Columns:: Newsmakers

since 12/15/98

Columns::March 11, 2002

Civil rights scholar will deliver annual Holmes-Hunter Lecture
New partnership chronicles ‘unsung foot soldiers’
Multicultural studies pioneer will give Tresp Lecture
Annual Nunn Forum focuses on commercialization of the academy
$16,000 in prize money awarded at first marketing research competition
National search gets under way for new grad dean
Veterinary Medicine students take part in Spay Day
Looking for the cheese
‘Taste’ of research whetted library director’s appetite for archival work
Health center earns JCAHO accreditation
Retirees
Forum essay: To understand us, others must learn English. . .
Tenor of the matter

Campus News

Newsmakers

Transforming ‘Jet’
Begun in 1951, Jet Magazine portrayed and helped shape the civil rights movement and the growth of the black middle class. Still, some say Jet is too lightweight and too focused on celebrities instead of weightier issues facing black America, reports the Chicago Tribune. “What I am looking for is more depth and more analysis,” Dwight Brooks, a UGA journalism professor, told the Tribune.

Internet provider oversight?
When Excite@Home declared bankruptcy and discontinued Internet service to its customers, AT&T Broadband immediately undertook the return of service. Internet expert Rick Watson of UGA’s Terry College of Business told the Sacramento Bee that high-speed Internet access is increasingly being perceived not as a luxury but as a basic utility, like electricity or running water.

Identifying with your body

Most people who begin an exercise program quit within a short time--50 percent within six to eight weeks, another 25 percent by the end of the year, the Associated Press reports. The key is to make your exercise routine part of your identity, according to Rod K. Dishman of UGA’s exercise science department--exercising to lose weight, to strengthen bones, or to increase the lifespan can impart personal meaning. Dishman told the AP it is important to get to the point where benefits kick in, by minimizing discomfort and accentuating the enjoyment of the activity.

Cloning dollars
In a report on the financial potential of private cloning companies, the Los Angeles Times reported that sales of cloned pigs, cows and beef cattle could reach $750 million in the next 10 years. UGA Regents Professor Steven Stice, who is involved with the company ProLinia, says that “this business won’t take off until we are able to produce hundreds of cloned pigs and cattle.”

Filling government jobs
The Washington Post reported on a study by political science professor Hal G. Rainey on Title 5 exemptions. Rainey found encouraging signs that the exemptions have helped four government agencies fill critical executive and technical jobs and prompted them to pay more attention to recruiting. His study is available at www.endowment.pwcglobal.com.

Turtle airlift to the rescue
According to the Washington Post, a soft-shell Asian freshwater turtle is the latest victim in the multibillion dollar international trade in endangered species. “The trade is so heavy that these things are going to be extinct in a short while,” said Kurt Buhlmann, visiting professor at UGA and coordinator of the conservation program that is airlifting 7,500 live turtles from Hong Kong, where they were intercepted by customs officials, to southern Florida. “You haven’t heard as much about turtles because they’re not as charismatic as rhinos or tigers,” Buhlmann told the Post.
“Our goal is to eventually be able to return these creatures to protected areas in their country of origin.”

House finches suffer eye infection
The New York Times reports that researchers at the University of Georgia and North Carolina State University have identified the bacterium causing the eye disease currently devastating wild populations of house finches. The number of house finches in the eastern United States has fallen 60 percent in the past seven years as the contagious disease spreads at backyard feeders.

Kim Carlyle of the UGA News Service monitors coverage of UGA in local, state and national media. Contact her for information about these or other stories in the news. Newsmakers appears in every other issue of Columns.

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