Spectrum - Volume 21 Issue 10 October 29, 1998 - BULLETINS

A non-profit publication of the Office of the University Relations of Virginia Tech,
including The Conductor , a special section of the Spectrum printed 4 times a year

BULLETINS

Spectrum Volume 21 Issue 10 - October 29, 1998

Service for Smoot to be held
The Department of English will hold a memorial service Thursday, Oct. 29, for Joyce Smoot, a member of the English faculty who died October 3.
The service, open to the university community, will be at 4 p.m. in the Memorial Chapel.
Career Day set for young women
Virginia Tech faculty, students, and alumnae will join together with approximately 210 sixth-grade young women from area schools for an inter-generation, multi-media, mathematical celebration. The welcome session will feature Dean of Students Barbara Pendergrass. Sessions will include Computer Investigations in Mathematics; A Process Approach to Problem Solving: Using Group Work and Presentations; Experiments with Masses and Springs; and a Panel Discussion on Opportunities in Mathematics
Career Day is sponsored by the Department of Mathematics; co-sponsors include the Office of the Provost, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Women's Center at Virginia Tech, the Math Club, and Womanspace
NSF division director to speak
Michael Lesk, author of Practical Digital Libraries: Books, Bytes & Bucks , will give a talk on digital libraries Dec. 1, 3:30-5 p.m., in the Donaldson Brown auditorium at Virginia Tech.
At the National Science Foundation (NSF), Lesk is division director of Information and Intelligent Systems, home of NSF's digital library efforts. Before going to the NSF, he ran computer-science activities at Bellcore. Before that he was at Bell Labs, where he was responsible for key parts of UNIX and launched the UUCP networking environment.
A chemist by training, Lesk implemented the first version of the SMART information retrieval while at Harvard in the early 1960s. He is a visiting professor in computer science at University College, London, is on the Visiting Committee for the Harvard University Library, and worked with the Commission on Preservation and Access addressing digital-preservation issues. He received the Flame Award for lifetime achievement from Usenix in 1994 and is a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.
Authors read to help fight poverty
Seven of Virginia Tech's published writers will read from their works as part of Writers Harvest: The National Reading, Thursday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m. at Volume Two bookstore.
Ed Falco, Katherine Soniat, Simone Poirier-Bures, Lisa Norris, Jeff Mann, Gyorgyi Voros, and Carl Bean will share their works as part of the event that raises money for Share Our Strength (SOS), which works to help alleviate and prevent hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world. Money raised locally goes to the Second Harvest Food Bank.
Requested donation for the event is $3 for students and $7 for the general public.
Among them, the writers have published 10 books, including poetry, short stories, and novels, have published in numerous literary publications, and have won numerous awards for their writing. The writers give their time to support SOS because one in 12 American children under 12 and more than 20 million Americans suffer from hunger, more than 38 million Americans live in poverty, and malnutrition in early years can physically and mentally impair a child for life.
Katherine Soniat, local reading organizer, said, "People might not realize it, but hunger is a problem right here in Montgomery County. Thanks to the participation of authors such as those at Virginia Tech, Writer's Harvest brings attention to the hunger problem and helps raise vital funds for groups fighting hunger in our area."
For further information about the event, call Soniat at 1-5138.
Speaker traces Washington through 200 years
Architect and civil engineer Joseph Passonneau will speak on "Washington through Two Centuries of Maps and Images," Tuesday, Nov. 3, at 7:30 p.m. in Squires Haymarket Theatre. The lecture coincides with the opening of the exhibit "The Architecture, Planning, Urban Design, and Construction of Central Washington, DC," in the Perspective Gallery of Squires Student Center, November 3 through December 9.
Using old books, tour guides, business journals, maps, paintings, and photographs, Passonneau has traced the history of Washington, DC, and has translated the findings into maps that show the city in three dimensions. In a story on the exhibit, The Washington Post called the maps "uncanny." The maps chart patterns of growth in the city across two centuries. Passonneau is an architect and civil engineer who has collected many awards for transportation designs. He is the former dean of architecture at Washington University in St. Louis.
The lecture and exhibit are sponsored by the College of Architecture and Urban Studies.
CAS seeks nominations for award
The Cultural Diversity Committee and the Student Advisory Board in the College of Arts and Sciences are seeking nominations for the annual diversity award. The award, established in 1996, honors faculty and staff members who have made significant contributions to improve the campus climate. This year's focus is to recognize individuals who enhanced the quality of life for persons of color.
To be eligible, nominees need to have taken a leadership role beyond the expectations of their positions to improve the quality of life of persons of color and implement institutional change related to issues of racial diversity. Nominees must be employed by the CAS, although staff nominations can include persons within and outside the CAS.
The CDC and the SAB will select one or two recipients this year, totaling $1,000. Preference will be given to faculty or staff members whose work has not been previously recognized.
One nomination letter, accompanied by two letters of support, should be submitted to Bob Leonard, (0141) by November 9. Letters should describe the nominee's qualifications and contributions to the university community, as they relate to diversity. Faculty and staff members, students and the public are all welcome to submit letters of nomination and support. The award winners will be announced in the spring.
Center will simulate poverty
The Service Learning Center, in conjunction with the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service, will be offering a State of Poverty Welfare simulation to all interested faculty, students and community members.
In the simulation, 30 to 75 participants assume the roles of up to 26 different families facing poverty. Some are newly unemployed, some are recently deserted by the"breadwinner" and others are recipients of AFDC, either with or without additional earned income. Still others are disabled or are senior citizens receiving social security.
The task of the simulated families is to provide for basic necessities and shelter during the course of four 15-minute periods simulating a week each. The simulation takes approximately 2-3 hours. It includes an introduction and briefing, the actual simulation exercise, and a de-briefing period in which participants and volunteer staffers share their feelings and experiences.
There are sessions planned for 1-4 p.m. and 6-9 p.m. on Monday Nov. 2, in Squires Old Dominion Ballroom. Participants for the simulated families as well as staffers for the activity are being sought. Each person playing a staffer will be given specific instructions pertaining to their role, along with the necessary props. Staffers may have had personal experiences which enable them to be especially effective in portraying a given role. Staffers will need to attend a 45-minute training session prior to the simulation. The training will be held as a large group for all staffers attending either session several days prior to the simulation.
Anyone interested in participating should respond to Maureen Fallon at 1-2078 as soon as possible with requests to play staff roles or with numbers of students attending, and at what session. The cap on participants is 75/session. Fallon needs to know by Tuesday, Oct. 27 of those who can commit to being a staffer, and their preferred role. A role will be assigned to anyone without a preference.
Dossier-preparation workshop scheduled
The Academy of Teaching Excellence will hold its annual dossier-preparation workshop on Monday, Nov. 9, in Hillcrest Dining Room, from 3-5 p.m. The workshop is open to all interested faculty members and administrators. Updated guidelines for both the teaching and advising awards will be distributed and discussed. Please note the guidelines have been revised this year based on feedback from last year's dossier preparers and award selection committees. For more information, please contact Sue Magliaro via e-mail at sumags@vt.edu .
Student talent show set for November 12
Virginia Tech's Department of Residential and Dining Programs (RDP) will be hosting Showcase of Talent, the annual student talent show on Thursday, Nov. 12, at 7 p.m. in Deet's Place. All acts are welcome, and may include acoustic and voice, poetry, step, comedy, magic, and dance. Acts must pre-register by October 22 via e-mail to ljankura@vt.edu or call 1-8068 for more information.
All students, faculty and staff members are welcome to attend. There is no charge, and RDP will be awarding prizes and distributing giveaways.
President's Award nominations sought
Nominations are now being accepted for the 1999 President's Award for Excellence. The purpose of this award is to annually recognize up to five selected employees who have made extraordinary contributions by consistent excellence in the performance of their job or a single incident, contribution, or heroic act.
All salaried classified staff members at any grade level, as well as employees serving in administrative and professional faculty positions, with at least two years of university service, are eligible for consideration. Specific exclusions for the award are instructional faculty members, academic department heads, deans, assistant and associate deans, vice presidents, Extension agents, and wage employees. Previous award recipients are not eligible for five years after receiving the award.
Award recipients will receive a certificate and a $2,000 award during the Founders Week ceremonies. Award winners will be publicized internally and externally.
Nominations can be made by any employee; however, self-nominations will not be accepted. All nominations must be submitted on an Award for Excellence nomination form which is available through deans, directors, or department heads, or may be downloaded from the Virginia Tech web page. Evaluation criteria and nomination guidelines are included with the nomination form.
All nominations must be submitted no later than Friday, Nov. 13, to the President's Award for Excellence Committee, c/o Personnel Services, Southgate Center. For more information or forms, call 1-7784.
Slovenian speaker to discuss systems
"Applied Systems Thinking vs. Systems Theories," a lecture by Matjaz Mulej, professor of innovation and systems theory at the University of Maribor in Slovenia, will be presented at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 2, in 114 Architecture Annex.
Mulej will contrast informal methods designed to master complexity by creative cooperation with several pairings of systems theory (deterministic or probabilistic, disciplinary or interdisciplinary, and descriptive or future impact oriented). He will also consider western as compared with far-eastern theories about systems, and will show how all can be combined to enhance holism and creativity in finding solutions to complex everyday problems in the socio-environmental context.
Mulej is a leading international authority on systems applications and is the author or co-editor of about 35 books published in 24 countries, including Self-Transformation Of The Forgotten Four-Fifths , co-authored with Bob Dyck (Dubuque: Kendall-Hunt, 1998). He is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences. The presentation is co-sponsored by the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning together with the Business Leadership Center and the Department of Management. The general public is welcome to attend. For more information, contact Dyck at 1-6042 or by e-mail: bobdyck@vt.edu/.
Hospitality conference set for November 1-3
The Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management and the Division of Continuing Education jointly organize the conference on "The Hospitality Connection: Linking the Hospitality Industry and University-Based Conference Centers." The conference will be November 1-3, in the Donaldson Brown Hotel and Conference Center.
For more information, contact Eliza Tse at 1-8424, or e-mail: tseet@vt.edu .
The public is welcomed to attend the plenary address on Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 11 a.m., in the DBHCC auditorium. The topics is "Trends in Technology and Information Sharing," by Michael Olsen.
Vet students present cow-chip contest
A Cow-Pie Lotto will be presented by the Student American Veterinary Medical Association (SAVMA) on October 31 at 9 a.m. in the equine corral behind the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.
The corral will be marked off in grids and each grid will be sold for $5. On October 31, three cows will be turned loose in the corral to produce cow chips. Three $1,000 prizes will be presented.
Those interested in purchasing grids are invited to contact Sharon Dietz at dietz@vt.edu or call 1-4716. Ticket sales end October 30. s
The fund-raiser is part of an effort to raise money to support the SAVMA 2000 national congress of veterinary students, which will be hosted by Virginia Tech in March, 2000.
About 1,400 veterinary students from around the country will attend a week-long conference in Blacksburg as part of that event.
DMV van on campus
On October 29, DMV's Mobile Unit will be parked at Lane Stadium next to the ticket booth at the score board end of the field. The mobile unit can serve any need associated with DMV. All individuals having a need to visit DMV are encouraged to visit this van. The hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Mall closed through Saturday

The Mall will be completely closed through Sunday, 1 Nov. The AC/ITC construction site is going to set steel on the structure adjacent to the Library. The Mall will reopen once the work is complete. Every effort will be made to reopen the Mall for game traffic on Saturday, but delays or bad weather will effect the schedule.