The Johns Hopkins Gazette: October 16, 2000
October 16, 2000
VOL. 30, NO. 7

  

Briefs

Johns Hopkins Gazette Online Edition

Johns Hopkins University United Way campaign update

Our United Way campaign has raised $1,058,248--57 percent of the combined goal of $1,832,500 for all Johns Hopkins entities.

Congratulations to staff and faculty of the School of Nursing for reaching almost 90 percent of the school's goal in the first two weeks of the campaign.


Used office equipment can be donated to area nonprofits

The United Way Community ResourceBank links Hopkins good will with community needs. How does it work?

Hopkins departments donate surplus/used equipment, furniture and products. The Community ResourceBank then matches the donations with needs of area nonprofit organizations.

To recycle your used office equipment, call Barbara Artis at 410-895-1412 or 410-379-5522. A bulk quantity of items can be picked up from your location; smaller quantities need to be delivered directly to the warehouse.

For more information, call the Office of Faculty, Staff and Retiree Programs at 410-516-6060.


Symposium salutes career of history professor Jack Greene

A three-day symposium to honor the work of history professor Jack Greene will be held Oct. 19-21. Greene, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, has taught at Hopkins since 1964. All events will be held in the Garrett Room of the MSE Library at Homewood.

Richard E. McCarty, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, will speak at the opening session on Oct. 19, set to begin at 5:30 p.m. The event is open to the university community, and many of Greene's former colleagues and students are expected.

The other two sessions will focus on the upcoming three-volume collection of historical essays penned by friends, colleagues and former students of Greene and published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. Each essay explores a certain aspect of early modern colonial British America, Greene's area of expertise. The sessions will allow the collection's editors to receive some feedback on the volumes' general themes and introductions. For more information, contact Ellen Pearson at 410-467-8979.


Seminar looks at racial minority population in nation's jails

The nation's swelling jail system and its disproportionate racial minority population will be among the topics discussed at "Race, Criminal Justice and the War on Drugs," a seminar to be held from 4 to 6 p.m., Oct. 17, in the MSEL's Garrett Room, Homewood campus.

The event's speakers are Jamie Fellner, an associate counsel for Human Rights Watch; William J. Chambliss, a professor of sociology at George Washington University; and Peter Andreas, a political science professor at Reed College. The session's discussant will be Philip Leaf, professor of mental hygiene at the School of Public Health and director of the Hopkins Prevention Research Center.

The seminar is co-sponsored by the university's Program on Social Inequality, the Dean's Office of the School of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Mental Hygiene at the School of Public Health.


School of Nursing unveils redesigned Web site

The School of Nursing has recently launched a redesigned Web page that features more user-friendly navigation, a color photo tour of the main building and detailed information about the school's academic programs and research efforts.

The intent of the new Web page is to give the school a more visible presence on the Internet, help attract prospective nursing students and provide useful and current information to all visitors.

Kate Pipkin, associate director of public affairs for the School of Nursing and co-chair of the school's Web Page Committee, said the former design contained all the pertinent information but was considered inefficient. The Web Page Committee, established more than three years ago by SON Dean Sue Donaldson, is made up of faculty and staff.

The new page displays prominent links to all aspects of the school's academic programs, including financial aid and course scheduling. In addition, students now can link to various resources from throughout the university and can access their student e-mail accounts from off-site locations through the new Web page, located at www.son.jhmi.edu.


JHU, Sojourner Douglass offer joint public health course

The second term of the lecture series "Special Studies and Research in Public Health: Societal Factors' Effect on Health Indicators" will begin on Oct. 30.

The nine-week multidisciplinary course explores the diverse societal and behavioral factors influencing historical and current health status, focusing on the urban environment. The course is a collaboration between the university and Sojourner Douglass College with an emphasis on theoretical and living experiences.

The program will offer lectures by faculty members from both institutions as well as personal narratives by individuals whose health has been affected by societal factors.

The two-credit course is sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Diversity Leadership Council. JHU students can register through their divisional registrar's office.

The series is held at Sojourner Douglass, 500 N. Caroline St. For more information, contact Marisela Gomez at 410-788-1078.


NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft readies for low pass over Eros

On Oct. 13, the NEAR mission successfully executed the first of three orbital correction maneuvers that will bring the spacecraft unprecedentedly close to asteroid Eros later this month.

A two-minute engine burn just before 2 a.m. EDT nudged the spacecraft from a 62-mile orbit--where it had been gathering global images and other data for five weeks--toward a tighter orbit 31 miles from Eros.

"This maneuver was only the beginning," says Robert Farquhar, mission director. "In less than two weeks, we'll bring NEAR Shoemaker closer than any spacecraft has ever been to an asteroid."

An engine burn Oct. 20 will circularize the 31-mile orbit, before a maneuver Oct. 25 starts NEAR Shoemaker on a gradual pass to within four miles of the asteroid's surface. That's closer than commercial airliners cruise over land--and a spot from which the NEAR team figures to gather some breathtaking data.

"We'll get our highest-resolution images so far," says Andrew Cheng, NEAR project scientist. "I really hope to get a look at the structure of the rocks and learn a lot more about the small-scale grooves and ridges."


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