Weekly Bulletin

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.

MICROBIO 695, “Applied Molecular Biotechnology Laboratory (AMBL)," credits 5/5/7; Instructor: Jeffrey J. Kane; The Applied Molecular Biotechnology Laboratory (AMBL) is a requisite course for the M.S. concentration in Applied Molecular Biotechnology.

Doctoral oral exams for March 11-15

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

Tamara Ohler, Ph.D., Economics. Monday, March 11, 2 p.m., 1028 Thompson Hall. Dissertation: “Essays on the Rising Demand for Convenience in Meal Provisioning in the United States.” Nancy Folbre, chr.

Michael Nilsson, Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering. Tuesday, March 12, 9:30 a.m., Gunness Engineering Student Center, Marcus Hall. Dissertation: “Multiphase Flows with Digital and Traditional Microfluidics.” Jonathan Rothstein, chr.

Jiajia Rao, Ph.D., Food Science.

Dining Services celebrates top college cuisine ranked by Princeton Review

Chefs from six of the schools listed in the Best Campus Food rankings in the 2013 edition of The Best 377 Colleges published by The Princeton Review will serve up signature dishes on Tuesday, March 5, from 5-9 p.m. at Berkshire Dining Commons.
 
The event is part of Dining Services’ Visiting College Chef Series. The popular event is expected to draw 4,000 students and guests. Robert Franek, The Princeton Review’s senior vice president/publisher and lead author of The Best 377 Colleges, will be present to talk about the company’s rankings and survey process.
 
Joining the chefs from No.

Active bystander class, 'Everyone Matters,' offered by Workplace Education

"Everyone Matters: Changing Hurtful Behavior," a five-session bystander awareness class offered to employees through the Labor/Management Workplace Education Program is scheduled for Thursdays, 10:30 a.m. to noon from March 28 to April 25, in 115 South College.
 
The class that will help employees stop and change hurtful behavior. Instead of being a passive bystander—wondering what to say or do—participants can learn new skills for change and empowerment and become an active bystander. This workshop is taught by Leslie Fraser, Workplace Education coordinator of campus career initiatives.

Career Day seeks to encourage young women to become engineers

More than 300 female high school students, teachers, and guidance counselors from across Massachusetts will travel to campus to attend the annual Women in Engineering and Computing Career Day Conference on Monday, March 4. The conference is being held in the Campus Center Auditorium beginning at 8:30 a.m. The program is intended to excite, inspire and encourage young women to pursue engineering as a career path.
 
Among the districts and schools represented at Career Day are the Greenfield public schools, Springfield public schools, Holyoke public schools, Westfield High School, Easthampton

Science and Mathematics in the Renaissance conference is March 9

A conference on "Science and Mathematics in the Renaissance," chaired by Brian Ogilivie, associate professor of History, is being held Saturday, March 9 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.at the Renaissance Center, 650 East Pleasant St.

Ogilivie will present "Beasts, Birds, and Insects; or, How Renaissance Europeans Thought About Bugs." He will be joined by Surekha Davies, Western Connecticut State University, who will speak on "Making Knowledge About Giants," and Marjorie Senechal of Smith College, who will discuss "The New Math and Why it Mattered." Mark Peterson of Mount Holyoke College will present

Speaker tackles how to avoid 'Drowning in Data'

Scott Long of Indiana University will give a lecture about the workflow of data analysis on Thursday, March 7 at 4 p.m. in 904-08 Campus Center.

“Drowning in Data? The Workflow of Data Analysis” is about the workflow of data analysis, which encompasses the entire process of scientific research: planning, documenting and organizing work; creating, labeling, naming and verifying variables; performing and presenting statistical analyses; preserving work; and (perhaps, most importantly) producing replicable results. Most work in statistics classes focuses on estimating and interpreting models.

Gordon lectures on cult of violence in Western political thought

Daniel Gordon, professor of History and associate dean of Commonwealth Honors College, will speak on "The Fatal Truth: The Cult of Violence in Western Political Thought" on Tuesday, March 5 at 6:30 p.m. in the Student Union Ballroom.

After the Newtown school shooting, the status of violence continues to be widely discussed and examined. Some disavow "an eye for an eye" and all forms of violence completely, while others accept violence as a necessary means to be kept in proportion to its ends. The history of ideas about violence shows a tradition that idealizes violence as a good in itself.

Panel discusses local food systems

The Food Access Research and Engagement (FARE) Partnership is hosting a panel discussion, “Local Foods: Cultivating an Economy, an Industry or a Movement?,” on Wednesday, March 6 from 1:30 to 3 p.m. in 165-69 Campus Center.

Each panelist comes from a different department on campus, bringing a unique and valuable perspective on local food systems. The panelists are:

  • Nancy Cohen, professor and head of the Nutrition Department
  • Eric Decker, professor of Food Science
  • John Gerber, professor of Sustainable Food and Farming

M.V.

Brabec explores land-use culture, policies in Gullah communities

Professor Elizabeth Brabec, Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, will present a talk titled “Commonage in Private Holdings: Land Use and Land Ownership in the Gullah Communities of South Carolina” on Monday, March 4 at noon in 620 Thompson.
 
Brabec’s research focuses on land conservation and the design and planning of sustainable open space, complemented with a strong interest in culture and the historical basis of landscape form. She studies minority community planning and also teaches a real estate law course.
 
This lecture is part of the Center for Public Policy and

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