Former Black Panther leader to give this year’s Mary Frances Early Lecture
Former Black Panther Party leader Elaine Brown will deliver the keynote address at the seventh annual Mary Frances Early lecture April 18.

An activist and author, Brown will give a lecture entitled “Rethinking Social Justice: A Contemporary Look at Activism” at 7 p.m. in the Chapel.

Open to the public, the lecture honors Mary Frances Early, the first African-American graduate of UGA who earned a master’s degree in music education in 1962. The lecture is sponsored by Graduate and Professional Scholars, a minority graduate and professional student organization at UGA.

The first and only women to lead the Black Panther Party in 1974 as chair, Brown is author of The Condemnation of Little B. (2003) and her memoir A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story (1993).

Three faculty, Georgia Review will receive Governor’s Award in Humanities
Three UGA faculty members and The Georgia Review have been named winners of the Governor’s Awards in the Humanities.

Faculty winners are Hugh Ruppersburg, senior associate dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and professor of English; Philip Lee Williams, assistant dean for public information of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and adjunct professor of creative writing; and John Waters, professor of historic preservation and the graduate coordinator of the historic preservation program in the College of Environment and Design.

To be presented in Atlanta on May 10, the awards are given to “individuals and organizations who build community, character and citizenship in Georgia through their efforts in humanities education,” according to the Humanities Council.

Ruppersburg is editor of Georgia Voices, a ­three-book series published by the UGA Press focusing on Georgia writers of fiction, poetry and nonfiction.

Williams is the author of 12 books and the ­winner of numerous other literary awards. His novel A Distant Flame (St. Martin’s, 2004) won the Michael Shaara Award as the best book about the Civil War published in the U.S. in 2004.

Waters and his students have coordinated preservation studies for more than 20 towns and historic places.

Now in its 60th continuous year of publication, The Georgia Review presents short fiction, poetry, essays, book reviews and visual art. The journal also was recently named as a finalist in the 2007 National Magazine Awards competition.

Web services get boost from upgrades
The Office of the CIO and Enterprise Information Technology Services recently overhauled the computing hardware that supports a number of popular Web services at UGA.

“One of the greatest advantages to the upgrade is greater efficiency and faster processing for the Web services we support,” said Russell Hatfield, an application analyst specialist in Administrative Development and Data Management, a division within EITS.

Under the direction of Steve Kane, interim associate chief information officer, ADDM is continuing to expand its role as technology partner and provider of state-of-the art Web-based services for students, faculty and staff at UGA.

“Providing integrated data services in partnership with offices of the provost, vice president for business and finance and others is a very important role for ADDM,” said Kane.

One of the more significant Web services projects currently under development is UGA’s preparation for reaffirmation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. EITS is developing a Web site to demonstrate electronically the university’s compliance with comprehensive standards and core requirements based on SACS principles of accreditation.