EDITOR'S NOTE: To make sure students feel welcome and make a good beginning to the academic year, the University of Oregon schedules more than a week of get-acquainted activities, special interest classes, tours, receptions and entertainments. If your news room failed to receive a copy of the 24-page schedule of activities, "Week of Welcome," and the 1997 Fall Facts sheet that we mailed earlier, or you would like another copy, please call the Office of Communications at (541) 346-3134. Here are eight good photo and story leads about what students will find is new, unique or different about the opening of the 1977 Fall Term at the UO. Don't hesitate to call on us if you need help finding a source or making a connection. Gaye Vandermyn, director, Office of Communications UO PRESIDENT HELPS NEW STUDENTS GET HEAD START ON CLASSES Who better to teach new students about leadership than the university president? UO President Dave Frohnmayer will be joined by other top administrators and faculty to teach a first-of-its-kind course especially designed for freshmen living in campus housing. Students won't "go" to the class--the class and instructors will come to them, where they live. Entitled "Leadership for the 21st Century," the new course will be taught in the residence halls Sept. 25-26 before the official start of classes on Sept. 29. Organizers say more than 90 students already are enrolled. "One of the main goals of this new class is to help students make that important bridge from residence hall life to academics," says Rosalind Cohen, UO assistant director of residence life. "We want to provide an environment in the halls that helps students make new friends and feel part of the university community while setting a tone which says you can have fun and do well academically." The new class will earn participating students one credit which may be used as an elective toward graduation. SOURCE: Rosalind Cohen, UO assistant director of residence life, (541) 346-5393; e-mail rcohen@oregon.uoregon.edu (For information on specific times and locations of this course, contact Cohen before Sept. 25.) UO BIOLOGY STUDENTS DO FRUIT FLY RESEARCH WITHOUT FLIES In Professor Dan Udovic's biology lab classes, computer technologies have been harnessed to allow students to spend less time gathering data and more time doing the "real science" of analyzing data. For example, in the area of genetics, students using Udovic's "Genetics Construction Kit," a computer software program Udovic designed, students mate pairs of virtual fruit flies to explore the way their traits are genetically propagated over hundreds of virtual generations (something that would take many months or years using real fruit flies). This creates a situation much closer to the heart of "real science," Udovic says, where the role of the instructor is transformed from a source of information and someone leading the student to the "right" answer into the role of a coach or a senior colleague in a genuine scientific investigation. Students are using similar modules to learn about demography and epidemiology to learn, respectively, about the factors that affect the growth of populations and the spread of disease. Udovic's Biology Workshop web page can be accessed at <http://biology.uoregon. edu/Biology_www/workshop_biol/wb.html>. SOURCE: Dan Udovic, professor of biology and director of the UO Environmental Studies program, can be reached at work at (541) 346-5092. `DUCKWARE' CD-ROM TO PUT STUDENTS, FACULTY ON-LINE When they return to campus this fall, all University of Oregon students and faculty will receive a "Duckware" CD-ROM that will provide a bundle of information vital for full utilization of the university's computer environment. The CD-ROM, good for both Macintosh and PC computers, includes network software for connecting to the Internet from on or off campus, software from the UO Computing Center's public domain software libraries, and documentation to help answer common questions and refer computer users to sources of additional information. "The Duckware CD-ROM was produced by the Office of University Computing's Microcomputer Services staff and is funded by the student technology fee," says Kathy Heerema, assistant director for microcomputer services at the UO Computing Center. "It puts together a vast library of useful information that previously people had to go to some lengths to gather." SOURCE: Kathy Heerema, assistant director for microcomputer services at the UO Computing Center, (541) 346-1717. `MOST WIRED CAMPUS' LOGS NEW STUDENTS ONTO INFO AGE STUDIES The University of Oregon Library this fall is offering first-time students the Information Age version of driver education--a one-hour class on navigating the information super highway like a professional racer. Called "Get Ready!," the special one-hour class gives new students the know-how they need to navigate the university's UONet network and the Internet's World Wide Web. New students learn the basics of sending and receiving electronic mail, accessing the World Wide Web and using Janus, the UO Library System's on-line information system. " `Get Ready!' aims to level the playing field for students who enter the university with varying levels of computer literacy and Web know-how," says Deborah Carver, UO associate university librarian for public services and collections. Library staff first offered "Get Ready!" last fall as a pilot project. Its success led to this year's continuation of the training. New students will make use of their Internet navigation skills as soon as classes start Sept. 29. Dubbed the "most wired campus" in the nation by Yahoo! Internet Life magazine, the UO has become a national model for how to use computers and the Internet to improve services to students, make faculty accessible to students and to operate efficiently. This fall's "Get Ready!" class for new students who didn't take the course during IntroDUCKtion in July is set at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 27, in Room 221 of Allen Hall, 1020 University St. Additional information about the "Get Ready!" project is available on the Web at <http://libweb.uoregon.edu/getready/ index.html>. SOURCES: Project director Deborah Carver, associate university librarian for public services and collections, (541) 346-1892, e-mail, dcarver@oregon.uoregon.edu; and project coordinator Kathleen "Katie" Lenn, reference librarian, (541) 346-3072, e-mail klenn@oregon. uoregon.edu COMMUNITY INVITED TO DISCOVER PREHISTORIC OREGON The University of Oregon Museum of Natural History (MNH) is offering local residents a chance to learn about the latest findings in Oregon archaeology in an evening course taught this fall by the researchers themselves. The first of its kind offered in an evening program, the course will focus on Native Americans who have lived in Oregon for at least 11,000 years. Class members will learn how the prehistoric communities developed distinctive cultural traditions along the coast, in the western interior valleys, along the Columbia River, and in the Great Basin east of the Cascades. This overview of Oregon archaeology is based on current work by MNH faculty researchers at prehistoric digs throughout the state. "This is a course geared for the community that is being taught by some of the most authoritative primary researchers there are on this subject," says UO anthropology professor Mel Aikens. Aikens organized the course, which is offered through UO Continuing Education. The course, Anthropology 310, requires no prerequisites and will be offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:30-9:20 p.m. SOURCE: Mel Aikens, professor of anthropology, (541) 346-5115. FRESHMAN COMP TECHNO-TAUGHT IN `CENTURY 21' CLASSROOM Instructor Michael Arnzen will take his fall term freshman composition class into a nearly paperless 21st century classroom. In Arnzen's computer classroom, freshmen will sit at work terminals, not at desks. The classroom blackboard has vanished--replaced by a computer projection section, and students pass disks--not notes--across the aisles. The disk exchange will help them critique each others' work. Students will find a multitude of web-resources collected on the course's home page to use in researching their papers. The instructor and students will use the home page to collect, share, reproduce and distribute class material, assignments, reading lists, and completed and graded homework assignments. Arnzen has written about issues related to technology in the classroom in two articles in INTERNET WORLD Magazine: "Cyber Citations: Documenting Internet Sources" in September 1996, and "Campus Connections: A College Student's Guide to the Net" in October 1995. Both articles are accessible from Arnzen's home page, which also features links to his class home pages. Arnzen believes the new technology is leading to a "rapid evolution of teaching practices and a lot of experimentation." Among the innovative applications are Arnzen's use of "virtual office hours," the hours in which he is available for real-time on-line chat sessions with students. SOURCE: Michael Arnzen at (541) 345-4100; URL: <http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~mikea/arbor/courses.htm>. STUDENTS LEARN LESSONS FOR LIFE AS RESIDENT ASSISTANTS Mentor, big sister or brother, social director, rule keeper. These are just a few of the roles that the UO's 73 resident assistants (RAs) will play this year. RAs are student staff members who live in the UO's 36 residence halls during the academic year. Their job is to help students succeed at the university. By providing academic, social and educational support during students' crucial transition from high school and their parents' homes, the RAs help new students successfully adjust to the university environment and more independent living. The RAs are currently undergoing training along with 10 program assistants (PAs)--student workers responsible for planning, promoting and implementing educational, cultural and recreational programs in the halls. "It's a good deal of responsibility but a very rewarding job for these students," says Rosalind Cohen, UO assistant director of residence life. "We're teaching the types of skills they'll need to live and work successfully in a diverse and challenging campus community and which will be beneficial throughout their lives." It's also an opportunity for them to earn while they learn. The RAs and PAs receive a monthly stipend as well as room and board for their work. SOURCE: Rosalind Cohen, UO assistant director of residence life, (541) 346-5393; e-mail rcohen@oregon.uoregon.edu UO LIBRARY OFFERS HOME COMPUTER DELIVERY OF FULL-TEXT ARTICLES When students start classes this fall, they'll find they can skip the library visit and do some of their outside reading assignments on their home computer. Thanks to a new, more powerful research tool , the library can now make available electronically the full texts of articles in academic journals and general magazines such as Time and The Nation. "When library patrons use their home computer to look up a reference, they will find not only the citation but also the full article," says Deborah Carver, UO associate university librarian for public services and collections. "It can be a real time saver, because students and other researchers can simply download and print the article--from home or wherever they're accessing the UO network--without having to hunt up a hard copy on the library shelves." Students, faculty and staff can connect to the full-text databases from Janus, the UO Library System's on-line information system. It is on the Web at <http://libweb.uoregon.edu/index.html>. SOURCE: Deborah Carver, associate university librarian for public services and collections, (541) 346-1892; e-mail, dcarver@oregon.uoregon.edu -30- #T-1037/DAY