Monday, August 21, 2000
New directions for budding scientists
Mastering Internet technology
Undergraduate scholarship program names new Senior Faculty Fellows
Construction projects enhance pedestrian safety
Football parking changes announced for fall
Forest ecologist ‘roots out’ ways to conduct research underground
Facilities-planning administrator named interim budget director
Relief workers
Newsmakers

Low-water landscaping
With drought conditions in Georgia the most serious they’ve been since 1986, homeowners are being advised to master the principles of low-water landscaping.
“People don’t realize their lawns can look just as nice at one-third the size,” UGA horticultural-st Walter Reeves told the New York Times. “They can have islands of flowers instead of a whole row, and there are species of plants that require less water than the ones people use now.”

Latest school-prayer ban
In a USA Today article, history professor James Cobb predicted a negative reaction across the South to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that requires school districts to fully divorce themselves from involvement in religious exercises--including public prayer at football games.
“It’s sort of an example of the way the Bible Belt’s devotion to organized religion permeates Southern society,” said Cobb, the author of Redefining Southern Culture: Mind and Identity in the Modern South. “The prayer seems to add a layer of sanction to an event that might seem a bit violent and frivolous.”


Laid-off workers won’t be for long
Don’t expect long unemployment lines in Georgia, despite well-publicized layoffs at Coca-Cola, BellSouth and Lockheed Martin, according to Jeffrey Humphreys, economist for UGA’s Selig Center for Economic Growth.
“Those are the type of people in very, very short supply,” Humphreys told the Wall Street Journal. “They’re going to be snapped up by other firms. The problem is not lack of jobs. It’s the lack of available workers. Some companies’ expansion plans are sitting on the shelf because the labor market is so tight.”


The solid South?
For all the recent gains by Democrats in the South, particularly gubernatorial victories, Al Gore and Joe Lieberman will have to overcome a generally inhospitable political environment, according to many news reports. George W. Bush leads in most polls in Southern states, and analysts say Democrats’ success in statewide races does not necessarily predict success in the presidential contest.
“Republicans will take the region, and it may even be a return of 1992 and 1996, when Republicans did their best in the South,” political scientist Charles Bullock said in a recent Philadelphia Inquirer story. “The strategy for Democrats is that they don’t get swept.”


Retreat helps doctoral students
Graduate students are as susceptible to writer’s block as anyone--particularly when it comes time to write their dissertation.
The Chronicle of Higher Education recently featured a UGA program that helps them through this difficult time. Education professor JoBeth Allen organizes an annual retreat to Unicoi State Park where students get feedback, advice, motivation and--best of all--peace and quiet in which to work.

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