sealPurdue Story Ideas
____

April 19, 2002

JOURNALISTS: Here are story ideas and a list of selected Purdue events during the next two weeks.

Purdue students join live 'call' to public service

Journalists are invited to attend and downlink a satellite feed of a national campaign kickoff Monday (4/22) to recruit college students and address the federal government's looming work force crisis.

Purdue University will join more than 340 other colleges in the official launch of the "Call to Serve: Leaders in Education Allied for Public Service Initiative" via a live, nationwide satellite-feed broadcast. The media can link to the broadcast at the coordinates listed below.

Student leaders, faculty advisers and representatives from Purdue's Center for Career Opportunities will gather at 9:30 a.m. in Stewart Center, Room 326, to watch the broadcast, which will originate in Washington, D.C.

Purdue President Martin C. Jischke has joined more than 340 college and university presidents to endorse and support the campaign. Interviews with Jischke can be arranged upon request.

During the broadcast, U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao will announce the government's plans to attract students to civil service. Nearly half of the federal work force may be eligible to retire within the next five years, including more than 70 percent of senior managers.

Tim Luzader, director for the Center for Career Opportunities and the president's campus representative for the campaign, said the center will be working with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and the Partnership for Public Service, a non-partisan, non-profit organization aimed at recruiting and retaining federal civil service employees.

Participants in Washington include Chao, U.S. Office of Personnel Management director Kay Coles James, U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, George Washington University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg and others.

Special note: The Call to Serve campaign is not the same as Sen. Evan Bayh's Call to Service Act, Senate Bill 1792, co-sponsored in the Senate with Arizona Sen. John McCain. Bayh addressed the Call to Service Act when he visited the West Lafayette campus in February. The Call to Service Act would create 200,000 new AmeriCorps volunteer positions, with half of the volunteers dedicated to homeland defense efforts. Another section of the bill calls for colleges and universities to bolster their commitment to community service through the federal work-study program. The proposal also updates and modernizes current GI Bill benefits.

The "Call to Serve: Leaders in Education Allied for Public Service" is focused on bridging the information disconnect between young people and the federal government to let them know how to apply for federal jobs, what kind of federal jobs are available and what agencies do.

The satellite coordinates to broadcast Monday's launch of "A Call to Serve" are:

KU band
AMC 01 (Formerly GE 1)
103° West
Transponder/channel 20
Vertical Polarity
Downlink Frequency: 12100 MHz
Audio: 6.2/6.8
Test time: 10:00 AM, EDT
Program: 10:30 AM, EDT to 1:00 PM, EDT
Technical trouble phone #: (202) 994-8233

The launch event should last from 9:30-10:30 a.m. Afterward, local television networks from around the country can call in and do one-on-one interviews with the partnership's president, Max Stier, and some of the other officials who participated in the event. (This part should last from 11 a.m. to noon.) Local TV station producers that would like to participate can call (202) 775-9111, ext. 27, to arrange an interview.

There also will be a live Webcast of the event on the Partnership for Public Service's Web site.

CONTACT: Bethany Young or Caren Benjamin, (202) 775-9111.

LOCAL CONTACT: Patricia S. Garrott, associate director of the Center for Career Opportunities, (765) 494 3989.

Students design soy-based markers, sticks

Two student-designed products – soy-based markers and Popsicle sticks – will be demonstrated Wednesday (4/24) in Indianapolis as part of the awards program for the 2002 Soybean Utilization contest. Following the 10 a.m. presentations, the winning team will be announced.

The soy markers are apparently brighter, more consistent and smear less than petroleum-based markers on the market. The soy Popsicle sticks are edible, biodegradable and competitively priced. The awards presentation will be at the Something Different Restaurant, on Allison Point Blvd. off of 82nd Street. The Soybean Utilization contest is sponsored by the Indiana Soybean Board and the Purdue School of Agriculture.

CONTACT: Belinda Puetz, Indiana Soybean Board, (800) 735-0195, bpuetz@indianasoybeanboard.com; Beth Forbes, Purdue Ag Communications, (765) 494-2722, bforbes@aes.purdue.edu.

Purdue lands new rare items for Amelia Earhart collection

Purdue University will enlarge its longstanding association with Amelia Earhart May 2 by becoming the largest, most comprehensive repository of materials relating to her life, career and mysterious disappearance. The details will be announced at noon Hangar One in the Purdue Airport, West Lafayette, Ind. Journalists are invited to attend and video will be available by satellite that afternoon.

The Earhart family will be represented at the celebration, which honors its gift of almost 500 of Earhart's personal papers and memorabilia, many never seen publicly before. The gift will be added to Purdue's present collection, which ranges from flight suits to scarfs, and a portrait to a model of one of her planes.

Earhart, whose Purdue-purchased plane disappeared over the Pacific Ocean on her around-the-world flight in 1937, served as a woman's counselor and visiting instructor at Purdue from 1935 to 1937.

The announcement of the new Earhart acquisitions also will launch Purdue's "Countdown to 100 Years of Flight" celebration, which acknowledges the anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first manned, powered flight and the university's ongoing role in aviation and aerospace history.

Media planning to attend are asked to reserve a spot.. On May 2, a satellite feed will be available at

4 to 4:30 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
3:00 3:30 p.m. Central Time
SBS 6 TRANSPONDER 8
U/L 14196.500 MHZ Horizontal
D/L 11896.500 /Vertical
Allocated Bandwidth (Mhz) 36.000

Trouble reports call: 1-800-321-3959 or (765) 423-7326

CONTACT: Jesica Webb, Purdue News Service, (765) 494-2079, jwebb@purdue.edu.

Purdue prepares for commencement

Commencement ceremonies will be Friday, May 10, through Sunday, May 12, in the Elliott Hall of Music for Purdue students at the West Lafayette campus. During ceremonies 1,015 students will receive graduate degrees, and 4,312 students will earn undergraduate degrees.

Dates and times for the schools' ceremonies are:

Division I: 8 p.m. Friday, May 10. Education and Engineering. Student speaker: Matthew C. Newton, Engineering.

Division II: 9:30 a.m. Saturday, May 11. Liberal Arts; Pharmacy, Nursing and Health Sciences. Student speaker: Jill E. Butler, Pharmacy, Nursing and Health Sciences.

Division III: 2:30 p.m. Saturday, May 11. Agriculture, Consumer and Family Sciences, Science, Veterinary Medicine. Student speaker: Eric Steiner, Agriculture.

Division IV: 9:30 a.m. Sunday, May 12. Management, Technology. Student speaker: Brian LeRoy Amos, Technology.

Purdue President Martin C. Jischke also will speak at each ceremony.

Tickets are necessary for admission to graduation ceremonies.

CONTACT: Jesica Webb, Purdue News Service, (765) 494-2079, jwebb@purdue.edu.

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu


* To the Purdue News and Photos Page