September 28, 2011
Etc.: Campus news & notes
GREEN 50: The UW is one of 50 companies and organizations selected for the Washington Green 50, the first such listing Seattle Business magazine has compiled from its annual Green Washington Awards competition. The magazine decided to create the Washington Green 50, it said, “because so many of our nominees deserve recognition for believing that forthright stewardship of our resources is good business.”
ENVIRONMENTAL ACHIEVEMENTS: While were talking about the environment, three members of the UW community were among 18 honored as Northwest Asian Weeklys Women of Color Empowered for their notable achievements in environmentalism.
From left, Amanda Bruner, Sharon Sutton and Lekelia Jenkins.
Singled out were Amanda Bruner, a researcher in oceanography co-founded the UW student chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science and helped design a culturally responsive environmental science curriculum as a National Science Foundation GK-12 Fellow; Lekelia Jenkins, a researcher in marine and environmental affairs whose specialty is the rigorous, empirical study of the process of conservation in order to distill conservation theory and codify best practices, specifically exploring marine conservation, bycatch, conservation technology, invention, technology transfer, and diffusion of innovations; and Sharon Sutton, a professor of architecture and urban design whose most recent work is a book, The Paradox of Urban Space: Inequality and Transformation in Marginalized Communities.
GREEN HONOR ROLL: The UW is also one of 16 colleges named by The Princeton Review to its “2012 Green Rating Honor Roll” – a list of colleges that received the highest possible score (99) in its Green Rating tallies this year. The 16 were singled out from among 768 schools rated by The Princeton Review.
Criteria for the reviews Green Rating cover three areas: 1) whether the schools students have a campus quality of life that is healthy and sustainable, 2) how well the school is preparing its students for employment and citizenship in a world defined by environmental challenges, and 3) the school’s overall commitment to environmental issues. The institutional survey for the rating included questions on energy use, recycling, food, buildings, and transportation as well as academic offerings and action plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The other 15 colleges honored were: American University, Arizona State University, College of the Atlantic, Dickinson College, Georgia Institute of Technology, Harvard College, Northeastern University, Oregon State University, San Francisco State University, State University of New York – Binghamton University, University of California at Santa Cruz, University of Maine University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, Virginia Tech and Warren Wilson College.
Malcolm Parks
INFLUENTIAL RESEARCH: Professor of Communication Malcolm (Mac) Parks shares the Charles H. Woolbert Research Award given by the National Communication Association with UW alum Kory Floyd. The award is given annually by the National Communication Association to an article published more than 10 years ago and that has had significant impact on the study of human communication. Parks and Floyds article, “Making Friends in Cyberspace” was published in 1996 and is widely considered to be the first systematic study of the development of social relationships in an online setting. It has been cited more than 1,000 times to date. This is the second Woolbert award for Parks; he is only the second person to have won the award twice in its 31-year history.
POETRY STAR: The Bled, a book by Frances McCue, a lecturer in education and the honors program, has won the Washington State Book Award for poetry. Sponsored by the Washington Center for the Book, the book awards are given based on the strength of the publications literary merit, lasting importance and overall quality. Awards are also given for fiction, biography/memoir, history/general nonfiction and three age categories of childrens literature. The authors of the seven award-winning books, as well as the illustrator of the picture book, will receive a $500 honorarium, thanks to the generous support of The Seattle Public Library Foundation and Eulalie and Carlo Scandiuzzi.
TOPS IN CITES: W. Lance Bennett, professor of political science and communication, recently had his article ranked among the Journal of Communications top-cited articles of 2010. Bennetts article, “A New Era of Minimal Effects? The Changing Foundations of Political Communication,” was published in the Journal of Communication in 2008. It was cited five times in 2010 and has been cited eight times to date. Bennett coauthored the article with Shanto Iyengar of Stanford University.
