Linda Donahue has been appointed director of the Great Lakes district for the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) Division of Extension. In her new position, she oversees the ILR school's workplace training and education programs and faculty efforts in the greater western New York area, including training and professional development workshops, college credit courses, research, economic development and technical assistance. The Great Lakes district serves private- and public-sector employers and unions, nonprofits, government agencies, trade and professional associations and community groups. Outreach is one of Cornell's founding principles as part of its land-grant mission. (November 14, 2003)
Although U.S. employment rates rose over the growth years of the 1990s for most working-age Americans, people with disabilities experienced an unprecedented fall in their employment rates.
Cornell University Police will join more than 13,000 law enforcement agencies and other college and university campus police agencies in the national Click It or Ticket Mobilization, which runs from Nov. 17 to 30. "Failure to wear a seat belt is against the law in this state. We enforce this law because it's the best proven way to save lives. If you won't buckle up to save your life, then buckle up to save yourself a ticket," said Sgt. Chuck Howard, traffic enforcement coordinator for Cornell University Police. (November 13, 2003)
Prolific author John Updike, twice honored with the Pulitzer Prize, will read from his works Tuesday, Nov. 18, at 8 p.m. in the Statler Auditorium of Statler Hall on the Cornell University campus. In addition, Updike will lead a colloquium titled "The Craft of Fiction: a Conversation with John Updike" Wednesday, Nov. 19, at 11 a.m. in Barnes Hall Auditorium. Both the reading and the colloquium are free and open to the public. Born in Shillington, Pa., in 1932, Updike is a 1954 graduate of Harvard University and the author of more than 50 books that span many literary genres. But he is perhaps best known as a novelist. Updike's first novel, PoorhouseFair, was published in 1959, and his most recent, Seek My Face, in 2002. High points in his novel-writing career include the quartet of Rabbit novels, Rabbit Run (1961), Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit is Rich (1981, Pulitzer Prize) and Rabbit at Rest (1990, a second Pulitzer); and the trilogy of Bech books: Bech, A Book (1970), Bech is Back (1982) and Bech at Bay (1998). In addition, Updike has written collections of short stories, poetry, art and literary criticism, memoirs and a play. (November 12, 2003)
On National Philanthropy Day, Friday, Nov. 14, 50 Cornell University students will fan out over Tompkins County to plant the seeds of philanthropy among 3- and 4-year-olds at local Head Start programs. The university students will be reading to the young students and conducting activities related to a children's book about sharing, caring and giving. (November 12, 2003)
Stephen J. O'Brien, chief of the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity at the National Cancer Institute, will deliver a public lecture titled 'The Landscape of Comparative Genomics in Mammals' as part of a colloquium on genomics.
Cynthia McKinney, who served as the first African-American woman from the state of Georgia to be elected to the U.S. Congress, will make two public appearances during her first visit to Cornell as a Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 University Professor.
Stephen F. Hamilton, professor of human development and co-director of Cornell University's Family Life Development Center, has been named associate provost for outreach, Provost Biddy Martin announced Nov. 5. Hamilton was appointed to a three-year term beginning Nov. 1. The new part-time position of associate provost for outreach was recommended by the university's Land Grant Mission Review Task Force last spring, a year after five panels began reviewing Cornell's land-grant mission. The part-time position will allow Hamilton to continue his other academic responsibilities. (November 11, 2003)
Tumor size can predict the survival of a patient with the most common type of lung cancer, according to physician-scientists at NewYork Weill Cornell Medical Center.
While examining the flight behavior of flesh flies, Cornell University entomologists have discovered that males of the species (Sarcophagidae: Neobellieria bullata) -- traveling at very high speed, soaring in sexual pursuit and swiveling their heads like gun turrets -- literally can lose sight of a target female. Yet the males compensate for the momentary loss of vision and still catch up to mate. A detailed explanation of this quirk in vision physiology and neurological processing could help military and aerospace engineers to build aircraft and artillery that have improved detection of evasive targets. (November 10, 2003)
More than 12,000 fleecy muffs, message magnets, stress balls, picture dominoes and other simple items are helping to reduce agitation, boredom and behavior problems for 8,000 Alzheimer's patients across New York state.
