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April 6, 2005 |
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A reminder to all that President Michael K. Young will be inaugurated as the 14th president of the University of Utah on Friday, April 15. Celebratory events (symposia, special music and dance performances, and museum exhibits) are now underway. Visit www.inauguration.utah.edu for complete details. Everyone is invited to attend the inauguration on April 15 at 11 a.m. in Kingsbury Hall. Admission is free, but tickets are required and are available by calling 581-4088 or at the information desk in the Park Building. A procession from the Park Building to Kingsbury Hall will begin at 10:45 a.m.
Women’s Gymnastics is celebrating 30 amazing years at the U. Their recent reunion marking this milestone was attended by more than 50 of the program’s 91 alums. Ranked number one in the country, the Utes will host the NCAA North Central Regional Championship postseason competition. Utah’s first meet is April 9 at 6 p.m. in the Huntsman Center. Tickets are on sale now at the ticket office in Rice-Eccles Stadium, or may be purchased by calling 581-8849, or online at www.UtahTickets.com. The top 18 national teams will be seeded and paired into the six regions (three per region). As the home team, Utah will stay at home regardless of its seed. Then the top two teams from each region will advance to the NCAA Championships April 21-23 in Auburn, Alabama. “This will be a great event with six of the top gymnastics teams in the country all vying for just two spots at the NCAA Championships,” says Coach Greg Marsden. “I hope our fans will support us because they always give our athletes a big boost, which is to our advantage.” Not only are the Utes in first place competition-wise, but they have won the 2005 women’s gymnastics attendance title again for the 21st time in the last 24 years. The 2005 Red Rocks averaged 11,300 spectators at their six regular season home meets, including the biggest crowd in the nation to watch a college gymnastics meet this season when they met BYU with 14,100 attending. Plan to attend the meet on April 9 to support our incredible gymnastics team. Go Utes!
The Honors Center at Fort Douglas will be officially dedicated in a ceremony on Wednesday, April 20 at 5:00 p.m. The Honors Program moved into the newly-renovated center in November, nearly three years after then-University President Bernie Machen announced that the building would become the new home for the Honors Program. Following the ceremony, the building, located at 1975 De Trobriand Street (just north of the parade field) will be open for self-guided tours and refreshments. Architect Allen Roberts, AIA, of Cooper Roberts Simonsen Architects (CRSA) designed the center as a functional building for staff and students, including comfortable spaces for studying and socializing. The entry of the building is warm and inviting with rich wood beams in a high ceiling and relaxed couches and chairs. The east wing contains two classrooms and a seminar room. The west wing houses administrative offices and a student library, computer lab, and study lounge. The army originally constructed the U-shaped building in 1875 as barracks for soldiers. In the early 1900s it was subdivided into three apartment residences for officers’ families. Various agencies and administrative offices occupied the building until 1991, when the Army donated a big portion of Fort Douglas land to the University. Roberts said that maintaining a sense of the historic uses of the building while meeting the programmatic needs of the Honors Program was important. “We maintained a sense of the apartment phase of the building in the west wing, where the smaller rooms are, and the east wing is more reminiscent of the barracks phase with large open spaces and high ceilings,” he said. “We kept the original feeling of the building, but breathed new life into it.” “The Honors Center is the heart of our community of excellence,” says Martha Bradley, director of the Honors Program. “We are grateful to the many Honors alumni and supporters, as well as local foundations, who funded this historic renovation. It is thrilling to see Honors students utilize this space and truly feel at home,” she adds. The University Community is welcome to attend the open house from 5:00-7:00 p.m. In conjunction with the official dedication event, the Honors Student Advisory Committee will host a party for students that same evening on Stillwell Field, the lawn just south of the Honors Center. For more information, call 581-7383.
Glenn and Linda Brown are getting ready to open their latest play in the U’s Lab Theatre. This is Glenn’s seventh original play in as many years written and produced at the U. Linda will direct her husband’s play. Birdcatcher in Hell is a Buddhist morality puppet play that chronicles the journey of a birdcatcher named Ukai. Ukai experiences the three poisons of Buddhism—greed, anger, and ignorance—as he travels throughout the eight levels of hell, a familiar theme from Buddhist cosmology. Using aspects of a Japanese puppet tradition called Bunraku, 90 puppets will be used by 21 cast members in the production. Additional Eastern puppet techniques will be employed, including Wayang puppetry, Indonesian shadow puppetry, object puppetry, and the use of giant puppets. The cast includes a 20-foot carp, at least 30 skeletal marionette cows, birds and fish, crabs and turtles, and an army of frogs. Glenn and his students are working together to design the set and build the puppets and masks for the production. There are no stars in this play. The actors take turns playing the different characters. They work the puppets and speak for them, infusing the desires of the characters through their own voices. “This is challenging because it’s new play development and it’s technically complicated,” says Linda. “There aren’t any ground rules. You have to bring it to life for the first time.” The play has just twenty pages of text but takes one hour and twenty minutes to perform. The actors are taking an Eastern approach to their craft—which uses more musicality of voice and physical movement. Rehearsals include a meditation period and lots of physical training. “It works on moving the actors toward confidence in their physical body,” says Linda. “And then the language is more poetic in structure than in traditional Western plays, so it’s vocally challenging for the students.” The Browns believe this non-Western approach will inform the students’ more traditional working styles in a positive way. Linda received her undergraduate degree in theatre studies and her graduate degree in directing, both from the U. She has worked as a faculty member in the theatre department for just over three years. Glenn received his undergraduate degree in art from Westminster College and a dual graduate degree in theatre design and film at the U. He is the tech director for the Department of Theatre. They both say creative freedom is what they like best about teaching at the U. In September the Browns will leave for a 27-month stint with the Peace Corps in the Kyrgyz Republic, located east of Uzbekistan on the border of China. Both will teach at the local university and will be learning to speak Russian and the local language. Birdcatcher in Hell, by S. Glenn Brown, directed by Linda L. Brown, with movement design by Jerry Gardner, runs April 14-17 in the Studio115/Lab Theatre in the Performing Arts Building (PAB). Tickets may be purchased at the door, at the Kingsbury Hall box office (581-7100), or by calling ArtTix at 355-ARTS (355-2787).
The U will remember the millions of Holocaust victims during its 21st annual Days of Remembrance commemoration in April. These events coincide with the national Holocaust Remembrance Day on May 5, and include a keynote address, lecture, workshop, and film screening. Claudia Koonz will deliver the keynote address, “Making Racism Respectable: The Nazi Regime and Ordinary Germans,” on Thursday, April 14 at 7 p.m. in room 1110 in the Languages and Communication (LNCO) Building. Koonz is a professor of history at Duke University and studies the question of ordinary people’s susceptibility to ethnic fears. She is the author of Mothers in the Fatherland, which chronicles contrasting responses to Nazi rule within the contexts of women’s organizations; and The Nazi Conscience, an analysis of initiatives aimed at convincing people outside the Nazi Party that Jews constituted a danger so lethal that they had to be expelled. In her new book, Ethnic Panic, Koonz compares the Muslim veil as a political symbol with different meanings in European cultures. On campus, yellow cloth stars will be distributed to everyone to commemorate the identity badges that have been imposed on Jews throughout history. In Nazi-occupied Denmark, the yellow, six-pointed star was never introduced because King Christian X threatened to wear it himself. In 1942, the Dutch underground produced 300,000 replicas of the badge inscribed with the motto, “Jews and non-Jews stand united in their struggle.” Many Dutch citizens wore these in solidarity with the victims and defiance of the Nazis. The cloth stars distributed on campus carry a similar message. The stars are available
from the Office of the Associate Vice President for Diversity, 204
Park Building. All events (except a workshop taken for credit) are
free and open to the public. For event details, call 581-7569 or
visit
The next selections for the SLC Reads Together city-wide book club have been announced. Of the three new selections, two are children’s titles, The City of Ember, by Jeanne Duprau, for the young adult age group (12 – 16) and the other, A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle, for elementary school children. The adult title is Plainsong, by Kent Haruf. All are available at the University Bookstore. The U of U is a partner in the project. Copies of all three selections will be distributed throughout the city by the Utah Humanities Council at public locations such as coffee shops and coin laundries. If you find a book with the sticker “Tag - You’re It!” you are invited to take the book home, read it, and return it to another public space for the next person to find. The books are meant to be read and passed on to others. The Humanities Council wants to track some of those books to tell the stories of their journeys throughout the city. For more information, call 585-3595 or visit www.slcreads.com.
Enjoy performances by American Indian dancers, drummers, singers, and storytellers when the new Center for American Indian Languages (CAIL) has its official opening on Thursday, April 7 from 5:00-8:00 p.m. Located in historic Fort Douglas at 618 A De Trobriand Street (just north of the parade grounds), the center is dedicated to preserving and revitalizing the endangered languages of the Americas. Through a unique collaboration with the College of Humanities and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, CAIL will work to renew languages in cultures and communities where they are in danger of being lost. Key initiatives for the coming year include a national conference that will bring together the Arctic Studies Center, the Council for the Preservation of Anthropological Records, the Mexico-North Research Network and The Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas. For more information on the opening event, call 587-0720. For information about CAIL or the Smithsonian collaboration, contact Heidi Camp at 581-6214 or CAIL’s director, Lyle Campbell, at lyle.campbell@linguistics.utah.edu.
As featured this month in National Geographic Adventure magazine, this “new” 800-mile hiking trail, named for the character in Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang, traverses the complete variety of terrain available to hikers on the Plateau, short of technical climbing. “A challenge and goal worthy of serious consideration by any desert rat,” says Dan Miller, author of High in Utah. The book includes 65 photographs, 199 maps, and is published by the University of Utah Press. For more information, contact Marcelyn Ritchie at 585-9786 or ritchie@upress.utah.edu, or visit www.uofupress.com.
Get the Scoop on the Marriott Renovation
A big white Open Enrollment envelope should be delivered to your home address in early April. If you are changing your health care coverage and/or considering a Flexible Spending Account for health care or child care expenses, please review your Open Enrollment Packet carefully to learn about updates, reminders, and changes. All forms that have changes must be submitted by Friday, April 29. Questions? Contact the Benefits Department at 581-7447 or benefits@hr.utah.edu or visit www.hr.utah.edu/ben for a listing of open enrollment sessions.
“Phishing” is an e-mail from what appears to be a legitimate business like E-bay, PayPal, or even the University of Utah–but it’s really a scam. Phishing is a growing and diverse problem, and a catch-all solution is difficult, but these simple guidelines will help prevent you from falling victim to the scam. 1. Don’t panic. If you receive an e-mail purporting to be from your bank, ISP, or the U of U, slow down and take your time to analyze it. Most phishing scams are easy to detect, once you look closely. 2. Look for things like poor spelling or grammar. 3. Consider the content of the message. E-mail is a form of “clear-text” communication, meaning that as the message travels across the network, anyone can see the content. Companies that deal with sensitive information are aware of this and don’t use e-mail to transfer private information. So, would Citibank really ask for your credit card information over e-mail? 4. Don’t be afraid to question the legitimacy of an e-mail. Scammers will include links or phone numbers to make it appear more legitimate. Don’t use the information provided, but look up the phone number and contact the company to verify that a request is legitimate. 5. E-mail is roughly equivalent to a postcard in your home mail box. Anyone could have written it, anyone could have read it, and anyone could have put it there. You wouldn't give out your personal information because you received a postcard in the mail; neither should you take an e-mail at face value. You can take comfort in knowing that you have already taken the biggest step toward avoiding being scammed simply by being aware that it exists so that you can defend yourself against it. For more information,
contact the U’s Information Security Office at 585-1012 or
send e-mail to
The U's Office of Information Technology (OIT) invites you to check out its new Web site at www.it.utah.edu. OIT’s NetCom services have been moved to the OIT site. You can now find any OIT-related department, committee, service, or product help more easily. Guides to campus IT resources and services for the campus community are included. Now through April 15, you can win a Lexar 1 Gig mobile storage drive by hunting for OIT online ‘treasure’ at www.it.utah.edu/leadership/news/hunt.html. For more information, call Mindy Tueller at 581-3423.
Pre-registration is now underway for Huntsman Cancer Institute’s Patterns of Inheritance—Generation to Generation: Colon Cancer Awareness Workshop, on Saturday April 9, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. This free workshop is for anyone with questions about family or personal risk of colon cancer. Participants will discover how to develop a family medical history, learn prevention and screening options, and find out more about inherited colon cancer conditions. To register, call 585-1936 or visit www.huntsmancancer.org. Note: The Point Bistro, on the sixth floor of Huntsman Cancer Hospital, now offers sit-down dinner service from 4:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The Early Childhood Education Center invites 5-8 year olds to a Summer Enrichment Program from June 6 to August 12. Activities include field trips, art and science projects, drama creativity, music and movement activities, cooking experiences, and celebrations. Enrollment begins April 11. Call 581-8058 or visit www.apartments.utah.edu for more information.
• Alex Smith will be in the Bookstore on Monday, April 18 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. to sign copies of his autobiography, Alex Smith: The Story of the University of Utah Unlikely Star Quarterback, by Heather Simonsen. Alex will be signing just his book (no other materials). • Faculty and staff can get their new or renewed UTA transit pass at the Bookstore. (Be sure to bring your UCard for identification.) The UTA Pass allows you to ride UTA bus and TRAX free. • If you need postal assistance when the Bookstore post office is closed, visit the United States Post Office Web site at www.usps.com. You can “click and ship” your items. Delivery confirmation is free, insurance is available, and you can call for a carrier pick-up. Also, stamps, shipping supplies, and other items are available at the online store.
Be a positive person.
Avoid criticizing and learn to praise the things you like in others.
Focus on the good qualities of those around you. Don’t forget
to notice and reward yourself for for your good qualities and small
achievements. For more information, call 581-6826 or visit www.utah.edu/counsel.
On Thursday, April 7, the University of Utah Honors Think Tank will join Salt Lake City Corporation and Utah Transit Authority to host a community forum and open house at the site of the future Salt Lake City Intermodal Hub at 650 West 200 South. The three hosting organizations will present several different plans for the area surrounding the hub. The public is invited to comment on these plans. There will be opportunities to learn about these projects, ask questions, and give suggestions. Projects under consideration include a transit-oriented development study; the Salt Lake City Intermodal Hub itself; UTA commuter rail plans; and a UTA light rail extension plan. The U of U Honors Think Tank is an interdisciplinary group of students focused on the revitalization of downtown Salt Lake City. Their goal is to increase public input in the planning process concerning future development of the area near the hub. For more information, call Keith Bartholomew at 585-8944.
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