<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<style type="text/css">
<!--
body,td,th {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 12px;
color: #000000;
}
style1 {
color: #FFFFFF;
font-weight: normal;
}
style6 {color: #000000; font-weight: normal; }
style7 {color: #FFFFFF; }
style8 {color: #FFFFFF; font-weight: bold; }
style10 {font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 24px;}
style11 {color: #000000; font-weight: bold; }
style14 {font-size: 1px}
.style1 {color: #FFFFFF}
.style3 {
font-size: 24px;
color: #FFFFFF;
font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
}
-->
</style>
<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th colspan="3" scope="col" bgcolor="#000000" height="51">
<div class="style7" align="right">
<div class="style3" align="left"> IN FOCUS: December 14, 2007</div>
</div>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th colspan="3" scope="col" bgcolor="#999966" height="5"><span
class="style14"> </span></th>
</tr>
<tr valign="middle">
<th class="style1" scope="row" bgcolor="#000000" height="15"
width="619">
<div class="style7" align="left">
<div align="left"><b> TOP NEWS </b></div>
</div>
</th>
<td bordercolor="#868686" border-weight="1px" bgcolor="#ffffff"
width="1"> </td>
<td bordercolor="#FFFFFF" border-weight="1px" bgcolor="#000000"
height="15" width="97"><b><span class="style7"><font color="#ffffff">CALENDAR</font></span></b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th class="style6" scope="row" valign="top">
<div align="left">CLASS USES CHOCOLATE TO HELP STUDENTS LEARN
ABOUT TOPICS FROM ADVERTISING TO EVOLUTION</div>
</th>
<td rowspan="18" valign="top" width="1"> </td>
<td rowspan="18" bordercolor="#000000" valign="top" width="97"><b>CAMPUS
CALENDAR </b><br>
<br>
To view upcoming events at Southwestern by day, week or month, click <a
href="http://www.southwestern.edu/sucalendar/main.php">here</a>.<br>
<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="style6" scope="row" valign="top">
<p>College credit for tasting chocolate? It almost seems too good
to be true.</p>
<p>But listen to Romi Burks talk about the course she has
created, and you realize that she is quite serious.</p>
<p>Burks, an assistant professor of biology at Southwestern, has
developed a course that uses chocolate as a model to help students
learn about everything from different cultures to marketing and fair
trade.</p>
<p>The course, titled “Multi-Chocolated: An Aesthetic, Historical
and Scientific Journey into the Wonders of Chocolate,” is one of 28
“First-Year Seminars” offered to incoming students at Southwestern. The
seminars are designed to be fun, yet at the same time expose students
to important skills such as reading, writing, critical thinking,
discussion and creativity. </p>
<p>Read the rest of the story <a
href="http://www.southwestern.edu/cgi-bin/newsroom/article.cgi?id=55">here</a>.
<br>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="style6" scope="row" valign="top">
<hr color="#000000" size="1"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th class="style6" scope="row" align="left" valign="top">SOUTHWESTERN
STUDENTS CONTINUE TO RANK ABOVE THEIR PEERS IN NATIONAL SURVEY OF
STUDENT ENGAGEMENT</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="style6" scope="row" valign="top">
<p>For the sixth year in a row, students at Southwestern have
ranked above students at peer institutions – and significantly above
the national average – when it comes to being engaged in their academic
endeavors.</p>
<p>The findings come from the 2007 National Survey of Student
Engagement (NSSE), which was sponsored by The Carnegie Foundation for
the Advancement of Teaching and administered by the Indiana University
Center for Survey Research. </p>
<p>The NSSE is given annually to first-year students and seniors.
This is the sixth year that Southwestern has participated in the study.
Forty-five percent of eligible Southwestern students responded to the
2007 survey. Nationwide, about 298,000 students from 587 four-year
colleges and universities participated in the survey.</p>
<p>The survey measures five areas that are associated with high
levels of learning and development: level of academic challenge, active
and collaborative learning, student-faculty interaction, enriching
educational experiences, and supportive campus environment. </p>
<p>Read the rest of the story <a
href="http://www.southwestern.edu/cgi-bin/newsroom/article.cgi?id=56">here</a>.<br>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th class="style1" scope="row" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top">
<div align="left">EVENTS</div>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row" align="left" valign="top">RECOGNITION CEREMONY
FOR SUMMER AND DECEMBER GRADUATES DEC. 16</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td scope="row" align="left" valign="top">
<p>The recognition ceremony for summer 2007 and December 2007
graduates will be held Dec. 16 in the Lois Perkins Chapel. The ceremony
will begin at 2 p.m.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th class="style1" scope="row" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top"
width="619">
<div class="style8" align="left">MEDIA COVERAGE </div>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="style6" scope="row" valign="top" width="619">
<p align="left">The <em>Austin American-Statesman</em> ran an
item about Kiyoshi Tamagawa playing at Carnegie Hall. </p>
<p>The <em>Williamson County Sun</em> ran a feature story on
students from SEAK who went to the Power Shift 2007 conference in
Washington, D.C.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th class="style1" scope="row" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top"
width="619">
<div class="style8" align="left">NOTABLES</div>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="style6" scope="row" height="557" valign="top"
width="619">
<p align="left"><strong>Edward L. Kain</strong>, professor of
sociology and University Scholar, presented a lecture and co-led a
workshop at Rutgers University Dec. 10. His presentation was titled
“Fruitful Partnerships between Faculty and Librarians - the Integration
of Information Literacy into the Sociology Curriculum.” It was part of
a half-day workshop for the Rutgers University Libraries titled
“Information Literacy in the Disciplines: The Sociology Experience.”
Participants included subject librarians from the libraries at Rutgers,
selected faculty in sociology, and several administrators involved with
undergraduate education and teaching excellence. The workshop was
co-presented with Triveni Kuchi, Social Sciences/Instructional Services
and South Asia Librarian. This workshop is one result of a two-year
collaboration with the American Library Association/ ACRL /
Anthropology and Sociology Section Instruction and Information Literacy
Committee. Near the beginning of the collaboration, Kain worked with <strong>Joan
Parks</strong>, head of Reference Services in the Smith Library Center,
to develop a set of materials about collaboration between faculty and
librarians on issues of information literacy.</p>
<p><strong>Max Taub</strong>, associate professor of biology, is
the co-author of a paper that will be published in a forthcoming issue
of <em>Global Change Biology</em>. In the paper, he and co-authors
Brian Miller and Holly Allen analyze data on the effects of rising
atmospheric carbon dioxide on the protein content of food crops. They
conclude that the protein content of many crops (paticularly wheat,
rice, barley and potatoes) is likely to decline given the increase in
CO2 over the 21st century. The paper can be found online at<br>
<a
href="http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2007.01511.x">http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2007.01511.x</a></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th class="style1" scope="row" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top"
width="619">
<div align="left">LAST ISSUE OF IN FOCUS FOR THIS YEAR</div>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td scope="row" height="35" width="619">This will be the last
issue of In Focus published in 2007. Publication will resume after the
holiday break. Happy Holidays from the In Focus staff – Ellen Davis,
Katy Boose and Kalie Trueper!</td>
<td width="2"> </td>
<td width="20"> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Katy Boose
Editorial Coordinator
Southwestern University
1001 E. University Ave.
Georgetown, TX 78626
512-863-1487
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:boosek@southwestern.edu">boosek@southwestern.edu</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.southwestern.edu">www.southwestern.edu</a></pre>
</body>
</html>