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.)

Correction
A Web address for the Council for Non-Represented Classified Staff was incorrect in the Oct. 24 issue of Wisconsin Week. The correct URL is: http://www.news.wisc.edu/anthrax/

Arts administrators go online
Students, active professionals and alumni now have a new online discussion tool in the form of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration’s IdeaPortal. IdeaPortal is up and running. Visit: http://www.bolzcenter.org/portal/. More information about the Bolz Center: 263-4161, ataylor@bus.wisc.edu.

Film festival gets major grant
The Wisconsin Film Festival planned April 4-7 has received a $10,000 grant from the Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The Wisconsin Film Festival, a public program of the UW–Madison Arts Institute, was one of 14 festivals nationwide chosen by the Academy Foundation to receive grants for calendar year 2002 programming. The Wisconsin Film Festival is Wisconsin’s premier independent film event and only major film festival. The four-day festival takes place each spring in Madison in UW–Madison campus and downtown venues. In 2001, the third annual festival featured 110 films from 21 countries, 60 local and visiting filmmakers and speakers, and had ticket sales of more than14,000.

Mansoor dies at 90
Professor Menahem Mansoor, 90, who founded the Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies at UW–Madison in 1952, died Oct. 21 of cancer. Mansoor retired in 1982 but continued to give lectures and write. His accomplishments include two books of aphorisms and a 7,300-page documentary study of diplomacy and politics in the Arab world from 1900 to 1967. Mansoor was also well-known for his annual tours to Greece, Italy and Israel that brought together people from numerous religious backgrounds.

Robinson dies at 78
John Robinson, 78, a zoology professor emeritus whose research on human evolution ushered in a modern era of anthropology, died Oct. 12. A native of South Africa and a zoologist by training, Robinson spent decades in South Africa’s Transvaal Region uncovering hundreds of fossils that helped pinpoint and date the origin of the human race. Robinson, along with his mentor Robert Broom, discovered specimens of early human ancestors more than 2 million years old. Some fossils provided the very first evidence of man’s primitive beginnings.

Memorials may be sent to HospiceCare Inc., 5395 E. Cheryl Parkway, Madison, WI 53711 or to St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church, 6205 University Ave., Madison, WI 53705.

Backward glance
From Wisconsin Week, Nov. 6, 1991: Faculty and staff leaders urge the UW System Board of Regents to rewrite a student code of conduct to allow discipline for racist or discriminatory behavior. … The chancellor and researchers meet on ways to deal with new federal rules for charging off indirect costs of research. … James Hoyt, journalism professor, is named Athletic Board chair. … The regents ask the state to reconsider investments in South Africa, possibly ending a ban since 1977. Chancellor Donna Shalala objects to the move.