Top News

SOUTHWESTERN PARTNERING WITH CENSUS BUREAU TO ENSURE ACCURATE STUDENT COUNT

Southwestern has joined with the U.S. Census Bureau to ensure that students on campus are correctly counted for the 2010 census. 

The Census on Campus initiative seeks to educate and mobilize college and university students, administration, faculty and parents so that in the 2010 census, every individual is counted − once, and in the right place.

“Most students think they will be counted on their parent’s census questionnaire, but as a college student here, they are part of the Georgetown community,” said Dean of Students Mike Leese. “It is important for them to let parents know this in order to avoid being counted twice.”

All college residence halls and fraternities are considered group quarters and will be counted between April 1 and May 21. Students living off campus will receive their questionnaires by mail to their home and must complete them by April 1. 

Read the rest of the story here.

UNIVERSITY AVENUE REPAIR WORK STARTS APRIL 5

Repairs to East University Avenue in Georgetown are expected to begin April 5 and take up to 30 days, weather permitting.

The Texas Department of Transportation will mill and remove damaged sections of pavement in the 1.25-mile segment of University Avenue/Texas 29 from Railroad Street to Hutto Road and will apply a new layer of asphalt.

Work will be done overnight from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. starting each week on Sunday nights and finishing on Friday mornings. The project is considered a full-depth repair and is expected to create noise disturbances in the area.

Lane closures are planned, but one lane in each direction on University Avenue should remain open during construction periods.

The repair project is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the federal stimulus law passed by Congress last year. The $486,000 project is the only transportation project in Georgetown to receive federal stimulus funding.

Events

SOUTHWESTERN STUDENTS WELCOME THE COMMUNITY TO ARTS FESTIVAL MARCH 27

Musicians from several schools in Georgetown will join students from Southwestern for the third annual SU Arts Festival March 27. The festival, which will from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., is designed to showcase the finest of the music, theatre and arts on campus and provide activities for all ages.

Read the rest of the story here.

CESAR CHAVEZ CELEBRATION DINNER TO BE HELD MARCH 31

Latinos Unidos and Kappa Delta Chi are sponsoring a dinner in celebration of Cesar Chavez Day on Wednesday, March 31, from 6-8 p.m. in the McCombs Ballrooms.

The speaker for the event will be Cristina Tzintzun from the Workers Defense Project. Tzintzun will speak about workers’ rights movements and the legacy of activism created by Cesar Chavez.

Admission to the event is $8 for adults and $5 for students and children. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Workers Defense Project, which helps low-income workers achieve fair employment through education, direct services, organizing and strategic partnerships. 

For more information, contact Mary González at 512-863-1342.

Media Coverage

The Associated Press featured Southwestern’s lacrosse team in a story about the growing popularity of lacrosse as a college sport. The story was picked up by newspapers across the country, including the New York Times. Read the story here.

The Williamson County Sun and the Wichita Falls Times Record News ran stories about the Prothro family receiving the President’s Philanthropy Award. Read the Times Record News story here.

Radio station KPSI in Palm Springs, Calif., interviewed Political Science Professor Gilbert St. Clair about the politics behind the passage of the health care reform bill.

The Gloucester (Mass.) Daily Times ran a story about the Cape Ann Symphony performing Mendelssohn’s “Fantasy and Variations for Two Pianos and Orchestra,” which was “rediscovered” by Southwestern music professor Michael Cooper. Kiyoshi Tamagawa, professor of music, is one of two guest pianists who will perform with the symphony at the March 28 concert. Read the story here.

Notables

Duncan Alexander received Southwestern’s 2010 Fayez Sarofim Passion for the Arts Award. The award is presented annually to the graduating senior who, regardless of major, has demonstrated throughout his or her entire undergraduate career at Southwestern an unusual passion for the arts.

Read more about Alexander here. To see the list of other students who received awards at the 2010 Honors Convocation, go here.

Romi Burks, associate professor of biology, served as an “opponent” for the Ph.D. defense of Pia Hertonsson within the Department of Limnology at the University of Lund March 16-19. During her visit, Burks gave a seminar about her applesnail research with Southwestern undergraduates titled “Two Snails Are Not Better Than One: Reproductive trends of the invasive island apple snails, Pomacea insularum, exceed those of the known invader P. canaliculata” and met with faculty and graduate students. As the opponent, Burks gave a second talk during the defense that put Hertonsson’s work on benthic macroinvertebrates in context of shallow lake research. Following this, Burks served as the main reviewer of the work by asking about details including statistical analyses but also posing bigger-picture questions as well. 

Junior Brooke R. Lyssy presented a paper titled “Ballet Mécanique and its Transgressions Between Wars in the United States” at the South Central chapter meeting of the College Music Society held at UT-San Antonio March 11-14. The paper stems from work begun during Professor Michael Cooper’s class on music since 1870 in fall 2008. In its most recent form, it includes findings obtained during Lyssy’s research trip to New York, where she examined rare archival materials in the Columbia University library, the Museum of Modern Art and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Cooper said Lyssy’s research is “shedding surprising new light on a work that is discussed in virtually every narrative of 20th century music.”

Tim O’Neill, professor of political science, had his essay titled “Through a Glass Darkly: Western Tort Law from a South and East Asian Perspective” published as the lead article in the winter issue of the Rutgers Race & Law ReviewStephen Higdon, a 2008 graduate, helped revise and update the article.

President Jake B. Schrum co-led a fundraising workshop at the Association of Governing Board’s National Conference on Trusteeship in Orlando in mid-March. The workshop was titled “Successful Fundraising in Hard Times: What Presidents and Trustees Need to Know” and covered topics such as the influence of the stock market; structuring the development office; prospect identification, cultivation and solicitation; and what trustees need to know about major gifts, planned gifts and capital campaigns.