Arizona State University

ASU Parking and Transit Services (PTS) has announced its partnership with Flexcar, the largest car-sharing company in the United States.

PTS, which is committed to providing sustainable, viable transportation options for the campus community, is bringing Flexcar’s service to the university. The Tempe campus also marks the first site in the state of Arizona where Flexcar will have a presence.

An official launch celebration is scheduled for noon, Sept. 6, at the cul-de-sac of the Memorial Union.

Flexcar is a company that provides low-emission, fuel-efficient vehicles for rent. Ten Flexcar vehicles, including Scions, hybrids, trucks and a MINI Cooper, are parked in various locations on the Tempe campus. As of Aug. 28, ASU students, faculty and staff can sign up to become members of Flexcar. The first year’s membership is free for individuals who sign up before Nov. 28. The annual membership fee is $35, but this fee is waived if a member rents a Flexcar at least twice in one year.

Flexcar members can rent a vehicle for an hourly rate, typically between $8 and $10 per hour. Vehicles also can be rented for the day. As an added value, the hourly or daily fee covers all gas, insurance and maintenance expenses.

“We are thrilled to bring the Flexcar program to the ASU community,” says Theresa Fletcher, director of PTS. “This innovative car-sharing program will make it easier for ASU students, faculty and staff to use alternate forms of transportation to travel to campus, and still have affordable access to a vehicle when needed.”

For faculty and staff, limited parking and the rising cost of gasoline make driving a car to campus increasingly cost-prohibitive. Employees can now leave their car at home and use Flexcar for personal errands. If their department chooses to establish an account, employees also can use Flexcar for university-related trips or meetings and charge it back to the department.

“PTS recognizes the need for convenient, environmentally conscious solutions to accessing campus,” Fletcher says. “Introducing the Flexcar program to ASU is just one additional way we are working to consistently offer students, faculty and staff valuable transit options.”
To learn more about Flexcar, visit the Web site www.flexcar.com. For additional information on the variety of transportation services PTS provides, visit the Web site www.asu.edu/parking.

Shereen Saurey, shereen.saurey@asu.edu
(480) 727-7053
Parking and Transit Services

Professor David Kaye is spending the academic year away from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, teaching international human-rights law and other subjects in a country often criticized for its human-rights record.

Kaye, a Regents’ Professor of Law and a professor of life sciences, will be the Freeman Foundation Visiting Professor of American Law at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies in China. The center, a joint venture of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and Nanjing University, attracts American and other English-speaking students who live and study together with Chinese students in the historic city of Nanjing.

International students there focus on contemporary China and are taught by Chinese professors in Mandarin, while Chinese students study the United States and the international system in English with American professors.

Kaye, an internationally recognized expert on scientific evidence and statistical methods in law, is among seven American faculty members chosen by the center this year. Their expertise is in law, political science, history and economics.

Kaye will teach courses in law and science, the American legal system, and the history and philosophy of Western law, as well as international human-rights law.

“It’s a sensitive topic in China,” he says, referring to the U.S. Department of State’s human rights reports that have criticized China for repression of ethnic minorities, torture and executions, and other misconduct. He noted that China has responded by citing the mistreatment of prisoners and civilians in Iraq, U.S. crime rates, poverty, racial discrimination, police brutality and false stories in newspapers as American human-rights violations.

Kaye said he is looking forward to discussing with modern Chinese students their outlook on human rights, and learning whether they embrace the Western world’s view of them.

He will alter a course on “Law in a Technological Society,” which he’s taught at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, to focus on law and medicine, bioethics, forensics, and other technologies and scientific developments that are pertinent to modern China.
“The Chinese are interested in learning about the regulation of technology, environmental, protection, genetically modified foods, and the international regulation of such matters,” Kaye says.

The prestigious Johns Hopkins program recruited Kaye as a result of his earlier teaching in China. He first traveled there in 2003 as a Fulbright professor at the Wuhan University law school in the province of Hubei, in central China, and taught the first courses in U.S. evidence and scientific evidence offered in China.

In the spring of 2004, Kaye taught an evidence course at Sichuan University in Chengdu, in western China.

His classes in Wuhan and Chengdu had 30 to 50 students in them and lasted three hours per class. He found Chinese students to be more respectful – and also more reluctant to speak out in class – than their American counterparts.

“During the breaks, they would come up to me to ask questions, but they didn’t want to do that in front of the group,” Kaye says. “I think they were concerned about losing face. They also said that it was impolite to interrupt a professor.”

In 2005, he returned to China at the invitation of the Beijing Genomics Institute to serve on the faculty of an international workshop on forensic DNA evidence for Chinese law enforcement officials. In 2006, Kaye joined the Board of Foreign Advisers of the newly formed Institute of Evidence and Forensic Science at the Chinese University of Politics and Law in Beijing.

Kaye, who speaks “very rudimentary Chinese – enough to be polite, to order food, and buy a bus or train ticket,” he says – and his wife, Nancy, are looking forward to reuniting with friends made in China and traveling the countryside.

During the year, Kaye also plans to complete two new books. One that will be published by Harvard University Press is a legal history of DNA evidence. The other, to be published by Yale University Press, analyzes civil liberties and criminal procedural issues posed by DNA evidence.
Kaye’s appointment to the Nanjing faculty expands the College of Law’s connections to China. In recent years, David Kader taught torts at Wuhan University, and Charles Calleros presented a short course in common law reasoning to law students at the Wuhan University of Economics and Law.

Chinese law professors from Hubei have studied American law at the college, which also has, or is establishing, faculty exchange programs with Sichuan University and Shanghai Jiaotong University.

How did the ancient Egyptians feel about life and death?

Lanny Bell, an archaeologist from Brown University, will examine Egyptian beliefs in a free lecture titled “Mummies, Magic and Medicine: An Introduction to Ancient Egyptian Funerary Beliefs and Practices” at 7 p.m., Sept. 18, in Life Sciences Center room A-191 on ASU’s Tempe campus.

“An examination of the way the ancient Egyptians faced the all-too-familiar problem of death reveals that rather than being obsessed with death, they were obsessed with life,” Bell says. “They enjoyed their earthly existence and at the same time looked forward to an eternal existence based on the idea that death was the portal to rebirth into a new kind of life.”

Bell’s lecture will range from the Old Kingdom (2675-2175 BCE) through the New Kingdom (1570-1070 BCE).

The lecture is sponsored by the Central Arizona Society, the Archaeological Institute of America and ASU’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change.

For more information, contact Liz Griesman at (623) 974-0297 or elizabeth.griesman@asu.edu.

Fifteen ASU student-led ventures launched Aug. 23 as part of the third annual Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative selection process. Student teams competed for award money to explore their innovative ideas for business products and services or social good.

Submissions came from 78 teams cutting across ASU campuses and disciplines.

The initiative, made possible by a $5.4 million donation in October 2004 from Orin Edson to the ASU Foundation, supports student-led ventures at ASU. Annually, $200,000 is awarded, with awards including up to $20,000 in seed funding, office space at the initiative’s facility located at the Brickyard in downtown Tempe, and training and networking opportunities with ASU faculty, researchers and successful entrepreneurs.

The Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative will expand operations with a presence at the forthcoming SkySong, the ASU-Scottsdale Innovation Center that will become a force and focal point for excellence in technological innovation, cross-disciplinary collaborations and entrepreneurial ventures.

Team members of the 15 Edson ventures come from throughout the university, including the ASU Research Park, the W. P. Carey School of Business, the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, the School of Sustainability, the Katherine K. Herberger College of the Arts, the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University College, the Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness, the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the School of Applied Arts and Sciences, the College of Public Programs, the College of Design, the Department of Aeronautical Management and Technology, and Barrett, the Honors College.

The 15 Edson venture awardees for 2007 are:

• Arizona Community Loans – Leverages community partnerships to provide the under-funded with short-term loans, and the techniques for debt management and asset building necessary to thrive in our communities.

• Community SNAP of AZ – Dedicated to ending companion pet overpopulation in the state of Arizona by providing economically under-represented communities with access to low or no-cost spay and neuter services via a mobile surgical animal hospital, with the goal of ending euthanasia as a method of population control for companion animals.

• e-music instruction – Delivers live, interactive music instruction for students of all skill-levels via consumer webcam technology.

• Protector Personal Money Managers – Provides personal bookkeeping and bill-payment services for senior citizens, ensuring peace-of-mind for seniors and their families.

• Genie Accounting Suite – Online business and workflow management system that allows companies to manage and automate essential business processes, as well as access data from any wireless device.

• Green Dream – Develops a variety of sustainable products to help reduce solid waste pollution, starting with a biodegradable, compostable drinking straw.

• Green Cab Co. – Arizona’s first sustainable taxicab company, which operates a fleet of alternative fuel vehicles to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

• Invivoproteins – Develops novel human proteins for medicinal use.

• PURE – A natural, organic fast food eatery based on a sustainable model, serving a wide selection of healthy foods for people on the go. PURE aims to deepen the local economy by supporting local farmers.

• Sideline Star – Connecting the cheerleading and dance industry’s participants and vendors through an online social network, offering free memberships and paid subscription access to premium features.

• Sol Cover – Has designed and is patenting an innovative pool cover to increase the temperature of pool water and extend the swimming season.

• Interactive Language Learning – Provides global solutions to foreign language learners by using innovative, Web-based teaching tools.

• Thermcool Adsorption Systems – Researches and is developing a solar-powered, small-scale (less than 2 tons) air-conditioning system that will provide cooling for off-grid communities, mobile offices, single-family residences and military users.

• TUPO International – A nonprofit organization that uses untapped resources in the form of student and community volunteers to provide health care services for resource-limited communities, improving community health and economy, and developing leaders in public health.

• Watel Solutions Corp. – Developed and is commercializing an atmospheric water generator — a machine that efficiently extracts humidity out of the air to create clean, drinkable water.

Other statistics about the 15 Edson portfolio ventures:

• Women are on seven of the teams (women lead five of these ventures).

• Minorities are on four of the teams (minorities lead all four of these ventures).
In addition to the 15 newly awarded ventures, four teams from the 2006 Edson portfolio were granted second-year funds and space in the Edson facility.

The four Edson ventures awarded with continued funding and space are HydroHeadwear, Max Power Motors, Onto IP and Project Literacy.

“The Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative was pleased with the strong pool of applicants for this year’s program, and is very excited about the quality of the student ventures selected for the 2007-2008 award year,” says Terree Parlett Wasley, director of ASU’s Entrepreneurial Initiatives. “We are thrilled with the diversity of the ventures and look forward to working with all of them throughout the coming year, providing coaching, mentoring and assistance to them.”

Teams of students started organizing after attending an Edson Initiative training session. Teams had to submit a brief proposal describing their business concept, marketing strategy and venture budget. Select ventures provided presentations to a panel of judges.

A panel of private-sector entrepreneurs and service providers, in addition to university administrators, judged the submissions based on business concept, marketing strategy, team qualifications, proposed budget, and potential for financial return or social impact. Edson, the program’s benefactor, participated in the selection process and reported that he was very pleased with the quality of this year’s student ventures.

For further information about the Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative, visit www.studentventures.asu.edu.

ASU is committed to every student’s success, and this includes seeing them choose a major that fits their interests and aptitudes.

While some students may know exactly what they want to do or be when they come to the university, others have no idea, or they may have parental expectations that turn out to be unrealistic.

A new tool is now available to help ASU students find their way through the maze of majors. Called eAdvisor, the online advising and tracking program compliments personal academic advisers by helping students understand the courses that are required for a specific major. eAdvisor helps students explore majors in a systematic fashion.

“People assume that students drop out of college because they can’t do the work, but this is not usually the case,” says Elizabeth D. Capaldi, ASU’s executive vice president and provost. “Many of the students we lose have excellent academic records. They just can’t seem to find a major that fits, and they get frustrated that they aren’t making progress toward a degree. The most significant improvement leading to timely graduation comes from good academic advising.”

eAdvisor enhances advising by providing the prescriptive advising element – telling students what and when they should take courses – while in-person advising allows the advisors to deal with the “people issues,” such as exploring interests and examining special circumstances.
Universities such as the University of Florida, where Capaldi formerly served as provost, use similar online tracking tools. When this tool was implemented, Florida experienced a 7 percent increase in retention and graduation rates, as well as a 57 percent increase in students’ positive feelings about the university’s registration and advising process.

Here’s how it works. For students who don’t know what they want to major in, eAdvisor helps them assess the majors that might be good for them, based on their interests and career goals.

Each of ASU’s 250 undergraduate majors has what is called a “major map,” where students can browse the required coursework. Faculty responsible for each program develop the major maps that include general education requirements, prerequisites, required courses, electives and the sequence in which courses should be taken.

Once students choose a major, eAdvisor gives them “feedback” on how they are progressing toward their degree. Integral to the major map is exposing students to critical coursework required for their degree program early in their academic experience.
These courses are bolded and colored “red” on the major map. If students perform well in their critical coursework and meet the designated GPAs on the major maps, it is likely they are suited to succeed in the major.

“A number of students put off taking basic required courses until their junior or senior year,” Capaldi says. “They may struggle and then come to the conclusion that the major isn’t for them. Having to change your major that far into your academic career can delay graduation. That is why it is so important for students to take this coursework during their freshman and sophomore years.”

With professional programs such as business or nursing, it is vital to stay on track, Capaldi says. Students must show significant academic achievement at the end of their sophomore year to be accepted into the professional program.

eAdvisor identifies students who are off track and notifies their personal academic advisers. Situations that can cause a student to get off track include:

• Dropping or not registering for a course defined as a critical requirement.

• Not meeting the minimum course grade.

• Not meeting the overall university GPA requirement.

• Being placed on academic probation.

Once off track, students cannot register until they meet with their advisers. The advising sessions help them get back on track or explore other degree options. This introduces the necessary personal element to determine why a student is off track. For example, the advisor will allow a student who had personal issues to continue in the major, while a student whose academic skills do not match the major will be guided to a better major match.

“Advisors sometimes want to focus on helping students through a major when it isn’t working,” Capaldi says. “Sometimes we have to be an academic coach and help them find the position that fits.”

In Spring 2008, the eAdvisor system will be expanded to include a more robust degree search that will allow students to compare the coursework they have completed to various major maps. They then can review alternative tracks that show what they would need to complete an alternative major. This gives students more control over their options and more accurate information about the additional times that may be required to complete a new major.

An added benefit of eAdvisor is that it helps colleges manage enrollment. If departments know what students are majoring in and what courses they are required to take, they can increase or decrease seats accordingly.

Alice normally lives on a mountain in Phoenix.

But for several weeks, “home” was a room in the Mayo Hospital while she made the first strides in recovering from a stroke.

Ironically, from her hospital room, Alice could see the mountain where her home was. And so, when Sheila Britton wrote a poem about Alice, she titled it “Alice’s Mountain.”

Alice’s poem, completed in May, is one of more than 50 that Britton, managing editor for ASU Research Publications, has written in the past two-and-a-half years as part of ASU’s Poesía del Sol, a joint project of ASU’s Creative Writing Program and Mayo Clinic’s Center for Humanities in Medicine.

Karla Elling, manager of the Creative Writing Program, coordinates Poesía del Sol, and Alberto Rios, Regents Professor of English, who holds the Katharine C. Turner Chair in English, is the faculty member facilitating the work. The project recently won a Community Governor’s Arts Award.

Every Tuesday afternoon, Britton travels to the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix with her laptop, a portable printer and a supply of paper folders.

She spends time getting to know one patient, usually a person in palliative care. During a visit of an hour or so, Britton chats with the patient, making notes about his or her jobs, travels, children, pets and dreams. Then, with images fresh in her mind, she goes to a quiet place in the hospital and writes a poem about the person.

Finally, she returns to the patient’s room, reads the poem, and presents it as a gift, printed on handmade paper and tucked inside a folder also made of special paper.

Most Tuesdays, Britton finds a person to write about, but occasionally no one is available.

Her quest usually begins on the third floor of the hospital, where notebooks for Poesía del Sol are kept at the nurse’s station. During the week, Mayo’s physical therapists write names of patients they think would be good candidates for poems, as does Vicki McDermott, a singer who participates in the Humanities program.

Britton notes their names and room numbers, then begins chatting with the nurses about who would be appropriate.

“It’s helpful to talk to the doctors and nurses,” Britton says. “They know if someone is talkative.”

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Britton checked on three patients before finding Alice. One had checked out, one was asleep, and the third was too ill.

“If I don’t find anyone in the hospital, I go to Sherman House, which is Mayo’s hospice,” Britton says.

Generally, Britton writes poetry for patients who still are receiving treatment but nearing the end of their lives. But occasionally, there will be a person who is seriously ill but not dying. One such person was Kai, an 18-year-old patient with lupus who had contracted Valley fever.

“I asked him if this would be something he enjoyed,” Britton says. “He had a tracheotomy and he couldn’t talk, but he nodded yes. His mother answered all of my questions. When I returned to Kai’s room, his mom had gone home to take care of their daughter, and his father was in the room. He had not talked when I was there before. When I finished reading the poem and Kai spelled out, ‘Can I have a copy?’ his dad said, ‘This is amazing. We’re going to hang this on the wall.’ He seemed very moved.”

Why create poetry for very ill or elderly people?

C.J. Kennedy, coordinator for Mayo’s Center for Humanities in Medicine program in Arizona, said Poesía del Sol “gives them the opportunity to express important moments of their lives, and the poem produced is a cherished gift for loved ones of the patient.”

Poesía del Sol “takes the best writers we can find,” Kennedy adds, “because it requires writing poetry ‘on demand.’ The writer usually has less than an hour to create the poem based on the patient’s words, but formed by the poet’s use of metaphor and imagination.”

Alice’s daughter, Barbara, says that her mother “very much enjoyed the ‘discovery’ part of being interviewed. Some of her information caused some poetic misinformation, but generally the poem is right – and we both thoroughly enjoying hearing Sheilah read it.”

Another Tuesday there will be another life, and another poem.

“Every life has a poem,” Britton says.

As the ASU football team's 2007 season kicks off on Saturday, the Sun Devil ticket office wanted to provide fans with a few reminders about this weekend's opening contest at Sun Devil Stadium.

ASU Athletics Introduces Digital Ticketing

At this Saturday's football home opener, we are introducing our upgraded ticket system. Gates open at 5:30 p.m., so be sure to arrive early and start the game in your seats, not in line!

Barcoded Tickets

For the first time ever, we will be scanning your tickets as you enter the stadium. Ticket scanning curbs counterfeit ticketing and provides you with optimal security.

Print-at-Home Tickets

Purchase tickets online and receive the instantly via email! Print them at home, and bypass will call lines at the game.

Season Tickets Are Still Available

Season tickets for the outstanding 8-game 2007 home season start at just $99!

The ASU Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management (CNLM) has released “Speak Out, Speak Up,” a proceedings paper based on the role of nonprofits in public policy and advocacy, which took place April 4 as part of the ninth annual Forum on Nonprofit Effectiveness. The forum was titled “Speak Out! Empowering Nonprofits to Help Shape Public Dialogue.”

The think tank, moderated by Rob Melnick, the director of ASU’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy, gathered leaders from a variety of agencies, including nonprofits, corporations and government.

“Speak Out, Speak Up” captures the lively and involved discussions had by think tank participants concerning whether nonprofits should engage in advocacy and how best to engage in the process of public policy. The 12-page publication also provides a listing of acceptable advocacy activities, tax facts, a listing of online advocacy resources and a wealth of firsthand knowledge and experience.

“Every nonprofit, despite its mission, size or scope, should actively consider ways to intersect into the public policy and advocacy arena,” says Robert Ashcraft, the director of ASU’s Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management. “There are numerous myths operating that keep many nonprofits from participating. This think tank publication is a helpful analysis of the possibilities as offered by champions of the nonprofit sector in Arizona.”

The free publication can be downloaded in PDF form at the Web site http://nonprofit.asu.edu. It also can be obtained by calling the center at (602) 496-0500.

Amy Cox O’Hara, (602) 496-0185
Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management

The ASU Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management (CNLM) held its inaugural Public Allies Arizona graduation ceremony July 25 at the Desert Botanical Gardens.

Public Allies is an AmeriCorps national youth leadership organization that places service-minded young people in apprenticeships in nonprofit organizations throughout the community. It identifies talented young adults from diverse backgrounds and advances their leadership through a 10-month program of full-time, paid apprenticeships in nonprofit organizations, leadership trainings and team service projects.

The ceremony recognized 12 public allies and the 12 partner organization nonprofits where the Allies completed their apprenticeships, including the following:

• Micaela Cheatham, Arizona Spinal Cord Injury Association.

• Shazi Chiha, Childhelp USA.

• Jessica Feldman, Valley of the Sun United Way.

• Rafe Halsey, Riparian Institute.

• Jolie LaBrot, Arizona Association for Environmental Education.

• Paula Lowe-Chin, Crittenton Youth Academy.

• Elizabeth McBride, Communities in Schools of Arizona.

• Ayensa Millan, Community Legal Services.

• Emily Nock, Alzheimer’s Association.

• Akeia Randolph, Beatitudes Center DOAR.

• Celia Williams, Volunteer Center of Maricopa County.

• Diana Zaragoza, Valle del Sol.

Collectively, the 2006-2007 allies have served more than 24,250 hours and directly affected more than 12,674 people. Additional 2006-2007 program highlights include:

• Allies have recruited close to 4,000 volunteers who have served 45,685 hours and affected 3,125 people.

• Allies created 180 new community linkages on behalf of their partner organizations, representing new opportunities for information sharing, partnerships and collaborative projects.

• In recognition of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, allies picked more than 4,232 pounds of citrus fruit as part of a gleaning project in partnership with Make a Difference and United Food Bank.

• In recognition of Cesar Chavez Day, allies conducted a book drive and distributed more than 1,500 books to children at Squaw Peak Elementary School in partnership with Communities in Schools of Arizona.

• Allies received 272.5 hours of training on a wide range of topics, including nonprofit management; diversity, power and privilege; interpersonal communications; and project management, citizenship, leadership and community organizing.

Communities In Schools, a 2006-2007 Partner Organization, is returning for the 2007-2008 year, based on its experience with Public Allies.

“This is an outstanding group of individuals who let their beliefs and passions on the inside translate into the work they do on the outside,” says Cassandra Hilpman, director of program services at Communities in Schools. “Public Allies has helped to propel our organization to a deeper level of community impact and interaction, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for this upcoming year.”

Amy Cox O’Hara, (602) 496-0185
Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management

The largest grant amount ever awarded to fund mathematics research at ASU will support a project aimed at making advances in medical technology to improve magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The National Science Foundation grant will provide $1 million over three years to the project titled “Mathematical Foundations of Magnetic Resonance Imaging” led by Rosemary Renaut, a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

Fellow mathematics and statistics faculty on Renaut’s team include professor Randall Eubank, professor Anne Gelb and assistant professor Svetlana Roudenko. They are joined by Douglas Cochran, assistant dean of research for the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering and associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering.

The project involves a partnership with the Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI) in Phoenix, particularly with the institute’s MRI system designers, James Pipe and Josef Debbins.

The team’s will work be to increase the understanding of the mathematics and algorithms necessary to improve the clarity of magnetic resonance images, and increase the speed at which images can be produced. The research also should enable development of advanced diagnostic methods that can more precisely depict moving tissues, such as a beating heart or blood flowing in veins, Cochran says.

“Success in this project can provide a springboard for advances in other aspects of medical imaging,” he says.

Adds Renaut: “It’s exciting to be able to contribute better mathematical understanding of recent novel image acquisition approaches that are being pioneered by the team at BNI. These technical advances can provide enhanced image resolution while reducing scan time for patients.

“We are also thrilled to provide the opportunity for some talented undergraduate and graduate students to become acquainted with sophisticated mathematics through such a relevant and significant application.”

To fill the need for more specialized information about autism spectrum disorders (ASD), the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education’s Division of Curriculum and Instruction has developed a program that prepares participants with the latest information and practical techniques to better prepare and serve those with autism. The 15-graduate-credit-hour program, which debuts this semester as the “Autism Spectrum Disorders Graduate Certificate,” uses in-class and online sessions to prepare students for the challenges of working with ASD.

Autism affects an estimated 1 out of 150 children in the United States. A steady rise in the number of individuals affected by ASD has created a public demand for professionals who are aware of the issues and needs facing these special individuals, as well as their families and service providers.

The ASD graduate certificate consists of four classes and a practicum. The practicum provides an opportunity to use new knowledge and skills in a real work setting consistent with the student’s interests and abilities.

The program hopes to enroll students from a variety of disciplines including social work, nursing, psychology, and counseling, in addition to parents and caretakers of those with ASD.

The history of offering such a certificate began in 2006 with a tri-university partnership between ASU, Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona that offered classes about ASD online. Initially, the tri-university program was restricted to only accepting teachers who would agree to teach in the State of Arizona for at least two years. When the introductory course was first offered, more than 50 people signed up, but just five students were allowed to enroll from each university.

“Based upon this demand, we could clearly see there was a huge interest for more information about autism spectrum disorders, and the demand reached far beyond just teachers, but anyone who worked with or was affected by an individual with ASD,” says Kathleen McCoy, an associate professor in the Division of Curriculum and Instruction and the faculty coordinator for the ASD graduate certificate.

“Offering such a program is fairly new and uncharted territory, but the need for an ASD graduate certificate program has been around for a long time,” McCoy says. “We are really ahead of the curve in offering a graduate certificate that is open to other disciplines beyond teaching. The program is so flexible that students can really tailor the program to best fit their needs.

“The more people who are educated in this area, the better we will be able to serve the children and adults with ASD who are in the schools. It’s important that those in general education realize that most individuals with ASD are not placed in special education, but rather are integrated in regular education classes. So this certificate is especially relevant for those teachers as well.”

McCoy hopes that, by better educating general educators, they will be better trained to identify the signs of autism.

“All too often, inappropriate behavior in a classroom is identified as just that, but in reality it is a student with autism,” McCoy says. “It’s the children and adolescents who seem a little off or atypical who suffer as a result of being misunderstood and have a difficult time in school.

“My long-term goal for this program is that we better educate the public so that they understand the complexity of autism. Children with autism are all different and not clones … they’re individuals, and we need to deal with how they process information on an individual basis, instead of lumping them all together and treating them the same.”

For more information, visit the Web site http://coe.asu.edu or contact the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education at (480) 965-6502.

Paula Miller
Mary Lou Fulton College of Education 

Raul Yzaguirre, Arizona State University presidential professor of practice and director of the ASU Center for Community Development and Civil Rights in the College of Public Programs will be honored on Sept. 5 with a Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the first-ever Smithsonian Latino Center Legacy Awards ceremony.  The Legacy Awards will be presented at ¡Smithsonian Con Sabor!, a black-tie fundraising gala for nearly 1,000 national Latino community leaders from all sectors.  The dinner will be held at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. as part of the Latino Center’s 10^th anniversary celebration.

Yzaguirre is being recognized for his 30 years as president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest constituency-based national Hispanic organization and a leading Hispanic “think tank” in Washington, D.C., and for his role as founder and director of the ASU Center for Community Development and Civil Rights.   His legacy includes building NCLR from a regional advocacy group with 17 affiliates into an organization of more than 300 affiliates serving 41 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

“Raul Yzaguirre’s influence on our nation is legendary.  He is a national treasure.  We congratulate him on this rare honor, and thank him for choosing ASU to continue his career,” said Debra Friedman, dean of the ASU College of Public Programs. “Our Center for Community Development and Civil Rights’ educational, asset-building and community development projects are thriving under his leadership.”  

Throughout his life, Yzaguirre has fought for recognition of Latinos in all sectors of American society, particularly entertainment and culture.  At the Smithsonian Institution, he chaired a task force calling for greater representation of Latinos in exhibitions, programs, collections and the Smithsonian’s work force.  The task force eventually led to the establishment of the Smithsonian Latino Center in 1997.

Yzaguirre continues to be involved with various Hispanic organizations, serving on the Boards of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute to name a few.  Among his many honors and awards, he was the first Hispanic to receive a Rockefeller Public Service Award from Princeton University and also received the Order of the Aztec Eagle in 1993, the highest honor awarded by the Government of Mexico to citizens of another country.

The Smithsonian Latino Center’s 2007 Legacy Awards will also recognize a number of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans making significant contributions to the arts, sciences and humanities in the United States.  U.S. Senators Mel Martinez and Ken Salazar will receive special recognition for demonstrating political leadership in advancing Latino culture and heritage. 

Mrs. Columba Bush, former First Lady of Florida, is the event’s Gala Chair and Ambassador Sarukhan of Mexico is Honorary Patron.  President Felipe Calderón and First Lady Margarita Zavala of Mexico have been invited to participate as honorary hosts.  In addition to Yzaguirre, 2007 Legacy Award honorees include: 

Design:                   Enrique Norten and David Rodríguez

Visual Arts:            Graciela Iturbide and Carmen Lomas Garza

Film:                      Arturo Ripstein and Moctesuma Esparza

Music:                   Los Tigres Del Norte

Arts Advocacy:     Guadalupe Rivera Marín and Cheech Marin

Literature:              Laura Esquivel and Luis Valdez

Humanities:           Tomás Ybarra-Frausto and Dana Gioia

Emerging Talent:    Alejandro Monteverde and Eduardo Verástegui 

The Smithsonian Latino Center’s 10^th anniversary celebration also features the “Mexican Treasures of the Smithsonian” exhibition, which also launches Sept. 5.  The annual exhibition features a different Latin American country each year.  A bilingual online component of the display will be available at http://www.latino.si.edu/exhibitions/.  

As a founder of the Smithsonian Latino Center, Yzaguirre’s legacy includes ensuring that Latino contributions to arts, sciences and the humanities are highlighted through public programs, scholarly research, museum collections and educational opportunities at the Smithsonian Institution and its affiliated organizations.

The Arizona State University Center for Community Development & Civil Rights will host the third in its annual series of civil rights forums for ASU and the local community featuring prominent conservative author and columnist, Linda Chavez and Center founder and executive director, Raul Yzaguirre.

The forum includes two days of discussion, debate and question and answer sessions on contemporary civil rights and immigration in the United States, moderated by veteran journalist James E. Garcia. A session on Sept. 27 will be open to ASU students, faculty and staff only. The public is invited to a breakfast forum on Sept. 28 at the Phoenix Convention Center.

Chavez, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, writes a syndicated column and is a political commentator for FOX News Channel. She was staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 1983 to 1985 under President Ronald Reagan, and was a nominee for Labor Secretary for the Bush Administration. She is the author of the memoir, “An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal” (Basic Books 2002).

Her most recent book is “Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics” (Crown Books, 2004). She also wrote “Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation” (Basic Books 1991), which the Denver Post described as a book that "should explode the stereotypes about Hispanics that have clouded the minds of patronizing liberals and xenophobic conservatives alike."

In addition to his work as Center for Community Development and Civil Rights executive director, Yzaguirre is also ASU Professor of Practice in the College of Public Programs. He served for 30 years as president and chief executive officer of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). Under his tenure, the organization became the largest national constituency-based Latino organization in the country and the leading Hispanic think tank in Washington. D.C.

His lifelong legacy of national civil rights advocacy includes being instrumental in extending civil rights laws; restoring benefits for legal immigrants after 1996 welfare reform; expanding Hispanic access to federal education programs; expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit for working families; and molding the North American Free Trade Agreement to address the needs of Hispanic Americans.

The Center’s prior forums include a screening of the HBO film “Walkout” and discussion with Yzaguirre, actor-director Edward James Olmos and film producer Moctesuma Esparza and a lecture featuring Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League on the future of Latinos and African-Americans in the U.S. educational system and workforce.

For lecture details contact Leticia de la Vara, Program Manager, ASU Center for Community Development and Civil Rights at Leticia.delaVara@asu.edu or (602) 496-0433 or see http://cdcr.asu.edu.

ASU anticipates its freshman class will break records again, with a projected 9,300 students. This number of first-time freshmen is the largest in history, almost twice as large as the entering class 10 years ago.

The number of national scholars in the class (National Merit, National Hispanic and National Achievement) totals 266. The number of freshman national scholars at ASU has increased by 25 percent in the past five years, with the number of National Hispanic Scholars increasing by 180 percent during this time. ASU is among the top schools in the country for national scholars.

More than one-third of the 2007 freshman class are students of color, doubling over the past 10 years, reflecting the changing demographics of Arizona and the nation. ASU students come from all 50 states and more than 150 foreign countries.

The number of top scholars from Arizona enrolling at ASU also continues to increase at record pace. ASU President and Provost Scholars increased 11 percent over last year and 64 percent in the past five years. These are students who perform at the very top of their high school graduating class. More than 1,700 President and Provost Scholars, 30 percent of the freshmen from Arizona, are part of this year’s class.

“Our growth in scholars outpaces the overall growth rate, demonstrating that quality and size go together,” says Jim Rund, vice president for university student initiatives. “ASU’s outstanding academic offerings enable our ability to enroll more top students reflecting the demographics of our state.”

“It’s exciting to see so many students take advantage of the high-quality academic experience that is offered at ASU,” adds Martha Byrd, dean of undergraduate admissions. “Our freshman class is entering with a new energy and focus and with high expectations. We look forward to providing them with a world-class university experience.”

Official enrollment numbers for ASU will not be available until after the 21st day of class.

Arizona State University’s Downtown Phoenix Campus, in conjunction with the Phoenix Brain Team and NxTHorizon.com, is proud to sponsor a free lecture by international jazz guitarist Nick Colionne entitled “The Business of Jazz” with special guest, jazz industry manager Carol Ray on Sept. 5 from noon to 2 p.m..

Chicago-based Colionne, a professional jazz guitarist who began his career at age 15, has a musical style that truly pushes the envelope of what is accepted as “normal jazz”.

Colionne says his philosophy is “you have to go back to the people who created the music to learn.” He sees jazz as a sophisticated musical form that allows him to shine by playing edgy music with few restrictions.

After exploring different areas of music including rock, blues, rhythm and blues and heavy metal, Colionne eventually came back to his true musical passion - jazz. Colionne is still able to incorporate various other styles of music into his jazz style, which critics have described as “a jazzy R&B sound, with a real funky edge and a pure tone.”

A wiz on the guitar, Colionne believes in telling musical stories by speaking with his instrument. He has written pieces for notable artists including Natalie Cole and Johnny Mathis and has always been described as a unique artist. After various roles in the music business, Colionne now owns and operates a production/management company called On the Edge Production. Colionne strongly feels that without his own “persistence, belief and personal integrity he would not have been able to achieve the success he has today.”

Colionne also shares his success with others. After many years of donating time and musical instruments to underprivileged children, Colionne’s dream is to launch a school where underprivileged children can learn all types of music for free. As a result of Colionne’s volunteerism with the Chicago Jazz Center, various artists have appeared to speak and encourage musically inclined children to go into careers in the entertainment industry.

Colionne’s manager, Carol Ray, will also augment his talk on “The Business of Jazz.” Ray hopes that some day Nick is awarded a Grammy, but for now Colionne’s jazz business is focused on collaborating with other artists and playing the music he loves.

Colionne’s lecture takes place from noon to 2 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 5, at the Herberger Theater, 222 E. Monroe St. The event is free to the public.

For more information, contact Jessica Florez-Lieb at (602)-549-4034 or Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr., Phoenix Brain Team - NxTHorizon.com at (602) 363-1677.