UGA installs chemical tracking system
UGA’s environmental safety division has developed, pilot-tested
and now is implementing a Web-based system to track hazardous
chemicals used in research and instructional programs. The new
system, developed in conjunction with Sivco Inc., will be operational
campus-wide in 2005. Other research universities in the state
are also planning to implement the system.
Called Chematix, the new system will enable authorized UGA personnel
to compare prices and order chemicals, track shipping, monitor
inventory, receive automatic notifications of hazardous chemical
expiration dates and arrange for chemical disposal using a password-protected
computer and commercial Web browsers. The data is encrypted
before transmission across secure networks. New capabilities
include the ability to share surplus chemicals among labs and
provide information to first responders about what chemicals
are stored in any building in the event of an emergency.
Chematix complies with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
documentation standards for chemical acquisition, fate and disposal
and also adheres to federal cost-accounting standards for institutions
that receive federal research funds.
Prof wins national poetry contest
Melisa Cahnmann, an assistant professor of language and literacy
education in UGA’s College of Education, has received
the top prize of $10,000 in a national contest for poets younger
than age 40. Cahnmann’s winning entry in the inaugural
Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Contest consisted of three
poems, “Habitat for Humanity,” a villanelle; “Inspiration,”
a free-form verse poem; and “Icaria,” a sonnet.
Her poems were selected to receive the top prize from 154 entries
from across the nation and Australia, Belgium, Canada, England
and Malaysia.
Cahnmann is currently enrolled in the low-residency master of
fine arts program at New England College. Her research, teaching
and poetry often focus on bilingualism, cross-cultural identity
and multicultural education. She directs the Finding Unity in
Diversity project, which takes teachers out of classrooms and
puts them into the communities where Latino and African-American
students and families live, work, play and pray.
Georgians favor teaching evolution but
only if combined with other theories
Georgians generally are opposed to teaching evolution as the
sole explanation for the origins of the human species, according
to the results of the latest Peach State Poll.
Less than one in five Georgians (17 percent) believes that public
schools should teach evolution to the exclusion of other theories
not broadly adopted by the scientific community. A slim majority
(54 percent) feels that religious theories should be included
in the classroom, and almost one in four (23 percent) believes
that the schools should not teach evolution at all.
On the subject of another issue, 72 percent of Georgians oppose
granting driver’s licenses to undocumented aliens after
hearing arguments both for and against such a policy.
Other Peach State Poll results:
• Twenty-seven percent of respondents cite education as
the most important problem facing the state, followed by the
economy and jobs (16 percent).
• Although 41 percent of the public expresses a high level
of confidence in their local public schools, the public has
far less confidence in the public school system in the state
as a whole (24 percent).
The Peach State Poll is a quarterly survey of public opinion
conducted by UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government. |
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