Temple in Brief

Non-cluttered events info at Temple
Today at Temple, kiosks around campus are ending the mess that the round paper kiosks represented.

These new kiosks use touch screen technology to put information at students’ fingertips, quite literally. They currently reside in the Student Center, Tuttleman Learning Center, the IBC Rec Center and Bright Hall, at Ambler.

Available information includes both academic and recreational events for the day, week and month ahead.

Cinema and sports schedules along with academic calendars are all available with just a touch to the screen.

A majority of the information is provided by Student Activities. Because they lack Internet access, linking to organization Web sites isn’t possible.

The kiosks have been a project of Valaida Walker, vice president of Student Affairs. She hopes more will be required on campus, but that depends on student usage.

Acting vice provost of research named
Kenneth J. Soprano has been named acting vice provost of research at the Temple School of Medicine.

Temple Provost Ira Schwartz chose Soprano, a professor of microbiology and immunology, for the purpose of “strengthening the research environment on our campuses.”

With Temple since 1978, Soprano has set major research goals for the University. They include increasing the number of grants Temple receives and helping faculty to better understand and implement regulations on government-funded research.

He is currently working with two grants from the National Institutes of Health that fund his work with uncontrolled growth of ovarian cancer cells and treatment that attacks the genes responsible.

Training sessions for assistants deal with racial backlash
In light of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 and the racial backlash that has followed, Temple has set up a number of teacher assistant training sessions to deal with problems in the classroom.

All faculty are welcome to attend the sessions, which will teach strategies for avoiding misplaced anger and violence in the classroom against people who “appear to be from the Middle East or South Asia.”

Three different organizations are asking universities across the nation to hold these sessions to alleviate growing tensions.

The sessions will take place from Sept. 20-21 on Main Campus.

Correction
In Jeremy Smith’s article “Where’s the beef?: Temple’s newest eats”(Sept. 13, 2001), Sodexho-Marriot was referred to as “the largest institutional shareholder in the Corrections Corporation of America, which makes all of its money by running prisons.” This is old information. Sodexho sold its entire stake in the CCA on June 15, 2001. Click here to access the article.