CDes MEMO Archives

A bi-weekly electronic newsletter for the faculty and staff of the College of Design.

The deadline for submissions is noon on Wednesday prior to Thursday of publication. Send submissions to Michael Fraase <mfraase@umn.edu>. The next issue comes out September 28.

Read CDes Memo online on the College of Design Web site.

October 12 , 2006

Editor: Michael Fraase <mfraase@umn.edu>

Coming up

The Metropolitan Design Center is pleased to announce two fall workshops which are part of a collaboration with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.

October 26 -- Comprehensive Planning for Healthy Cities & Communities focuses on how to integrate health into comprehensive planning by looking at a range of issues like air quality, physical activity, and mental health. The event features Marya Morris from the American Planning Association and Matt Raimi, a lead consultant who helped developed LEED-ND. Details, schedule, maps, and registration are available online.
November 6 -- Safety and Public Spaces features Australian consultant Wendy Sarkissian and Kristen Day from the University of California-Irvine, who are experts on crime prevention in public spaces. They will examine the potential and limitations for crime prevention through environmental design. Details are available online.

Through November 4 -- Passion & Portraits extended
Barbara Porwit, administrator of the Goldstein Museum of Design, has drawings and paintings on display at Lake Harriet Community Church, Linden Hills. The show's run has been extended through November 4. Lake Harriet Spiritual Community, 4401 Upton Avenue South, Minneapolis.

Monday - Friday 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Sunday 10 a.m. - noon. and by appointment
Closing reception and dance party: Saturday, November 4, 6 - 11 p.m. (refreshments, psychic readings, free dance lessons, and an art raffle)

News and announcements

Want to stay in touch with important CDes announcements? Consider setting your Web browser's home page to the College of Design Announcements page. Updated frequently, this page has timely information that didn't make the CDes Memo deadline.

Minnesota charities count on U
The University's 2006 Community Fund Drive gives employees an opportunity to support social services, education, arts, health, the environment, and much more right in our own community. The Community Fund Drive is one of the most visible ways the University shows its support for the community that supports us. This year the University is aiming to raise $1.2 million for the community organizations and encourages at least one-third of employees to make pledges to the drive. The Community Fund Drive continues through Tuesday, Oct. 31. For more information or to pledge online, visit the Community Fund Drive Web site.

University library publication
The University library has just released a new publication, "Improving Student Research, A Faculty/Instructor Guide 2006-07." The guide is meant to help instructors understand library resources that can help their students on research projects and assignments. If you would prefer hard copies, contact Jerlyn Veldof at jveldof@umn.edu.

Open Enrollment begins soon
Your annual opportunity to review your benefits and make changes runs November 1 - 30. This year you can switch medical and dental plans, and this is also the time to elect a flexible spending account for 2007. Medical and dental plan rates, plan changes, benefits fairs, and other enrollment news will be posted on the Office of Human Resources employee benefits page soon. Open Enrollment materials will be sent in late October.

SSL and sabbatical application deadline
The deadline for submission of single semester leave (SSL) and sabbatical applications from tenured and tenure-track faculty for 2007-08 is November 10, 2006. Questions? Contact Jan Batt, human resources director, at 4-0788 or jbatt@umn.edu.

CDes magazine
Emerging will be the name of the interim College of Design magazine. Edited and produced by the Communications Office, two issues will be published this year, arriving in 20,000 mailboxes at the end of fall and spring semesters. The first issue's focus will be an introduction to the new college from a variety of angles.

Web and multimedia technical support supervisor open forum
You are invited to come and meet Theresa Tichich, Web and multimedia technical support supervisor candidate, during an open forum on Friday, October 13 at 10 a.m. in 225 Rapson Hall. She will be giving a short 5 - 10 minute presentation, followed by a question-and-answer session.

Let the conversation continue -- the CDes Wiki is online
Notes from the August 30 college retreat are now posted on the CDes Wiki. To read the comments and add your own, click on Recommendations from the Fall 2006 Faculty and Staff Retreat. A quick guide to using the CDes Wiki is posted right below. As Dean Fisher announced in his September letter, a Wiki allows users, whether at the retreat or not, to edit or elaborate on comments. Only CDes faculty and staff can enter the site, though the site tracks publicly everyone who adds comments, so be aware of that. We will keep this up for some time, and will eventually "freeze it," so that we can begin to summarize and use the material to help guide us on next steps.

CDes in the media

The following CDes activities and expertise have been promoted through the CDes Communications Office and University News Service recently. (Other projects are in the works.) Contact Laura Weber, communications director, at l-webe@umn.edu if you have news to promote through the media.

Caren Martin (DHA) "U of M interior design students to unveil solutions for University Northside Partnership office space."

Kate Daly (DHA) "U of M student design plays off of TV hit ‘Project Runway’ during contest Thursday." KARE-11 covered this event on their 6 p.m. news Oct. 5 and Kate Daly is going to be interviewed for a U of M Moment (audio programs produced for distribution to radio stations).

Pat Nunnally (Metro Design Center) "Community members sought for Mississippi River Initiative to create site redesign ideas." Pat Nunnally is also featured on a U of M Moment (also on front page of CDes Web site).

Steven McCarthy (DHA) discussed the persuasive power of color in political campaign signs on WCCO-Radio’s Dave Lee Show Oct. 10, at 6:10 a.m.

Congratulations and kudos

Barbara Martinson (DHA) received a first place award for "Clandestine Incantations" at the 2006 Minnesota State Fair fine arts exhibition.

Clothing design students swept all three awards in the 2006 Safety Products Student Design Challenge sponsored by the Safety and Protective Products Division of the Industrial Fabrics Association International. The Safety and Protective Products Division represents companies that manufacture and/or supply products to the safety and protective industry. The competition is open to college students world-wide. The products entered in the competition were developed in the Functional Clothing Design course taught by Karen LaBat. Students worked with HDM, Inc. of Saint Paul to design new products using HDM’s patented puncture-resistant fabrics, SuperFabric™. The third place award went to the team of Laura Domholt, Chau Luong, and Jenny Olson for design of "Rock Climbing Pants." The team of Alyssa Cogan, Dan Roedler, and Lisa Venne won the second place award for design of the "K-9 Bullet-Resistant Vest." The first place award winners were Stephanie Amann, Theresa Lastovich, and Angela Martin for the design of "Smart Roofing Pants." All teams and the Clothing Design Program will receive cash awards. The first place team also receives an all-expense paid trip to the annual Industrial Fabrics Association Conference and Expo held in Atlanta, GA, October 31 - November 3.

Twelve teams of retail merchandising students competed last Thursday for their designs to appear in Bachman's Holiday Atrium. Judges, including Bachman's employees as well as outside experts, chose winning entries based on sketches from six finalist teams. The six finalist teams will each be given a $250 budget to design and create a dress. The students have been told "the final design should be over the top," said Kate Daly, the university research associate directing the project, "yet also have a sense of believability and actuality that someone could wear it." Bachman's customers will vote on their favorite display and the winning team members will receive a prize of $200 each. The six non-finalist teams will continue to work on Bachman's displays throughout the metro area.

Sauman "Sue" Chu (DHA) has been selected as one of the Innovation Fellows in Technology ("iFellows") by the Office of Information of Technology for the year of 2006-07. This is the inaugural year of the program.

William J. Angell (DHA) received confirmation from the University's Office of Sponsored Programs of receipt of a $200,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for various radon training initiatives. Angell is the principal investigator for the project which involves Auburn University, the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, Kansas State University, and Rutgers University. Angell is director of an EPA-founded regional radon training center, the Midwest Universities Radon Consortium, serving the North Central region of the United States.

Joanne B. Eicher (DHA) has been appointed to the International Scholarship Advisory committee. She is serving on the subcommittee for fellowships. Look for information on funding opportunities from this committee in November 2006.

Karen LaBat (DHA) has been selected to serve as a scientific excellence advisor for the National Textile Center (NTC) for a second year. She will review approximately 40 research proposals for the NTC and be responsible as primary evaluator for managing 10 proposals this year. The National Textile Center is a research consortium of eight universities with collaborative research funded by the federal government.

Publications

Barbara Martinson (DHA) and Sauman Chu (DHA) have a chapter in Designing Effective Communications: Creating Contexts for Clarity and Meaning (2006, Allworth Press) edited by Jorge Frascara. Their study, "Cross Cultural Comparison on Attributing Meaning to Corporate Logos," examines the meaning of abstract symbols in the United States and Hong Kong.

In early September, Julia Williams Robinson (Architecture) attended the Environment, Health, and Sustainable Environment conference in Alexandria, Egypt, sponsored by the International Association for People-Environment Studies (IAPS). Robinson presented two papers which will be published in separate proceedings. "Domesticity to Oppression: Values & Appropriate Housing Design" is already published (Shehayeb, D., H. R. Yildiz and P. Kellett, 'Appropriate Home': Can we design 'appropriate' residential environments?, Cairo, Egypt: HBNRC, Housing and Building National Research Centre, 2006: 1-8). "Landmarks in an architectural research trajectory: Degrees of Institutionality," will be published with the IAPS conference proceedings.

The College of Design's commitment to historic preservation is featured in a short article by Laura Weber (Communications) in the latest issue of AIA Preservation Architect: The Newsletter of the Historic Resources Committee. The AIA Historic Resources committee meets in the Twin Cities Nov. 17 - 19, 2006.

Transitions

Rachel Iannacone (Architecture), currently teaching at Ithaca College, joined the faculty as a visiting assistant professor teaching history lectures and seminars for the next academic year.

Tara Faricy has joined the CDes IT department. Faricy started on October 9 and is located in 32 McNeal on the Saint Paul campus. She will be providing desktop support and brings extensive experience from private industry with her to the college. She is also a part-time student at the University, so she is familiar with the campus and the many things that make us unique.

Colophon

CDes Memo is published by the College of Design at the University of Minnesota bi-weekly, every other Thursday, September through May, on the Web. Please send comments, questions, or submissions to Michael Fraase <mfraase@umn.edu>.

Submissions are due by noon Wednesday prior to Thursday publication. Fall semester publication dates are: September 14, September 28, October 12, October 26, November 9, November 22 (Wednesday because of Thanksgiving; submissions due by noon Tuesday), December 7.

This e-mail was sent by: University of Minnesota, College of Design. 32 McNeal Hall, 1985 Buford Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55108, USA.