Weekly Bulletin

Public forum on draft natural hazard mitigation plan is March 15

Campus officials are holding a public forum on Friday, March 15 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. to discuss a draft plan for dealing with natural hazards, including severe weather such as hurricanes and blizzards, earthquakes and other large-scale natural disasters. The forum at the UMass Amherst Police Department building on East Pleasant Street is an open format event that features a brief presentation of the draft showing every 15 minutes.

The campus Natural Hazard Planning Group created the preliminary plan with assistance from Jamie Caplan Consulting LLC and the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.

'Quilts for the Soul' exhibited at School of Nursing

“Quilts for the Soul,” featuring the work of artist and nurse practitioner Sharon Carty, will be displayed at the School of Nursing in Skinner Hall. An opening reception will be held in the foyer and room 101 on Monday, March 25 from 4–5:30 p.m.

Carty is a psychiatric nurse and passionate quilter. Her quilts are intricate, detailed and colorful. In her prior work with clients and their dying family members, she used her craft to assist grieving families by creating personal reminders of their family members in the form of a quilt.

Talk looks at 'Influences of Childhood Adversity on Health in Midlife'

Dr. Judith Crowell will discuss “Influences of Childhood Adversity on Health in Midlife: First Findings of a Longitudinal Study” on Thursday, March 28 at 4 p.m. in 904 Campus Center as part of the Center for Research on Families’ Tay Gavin Erickson Lecture Series.
 
Crowell is professor and director of training, child and adolescent psychiatry at Stony Brook University and senior scientist at the Judge Baker Children’s Center at Harvard Medical School.

Public hearing on reclaimed water use in cooling towers at Central Heating Plant

The Central Heating Plant (CHP) currently utilizes the effluent (reclaimed water) from the Amherst Waste Water Treatment Plant as boiler make-up water to produce steam for the campus. To increase water conservation, the CHP has submitted a Class A Reclaimed Water Application to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to use reclaimed water at the CHP cooling towers as well.  
 
The Amherst campus currently uses about 340 million gallons of water per year.

Doctoral oral exams for March 18-22

The graduate dean invites all graduate faculty to attend the final oral examinations for the doctoral candidates scheduled as follows:

Adriana Kita, Ph.D., Molecular and Cellular Biology. Wednesday, March 20, 2 p.m., 221 Integrated Sciences Building. Dissertation: “Mass Spectrometry Based Approaches for the Characterization of Disulfides in Cysteine Rich Protein Therapeutics.” Igor Kaltashov, chr.
 

New course proposal

The following new course proposal has been submitted to the Faculty Senate Office for review and approval and is listed here for faculty review and comment. Comments on any new course proposal should be submitted to Ernest May, secretary of the Faculty Senate, at senate@senate.umass.edu.

BCT 311, “Sustainable Indoor Environmental Systems,” 2 credits; Instructor: Simi Hoque; The focus of this course is to understand the fundamental principles behind the sustainable design and regulation of thermal comfort, mechanical, plumbing, and lighting systems in buildings.

New student acknowledgement program call for nominations

Nominations are now open for the Rising Researcher award program. Faculty advisors and mentors who are working with exceptional undergraduates are encouraged to nominate their students for this new campus award. The deadline for spring nominations is March 15.

Rising Researcher recognizes UMass Amherst undergraduate students who excel in research, scholarship and creative activity. Eligible students will be exceptional undergraduates identified by their faculty mentor/advisor who have demonstrated leadership and impact in their chosen area of study.

Five College Renaissance Seminar

Amy Rodgers, assistant professor of English at Mount Holyoke College, will discuss “The Language of Looking: Jonsonian Masque and Conspicuous Consumption” at a Five College Renaissance Seminar on Thursday, March 14 at 4:30 p.m. at the Renaissance Center, 650 East Pleasant St.

The event is free and open to the public.
 
For information, contact the center at renaissance@english.umass.edu or 577-3600.

Renaissance Wednesday Lecture

Nathaniel Leonard will present “The Alchemist and Renaissance Theater” at a Renaissance Wednesday Lecture on March 13 at 4 p.m.
 
This play will be performed in April as part of the Renaissance Center Theater Festival.
 
The talk is free and open to the public and is co-sponsored by the Amherst Woman’s Club.
 
For information, contact the center at renaissance@english.umass.edu or 577-3600.

Flags lowered March 6 in honor of Randolph Bromery

The campus will lower its flags to half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Wednesday, March 6 in honor of former Randolph Wilson “Bill”  Bromery, who served as chancellor from 1971-79. Bromery died Feb. 26 in Danvers.

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