May 16, 2012
News Digest: Recognition for UW waste management, nurturing communities, Honor: Danny Hoffman, disability-policy posters, undergraduate research conference
National association honors UW for waste management, sustainability
The UW has been awarded a gold medal for waste management by the National Association of Colleges and Universities. The recognition acknowledges the work of the UW Department of Housing & Food Services in reducing waste sent to landfills and increasing campus composting and recycling.
“Our program has come a long way since its early beginnings,” said Micheal Meyering, manager of Housing & Food Services.
“We started our first front-of-the-house compost pilot at the Eleven 01 Café in February 2007. The 70,000-plus members of our campus community are the real winners. They make it happen every day by participating as environmental stewards.”
In addition to waste management, the association also recognized sustainable dining practices in four other operational categories: procurement practices, energy and water conservation, materials and resources, and outreach and education.
The Percussion Ensemble will perform May 29 in Meany Studio Theater.
New book explores creating, supporting livable communities
What is a livable community? How do you design and develop one? How can government support and nurture the cause of livable communities? A new book co-edited by Fritz Wagner, UW research professor in urban design and planning, studies such questions using case studies from North America, Brazil and the United Kingdom.
“Community Livability: Issues and Approaches to Sustaining the Well-Being of People and Communities,” co-edited by Wagner and Roger Caves of San Diego State University, is published by Routledge Press. Wagner, who also has an adjunct appointment in landscape architecture, manages the UW’s Northwest Center for Livable Communities.
Using a blend of theory and practice, experts in the field look at evidence from international, state and local perspectives to explore what is meant by the term “livable communities.”
Chapters examine the effect and importance of transportation alternatives to the elderly, the significance of walkability as a factor in developing a livable and healthy community, the importance of good open space providing for human activity and health, the importance of coordinated land use and transportation planning, and the relationship between livability and quality of life.
‘New Directions’ award to UW anthropologist
Danny Hoffman, a UW associate professor of anthropology, is one of 15 faculty members around the country to receive a New Directions Fellowship from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation this year.
The Percussion Ensemble will perform May 29 in Meany Studio Theater.
An expert on African warzones and militarization, Hoffman will use the fellowship to study architecture and urban planning through the UW College of Built Environments and in South Africa with scholars of postcolonial cities.
“The U.S. and allied militaries always came at the idea that fighting in cities was the last resort,” Hoffman said. “There was little specific thinking of how one would do security in urban environments or what it would mean to fight in an urban environment. That has changed in the last few years.”
How cities are put together and how people move through them are now being considered by military thinkers. It has implications for urban military operations, including how a military could isolate parts of a city if a mass pandemic broke out.
In addition to supporting advanced interdisciplinary training for individual scholars, the Mellon Foundation hopes the New Directions program will contribute to the development of interdisciplinary courses and cross-disciplinary teaching collaborations.
Disability, Law, Policy and the Community poster session May 24
Students from the class Disability Law, Policy and the Community will present their research on the effects of various policies on individuals with disabilities in a poster session from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Thursday, May 24, in the Allen Library Research Commons.
Students from this class in the Law, Societies and Justice Program will present on topics such as the Involuntary Treatment Act, the Community First Choice Act, Shaynan’s Law, the Seattle Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Team Program, elimination of the death penalty, acquiring accommodations in postsecondary education, standards for Washington state educational interpreters and more. The event is free and open to the public.
Minority Affairs and Diversity hosts undergraduate research conference
More than 70 undergraduate McNair scholars and colleagues representing 14 universities will converge at the UW for a research conference, May 17-19.
Students will present year-long collaborative research in the social science, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and humanities fields at the 20thannual Pacific Northwest McNair/EIP/GO-MAP Research Conference, held in conjunction with UW’s Undergraduate Research Symposium.
The event will feature the work of 32 UW students who are affiliated with the McNair Scholars Program, the Presidential Scholars Program and the Early Identification Program.
