TO CLIPS INDEX
- Clips for April 4, 2008
Bennett reconsidering decision not to run
The Arizona Republic - April 4, 2008 12:00 AM
GOP asks ex-state senator to pursue Rep. Renzi's seat
Nearly seven months after announcing that he wouldn't run in the 1st
Congressional District, former
state Senate President Ken Bennett is reconsidering that decision. The news
comes following a face-
to-face meeting earlier this week between Bennett, senior GOP donors and members
of the Arizona
congressional delegation and staff. "They asked me to reconsider the CD-1 race,"
Bennett told The
Republic. "I agreed to reconsider." Bennett, a Prescott resident, had been
considered a frontrunner
for the seat until he issued a statement in September saying that "now is not
the time for me to seek
election to Congress." His entry would shake up the GOP race, significantly
brightening Republican
prospects in a district in which its two announced candidates - Sydney Hay and
Preston Korn - have
ailed to generate much buzz.
ASU using wind turbines to power computers
The Arizona Republic - April 4, 2008 07:14 AM
People look up and ask questions like, "What in the world?" or "Is that building
gonna' take off?"
or "Whose idea are those things?" Those passersby are gawking at wind turbines
on the roof of
Arizona State University's Global Institute of Sustainability building on the
Tempe campus. Wind
turns the turbines' propellers and produces enough electricity, per turbine, to
power about six
computers over 24 hours. "That may not seem like a whole lot of electricity, but
the turbines are
models of what can be done to reduce energy costs," institute spokeswoman Lauren
Kuby said.
"We want to model alternatives for sustainable energy. We are a conveyer of best
practices." The
Global Institute evolved from ASU's Center For Environmental Studies and the
institute's School
of Sustainability offers bachelor's, and, by next fall, graduate degrees.
Editorial: No
Child bill ignores reality
East Valley Tribune - April 3, 2008 - 10:54PM
We have more than a few problems with the educational juggernaut that is No
Child Left Behind.
It’s a continuation of the overweening reach of the federal government into our
lives at the local
level which requires states to hold all K-12 students to the same standard, but
allows states to
set those standards. The feds then assess such steep penalties for not meeting
wildly unrealistic
goals of every school improving performance in every grade and subject that
states are forced to
dumb down the standards.
Ground is broken on
nursing-college addition at ASU
Arizona Daily Star - April 4, 2008
PHOENIX — Ground has been broken on a $30 million addition to the College of
Nursing &
Healthcare Innovation at Arizona State University's downtown Phoenix campus. The
five-story
building symbolizes how the college has changed in its 50-year history, Dean
Bernadette
Melnyk said. In 1957, ASU started the school of nursing with three faculty
members and six
students. Today's nursing school has nearly 2,000 students and is the nation's
largest, the
dean said.
Opinion by Greg
Hansen : This gamble by Wildcats might just be one for ages
Arizona Daily Star - April 4, 2008
During Wednesday's lunch hour rush at the Arizona Inn, Arizona Wildcats coaches
Mike Candrea,
Dave Rubio and Fred Harvey were seated with an unfamiliar face. Niya Butts is a
30-year-old single
black woman from Lexington, Ky. Wednesday, engaged in dialogue with a
distinguished audience
of UA coaches, she made an impressive case to be part of the club. If Butts felt
the pressure, it didn't
show. If she was cowed by her company, she fought through it. "At the end of the
lunch,'' said Rubio,
who has coached Arizona into volleyball's equivalent of the Final Four, "it was,
'OK, this may be the
one; she's got the stuff.' "
Denogean:
Pearce proposal grabs power from voters
Tucson Citizen - April 4, 2008
Much of what comes out of Arizona's loony Legislature is plain silly. But a
measure sponsored by
Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, is downright audacious. Pearce's HCR 2044 would,
upon voter
consent, allow lawmakers facing budget deficits to brush off voter-approved
mandates and raid
the taxpayer dollars intended for them to fund programs or agencies the
Legislature deems more
important. Yes, I'm laughing out loud at the chutzpah of it. Pearce wants the
voters to give legislators
the power to overrule the voters.
New UA
coach believes age won't be a factor
Tucson Citizen - April 4, 2008
At age 30, Niya Butts felt the timing was right for her to be a head basketball
coach. So did the
University of Arizona. Butts, an assistant coach at Kentucky since 2003, was
introduced Thursday
as the eighth head coach in Arizona history. She replaces Joan Bonvicini, who
was fired with a
year remaining on her contract. "I feel the timing was perfect,'' said Butts,
who played at Tennessee.
"I feel I am ready and I am excited about it. I think this is a great time
to enter the Pac-10. "I just think
it's time. I think the people of Arizona are ready and I am ready. This was the
right time, right place
and right people.'' Butts becomes the youngest head coach in the Pac-10.
Online
comments: The big debate: Livengood gets dunked
Tucson Citizen - April 4, 2008
'Through the soap opera that we have all had forced upon us over the past year,
he has been at the
forefront. . . . What a joke.' The story: University of Arizona President Robert
N. Shelton says that Lute
Olson's return puts on hold the succession plan to someday replace the Arizona
basketball coach.
Your take: A replacement plan is needed, all right, but it's for Athletic
Director Jim Livengood, who
bears the brunt of the Citizen online community's vitriol for the latest
chapters in the Olson story. The
consensus: "Livengood is gone," as Ray B. says.
Study: Grads face tougher job market
ASU Web Devil - April 4, 2008
Graduating ASU students heading into the real world might have a difficult time
finding a job.
How-ever, when they do, their salaries are expected be higher than average.
MonsterTrak, a
division of Monster Worldwide Inc., released its annual nationwide survey of
college students,
recent graduates and entry-level employers last week. This year's study showed
that one-third
of employers planning to hire 2008 graduates will increase entry-level salaries
by 1 to 5 percent.
This year, 59 percent of surveyed employers said they expected to hire 2008
college graduates.
Last year, 76 percent of employers said they expected to hire 2007 graduates.
Rankings: Glendale school trumps W. P. Carey in international business
ASU Web Devil - April 4, 2008
ASU may have one of the nation's best graduate business programs, but its
international
business concentration pales in comparison to another Valley school. Glendale's
Thunderbird
School of Global Management is ranked first on the list of masters of business
administration
programs for international business in U.S. News & World Report's recent
rankings, while ASU's
W. P. Carey School of Business MBA program failed to place in the
specialization.The rankings,
established in 1983 and the oldest business-school ranking system in the
country, is based on
both expert opinion about the quality of the program and statistics that measure
the quality of the
school's faculty, research and students.
Budget cuts?
ASU Web Devil - April 4, 2008
In a shaky state economy, University departments cast uneasy eye at spending
With legislative budget cuts looming, University departments are beginning to
scale back
spending and examine what costs can be cut if state money falls through.
Arizona's projected
$1.7 billion budget sortfall for the 2009 fiscal year coupled with current
economic woes is
significantly straining government disbursements, said Jeanine L'Ecuyer, Gov.
Janet Napolitano's
press secretary. She said no definite 2009 budget has been decided upon, and
Napolitano is in
talks with legislators to trim spending from the 2008 budget.
Center hires fellows to integrate ethics education
ASU Web Devil - April 3, 2008
Instead of asking how to apply technology in classes at the Polytechnic campus,
students may
begin to ask what the ethical ramifications of those applications may be. The
Lincoln Center for
Applied Ethics plans to hire six fellows for the Polytechnic campus this spring
to develop programs
and courses in ethics next fall. Six more fellows will be hired the next spring.
The Lincoln Center is
a unit of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences that focuses on improving
ethical awareness and
understanding at ASU and in the community.
Drop-out, part-time teacher numbers linked
ASU Web Devil - April 4, 2008
University students taking introductory-level courses with part-time instructors
are more likely to
drop out after their first year, according to a new study. The study, conducted
by Audrey Jaeger,
education professor at North Carolina State University, and Kevin Eagan, college
administration
doctoral student at UCLA, found that part-time faculty members are less
motivated because they
often receive lower wages and no benefits or office space. "Part-time faculty
are generally more
dissatisfied with their jobs," Eagan said. Part-timers usually have other
responsibilities, he added,
and are thus less able to focus just on teaching. Students, in turn, are less
likely to bond with part-
timers because they view the employees as less dependable, he said.
Professor: Fix heart by bolstering immune system
UA Daily Wildcat Online - April 3, 2008
Research team finds link between immune dysfunction and heart disease
As the human body gets older and weaker, so does its immune system and heart.
This aging process
can contribute to heart failure, which claims yearly more than a half-million
lives in the United States.
At present, there is no cure or good therapy for the affliction. Ronald Watson,
a public health professor,
believes that rather than treating heart disease, lives can be saved by treating
the immune system first.
"We need a new theory to be able to provide a cure," he said. "And with that
theory new drugs can be
made."
Program to boost AZ doctors
UA Daily Wildcat Online - April 4, 2008
Those long waits at the doctor's office may soon become shorter. More than a
hundred new doctors
will be trained by University Physicians Healthcare in coming years to help ease
the current physician
shortage in Arizona. The UA is teaming up with UPH to create seven new residency
programs that are
expected to train 118 new doctors over the next three years. The first of the
programs - regarding internal
medicine and psychiatry - will begin in July, with the radiology program
beginning in the summer of 2009,
said Katie Riley, associate director of community and media relations in the
public affairs office at Arizona
Health Sciences Center.
Undergraduate women to share science research
UA Daily Wildcat Online - April 4, 2008
Women make up only 12 percent of the science and engineering work force,
according to the National
Council for Research on Women. That's why, when six female undergraduates from
the UA were
recently asked to present their research at a large-scale national science
conference, it turned some
heads."The fact that they are women is a testament to the efforts of this
university has made to
encourage more women to pursue science careers," said Carol Bender, director of
the UA's Under-
graduate Biology Research Program and Related Programs. "And the fact that they
are under-
graduates underscores the commitment UA has to undergraduate research."
K-12 teachers to gain more science knowledge
UA Daily Wildcat Online - April 4, 2008
UA symposium will introduce new techniques
Play-Doh planets. Biospheres in a bottle. Insects, dead and alive. Appropriate
for a wacky daytime
children's program, but for a series of workshops for adults? More than 160
science teachers state-
wide will experience just that when they participate in the second annual
Arizona K-12 Science Teacher
Symposium hosted tomorrow by the UA's BIO5 Institute. The event will run from 8
a.m. to 4 p.m., and
teachers participating will receive eight hours toward their recertification.
"The symposium is designed
to connect K-12 teachers from across the state with science education resources
that they can bring to
their classrooms to help get their students excited about science," said Stacey
Forsyth, director of
education outreach for BIO5.
Arizona ranks 18th for high-tech jobs, firms, investments
Phoenix Business Journal - April 4, 2008
The high-tech industry in Arizona accounts for 116,842 jobs, 6,586 businesses
and an annual pay-
roll of $8.7 billion. Those statistics are cited in AeA's Cyberstates 2008: A
Complete State-by-State
Overview of the High-Technology Industry, based on the most recent data
available. The 2006 job
count, up by 5,200 from 2005, puts Arizona in 18th place among the states for
high-tech employment
-- dead even with its ranking in the previous two years. California was No. 1,
with 940,700 tech jobs.
Arizona also ranked 18th for the number of high-tech establishments.
ASU students create 'squid' to help groups click
Phoenix Business Journal - April 4, 2008
Two Arizona State University students have created a device that can be used
like a computer mouse,
but it makes "clicking" a community process. It looks like a plush kid's toy you
might find at a theme
park. But Becky Stern and Lisa Tolentino say their invention, a squid dubbed
Archie, has a larger
purpose, including possible applications in the boardroom. As doctoral students
in Arizona State
University's Arts Media and Engineering program, they created Archie to
facilitate group creativity. They
also say it's a way to make decision making more democratic -- in essence,
making it impossible for
one person to dominate a meeting or presentation.
Squire Sanders signs lease at ASU's SkySong
Phoenix Business Journal - April 4, 2008
Arizona State University's new technology and business incubator has signed a
tenant to help inter-
national companies navigate the U.S. legal system. Squire Sanders & Dempsey LLP
is the 10th
company to occupy space at SkySong in Scottsdale, a global hub that links public
institutions with
private enterprise. The international law firm will provide consulting services
and legal advice in a
range of areas, including intellectual property, corporate law and taxes. "It's
really a good synergy,
a good way to build international business," said Judy Neuman, regional
marketing manager at
Squire's Phoenix office.
The
Foundations of General Education
Inside Higher Ed - April 4, 2008
At one point during class Minerva San Juan stopped short. A student in the front
row had successfully
volunteered the link — and leap — between an assumption in an article and an
inference drawn from it,
and the professor wanted a second to savor, even celebrate, the occasion. “That
moment of abstraction
is what they’re not used to doing in high school at all,” San Juan explains
after class, Philosophy 103:
Reasoning and Argumentation, in a hallway of the old, stately Main Hall at
Trinity University, in Washington,
D.C. The building dates to the college’s opening in 1900 and its heritage
through much of the 20th century
as an elite Catholic women’s college, a sister to Georgetown University across
town. Under pressure to
change after suffering intense enrollment declines in the 1970s and ’80s wrought
(in part) by expanded
coeducation, today Trinity is an institution transformed, with its largest
freshman class this fall since 1967
— and a very different class at that. Nearly half its students are D.C.
residents, more than 85 percent are
black and Hispanic, and 62 percent receive federal Pell Grants (a proxy for
low-income status).
Electronic refund delivery provides greater support for students at Arizona
university
CR80 News - April 3 2008
With the help of financial services provider Higher One, Northern Arizona
University is streamlining its refund
distribution process that will enable faster payments to its students. They will
now have multiple options to
receive their financial aid refunds, including direct deposit to the their
OneAccount, a Higher One no-monthly-
fee checking account. New Haven, CT – Higher One, a financial services company
focused exclusively on
higher education, announced it will be working together with Northern Arizona
University to improve the
process by which refunds are distributed to students at the institution.