January 31, 2008
Etc: Campus news and notes
GREEN AND GRAND: The Custodial Division of Facilities Services has won a Grand Award for green cleaning in the universities division of a competition sponsored by the American School and University Magazine, the Green Cleaning Network and the Healthy Schools Campaign. The UW formally began its green cleaning program in 2004, but its first efforts in that direction started in 1986, when Phenol-based disinfectants were eliminated.
“I was impressed by how many schools and universities have begun the journey [toward green cleaning],” said Steve Ashkin, juror and executive director of the Green Cleaning Network. “But what made the winners and runners-up so special was how far their programs went. Each went well beyond just products in every category and also included training of custodians, communication strategies, ongoing assessments and processes for continual improvement.”
University Week has twice written about the UW green cleaning program. See our stories here and here.
AQUARIAN HONOR: The Seattle Aquarium has made a research grant of $10,000 in honor of Julia Parrish, associate professor and associate director of the School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences. Parrish studies the causes behind increases and decreases in seabird populations. Part of that effort has involved citizens who track seabirds that wash ashore under the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team or COASST. Now almost 10 years old, COASST boasts almost 500 participants collecting monthly data on seabird beachings throughout the North Pacific and Russia. The grant is made to the Seattle Aquarium Research Center for Conservation and Husbandry in honor of Parrish. Parrish is the fifth recipient of the honor.
BOOKIN’ ON MUSIC: Music Librarian Judy Tsou has been elected president of the International Association of Music Libraries, U.S. Branch for a three-year term beginning in February.
INFINITE WAITING: Bruce Taylor, a mental health specialist at Harborview, is having a book signing and discussion titled “The 18 Year Overnight Success: Magic Realism or Just Plain Horror?” from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8 at the Madison Market, Madison Avenue and 16th on Capitol Hill. The title refers to the 18 years it took Taylor to get his book, Edward: Dancing on the Edge of Infinity, published.
RESEARCH AWARD: Michael Guralnick, director of the Center on Human Development and Disability and Professor of Psychology and Pediatrics, has been selected to receive the Edgar A. Doll Award for outstanding scientific contributions to the field of developmental disabilities. Guralnick will receive the award at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association to be held in Boston this summer.
