Welcome, OMers
Crates containing props and costumes for competition wait in a holding room in Music Hall earlier this week. Photo by Bob Elbert.
Nearly 800 teams from around the world in four age divisions — totaling 15,000 people with coaches and chaperones — are on campus through the weekend for the world finals of Odyssey of the Mind, a problem-solving competition that emphasizes creativity and teamwork.
For staff members like Central Stores director Norm Hill, that means lots and lots of mail — BIG mail.
By May 14, more than 700 large boxes, filled with props, costumes and competition supplies, were received on campus. The largest, Hill said, was a moving container. One wood crate measured 8 feet by 8 feet by 4 feet. In another instance, 14 schools filled a 53-foot semi trailer and had it delivered to campus, where the truck simply unhooked from it.
Before teams arrived, Hill's crew delivered the crates to competition buildings, working 17-hour days Monday and Tuesday. They also are delivering oversize crates to competition sites once team members are present to meet them. Hill logged 115 calls to his cell phone Wednesday to accommodate props requests.
"My staff has done a wonderful job," Hill said. "I'd also like to thank the rest of the university community for putting up with perhaps slower deliveries from us during this time."
Despite the long days, Hill speaks positively of the experience.
"Events like this are so good for our university. I've heard nothing but positives about our facilities, grounds and helpfulness of university personnel from OM coaches and parents," he said.
The Odyssey of the Mind opening ceremony is Wednesday evening and the closing ceremony is Saturday evening, both at Hilton. Competitions run all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday; competition sites include the auditoriums in Hoover, Kildee, LeBaron and Music halls and the College of Design; the Forker gymnasiums; Pearson classrooms and the Memorial Union ballrooms. The main floor of the Lied center is reserved through Saturday for a creativity festival and a NASA e-theatre event will be repeated several times a day in the Howe auditorium.
Stange Road is open to Osborn Drive
Concrete barricades between Kildee and Lagomarcino halls on Stange Road have been removed, allowing vehicle access to Osborn Drive during summer road construction projects.
Pavement work that narrowed traffic to two lanes on University Boulevard and Pammel Drive at the Stange Road intersection moved to Wallace Road (between University and the Beach Road intersection) Tuesday. A renovation project will close the east Osborn entrance in June, with a projected completion date in July.
Mike Parsons, construction manager in facilities planning and management, said concrete road patching projects will happen throughout campus this summer and local detours will be temporary. A list of scheduled campus road and sidewalk closures is available online or through an email notification service.
Summer cleanout
Facilities planning and management will offer departments another opportunity to recycle mixed paper June 20-21.
This collection is for paper that is not white paper or newsprint (for which the university has ongoing recycling efforts). Examples of eligible paper include journals, magazines, catalogs, paperback and soft cover books, colored paper and phonebooks.
Other items that are not part of this collection include:
- Hardbound textbooks
- Plastic binders or ring binders that contain eligible paper (remove paper from binders)
- Confidential materials, also for which the university has an ongoing program
The paper will be transported to International Paper in Des Moines for recycling. Sue Mallas, a secretary in FPM and member of ISU's recycling committee, said the small payment the university receives (rates vary, but it could be as little as $15/ton) is not the purpose of the cleanout. More importantly, it is an opportunity for departments to recycle dated, unwanted items that qualify as mixed paper and to free up storage and work spaces.
Campus services teams will pick up boxes of mixed paper from building loading docks primarily on Wednesday, June 20. (June 21 is a second day, if the volume necessitates it). For collection, items must be placed in boxes, which should be of a size and weight that one person could lift.
Mallas said recycling coordinators and building supervisors are coordinating the mixed paper requests in their buildings. One pickup request per building is preferred; requests should be made by June 14.
Questions about mixed paper collection may be directed to Mallas, 4-0692.
The most recent mixed paper collection effort (last May) yielded more than 17 tons of mixed paper for recycling. Mallas said FPM is making plans to offer this recycling service once a semester, beginning this fall.
Pamela Anthony named dean of students
Pamela Anthony
Pamela Anthony, assistant dean of students at Georgia State University, Atlanta, will begin as Iowa State’s dean of students on Aug. 1.
Anthony has served as assistant dean of students at Georgia State since August 2003. Previously, she was the director of student activities at Spelman College, also in Atlanta, and held two positions at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks: coordinator of multicultural affairs and area coordinator of residence life. She has extensive experience in student crisis intervention, judicial affairs, student activities and Greek life.
Anthony earned a B.S. in speech pathology from James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Va.; a master's in student personnel in higher education from the University of Georgia; and a Ph.D. in educational policy studies from Georgia State.
Anthony succeeds Dione Somerville, who left Iowa State in June 2011 to become vice president for student affairs at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. James Dorsett, director of the office of international students and scholars, served as interim dean of students during the 2011-2012 academic year.
Web accessibility webinar is May 31
International experts on web accessibility will present a three-hour webinar May 31 on what universities must do to make websites that are useful to everyone, including those with disabilities. The seminar -- "Making Web Accessibility Work for Your Institution is Everybody's Business" -- is sponsored by Educause and features three speakers from WebAim, a Utah State University organization that has become a leading provider of web accessbility training.
The seminar will be held from noon to 3 p.m. in 1230 Communications Building. Faculty, staff and students who maintain student club and activity websites can attend the session at no charge. Information Technology Services (ITS) is picking up the webinar fee, and Student Disability Resources is providing complimentary pizza and drinks for attendees.
Webinar details
The seminar will explore the various levels of web accessibility practices necessary at an institution.
- At a faculty and staff level, the focus will be on how to create and evaluate the accessibility of web content. This includes typical files uploaded into learning management systems (for example, Word, PDF and PowerPoint) as well as HTML content created locally or procured for an institution’s use.
- At an administrative level, discussion will turn to the importance of enterprise-wide web accessibility and tools available to aid an institution in a self-study of web accessibility. One emphasis will be the continuous improvement that is a focus of regional accreditation groups.
Registration
Participants must register for the event. The room will accommodate 40 attendees. Employees should register on AccessPlus. Go to Employee > HRS training > Courses. Students can enroll by emailing CELT@iastate.edu.
The event is sponsored by ISU's Web Accessibility Task Force and ITS.
Carillon concert series opens May 29
Central campus becomes a concert hall when the carillon concert series returns this summer. Photo by Bob Elbert.
The music department's summer carillon concert series returns to campus this year in its biennial rotation. Guest carillonneurs will visit campus, once a month, from May through August. Concert-goers will hear everything from Bach to My Fair Lady tunes to the children's Spanish folk song Señor Don Gato. All concerts begin at 7 p.m. on a Tuesday evening and are free.
Here are this summer's carillonneurs and their home carillons:
- May 29: Elizabeth Graves-Vitu, Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Perpignan, southeast France
- June 26: Robert Grogen, National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C.
- July 24: Sue Bergren, Millennium Carillon, Naperville, Ill.
- August 28: Julianne Vanden Wyngaard, Grand Valley State University, Michigan (carillons on both the Allendale and Grand Rapids campuses)
Information about each concert program is online.
Concerts will last approximately 45 minutes, said ISU carillonneur and Cownie Professor of Music Tin-Shi Tam. Following the concerts, the campanile will be open for tours and guests may meet the featured performer.
"For audiences, summer is the best time to have outdoor concerts," Tam said. "People can relax or enjoy other activities while they listen to the music at the end of a day."
She invites guests to bring their own lawn chairs or blankets to central campus. Nearly anywhere on the lawn north or south of the campanile (and away from traffic) is a good spot to listen to a carillon concert, she said.
"Open space is crucial to a good sound," Tam said. "The big lawn surrounding our campanile is ideal."
Fifth summer of concerts
The 2012 concert series is the fifth organized by Tam. The first were held in 2001 and 2003, and in 2008, the department announced that the series would be held in even-numbered years.
In the summer tradition of carillonneurs hitting the road for guest performances, Tam will travel to Wisconsin and Germany later this summer to perform.
Arts and events
Four guest artists will perform on Iowa State's carillon this summer.
