March 8, 2007
Peer portfolio
U-M bids farewell to Pfizer
Pfizer Inc., the nation’s largest drug company and one of the major employers in the Ann Arbor area, announced in late January that was closing its facility in that city and laying off 2,100 jobs. The University of Michigan is looking to help the displaced workers, according to the university’s newspaper, The Record.
U-M President Mary Sue Coleman brought together about 60 state and local leaders and stakeholders in the decision on Jan. 29 to brainstorm ways to help those displaced by creating new jobs or encouraging spinoff companies. Pfizer has said that a number of those affected will be relocated to other company operations. Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm called Pfizer’s decision “a punch to the gut.”
Candidate Edwards resigns from UNC
With his eyes on a certain house in Washington, D.C., former Sen. John Edwards resigned his position as director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, according to the University’s newspaper, The Gazette.
In his letter of resignation on Dec. 28, 2006, Edwards stated that activities at the center during his tenure had helped to reinvigorate the national debate on the issue of poverty. “Not only have we advanced the debate, we have also made significant contributions to the search for innovative, practical solutions,” Edward wrote.
The center will publish a book in April titled Ending Poverty in America that Edwards edited with Marion Crane, its deputy director. The book is expected to be used as a classroom text.
Helping out parents
The costs of child care are tough for virtually all parents, and because of that, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has helped its employees out a bit with these costs in the form of $500 Child Care Grants. It’s like getting a month off from your day care expenses.
The grants were founded in 2003 by an assistant dean of students emerita who noticed that many of the University’s classified employees were struggling with increasing child care costs, according to an article in Wisconsin Week, the University’s newspaper. The grants are administered by that other UW’s Office of Child Care and Family Resources, and are for classified employees with children under age 12 in regulated child care settings. Since 2003, 16 such grants have been given out, with another four expected this year.
