponsors senior bands and orchestras in the United States and Canada, notes that University of Iowa professor DON COFFMAN created his own senior band and conducts research into how music can benefit older musicians. His findings: Benefits include social, emotional, physical and even spiritual growth. In part, Coffman found, seniors benefit from being part of a group that works together toward a significant goal. Other plusses can include better ability to focus, increased lung capacity and improved fine motor skills. More >>
School of Music: http://www.uiowa.edu/~music/index.html
College of Education Music Education Teacher Certification: http://www.education.uiowa.edu/musiced/
Video Feature: UI graduate student working to help Kenyans back home
In December University of Iowa graduate student Wangui Gathua traveled to her native Kenya to visit family and friends over the winter break only to find herself caught up in the violent aftermath of the disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki. What Gathua saw both shocked her and spurred her to action. The third-year doctoral student in the UI College of Education's Department of Counseling, Rehabilitation and Student Development has created the Kenyan Humanitarian Fund, a branch of the School Outreach Community Based Organization, to help those back home. More >>
Remarkable people: Jerry Slezak
If you ever park in Lot 33 near the Dental Science Building, you know Jerry Slezak. He's the guy in the cashier's booth who welcomes you with a wave, whose Hawaiian shirts take the chill off a winter morning, who spouts a stream of well-worn jokes, and who's been known to accept stamps or even soda cans when you're short on cash. "If I can take a second to make someone smile or laugh, maybe they'll pass it on," says Slezak, who's worked at The University of Iowa nearly 40 years and last fall earned the University's Outstanding Staff Award. More >>
Profile: John Geweke, Tippie College of Business/College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
"Will there be a recession?" John Geweke gets that question a lot lately, and he knows why. He's an economist and director of the Institute for Economic Research in the Tippie College of Business, so people assume that with his finger on the pulse of the economy, he can confirm or deny that the news from the dismal science is as dismal as they hear. And he replies with the only reasonable answer possible: who knows? More >>
Related: UI Financial aid director: no loan shortfall for UI students
http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2008/march/031408financial_aid.html
HawkeyeSports.com: http://hawkeyesports.collegesports.com/
UI News Services: http://news.uiowa.edu
UI Website: http://www.uiowa.edu/
UI National News Highlights: http://www.uiowa.edu:80/~ournews/national.html
UI Alumni Association: http://www.iowalum.com
UI Foundation: http://www.uifoundation.org
UI Photos: http://www.uiowa.edu/~urphopix
UI NEWS DIGEST - For University of Iowa news on a daily basis, you are invited to subscribe to the UI NEWS DIGEST by following these instructions:
Point your Web browser at
http://list.uiowa.edu/archives/ui-news.html, click the link that says "Join or leave the list (or change settings)," and follow the instructions. Alternately, you can subscribe via email. To do so:
1. Send your request to mailto:listserv@list.uiowa.edu
2. In the body of the message, write "subscribe ui-news"
@IOWA is a MONTHLY email newsletter of Iowa news summaries prepared through a joint effort of University News Services, the UI Alumni Association, and the UI Foundation.
Editor: Stephen Pradarelli, email: stephen-pradarelli@uiowa.edu
Production: Communications, UI Alumni Association
Subscribe | Unsubscribe | Update My Information | Archives
The University of Iowa Alumni Association,
One West Park Road, Iowa City, Iowa 52246
Phone: 319-335-3294 or 800-469-2586