Monday, February 15, 2010

“International studies students petition for more resources (The DePaulia)” plus 2 more

“International studies students petition for more resources (The DePaulia)” plus 2 more

International studies students petition for more resources (The DePaulia)

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 11:43 PM PST

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

About 200 students of the International Studies (INT) program formally petitioned various administrative officers of DePaul University in November requesting additional faculty and staff support - with little feedback.

The petition, written by Nate Hojnacki and Mallory Warner, were mailed to Helmut Epp, Provost of DePaul, the Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, C.M., President, and Charles Suchar, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LA&S), in November 2009. The only one to express concern with the student representatives was Suchar.

The petition requested additional faculty members and academic advising for a major that has "nearly doubled," said Hojnacki, the undergraduate International Studies peer adviser.

According to Hojnacki, the issue began in the fall of 2009 when Nicole Zimmerer, the program coordinator, took medical leave, leaving all advising to be done by Hojnacki and Warner, the graduate peer advisers.

"We ended up having to sift through and organize some sort of advising system through which we could assign faculty INT advisers," Hojnacki said. "Unfortunately, we don't have an introductory course freshman year, so a lot of people who come to the program don't actually start the major until their sophomore year. They have no sort of advising or anything, which is what the peer advising is supposed to supplement."

After reviewing the current advising system in place, Hojnacki and Warner found the system to be "completely convoluted and just not very well organized," Hojnacki said.

"The current advising situation over there is just not adequate," Suchar said. "The College [of Liberal Arts and Sciences] has known that for awhile. We've worked with them on trying to figure a solution because one of the problems is that the department was not prepared for [Zimmerer to take medical leave]."

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

US Studies Centre announces Dow Sustainability Program (University of Sydney News)

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 06:48 PM PST

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

US Studies Centre announces Dow Sustainability Program


15 February 2010

The United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney is pleased to announce the launch of a three-year research program on sustainability made possible by US$2,000,000 in support from The Dow Chemical Company Foundation in the United States.

The Dow Sustainability Program will bring together academic and policy experts from Australia and the US to develop action-oriented solutions to a range of sustainability challenges concerning energy, water, food and biodiversity that are technologically innovative, commercially scalable and politically viable.

Chief Executive of the US Studies Centre Professor Geoffrey Garrett said the Dow Program will focus on translating remarkable advances in the science and technology of sustainability into outcomes that will benefit Australia, the US and the world. "I am so pleased that Dow, a global company at the cutting edge of sustainability technology and sustainable business practice, has been willing to provide such generous support to the Centre," Professor Garrett said.

The program is being developed by Robert Hill, Adjunct Professor in Sustainability at the US Studies Centre, former Minister for the Environment and former Ambassador to the United Nations. The Program's first research appointment is Dr Susan Pond AM, Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Sydney and former Managing Director of Johnson and Johnson Research Australia. Dr Pond's research will focus on bio sequestration and bio fuels, with an initial project assessing the commercial potential and appropriate public policies regarding large scale algae farming.

Chairman, CEO and President of The Dow Chemical Company, Australian-born Andrew Liveris, will formally announce the launch of the program at a private lunch in Sydney today.

"Dow is working hard to deliver sustainable solutions to the rest of the world, andwe are continuously looking to accelerate progress through collaborations with partners like the US Studies Centre, the University of Sydney and the American Australian Association," Mr Liveris said. "The Dow Sustainability Program at the Centre reinforces our 2015 Sustainability Goals and our commitment to protect the planet we live on."

The Dow Program will be advised by a group of international experts and will leverage the considerable academic resources in the agricultural, environmental, life and physical sciences of the University of Sydney and other universities in Australia and the US.

The Dow Program on Sustainability in association with the Institute of Sustainable Solutions and the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at the University of Sydney will develop strategies to combat soil degradation, which is reducing agricultural productivity around the world and increasing carbon emissions.

Other potential research initiatives include coastal management, rainforest biodiversity and fresh water systems.

For more information about The Dow Chemical Company, visit their website.


Contact: Nina Fudala

Phone: 0409 321 918

Email: 00790403010c3c2b2235242f1e2a38076d540a59

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Global Indian International School goes to US (rediff.com)

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 09:54 PM PST

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

Part of the Singapore-headquartered Global Indian Foundation's network, the Global Indian International School has now been established in the US. Shalini Kathuria Narang reports.

The Global Indian International School, which offers a multicultural education for K-8 students, is to open its first United States branch in San Jose, California, in September. The school is currently enrolling students for the 2010-2011 school year.

The Global School is part of the Singapore-headquartered Global India [ Images ]n Foundation's network of 22 schools across Singapore, Malaysia, Japan [ Images ], India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates [ Images ] serving more than 17,000 students, representing nearly 40 nationalities. The four schools in India have a student population of 11,000 students. Another four schools are under construction there.

At the open house January 23 at the Computer Science Museum in Mountain View, Atul Temurnikar, the foundation's chairperson, said the schools aim to "nurture global citizens and impart an international perspective by building entrepreneurial skills from the very beginning." He said the foundation chose Silicon Valley as its US headquarters because "the emphasis on science, technology and global understanding here matches the philosophy of our schools."

The foundation plans to open 25 branches in the US in the next five years.

The Silicon Valley school is the brainchild of Bay Area-based Narpat Bhandari, country director, Global School of Silicon Valley. He was one of the founders of The Indus Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and founded Aspen Semiconductor in the late 1980s.

The Global Indian Foundation was co-founded in 2002 by Bhandari's late father-in-law, the distinguished jurist Dr L M Singhvi, who served as India's high commissioner to the United Kingdom. The other founders are Temurnikar and Justice C S Dharmadhikari.

Bhandari said he and his father-in-law had long discussed launching a GIF-affiliated school in the US. Last April, meetings involving Bay Area School Director Tom McLaughlin and Temurnikar followed.

McLaughlin, who has been an executive with tech companies in Silicon Valley, says the new school will ensure a solid foundation in the core subjects and technology while also emphasising languages, art, music and sports and preparing students to compete effectively in the global economy.

The Bhandari Foundation, a charitable trust Bhandari and his wife Chandra launched in 1994, has funded an India studies chair at the University of California-Santa Cruz, set up a course on the Indian Diaspora in Silicon Valley at the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of California-Berkeley, and funded a chair on cancer research at Stanford University.

"My interest in education and nurturing global citizens," Bhandari says, "is apparent via my involvement in TiE which we established in the 1990s and which has grown to 53 chapters in 14 countries. Now my dream is to make certain that the highest quality education is made available to all who seek it and to ensure that California, and Silicon Valley (within it), remain the hubs for global innovation. With trends in business, economics, politics, science and the arts all moving towards a borderless system, a global education starting at primary level is vital for success in today's world."

"As an administrator and a parent, I see a tremendous advantage for children to learn and grow in a multicultural setting, which can have a significant impact on their future careers," he adds.

Bhandari says that on the basis of need and merit, scholarships will be offered to children from families earning below a certain threshold.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)