This Week @ AU

A group of Auburn University students is coordinating a dinner, “ A Meal to Heal for Haiti,” in support of the Lee County chapter of the American Red Cross to help in the Haiti relief efforts. The dinner will be held Feb. 1 in the Student Center ballroom. A home-cooked dinner is being prepared courtesy of Pannie George’s, a local Auburn business.  Only 2,000 meals are being prepared. Tickets for the meal are $5, with all proceeds going to the American Red Cross’ International Relief Fund in support of disasters like the recent earthquakes in Haiti. Due to the high volume of expected ticket sales and limited seating, the event will occur in one night at four separate seating times. There will be 500 tickets sold for each meal time. The meal times are 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.; 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.; and 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets are expected to sell out, so students, faculty and the community are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance. You may purchase tickets online at this link.  Members will be selling tickets throughout the Auburn campus beginning Thursday, Jan. 21. Organizations eligible for spirit points will receive three spirit points for each ticket sold. If you are interested in volunteering or making a contribution for “A Meal to Heal for Haiti,” contact Nicole Nero at nicole@auburn.edu or by calling 749-9981.

The Committee of 19, Auburn University's student leadership group for the War on Hunger, is donating $15,000 to the United Nations World Food Programme for Haiti relief. The money was collected over the past 18 months through various fundraisers by Auburn's individual schools, colleges and organizations, as well as campus-wide activities. The World Food Programme, or WFP, is the largest humanitarian agency in the world, feeding on average over 90 million people in 82 countries annually. As a first responder in the current crisis, WFP is attempting to bring weekly rations to more than 2 million people in Haiti over the next few weeks. The latest donation by the Committee of 19 brings the total amount contributed to WFP as a result of the Auburn University War on Hunger to $45,000. The entire news release can be read at this link. For more information on the War on Hunger student campaign, go to this link.

A test of the AU ALERT emergency notification system will be conducted at 12:50 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 27. The test will not take place if there is an actual emergency or threat of severe weather. The test message will be sent to all contact numbers that are registered with the system. Students who have registered contact information for their parents are encouraged to let their parents know about the scheduled test. To register or update your contact information, log on to AU Access and go to the AU ALERT link on the Campus Life tab. The information you supply is considered confidential and will not be shared or used for other purposes. You will only be contacted through the system in the event of an emergency or periodic system test. Any questions, comments or concerns should be sent to aualert@auburn.edu.

Aubie was invited to compete in the Cheerleading and Dance Team National Championship in Orlando, Jan. 15, and placed second in the Mascot National Championship, behind University of Colorado's Bolder Chip. A video of the competition can be viewed at this link.

Watch 14 beautiful and talented contestants compete for the title of Miss Auburn University 2010 on Friday, Jan. 29, at 7:30 p.m.  in the Student Activities Center. You can purchase your boarding pass for $5 at the door or by contacting the Auburn University Student Government Association at 844-4240.

Spring O-Days are on Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 26- 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The theme this year is "Rock and Roll with Organizations!" O-Days exhibits are located on the second floor of the Student Center near the Foy Desk. O-Days are for students who want to learn about different organizations on campus and for organizations to promote themselves to potential new members.

This February, almost 4,000 Auburn students in 30 residence halls will compete in this year's Sustain-A-Bowl Championship, Auburn's annual resource competition. Beginning on Feb. 1 and ending four weeks later on Feb. 28, Sustain-A-Bowl will put halls against one another to see which is the most sustainable.  The competition challenges residents to reduce their electricity, water and waste and increase their recycling over the course of the four weeks and to live more sustainably as a community. But the competition is not just about using less, it is also about learning more. It is not just about turning off your Wii at night and taking shorter showers, it is also about knowledge and participation. Throughout the month of February, residents and Residence Life staff can earn points for their halls by participating in events that promote the competition and educate other residents about sustainable living. For a complete list of events see this link.

Also starting Feb. 1 is RecycleMania, a national competition for college campuses to minimize waste and increase recycling.  Last year during Sustain-A-Bowl, students managed to save $5,506 in electricity and $2,785 in water, for  a total of $8,291 over the course of the month. Over the last four years the Auburn campus has recycled thousands of tons of materials that would otherwise have gone to the landfill. This event is being hosted by Residence Life with the help of all their staff and the Eco-Reps, the Office of Sustainability and its interns,  the Auburn Recycling Program and Ken Martin and Rob Rodiek in Facilities.  For more information e-mail sustain@auburn.edu or visit this link.

What does the Chia Pet have to do with sustainable living? Can grain crops be an art form? Jeff Schmuki, visiting artist in the Auburn University Department of Art, challenges viewers both to confront and to collaborate on these and other issues in “agritecture.” Schmuki’s exhibit is on display through Feb. 26 in 101 Biggin Hall.
Schmuki received his master of fine arts degree from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and his bachelor’s degree from Northern Arizona University. His approach combines environmental, social, economic and aesthetic concerns with a nomadic sensibility developed after Hurricane Katrina. Whimsically functional yet serious hydroponic plant growth systems such as mobile garden machines, botanic "enhancements" and "portable fields" often begin as a response to a specific place and are fashioned to mutate and adapt to new situations and environments along the way. Schmuki often encourages the audience to consider art-making a collaborative research laboratory, empowering the community and promoting a more accountable use of natural resources.

Auburn University students won a competition Friday, Jan. 15,  for the design of a pedestrian bridge that Volkswagen Group of America will build as part of its new assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. Of eight awards given, Auburn Design-Build students won four.  Volkswagen announced the winners at the Hunter Museum in Chattanooga. Auburn’s first-place team received $2,500.

The first spring meeting of the Philosophy Club's series "Philosophy at the Gnu's Room" will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 27, at 5 p.m. The location will be the Gnu's Room cafe at the intersection of Gay Street and Samford Avenue. The topic of this meeting will be "The Problem of Evil." The meeting will start with short presentations by the panelists (students and faculty members from the Department of Philosophy in the College of Liberal Arts) and will continue and end with an open discussion.  The event is free and open to the public. Before the meeting, the Philosophy Club will have a special bake sale outside of the Gnu's Room cafe.

An informational session about Teach For America will be held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26, in 2225 Student Center. Teach For America has more than 14,000 individuals of all academic backgrounds and professional ambitions who have impacted the lives of nearly 3 million students across the country. The application deadline is Feb. 19. No previous education experience or coursework necessary. Students of all majors are welcome. To learn more, visit this link or contact Davey Richerson at Davey.Richerson@teachforamerica.org.

The humanities in today’s world will be the topic of a panel discussion on Thursday, Jan. 28, at 3 p.m. at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art. “Beyond the Rhetoric of Crisis – Strategies for Future Success in the Humanities” will be presented by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University. The presentation will feature Gregg Lambert, founding director of the Syracuse University Humanities Center, and Corri Zoli, a humanities research and grants consultant at Syracuse. It will address current challenges as well as changes in the historical humanities and the traditional disciplines. The panel discussion is open to the public and is the first in a series of presentations leading up to a campus- and community-wide focus on the arts and humanities in the fall of 2010. For more information contact Jay Lamar, director, Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities, at lamarja@auburn.edu or  844-4946. Read the complete story at this link.

Brian Selmeski, a scholar at the Air Force Culture and Language Center at Air University Maxwell Air Force Base, will be giving a presentation, "Cross-Cultural Competence and U.S. Air Force Education," at the monthly meeting of the China India Interest Group at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28, in 1103 Shelby Center for Engineering Technology. The Air Force Culture and Language Center is an interdisciplinary academic unit responsible for cross-cultural competency educational, training and research at Air University. This group prepares military and nonmilitary individuals and organizations for international exchanges and collaborations through negotiation, building relationships and communicating across cultural differences and tailoring these general knowledge and skills to particular geographical or regional contexts. The China India Interest Group includes members of the Auburn campus interested in connecting Auburn University with communities and educational institutions in China and India and developing research, instructional and enterprise collaborations in these regions. If interested in joining the group, contact swamipm@auburn.edu or barthjr@auburn.edu

Book artist Steve Miller will present "The Alabama-Cuba Connection: Collaboration in the Art of the Book" on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at 4 p.m. at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art. Miller teaches letterpress printing and hand papermaking at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Although, his primary focus is the teaching of traditional bookmaking, he is also the proprietor of Red Hydra Press. His current work revolves largely around ongoing collaborative book projects with Cuban print and papermakers. This lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Colleen Bourdeau at  cbourdeau@auburn.edu or 844-7075.

Students are invited to join the Auburn Alumni Association and AESU Alumni World Travel Tuesday, Jan. 26, at 5 p.m.  in the Auburn Alumni Center for free pizza and a visual presentation on Auburn's Classic Europe Graduation Tour in May. For a detailed itinerary or more information see this link or this link. The Auburn Alumni Center is located at 317 S. College St. Please RSVP by e-mail to wareagletravelers@auburn.edu and bring a friend.

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Auburn University, OLLI at Auburn, will host a brown bag lunch meeting featuring Mary Carol Moran, who will discuss her new book,  "Equivocal Blessing," on Tuesday, Jan. 26, from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. at the Lexington Hotel, 1577 S. College St.  Moran is also a poet, an instructor for OLLI at Auburn and a certified yoga instructor and therapist. All interested people are invited to bring a lunch and attend the talk. For more information, contact Linda Shook, OLLI at Auburn coordinator, at 844-5100 or olli@auburn.edu, or visit the OLLI at Auburn Web site.

The Graduate Student Council is presenting a competition for graduate students to submit research in several categories. Poster presentation categories are design, science and engineering.  Oral presentation categories are design, science, engineering and humanities. Proposals for poster and oral presentations can be submitted online at this link.  Submissions are due by Feb. 12. Monetary awards will be given in each category and presented at the Graduate School Forum Saturday, March 6, at Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art.

The annual Springer Yellow Sale of math books at the Auburn University Bookstore in Haley Center is ending. From Monday, Jan. 25, to Friday, Feb. 5, the remaining books will be reduced 30 percent less than the sticker price.  For more information contact Margaret Hendricks at 844-1365.

The Debi LeGette Memorial 5k Walk/Run for the Cure will be held on campus Feb. 7 at 10 a.m. in honor of Debi LeGette who died Aug. 24 of sarcoma, a very rare and aggressive form of cancer.  Donations and an early registration fee of $15 can be paid online at this link. All proceeds of the charity footrace will go to the Sarcoma Foundation of America. For more information, e-mail Taylor LeGette at tcl0003@auburn.edu or Norine Spencer at dashfordeb@yahoo.com.

The Diversity and Tolerance Organization is offering free Turkish language classes to all interested students, faculty and staff. Classes meet once a week in the Student Center. Class schedules are flexible in order to satisfy the attendees' needs. For additional information or if anyone is interested in attending classes, e-mail dto@auburn.edu .

The first Green Lunch of 2010 will be on Wednesday, Jan. 27, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. in room 2218 in the Student Center. The guest speaker is John  Ackerman, assistant professor of national and international security studies, Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell Air Force Base. Ackerman's talk is titled "Climate Change, National Security and the Quadrennial Defense Review: Avoiding the Perfect Storm." By examining how changes to the Earth's climate and natural environment pose a serious threat to America's national security, Ackerman will then discuss responses that the Department of Defense could develop, integrating sustainability and the democratic peace theory, to avoid the worst outcomes. This event is open to students, faculty, staff and the community. Participants should bring a lunch. For more information, e-mail sustain@auburn.edu or visit this Web site