Cornell News Releases, February, 2002

Cornell University News Service Releases

February, 2002

For the full text of any story, click on the headline. Electronic queries may be made to cunews@cornell.edu.

'The Science Guy' -- Bill Nye -- to spend week at Cornell lecturing and meeting students and teachers
Bill Nye "The Science Guy" will be coming to Cornell University March 9-15 as a Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 Professor. During his stay, Nye will give a free public lecture, "Those are the Breaks, from Engineering to Entertainment," Wednesday, March 13, 7:30pm, at Statler Auditorium on campus. He will show pictures from his early days in comedy and video. Free tickets will be distributed starting Thursday, March 7th (limit 2 per person) at Noyes Center Service Desk, Robert Purcell Service Desk, Willard Straight Hall Ticket OfÞce and at Ithaca Sciencenter. (February 28, 2002)

Johnson Art Museum acquisitions top $4 million
Cornell University's Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art acquired more than $4 million worth of fine art for its permanent collection this past year through gifts and purchases, says Franklin Robinson, the Richard J. Schwartz Director of the museum. "Our recent acquisitions have been truly extraordinary," said Robinson. "A lot of people don't realize that our collections are growing all the time and that the museum is so dynamic -- in large part thanks to the generosity of alumni donors, other gifts and through the work of our museum advisory council." (February 28, 2002)

Ergonomic changes help musculoskeletal problems
A collaborative project between Alan Hedge, a Cornell University professor, and New Jersey health and safety researchers Mary Rudakewych and Lisa Valent-Weitz has found that workers who use proper ergonomic products and are trained in their use report an average 40 percent decline in musculoskeletal problems within eight months. "This study provides compelling evidence that comprehensive ergonomics intervention can be very beneficial for employees and employers alike," says Alan Hedge, professor of design and environmental analysis at Cornell and director of Cornell's Human Factors and Ergonomics Laboratory. Although previous studies have looked at the benefits of specific products, such as a negative-slope keyboard or an ergonomic chair, little research has involved the impact of coordinated ergonomic intervention that also includes ergonomic training. (February 28, 2002)

World renowned architect Richard Meier to speak March 6
Richard Meier, Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate and recently named designer of Cornell University's future life science technology building, returns to the Cornell campus for his fourth visit as a Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 University Professor, March 4-7. Meier will deliver a free public lecture titled "The New Museum" Wednesday, March 6, at 4:45 p.m. in Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall. He will discuss the museums he has designed through his firm, Richard Meier & Partners. These include: The Getty Center (Los Angeles), Museum of Contemporary Art (Barcelona), High Museum of Art (Atlanta) and Museum for Decorative Arts (Frankfurt). No tickets are required for the lecture. (February 27, 2002)

March 2 law symposium looks at effect of victim impact statements on death penalty verdicts
Has a 1991 Supreme Court ruling led to more prejudiced verdicts in capital cases and more defendants on death row? Statements about a victim's virtues have become a common feature of capital trials in the United States since Payne vs. Tennessee, when the nation's highest court ruled that victim impact statements (VIS) in death penalty cases were admissible in court. Scholars have argued about the effects of such statements on jurors' verdicts. Now, that controversial subject will be discussed at length at a day-long symposium at Cornell University Law School March 2. Also addressed will be the supposition that executions bring relief to the families of victims. (February 27, 2002)

Mae Jemison and Jane Goodall among five A.D. White Professors-at-Large in March and April
Physician and former astronaut Mae Jemison and renowned primatologist Jane Goodall are among an interdisciplinary cast of Andrew D. White Professors-at-Large who will give public talks during their visits to Cornell University in March and April. Others professor-at-large visitors include: environmental expert Jules Pretty, reproductive biologist Roger Short, and former Bosnian prime minister Haris Silajdzic. (February 27, 2002)

Optical tweezers show how DNA uncoils
By using optical tweezers to pull individual strands of chromatin -- the DNA-protein complex that chromosomes are made of -- researchers have seen for the first time how information in fundamental genetic packaging units, called nucleosomes, might become accessible to molecules that "read" it. The report by physicists and biologists at Cornell University and the University of Massachusetts appears in the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Vol. 99, Issue 4), "Mechanical Disruption of Individual Nucleosomes Reveals a Reversible Multistage Release of DNA." It marks the first direct observation of the dynamic structure of individual nucleosomes. Chromosomal DNA is packaged into the compact structure of the nuclesome with the help of specialized proteins called histones. The complex of DNA plus histones in cells of higher organisms is called chromatin. (February 26, 2002)

X-ray camera images fuel injection in action
A one-of-a-kind X-ray camera, capable of capturing a succession of microsecond images of events hidden to optical cameras, has been developed by researchers at Cornell University. The first experiment using the novel camera has captured a moving image of shock waves from diesel fuel as it emerges at supersonic speeds from an automobile engine fuel injector. The X-ray imaging was able to penetrate the fog of aerosol droplets formed by the fuel as it cycles through the injector within a thousandth of a second. In a series of images, the camera depicted the shock wave created by the fuel, a phenomenon never before observed or measured, according to the camera's principal developer, Sol Gruner, professor of physics at Cornell. (February 26, 2002)

Newborn Babies Can Learn to Distinguish Speech Sounds While Asleep, Study Shows
New York, NY (February 21, 2002) -- The old idea of putting foreign-language cassettes under your baby's crib, or playing Mozart on the stereo to help the baby learn, is based on studies that are "largely anecdotal," says Dr. Amir Raz, a fellow of psychology and psychiatry at the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology of Weill Cornell Medical College. But now, Dr. Amir and 11 Finnish scientists have carried out a rigorous, carefully controlled study that shows that babies less than a week old can learn to distinguish between speech sounds by hearing them while they are asleep. The results, published recently in the journal Nature, are remarkable, if preliminary, he says. While further research is necessary, if the findings are replicated, the study may one day lead to innovations in the nursery.The investigators, led by Dr. Marie Cheour of the Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Finland, studied 45 newborns, all less than one week old. Fifteen were in an experimental group, and 15 were in each of two control groups. The babies had electrodes placed on their scalps, and speakers near their heads gently played a randomized sequence of two similar Finnish vowel sounds as they slept: a "standard" sound, /y/, and a "deviant" sound, /i/.

Plant stems and leaves are always proportional to roots
Add this universal truth to biology textbooks: the mass of a plant's leaves and stems is proportionally scaled to that of its roots in a mathematically predictable way, regardless of species or habitat. In other words, biologists can now reasonably estimate how much biomass is underground just by looking at the stems and leaves above ground. Up to now, plant biologists could only theorize about the ways stem and leaf biomass relate to root biomass across the vast spectrum of land plants. Researchers from Cornell University and the University of Arizona spent two years poring over data for a vast array of plants -- from weeds to bushes to trees -- in order to derive mass-proportional relations among major plant parts. (February 19, 2002)

Electrostatic Calculations Can Explain Interactions Between Proteins and Membrane Surfaces
New York, NY (February 21, 2002) -- In biology, a special place is held by those who find simple physical ways to explain phenomena that are otherwise difficult to understand. That is the achievement of two scientists -- Dr. Diana Murray of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College and Dr. Barry Honig of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University -- who, in a cover article in the January issue of Molecular Cell, show that calculations of the electrostatic properties of protein domains known as C2 domains can explain their interactions with cellular membranes.The paper's importance is evident in that it has been selected for attention and commentary in two other journals, Science and Developmental Cell. As Dr. Carl Nathan, Chairman of Weill Cornell's Department of Microbiology and Immunology, puts it, computational biology such as is exemplified by Drs. Murray and Honig's paper "is only now beginning to find a venue in the top-flight experiment-oriented journals."

BOOM 2002 to display students' computing research
If you want to see what computers will be doing for us tomorrow, take a look at what students are doing with them today. BOOM, or Bits On Our Minds, is an annual show organized by the Cornell University Department of Computer Science and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, but which involves students from all over the campus displaying their computing projects. The fifth annual show will take up parts of three floors of Upson Hall from 4 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6. The students will be on hand to explain their work, and many exhibits will include interactive displays. (February 25, 2002)

Northeast winter destined to be warmest on record
N.Y. -- If current trends continue for the Northeast through Feb. 28, then the meteorological winter of 2001-02 will be the region's warmest on record, with an average temperature above freezing for the first time in 107 years of official record-keeping, say Cornell University climatologists. (Winter is defined meteorologically as Dec. 1 through Feb. 28 or Feb. 29.) (February 22, 2002)

Workplace collection to include ILO documents
Documents from the International Labor Organization (ILO) will soon be added to the already vast collection of the Martin P. Catherwood Library at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. The library, which researchers say has the largest and best collection on workplace and labor-related issues in the United States, is one of only two in the country to be named an official Depository Library by the ILO, a specialized United Nations agency. (The other is the Library of Congress.) (February 19, 2002)

Practical research earns Cornell hospitality magazine top U.K. award
The Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly has received an Emerald Golden Page Award for making research on the hospitality industry both usable and accessible to practitioners. The magazine, informally known as the Quarterly, was chosen to receive the prestigious annual award for "practical usability of research" by specialist reviewers for Emerald Management Reviews, a London-based publisher of articles and books on management issues. It was among a handful of winners chosen from Emerald's "top 400 " list of management magazines. (February 19, 2002)

Open-style offices foster team spirit and innovation
A Cornell University study finds that small-scale, team-oriented offices with few Dilbert-like panels are more effective work environments than private, closed offices because they more readily foster communication, cohesiveness and organizational learning among co-workers without undermining their ability to concentrate, the study finds. "Surprisingly, one-person closed offices, often preferred by workers and seen as the Shangri-la of office designs, were not universally viewed as the best or most effective work environment," concludes Franklin Becker, director of the Cornell International Workplace Studies Program (IWSP), and his colleague, William Sims. Both are professors of facility planning and management and human-environment relations in the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis at Cornell. (February 18, 2002)

Stanford E. Woosley, expert on giant stellar explosions, to give three talks
Stanford E. Woosley, an international authority on the physics of giant stellar explosions, called supernovae, will be the 2001-2002 Hans A. Bethe Lecturer at Cornell University, presenting three talks in February and March. Woosley is professor of astronomy and chair of the Department of Astronomy at the University of California, Santa Cruz. (February 18, 2002)

Why can't Johnny understand science? at AAAS session
BOSTON -- Science is part of our daily lives -- the way we understand the natural world, the technologies we use and the decisions we make about our health and the environment. So why, asks Cornell University researcher Bruce Lewenstein, do most people know so little about science? Lewenstein, who is an associate professor of science communication at Cornell, is among the growing number of educators exploring the gap between practitioners of science and the public at large. Aided by federal and university funding initiatives, they are working to promote general "scientific literacy" through community involvement and education efforts, known as outreach. But, they ask, are their efforts working? (February 15, 2002)

AAAS airs McClintock and Franklin discrimination legends
BOSTON -- On Oct. 10, 1983, geneticist Barbara McClintock awoke to learn she had become a Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine. Within days, the media gathered biographical material about the quiet scientist, and disturbing stories about her academic life surfaced: First, that Cornell University had denied her admission into its graduate plant breeding program in the 1920s and, second, that the University of Missouri had denied her tenure in the 1930s. National news stories and newspaper editorials throughout the country condemned the schools for their apparent gender discrimination against McClintock. (February 15, 2002)

Straightening a robot arm is not as easy as you think
BOSTON -- Bend your arm. Now straighten it out. Nothing hard about that. But suppose your arm had six or seven joints, with sections of varying lengths. Or suppose you had four or five or six arms. Could you straighten them all out -- or just move them from one arrangement to another -- without having them bump into each other or get tangled up? What if someone else rearranged them when you weren't looking? (February 15, 2002)

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Will Administer Major New Pediatrics Prize Created by Mr. and Mrs. Abe Pollin
New York, NY (February 14, 2002) -- Dr. Herbert Pardes, President and Chief Executive Officer of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, announced today the establishment of the Pollin Prize in Pediatric Research, a major new international award that will recognize outstanding lifetime achievement in biomedical or public health research related to the health of children.The award is created by Irene and Abe Pollin and their family of Chevy Chase, Maryland, and funded by the Linda and Kenneth Pollin Foundation. It will consist of a $100,000 cash prize and a medal or certificate to be awarded annually to a senior investigator who has done work of international significance in the field of pediatrics.

The Challenge of Detecting Consciousness in Severely Brain-Injured Persons
New York, NY (February 15, 2002) -- The latest research in the conditions known as "persistent vegetative state" and "minimally conscious state" will be presented by Dr. Nicholas Schiff, Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College, at the meeting in Boston today of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).Displaying images of brain functions obtained with the most advanced technology, Dr. Schiff will discuss the problems and dilemmas posed by persons who -- whether through stroke, brain injury, cardiac arrest, or other trauma to the central nervous system -- show some signs of consciousness but cannot fully communicate and respond.

Weill Cornell Researcher Sees Promise in Use of Stem Cells and Progenitor Cells for Brain Repair
New York, NY (February 18, 2002) -- In two sessions at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston today -- on stem cells in the morning and on adult neuronal production in the afternoon -- Dr. Steven Goldman, Nathan Cummings Professor of Neurology at Weill Cornell Medical College, will report several new discoveries pertaining to the use of stem cells and progenitor cells for treating the diseased human brain. The research holds tremendous promise for a wide range of neurodegenerative and demyelinating diseases, as well as destructive disorders such as stroke, trauma, cerebral palsy, and spinal cord injury.Stem cells are cells that have the potential of dividing to become cells of different types. Dr. Goldman begins his abstracts of both talks by observing that neural stem cells and progenitor cells -- far from disappearing once a person reaches adulthood -- "are dispersed widely throughout the adult brain."

Student-built, full-size model of Mars Rover vehicle tours New York
The Mars Exploration Rover, one of the two vehicles scheduled to explore the surface of Mars in 2004, is built and seemingly ready for its trip, complete with a full payload of scientific instruments---- about two years in advance. But this is not the real rover. It is a finely detailed, full-scale model made out of wood, plastic and aluminum that will be put on display in science museums throughout central New York state. It has been built by eight university and two high school students working with Steven Squyres, Cornell University professor of astronomy, who is the principal investigator on the Athena science payload to be carried by the long-range rovers. (February 15, 2002)

Home gardening web site emphasizes ecologically sound practices based on Cornell research
The wide expertise of Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is now available to home gardeners through a very user-friendly home-gardening web site. The site, , offers detailed information, easily searched, on hundreds of varieties of flowers and vegetables and on lawn care. (February 15, 2002)

Masters' lessons in luxury management include stay at elegant hotel
A group of Cornell hospitality management students said "yes" to a rare opportunity Jan. 2--4: to study with the masters while experiencing luxury service firsthand at one of the most elegant boutique hotels in Beverly Hills. Master Classes, a new series of yearly seminars run by Cornell's School of Hotel Administration, held its first classes -- in luxury brand management -- for students in the Hotel School's Master's of Management in Hospitality (MMH) program. (February 14, 2002)

Comparing ag and industrial runoff between estuaries
HONOLULU -- Although many of the world's major estuaries are polluted, until now there has not been a study that uniformly compares levels of nitrogen, carbon and phosphorus in two separate bodies of water. Environmental biologists have now made it possible to directly compare, for instance, the Chesapeake Bay to the Gulf of Gdansk in Poland. The uniform methodology they have developed to measure the carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus levels -- indicating runoff from industry and agriculture -- in the world's waters will be discussed today (Feb. 13) at the American Geophysical Union Ocean Sciences meeting, at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu. (February 14, 2002)

Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF, delivers Bartels Fellowship Lecture, March 4
Carol Bellamy, executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), will be the 2002 Henry E. and Nancy Horton Bartels World Affairs Fellow at Cornell University, March 4 and 5. Bellamy, who most recently has been working on behalf of UNICEF with the children of war-torn Afghanistan, will present the Bartels Fellowship Lecture Monday, March 4, at 8 p.m. in the Alice Statler Auditorium of Statler Hall on campus. A reception immediately following the lecture will be held in the Statler foyer. (February 14, 2002)

Robert and Helen Appel's gift of $15 million supports second phase of Cornell's Residential Initiative
Cornell University alumni and longtime benefactors Robert J. and Helen H. Appel have committed $15 million to support the second phase of the university's Residential Initiative, a new living and learning environment for upper-level students on West Campus, Cornell President Hunter Rawlings announced recently. The $200 million West Campus initiative, developed through a consultative process involving faculty, students and staff, will build on the successful North Campus project, a living- and learning-based residential community for freshmen that opened last fall. (February 14, 2002)

Leon Anziano '65, former president of Arch Chemicals, to deliver Thorpe Lecture Feb. 21
Leon Anziano, former president and chief executive of Arch Chemicals Inc., will give the eighth Raymond G. Thorpe Lecture in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University, Feb. 21. His talk, "Transforming a Business with Innovation and Empowerment," will be in 155 Olin Hall at 4:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public. Anziano, a 1965 alumnus of Cornell, became a visiting professor in the School of Business at the University of New Haven in 2000 following his retirement as president and chief operating officer of Arch Chemicals. The specialty chemicals concern, with interests in microelectronic chemicals, water chemicals and performance chemicals, was spun off from Olin Corp. in 1999. (February 14, 2002)

Khotso Mokhele of South Africa's National Research Foundation to speak at Cornell Feb. 20
Khotso Mokhele, president of the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa, will give a lecture, "Science, Democracy and Development," at Cornell University on Wednesday, Feb. 20, at 4:30 p.m. in 122 Rockefeller Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public. It is presented as the 2001-02 Nordlander Lecture in Science and Public Policy, sponsored by Cornell's Department of Science and Technology Studies and the vice provost for research. (February 14, 2002)

'Cotton candy' fiber barrier protects crops from pests
The latest in insect control: "cotton candy." One day farmers might exchange pesticides for an industrial grade polymer that looks and acts like cotton candy as a major weapon against onion maggots, cabbage maggots, corn earworms and other agricultural pests. Michael P. Hoffmann, Cornell University professor of entomology and director of the university's New York State Integrated Pest Management program, and his colleagues have been testing nonwoven fiber barriers made of ethylene vinyl acetate, or EVA, as a bug-prevention device. The polymer, identical to the material used in hot-melt glue guns, can be extruded under pressure to form webs that cover plants and appear to ward off agricultural pests. (February 12, 2002)

Johnson School's Maureen O'Hara is first woman to head American Finance Association
Maureen O'Hara, professor of finance at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management, was named president of the American Finance Association this January. O'Hara, who is the Robert W. Purcell Professor of Management at the Johnson School, is the first woman to lead the AFA -- the premier academic organization on financial economics. O'Hara's area of specialty is the microstructure of financial markets. That research area looks at how the structure of securities markets affects the behavior of financial asset prices. O'Hara notes: "While markets such as stock exchanges or futures markets were largely unchanged for 100 or more years, that all changed with the advent of technology and the stock market crash of 1987. The issue has since become not how markets are structured, but how they should be structured." (February 12, 2002)

NSF grant to grow methane-producing microbes in lab
They've been at it for millions of years, but practically nothing is known about wetlands bacteria that turn organic matter into the greenhouse gas, methane. Now a team of Cornell University scientists, aided by a $837,000 Microbial Observatory grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), is going after methane-generating bacteria (called methanogens) and other microbes that help digest dying plants in anaerobic (without oxygen) conditions of bogs and other wetlands -- aiming to bring 'em back alive. (February 12, 2002)

Cornell student is hospitalized with meningococcal disease
A Cornell University student was hospitalized at Cayuga Medical Center Saturday, Feb. 9, with meningococcemia. The student, a 21-year-old female senior, is doing well and is expected to make a full recovery, says Dr. Janet Corson-Rikert, director of Gannett: Cornell University Health Services. (February 10, 2002)

Scrappy cats might just be overly anxious
Maybe cats that pick fights with others aren't naturally nasty. They could be victims of social anxiety, and a medication called clomipramine might restore peace in multi-cat households, according to behavior specialists at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, where a new drug test is about to begin. (February 8, 2002)

Student-built Mars Rover vehicle gets first showing at library Saturday
The Mars Rover will be rolled out for the first time on Saturday in Ithaca. Not the real Mars Exploration Rover (MER), two of which will roam and study the surface of Mars in 2004, but a full-scale replica of a MER and its scientific instruments, made out of wood, plastic and aluminum. (February 8, 2002)

Gulf of Maine marine lab offers educational island getaways for adventurous adults
Weekend getaways at Shoals Marine Laboratory (SML), Cornell University's and University of New Hampshire's seasonal marine field station in the Gulf of Maine, will be offered this summer as part of the laboratory's adult education program. Subjects include island bird study, seascape painting, marine mammal ecology and sea kayaking Fees for the non-credit programs, which begin May 17 with "Island Bird Study" and continue through Sept. 9, with "Paddle to the Sea," range from $300 to $650 per person, double occupancy. Details are available on the Web at or by calling (February 7, 2002)

Statement on the university's commitment to diversity
Cornell University President Hunter Rawlings and Provost Biddy Martin today (Feb. 6, 2002) issued a statement to all students, faculty and staff on the university';s commitment to racial and ethnic diversity. (February 7, 2002)

Florida sheriff's office releases report of Rhodes accident
The Lee County Sheriff's Department in Florida has released the report of the motor vehicle accident in which Cornell University President Emeritus Frank H.T. Rhodes was injured Feb. 3. According to the report, Rhodes was walking across a street at approximately 7:55 a.m. when he was struck by a motor vehicle. The driver left the scene of the accident, but a witness was able to describe the vehicle and give the license plate number to sheriff's deputies when they arrived at the scene. At 8:04 a.m., a Lee County sheriff's deputy put out an alert on the vehicle, which was described as a gray 1988 Ford van. (February 7, 2002)

Cornell officials continue to investigate Jan. 26-27 incidents
Cornell officials are continuing investigations into two incidents that were reported on campus over the weekend of Jan. 26 and 27. In the first incident, a Cornell female undergraduate student of Mexican descent reported that she and a male student were victims of verbal harassment and menacing. She said that on Jan. 26, shortly after 9:30 p.m., she was walking with the other student on East Avenue between Tower Road and the Thurston Avenue bridge when a group of young men in a pickup truck began to follow them and yell ethnic slurs. The student reported that at one point several of the men, who she said were holding sticks or bats, chased her and her friend. They were able to elude the pursuers, she said, by running to North Campus via the Beebe Lake footbridge. (February 6, 2002)

NASA challenges teachers and students to comet contest
NASA's Contour space mission and Cornell University are challenging students and their teachers in the United States to participate in the spacecraft's forthcoming exploration of comets. They are being invited to participate in the Cornell and Contour Comet Challenge, with the grand prize for the winners a trip to Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral Spaceport, Florida, to witness the launch of the spacecraft scheduled for July 1. The NASA mission, ofÞcially the Comet Nucleus Tour, is being managed by the Applied Physics Laboratory at the Johns Hopkins University, with Cornell's Department of Astronomy leading the international science team. (February 5, 2002)

26th Festival of Black Gospel opens Feb. 15 at Statler Auditorium
The Statler Auditorium on campus will host Cornell University's 26th Festival of Black Gospel celebration Friday, Feb. 15, through Sunday, Feb. 17. Featured artists for Friday's opening event are Deitrick Haddon and the Voices of Unity, from Detroit; Sisters and Brothers, from Brooklyn; and the a cappella group Touch from Pompano Beach, Fla. (February 5, 2002)

Dramatic reading of 'The Vagina Monologues' Feb. 14, V-Day speaker Feb. 9
The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler's Obie award-winning play that premiered in 1996 and addresses issues of violence against women, will be read at Cornell University on Valentine's Day. The dramatic reading, by faculty, staff and students, will be Feb. 14 in the Anabel Taylor Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, Feb. 9, Karen Obel, director of the College Campaign for V-Day, the global movement to stop violence against women and girls that includes worldwide benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues, will give a free, public talk at Cornell on "Values-Based Leadership." (February 5, 2002)

Proposals sought for 2002 Smith Award for community progress and innovation projects
The committee for the 2002 Robert S. Smith Award for community progress and innovation is calling for proposals from local organizations and agencies. Proposals are due by April 12. An award of up to $3,500 will be given to a sponsoring program using a Cornell University student or students to help carry out a community development project. Last year, four local organizations shared grants totaling $8,750. (February 5, 2002)

Horses 2002 conference featuring equine educational seminars and clinics April 6-7
Cornell University will host Horses 2002, a two-day conference April 6 and 7, featuring demonstrations, clinics, educational seminars related to equine issues, and speakers, including horse-and-rider relationship expert GaWaNi Pony Boy. Horses 2002 will feature educational presentations by speakers on nutrition and veterinary care of growing and older horses; on horses and parasites; on farrier care; and on horse anatomy for owners. There also will be analyses of barn safety; of manure management; of conflict management; and of preparing for change in the horse industry. The conference also will feature a vendor fair, draft horse wagon rides and equine-related demonstrations. (February 5, 2002)

Cornell President Emeritus Frank Rhodes is injured in accident
Frank H.T. Rhodes, president emeritus of Cornell University, was injured in an automobile accident in Naples, Fla., Sunday (Feb. 3). Rhodes, who is 75, suffered multiple injuries. He is hospitalized and responding well to treatment. Physicians from Weill Cornell Medical College have been in close communication with the attending physicians in Florida. (February 5, 2002)

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