Expert Report of William G. Bowen

Higher education plays a unique role in our society. The obligation of a university is to the society at large over the long run, and, even more generally, to the pursuit of learning. Although this may seem amorphous, there is no escaping a university\u27s obligation to try to serve the long-term interests of society defined in the broadest and least parochial terms, and to do so through two principal activities: advancing knowledge and educating students who will in turn serve others, within this nation and beyond it, both through their specific vocations and as citizens. Universities therefore are responsible for imparting civic and democratic values that are essential to the functioning of our nation

Response to Review by Terrance Sandalow

Mark Twain tried to convey the size and complexity of the Mississippi by explaining to his readers that the river draws its water from every state between Delaware and Idaho, discharges 338 times as much water as the Thames, and is fed by 54 subordinate rivers each of which was large enough for steamboat travel

NSF-style peer review for teaching undergraduate grant-writing

The Biology Department at Jacksonville State University (JSU) in Alabama has incorporated an undergraduate research experience (URE) into its curriculum for both BA and BS degree programs . This experience involves the following semester courses: • BY 370 (Introduction to Research in Biology): two semester credits, sophomore level • BY 327 (Directed Studies in Biology) or BY 427 (Independent Study in Biology): variable credits, junior year • BY 496 (Senior Seminar) two credits, senior level The Department has recognized the need for both substantive coursework and an undergraduate research experience in its biology curriculum . The JSU URE is the outcome of curricular revision over the past 14 years . BY 370 and BY 496 are required courses, whereas independent research involves optional courses intended to interest students in research. BY 327 and BY 427 had been in the curriculum for some time, available for student research projects under the tutelage of a faculty mentor . BY 370 was initiated in 1991 to introduce majors to the science and art of biological research and grant-writing in an effort to strengthen the outcome of BY 327 and BY 427 . This course is now offered with multiple sections and instructors both semesters every year . Today, BY 327 and BY 427 enable students to conduct original field and/or laboratory research, educational research in biology, or substantive library-based research of an approved biological topic . BY 496, a required course since 2002, involves both a senior thesis and an oral presentation, the latter given in a department-wide symposium format . BY 496 is the Biology Department’s capstone course for all matriculating biology majors . The overall URE Experience has enabled the Department to integrate “communication across its curriculum” in a way that was never possible before . This paper concerns a modification to BY 370 . In this course, students now actively participate in an NSF-style peer review of their own undergraduate research proposals in biology

Observations on the distribution of chlorinated hydrocarbons in Atlantic Ocean organisms

Industrial polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) and the DDT family (t-DDT) were measured in several species of organisms collected from the open Atlantic Ocean between 66°N and 35°S latitude. All the organisms had higher concentrations of PCBs than t-DDT. Many trophic levels were represented in the collections, but the analytical data offer no support for food chain magnification among gilled organisms...

Canton Connections: A University-Community Partnership for Post-Disaster Revitalization

Back-to-back hurricanes prompted the creation of a partnership between Western Carolina University and an affected community in western North Carolina. The partnership was designed to promote the economic, social, and cultural revitalization of the community while creating opportunities for civic engagement and enriched student learning. The principal stakeholders in the partnership were the university and the municipal government, representing the community at large. The partners undertook several projects over a three-year period as part of a comprehensive, multifaceted initiative. In this article, the authors discuss the benefits and impact of the projects on participants and the community. They also share the insights gained and lessons learned from the initiative and comment briefly on factors inherent in effective university-community partnerships

OVI Absorption in the Milky Way Disk, and Future Prospects for Studying Absorption at the Galaxy-IGM Interface

We present a brief summary of results from our FUSE program designed to study OVI absorption in the disk of the Milky Way. As a full analysis of our data has now been published, we focus on the improvements that FUSE afforded us compared to Copernicus data published thirty years ago. We discuss FUSE's limitations in studying OVI absorption from nearby galaxies using background QSOs, but present FUSE spectra of two probes which indicate the absence of OVI (but the presence of Lyman-beta) absorption 8 and 63 kpc from a foreground galaxy. Finally, we discuss the need for a more sensitive UV spectrograph to map out the physical conditions of baryons around galaxies.Comment: Invited review to appear in the proceedings of "Future Directions in Ultraviolet Spectroscopy" meeting, held Oct 20-22, 2008, Annapolis, MD. To appear as an AIP Conference Proceedin