Dialog, UA Faculty and Staff News

UA to Co-Host National Conference on Quality in Higher Education
Allen Bales Series to Present Antigone in February
Psychology Department to Host Annual Harold Basowitz Memorial Lecture
Campus Mail Announces New Services
Lecture Series to Touch on Darwin, Atheism and God

UA to Co-Host National Conference on Quality in Higher Education

The University of Alabama and Samford University will co-host a national conference on Continuous Quality Improvement in Academic Programs on Thursday, Feb. 6, starting at 8 a.m. in the Bryant Conference Center. The one-day event will be conducted by the National Consortium for Continuous Improvement in Higher Education. Dr. Mike Baer, senior vice-president of the American Council on Education, will be the keynote speaker. Interested faculty and staff may register by contacting the CQI office at 348-9831.

The program will include a panel discussion on Using Quality to Improve Academic Programs, featuring UA's Dr. James "Ike" Adams, dean of the School of Social Work, and Dr. Sara Barger, dean of the Capstone College of Nursing, and Dean Ruth Ash and Dean Joseph Dean from Samford. Dr. David Chapman, dean of arts and sciences, and Dr. George Keller, associate dean of arts and sciences, both at Samford, will give a presentation on their nationally recognized program on problem-based learning.

Dr. Robert Batson, of UA's College of Engineering, will speak on using a quality systems approach to undergraduate programs self-study. Dr. Robert Olin, UA's dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, will speak on improving math education, and Dr. Zhijian Wu will provide a tour of UA's Math Lab.

Allen Bales Series to Present Antigone in February

Sophocles's classic story of Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, will be presented in the Allen Bales Theatre on campus Tuesday through Saturday, Feb. 11-15 at 7:30 p.m. and on Sunday, Feb. 16, at 2 p.m.

The work is a distillation of many classical translations, staying true to the dramatic action of Sophocles, yet fusing the traditional story with a contemporary twist. This presentation will be told in a modern light, expanding on the avant-garde tradition. Antigone looks at the age old theme of broken pride and fallen giants resonates as loudly today as it has in the past.

Admission for Bales Series is $5 for all seats. For information, call 348-3400. Visit UA's department of Theatre and Dance, within the College of Arts and Sciences, at www.as.ua.edu/theatre.

Psychology Department to Host Annual Harold Basowitz Memorial Lecture

Dr. Ed Diener

UA's psychology department will host the annual Harold Basowitz Memorial Lecture on Friday, Jan. 24. The public lecture will be held at 7 p.m. in 208 Gordon Palmer Hall and feature guest speaker Dr. Ed Diener. Diener's lecture is titled "The Causes and Benefits of Happiness." He is an Alumni Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois where he has been a faculty member since 1974.

For more information about the lecture, contact the department at 348-5083. Information on Diener is available at http://s.psych.uiuc.edu/~ediener/.

Campus Mail Announces New Services

Campus Mail has announced three new services: Expanded Mail Delivery, Centralized Afternoon Pick-up Service (CAPS) and Campus Express. These services are explained in detail on the Web site at www.campusmail.ua.edu. The three-route delivery system has expanded to a three-and-one-half-route delivery system to accommodate growth of the University and the increase in incoming mail volumes. The added route will consist of several mail stops from the original three routes. Offices may see a change in the time their mail is delivered and picked-up as the new delivery system is put into place. A different delivery clerk may be assigned to the routes, as mail stops have been reconfigured for the new route system. Visit the Campus Mail Service Web site to check expected mail delivery/pick-up times.

CAPS allows departments to put outgoing mail in one of four strategically placed dropboxes on campus and have the mail processed the same day. Pick-up in CAPS boxes are made between 2 and 3 p.m. See details on the Web at www.campusmail.ua.edu.

Campus Express is a same-day delivery service for on-campus customers who need to send urgent items to accounting, payroll, purchasing, or human resources. Those items should be put in color-coded pouches to by-pass regular sorting. For details, go to the Web site at www.campusmail.ua.edu.

Lecture Series to Touch on Darwin, Atheism and God

Dr. Michael Ruse

Dr. Michael Ruse, Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University, will present three lectures during a visit at UA Jan. 27-28. All lectures are free and open to the university community and the public.

The lectures will include: "Darwinism and Atheism: A Marriage Made in Heaven," Monday, Jan. 27, at 4 p.m. in room 30 ten Hoor Hall; "Is Darwinism a Social Construction," Monday, Jan. 27, at 7:30 p.m. in room 30 ten Hoor; and "Whatever Happened to the Teleological Argument for the Existence of God?," Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 4 p.m. in room 241 ten Hoor.

Ruse is the author of 19 books and more than 100 articles on topics related to Darwin, genetics, evolution, creationism, feminism and homosexuality. For more information, contact Richard Richards in the department of philosophy at rrichard@bama.ua.edu, 348-2332 or 348-1585.