DT104 advice: Revised farm practices and personal hygiene could slow spread of deadly bacterium
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Hoping to safeguard the health of farm animals and the people who care for them, diagnosticians at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine are urging farm operators to implement management practices aimed at slowing the spread of Salmonella Typhimurium, including the antibiotic-resistant bacterium, Typhimurium DT104. "Salmonella can gain access to the farm via carrier cattle, contaminated feed and water or even from infected wildlife, including birds," said Patrick L. McDonough, a bacteriologist at the Veterinary College's Diagnostic Laboratory. "We see an increased risk of infection in any dairy herd that is buying animals as replacements or that is rapidly expanding, especially when newly added animals are not initially separated from the resident herd and where sick cows are housed near cows that have recently calved. We currently do not know all of the potential risk factors for the contamination of a dairy herd with DT104. DT104-rev.hrs.html (January 29, 1998)

Scaffolding will go up for McGraw Tower restoration project
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Workers will start erecting scaffolding on McGraw Tower at Cornell University next week, beginning a planned, 18-month restoration of the tower's belfry and its most important tenant -- no, not the pumpkin -- the Cornell chimes. The 173-foot clock tower was erected in 1891 to house the original chimes, which were played on the university's first day of operation in 1868 and have been a fixture ever since. After more than a century, the tower is in need of restoration. Mortar and sandstone deteriorate, and, in fact, construction techniques in the 1890s exposed the tower's structure to significant water and wind erosion. McGraw.Tower.html (January 29, 1998)

1997 was the 25th driest and 26th coolest in last 103 years
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Northeast enjoyed warmer-than-normal temperatures during December. Most states averaged temperatures between 1 and 3 degrees warmer than normal. New Hampshire was the exception on the high end, averaging 3.3 degrees warmer than its long-term normal for the month, which is 22.9 degrees. West Virginia, meanwhile, was only one-tenth of a degree warmer than its normal, which is 33.7 degrees. The area-weighted average for the entire region was 2 degrees warmer than normal, with the normal being 27.5 for the month according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. Precipitation was below normal across the Northeast. The only significant area of above normal precipitation was along the New York/New Jersey coast into parts of upstate New York. New Jersey averaged 108 percent of their 30-year mean December precipitation amount (3.67 inches.) The remaining 11 northeast states were drier than normal. Vermont showed the largest deviation from normal with 65 percent of their December monthly average (3.28 inches.) The 12-state region average was 2.78 inches, which is 81 percent of 3.45 inches normal, according to Keith Eggleston, climatologist at the center. NRCC.Dec97-YearEnd.bpf.html (January 29, 1998)

Cornell research is featured on the Science Coalition web site
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University is the featured university until Feb. 1 on the World Wide Web site of the Science Coalition, an organization devoted to calling attention to the benefits of basic research at universities and maintaining public support. The Science Coalition is made up of 416 organizations, institutions and individuals, including 71 universities and 12 scientific societies. Cornell is a member. Science.Coalition.page.bs.html (January 29, 1998)

Former U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford to address Cornell Tradition convocation
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Former U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford will address the Third Annual Cornell Tradition Convocation in David L. Call Alumni Auditorium in Kennedy Hall Feb. 6 at 7:30 p.m. The convocation address will follow an afternoon plenary session with Wofford and student and faculty service leaders, and dinner with student leaders and staff of the Cornell Tradition. Wofford, who helped launch the Peace Corps in 1961 and is currently CEO of the Washington D.C.-based Corporation for National Service, will speak to the convocation on "Answering the Call of Citizenship: Making a Lifelong Commitment to the Service Tradition." Wofford was a Democrat representing Pennsylvania in the Senate from 1991 to 1994. Wofford.pc.html (January 29, 1998)

CCE web site for disaster relief
ITHACA, N.Y. -- To help those affected by the recent ice storm in upstate New York and New England, Cornell Cooperative Extension has set up a World Wide Web site called Disaster Relief Resources. The site is: . DisasterSite.bpf.html (January 28, 1998)

Clark named to Johnson chair in ornithology
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Christopher W. Clark, the engineer-biologist who heads the Bioacoustics Research Program at Cornell University, has been named to the newly established Imogene Powers Johnson Senior Scientist chair at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. Funded by a $2 million endowment from the S.C. Johnson family, the named chair honors a longtime supporter of the laboratory's education and conservation efforts. johnson_chair.hrs.html (January 28, 1998)

Backyard bird count in February
Ithaca, NY -- People across the continent can help make bird-watching history on February 20, 21, and 22 by participating in the first-ever BirdSource Great '98 Backyard Bird Count, cosponsored by the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology (CLO) and the National Audubon Society. backyard.aw.html (January 28, 1998)

Johnson Museum to put collection on the web
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Almost the entire permanent collection -- more than 27,000 objects -- of Cornell University's Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art will be made available for viewing on the World Wide Web over the next two years. "By embracing this technology, we are able to construct a museum without walls, a museum that can be toured by anybody, anywhere in the world," said Franklin W. Robinson, the Richard J. Schwartz Director of the museum. digital_museum.dg.html (January 27, 1998)

Cornell joins in Civil Infrastructure Institute
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced Jan. 19 the formation of the Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems (ICIS), a partnership among New York University, Cornell University, Polytechnic University of New York and the University of Southern California. In forming the institute, the NSF is providing a five-year, $5 million grant to fund the effort. Infrastructure systems provide transportation, water supply, electric power fuel and communications that are critical for modern communities. The institute will link engineering and the applied social sciences to develop better solutions for the myriad of infrastructure problems facing the nation. Infrastructure.bpf.html (January 27, 1998)

Vicki Caron named first Mann Professor
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Vicki Caron, associate professor of history at Cornell University, has been named the Diann G. and Thomas A. Mann Professor of Modern Jewish Studies, effective Feb. 1, 1998. Caron's books, Between France and Germany: The Jews of Alsace-Lorraine, 1871-1918 (Stanford University Press, 1988) and Uneasy Asylum: France and the Jewish Refugee Crisis, 1933-1942 (forthcoming), draw deeply on American and French archival sources and are noted for their interpretative power. Her research has focused on western and central Europe and explores the modern era in France, including government policy, public opinion and French Jewish responses to those policies and opinions. Mann_chair.pc.html (January 27, 1998)

Trustees approve 4.3%endowed tuition hike
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell University Board of Trustees, at its meeting in New York City Saturday, Jan. 24, approved a 1998-99 budget that calls for a 4.3 percent tuition increase for the endowed colleges. The increase is lower than last year's 4.5 percent increase and the lowest since 1965-66, when there was no increase, said Henrik N. Dullea, vice president for university relations. tuition.98.doc.html (January 26, 1998)

Rawlings announces administration changes
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University President Hunter R. Rawlings announced today (Jan. 24, 1998) a series of administrative changes designed to strengthen the primacy of the academic mission of the university and streamline its central reporting structures. The plan calls for the creation of two vice provost positions In addition, the Office of Institutional Planning and Research and the Office of Financial Planning and Budget Management will be merged into a single Office of Budget and Planning. administration.changes.hnd.html (January 24, 1998)

Cornell research fellow at White House
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Nimat Hafez Barazangi, Ph.D. '88, a visiting research fellow in Cornell University's Women's Studies Program, with a focus on self-identity and Muslim women's Islamic higher learning, will be one of the guests at a special reception to be hosted by the first lady at the White House Jan. 29. The reception, "a family celebration with Hillary Rodham Clinton," will take place on the occasion of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr (the end of the fasting month of Ramadan). The invitation was extended mainly to Muslim women leaders in the United States and their families, and it is sponsored jointly with the Muslim Women's League and the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Barazangi.pc.html (January 22, 1998)

Schedule change for Cornell creativity class
ITHACA, N.Y. -- An award-winning playwright, a psychologist interested in memory who helped found the discipline of cognitive psychology and an authority on elephant and whale communication are among the guest speakers in a Monday afternoon lecture series on memory and creativity to be offered this spring at Cornell University. The Feb. 9 and March 30 lectures have been reversed since the original announcement to accommodate the lecturers' schedules. Creativity.pc-fixed.html (January 22, 1998)

Health Awareness Week in February features Jackson Katz
ITHACA, N.Y. -- An address by Jackson Katz, founder and director of MVP Strategies Inc., an organization that provides gender violence prevention training and materials to the U.S. military services, colleges, high schools, law enforcement agencies, community organizations and corporations, will highlight activities during Health Awareness Week on the Cornell University campus Feb. 9 through 13. The 18th annual weeklong campus focus on health issues is planned and implemented by undergraduate clinical volunteers affiliated with Cornell University Health Services. Health.Awareness.Week.sm.html (January 22, 1998)

Marketing professor analyzes Super Bowl ads
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Prestige and worldwide attention, in addition to a desire to increase sales, may be a chief reason to advertise during the Super Bowl, according to a Cornell University professor. Douglas M. Stayman, associate professor of marketing at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management, who annually reviews Super Bowl ads with the school's marketing club, says having one's commercial aired during the Super Bowl scores many prestige points for a corporation. stayman.dg.html (January 22, 1998)

U.S. Sen. Moseley-Braun to address Social Security and pension issues
ITHACA, N.Y. -- U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.) will be the featured speaker at a seminar sponsored by the Institute for Women and Work at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations on "Work & Retirement: The Impact of Changes in Social Security and Pensions in the New Millennium" Jan. 26. The seminar will be held from 8 to 10 a.m. at the Cornell Conference Center, 16 E. 34th St. (between 5th and Madison Avenue). braun.dg.html (January 21, 1998)

Meningococcal disease vaccine is available
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Following the recommendation of the American College Health Association, Cornell University Health Services now provides the meningococcal vaccine to students who want to be vaccinated against the disease. There is evidence that college students, living in close quarters such as residence halls and Greek houses, may have increased risk of contracting meningococcal disease. Investigations of previous college outbreaks suggest that lifestyle behaviors among college students -- such as active and passive smoking, bar patronage and excessive alcohol consumption -- increase the risk of contracting the disease. Meningitis outbreaks tend to peak in late winter and early spring, but can occur anytime when school is in session. meningo.lgk.html (January 20, 1998)

Forum on volunteerism
Research and trends in volunteering will be the subject of the National Forum on Life Cycles and Volunteering: The Impact of Work, Family, and Mid-Life Issues, held April 30 and May 1, 1998 at Cornell University.volunteer.conf.ssl.html (January 20, 1998)

Extraterrestrial cuisine is cooking in Cornell lab
ITHACA, N.Y. -- After months in a space habitat, astronauts on the moon or Mars will have Cornell University to thank if their daily meals are culinary delights. To help NASA plan the cuisine for future lunar and Martian space colonies, a Cornell chef, nutritionist, food and biological engineer and vegetarian cooking teacher are collaborating to develop and test tasty, nutritious and economical recipes that astronauts can prepare from a limited set of 15 to 30 crops to be grown in future space habitats. Wheat and potatoes are the staples to be complemented with rice, soy and peanuts, salad crops and fresh herbs, all to be grown hydroponically in artificially lit, temperature-controlled space farms. nasa.food.ssl.html (January 19, 1998)

National (sleep) debt is killing Americans
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Burdensome though it is, the $5.2 trillion national debt never killed anyone. But the national sleep debt is another story, according to Cornell University psychologist and sleep expert James Maas. One hundred thousand traffic accidents caused by drivers falling asleep claim some 1,500 lives each year in the United States, Maas reports, while sleep deprivation and sleep disorders cost the American economy at least $150 billion a year. Hoping to reach those who missed his award-winning documentaries on public television, the sleep seminars and keynote addresses for corporations or his introductory psychology class at Cornell, Maas has compiled his findings and advice in a new book, Power Sleep (Villard, 1998). The book details the enormous costs to individuals and society of sleep deprivation, then explains the "architecture and functions" of sleep and offers a practical guide to balancing a personal sleep budget while coping with those who can't. sleep_dep.hrs.html (January 19, 1998)

Cornell Campus Store will have its best-seller list on C-SPAN
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell University Campus Store will have its list of top-10 best-selling hardcover non-fiction books aired on C-Span 2 Saturday night, Jan. 17. Between segments of the cable network's program "About Books" each week, two best-seller lists are featured, one from an independent bookstore and one from a newspaper or magazine. This Saturday, in the break between the show's 8 to 9 p.m. and 9 to 10 p.m. segments, the Campus Store will have its list featured, said Emily Gray, general book department manager at the store. Campus.Store.CSpan.sfm.html (January 16, 1998)

North Country farmers need mechanics, farmhands and generators
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell Cooperative Extension in St. Lawrence County, is seeking volunteer mechanics to help repair and keep generators running on dairy farms. northernNYfarmadv.bpf.html (January 16, 1998)

Tiger beetles go blind chasing prey at high speeds
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Reminder to tiger beetles: If you chase prey at high speeds, you'll go blind. Entomologists have long noticed that tiger beetles stop-and-go in their pursuit of prey. But until now, scientists have had no idea why this type of beetle attacks its food in fits and starts. TigerBeetle.bpf.html (January 16, 1998)

Student-led Academic Excellence Workshops revolutionize teaching
ITHACA, N.Y. -- A quiet revolution has been taking place in the Cornell University College of Engineering, and it has wrought significant change in the most fundamental fabric of the college -- the way undergraduate students learn. The revolution is being waged in the freshman trenches through what are called Academic Excellence Workshops (AEWs). The real ammunition being used in the AEWs is what is still a relatively new approach on university campuses: "collaborative learning." AEW.jkp.html (January 15, 1998)

Cornell English course explores memory and creativity across disciplines
ITHACA, N.Y. -- An award-winning playwright, a psychologist interested in memory who helped found the discipline of cognitive psychology and an authority on elephant and whale communication are among the guest speakers in a Monday afternoon lecture series on memory and creativity to be offered this spring at Cornell University. The lectures, which are free and open to the public, are part of an English department undergraduate course, "Mind and Memory: Explorations of Creativity in the Arts and Sciences," co-directed by Diane Ackerman and James McConkey. Ackerman is a well-known poet and naturalist, the author of A Natural History of the Senses. McConkey is a novelist and essayist, author of Court of Memory, and the Goldwin Smith Professor of English Emeritus at Cornell. Creativity.pc.html (January 15, 1998)

Generators for dairy farms in northern New York are still needed,
ITHACA, N.Y. -- A few hundred more generators are needed to help dairy farmers in northern New York in the wake of the recent ice storm, Cornell Cooperative Extension officials say. "Helping dairy farms is a top priority," said Edward Harwood of Cornell Cooperative Extension in Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Harwood said that minimum 25-kilowatt, single-phase generators are needed most urgently. Generate.bpf.html (January 15, 1998)

Cornell trustees to meet in New York City Jan. 22 through 24
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell University Board of Trustees will hold its first meeting of 1998 at the Cornell Medical College in New York City Jan. 22 through 24. The full board will meet briefly in open session at 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 24, in the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Education Center in the medical college's Harkness Medical Research Building, 1300 York Ave. Among topics of discussion will be a report from President Hunter Rawlings. The board is expected to approve 1998-99 tuition rates for the endowed colleges. trustadv.jkp.html (January 15, 1998)

Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration is at GIAC Jan. 19
ITHACA, N.Y. -- There will be a community program to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC), 318 N. Albany St., Monday, Jan. 19 -- Martin Luther King Day -- from 1:30 to 7 p.m. The theme for this year's day of activities and reflection is "Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters and Righteousness Like a Mighty Stream." It is free and open to all. The program will begin with four hours of activities, including percussion, storytelling, poetry, beadmaking, an elders speak-out and a youth speak-out. The final part of the program will be a free dinner with a keynote speaker and entertainment. MLK.sfm.html (January 14, 1998)

Cornell Professor Roald Hoffmann named one of the top chemists
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell Professor Roald Hoffmann has been included among the top 75 chemists of the past 75 years in a special issue of Chemical & Engineering News, published Jan. 12. The late Peter Joseph William Debye, Cornell chemistry department chair in the 1940s, also was named to the list. Chemical & Engineering News is the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. The magazine is distributed to all 155,000 chemists and chemical engineers who are society members. The list of the "top 75 distinguished contributors to the chemical enterprise" was compiled based on voting by the magazine's readers. Roald.Hoffmann.pc.html (January 14, 1998)

Cornell budget will include significant boost to staff salaries in 1998
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University officials are planning a two-step program to improve staff compensation significantly. Phase one, effective Jan. 29, 1998, raises the minimum hiring rates 8 to 14 percent. Staff whose salaries currently fall below these new minima will receive salary adjustments in February to bring them up to the new minima. Phase two, effective in July 1998, provides an enhanced pay-for-performance salary improvement program in the endowed colleges. As in the past, the baseline endowed Salary Improvement Program (SIP) will reward satisfactory performance at or above the rate of inflation (approximately 2 percent in 1997). An additional component amounting to approximately $4 million will be targeted toward rewarding superior performance and for equity adjustments. salary.improv.jkp.html (January 14, 1998)

United Way campus campaign exceeds its goal before the holiday break
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University employees and retirees have pledged $492,000 for the campus portion of the 1997 campaign for United Way of Tompkins County, exceeding the campus goal. In addition, the countywide campaign exceeded its $1.46 million goal. The good news came just before the holiday break in December, said Janiece Bacon Oblak, assistant dean of admissions and financial aid and chair of the campus campaign. United.Way.html (January 14, 1998)

Cornell engineer Iain Boyd wins young-researcher award in aeronautics
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Iain D. Boyd, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University, has been selected to receive the 1998 Lawrence Sperry Award of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Conferred annually on a researcher under the age of 35 who is judged to have made the most outstanding contributions to aerospace sciences, the AIAA's Sperry Award will be presented to Boyd at the 36th Aerospace Sciences Meeting Jan. 12-15 in Reno, Nev. The AIAA is the largest professional technical society and information resource devoted to progress of engineering and science in aviation and space. Boydprize.hrs.html (January 12, 1998)

Cornell animal scientist denounces human cloning
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Following the media uproar over a scientist in Illinois who says he will try to begin human cloning soon, a Cornell University professor participated in an Internet discussion Wednesday (Jan. 7) to debunk and denounce the effort. Robert H. Foote, Cornell professor emeritus of animal science and biology, appeared as a special guest on ABCNews.Com's nightly Internet chat. He also appeared on CNBC television, BBC radio and a live morning news program, Canada AM, on Canadian Television (CTV). cloning.bpf.html (January 12, 1998)

Alfred E. Kahn is honored by Aviation Week publishers
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University Professor Emeritus Alfred E. Kahn is the recipient of the 1997 Welch Pogue Award. The award, presented by Aviation Week Group, publishers of Aviation Week & Space Technology,, honors a visionary and prominent leader's lifetime contributions to aviation. The award is named for the former chairman of the Civil Aviation Board who was a U.S. delegate to the Chicago Convention in 1944, which created the blueprint for post-World War II expansion of commercial aviation. Kahn_award.dg.html (January 12, 1998)

Overweight mothers have less success breast-feeding
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Overweight and obese women have significantly less success breast-feeding their babies than their normal-weight counterparts, according to a new Cornell University/Bassett Hospital study, and biological factors largely may be why. And the heavier the mother, the researchers found, the less successful she was at initiating and maintaining breast-feeding. obesity.breastfeeding.ssl.html (January 12, 1998)

Advice for the First Pup
ITHACA, N.Y. -- As Buddy, the new First Pup in the White House, becomes more oval and Socks recoils in horror, Cornell University veterinarians have some unsolicited advice for the Clintons: Avoid overfeeding and overexercising Buddy, and give the First Cat a "dog-free zone." "A Labrador retriever's bones are not mature until they reach 8 to 10 months of age, so you don't want to overexercise or overfeed a developmentally immature dog," said Rory Todhunter, assistant professor of surgery at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine. buddy.bpf.hrs.html (January 8, 1998)

Why refugees sell food.
ITHACA, N.Y. -- When refugees sell or barter food, it's not always an indication that they've been given too much food relief, as donors assume, but because they are desperate to obtain different food, such as salt, necessary for survival. In fact, in a new Cornell University study published in the Jan. 10, 1998, issue of The Lancet, researchers found that the poorest refugees who had the worst diets were twice as likely to sell or barter food as other families. food.refugees.ssl.html (January 8, 1998)

ACS aids Cornell Vet School cancer research
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Researchers studying the causes of cancer at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine will be aided by grants from the American Cancer Society (ACS). Robert E. Oswald, professor of pharmacology, received $166,000 in ACS funds for a two-year study, "Structure and Regulation of Cdc42Hs," while James W. Casey, associate professor of microbiology and immunology, was granted $90,000 for a two-year continuation of his study, "Development and Regression of a Retroviral Induced Sarcoma." ACSgrants.hrs.html (January 7, 1998)

Vegetarian Diet Pyramid released
ITHACA, N.Y. -- To offer a healthful alternative to the 1992 U.S. Food Guide Pyramid, which lumps some animal and plant foods together in a single group, Cornell University and Harvard University researchers have teamed up with other experts to assist the non-profit foundation Oldways Preservation & Exchange Trust in unveiling an official Vegetarian Diet Pyramid. The food recommendation pyramid, released at the three-day International Conference on Vegetarian Diets held in Austin, Texas in November, is intended to publicize the well-balanced ovo-lacto vegetarian diet of healthy vegetarian people of many cultures, which research has increasingly shown to be linked to much lower rates of certain cancers, heart disease, obesity and, in some cases, osteoporosis and other chronic, degenerative diseases found in the United States. vegetarian.pyramid.ssl.html (January 7, 1998)

Jean McKelvey dies
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Jean McKelvey, the first faculty member of Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the first woman to serve as president of the National Academy of Arbitrators, died Jan. 5 in Rochester, N.Y. She was 89. mckelvey_obit.dg.html (January 6, 1998)