This Week @ AU

Auburn University will have an emergency preparedness training exercise the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 16, so university personnel and local first-responders can practice dealing with a campus emergency or disaster.

Perimeters will be set up around the area of the Student Center and Haley Center for a drill that will include role playing and emergency response by public safety agencies.

Students wanting to pick up their caps and gowns on Wednesday, Dec. 16, should wait until after 11 a.m. to do so.

Participating agencies will include Auburn University, Auburn Police Division, Auburn Fire Department, Lee County Emergency Management Agency, Auburn University Medical Clinic and East Alabama Emergency Medical Services.

In addition, a joint information center will be activated on campus that will allow the university’s Office of Communications and Marketing to test its effectiveness in gathering and disseminating information.

University officials selected Dec. 16 for the exercise because classes will have ended for the fall semester and activity on campus will be scarce. The exercise is set to begin at 7:45 a.m. and should last until about noon.

A limited number of half-price student tickets are still available at the Athletic Department ticket office for $35.  According to Scott Carr, senior associate athletic director, not all of the student vouchers were redeemed by Friday, Dec. 11, so the remaining half-price student tickets will be available for any student starting Tuesday, Dec. 15, at 8 a.m. at the Auburn Athletic ticket office located in the Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.  The ticket office is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day this week through Friday, Dec. 18.  Students must have a valid Auburn Ignited card to receive the discount.  Limit of one half-price ticket per student.  Auburn University students may purchase additional tickets at the full price of $70. For additional information, please call 800-AUB-1957.

Risk Management and Safety, in conjunction with Auburn University Public Safety, Housing and Residence Life and Student Affairs, has compiled several lists of tips to help contribute to the safety and security of students and employees during the holiday season. The holiday season is a time when busy people become more vulnerable to theft and other holiday crime. While the holidays are a time to enjoy friends and family, incidence of theft, robbery and other crimes increase. However, there are steps people can take both now and throughout the year to help reduce the potential of becoming the victim of a crime, or suffering other loses and damages. The following links provide some tips to help you have a safer and more secure holiday season.

Faculty and staff can visit:
http://www.auburn.edu/administration/rms/pdf/r_holiday-theft.pdf.

Students in residence halls can visit:
http://www.auburn.edu/administration/rms/pdf/r_holiday-theft-res.pdf.

Students living off campus can visit:
http://www.auburn.edu/administration/rms/pdf/r_holiday-theft-off.pdf.

The Auburn University Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs invites students of East Alabama to participate in its “Word from the Mountain Top” oratory contest, one of many events scheduled during the January 2010 King Week celebration.

The contest is open to students who are residents of Lee, Macon, Russell or Montgomery counties and currently enrolled in a college, university, community college, high school, middle school or junior high school. The competition is meant to encourage students to reflect on Martin Luther King Jr.’s philosophy and to connect his message to issues facing the nation in the 21st century.

Entries should be mailed, e-mailed, faxed or hand delivered to Brandon Wolfe in the office of Access and Community Initiatives no later than Jan. 11. There is no entry fee.

For more information on how to participate in the contest, contact Brandon Wolfe at 844-5042 or by e-mail at wolfebr@auburn.edu. The mailing address is 314 Mary Martin Hall, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849.

To read more about King Week 2010, click on this link.

The Office of Information Technology, or OIT, urges the Auburn University community to use caution in providing personal information to unknown parties. An e-mail message with the subject "Virus Warning Alert!!!" is circulating and the warning about a DGTFX virus in your folders is a hoax. Do not reply to or forward this message. Delete it. OIT is taking steps to block these messages on campus, but all users should remember to never share your password and don't provide personal information via e-mail requests. Please contact your area's Information Technology provider or the OIT HelpDesk at 844-4944 or helpdesk@auburn.edu for more information on avoiding phishing attempts.

The Office of International Student and Scholar Services will be moving from Hargis Hall to Foy Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 15. The International Student and Scholar Services office will be located on the second floor of Foy Hall in suite 228. The office will be closed for packing and moving Dec. 14 - 15. Services will be very limited Dec. 16 - 18. Normal operations will resume on Monday, Jan. 4, at 7:45 a.m. in the new offices in Foy Hall.

Auburn University Libraries and Facilities will be working to recarpet the third floor and office areas of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library over the winter break. The library will continue to be open and offer full services throughout the carpeting project; however, the third floor will be unavailable for public access from Wednesday, Dec. 16, to Monday, Jan.  4. The library will page books as necessary to continue to ensure users' access to materials. If you need to request items from the third floor, please visit the circulation desk located on the first floor of the library.

Auburn University was named Scholarship Provider of the Year at the 2009 National Scholarship Providers Association Annual Conference in New Orleans for its Provost Leadership Undergraduate Scholar program.

The award was presented in recognition of the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs’ PLUS program, which provides academic and social support to students pursuing their undergraduate studies at Auburn University. The PLUS program provides an $8,000 four-year, renewable scholarship at $2,000 per academic year, and has been developed to complement the goals of the Auburn University Strategic Diversity Plan.

PLUS includes a retention program that provides peer mentoring, leadership opportunities and training, time management and study skills, tutoring and counseling services and an opportunity for participants to enroll together in a series of classes throughout their freshman and sophomore years. The program has benefited 125 students since its inception in 2006. Of those students, 55 are first-generation college students.

The Scholarship Provider of the Year award includes a $2,500 cash prize, recognition at the National Scholarship Providers Annual Conference and on their Web site, a plaque and an invitation to present a session at next year’s conference.

Auburn University awarded more than $33 million in scholarships for the 2009-2010 academic year. Sixty-five percent of all freshmen who enrolled and 27 percent of all enrolled students received scholarships, compared to last year’s 56 percent and 23 percent, respectively. Overall scholarship amounts awarded by the university have increased by more than $18 million over the last four years.

Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker, founding chair of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, was honored Dec. 7 in a ceremony at the United Nations in New York as the 2009 International Quality of Life Awards laureate.

This annual event was launched in 1994 by Auburn University's College of Human Sciences to recognize people and partnerships that have made significant and lasting contributions to individual, family, and community well-being locally and around the world.

Fulfilling a promise to her dying sister, Brinker launched a comprehensive fight against breast cancer in 1982, leading to a global movement that has had a positive impact on the lives of millions of women and their families for almost three decades. Today, the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, symbolized by the pink ribbon, is the world's largest and most successful education and fundraising event for breast cancer. Moreover, hundreds of millions of dollars in Komen for the Cure funding have been associated with virtually every major advance in breast cancer research to date.

For more information or to read the entire article, please visit http://wireeagle.auburn.edu/news/1311.

Auburn University students and local immigrant populations have a unique new opportunity for cooperative learning and action, thanks to the creation of Closing the Gap, a student organization whose purpose is "to provide a link of communication, education and advocacy between Auburn students and the international community in Auburn and surrounding areas."

The idea for the new organization began when Gilda Socarras, assistant professor of foreign languages, required her upper-level Spanish students to meet weekly to tutor non-English-speaking immigrants, while using their Spanish language skills to communicate with them. Socarras, a 2008 participant in the College of Liberal Arts Summer Academy for Community and Civic Engagement, added the component to her class as a creative way to increase student learning and build community among local Hispanic populations.

For more information and to join the organization, contact Taylor Baronich at tlb0001@auburn.edu or Gilda Socarras, faculty adviser at socargm@auburn.edu.

Auburn University will have an emergency preparedness training exercise the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 16, so university personnel and local first-responders can practice dealing with a campus emergency or disaster.

Perimeters will be set up around the area of the Student Center and Haley Center for an “active shooter” drill that will include role playing and emergency response by public safety agencies.

Participating agencies will include Auburn University, Auburn Police Division, Auburn Fire Department, Lee County Emergency Management Agency, Auburn University Medical Clinic and East Alabama Emergency Medical Services.

In addition, a joint information center will be activated on campus that will allow the university’s Office of Communications and Marketing to test its effectiveness in gathering and disseminating information.

University officials selected Dec. 16 for the exercise because classes will have ended for the fall semester and activity on campus will be scarce. The exercise is set to begin at 7:45 a.m. and should last until about noon.

Auburn University is asking students to take an online survey in regards to the This Week at AU e-newsletter to improve interest and readership. This survey is designed to help Auburn University better understand what students desire in their e-newsletter. The online survey will take approximately four minutes to complete. This survey will be confidential and students are encouraged to fill it out as accurately as possible and respond to each statement in the survey. To take the survey, follow this link.

Refuel on your Study and Reading Day by grabbing breakfast at all hours of the night on Tuesday, Dec.  8. Terrell Dining Hall will be serving breakfast foods from 5 p.m. until midnight on Auburn University’s designated Study and Reading Day. The hours for “Breakfast ‘til Midnight” at Tiger Zone are 7 p.m. until midnight. Students are invited to join the fun at either event with raffles, prizes and a DJ.

Whether you live in a campus residence hall or reside off campus, your required-participation dining plan’s fall semester unexpended funds will roll over and be made available to you during the 2010 spring semester. These fall semester unexpended funds will be available to you in addition to your spring semester assessment. Any unexpended funds remaining after the 2010 spring semester will roll and be available to spend for on-campus dining during summer term. Unexpended funds in a student's dining account after the 2010 summer term commencement day will revert to Auburn University for use toward development of additional dining venues. If you have any questions about your dining funds, you may contact the TigerCard Office at 844-4507, or visit the following Web site http://www.auburn.edu/administration/tigercard/.

The Distance Education Office for Auburn University has released the spring 2010 course offering list. For more information on Independent Learning Courses, or to view the course offering schedule, visit this link.

The Auburn University Radio Flyer Theatre Company will present two of O. Henry’s short stories, “The Gift of the Magi” and “The Last Leaf,” in its first holiday podcast radio theatre production. Both stories are written in classic O. Henry style with his trademark twist at the end.

The works were prerecorded and will be accessible Dec. 8 through Jan. 3 by going to the theater’s Web site tomorrow at www.auburnuniversitytheatre.org and clicking on the radio dial.

A special community broadcast of the production will be held Dec. 15 at 6:30 p.m. at The Gnu’s Room, 414 S. Gay St. Auburn University Theatre’s Kelly Walker and Dan LaRocque will be on hand to answer questions after this performance.

Produced by Auburn University Theatre in the College of Liberal Arts, the holiday broadcast of O. Henry stories features a cast of Auburn University Theatre professors and students. The presentation is reminiscent of “audio theater” popular from the 1930s into the early 1950s, the Golden Age of Radio, and heard on programs such as Orson Welles’ “Mercury Theatre on the Air” and the “Lux Radio Theater.”

For more information, call the Auburn University Theatre box office at 844-4154.

Phase II construction for the Campus Green Zone will begin Monday, Dec. 7, and continue through June 2010. The lot between the Dawson Building and Jordan-Hare will be closed beginning Dec. 7. In addition, the parking lot between the Jordan-Hare Stadium and Petrie Hall will be closed effective Dec. 18. The green zone will ensure that students and visitors have an attractive location and scenery in which to enjoy future university activities. Through the university's efforts to continue being proper stewards of the environment, the green zone will be a testament to Auburn's three-prong mission of instruction, research and outreach. To view a map, visit this link.

The Palmetto Auburn Club of South Carolina recently completed efforts to create the state’s first Auburn University license plate, which is now available from the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles. In South Carolina, up to 94 percent of the fee from the sale of each tag goes to the South Carolina License to Learn Scholarship Endowment Fund, a program that raises funds for freshman scholarships. Proceeds from South Carolina tag sales will provide scholarships for students specifically from that state.

Auburn student Davis Myers of Spartanburg, S.C., is the first recipient of the scholarship from the state’s tag sales. She is a freshman in the College of Human Sciences and is studying hotel and restaurant management.

The first 100 tag numbers were reserved by the Palmetto Auburn Club, and one may be obtained through them for a one-time $100 contribution to its scholarship fund. Numbers greater than 100 will be assigned by the South Carolina DMV. The cost is $70 every two years, plus regular South Carolina license fees, which are determined by the DMV.

For more on how to apply for the South Carolina Auburn tag, visit this link.

Alabama’s largest and most diversified farm organization has awarded its highest honor to Richard Guthrie, dean of the Auburn University College of Agriculture and director of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, in recognition of the outstanding contributions Guthrie has made to Alabama agriculture throughout a 45-year career that includes 26 years at Auburn.

The Alabama Farmers Federation presented its Service to Agriculture Award to Guthrie on Dec. 6, during the organization's 88th annual meeting in Mobile. From 1985 to 1988, he served as acting dean of the College of Agriculture and then was named associate dean of international agriculture programs, a position he held until his first official retirement in 2003. In fall 2005, Guthrie came out of retirement to assume the dean and director positions he now holds, but from which he has announced, he will permanently retire in May 2010.

The Farmers Federation Service to Agriculture Award is the latest on an impressive list of honors Guthrie has received, including being inducted into the Alabama Agriculture Hall of Honor in 2009 and, in 1996, he won the Auburn University Athletic Department's Walter Gilbert Award, which recognizes Auburn athletes who have distinguished themselves through achievements after graduation.

The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University is presenting John James Audubon's “Precursors and Contemporaries,” the second in a two-part series. The exhibition is on view through Feb. 13, 2010, in the Louise Hauss and David Brent Miller Audubon Gallery. This exhibition explores natural history publications and begins with some of the earliest publications about plants, specifically herbals, which were intended as references for apothecaries. This exhibition traces representations of flora and fauna from its earliest utilitarian modes in the 16th century through the
development of more artistically conceived representations.

The exhibition includes woodcut prints from “De Historian Stirpium” by German Leonhart Fuchs, and from “The Herbal or General History of Plants” by Englishman John Gerard. Notably, there are three prints of flora and insects by Maria Sibylla Merian, who produced the original watercolors for the prints in Suriname from 1699 to 1701. The exhibition culminates with two of John James Audubon's English contemporaries, Prideaux John Selby who published “Illustrations of British Ornithology,” and Robert John Thornton whose elaborate and idiosyncratic “The Temple of Flora” was meant to be an homage to the renowned Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus.

Gilbert Johnston of Antique Nature Prints loaned the prints and bound volumes that made this exhibition possible.

William Powell, associate professor of music and director of choral activities, returns to Walt Disney World as one of three nationally recognized guest conductors for the 2009 Candlelight Processional. Held each year in Epcot, the Candlelight Processional shows consist of a celebrity narrator, a 50-piece live orchestra and a mass choir of Disney cast members and singers from the USA and abroad. The production, which occurs nightly from Nov. 30 through Dec. 30 tells the story of Christmas in words and music. Performances are held at the America Gardens Theatre. Powell will conduct shows on Dec. 9 through Dec. 12. Visit http://www.wdwinfo.com/holidays/candlelight_processional.htm for more information.