IMAGE:  October 2003
 
LINK:  Campus News
Chicago Journal  
University News  
Uchicago.edu e-bulletin  
 
LINK:  Features
Healthy, Wealthy, and Wed  
Rural Route  
Chicago's Starting Team  
Webbed Footage  

The Zen of Education

 

LINK:  Class Notes
Alumni News  
Alumni Works  
C.Vitae  
Deaths  

LINK:  Research
Investigations  
Citations  
U of C Research Organizations  

LINK:  Also in every issue
Editor's Notes  
From the President  
Letters  
Chicagophile  
 
GRAPHIC:  University of Chicago Magazine
 
 
OCTOBER 2003
Volume 96, Issue 1
 

GRAPHIC:  Campus NewsFor the Record

No middle ground for midwives?
Citing rising malpractice insurance costs, the U of C Medical Center plans to close its 18-year-old midwifery practice at year’s end. When the plan to close the clinic—whose three nurse-midwives delivered 89 babies (about 3 percent of the Hospitals’ births) and followed 119 pregnant women in 2002—became public in late August, the program’s supporters launched a counter campaign. Meanwhile Hospitals administrators and the midwives tried to negotiate a compromise—negotiations still continuing in late September.

Survey finds U of C well-oiled
In the Princeton Review’s 2004 edition of The 351 Best Colleges, the University ranked first in the “Runs Like Butter” category for administrative efficiency, 11th in the “Great College Library” category, and 16th for unpopularity or nonexistence of intercollegiate sports. The ratings were based on 106,000 student surveys.

He’s up on the money
Chicago finance professor Raghuram Rajan was named chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. Rajan, coauthor of Saving Capitalism From the Capitalists (Crown, 2003), will take over the post later this year.

Home from the financial front
Kenneth Dam, the Max Pam professor of American and foreign law, recently returned to the Law School after serving two years as deputy secretary of the U.S. Treasury. After September 11, 2001, Dam supervised programs to disrupt terrorist organizations’ financing and to implement USA Patriot Act provisions concerning financial institutions. Chairing a federal committee on financial antiterrorism measures, Dam helped to identify and freeze more than $112 million in terrorist assets.

The microbe stops here
The National Institutes of Health has selected the University of Chicago as a Regional Center of Excellence (RCE) for biodefense and emerging infectious-diseases research. The University and 13 other upper-Midwestern universities, hospitals, and research institutions will focus on developing products and procedures to detect, prevent, and treat outbreaks of pathogenic agents. The RCE program was designed to foster close collaboration between centers of advanced research to prevent biological terrorism and emerging diseases such as SARS. Olaf Schneewind, professor of molecular genetics and cell biology, will co-chair the Midwestern RCE network.

Cash prize for chemist
Chuan He, assistant professor in chemistry and the College, will receive a $240,000 research grant from the Searle Scholars Program, funded through the Chicago Community Trust. He, who studies the regulation of metal ions in biological systems, is one of 15 Searle Scholars selected from 164 applicants this year.

Funding the global campus
The University’s five area-studies centers have received more than $2.36 million from the U.S. Department of Education in the first year of a three-year funding cycle. The centers, focused on East Asia, South Asia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East, will use the grants to finance film festivals, conferences, visiting professorships, graduate-student fellowships, and instruction in less commonly taught languages.

Pay now, save later
Chicago is one of 223 private colleges participating in a new tax-deferred, prepaid-tuition program known as the “Independent 529 Plan.” Under the plan parents may purchase a certificate to use toward undergraduate tuition and fees at any of the participating schools to which the student is accepted. Schools will honor the tuition costs at the time the certificate was purchased, thus protecting parents from future cost increases.

Dealing with disparities
The University's Institute for Mind and Biology has received a $9.7 million federal grant to establish the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Disparities Research. The center, directed by School of Social Service Administration associate professor Sarah Gehlert and psychology professor Martha McClintock, will examine disparities in health within diverse communities, first focusing on the earlier onset age and higher mortality rate of breast cancer in African American women.

Hospitals make the cut
For the seventh year in a row U.S. News & World Report named the University of Chicago Hospitals among the best in the nation. In the July issue the Hospitals placed 14th overall, and its programs in digestive diseases and cancer both were ranked 6th.

Astronomical successes
Chicago astrophysicists Michael Turner and Richard Kron both accepted major scientific leadership posts in July. Turner becomes assistant director for mathematical and physical sciences at the National Science Foundation October 1. During the two-year post he will take a leave of absence from the University. Kron, who became director of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey July 1, continues teaching at Chicago.

Artistic expansion
The University has donated a 32,000-square-foot building, 5020 South Cornell Avenue, to the Hyde Park Art Center. Now in a 7,000-square-foot space, the new center will contain classroom space and a digital media lab. The center, which must raise its own funds for renovations, hopes to gain a greater presence on the South Side’s cultural radar after its physical expansion.

 

 


Google
Search WWW Search magazine.uchicago.edu

Contact Advertising About the Magazine Alumni UChicago Views Archives
uchicago® ©2003 The University of Chicago® Magazine 5801 South Ellis Ave., Chicago, IL 60637
phone: 773/702-2163 fax: 773/702-0495 uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu