Charles Village Project forum for community is set for tonight

A community forum will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. tonight, June 9, to review the Charles Village Task Force's progress in creating development plans for the proposed Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse mixed-use project in the 3200 block of St. Paul Street and the JHU bookstore and student housing project in the 3300 blocks of St. Paul and Charles streets.

The task force, comprised of representatives from neighborhood and business associations and area institutions, was formed to provide community input in the planning process for the Charles Village Project.

The meeting will take place in the Church of Saints Philip and James at 2801 N. Charles St., basement level.

CEPAR launches Intranet site for Johns Hopkins community

With the latest upgrade in the national security alert level, the Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response -- the Johns Hopkins office charged with enterprisewide planning and reaction to catastrophe -- has launched a comprehensive Intranet Web site for members of the Johns Hopkins community.

The new site includes answers to questions about planning for and responding to critical events; detailed emergency procedure plans for Johns Hopkins Institutions; updates on SARS, smallpox and anthrax news; emergency telephone numbers; and links to other important Web sites, such as those for the federal government's Department of Homeland Security.

To access the site from within the Johns Hopkins network, go to www.insidehopkinsmedicine.org/cepar.

The Intranet site can be reached from your home computer by obtaining access to the Inside Hopkins Medicine Web site; to download the required Virtual Private Network program, log on to https://downloads.jhsecure.jhmi.edu using your JHED username and password (note the "s" in "https," which stands for "secure"), then follow the instructions.

A look at changing role of state from U.S.-French perspective

SAIS will hold a forum, "The Changing Role of the State: A Franco-American Dialogue" from 2 to 6:30 p.m. today, June 9. Hosted by the Center for Transatlantic Relations at SAIS and the Universite de Paris I (Sorbonne), the forum will feature panelists from academia, government, international organizations and think tanks.

Topics of the three sessions will be "Internal (Societal) Security and Homeland Defense," "External Security and the Use of Force" and "The State and the Market: Can National Governments Still Manage Domestic Economies?" SAIS participants will be Esther Brimmer, Charles Doran, William Zartman, Ruth Wedgwood and Jakub Grygiel.

The forum, free and open to the public, will be held in room 500 of the university's Bernstein-Offit Building, located at 1717 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. Non-SAIS affiliates should RSVP by e-mailing transatlantic@jhu.edu or calling 202-663-5730.

APL awarded James W. Rouse Diversity Award for 2003

The Applied Physics Laboratory was one of two organizations selected by the Chesapeake Human Resources Association to receive its 2003 James W. Rouse Diversity Award.

CHRA, Maryland's premier human resources professional association, established this award in 1996 to honor the late James W. Rouse, whose vision of building a better way to live and work through promoting diversity was embodied in the urban redevelopment programs for which he is nationally known.

The award is presented annually to CHRA member organizations in recognition of the innovative strategies they have implemented to advance the concept and spirit of diversity. APL was cited for its achievements in work-life programs, staff recruitment and retention, staff development and management training.

Aili Kujawa, APL Human Resources and Services Department head, accepted the award for the Laboratory in a ceremony held May 21 in Towson, Md.

German-U.S. partnership reaffirmed at AICGS event

On the eve of the first meeting of United States and German leaders since the Iraq crisis, the U.S. ambassador to Germany and the state secretary of Germany's Federal Foreign Office reaffirmed the continued importance of German-American cooperation. The two spoke at the 20th anniversary reception in Berlin for the Johns Hopkins American Institute for Contemporary German Studies.

More than 300 people were on hand as Ambassador Daniel Coats noted that the German-American partnership "remains crucial to the economic, political and security interests of our two countries." Klaus Scharioth, state secretary of the Federal Foreign Office, struck a similarly positive note: German-American relations and the transatlantic relationship, he stressed, remain central to German foreign policy and have a strength and continuity that goes beyond differences on specific issues.

The relationship must adapt, however, to new challenges, and Scharioth called for a new "strategic dialogue" with the United States to take place not only at the governmental level, but in parliaments, universities and think tanks such as AICGS.

The AICGS event marked the kickoff of a yearlong celebration of the institute and its work.