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The newspaper of The Johns Hopkins University October 3, 2005 | Vol. 35 No. 5
 
In Brief

 

Housing markets expert Richard Green to speak at JHU Oct. 6

Leading housing economist Richard Green will be at Johns Hopkins this week to give a talk titled "Housing Markets Hot, Housing Markets Cold: What Housing Cycles Mean for Baltimore and Other Cities." The event, sponsored by the Institute for Policy Studies, will be held at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 6, in the Eisenhower Room of the Johns Hopkins Club on the Homewood campus.

Green is the Oliver T. Carr Chair of Real Estate Finance at the George Washington University School of Business and Management and co-author of A Primer on U.S. Housing Markets and Housing Policy. His work is often cited in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor and Slate. He has served on a number of commissions in Wisconsin and has been an adviser to governmental agencies, including the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the New York City Housing Authority. Seating is limited, so RSVP to jhuips@jhu.edu to attend.

 

APL-built Pluto-bound spacecraft begins launch preparations

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft arrived Sept. 24 at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., for final preparations and testing for the probe's decade-long journey. It will be the first spacecraft to visit Pluto and its moon, Charon.

New Horizons, designed and built at APL, arrived aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane and is scheduled to launch on a Lockheed Martin Atlas V rocket in January.

Carrying seven scientific instruments, the compact, nearly 1,000-pound probe will fly by Pluto and Charon as early as summer 2015. Its mission is to characterize the global geology and geomorphology of the bodies, map their surface compositions, record temperatures and examine Pluto's complex atmosphere. Flybys of ancient rocky objects farther out in the solar system may be undertaken during an extended mission.

APL will operate the spacecraft for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. For information on the mission, go to pluto.jhuapl.edu.

 

Institutionwide DLC Diversity Conference set for Nov. 1

The second annual Johns Hopkins Institutions Diversity Leadership Council Diversity Conference will be held Tuesday, Nov. 1, on the Homewood campus. The half-day event will open with a keynote address by Valerie Petit-Wilson, executive director of the Leadership Alliance, and Provost Steven Knapp will be the luncheon speaker.

The conference, designed for faculty, staff and administrators institutionwide, will feature workshops examining critical issues related to excellence, diversity, inclusion, equity and cultural awareness in higher education. University leaders encourage supervisors to be supportive of employees who wish to attend, and advise support staff to seek approval to attend the conference prior to registering.

There is no registration fee, but the deadline to register is Oct. 24. For more information and to register online, go to jhversata:2006/webapp/DiversityConference/ DiversityConference.

 

Boxfest event to raise funds for JHU Habitat for Humanity

A corrugated campground will spring up on the Homewood campus Oct. 7 when undergraduates forgo a night in their residence halls to increase awareness of homelessness in America. In exchange for a night under the stars in oversized boxes (think refrigerator boxes), students will collect pledges from sponsors to benefit JHU Habitat for Humanity. The group organizes weekly trips to Sandtown in West Baltimore, where students help build houses for low-income families. The idea is not only to raise money but also to gain a better appreciation for the lives of homeless people.

Visitors to Boxfest will find the students on the Keyser Quadrangle and the Beach.

 

JHU extends Mayor's Book Drive for schools through Oct. 7

The Mayor's Book Drive for Baltimore's Children — a program to collect books for the city's public schools — has been extended through Oct. 7. Used and new books may be dropped off in specially designated boxes in the following Johns Hopkins locations: Garland Hall, main lobby; O'Connor Recreation Center, near security desk; Levering, main lobby; Olin, main lobby; Wyman Park Building, main lobby, near pay phones; Interfaith Center, basement; Mattin Center, near Silk Road Express; and 901 S. Bond St., lobby.

 

Kate Michelman of NARAL Pro-Choice America to speak

Kate Michelman, who headed NARAL Pro-Choice America for 18 years, will join the 2005 MSE Symposium's ongoing dialogue on American mass media when she speaks about "Building Grassroots Campaigns" on Wednesday, Oct. 5, at Homewood. Her talk begins at 8 p.m. in Shriver Hall Auditorium and will be followed by a reception in the Clipper Room.

Called one of America's 200 Women Legends by Vanity Fair, Michelman first honed her organizing skills in the civil rights movement. NARAL, which she joined in 1985, has been described by Fortune as "one of the top 10 advocacy groups in America."

 

Schools, families share tips for strong partnerships

The National Network of Partnership Schools at Johns Hopkins has posted its tips for involving families and communities more fully in their schools online at www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/PPP/2005/index.htm. The suggestion box features 86 "best practices" from schools in 21 states and Canada.

The collection, also published in book format, includes hosting a student and family "book buffet" where each menu item relates to a book the students have read; a "welcome wagon" run by third-graders who pull a red wagon full of school supplies for new students and information for their families; and an "Oops — Turn Me Off" Family Science Night, where a school cafeteria is transformed into an interactive science lab focused on ways to conserve energy.

The collection is organized according to the NNPS goal-oriented partnership program structure, which links family and community involvement to academic and nonacademic goals for students as well as to the school goal of fostering a positive climate of partnerships.

 

JHH named consumer choice winner for 10th straight year

For the 10th straight year, The Johns Hopkins Hospital has received the Consumer Choice Award for the Baltimore region from the National Research Corp. Hopkins was one of only a few hospitals nationwide to earn top-choice status in a multimarket region, according to NRC, a firm specializing in health care performance measurement.

Each year, NRC honors those hospitals whose consumers rate as having the best quality and image, based on its survey of more than 200,000 households in 80 markets in the contiguous 48 states and the District of Columbia.

 

Correction

Lynn O'Neill of the Student Employee and Payroll Office was among the Homewood Student Affairs staff members recently nominated for that division's Above and Beyond the Call Employee Recognition Award. Her name was inadvertently omitted from the story that ran in the Sept. 26 Gazette.

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