August 12, 1998
Vol. 10, No. 3

FYI HomeUniversity of Utah

Postpones staff meetings
President will present
Ôstate of University'
address for faculty
Rather than hold a Faculty Breakfast, President Bernie Machen is
inviting all faculty to a State of the University Address. Machen
will speak Monday, Aug. 31 at 2 p.m. in Mark Greene Auditorium,
Francis Armstrong Madsen Building in the business school. The
address will be followed by an open question-and-answer session,
light refreshments, and the first meeting of the Academic Senate
for the 1998-99 year.
	Machen will also conduct meetings with University staff, but
will defer these meetings to a less hectic time of year than the
opening of school.


Grand new stadium
will bear
Rice-Eccles name
Rice Stadium has been renamed Rice-Eccles Stadium. The new name perpetuates
recognition of Robert L. Rice's pioneering $1 million gift for upgrading the stadium in
1972. It was Rice's gift that established the Scholarship Box, gave the stadium artificial
turf, and sparked creation of the Crimson Club. At the same time, the new name gives
permanent recognition to the George S. and Dolores DorŽ Eccles Foundation 1997
"challengeÓ gift of $10 million that was instrumental in attracting the needed additional
private support for the major stadium renovation now being completed.  The current
renovation cost $52 million, of which only $8 million will come from the 2002 Winter
Olympics for use of the facility. The balance will come from $20 million in private gifts
and athletics revenues.
	The late George Eccles was CEO of First Security Bank for 47 years. The
foundation that bears his name has donated more than $50 million to U of U programs
in the humanities, fine arts, law, genetics, nursing, medicine, minority scholarships,
graduate programs, broadcasting, graduate fellowships, and athletics.


Q&A sessions cover
PeopleSoft financials
The PeopleSoft financials implementation team is sponsoring question-and-answer
sessions for anyone interested in the financials package. The sessions will be held on
Wednesdays, Aug. 12, 19, and 26, at noon in the business school computer
classroom, 420 BUC. No preregistration is required. Additional information on
PeopleSoft training is available on the Utah 2000 Project Web site,
www.acs.utah.edu/utah2000.


Committee begins
search for Health
Sciences VP
President Bernie Machen has appointed a committee to conduct a national search to
fill the position of vice president for Health Sciences/dean of the School of Medicine.
John Matsen will remain in this position until a successor is appointed, probably in
February. The committee is chaired by Ed Clark, chair of Pediatrics. Other faculty
members are: Kathleen Digre, Neurology; Harold Dunn, Orthopedics; Bob Huefner,
Political Science and Scott M. Matheson Center for Health Care Studies; John
Mauger, College of Pharmacy; Thomas Parks, Neurobiology and Anatomy; Stephen
Prescott, Internal Medicine, Biochemistry, and Human Molecular Biology and
Genetics; and Merle Sande, Internal Medicine. Medical student Paula Slater will
represent students.
	In a memo to Health Sciences faculty, President Machen says, "Please feel free
to talk with the search committee chair or individual committee members about issues
that are important to you, the University campus as a whole, the broader community of
which we are a part, and the future of Health Sciences on our campus.Ó


Private company
takes over
Dining Services
The University has agreed to a five-year contract with Chartwells Educational Dining
Services, an operating company of Compass Group North American Division, to run
all aspects of University Dining Services, including vending operations. The selection
was made on the basis of a total campus program presented by Chartwells that seeks
to provide the highest levels of customer satisfaction while maximizing revenues for
the University. Chartwells will handle the Union Terrace restaurants, Panorama Room,
catering, and snack bars, while the company's vending services arm, Canteen
Vending Services, will serve the school's vending accounts. (University Hospital and
Clinics Nutrition Care Services remains a separate operation.)
	Food prices and the Ute Points plan for paying with the U of U ID card will
remain the same. The 150 employees currently working for U. Dining Services have
the option of becoming Chartwells employees, says Dan Adams, assistant to the vice
president for student affairs. Chartwells' plans include a significant renovation of the
Union Terrace, expanded menu offerings, tuition assistance for dining service
employees, a commuter meal discount plan, vending-machine replacements,
promotional events, and annual student scholarships.
	Other plans include adding a Burger King restaurant to the Union Terrace,
relocating the A&W restaurant to the Trading Post in the residence halls, moving the
Taco Bell to the Union Express, and adding a bakery. Changes at the Union Terrace
will begin immediately, with most major renovations happening in the next two years.
Chartwells will also handle food service for the new residence halls at Fort Douglas.
Chartwells is the dining service provider for a number of large universities, and
Compass Group is the world's leading contract food service company, operating in
more than 48 countries.


Now is a good time
to add service
to courses
The Lowell Bennion Community Service Center is making it easy to incorporate
community service into classes, and have them designated as service-learning
courses. The center will provide a teaching assistant trained in service-learning
concepts to faculty who are teaching a service-learning course for the first time. On
request, Bennion Center staff members will visit individual faculty or departmental
meetings to discuss service learning.
	Service-learning combines personal experience and structured community
service with academic learning that takes place in the classroom. More than 110
courses have been so designated at the University, and the concept is gaining
popularity both here at the U and nationwide. The Bennion Center suggests that
conversion to the semester system might be a good time to consider adding service-
learning courses. For details of how to have a course approved or to arrange a
departmental visit, call Stephanie at ext. 5-3297. Proposals for spring semester are
due Oct. 1.


FYI Web site
provides back
issues, index
FYI...a faculty/staff newsletter is available on the World Wide Web. It can be found
under "News/EventsÓ on the University's Web site at www.utah.edu/fyi/, the electronic
version usually appears before the printed copies are delivered, and it contains
additional yet-unpublished stories. The site is handy for checking information in past
issues. An index for each year is provided, and for 1997-98, a search tool helps you
find which issues had stories on the topic you want, such as "Olympics." Links in the
index take you to the issue cited, where you can scroll to the story you want. Web sites
and e-mail addresses in the text are also usually linked.
	For a look at the comprehensive events calendar from which the FYI calendar is
drawn, go to www.utah.edu/calendar/. The campus mailing list for FYI comes from the
payroll. It is not yet possible to delete individuals who would like to receive the
newsletter only through electronic means.


Hospital's Pulse
is online too
University Hospital and Clinics employees, and anyone else who wants to know
what's doing in the hospital, can now read the latest Pulse via the World Wide Web.
The text of the newsletter can be found on the Public Affairs site,
www.med.utah.edu/pubaffairs. Each week's issue will normally appear on the site
Monday morning. The site also provides a way to suggest stories and read Health
Sciences Center news releases. 


Available to all
No-cost passes
cover rides on
UTA bus routes
Beginning Aug. 18, enrolled students and current staff and faculty may pick up at no
charge passes to ride Utah Transit Authority buses for 1998-99. The passes are good
on all UTA routes, seven days per week, except ski busses. Passes are available at
the University Union Main Desk, Hospital Employee Services Center, University
Bookstore customer service desk, and at Parking Services. The 1997-98 passes are
good through the first week of October.
	UTA passes and campus shuttles are funded by a transportation fee instead of
with parking funds, so the passes are now available to all members of the University
community at no out-of-pocket cost, regardless of whether you buy a parking permit or
not. The University reimburses UTA for the passes. Availability of the passes has been
shown to reduce demand for campus parking by approximately 1,000 campus spaces
per day.


Service tip
Look at tech-mail
messages as though
you are recipient
Now that electronic mail and phonemail are commonplace, it's time to look at the
messages you send from the point of view of those who receive them. If you want to
communicate instead of show off, make receiving a message from you as easy as
possible. Some thoughts:
	Phonemail is personal; it carries the inflection of your voice. However, it does
not lend itself to complex material, such as a mailing address, agenda, or travel
directions. Give your correspondent a break and send an e-mail or fax instead. For a
greeting that answers when the telephone is unattended, it is still common for people
to leave a long monologue, as though phonemail were still some kind of novelty.
Worse still is using the standard Telecommunications default as your greeting (it lasts
for 20 seconds). Suggestion: Pretend you are a caller in a hurry, and call yourself to
see what you are inflicting on people.
	For its part, e-mail tends to attract prompt attention, except when you send it to
people who receive a large volume of messages. Beware of using sarcasm or
expressing irritation when it's really the kind of message that should be exchanged
face-to-face. E-mail allows you to make something clearÑon paper so to speakÑand
the reader can use it for reference. However, think of it as something that will be read
tomorrow, and avoid "come and see me in five minutes" type of messages. Also
remember that long messages are difficult to read on the screen. Try using short
paragraphs, and separate them with double hard returns. Suggestion: Look at your
mail on several other people's screens to see if it comes through in a long-line/short-
line format, or two inches deep and four feet wide. If you are including a document that
is just text, give your reader a break. Copy and paste the text right into your e-mail
message, rather than show off with a fancy attached file that requires several steps to
translate.

University College
begins services
to undeclared majors

University College began operation July 1, encompassing all students who have not
yet declared a major. Staffing for the college consists of what was formerly the Center
for Academic Advising, now to be known as the University College Advising Center,
450 Student Services Building. The primary role of the college is to provide advising
services for undeclared majors. Those who have declared a major should call upon
their major departments for advising. University College will continue to serve
returning students who had already been working with a UC adviser, and to assist
those making the transition from quarter to semester system.
  Two staff advisers and student paraprofessional advisers handle "quickieÓ questions.
Otherwise, for better service, students are asked to make appointments, except during
the first two days of each semester. The center handles "quickieÓ questions for an hour
prior to its regular opening at 9 a.m., and remains open until 6:30 p.m. On Tuesdays
and Wednesdays.