July 5, 2007
Etc. Campus news & notes
SCHOOL OF ROCK: If you’ve passed by Johnson Hall recently, you might have noticed that the Department of Earth and Space Sciences has some rather unusual signage marking its presence in the building. On the north side there are two pieces of basalt, one a long column that’s engraved with the department’s name.
The rock came to be there thanks to Professor Darrel Cowan, who got the idea when he saw the basalt columns on the east side of the School of Social Work’s building. “After Johnson Hall was renovated, I thought it would be cool to have a sign showing the major occupant of the building and have it made out of rock,” Cowan said.
He and his colleague, Emeritus Professor Eric Cheney, consulted with campus landscape architects and groundskeepers before arranging for the purchase of the basalt from the Marenakos Rock Center near Issaquah. The rock originally comes from the Columbia Plateau, where it was formed 16 million years ago when lava flows cooled and contracted. Cowan said neither piece has any artificial cuts on it.
CROWNED BY CASE: University Week staff get to toot their own horn this week as we claimed a bronze award in the Periodical Writing for Internal Audiences category in the national Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) competition. Material by three writers — Editor Nancy Wick, Assistant Editor Peter Kelley and Health Sciences Editor Marsha Rule — was submitted.
And we aren’t the only UW staff to claim national CASE awards. Tom Griffin, editor of Columns, won a silver award in the Best Articles category for “Stolen Years.” Also winning silver in the Special Program Publication Packages category were Meeting the Global Challenge, produced by UW External Affairs (including UW Marketing and State Relations), UW Financial Management, UW Publications Services, and written by Margaret O’Mara; and Fifth Annual Recognition Gala, produced by UW Marketing and Sarah Conradt Creative Design.
University Week had earlier announced another CASE national award — a gold in the Individual Public Relations and Community Relations Project category for First Freshmen, produced by UW Tacoma.
DIAMOND DAWGS: The UW is among 20 organizations honored with Diamond Awards for their efforts in reducing employee commute trips during 2006. The awards are given by Commuter Challenge, a non-profit organization with a mission of working to improve regional mobility and protecting and sustaining the environment in the Puget Sound region by providing information, technical assistance and incentives to employers and employees.
REFLECTIVE ART: Rebecca Cummins, associate professor of art, is one of six artists featured in Affect/Effect: Adventures in Glass, an exhibit at the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner. The artists have all been honored as Pilchuck Glass School Hauberg Fellows. The exhibit runs through Oct. 7.
MOVE OVER, TOM CRUISE: Psychology Professor Tony Greenwald has received the ultimate honor of appearing on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Greenwald’s implicit association test — which measures biases that people might not be aware of — was featured on the June 4 broadcast that focused on “Overcoming Prejudice.” See http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200706/20070606/slide_20070606_284_115.jhtml
LEADING EAST: Nancy Hyde Corning, director of finance and administration at UW Bothell, has been named to the Leadership Eastside Class of 2008. Leadership Eastside looks for the “best and the brightest” from the Eastside region, preparing the next generation of community leaders through its development program. About 45 individuals are selected annually, and they work on community based projects through the year-long program.
