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Report of the President Like Chairman Cox, I would like to give a cordial welcome to our new trustee, Margaret Buchanan, and to new Student Body President Jerry Tsai. We wish the outgoing President, Andrew, well even though he is otherwise occupied this morning, and we thank him for his exemplary leadership this year. It has truly been a joy to work with Andrew and his vice president, Dominic Berardi.
This past Friday was a big day on campus with our “Meet Me on MainStreet” activities to mark the completion of all MainStreet construction and report progress on UC|21 with the Forecast 2007 presentation. I would like to thank board member Tom Humes for attending the Forecast and Buck Niehoff for being part of the reviewing stand at our first-ever MainStreet Stride. Our inaugural red-and-black parade featured nearly 800 participants, including a young engineering student who was painted half red and half black. You might have seen his photo in the Enquirer on Saturday or caught him on the news. It was a very promising beginning for what we hope will become a great UC tradition.
I would like to ask Mary Stagaman, our associate vice president for community relations and marketing, to stand and take a bow. Mary led the efforts to create the MainStreet Stride.
Last Friday’s event also launched two new important UC|21 initiatives: the Center for the City and the Entrepreneurial Launch Pad. The Center for the City will put UC to work with community partners on urban challenges. Our vision is for UC to become a national leader in solving community problems and improving urban life. We’ve opened the center with a first call for proposals, open to faculty, staff and the community at large. The Entrepreneurial Launch Pad announced the first recipients of our seed funding to jump start commercial potential of scientific discoveries. The winners are:
- Georg Weber, who is developing better methods of diagnosing breast cancer
- Dr. Sid Khosla and his partner, Ephraim Gutmark, who are developing a portable ventilator;
- And Jonathan Bernstein and Rakesh Govind, who are developing a non-invasive sensor to measure respiratory inflammation in asthma patients and the elderly.
Just one week prior to our MainStreet dedication, we held the grand opening of the Richard E. Lindner Varsity Village, including the Lindner Athletics Center. The spectacular sporting village features:
- A museum featuring our athletic and academic achievements.
- A new practice gym with basketball and volley ball courts
- New strength and conditioning facilities
- A sports med, training and rehab suite
- A faculty club and restaurant
- A new University Health Services Center
- A Varsity Village Imaging Center
- New academic services facilities to serve student athletes
- Centralized offices for athletics administration
- A new Bearcat pride shop
- A 3300-seat Marge Schott Baseball Stadium
- The Gettler Stadium for track and soccer
- The 450-seat Trabert-Talbert Tennis Center
- The Sheakley Lawn, for student use
- The Keating Aquatics Center
- And The Rockwern Band Center
It took a village to create the Varsity Village and I want to express, on behalf of the university, our profound thanks to the donors and partners who made these grand new venues possible.
On April 21-22, UC hosted a newly formulated Showcase 2006 to highlight the comprehensive array of our activities in innovation and scholarship. More than 2500 people attended the event, which featured more than 350 exhibits and displays.
This spring we also held a successful national conference, here at UC and in downtown Cincinnati, marking the centennial of cooperative education. As you’ll recall the Board of Trustees launched our 100th anniversary celebration with a proclamation in the fall.
In April we hosted the Cooperative Education and Internship Association annual meeting and held a centennial dinner to induct the first distinguished honorees into our new Co-op Hall of Honor. Eight individuals and four institutions and employers were inducted. UC has more anniversary activities planned for later this year, but I would like to ask Kettil Cedercreutz, director of Professional Practice, to represent his entire division as we recognized the great success of these events so far.
DAAP professor Frank Herrmann has won a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. The award will enable Frank to continue his studies and fine arts work related to the Asmat people of Papua New Guinea.
Our College of Engineering recently held an event to thank the UGS Corp. for its donation of software amounting to more than $289 million dollars. It is the largest in-kind gift UC has ever received.
Dr. Jane Henney, senior vice president and Provost for Health Affairs, hosted a recent celebration for George Rieveshl to celebrate the 60th “birthday” of his discovery of the drug known as Benadryl. Dr. Rieveschl invented the world’s first effective antihistamine while a chemical engineering professor at UC in the 1940s. George Rieveschl is also an alumnus of UC and currently serves as a professor emeritus of environmental engineering.
Scientists led by Dr. Randy Seeley from UC’s Genome Research Institute published a paper in Science announced the discovery that a cell-signaling pathway in the brain linked to the development of cancer and diabetes is also a key part of the networks that regulate food intake. The finding may one day lead to new ways of helping people with obesity.
Graduate architecture students from DAAP nearly swept the recent Lyceum Competition, the world’s most prestigious design competition for students. Our students won five out of six of the cash prizes awarded this year.
On the international front, a high-level team from UC traveled to China during the first two weeks of April to initiate the university’s new comprehensive engagement strategy for China. The 10-person team included Vice Provost International Mitch Leventhal, three deans, three associate deans, one assistant dean and two professors, from eight of our. In all, they visited 14 universities to deepen our existing relationships and to identify one institution with which we could establish a relationship of comprehensive engagement. And this, we are initiating with Shandong University. In addition the university is an active participant in the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce China Roundtable and is exchanging information with the chamber regarding opportunities and strategies in China.
One final note: We instituted a new Faculty Awards Celebration this month. In your packet you’ll find a copy of the program highlighting our 20 honorees for our top faculty awards in research, teaching, service, and entrepreneurship.
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