Briefs

Trustee committee meets today: The Executive Committee of Cornell's Board of Trustees will hold a brief open session when it meets today at 2 p.m. in the Fall Creek Room of the Cornell Club of New York, 6 E. 44th St., New York City. The public session, for the meeting's first 20 minutes, will include a report from President Hunter Rawlings, an update on statutory college affairs and a report of the Buildings and Properties Committee.

Center appointment: John Eckenrode, professor of human development, has been appointed the co-director of the Family Life Development Center, an interdisciplinary unit with the mandate to help understand and prevent family stress and violence, in the College of Human Ecology. He will share the co-director role with James Garbarino. Eckenrode, who joined the faculty in 1983, is an expert on child abuse and neglect, its prevalence, effects on developmental outcomes and prevention. He directs the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect. His current research involves the long-term effects on mothers and children of nurse home visiting services for young mothers. Most recently, he is the co-author with James Garbarino and the staff of the FLDC of Understanding Abusive Families, published by Jossey-Bass.

Exxon engineering grant: The College of Engineering has received a $25,000 grant, part of a $1.6 million program at Exxon Corp. for 90 universities and colleges, to improve educational fields where the company recruits future employees. Designated departments can use the grants for any educational purpose, such as scholarships, field trips, equipment purchases and student travel to professional meetings. Exxon College Relations Director Truman Bell explained: "In addition to our general support of education, these grants are specifically directed to university departments which are producing the type of well-qualified graduates which Exxon needs." Over the past five years, Cornell has received more than $1.7 million under various programs of Exxon Corp., its affiliates, employees, retirees and the Exxon Education Foundation.

Library demonstrations: Cornell Library will host three information seminar/demonstrations on the Institute for Scientific Information's new Web interface to their Science Citation, Social Sciences Citation and the Arts and Humanities Citation indexes. ISI trainers and library staff will be there to discuss the new Web of Science software, its Web interface, database content and searching features (with an emphasis on cited reference and related records searching). The sessions are open to all interested faculty and students and will be held at the following times and locations:
·Today, Dec. 11, 9-10 a.m., Engineering Library Classroom, and 11 a.m.-noon, Olin Library Room 106.
·Friday, Dec. 12, 1:30-2:30 p.m., Mann Library Conference Room.
Contact Lance Heidig at 255-2954 or ljh5@cornell.edu if you have questions about these sessions.

ATS HelpDesk hours: The ATS (Academic Technology Services) HelpDesk (255-8990) will close at noon on Wednesday, Dec. 24, and reopen at 8 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 2. During the rest of the winter break, the HelpDesk will be open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Winter Session courses: Students may reduce their spring- or fall-term class loads by registering for a course during the Cornell Winter Session. Courses are offered on campus in city and regional planning, economics, education, English, collective bargaining and organizational behavior. Off-campus courses include Hebrew offered in Israel and Swahili, in New York City. Also offered in New York City is a non-credit special program titled Practicing Medicine/Providing Health Care, for people seriously considering the study of medicine. The registration period continues through Dec. 17 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays in B20 Day Hall. The course roster is on the Web at http://www.sce.cornell.edu; it will be updated as additional offerings are announced. Students can also pick up the Winter Session course roster in B20 Day Hall or call 255-4987 to receive a copy.

Parking permits: A limited number of temporary central campus parking permits -- valid from Dec. 22 to Jan. 9 -- will be sold for $20.42. Faculty and staff members may purchase a winter session permit by coming to the Parking and Commuter Services office, 116 Maple Ave. Permits will be available beginning Dec. 15. For information, e-mail transportation@cornell.edu or call 255-4600.

Campus bus service: Blue Light bus service will run normally through Dec. 20. Throughout winter break, night service will be provided exclusively by Route 92, which will run Dec. 21-23 and again Jan. 2-10. There is no night service between Dec. 24 and Jan. 1. Normal service resumes Jan. 11. Daytime bus service will run normally through Dec. 24. There will be no campus bus service from Dec. 25 through Jan. 1. Regular daytime service will resume Jan. 2. For complete information regarding service, call 277-RIDE or e-mail tcat@cornell.edu.

Faculty Web workshops: Gear up for the start of the new semester with Winter Web Days. From Jan. 12 to 15, the Academic Technology Center will present several workshops on instructional uses of the World Wide Web. Events are free, but registration is required. Space is limited. For more information or to register, visit the Web site http://atc.cit.cornell.edu/workshops/courses.html or call 255-8000.

Academic society award: The Cornell Chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta, academic honorary society for the colleges of Human Ecology, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine, is the recipient of the 1997 Gamma Sigma Delta Outstanding New Activity Award. This award is presented by the International Officers of the society and is in recognition of the Cornell chapter's sponsorship of the Human Ecology Partnership Program, a peer mentoring project for undergraduate students.