April 21, 1999

FYI HomeUniversity of Utah

Honorary degrees
Mitt Romney will
deliver Commencement
address
Mitt Romney, CEO of Bain Capital, Inc. and president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics, will receive and honorary degree and give the Commencement address May 7. Romney's firm has acquired or started more than 120 companies, with combined revenues of more than $13 billion. Once a candidate for the U.S. Senate, Romney is a graduate of Brigham Young University, and holds both M.B.A .and J.D. degrees from Harvard University.
Honorary degrees will also be conferred upon: David L. Freed, hall of fame tennis player and founder of the youth foundation that bears his name; Robert L. Rice, who founded the first national physical-fitness company, and whose $1 million donation was the first of its kind, allowing the first renovation of the U's football stadium; William Mulder, who served the U of U for more than 50 years as English professor, author, director of the Center of Intercultural Studies, and director of the American Studies Center, and whose work is described as seminal in his field; and Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury, who distinguished themselves as teachers of modern dance at the U over a 40-year period while founding and operating the internationally acclaimed Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company.

Distinguished teachers
earn high praise
As one of the ways high-quality teaching is encouraged at the University, the winners of the 1999 Distinguished Teaching Awards will be recognized at Commencement and will receive a $5,000 base salary increase. President Bernie Machen increased the number of awards to six and added the salary increase when he dropped the Presidential Teaching Scholar awards. The winners have typically won other teaching awards, and research awards as well.
Prof. Abby Fiat, Modern Dance, was described in letters of nomination as "teaching on the edge," through constantly re-forming her teaching methodology, and she is credited with creating a statewide dance workshop for high school students and teachers. Prof. Michael Morse, Chemistry, is "especially known for setting the standard for teaching graduate courses in the department," and his students are themselves, award winners. Prof. Don Strassberg, Psychology, is consistently the highest rated teacher in his department's introductory course, is a "superb graduate instructor" who also coordinates outreach programs for high school students. Prof. Suzanne Wade, Educational Studies, was cited for continuously improving her teaching, despite near perfect ratings by students. Prof. Martha Bradley, Architecture, who played a major role in developing the LEAP program, was "applauded for her ability to motivate students." Prof. Lynne Durrant, Health Promotion and Education, a long-term favorite of students, also conducts special projects, such as a day camp for homeless shelter youth.

Special Collections
will close for
move to new space
Special Collections in Marriott Library will be closed May 8 through June 13 while library staff move the collections into newly renovated space on the fifth floor. Areas affected include Rare Books, Book Arts Program, Western Americana, Manuscripts, Multimedia Archives, and the Middle East Library. All services will be interrupted to ensure security of collections and safety of library patrons. Areas not affected by the move are U of U Archives, Records Management, and Preservation. For information, contact Paul Mogren at ext. 1-8863.Leave parking for grads

Graduation events
move indoors
this year
Because graduation falls five weeks earlier on the semester calendar, the president's reception for graduates and faculty and the Alumni Association buffet will be held in the Rice-Eccles Stadium Tower rather than outdoors. For the reception the evening of May 5 and the buffet on May 7, Commencement day, times listed on invitations will be staggered in groups of colleges so that seating will be available as patrons arrive. On May 7, campus shuttle routes will include a loop on 500 South and 1300 East to provide service to the stadium tower, so that the stadium parking lot can serve the buffet and the various college convocations.
Otherwise, Commencement day will be essentially the same as always. Parking lots by the business school will be closed that morning for the processional staging. University employees are requested to refrain from parking in the vicinity of the Jon M. Huntsman Center, to make Commencement more accessible to graduates and their families. Classes will not be in session, so other student parking areas will be open and served by campus shuttles.

Other searches continue
Arts associate VP
will oversee PMC,
Kingsbury Hall
Phyllis Haskell, dean of the College of Fine Arts, has been appointed to the additional position of "Associate Vice President for the Arts" in Academic Affairs. In this new role, Haskell will have management oversight over Pioneer Theatre Company and Kingsbury Hall.
Candidate interviews are under way in the searches for vice presidents for Administrative Services and Student Affairs. A formal search for a replacement for Ted Capener, vice president for University Relations, who will retire June 30, will not begin until the organizational structure for University Relations has been determined.

CDUS offers
detailed course
for office staff
The Career Development for University Secretaries Committee, in cooperation with Human Resources, is offering a section of its nine-week comprehensive training program for office support professionals. The course meets for half-days, beginning Friday morning May 14, and running through July 9. Topics include an overview of the University, computer training, customer service, how to use some 18 campus services and resources, Human Resources procedures, and personal productivity and wellness. Tuition is $35, or $10 for a single session. For registration, contact Myrna Hill, ext. 1-5469.

Continuing Ed offers
huge variety of
summer youth classes
From film production to wilderness survival, Academic Outreach and
Continuing Education offers dozens of summer workshops, courses, and activities for children in age groups preschool through high school. New this year are "Drawing and Painting Horses and Landscapes," "Wilderness First Aid," and a backpacking trip in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Old favorites include the Theater School for Youth, Guitar Camp, "Fly Fishing for Teens," and several summer camps. Registration begins April 26. For a listing of classes and registration information, pick up a copy of "Youth Education: Dive In!" at campus information desks, visit www.youth.utah.edu, or call ext. 5-1911.

Youth camps
extend deadline<BR> The deadline for faculty and staff to receive discounts for the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism EXCELS program of outdoor experiences for youth has been extended to May 14. Call ext. 5-7765 for a brochure.

Faculty/Staff fitness
opens for summer
The PEAK Academy is offering a summer version of the Faculty and Staff Fitness Program with fitness assessments May 20-21, and classes beginning May 24. Classes in the early morning, noon hour, and after work focus on circuit training, weight training, aerobics, indoor cycling, and "stretching and strengthening." Call ext. 5-7325 for a brochure and registration instructions.

Not PeopleSoft's fault
Computer trouble
slows summer
registration
A computer problem caused students to experience some frustration while registering for summer-term classes, but the situation was corrected just in time for the much larger advance registration for fall semester. When the load on the registration system hit a certain level, response times dropped from a few seconds to 10 or more minutes, which to the user would seem that the system was not working at all. Ralph Boren, registrar, says, "We were able to limit the load and limp along by turning off the Web registration during the day, and doing most of the registrations by telephone and at night." Sassistance in the form of loaned RAM from the Center for High Performance Computing also helped the system get by.
The problem was corrected by changing the configuration of the Oracle database in how it interacts with the PeopleSoft application. Consultants arrived from Sun, Foglight (a tuning software supplier), Oracle, and PeopleSoft. "After the consultants determined what was not broken, a PeopleSoft rep and some of our own people worked together to identify and correct the problem at 12:45 p.m. April 1, the first day of fall-semester registration," says Joe Taylor, director of Administrative Computing Services. "The situation wasn't caused by PeopleSoft, but it isn't quite fair to blame Oracle, because that system wasn't broken either," Taylor says. "It was a matter of how Oracle needs to be configured to work with PeopleSoft, which is counter to the configuration normally used for enterprise software applications."

BLUE Shuttle
will skip
business loop
For the time being, the BLUE campus shuttle route does not pass through the loop by the business school and Milton Bennion Hall. Instead, the bus stays on South Campus Drive with stops at the LDS Institute and Jon Huntsman Center, the way it did before last fall. This change allows the BLUE shuttle to make a side trip to the Skaggs Hall parking lot while on its way to the hospital, and still stay on schedule. Plans call for the route change to remain in effect until the road on the east side of the Moran Eye Center reopens, probably in November.
The RED, YELLOW, GREEN, and PURPLE routes will continue to serve the business loop.

Center seeks
faculty expertise
for science-literacy
With the success of the long-term partnership with Edison School as a model, the Center for Science Education + Outreach seeks to expand the University's impact on science and technology education in the community. To this end, center directors Joe Andrade, Bioengineering, and Charles Jui, Physics, are seeking faculty and staff members from the sciences, engineering, and health fields who are willing to help with youth science activities and instruction off campus. Rather than do one-time demonstrations, the center conducts classes twice per month at Edison on topics ranging from electricity to germs.
Program Manager Mary McDonald says, "Our goal is long-term change in children's ability to understand and do science, so they will have a better understanding as adults, and to generate interest so that some of them will pursue science in high school and college." She says the center is available to assist faculty who already have other outreach programs of their own. For information, call ext. 1 4171, or visit www.utah.edu/cise.

Diversity Awards
recognize individuals
and organizations
The 1999 Diversity Awards were presented to two campus organizations and two individuals "in recognition of their exemplary commitment to enhancing diversity and expanding minority opportunities on campus." KUED Channel 7 was recognized for years of programming that reflects the diverse cultural characteristics of the state. Author and lecturer Helen Papanikolas has dedicated years to enriching understanding of Utah's diverse cultural heritage, and along with her husband, Nick Papanikolas, provided scholarship support to U. students of color for more than 20 years through the Chicano Scholarship Fund and the Nick and Helen Papanikolas Scholarship Fund. The U's National Youth Sports Program is a free summer sports and education program serving nearly 300 economically disadvantaged children between ages 10 and 16 from Salt Lake City and Granite School Districts. To date, more than 2,000 youth have participated. NYSP was spearheaded locally by University Relations staff member Kristi Ryujin, who has received national recognition for the program's quality.