August 19, 2010
Etc.: Campus news & notes
BIKING FOR THE BALTICS: The UW’s Baltic Studies Program is $10,000 richer, thanks to a local man of Estonian heritage and a bicycle trip across the country. Tom Napa is a bicyclist with a fondness for long road trips and a passion for Baltic Studies who decided to fulfill a long-held goal to cycle from coast to coast and help the program at the same time. So he asked friends to contribute money for each mile he rode, which he would match at the rate of 50 percent of each pledge. Napa recently made it to the East Coast, 3,642 miles from the starting point in Everett, and the donations came to nearly $6,700. With his match, the program will receive $10,000, to be used to support the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian studies program. The UW is the only university in the country that teaches all three of these languages. As for Napa, this isn’t the first time he’s donated to Baltic Studies; he gave $20,000 earlier. He and his riding partner recorded some of their experiences on the 30-day trip here.
CELESTIAL FAME: Celeste Gilman, transportation systems manager in Commuter Services, has been named to the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Wall of Fame. Gilman was nominated for the honor because of her work with the Washington State Ridesharing Organization, a group of ridesharing professionals established to encourage policy makers, employers and commuters to support the use of transportation alternatives to driving alone. Wall of Fame honorees are chosen for their dedication, innovation, customer service, and professionalism.
NO FLEETING HONORS: UW Fleet Services has been named one of the top 100 fleets in America, an honor sponsored by Government Fleet Magazine, Invers Mobility Solutions and Tom C. Johnson, consultant and author. The award was created to identify outstanding operations for other to emulate and to promote increasing levels of productivity and operational effectiveness. Fleet Services also recently received a renewal of their five-star rating from EnviroStars. EnviroStars is a program administered by the King County Hazardous Waste Management Program to encourage environmental responsibility and reduce hazardous waste.
GETTING CULTURE: Bruce Burgett, director of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the UW Bothell, has been appointed to serve a two-year term as vice president of the Cultural Studies Association. The association, founded in 2003, is a major professional organization in the U.S. for cultural studies, providing a forum for scholars to exchange their work and ideas across disciplinary lines and institutional locations.
READING FANTASY: Alexandra MacKenzie, the staffer we profiled in an earlier University Week, will give a reading of her novel, Immortal Quest, at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 24, at University Book Store. The book is a fantasy about a London detective who must help an immortal mage save the world from evil.
READING SPIRIT: Harborview staffer Bruce Taylor will be reading from the first book of his spiritual trilogy, The Mountains of the Night at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 28, at Elliott Bay Book Company. The book explores living with a chronic illness through the metaphor of hiking through a wilderness.
Do you know someone who deserves kudos for an outstanding achievement, award, appointment or book publication? If so, send that person’s name, title and achievement to uweek@u.washington.edu.
