Purdue Notebook

February 4, 2005

Campus activities

– The Purdue University Affirmative Action Office will conduct two free workshops for faculty, staff and students on the West Lafayette campus. A workshop focusing on sexual harassment is scheduled for 1:30-3:30 p.m. Feb. 10 in Stewart Center, Room 313. A hate and bias workshop is scheduled for 10-11:30 a.m. Feb. 24 in Stewart Center, Room 320. Contact the Affirmative Action Office, (765) 494-7253, aao@purdue.edu, to register or for more information.

Faculty and staff honors

– Purdue University's National Youth Sports Program is being recognized for 2004 by the national organization. For their leadership, the national program also recognized Thomas Templin, project administrator and head of the Department of Health and Kinesiology; William Harper, activity director and professor of health and kinesiology; and Bonnie Blankenship, associate director and associate professor of health and kinesiology. This summer will be Purdue's fourth National Youth Sports Program, in which more than 300 students, ages 10-16, are expected to participate. The five-week program offers sports instruction, health education and science courses on Purdue's campus and is free for children who were referred by their schools in Tippecanoe County. More than 200 universities and colleges participate in the federal program.

– Four women at Purdue were honored at the third annual Women of Purdue reception, sponsored by the Barbara Cook Chapter of Mortar Board at Purdue. The event honors outstanding women who serve the university and community. The honorees are Maricela Alvarado, director of the Latino Cultural Center; Sidney M. Moon, professor of education studies, director of the Gifted Education Resource Institute, and associate dean for learning and engagement; Pamella P. Dale Shaw, statewide director of the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation; and Leah Jamieson, Ransburg Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and associate dean of engineering for undergraduate education.

– Bob Mindrum, director of Purdue Memorial Union, has been named president-elect of the Association of College Unions International (ACUI). He will spend a year in this capacity on ACUI's board before assuming the role of president in March 2006. ACUI is a professional association for college union and student activities professionals. Purdue was a charter member of ACUI, which was founded in 1914.

– Debbie Stevenson, registered veterinary technician in Purdue's Veterinary Teaching Hospital, received the technician of the year award from the Indiana Veterinary Technicians Association at its annual meeting on Jan. 28.

– Two faculty members from the School of Veterinary Medicine received major awards from the Indiana Veterinary Medical Association. Leon Thacker, professor of veterinary pathology and director of the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, was given the IVMA President's Award. John Van Vleet, associate dean for academic affairs, was named Indiana Veterinarian of the Year.

Alumni honors

– Martin Walls, who earned his master's of fine arts degree in creative writing from Purdue in 1997, has been awarded a Witter Bynner Library of Congress Poetry Fellowship. Walls is one of two poets selected by Ted Kooser, the nation's poet laureate. As part of the fellowship, Walls will organize a local poetry reading in April and will read some of his work at the Library of Congress in February. The award is funded through the Witter Bynner Foundation. Walls is the author of two books of poems, "Commonwealth," published by March Street Press 2005, and "Small Human Detail in Care of National Trust," published by New Issue Press in 2000. He was poetry editor of the "Sycamore Review" while at Purdue. After graduation, he taught poetry at Purdue and Ball State University, and he also has taught courses at Syracuse University and Onondaga Community College in New York. Walls, originally from southern England, is currently assistant editor of "Making Music," a magazine for music-making hobbyists, and a senior writer for "International Musician," the journal of the American Federation of Musicians.

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

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