February 6, 2003
Peer Portfolio
PLANTING THE SEED: Texas A&M University recently announced the opening of an Office of Proposal Development, which will be focused on producing major, externally funded, multidisciplinary research centers and institutes of a national caliber. The office will help with competitive tactics, strategic planning, concept development, partnership coordination, and proposal writing for submissions to agencies like the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health and others.
SNOW JOKE: Syracuse, N.Y. is leading the race for a dubious award given out annually by researchers at Cornell University. Syracuse, located about 250 miles north of New York City, is this winter’s snowiest city in the Northeast. The Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell monitors the snowfall of cities in the region and each year honors the city that accumulates the most snowfall from Oct. 1 to May 31. Syracuse had recorded almost 91 inches of snow by Jan. 20, just ahead of Erie, Pa. Buffalo, N.Y., won the distinction of being the Northeast’s snowiest city last winter.
AD IT UP: Advertising faculty at Michigan State University were watching closely as the advertisements rolled by during the Super Bowl last month. Using a 10-point scale, faculty members rated each commercial based on creativity, production and overall quality. The winner was a Sierra Mist ad featuring a baboon who takes a swim in a polar bear pool.
CRIMESTOPPERS: The police department at the University of California-Irvine is sponsoring a number of personal empowerment safety programs as a way to keep the campus safe. Classes include Beware of Strangers, a class to prevent child abduction; RAD Kids, a class that teaches children how to resist aggression; and RAD, a rape aggression defense class that teaches women practical self-defense techniques.
TALKIN’ BABY-BALL: The University of California San Diego hospital recently witnessed a string of births like nothing the employees there had ever seen before. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 1 a 4 pound baby boy was delivered. The next morning twins were delivered at 7. Two hours later a set of triplets and three hours after that quadruplets were delivered. All of the babies — being small and premature — were transferred to the hospital’s Infant Special Care Center. When Brian Lane, a neonatology fellow, realized what was happening, he summed things up with a baseball metaphor — “We just hit for the cycle.”
WITH ACCESS FOR ALL: With more and more of its business moving to the Internet, the University of Iowa is in the process of defining a minimum set of standards that ensure access to people who may not be able to see, hear, or distinguish colors. The institution recently released a draft of the “Accessibility for Web Resources” and is collecting reactions from the campus community. “The University of Iowa has been a strong advocate for accessibility to buildings and to print information for everyone, regardless of disabilities,” said Molly Langstaff, who organized the committee that drafted the policy. “It’s a central part of our core values. This policy is an extension of that core belief that all members of our university community have the opportunity to access the information, activities, and resources we provide.”
Peer Portfolio is a look at what’s news on the campuses of some of UW’s peer institutions.
