Almanac

(Almanac lists facts, figures and miscellany of campus interest. Know something, or want to know? Call us: 262-3846, or e-mail: wisweek@news.wisc.edu.)

UW fills Peace Corps ranks
Once again, the university is the number one supplier of current Peace Corps volunteers in the nation. UW–Madison currently has 117 alumni serving overseas, according to a survey released recently by the Peace Corps. The University of Colorado at Boulder ranks second with 91 volunteers and the University of Michigan ranks third with 78 volunteers. For the 12th year in a row now, UW–Madison has supplied the most volunteers in the nation to the Peace Corps.

Resources in real time
A new display on the first floor of Science Hall shows what is often invisible in the building: the flow of natural resources. As part of the SHAPE (Science Hall Alternative Practices for the Environment) program, graduate student Jill Baum has mounted a display that includes a “real-time” electric meter, resource flow maps for the entire building, and tables of energy and waste generation rates. There’s also a suggestion box, says Baum, because “the whole point of this display is to be interactive and educational. Active participation raises awareness about how to reduce our collective environmental impact and leads to changes in personal behavior which will conserve resources.”

Recycling guide published
A new guide to recycling and waste disposal services on campus was recently sent to about 400 departmental administrators. The guide features a revised poster and information on new waste battery and ink jet collection programs. Currently UW–Madison recycles more than 30 different materials, diverting nearly one-third of our waste stream from the landfill, or about 3,000 tons annually. For additional guides, contact Daniel Einstein at Environmental Management, 265-3417; daniel.einstein@mail.admin.wisc.edu.

Seminar of the street
Mitchell Duneier, whose recently published study of the lives of impoverished street vendors in New York’s Greenwich Village, “Sidewalk,” has received considerable critical praise, will give a talk entitled, “From the Sidewalk: Some Methodological Issues for the Ethnography of Urban Poverty,” Thursday, Feb. 17, from 12:15-1:30 p.m., 8417 Social Science Building.

Backward glance
From Wisconsin Week, Feb. 7-14, 1990:

• The UW System Board of Regents will keep the Reserve Officer Training Corps on campus but ask Congress to end its discrimination against gay men and lesbians.
• Campus libraries will not lay off permanent staff to deal with a budget shortfall.
• Minority hiring is on track, ethnic studies is now a requirement and minority student retention is improving as a result of the two year-old Madison Plan diversity initiative.

Corrections

• Emeritus professor John Cameron’s studies indicate that people benefit from an annual dose of radiation equivalent to 1,500 to 2,000 chest X-rays each year, about 100 times as much radiation as most of us get naturally. The number of X-rays was incorrectly stated in an item in the Feb. 2 Newsmakers column.
• A photo caption on page 3 of the Feb. 2 issue incorrectly identified a thistle in the Arboretum as a compass plant.