May 6, 2004
Peer Portfolio
GRAMMY GRANT: Repetitive-motion injuries don’t just plague office workers, they affect many musicians, too. The University of Oregon has been awarded a $45,000 grant from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences — the organization behind the prestigious Grammy awards — to study just such concerns. The two-year project will pair a faculty member in Music with another in Exercise and Movement Science to study the playing mechanics of 30 cellists, from children to professional adult performers. The hoped-for result is a better understanding of the performance techniques and prevention of injuries.
EARTHQUAKE PROTECTION: The University of Utah has received a nearly $3 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to give a seismic upgrade to Marriott Library, one of the most heavily used of Utah’s state buildings. Engineers say the swaying caused by an earthquake of 5.0 magnitude or greater would likely cause the building’s five floors to “pancake” within seconds. The money, called a Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant, is a sort of preventive measure that would increase safety and reduce damage and costs paid by FEMA should a natural disaster occur.
SUIT SETTLED: The women’s soccer coach at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will undergo sensitivity training and a former soccer player will be paid $70,000 in partial settlement of a $12 million sexual harassment suit filed against the university and several administrators in 1999, according to the Chronicle for Higher Education. Two players sued, saying soccer coach Anson Dorrance had asked them about their sex lives and had made sexual advances toward them.
COME FLY WITH ME: That buzzing in Tucson a few weeks back was the Eighth International Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) Competition, held April 9–11 at the University of Arizona. MAVs are radio controlled airplanes less than 6 inches in diameter that carry video cameras and can be used for surveillance, search-and-rescue, law enforcement or reconnaissance in areas unsafe for humans. Beyond 50 or 60 feet, such aircraft are virtually silent. New this year at the competition were ornithopters, which are airplanes with flapping wings that mimic the flight of insects and birds.
A PLACE LIKE HOME: A new retirement community affiliated with the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Nursing will open in Columbia this May. The 33-unit facility, to be called TigerPlace, has been built and will be run by Americare Systems, a Missouri-based senior care and housing provider, in cooperation with the university. The idea is to provide senior citizens with a place to age with dignity, without having to move as their health care needs increase.
Peer Portfolio is a look at what’s news on the campuses of UW’s peer institutions.
