Vol. 17, No. 22	March 5, 1998

A selection of items in the national and local media about the University-its faculty, staff and students:

Poughkeepsie N.Y., Journal, Nov. 18/ Detroit News, Nov. 18/Danville, Ill., Commercial-News, Nov. 18/Anniston, Ala., Star, Nov. 20/Akron, Ohio, Beacon Journal, Nov. 21/Minneapolis Star Tribune, Nov. 21/Los Angeles Times, Nov. 25/Ann Arbor, Mich., News Nov. 25. From a Gannett News Service wire story. Teamster's president barred from election. Teamster President Ron Carey was disqualified from running for re-election Monday, setting the stage for Detroit labor lawyer James P. Hoffa to be elected president next spring and take over the union once ruled by his father, the legendary James R. Hoffa. 'Right now it is Hoffa's election,' said Arthur Sloane, a professor of industrial relations at the University of Delaware, who closely follows Teamster affairs. 'He should win handily.'"

Washington, D.C., Education Week, Nov. 26. Teaching & Learning. "High school teachers can find help creating challenging curricula for topics from Puritanism to the civil rights movement using a new interactive web site. The National Humanities Center, a Raleigh, N.C.-based independent institute for advanced study in the humanities, provides on-line curriculum-enrichment services for history and literature teachers. TeacherServe will provide assistance and content, based on the needs of the teachers who use the Internet site. It will feature essays by leading experts, links to related sources and teaching suggestions for various topics. The site, designed by scholars from Duke University in Durham, N.C., the University of Delaware in Newark, and Queens College in New York City and master high school teachers, is underwritten by the Lilly Endowment. The site's first instructional guide, 'Driving America: Religion and the National Culture,' is available at www.nhc.rtp.nc/us:8080/tserve/tserve.htm."

Salem, Ohio, Farm & Dairy, Nov. 27. Voyagers keep on trek to interplanetary space. "Twenty years after their launch and long after their planetary reconnaissance flybys have been completed, both Voyager spacecraft are now gaining on another milestone- crossing that invisible boundary that separates our solar system from interstellar space, the heliopause. ... The magnetometer instrument on board the Voyagers measures the magnetic fields that are carried out into interplanetary space by the solar wind. The Voyagers are currently measuring the weakest interplanetary magnetic fields ever detected and those magnetic fields being measured are responsive to charged particles that cannot be detected directly by any other instrument on the spacecraft, according to Dr. Norman Ness, principal investigator on the magnetometer subsystem at the Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware."

Baton Rouge, La., Advocate, Nov. 28. Climatologist: Pollution may have benefit. "While air pollution is not good for you, it may have a silver lining, says a University of Delaware climatologist who studied at LSU. Laurence Kalkstein said his research shows there is a correlation between extremely hot weather and higher mortality. When he looked at the variables on those hot weather-high mortality days, he found that mortality was highest when weather was clear-not when it was smoggy. Two cities-St. Louis and Philadelphia- are using the models to issue health watches and warnings, Kalkstein said. He said the weather seems to have an impact on all mortality."

Pontiac, Mich., Oakland Press, Nov. 29. Some plants do thrive off salt water. "Q. Are there plants that can survive if watered with salt water? A. Yes, there are such plants, called halophytes. ... The Halophytes Biotechnology Center at the University of Delaware College of Marine Studies in Lewes, Del., is a clearing house for research and education involving such plants, which have many uses. Halophytes include grasses, shrubs and trees."

Primos, Pa., Times, Nov. 30. Opinions divided over math curriculum. "Wallingford-Swarthmore Superintendent Bruce Kowalski prefaced a presentation on the district's math curriculum by saying it's the subject he receives the most comments about, pro and con. His opinion? 'Everybody is right.' Along with Director of Curriculum Sharon Parker, Kowalski last week touched on concerns expressed by many over the lack of traditional math used with the district's Integrated Math Program. ... University of Delaware economics professor Larry Seidman wanted the board to consider offering electives with 'a more traditionally presented' format as a supplement to IMP."

Raleigh, N.C., News & Observer, Nov. 30. As the climate changes, where is our planet most vulnerable? "As negotiators from around the world gather Monday for a 10-day environmental conference in Kyoto, Japan, scientists are trying to bring the issue of global warming and attendant changes in climate down out of the stratosphere of scientific debate and global diplomacy into the everyday world, where some local officials and citizens are starting to think more about how the predicted changes might affect them. ... Climate change may have serious repercussions for human health, said the intergovernmental panel. ... The intergovernmental report said the expected net effect on total deaths is unclear in Europe, but a leading American expert on the subject said that in this country, the increase in heat deaths was likely to outweigh the reduction in deaths from cold. The reason, said Dr. Laurence Kalkstein of the University of Delaware, is that many cold-season deaths are related to diseases like flu, which are transmitted in closely confined winter quarters. Climate change is not likely to alter that picture of confinement very much in northern cities, he said."

Seattle, Wash., Puget Sound Computer USER, December/ Columbus Computer USER, December/Mentoring Mettle. "The fortunate among us had mentors, people far above us in knowledge and experience. They were the ones who quietly chuckled then stepped forward to save our bacon after we crashed a program, formatted the wrong disk, or suddenly realized that we knew a lot less about desktop publishing than we thought we did.... 'The rewards for mentors are many, including personal satisfaction and the comfort of knowing that they have guided and eased the experiences of someone following in a similar path,' says Kenneth E. Barner, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Delaware in Newark. He is director of the school's Science, Engineering and Math Mentoring Program."

ABA Journal, December. Can we talk?/ Preliminary study shows jurors favor new rule allowing discussion of evidence during trials. "Two studies are under way in Arizona to determine whether a two-year-old rule that allows jurors to discuss evidence before the end of a trial affects their verdicts. The unorthodox rule allows jurors to discuss evidence at any time they are all together in the jury room. Several states, including Colorado, California and Delaware, are monitoring Arizona's activities to determine whether to adopt similar reforms. Researchers 'are looking at whether decision-making is improved and whether there is any difference in outcome,' says Valerie Hans, project consultant and a professor of criminal justice and psychology at the University of Delaware in Newark."

Chemical Engineering Progress, December. Composite Created from Soybean Oil. "University of Delaware chemical engineers have developed a technique that uses soybean oil in place of petroleum-derived resins to produce inexpensive, lightweight and potentially biodegradable composites for use in building automobiles, bridges and military vehicles. The technique involves chemically modifying soy oil, a commodity that is 50 percent cheaper than the polyester, epoxy and vinyl ester resins commonly used in composite manufacturing processed, says Richard P. Wool, professor of chemical engineering and director of the ACRES (Affordable Composites from Renewable Sources) project at the University. Soy-based resin and reinforcing fibers such as glass may then be injected into a mold where the liquid solidifies to form the composite."

Phi Delta Kappan, December. Volunteer Tutoring Programs. "The primary component of the America Reads Challenge is the use of adult volunteers to tutor children during and after school and on weekends. As many as 1 million tutors will be working with children to help them learn to read. ... Read*Write*Now is a initiative launched by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley and developed by a team of reading researchers directed by Richard Venezky at the University of Delaware. The goal is to foster good literacy habits in children from an early age and to mobilize parents' involvement in nurturing their children's love of reading and writing. Read*Write*Now focuses on children from birth through sixth grade. One component of the program is 'partners tutoring,' a one-to-one tutoring program for school-age children in grades 1 through 6."

ASEE Prism, December. Faculty Research Teams. "Several schools create positions for undergraduates on their faculty research teams and actively encourage students to apply for them. David Roselle, president of the University of Delaware, says his school publishes a directory of opportunities for undergraduates at all levels to volunteer, earn school credit or find employment as assistants or junior members of a faculty member's research team. Noting that about 90 percent of the University's engineering, science, and math faculty members choose to include undergraduates on their research teams, Roselle says the number of jobs available is quite extensive."

Community College Week, Dec., 1. Congress Looks at Hate Crimes. "Washington-All postsecondary institutions, including community colleges, would have to begin collecting detailed data on hate crimes under new legislation before Congress. The bill from Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., coincided with President Clinton's White House Conference on Hate Crimes last month. The bill would amend current law, under which colleges report only hate crimes that result in serious offenses such as murder, rape or aggravated assault. ... 'I don't think [the bill] would be overly burdensome,' says Doug Tuttle, former police chief at the University of Delaware and a criminal justice policy scientist."

Rochester, N.Y., Business Journal, Dec. 5. Managers must address changes in performance. "'One of my employees who had been reasonably conscientious and careful about her work now doesn't seem to care. ... I don't know why this is happening. There could be some personal factor affecting her work, but I don't know how to broach the subject with her. What do you think?' ... Your primary job is to open up a discussion that would help you gather information about why her performance has taken a dive and help her recognize the fact that she needs to make changes. ... Though most employees would not admit it, sometimes poor performance is deliberate. A new study by Thomas Becker, a management professor at the University of Delaware, says workers may perform poorly to be fired, transferred or to make a manager look bad. 'Not working to potential in order to look bad tends to be motivated by the desire to avoid additional work,' Becker writes. 'Displaying a "bad attitude" in order to look bad tends to be motivated by a desire to leave an organization.'"

-Compiled by Barbara Garrison