UT Headlines

There have been a couple of stories this week on the upcoming 12th annual Parkinson’s Disease Symposium. Now my knowledge of Parkinson’s Disease is limited to the press releases and information I read during my limited involvement, but I will admit to being surprised to learn that some 10,000 people in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan. And if you consider that each of those people has family who also are educating themselves on the disease, you quickly arrive at a not insignificant portion of the population.

Holly Robinson Peete and UTMC’s own Dr. Larry Elmer are quoted in a story in Sunday’s Blade on the subject. Peete’s father, who played Gordon on Sesame Street, developed Parkinson’s Disease. She and her husband Rodney – of Detroit Lion and Heisman trophy fame – have a foundation to fight Parkinson’s and she will speak this Saturday. The Blade story offers conference details.

Also, Dr. Elmer was on Channel 11 last Wednesday. (The video is crazy for the first 15 seconds but then is fine as the actual interview starts. UT new media wizard Chris Ankney assures me this isn’t his fault and that it was a work of genius to get the video at all. I remain suspicious.)

It has come to my attention meaning UT’s new media guru Chris Ankney did all the work and told me but he doesn’t have a journal to tell you that UT’s Facebook page which Chris has turned from a laughing stock into metaphorical Facebook literature these past few months is ranked 54,989 out of 365,228 Facebook sites.

This puts UT in the top 15 percent of Facebook-dom. While this is great compared to three months ago when our ranking was … lower, it isn’t where we need to be. We are currently behind some group with a Russian name, NY Giants wide receiver Plaxico “I catch bullets as well as footballs” Burris and the year 1993. Seriously, the group is called “The Year 1993″ a great time to be 11.

Many of you have helped the UT Facebook page reach its current heights, but we need more. We need your events and your nice, kind, PG-13 rated comments and your pictures and … Chris, what else can people put on our Facebook site?

But more than anything, we need you to become fans of UT’s Facebook page and quit becoming fans of the stupid phantom UT Facebook page that has tons of people and no content which doesn’t make a lick of sense. And we need your parents to become fans and your friends and in-laws and your great-grandparents who don’t really know what Facebook is.

I refuse to let 1993 win a prize UT is destined for. And what is that prize? I dunno, maybe somewhere in the 25,000 range?

From the Blade…

BGSU to keep all sports, including hockey

Bowling Green State University will keep all 18 sports teams – including hockey – for the 2009-10 school year, the university announced Tuesday.

Following concerns the university would cut its hockey team, a letter to BGSU fans and supporters from Athletic Director Greg Christopher promises to keep all sports for the upcoming school year.

“Rather than eliminating any sports, in the coming year budget cuts will be made throughout the athletics department,” he wrote. “This will significantly affect all 18 of our sports and support areas.”

Athletics, and all other BGSU departments, has been asked to alter their budgets to help reduce an expected $6 to $10 million shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year.

“We have heard the concerns raised by supporters of BGSU ice hockey and appreciate their passion for the program. We also recognize the significant role the ice arena plays in the Bowling Green community,” Mr. Christopher wrote. “We will work with Recreational Sports (which operates the arena) and the community to review the issues related to the facility and begin collaborating on the development of possible solutions.”

UT women’s basketball player Naama Shafir, head coach Tricia Cullop and Shafir’s teammates were featured on CNN.

Embedded video from CNN Video

Scott Scarborough, senior vp for finance and administration, sat down with Channel 13 to talk about the University’s budget process.

Prior to the interview, Scarborough had explained on Budget Exchange why the 7 and 15 percent budget planning scenarios were needed.

From Time:

Job Forecast for College Seniors: Grimmer Than Ever

Smith College’s career office sent its jittery job-hunting seniors a letter last month with a reassuring message: “There ARE jobs, and you can find employment.” Unfortunately, there are far fewer jobs than anticipated, according to a report out today from the National Association for Colleges and Employers (NACE). The companies surveyed for the group’s spring update are planning to hire 22% fewer grads from the class of 2009 than they hired from the class of 2008, a big letdown from the group’s projections in October that hiring would hold steady. Some 44% of companies in the survey, conducted last month, said they plan to hire fewer new grads, and another 22% said they do not plan to hire at all this spring, more than double last year’s figure. “If you were a student and were out there [interviewing] in the fall, you probably had a decent chance of getting a job,” says Edwin Koc, director of strategic and foundation research at NACE. “But frankly, the spring does not look good.”

But UT is doing things to help students out. Just the things I’m aware of:

The College of Graduate Studies is hosting a forum on Job Search Strategies in a Tough Economy for graduate students later this month. (If you’re a UT grad student check your UT e-mail.)

The College of Business has recently held a job fair.

This is the reason the office of Career Services exists.

I’m sure other Colleges, departments and areas have job help sessions coming up as well and if you can’t find them at Career Services you probably need to look harder perhaps folks will comment below on opportunities coming up.

UT women’s basketball standout Naama Shafir’s story hits the international news – International Herald Tribune.

UT’s Dr. Gretchen Tietjen, a neurologist at UTMC, is highlighted in a story about migraines and stroke – MSNBC.com

A great look at the many solar and alternative energy efforts coming from UT and the UT Incubator – The Blade

UT Psychologist Dr. Stephen Christman reminds us why we need mixed-handed leaders – Edmonton Sun