WSU Spokane Campus Bulletin
Issue 2004-23 (December 15, 2004)
IN THIS ISSUE
Thanks,
Nicholas!
Jan. 13 appreciation reception for Nicholas Lovrich
It’s
not goodbye, but it is “Thank you!” Interim Chancellor Nicholas Lovrich will return to his teaching and research duties with the
Department of Political Science and Division of Governmental Studies
and Services in Pullman in mid-January.
Please join us in showing our appreciation to Nicholas on Thursday, Jan. 13, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the Gallery of the Phase I Classroom Building. Light refreshments will be served. If you have not already responded, please RSVP to Laura Scholtens at 8-7540 or scholtens@wsu.edu.
The campus extends heartfelt thanks to Nicholas for relocating to WSU Spokane to keep the ship sailing while the search was completed for our next chancellor. His enthusiasm and admiration for the world-class accomplishments of campus people and programs will make him our ambassador in Pullman.
January 5 semester kickoff meeting and chancellor welcome
Our semester kickoff meetings have become a campus tradition. Before each fall and spring semester, we hold a campuswide meeting for all WSU Spokane faculty and staff to share information of campuswide interest and bring us together as a campus community.
Our meeting January 5, 2005, will also serve as the on-campus welcome for new chancellor Brian Pitcher. We ask the campus community to make a special effort to set that morning aside to meet Dr. Pitcher, welcome him, and introduce yourself to him and to other colleagues you may not see very often. He officially begins his duties Jan. 17.
If you have not already done so, please RSVP to Laura Scholtens at 8-7540 or
scholtens@wsu.edu to help us
with the count for beverages and light refreshments.
NIH grant supports gene mapping for eye condition
International detective work leads to genetic puzzle
Four years of funding from the National Institutes of Health will support research at Washington State University Spokane focusing on the number one cause of corneal transplant in the developed world. Bassem Bejjani, research professor at WSU Spokane and co-director of molecular diagnostics at Sacred Heart Medical Center, received the funding for his research.
Keratoconus—“cone-shaped cornea”—is caused by a thinning of the cornea. A progressive and sometimes painful condition, it is currently treated with hard lenses that reshape the cornea, but this is not always successful. The only other treatment, once it has progressed, is a corneal transplant. More than 40,000 corneal transplants are performed every year in the U.S., and the majority of these are because of keratoconus.
Dr. Bejjani, a genetic researcher who has conducted federally
funded research on congenital glaucoma, says keratoconus is not
currently known to be a genetic condition. However, in a trip to
Ecuador to collect samples for his work on congenital glaucoma,
which is a genetic condition, he met a doctor who told him about
nearly three dozen families with the condition, suggesting the
possibility of a genetic component.
Dr. Bejjani and his colleague from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX, Dr. Richard A. Lewis collected samples from some of these families and submitted a proposal to the NIH. Dr. Bejjani was awarded a total of $1.3 million over four years.
The funding will support mapping of the genes in an effort to find a genetic link. Dr. Bejjani will conduct a genome-wide screen in which he examines the genome of each and every one of the people in these families.
He will look for similarities among those who have the condition, comparing their DNA with that of their unaffected siblings, to decide on candidate regions of the genome that have one or more genes for keratoconus. The work will be performed by the research team he has already assembled for his other funded investigations.
No one really knows the cause of keratoconus. Identification of a
genetic component would help narrow down the possibilities, and
could perhaps lead to development of nonsurgical interventions such
as eye drops or other therapies that could help treat the condition.
Grant program assists child victims of domestic violence
Under a program managed by the
Child and Family Research Unit for
nearly the past five years, Spokane has been one of only a handful
of
communities across the nation to participate in a U.S. Department
of Justice sponsored effort seeking ways to identify and address the
needs of children exposed to domestic violence.
Working in partnership with local law enforcement and a number of community service agencies, Safe Start Spokane recently received the final $507,000 installment of a federal program grant that will have directed a total of $2.23 million towards assisting the local child victims of domestic violence by the time of the project’s scheduled expiration in Oct. 2005.
Read more in the
news release online
Community involvement survey results
Many thanks to the 126 faculty and staff who have responded to the Community Involvement Survey. The survey is being conducted to help us address one of our campus strategic goals: increasing both our involvement in the community and recognition of those contributions. If you have not yet responded, it’s not too late! Take the survey online. We’ll update our statistics to reflect your contributions.
- Number of employees who responded: 126
- Total hours donated per year: 14,746
- Avg. hours/employee: 135
- Equivalent in 8-hour work days per person: Nearly 14 days per year of volunteer service
- Number of organizations served: 217
Community Engagement Web page
Community Involvement Survey
WIMIRT director
in panel on public TV
Michael Hendryx, director of the
Washington Institute for Mental
Illness Research and Training
(WIMIRT), was a panelist on a recent
Cougar Pause program featured on KWSU. The show was entitled “Mental
Health: A New Perspective” and featured Hendryx; Cindy Adams,
Onbudsman, Greater Columbia Behavioral Health; Melody Otness,
President, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill; and Kathleen
Hockey, Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and Author.
The show, hosted by Terry Maurer, Director of Communications and Marketing at WSU Tri-Cities, focused on the fact that mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in North America and Europe. The panelists discussed how their organizations are providing solutions for the mentally ill, and included tips on raising depression-free children.
The program will be aired several times in January on KWSU: 1/17/05 at 6:30 p.m.,
1/20/05 at 10 p.m. It will also be on KTNW channel 31: 1/12/05 at 7:30 p.m.,
and
1/16/05 at
12:30 p.m.
"Health and the Built Environment" workshop
Successful and productive aging, the obesity epidemic, and the built environment are areas of knowledge that employ similar language used by diverse professions. The professions of gerontology, geriatrics, health sciences and health care and landscape architecture, urban design, and urban and rural planning not only employ many similar words and phrases but also seek outcomes that benefit the public health, safety and welfare. The common words and phrases have the potential of blending the efforts of each of the professions.
A workshop bringing these professions together will feature Bob Scarfo, Washington
State University Spokane Associate Professor,
Landscape Architecture. The workshop will be held on Tuesday,
January 11, 2005, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Spokane Falls
Community College, 3410 W. Fort George Wright Dr., Spokane, Building
17, Lounges A & B.
Through a series of small group, interactive exercises, the
workshop will use language familiar to two seemingly divergent
professional groups, healthcare and land planning professionals, to:
• Highlight each profession’s distinctive way of thinking about and
working for the public good.
• Share diverse professional definitions of similar words and
phrases applied to the public’s health, safety, and welfare.
• Merge our professional definitions into comprehensive design and
health-care delivery strategies.
• Interpret the strategies into land planning and neighborhood
design criteria.
Workshop fee: $89 includes continental breakfast and lunch. Call 279-6000 to register for course Item #6553. Register by 4:00 pm January 5, 2005. Enrollment for this workshop is limited to 50 people, so register soon!
For more information about this workshop, call 509-533-3140. For
more information about future workshops, contact Bob Scarfo, 358-7913 or scarfo@wsu.edu.
Who ya gonna call?
• When your car won’t start?
• When you are locked out of your
office or car?
• When you need an escort across campus?
• When you
have a theft from your car or office?
• When you see suspicious
people on campus?
Call Riverpoint Security, #40 or (35)8-7995.
The Riverpoint Security Office is here to serve all people on campus. The officers are here to assist you with any security needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Following are “just the facts” for Riverpoint Security from March 2004 until now:
• Car Lock Outs – 14
• Escorts – number of
people – 353
• Jump Starts – 24
• Key Service – 649
• Incident
Reports – 12
• Accident Reports – 9
• Trespass – 2
• Burglaries – 0
• Thefts – 4
• Other Calls – 1290
Now you may be wondering what “other calls” really means?
•
Working with contractors who need entry to secured areas
• Working
with neighboring businesses
• Working with City Police and Fire
Departments
• Building walk through
• Local wildlife (including
marmots)
• Suspicious person contacts/complaints
The most interesting “other call” came from Jennifer Hogan. Officer Mike Reitemeier responded to the call of a marmot on the second floor roof of HSB, trapped it, and released the marmot near the river.
Marmot trapping hint: They like peanut butter.
Reminder of Ad Annex parking change: Don’t get towed!
Due to recent towing events, it has become necessary for Riverpoint Parking Operations to take a pro-active approach to mitigate parking problems with Kiemle/Hagood Company at the Ad Annex/Riverfront Office Building. This building is located on the south side of Trent near the bridge and the Schade Towers. This lot is for Ad Annex building occupants and its visitors only.
In order to assure that future visitors, faculty, staff and students do not get their vehicles towed from that lot, the following policies/procedures have been established for operation of the lot.
- All WSU and SBDC faculty, staff and students who work in the
Ad Annex will be required to purchase a Red Zone parking permit,
10-Day permit or daily permit from Parking Operations to use in this
lot starting January 1, 2005. (Any Riverpoint permit that is
currently being used is valid until January 1, 2005.) Any other
permit other than the Red Zone, 10 day permit or Daily permit used
after January 1, 2005 will not protect you from being towed if you
use the lot and walk over to campus. You may choose to purchase a
parking permit for another lot, park there, and walk to Ad Annex.
- Visitors meeting with WSU or SBDC faculty/staff in the Ad Annex will not need a parking permit if they visit staff in that building. If they park in that lot and travel anywhere else on campus, they will need a 10-Day or Daily Parking Permit. Visitors who park in the Ad Annex lot without parking permits and travel by foot to other areas of campus will be subject to towing by Keimle/Hagood.
We need everyone’s help to distribute this information across campus, and particularly, to visitors who may be coming to campus. Everyone is responsible for letting their visitors know the parking policies for campus and providing them with appropriate permits if needed. Please help us promote the parking system rules so that no one is towed from the Ad Annex lot or receive fines at lots on campus.
To help promote awareness, we have purchased signs for the Ad Annex lot to warn people not to park in the Ad Annex lot and cross Trent to the campus to conduct business or attend classes.
If we can answer any questions about this policy or other parking
issues, please contact the parking office at
rpparking@wsu.edu
or
(35)8-6999.
New faculty seed grant competition
The sixth annual competition for the WSU New Faculty Seed Grant program is underway. Researchers, scholars and artists who were appointed as assistant professors and above no earlier than May 16, 2002 are eligible to apply. Individual awards could be granted up to $20,000 for a 15-month period beginning May 16, 2005. The deadline for proposals is February 28, 2005.
Application packets are available on the Office of Grant and Research Development's website, http://www.ogrd.wsu.edu, or from Sean Lyons, (33)5-9661 or slyons@wsu.edu.
NOTE: This is separate from the WSU Spokane Faculty Seed Grant
Program, which supports faculty in the development of research
programs in Spokane that have the potential for extramural support,
in particular from significant federal agencies. Information on that
program, which has a mid-summer 2005 deadline, will be available
from Susan Pfeifer,
pfeifer@wsu.edu, or Dennis Dyck, dyck@wsu.edu. See
the WSU Spokane Grant
and Contract Support Services page for more information.
Community connections
Graduate and high school students join forces for Wishing Star Foundation
Santa opened a new location last week in the Health Sciences Building, where Health Policy and Administration and Reardan High School students stuffed more than 80 stockings for the Wishing Star Foundation.
Our student chapter of the American College of Healthcare
Executives (ACHE) teamed up with students from Reardan High School’s
Family, Career & Community Leaders of America (FCCLA), to fill and
donate stockings to the Wishing Star Foundation. Three Reardan FCCLA
students -- Emily Ostlie, Cortney Finch, and Tiffany Cousins -- cut
out, sewed, and decorated more than 80 stockings. Both HPA and FCCLA
students collected stocking stuffers for about three weeks.
ACHE student chapter president KC Nilsson thanked HPA students, faculty and staff saying, "We were able to present stockings and gifts to the Wishing Star Foundation worth more than $700.00. This is a great cause and will provide more than 100 local children with gifts to open this Christmas."
The graduate and high school student organizations were paired up when HPA Student and Reardan High FCCLA advisor, Barbara Hamilton, and ACHE student leaders KC Nilsson, Cole White, Diana Loffgren and Amy Johnson began discussions about a student chapter civic activity for the holiday season. FCCLA students were looking for a project at the same time and the group decided their combined efforts would make a difference for the Wishing Star Foundation.
The Wishing Star Foundation
is the oldest, local wish-granting organization in Eastern
Washington and Idaho. Wishing Star grants wishes to local children
with life-threatening illnesses between the ages of 3 and 21.
University District CD for sale
Thanks to The Shop and Black Coffee Productions, 924 S. Perry, and a number of local bands, you can purchase a great gift for the coolest people you know. “University District: The Cut” includes songs by a wide-ranging set of groups. It debuted at the University District Community Workshop held Nov. 30, and is now available for purchase at The Shop, and may be available in the future at other local music stores such as 4000 Holes and Unified Groove Merchants.
Groups on the CD: Sittser, Mulligan, Burns Like Hellfire, Trailer Park Girls, Locke, The Side Project, Lucia’s Grey Dot, Jupiter Effect, 10 Minutes Down, Chinese Sky Candy, Mang.
University District information page:
www.spokaneuniversitydistrict.info
The Shop:
www.theshop.bz
Personnel & staffing changes
Comings
Ben Aichele, Information Technology Technician II, Interdisciplinary Design Institute (start date 12/15/04)
Searches
Senior Associate/Full Professor, Criminal Justice, open until
filled
Assistant/Associate Professor, Construction Management, open until
filled
Assistant/Associate Professor, Interior Design, open until filled
Assistant/Associate Professor, Pharmacotherapy, open until filled
Clinical Assistant Professor, Pharmacotherapy, 7 positions full and
part-time, open until filled
Research Associate/Research Scientist, Washington Institute for
Mental Illness Research & Training, open until filled
Way to go!
“Way to Go” to Patti Petersen for her planning of the WSU Spokane Holiday Party. She put together a wonderful mix of food, friendship and music for the WSU Spokane community to enjoy. Thanks to Jennifer Hogan for her work coordinating the basket raffle and to Jennifer, Diane Davis and Jan Eldredge for providing the delicious cookies. Click the link below to view pictures from the 2004 Holiday Party.
WSU Spokane 2004 holiday party pictures.
"Way to go" is the place for you to recognize a co-worker's extra effort, outstanding contribution, or all-around good nature that makes your work day go a little more smoothly.
Send your “Way to Go!” comments to Laura Scholtens,
scholtens@wsu.edu,
and watch for your thanks to be published in an upcoming issue of
the
Campus
Bulletin!
Find it on the Web
- News Releases: Recent news releases and links to news releases organized by subject for WSU Spokane.
- WSU News Service: Breaking news from WSU, links to all news releases, and other information sources.
- World Class Faculty: Check out the online profiles featured as links from our home page. The images rotate randomly on the home page, but the profiles are always available from this central profile page. You can also navigate to this page by choosing "About WSU Spokane" from the home page, "People" in the lefthand navigation, and "Profiles" in the lefthand navigation there.
- Bulletin archives: Links to past issues of the Campus Bulletin from Oct. 2003 forward.
- In the News: Media coverage of campus programs and people
- Events Calendar:
What's going on around here, anyway?
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The Bulletin is usually published on Wednesday biweekly during the
academic year, every three weeks during breaks and summer session.
Publication date may shift due to holidays. Deadline is Friday,
the week before publication.
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The Bulletin covers news of interest to the faculty, staff, and friends of Washington State University Spokane, and associates on other WSU campuses and on the Riverpoint campus.
Regular columns cover personnel changes, upcoming events, professional accomplishments, opportunities for involvement in the campus community and the Spokane community, notices of new developments on campus, and other news.
The Bulletin also serves as a source of information for external communications directed to alumni, future and current students, and friends of Washington State University Spokane. You'll read it here first!
Subscribers welcome! Also available: WSU Spokane News & Events Update, an irregular email newsletter with brief excerpts from news releases and articles, and links to more information online (some duplication of Bulletin content). Send an email to Barb Chamberlain, chamberlain@wsu.edu, to request the WSU Spokane Campus Bulletin and/or the News & Events Update.
Editorial staff
- Barb Chamberlain, chamberlain@wsu.edu, (509) 358-7527
- Laura Scholtens, scholtens@wsu.edu, (509) 358-7540