UT Headlines

Depending on your political preferences, you may or may not have seen a recent blog posting at the The Nation.

As part if its Most Valuable Progressives of 2008 list published today, Dr. Peter Linebaugh, professor of history at UT, is listed for the “Most Valuable Book.” Titled, “The Magna Carta Manifesto. Liberties and Commons for All,” Linebaugh looks back at the history of one of the original documents asserting individual liberties to make modern points regarding his view of the Bush administration’s attitude toward and treatment of the Constitution.

And in other Toledo news, the site also names Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-Toledo) “Most Valuable House [of Representatives] Member”.

So Toledo has fans today at The Nation – which probably gives you one of three reactions: 1. Good 2. Bad 3. What’s The Nation and what’s for lunch?

Update – Jan. 7, 2009: Dr. Barden took the time to forward an e-mail sent today providing additional evidence Jon’s admittedly lame (see comment below) jokes about The Nation magazine may be unfounded…

From: Brian Rothenberg, Executive Director, ProgressOhio
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 4:15 PM
To: Barden, Thomas E.
Subject: Congratulations to Marcy Kaptur: The Nation’s Most Valuable House Member

In its 2008 “Most Valuable Progressives” awards, The Nation named Ohio’s own Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur as “Most Valuable House Member.”

Click here to send a message of congratulations to Rep. Marcy Kaptur

From The Nation:

“[Representative Kaptur's] record on economic issues–especially trade and agricultural policy–is one of consistently being right when just about everyone else was wrong. To a greater extent than anyone else in the House, she has defined the distinction between Main Street and Wall Street as something more than a slogan; and she is one of the few Democrats who actually understands that the only economic “fix” for America will be the one that begins on Main Street.”

Kaptur also has a solid progressive voting record on the Iraq war, veterans’ issues, healthcare, and many more issues that are important to Ohio’s progressive community. She is the longest serving woman in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Help ProgressOhio send a big congratulatory message to Representative Marcy Kaptur – The Nation’s Most Valuable House Member!

Click here to send a message of congratulations to Rep. Marcy Kaptur

Brian Rothenberg
Executive Director
ProgressOhio.org

The point I tried, and evidently failed to make before: those who lean left will tend to like The Nation’s viewpoint, those who lean right will like it less and, as it is an erudite magazine, there may be some unfamiliar with it in non-political communities.

A bit of a hodge-podge of stuff:

On MSNBC:

Xunlight Receives $7 Million Loan From the State of Ohio

And from the Blade:

University of Toledo energizes ‘green’ efforts

University of Toledo sorority members put hope to music

… but again largely spares higher education.

At the most recent town hall meetings, UT President Lloyd Jacobs made a distinction between two separate, but related, Ohio budget challenges. The most pressing challenge is the budget shortfall that exists right now. The state of Ohio doesn’t know for sure what its tax receipts – and therefore the budget hole – will be, but as the Columbus Dispatch reports, Gov. Ted Strickland today announced efforts to cut $640 million out of the current budget.

The short-term good less bad news: State Share of Instruction dollars – the lion’s share of UT’s state funding – are exempt from the cuts.

However, this doesn’t change the fact that these estimates could still change, and it likely won’t be for the better if they do.

It also doesn’t change the enormously huger budget challenges likely to come as Ohio puts together its next two-year budget which will start July 1, 2009 (and which the Gov. has currently estimated has a $7 billion hole in it).

So really, today’s news echoes what the president said Monday and Tuesday at Town Hall meetings and on recent Web videos, available here and here.

The Governor may get to a point where he has no choice but to make budget reductions everywhere, but the silver lining is that it is increasingly clear higher education is going to be one of the last places he goes to to reduce funds.

A big day for UT and ABC News.

We just heard that Xunlight, the company founded by UT physics professor Dr. Xunming Deng and his wife, Dr. Liwei Xu, will be featured in a story on ABC’s World News Tonight with Charlie Gibson at 6:30 p.m.

The story will focus on Xunlight and other Toledo-based solar companies and the effort to transition Toledo’s economy to one focused on alternative energy.

A story is currently on ABC’s Web site.

Update: The video:

Update 2: The Regional Growth Partnership, a key coordinator of many of the economic development efforts in northwest Ohio and a strong partner of UT also releases a statement on the ABC story.

The ABC News Web site has a story about a recent study led by UT neurology resident Dr. Fouzia Siddiqui which investigated “sleep e-mailing”.

“Sleepwalking has occurred in the past where people will [conduct] other activities such as cooking or moving furniture around,” Siddiqui said. “But this case is unique in that she wasn’t just sleepwalking but doing things like turning on her computer, remembering her user name and password and typing entire e-mails.”

Siddiqui said in this patient’s case, the cause of her unusual sleepwalking episode was her increased zolpidem dosage. Siddiqui immediately reduced the patient’s dose; since then, she has not had any episodes of sleepwalking.

News of the study has been picked up world-wide, including Great Britain and Australia.

UT’s location is not defined by the roads that border it.

You may have heard of UT’s cooperative efforts with Yanshan University in China, but UT is also preparing to open a “branch” campus in Honduras.

From last week’s Blade:

Jones, a sophomore in mechanical engineering at the University of Toledo, is one of the several students involved in the school’s Engineers Without Borders program that is working to bring water to the village of Los Sanchez in southern Honduras.

The students traveled there in May to plan the gravity-powered system. They will return in January to get the project started, and will go back again in March to help with the final touches.

Today, they’re getting help to turn their plans into reality.

The Toledo Rotary Foundation is giving the students $10,000 to aid their effort to raise $25,000 for travel and project costs.

Channel 11 ran this story:

UT engineering students will be applying lessons learned in the classroom while engaging with new people in an effort to improve lives. Sounds like a transplanted piece of The University of Toledo to me.

From today’s Blade:

The University of Toledo expects to graduate about 1,900 students during its fall commencement ceremony at 10 a.m. Dec. 20 in Savage Arena on the university’s main campus.

Christine Brennan, a USA Today sports columnist and author, will address the students.

When times are tough celebrations become that much more important and meaningful.

From a Pontiac press release:

“Toledo is one of 13 schools vying for the Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the Year. A $100,000 general scholarship contribution from Pontiac is on the line for the play voted best of the year by the fans.

“The University of Toledo was voted as the Pontiac Game Changing Performance for the seventh week of the 2008 NCAA® Football Season. The game changing play was senior free safety Tyrrell Herbert’s 100-yard interception return for a touchdown in the first quarter of the stunning game versus Michigan, which propelled the Rockets to a 13-10 victory. As a result, Toledo earned a $5,000 general scholarship contribution from Pontiac.

“Now it is up to the fans to determine if the Rockets will receive the ultimate $100,000 scholarship contribution by voting at pontiac.com/ncaa. Four rounds of voting will take us to the BCS Championship game on January 8, where the Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the Year and winner of the one hundred thousand dollar general scholarship contribution will be announced on FOX.”

It’s true. I heard it in a song.

Today’s Toledo Blade has a story about UT’s trip to Cleveland today to meet with and accept hundreds of the best students in the Cleveland Public School district to the University of Toledo.

As the story explains, all CPS seniors with a 3.0 or better AND Pell Grant eligibility (along with meeting several other deadlines) are being bused to a single CPS school where they will meet with UT admissions counselors and be admitted to UT.

This effort has been made possible via the UT Guarantee scholarship program.

The Blade also has a short clip of UT officials making ready a bus that admissions folks traveled on this morning at like 5 a.m.!!! to get to Cleveland:

From today’s Blade:

College troupes offer good mix

At the University of Toledo department of theater and film, students are getting ready for a very long night.

Beginning tomorrow evening, six teams will be formed by random drawings, and each will have until Saturday evening to write a play, rehearse it, costume the cast, figure out the technical needs, and present it to the public, ready or not.

In a press release, Orene Colcord, a visiting assistant professor of theater, says that the fourth annual event is both terrific fun and a great opportunity for students to “shine at their creative best.”

“The 24-Hour Plays” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Studio Theatre in UT’s Center for Performing Arts. Tickets are $3 each and will be sold only at the door the night of the performance. Information: 419-530-2202.