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.

How we stack up
The university heads a national list of institutions recognized for efforts to create a “disability-friendly” atmosphere for their students, visitors and staff. WE magazine (July-August 1999, page 91) cites UW–Madison for “superior services and facilities (paratransit vans, accessible and well-lit lecture halls, TDD pay phones), avid students in the School of Engineering (who) have designated assistive listening devices for fellow students in the community, home to the McBurney Disability Resource Center.”

How we don’t stack up
The university, once the nation’s No. 2 “party school” as ranked by the Princeton Review, didn’t even crack the top 10 this year. Florida universities rule the top two spots.

Help for tech problems
Reading the paper because your computer crashed again? The Division of Information Technology now answers to your computing questions four ways:

http://www.wisc.edu/helpdesk/ offers online assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can search the DoIT knowledge base for solutions.
E-mail help@doit.wisc.edu. Someone will get back to you by the next weekday.
Walk over to 1210 W. Dayton St., where the techies work.
Call 264-HELP anytime with questions about e-mail, Internet access, modems, getting connected and using your computers. But be aware that DoIT gets up to 1,000 calls a day in September, so you might want to try an alternate method first.

Mark your calendars
Run, don’t walk, to register for the Homecoming Charity 5K Run/3K Walk set for Sunday, Oct. 10, at noon, starting on Library Mall. The entry fee is $12 until Friday, Oct. 1, and $15 from Oct. 1 to the day of the event. A T-shirt is guaranteed with pre-registration. For information or an entry form, call 265-2731 or stop in at the Below Alumni Center, 650 N. Lake St. All proceeds from Homecoming events go to the Dean of Students Crisis Fund.

Did you know?
Youngblood, Room 302, Union South, is the only permanent Red Cross blood donation center on any campus in the country. The All-Campus Blood Drive runs Thursdays and Fridays while classes are in session, from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Jennifer Suemnicht, donor recruitment representative, says about 3,000 blood donations are given at the campus center each year. Red blood cells only last 42 days and platelets only five days, so the Red Cross needs a constant flow of blood donors to ensure the availability of life-giving fluids to hospital patients. Appointments: 227-1357.

Backward glance
From Wisconsin Week, Sept. 13, 1989: Scholars Ted Finman and Gordon Baldwin say new UW System student conduct rules present no threat to free speech because the rules focus on behavior, not talk. … Distance education gets a boost with the debut of a satellite system that will link students and Uw Extension instructors. … In her State of the University speech, Chancellor Donna Shalala says research into bovine growth hormone has been caught up in a “web of political, economic and social controversy,” but says only further research will prove its feasibility.

Quotable
“There are lots of implications.”

Richard Weindruch, professor of medicine, on research that identifies specific genetic changes in the aging process.