Announcements
Student scholarship deadlines are approaching
The Office of Student Financial Aid is accepting applications for three Iowa State scholarships for 2012-13:
• ISU Community Service Scholarship, March 1 deadline. Recipients are selected for their service in Ames or Story County while enrolled at Iowa State.
• ISU Working Scholars Award, March 1 deadline. Sophomore recipients from an Iowa high school are selected for academic achievement, financial need and motivation/willingness to help themselves through college with minimum debt.
• Roy J. Carver Scholarship, April 1 deadline. F-T junior recipients from an Iowa high school are selected for academic achievement, financial need and extenuating circumstances that present challenges to obtaining a degree.
Faculty and advisers are asked to share this information with students who qualify to apply.
Prominent writers to keynote annual Wildness Symposium
Readings, craft talks and panel discussions highlight the Feb. 26-27 Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness & the Creative Imagination. This year's festival, set in the Memorial Union, has an "outliers" theme. It will feature keynote readings and craft discussions by four prominent writers and celebrate the work of ISU graduate students and faculty. The event reaches across disciplines and is open, free of charge, to people from the Ames and university community. Visit the symposium site for more information.
Reminder: Nominations for university awards are due Feb. 20
Nominations for university awards are due in the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost by Feb. 20. About 40 awards are available in faculty and staff categories. Units will be notified around May 1 of award decisions, and recipients will be honored at the September university convocation.
These liaisons can answer questions about specific awards:
- Dawn Bratsch-Prince: Distinguished Professor, University Professor, Regents Faculty, and Departmental Leadership awards
- David Holger: Teaching, graduate, international and advising awards
- Mary Holz-Clause: Extension/Professional Practice awards
- Chitra Rajan: Research, economic development and intellectual property awards
- Emily Olson: P&S awards
- John Anderson: Regents Staff Award
Next STEM brown bag seminar is Feb. 22
The Center for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering (CESMEE) is hosting a brown bag seminar for all faculty, staff and students Feb. 22 (noon-1 p.m., N047 Lagomarcino). Craig Ogilvie, professor of physics and assistant dean of the Graduate College, will speak about "Together Energizing Student Science: A Howard Hughes Medical Institute Report." Feel free to bring your lunch. RSVPs are requested to Stacy Renfro.
Applicants sought for ADVANCE faculty fellowship
Associate provost Dawn Bratsch-Prince is accepting applications through Feb. 22 for an ADVANCE faculty fellowship (quarter time, 9 months for two years beginning in August, renewable for a third year). The program is open to tenured full professors employed at least 2 years at Iowa State; those in a STEM field, including social, behavioral and economic sciences, are preferred. The fellow will continue to develop the university's programs and materials for recruiting, retaining and advancing women faculty and faculty of color. More information (PDF), including application requirements and form, is online. Questions may be directed to Bratsch-Prince, 4-6410.
Singing Valentine fund-raiser benefits student organization
The Iowa State Singers will be taking orders for singing valentines on Feb. 8-10 (10 a.m.-noon and 1-2 p.m.) at a booth outside the Memorial Union's west student office space. For $10, a quartet of Iowa State Singers will "deliver" Valentine songs to locations in Ames, or sing them live nationwide by phone. Deliveries will be made Monday, Feb. 13, or Tuesday, Feb. 14.
Wind energy production in January sets a record
Iowa State received 2.23 million kilowatt hours of wind energy in January from the NextEra Energy Resources farm in northeast Story County. That equates to 14 percent of the university's electrical usage for the month, eclipsing the previous one-month record of 11.6 percent set last April. Some scheduled upgrades to the electrical transmission system in the area were completed in late December, and the wind farm was released to full production on Jan. 5. During January, the wind farm ran at an average of 50 percent capacity, which is within the predicted performance for the month. The university's goal is to receive 10 percent of its electricity annually from the wind farm.
U.S. bank failures is topic of Feb. 13 Osborn Club lecture
Valentina Salotti, assistant professor of finance, will discuss failed U.S. banks since 2008 and what acquiring banks gain from the failed institutions during this month's Osborn Club lecture, Feb. 13 (7 p.m., 1420 Molecular Biology). The lecture portion of the monthly gathering is free and open to the public.
Kick off your spring with ISCORE
Registration is open for the 13th annual Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity (ISCORE), to be held March 2 (8 a.m.-5 p.m., Memorial Union). ISCORE is a comprehensive forum on issues of race and ethnicity at Iowa State and beyond. Students, staff and faculty will provide concurrent sessions, and Nana Osei-Kofi, assistant professor of educational leadership and policy studies, will provide the morning address. The keynote presentation will be from Ames resident and social justice educator Grace Amemiya.
Tax assistance program begins Feb. 14
The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program will be available for taxpayers with household incomes of less that $50,000 from Feb. 14 through April 12. The service is provided by trained ISU accounting students. Online appointment scheduling begins Feb. 1. Appointments will be held Feb. 14 through April 12 in 2148 Gerdin during the following days and times:
- Tuesdays, 3:30-5:30 p.m.
- Wednesdays, 6-8 p.m.
- Thursdays, 6-8 p.m.
Assistance will not be available during spring break, March 12-16.
Volunteers sought to assist dietetics students
Senior-level dietetics students are seeking employees interested in nutrition counseling. Students will meet with volunteers three times during spring semester to evaluate and improve their eating habits. Volunteers cannot have certain health concerns, such as hypertension, diabetes or high cholesterol. Contact Sally Barclay if you are interested in volunteering.
Ethics hotline reminder
Iowa State contracts with a third-party hotline vendor, EthicsPoint, to allow anonymous reporting of activities that may involve criminal, unethical, noncompliant or unsafe behavior impacting ISU. You may submit a report online or by calling (toll-free) 866-384-4277.
