UI Offers Alumni Free 30-Day E-learning Trial

Under a contract with SkillSoft, the world's largest e-learning provider, the university is now offering alumni a FREE 30-day e-learning trial. Alumni will have unlimited personal usage of 300 courses and hundreds of job aids, ranging from communication and leadership topics to software applications and Web design training. Project Management Institute or Microsoft IT certification-preparation subscriptions also are available separately. Courses are designed to offer broad-based professional development in an interactive, Windows-based format. While courses are non-credit bearing, continuing education units (CEUs) and skill-mastery assessments will be available. To register for your free 30-day trial, visit http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/skillsoft

Beer, Wine Will Be Allowed Within Kinnick Indoor Premium Seating Areas

Beer and wine sales and consumption will be allowed within the indoor premium seating and suites that will be part of the renovations to Kinnick Stadium, the home of the University of Iowa football team, UI President David Skorton has announced. Sales and consumption of hard liquor will not be allowed in those areas, and alcohol consumption will not be allowed in the premium seats that are located outdoors. Skorton also announced that no alcohol will be served in either the UI President's or the UI Athletic Department's suites. The University of Iowa Foundation has also decided against serving alcohol in its suite, he said. More >>
Kinnick Stadium Renovation: http://www.uiowa.edu/~fyi/issues2004_v42/09032004/

"A Nation Deceived" Report Argues Gifted Children Often Kept Behind

The University of Iowa's Connie Belin & Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development has released "A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America's Brightest Students," a national report that calls on K-12 educators to be more proactive, and less reactive, in identifying and assisting gifted students in reaching their full potential through such academic acceleration methods as grade-skipping and Advanced Placement courses. More >>
BELIN-BLANK Center: http://www.uiowa.edu/~belinctr/

UI Biologists Receive $1.6 Million NSF Tree Of Life Grant

Two University of Iowa researchers have received a grant to pursue an unrealized dream of famed 19th century naturalist Charles Darwin — to unravel the genealogy of all living things. Debashish Bhattacharya, principal investigator and associate professor, and John Logsdon, co-principal investigator and assistant professor in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Department of Biological Sciences and the Roy J. Carver Center for Comparative Genomics, have received a five-year, $1.6 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to help scientists construct a family tree for all life on Earth. More >>
Department of Biological Sciences: http://www.biology.uiowa.edu/
Roy J. Carver Center for Comparative Genomics: http://www.biology.uiowa.edu/ccg/
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: http://www.clas.uiowa.edu/

UI Campaign Reaches Goal of 100 New Endowed Faculty Positions

Private gifts to the University of Iowa's $1 billion "Good. Better. Best. Iowa" campaign have created 100 new UI endowed faculty positions since the campaign began in 1999, reaching its original goal for such positions 15 months before the campaign ends on Dec. 31, 2005. More >>

New UI Hospitals And Clinics Technology To Enhance Medication Safety

University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics leaders have announced that they have agreed to purchase the Bridge MedPoint system that will allow nurses to electronically scan bar codes on medications at the patient's bedside prior to administration to prevent errors. More >>
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics: http://www.uihealthcare.com/index.html

Stinski To Receive UI's First Distinguished Inventor Award

Mark Stinski, Ph.D., University of Iowa Distinguished Professor of Microbial Virology, has been named the first recipient of the University of Iowa Distinguished Inventor Award. More >>
Department of Microbiology: http://www.medicine.uiowa.edu/microbiology/

UI Researchers Receive Funding For Cardiovascular Research Projects

Researchers in the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine recently received funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for interdisciplinary cardiovascular research projects. More >>
Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine: http://www.medicine.uiowa.edu/

Visual Enhancement Technology Is Now Available At Hancher

In a fortuitous convergence of art and science, the University of Iowa Hancher Auditorium and the UI Center for Macular Degeneration (CMD) have collaborated to provide cutting-edge visual enhancement technology, free of charge, to audience members at events in Hancher. More >>
Center for Macular Degeneration: http://www.c4md.org/
Hancher Auditorium: http://www.hancher.uiowa.edu/

Forkenbrock Studies Fees for Miles Driving Tax
(Houston Chronicle, Oct. 4)

Paying your road taxes in the future might depend more on how much you drive than how much gasoline you pump. Texas is among a group of states researching how to replace the fuel tax with a fee based on the number of miles traveled — making every road a virtual tollway. Transportation officials from across the world discussed the concept here at last month's annual meetings of the trade groups representing the highway and tollway industries. Fees for miles traveled would be measured by Global Positioning System receivers embedded in vehicles. The system would track which roads a motorist uses so the virtual tolls could be distributed to the appropriate agency. Each jurisdiction could set its own per-mile fee. Data would be downloaded from vehicles monthly for billing, or could be transmitted at service stations in lieu of the gas tax. DAVID FORKENBROCK, director of the University of Iowa Public Policy Center, has been working on a model for four years. His research is funded by 15 states, including Texas, and the Federal Highway Administration. As more hybrid and alternative-power vehicles are built, Forkenbrock said, gas-tax collections will suffer. "A tax at the point of purchase is inferior to user charges at the exact point of travel," he said, explaining the growth of toll roads in recent years. More >>
Public Policy Center: http://ppc.uiowa.edu/

Dreher Comments On Applicant Deluge
(Omaha World-Herald, Sept. 29)

With Iowa's nursing shortage expected to worsen as baby boomers grow older, nursing schools have been deluged with applicants, forcing the programs to create waiting lists or turn away applicants. At the same time, college officials say, they are concerned that at some point a flood of nursing graduates might outnumber available jobs. The University of Iowa College of Nursing turned away 150 qualified applicants this semester. MELANIE DREHER, dean of the nursing college, said the university doesn't have enough faculty to accept more than the 75 students who enter the program twice each year. This year, 500 students were on waiting lists in Iowa. More >>
College of Nursing: http://www.nursing.uiowa.edu/

Lutz Comments on Crying at Work
(Chicago Tribune, Oct. 6)

In an article about women crying at work, TOM LUTZ, an English professor at the University of Iowa and author of Crying: A Natural and Cultural History of Tears (W.W. Norton & Co.), says if women cry more than men, it is due mostly to social conditioning. "I think the cultural forces at work are much more powerful than the biological ones," Lutz says. Social rules govern which group can cry for what reason, he says, so that in the U.S., "men are expected to cry more often from pride, for instance, than women are, but men are never supposed to cry from frustration, while women can." Tears are often are a "sign of submission," Lutz notes. "Since women are conditioned to be more subservient than men, they are 'allowed' to cry more often." As females become less subservient, Lutz believes, the frequency of female crying changes. To stop unwanted tears, Lutz says women should "refuse to accept the social role that makes crying appropriate." The article also appeared in the SUN-SENTINEL based in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. More >>
Department of English: http://www.english.uiowa.edu/

Watson: Opposites Don't Attract
(Indianapolis Star, Oct. 9)

Few couples' differences are illustrated as overtly as Jeff and Mandy Sequin's. They've drawn a line — quite literally. Down the middle of a game room. Jeff is a diehard Notre Dame fan; Mandy cheers for her alma mater, Ohio State. Overcoming a sports rivalry may be a fairly innocuous task in a marriage. Some differences are harder to deal with. Chuck Chamness and his wife, Briget Polichene Chamness, are members of opposing political parties. They're both active in politics, and at one point worked across the aisle from one another on Capitol Hill. Chuck, a Republican, is resigned to the fact that he'll never have a Republican wife. Briget doesn't see their political differences as a problem. "It can be more fun to talk with him about the presidential debates than (with) a room full of Democrats," she said. "Who wants to hear nothing but opinions of people who agree with you?" Few, perhaps. But all that stuff about how opposites attract is nonsense, according to a study published in the Journal of Personality. Researchers studied 291 newlywed couples and found that most had similar personalities, intelligence, values and political and religious attitudes. "About the only issue where we found opposites were complementary was in the trait of introverting and extroverting," said DAVID WATSON, professor of psychology at the University of Iowa. "It's hard to have two people talking at the same time. Someone has to be quietly listening while the other one is gabbing." More >>
Department of Psychology: http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/

Voices Of Freedom

Dozens of recently discovered court documents and a passionate UI law professor shed light on the American slave experience.
More >>

50 Years Ago Today

Much has changed since a young man named Willard "Sandy" Boyd came to campus a half century ago.
More >>

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