Purdue Notebook

August 26, 2005

Campus activities

– The Department of English and Purdue Libraries has announced English novelist A.S. Byatt, author of "The Virgin in the Garden," "Babel Tower" and the Booker Prize-winning "Possession: A Romance" will be the speaker for the 2006 Literary Awards Banquet on March 22. Following the banquet, Byatt will speak at an event that is free and open to the public. The banquet honors high school students from across Indiana and Purdue undergraduate and graduate students who won a Literary Award. Last year's awards program featured National Book Award winner Maxine Hong Kingston. Since 1928 the English department has brought many writers to campus to speak at the awards banquet, including Tony Kushner, Tennessee Williams, John Irving and Louise Erdrich.

–Health care professionals will gather Sept. 9 at Purdue University for the third annual fall conference on nursing history, ethics and human rights. Nursing: Past, Present and Beyond will be held from 8 a.m. to noon in Stewart Center's Fowler Hall. The symposium is targeted toward those in the nursing and health care professions who are involved in clinical practice who would like learn how to improve patient-centered care.

Nurses will receive continuing education credit for attending the symposium. Several experts will give presentations. Lynne Dunphy, a professor and assistant dean for graduate studies at Florida Atlantic University, will discuss her research on the polio epidemics that took place in the first half of the 20th century. Alyssa Rollock, vice president of human relations at Purdue, will give a speech titled "Legal Implications of End of Life Care." Angela Barron McBride, dean emerita of the Indiana University School of Nursing, will discuss "Voice vs. Loyalty: The Dilemma of Nurses."

The registration deadline is Sept. 1. To attend, contact Roxanne Martin at (765) 494-6644 or martinrj@purdue.edu.

The conference is sponsored by the Purdue School of Nursing Center for Nursing History, Ethics and Human Rights, Arnett Health Systems, Clarian Health Systems and Sigma Theta Tau International, Delta Omicron chapter.

Faculty and staff honors

– The Purdue Grand Prix Foundation is accepting applications for the adviser position after Tim Nordland announced he is stepping down after five years on the job. The foundation will be accepting applications through Sept. 23. Interested faculty and staff should send a letter of interest and a resume or curriculum vitae to Purdue Grand Prix Foundation, c/o Tim Birky, Purdue University Stewart Center, Box 502, West Lafayette, IN 47907. The Grand Prix Foundation was formed in 1958 as a way for engineering students to apply the skills they learn in the classroom to real-life applications. In addition to the main fund-raising activity of the group, the Grand Prix race held in the spring at Purdue, the foundation also sponsors other activities such as the Grand Prix Car Show, Grand Prix Day and sprint races. These events annually raise about $10,000 for student academic scholarships.

– Erina MacGeorge, assistant professor of communication, has received the 2005 Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology. The honor is for MacGeorge's article, "The Myth of Gender Cultures: Similarities Outweigh Differences in Men's and Women's Provision of and Responses to Supportive Communication," which was published in the February 2004 issue of the journal Sex Roles. MacGeorge, an expert on gender and communication, also is invited to the association's 31st annual conference in Ann Arbor, Mich., to present her work.

Alumni honors

– Reid M. Ricciardi, a 1994 Purdue graduate, was recently presented the Chairman's Award for the outstanding alumni volunteer in the Delta Upsilon International Fraternity for the 2004-2005 academic year. The award was given at the fraternity's 2005 Leadership Institute in Denver. The Chairman's Award was created to recognize the time and effort given by alumni volunteers for the betterment of a Delta Upsilon chapter. Ricciardi has been involved with the chapter for the past several years as the chapter's adviser as well as overseeing summer work sessions and scholarship programs, planning alumni golf weekends and parents' day activities. He also acts as a conduit between the chapter and the alumni board.

Student honors

– Beta Theta Pi Beta Mu chapter at Purdue University won its sixth Francis H. Sisson Award in August at the fraternity's 166th general convention in Scottsdale, Ariz. The Sisson Award is given to outstanding chapters whose eligibility is based on 19 areas, such as scholarship, philanthropy, alumni affairs and public relations. Purdue's accomplishments include recruiting 20 men, holding the annual Orchid Formal and sponsoring the Beta Sweetheart Competition to benefit the American Cancer Society. Beta Theta Pi has more than 120,000 members including some 5,500 collegians on 123 campuses in the United States and Canada.

– Purdue's Delta Upsilon International Fraternity recently received awards for membership recruitment, excellence in loss prevention and as a sweepstakes finalist at the fraternity's 2005 Leadership Institute held in Denver. The Purdue chapter is one of seven sweepstakes finalists. Delta Upsilon, established in 1834, is a men's college fraternity founded on the Williams College campus in Williamstown, Mass. Delta Upsilon currently has chapters on 84 campuses across North America. More than 110,000 men have joined the organization since its beginning.

– Rebecca Benjamin, an audiology graduate student from Whiting, Iowa, has won a $10,000 scholarship from William F. Austin, Starkey Laboratories CEO. Starkey Laboratories manufactures custom hearing instruments at 33 facilities in 18 countries. Benjamin, one of five students selected from 100 applicants, plans to work with pediatric patients in a rural hospital setting after she finishes her doctor of audiology degree.

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

To the News Service home page