Purdue Notebook

September 16, 2005

Campus activities

– Robert Scholes, the 2005 Leonora Woodman Memorial Lecture, will present "Against Literature" at 4:30 p.m. Sept. 27 at Stewart Center, Room 206. Scholes is a research professor in the Department of Modern Culture and Media, and professor emeritus of English, comparative literature, and modern culture and media at Brown University. He also is the immediate past-president of the Modern Language Association, and his most recent books are "The Crafty Reader" and "The Rise and Fall of English." The memorial lecture started in 1997 to honor Leonora Woodman, who played a central role in the development of the Purdue rhetoric and composition graduate program. Woodman, who died in 1991 after 15 years at Purdue, was nationally known for her publishing and teaching in American literature. The lecture is sponsored by the Department of English.

Faculty and staff honors

– Robert Zahnke, director of the Purdue Center for the Advancement of Transportation Safety, has been elected to a two-year term on the executive board of the Association of Traffic Safety Information Professionals. He was elected during the organization's recent 31st Traffic Records Forum, conducted in Buffalo, N.Y. The organization advises and assists the National Safety Council in traffic accident reduction and prevention goals throughout the country. Purdue's Center for the Advancement of Transportation Safety provides data and transportation research on Indiana's traffic problems and solutions. Since 1993, the center has analyzed the state's highway crashes and documented historical crash and driver data for the state.

– J. Todd Coleman, Purdue Alumni Association executive director, will serve as president of the Council of Alumni Association Executives for the coming year. Coleman has been the director of Purdue's alumni association since 2004. He is a 1985 graduate of Indiana State University, and was previously was the executive director of the University of Missouri Alumni Association. Founded in 1989, the council is comprised of alumni professional leaders from many of the largest and most active alumni associations in North America. These associations represent both private and public institutions, with associations that are largely independent or interdependent. The council has 90 members, including alumni associations from the Big Ten, Big Twelve, Atlantic Coast Conference, the Southeastern Conference, Pac-10 and the Ivy League.

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