Weekly Bulletin

Doctoral oral exams for Dec. 31 to Jan. 4

No final oral exams are scheduled for this week.

Flags lowered for Sen. Daniel Inouye

In accordance with President Obama's proclamation, Gov. Deval L. Patrick has ordered that the U.S. and Commonwealth flags be lowered to half-staff at all state buildings until sunset Friday, Dec. 21, in honor of U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, who died Dec.17.

New course proposals

The following new course proposals have been submitted to the Faculty Senate Office for review and approval and are 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.

CMPSCI 630, “Systems,” 3 credits; Instructor: Emery Berger; This class is an in-depth introduction to systems, focusing on principles of system design that cross-cut numerous systems artifacts, including operating systems, databases, runtime systems, and architecture.

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.

JUDAIC 326, “Sustainability in Comparative Religious Perspective,” 4 credits; Instructor: Professor Aviva Ben-Ur; This course explores how various cultures through time and space have interacted with the natural environment in an effort to achieve material, spiritual, and medical well-being.

Retirement party for Pat Michalowski

There will be a retirement party for Pat Michalowski, the personnel administrator at the Office of Information Technologies, on Wednesday, Jan. 16 from 3-5 p.m. in the Marriott Center of the Campus Center.

Sign one of her cards in A103 Lederle Graduate Research Center, A223 Lederle, or at the reception desk in the Chancellor's Office of Whitmore. RSVP by Thursday, Jan. 10 to Patevent@oit.umass.edu

Winter solstice programs planned at Sunwheel

The public is invited to witness sunrise and sunset associated with the winter solstice among the standing stones of the Sunwheel on Friday, Dec. 21 at 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.
 
Sunwheel events mark the astronomical change of seasons when nights are longest and days are shortest in the Northern Hemisphere and the sun rises and sets at its most southerly azimuth, or location along the horizon, over the southeasterly and southwesterly stones in the Sunwheel, respectively.
 
Astronomers Judith Young and Steve Schneider will discuss the astronomical cause of the sun’s solstice, or standstill,

Campus partnerships in Holyoke celebrated

The Envision Depot Square Holyoke project will showcase and celebrate architectural designs and proposals developed by Architecture + Design students in response to recent community dialogues on Thursday, Dec. 13 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at the PCS80 Gallery, Gateway City Arts, 92 Race St., Holyoke

Other UMass Amherst students who have been engaged in community-based learning and projects through the efforts of UMass Civic Engagement & Service Learning will also be on hand to discuss their work with a variety of Holyoke organizations, students and residents.

Exhibits will be open for viewing from

Dining Services hosts lunch for faculty and staff

Dining Services is offering free lunch to faculty and staff on Friday, Dec. 14 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at all dining commons. In lieu of paying for the meal, staff are encouraged to make a contribution to the Faculty and Staff Campaign, says Ken Toong, executive director of Auxiliary Enterprises.

 

 

Cosby to perform benefit for NEPR

Bill Cosby will perform a benefit concert in support of New England Public Radio's 50th anniversary Capital Campaign at Springfield's Symphony Hall on Saturday, March 2 at 8 p.m. All proceeds will benefit the programs and services of WFCR and all-news WNNZ.

"New England Public Radio provides a great public service to the area," said Cosby. "I am proud to support NEPR."

Tickets ($37.50, $47.50, $57.50 and $75) are on sale now at the Symphony Hall Box Office (413) 788-7033 or at Ticketmaster.com.

The station's 50th anniversary Capital Campaign, launched in 2011, will fund the station's

Doctoral oral exams for Dec. 17-21

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

Satamita Samanta, Ph.D., Chemistry. Monday, Dec. 17, 9 a.m., 221 Integrated Sciences Building. Dissertation: “Hybrid Push: A Mechanistic Model for Initial Transcription Common to all RNA Polymerases.” Craig Martin, chr.

Andrew Meade, Ph.D., Physics. Thursday, Dec. 20, 1 p.m., 1033 Lederle Graduate Research Tower. Dissertation: “W/Z + Jets Cross Section Ratio, and its Implications for New Physics at the ATLAS Experiment.” Benjamin Brau, chr.

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