April 17, 2008
Peer Portfolio
WHAT’S FUNNY?: The University of Michigan seems to have an ongoing interest in humor. A year or so back, the university began a study of cartoons in The New Yorker, consulting with Robert Mankoff, the magazine’s cartoon editor. Mankoff returned and was joined by comedy writers for The Daily Show, political cartoonist Patrick Oliphant and others for a one-afternoon conference on March 10 titled “The Serious Stuff About Humor: What is it? Why is it?”
IN CASE OF EMERGENCY: Colleges and universities nationwide are revisiting their emergency communications policies and infrastructure in the wake of campus shootings. The University of North Carolina‘s newspaper, The University Gazette reports that a “layered” emergency communications plan is being implemented there. This consists of sirens, text messages, a new Web page for campus alerts, campuswide e-mail and telephone voice mail messages.
SHOW-ME STATE POET: Missouri has its first poet laureate, and the poet is a staffer at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt selected Walter Bargen from a field of more than 100 poets. Bargen is the senior coordinator of the university’s Assessment Resource Center. Bargen has written 11 volumes of poetry and a couple of chapbooks, even though he joked with the campus newspaper, Mizzou Weekly, that “I never finish anything. I just abandon it.” He will serve a two-year term. Washington State’s first-ever poet laureate, by the way, is Sam Green.
KNEE ENERGY: A new energy-capturing knee brace developed at the University of Michigan can generate enough electricity from walking to operate devices such as a portable GPS locator, a cell phone or a motorized prosthetic joint, according to a story in the university’s newspaper, The Record. The mechanism, created with researchers from U-M, Simon Fraser University and the University of Pittsburgh, works like regenerative brakes on a hybrid vehicle in its ability to collect energy that would otherwise be dissipated as heat. A lighter version would be helpful to hikers, or even soldiers. A report on the research is published in the Feb. 8 issue of Science.
SUSTAINING JOB: The University of California, Berkeley, has hired its first-ever director of sustainability on Jan. 30. The person will have the job of supporting the efforts of a number of conservation-related groups on campus.
COOL REBATE: The University of California, Davis, is getting a rebate check from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. for $1.25 million, for energy savings, according to the campus newspaper, Dateline UC Davis. During the heat wave two summers back, the university speeded up its construction of new, electric “chillers” to replace old gas-powered ones, finishing the work four years ahead of schedule. Verifying the overall savings achieved, the energy company agreed to pay $1 for every therm of gas the university will not be using in a year, totaling $1.25 million. PG&E officials visited the campus in January to present the check.
CZECH PRES: University of Michigan business professor Jan Svejnar fell short on Friday, Feb. 15, in his bid to become president of the Czech Republic. Incumbent Vaclav Klaus was re-elected to a second five-year term. Klaus won in the third round of voting at a joint session of the upper and lower chambers of the Czech legislature. Svejnar’s popular and populist style made a close election of what had been expected to be a rout. Czech presidents are chosen by secret ballot of both houses of the parliament. Svejnar is on sabbatical this year from the university.
Peer Portfolio is a compilation of activities at the UW’s peer institutions.
