Arizona State University

An anthropologist’s first-hand experience in an international social movement forms the basis of Networking Futures: The Movements Against Corporate Globalization (Duke University Press). The new book by Arizona State University professor Jeffrey S. Juris chronicles his experiences organizing and participating in protests from Seattle to Prague to Barcelona.

Juris’ book provides an ethnographic study of anti-corporate globalization movements. From his base in Barcelona, he followed their connections and movements around the world. A critical component of the workings of these movements, Juris found, is their use of technology.

“Because they use tools such as email lists, Web pages and free software to organize actions, share information, and coordinate at a distance, anti-corporate globalization networks have become models for emerging forms of directly democratic politics,” Juris says. “These groups don’t need complex hierarchical structures to spread their messages or organize actions.”

The effects of this new type of political activism are evident in such examples as the influence of MoveOn.org and the success of the Barack Obama campaign at online fundraising, Juris says. “Through the same types of technologically driven mechanisms, protests are now being planned for the Democratic and Republican conventions, so it will be interesting to see what the scope of these protests turns out to be,” he says.

Juris participated in the November 1999 protest against the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. “I had never seen anything like it – thousands of protestors in the streets, confronting police and tear gas,” he says. “I knew immediately that I wanted to study this phenomenon.”

In 2001 and 2002, Juris took part in the Barcelona-based Movement for Global Resistance, an influential European anti-corporate globalization network. His experiences participating in hundreds of meetings, gatherings, protests, and online discussions form the basis for Networking Futures. In the book, Juris documents how activists are responding to growing poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation while also building social laboratories for the production of alternative values, discourses, and practices.

George E. Marcus, co-author of Designs for an Anthropology of the Contemporary, describes Networking Futures as “a terrific, deeply informed ethnographic account of the origins and activities of the anti-corporate globalization movement. Juris’ identity is as much that of an activist who happens to be doing first-rate anthropology as vice versa, and there is much for anthropologists to reflect on in the way this work is set up and narrated through these dual identities.”

Juris is an assistant professor of social and behavioral sciences in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, located on ASU’s West campus. He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004. Juris’ research and teaching interests include globalization, social movements, new media, violence, Spain, and Mexico.

Juris also is a co-author of Global Democracy and the World Social Forums. Most recently he has conducted field work at the United States Social Forum, and he is carrying out new ethnographic research on grassroots media activism and autonomy in Mexico City.

Jody Brannon, a digital media leader who has held top editor positions at MSN.com, USAToday.com and washingtonpost.com, will direct a 12-university, $7.5 million project funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to explore new ways to produce in-depth multimedia journalism.

Brannon will be national director of the Carnegie-Knight News21 journalism initiative, which moved last month to the new Phoenix home of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

News21 was started by the foundations three years ago with digital media “incubators” at the University of California at Berkeley, Columbia University, Northwestern University and the University of Southern California. Under a new three-year grant recently approved by the foundations, four more incubators have been added to the program: ASU, University of Maryland, University of North Carolina and Syracuse University. Four other schools under the Carnegie-Knight journalism initiative – Harvard University, the University of Missouri, the University of Nebraska and the University of Texas – will send students to participate in incubators at the other eight schools.

Under the News 21 program, journalism students are enrolled in a spring course to explore a major news topic, and then in the summer they are fellows in the News21 incubators, traveling across the country to produce in-depth stories while experimenting with different multimedia forms.

Brannon, senior home page editor and ombudsman at MSN.com in New York and Seattle, has experimented with new approaches and entry points to content by incorporating user input. Before joining MSN.com in 2006, she served as executive producer for news at USAToday.com, directing breaking news and prime-time programming.

She entered the world of digital media in its infancy, starting as a copy editor for The Washington Post’s first online initiative, Digital Ink, in April 1995. She rose to become manager of news and production and later managing editor of washingtonpost.com. She also served as executive producer at Washington Post.Newsweek Interactive before joining USAToday.com as executive producer.

Under her direction, multimedia news staffs won national awards from the Online News Association, Editor & Publisher, the Newspaper Association of America, the National Press Photographers Association, Associated Press Managing Editors and the National Press Foundation.

She is on the board of directors of the Online News Association and on the advisory board of the Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism.

“Jody Brannon is the ideal person to lead the next generation of News21,” said Cronkite Dean Christopher Callahan. “She is highly collaborative, possesses great leadership experience and is a nationally recognized leader in the digital news industry. She will help promote collaboration and innovation at the highest levels among the Carnegie-Knight schools.”

Prior to her work in digital media, Brannon worked in magazines and newspapers, primarily as a reporter and editor at the Tacoma News Tribune and Seattle Times.

Brannon has journalism degrees from Seattle University and American University and a doctoral degree in mass communication from the University of Maryland, where she studied the early days of multimedia journalism. Since 1988 she also has regularly taught a wide range of journalism courses at the University of Maryland, Pacific Lutheran University, Seattle University and American University, including the capstone seminar in its master’s program in interactive journalism for the past six years.

“These young journalists, guided by so many seasoned educators and the deans at their respective schools, are poised to prove the future of journalism is bright,” Brannon said. “The fellows will focus on telling important stories in new ways, blending learning and teaching styles, new and proven.  I’m excited about doing what I can to ensure some next-gen approaches will have resonance for decades to come, thanks to the Carnegie-Knight commitment.”

The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication is hitting the road to bring journalism to high-school students around the state.

The school recently equipped a hybrid SUV with the tools of journalism, including a television camera, microphones, audio recorders and backdrops, and is taking it to high schools in an attempt to get students interested in journalism. The program is funded by the ASU Foundation Women & Philanthropy and the Scripps Howard Foundation.

Anita Luera, who heads the Cronkite Institute for High School Programs, has taken the vehicle, which is wrapped in an eye-catching, full-color graphic depicting students with video cameras, computers and microphones, to a half-dozen schools in the past few months, including several on the Navajo reservation in northeast Arizona.

At St. Michael Indian School near Window Rock, Ariz., Luera talked about the need for minority journalists and explained opportunities at the Cronkite School. Then she gave the students a chance to practice in front of the camera, learn basic camera moves and watch their taped performances afterward.

Luera said some students “are itching to get the microphone,” while others have to be coaxed to get in front of the camera.

Playing a video back usually elicits nervous laughter. Luera said she addresses students’ concerns about how they appear on camera by explaining that in the real television world, the tape would be edited down to the best sound bites from a three- or four-minute interview.

St. Michael journalism teacher Joan Levitt, who arranged for Luera to visit, said that many of her students have never thought about careers in journalism, and they’re intrigued by the idea.

“Journalism offers a wonderful opportunity to combine interest in the world around us with writing,” she said. “Plus, the advances in technology offer more choices for students in that field.”

The ASU Foundation Women & Philanthropy program funded the purchase of the vehicle. The program brings together women to support educational, research and public outreach missions.

The program also is funded in part by a grant from the Scripps Howard Foundation, the corporate foundation of the E.W. Scripps Co. The Scripps Howard Foundation seeks to support quality journalism education while advancing the cause of free speech and promoting excellence in journalism. To schedule a free visit to a school, contact Luera at (480) 965-5477 or at anita.luera@asu.edu.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has awarded two three-year grants totaling $2.1 million to the ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation. The grants bring the college’s funding total from HRSA to $3.7 million since July 2007.

HRSA, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary federal agency for improving access to health care services for the uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable.

In the first grant award, the ASU nursing college received funding from HRSA for “KySS Fellowship for NPs in Underserved U.S.: Improving Child & Teen Mental Health.” The college’s dean, Bernadette Melnyk, is the principal investigator and project director, and Michael Rice and Ann Guthery are co-project directors.

The grant funds the development and implementation of a KySS (Keep your children/yourself Safe and Secure) fellowship program aimed at preparing primary care pediatric and family nurse practitioners, as well as physicians and allied health professionals, to screen for, identify and deliver early evidence-based interventions for children and adolescents experiencing common mental health problems.

The fellowship program, the first of its kind in the United States, is a collaborative effort between the ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation and the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners’ (NAPNAP) KySS program, a national initiative that promotes the mental health of children and teens.

The initiative will enhance advanced practice nurses’ knowledge and skills to identify and implement early evidence-based interventions with culturally diverse high-risk children and teens that have common mental health problems in rural and urban settings. The KySS program will provide an Web-based fellowship program that integrates clinical practice experiences in clinical practice settings to provide opportunities for health care providers to put into practice the content from the online educational modules.

One out of every four children and adolescents (about 15 million) in the United States has a mental health problem that interferes with functioning at home or at school. Just 20 percent to 25 percent of these children receive treatment, according to the American Psychological Association. Primary care providers are in a unique position to identify and manage common behavioral and mental health problems among children and teens, since about 75 percent of children with mental health disorders are seen in primary care settings.

Significant health disparities exist in the receipt of mental health services, with a disproportionate number of Hispanic and African-American children affected. A nationwide shortage of 30,000 child psychiatrists contributes to the severe gap in child and adolescent mental health services. In Arizona, the psychiatric physician-to-population ratio is less than the national average, with 134 child psychiatrists practicing in the state in 2004. One-third of the counties in Arizona have no child psychiatrists.

The KySS fellowship program is a continuing education program designed to prepare nurse practitioners, physicians and other health care professionals to identify and implement early evidence-based interventions for children and adolescents with common mental health problems. The KySS fellowship program consists of 20 Web-based modules designed to be completed at the participant’s own pace and will be complemented by clinical learning activities and post-tests. Upon completion of the program, participants will receive a KySS fellowship certificate of completion from the College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation and the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners.

The National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners is the only national organization dedicated to improving the quality of health care for infants, children and adolescents and to advancing the pediatric nurse practitioner’s role in providing that care. The association serves almost 7,000 members nationwide.

The second HRSA grant awarded to the College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation is titled “Leveraging Educational Technology for Evidence-Based Practice.” Its goal is to improve the quality and delivery of nursing education through expanding use of educational technology for pre-licensure students. Debra Hagler is the principal investigator and project director, and Beatrice Kastenbaum and Ruth Brooks are co-investigators.

The Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Evidence-Based Medicine has set a goal for 90 percent of clinical decisions to be supported by the best available evidence by 2020.

This innovative approach expands use of educational technology to promote student learning through dedicated development of faculty expertise, creation of effective instructional design, mentorship for clinical preceptors and collaboration with interdisciplinary partners.

Efforts to address the nursing shortage by increasing student enrollment have led to challenges in contracting enough appropriate clinical learning sites, which affects clinical practice opportunities. The project goal is to employ educational technology simulation for focused learning in conjunction with planned clinical experiences to expand clinical experiences for students while providing culturally responsive, evidence-based clinical decision-making.  

The Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University has developed a new process for manufacturing high-performance flexible displays on transparent plastic.

FDC researchers, working with industrial partners DuPont Teijin Films and E Ink Corp., have developed a method for making high-performance amorphous silicon thin film transistors on planarized Teonex® PEN films. The FDC team integrated 3.8-in. QVGA arrays of these transistors with Vizplex-100™ imaging layer film from E Ink to fabricate glass-free high-performance flexible electrophoretic displays that are only 15 mils (375 micrometers) thick.

The displays are quite rugged and readily withstand severe vibration and impact tests performed at industry partner General Dynamics’ labs. To download video highlights of these tests go to http://flexdisplay.asu.edu/Flex-display-test_revB.wmv.

The FDC process uses a proprietary technique for temporarily bonding the planarized Teonex PEN film (from DuPont Teijin) to a rigid carrier using a specially developed adhesive. Amorphous silicon circuits then are fabricated with conventional flat panel display manufacturing equipment. Despite exposure of the bonded film to temperatures as high as 200 C (392 F) during the fabrication process, essentially no plastic substrate distortion is observed. The film bearing the completed transistor arrays is removed from the carrier using a mechanical force that is gentle enough to permit automation of the process.

“Most of the technology development in our pilot line environment is realized through steady improvements over several cycles of learning,” said Greg Raupp, director of FDC. “In this case, integrated learning came together as we viewed the entire flexible substrate system of carrier, adhesive, substrate, planarization and associated process protocols to point to a directed solution that yielded a dramatic technical advance.”

The FDC thin film transistors are produced using the highest semiconductor and gate-dielectric deposition temperatures reported for a process on Teonex PEN. The higher temperatures permit the fabrication of transistors with higher on-off ratio, better sub-threshold slope, and – most importantly – greater bias-stress stability. These performance characteristics translate directly into higher pixel densities for enhanced display resolution and an enlarged number of grey levels for improved image quality.

The ability to produce high quality arrays of thin film transistors with low defects is aided by the use of DTF’s planarized Teonex PEN, which has been developed to meet the needs of demanding display applications. The temporarily bonded Teonex PEN with its newly developed planarization coating provides a surface smooth enough and sufficiently defect-free to enable the fabrication of micrometer-scale electronics.

Development of methods for the handling of mechanically flexible substrates such as Teonex PEN in automated manufacturing equipment has been a significant challenge to creating practical and economical processes for flexible displays and electronics. The FDC advance in temporarily bonding plastic films to a carrier is a significant move forward for advancing engineering prototypes of flexible displays to commercial manufacturing.

Professor Douglas Sylvester of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at ASU has been appointed associate dean for faculty research and development by the college’s dean, Paul Schiff Berman.

In his new role, Sylvester will work to build the most productive environment possible for fostering and disseminating faculty scholarship. This will include organizing various speaker series, overseeing faculty travel to participate in scholarly activities, helping to mentor junior faculty, and seeking innovative ways to increase the scholarly visibility of the faculty, Berman says.

“Doug Sylvester is both a serious scholar and an innovative institution-builder,” says Berman of his first appointee since assuming the position of dean July 1. “I have no doubt that he will quickly become a fundamental part of building here, at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, the new ‘gold standard’ for 21st century legal education that ASU President (Michael) Crow and I envision.”

Sylvester, who is a faculty fellow in the college’s Center for the Study of Law, Science and Technology, says scholarship is the key to a great law school.

“Promoting faculty scholarship makes for better teaching, increases the law school’s reputation, and allows us to attract and retain distinguished scholars,” he says. “Those who know ASU have long been aware that our faculty is tremendously productive and innovative in their research. My job is to make sure that more people know about all that we do here and to make it easier for everyone to engage in research and scholarship.”

Sylvester, who joined the college in 2002, publishes, lectures and teaches on issues of e-commerce, intellectual property law and commercialization, international law, international relations, legal history and privacy.

O’Grady to oversee clinical affairs

Professor Catherine O’Grady of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at ASU has been named associate dean for clinical affairs and the profession by the college’s dean, Paul Schiff Berman.

O’Grady, executive director of the college’s clinical programs, will be responsible for coordinating and energizing myriad issues related to practice-based experiential learning and the demands of professionalism, Berman says.

In her new post, O’Grady will continue to oversee the college’s eight clinics, as well as the legal research and writing program, of which she is a former director, the externship program and the academic success program. Additionally, she will serve as the dean’s designee for investigating academic misconduct complaints.

Berman says O’Grady’s energy, talents and experience, including a recent sabbatical at the Arizona solicitor general’s office, are a good fit for the position.

“The new model for public legal education that we are building at the College of Law requires that we be embedded within the broader legal communities of Arizona, the United States and the world,” he says. “As such, we take very seriously our commitment to clinical education, the public service obligations of lawyers and the responsibilities of professionalism.

“In Cathy O’Grady, we are blessed to have the ideal bridge-builder between the academy and the practicing bar, and I look forward to working with her on further developing innovative initiatives to educate young lawyers in the rigors and rewards of professional legal practice.”

O’Grady, a former attorney at Meyer, Hendricks, Victor, Osborn & Maledon in Phoenix whose practice emphasized appellate litigation and general corporate litigation, joined the College of Law in 1991. She has taught courses dealing with civil procedure, constitutional law, civil practice clinic, lawyering theory and practice, and the practice of law in a digital era, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court seminar.

O’Grady spent the last academic year on sabbatical working as a special assistant attorney general in the solicitor general division of the Arizona attorney general’s office. There, she was co-counsel on a Superior Court trial involving Arizona constitutional law, wrote briefs for various courts of appeals and gave an oral argument before the Arizona Supreme Court, among other experiences.

“It was great for me to put myself back out in the profession, not as a supervisor of students, but as an individual attorney working with Arizona’s courts,” she says. “It was a good reality check, and an opportunity for me to reflect, improve and continue to grow as an attorney.”

O’Grady, who writes and talks about the importance of lawyers maintaining their personal autonomy as professionals, says she is excited about her new opportunity at the College of Law.

“I’m delighted Dean Berman wants to make a focus on clinical education, writing, experiential learning and professionalism a key part of the culture of the school,” she says. “This focus is important to both our students and our professional community.”

ASU’s Center for Applied Behavioral Health Policy paid tribute July 17 to behavioral health care professionals and advocates at the fourth annual Arizona Behavioral Health Awards Gala at the Hilton Sedona Resort in Sedona.

The award winners were selected from among more than 40 nominations. They were honored for their public service and invaluable contributions to the behavioral health field in Arizona.

“The center is committed to a mission of improving programs and policies for people with behavioral health disabilities and their families,” says Michael Shafer, the center’s director. “Each of the honorees this year has made significant contributions that have benefited the behavioral health programs not only in our state, but also across the country. The dedication of these honorees to the cause of behavioral health and the eradication of the gap in behavioral health services is an inspiration to us all.”

This year’s categories and honorees include:

• Legacy – Nelba Chavez has devoted more than 30 years to advocacy for those affected by mental health and substance use disorders, and she was the first administrator of the Substance Use and Mental Health Services Administration. Chavez understands the importance of ensuring those who are affected the most by government policies have a voice in their creation.

• Legislative Leadership: Arizona Sen. Tom O’Halleran (R-1), a member of the Legislature since 2001, sits on the health, education K-12 and appropriations committees, and he serves as chairman of the higher education committee. O’Halleran has been a consistent and courageous champion of health care and behavioral health services.

• Leadership in Advocacy: Timothy Schmaltz is the coordinator of the Protecting Arizona’s Family Coalition, a historic and diverse alliance of social and health agencies, faith-based groups and community organizations that are dedicated to protecting and increasing health and human services funding, and setting an agenda of tax reform.

• Leadership in Services: Timothy Dunst has led Touchstone Behavioral Health since 1983. His vision for the organization is to be the premier provider of positive outcome behavioral health services to youth and their families in the Southwest. As a leader in implementing science-based approaches, Dunst has led Touchstone to apply evidence-based practices to programs that include functional family therapy, multidimensional treatment foster care, and brief strategic family therapy.

• Cultural Heritage Award: TERROS Behavioral Health Services is a nonprofit community-based organization that has been addressing behavioral health needs since 1969 by providing prevention, education and treatment services. TERROS has grown from the Phoenix area’s first substance abuse treatment program to a comprehensive behavioral health organization of more than 300 professionals who serve more than 25,000 people and families each year.

For more information, visit the Web site www.cabhp.asu.edu or call Matthew Roy (602) 942-2247, extension 114.

Matthew Roy, matthew.roy@asu.edu
(602) 942-2247
Applied Behavioral Health at the West campus

A library, an office building, a historic building. To most high school students, these are just bricks and mortar. But a group of Valley sophomores, juniors, and seniors who participated in ASU College of Design’s Summer Design Workshop now look at buildings “not just as a place used on a daily basis but as a place that has a purpose and a reason why it is the way it is,” says Metro Tech student Andrea Perez.

This is the second year the workshop has taken place thanks to the generous financial support from local architects, design professionals, and other sponsors. Conducted at the college’s Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory located in downtown Phoenix, 20 students worked with College of Design faculty, staff, and students for three weeks in June. Each week of the workshop featured field trips to architectural sites, talks by design professionals, and hands-on projects learning about space, place making, structure, and the effects of using shade and water in the desert.

“We wanted to expose students to all facets of design and help them look at the world in a different way, as environments in a landscape, ” says architect Mark Ryan, a faculty associate in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.

The design projects, built primarily with cardboard and glue, challenged students to work as teams to construct large structures that people can walk into and small-scale models of two buildings with an open space between that had to be “designed” from what the students had learned. Each student also had to present their ideas and model to their classmates and to the faculty that includes Jose Bernardi, Associate Professor in the Department of Interior Design.

Nicholas Tehrani, a BioScience High School student back for a second year, described his open space area as a “destination.” “Because traveling is so expensive now,” Tehrani says, “I wanted to create a space with shade and water that would be relaxing.”

The program wrapped up on June 27 to a packed house of parents, students, three alumni of program, donors and supporters, and faculty and staff from the College of Design.

Several supporters of the program found out about the workshop program at the college’s annual Design Excellence Dinner that was held in April of this year and pledged funds to make sure that these students had scholarships to participate in the program

Many of these students are from central city neighborhoods who would be the first generation to be college bound. In addition to learning about design, they also learned that they have friends at ASU, like program coordinator Tim Kniseley, to help them figure out how to get to college and what a college experience can be.

"I have no doubt that I will be welcoming many of these high school students into Athena, the college’s residential program for high-achieving students, in a few years," says Kniseley who also leads that program.

View the video produced by City of Phoenix KNOW Channel 99.

A graduate student, a counselor, a poet and a professor. The director of a federal grant program, and a student group that helps safeguard women in Mexico from violence.

All are winners of 2008 Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) Outstanding Achievement and Contribution Awards.

ASU’s CSW was founded in 1991 following a report issued by the Arizona Board of Regents, “Reaching the Vision: Women in Arizona’s Universities in the Year 2000,” to monitor the advancement of ABOR’s recommendations.

Each year, CSW presents awards to individuals or groups “whose efforts most exemplify and further the mission of the CSW.”
That mission is “to identify and advocate for needed change in the university environment to enhance opportunities for women and other under-represented groups.”

This year’s award winners are:

• Sydella Blatch, graduate student, School of Life Sciences.

• Cynthia Hogue, professor, Department of English.

• Sharon Smith, director, TRiO Services at the West campus.

• Jennifer Fewell, associate professor, School of Life Sciences.

• Louise Welter, counselor, Student Counseling Services, Polytechnic campus.

• Las Otras Hermanas, part of Women Beyond Borders, a student-based organization.

Blatch was honored for helping minority and female students find the resources to help them succeed at ASU. She founded SHADES, a peer-mentoring program run through the Graduate College designed to foster a support network for minority and female students.

Hogue was cited for being “a strong and compassionate advocate for women scholars and writers.”

Her nominator wrote: “Throughout her scholarly career, Cynthia has devoted much of her efforts to raising the awareness of highly inventive, but often unacknowledged, writers such as May Swenson, Jorie Graham and Adrienne Rich.”

Smith, director of the federal grant program TRiO Services, advocates daily for students in under-represented minority, financial and disabled groups.

“This past year, however, Sharon went above her normal job duties and advocated for women in crisis situations,” her nominator said. “For women who have never had the opportunity to believe in themselves, or have gone through emotional difficulties, Sharon has provided tools for independence, advocacy of administration for funding, and awareness.”

Fewell was honored for her role as a mentor. Her nominator wrote: “In addition to being an outstanding scholar in her field, Prof. Fewell has devoted countless hours to mentoring women in the sciences at all different levels, ranging from undergraduate students to colleagues. Under her direction alone, more than have of the students who have gone through the Minority Access to Research Careers Program are currently in graduate or medical schools.”

Welter was honored for being “a tireless advocate for social justice and equity issues.” Welter’s nominator cited her work on SafeZone, the Campus Environment Team and CSW.

Welter brought SafeZone training to the Polytechnic campus. She conducts the trainings and coordinates nearly all aspects of the program.

She also was instrumental in developing a series of workshops for the Campus Environment Team “that helped develop a safe and welcoming environment for all faculty, staff, students and visitors,” the nominator wrote.

Las Otras Hermanas (The Other Sisters) is part of Women Beyond Borders, a student-organized women’s human rights group that works with women’s organizations worldwide to end violence against women and promote women’s equity in all sectors.

Las Otras Hermanas works with organizations in Juarez, Mexico, to improve women’s economic conditions while safeguarding their overall well being. According to the nominator, “The work undertaken by Las Otras Hermanas embodies the message that advocacy for women should never be limited to our immediate environment, and the boundaries of the ASU campus, but rather that it should extend beyond our borders.”

Hogue says of her award: “As a poet, a humanist, a feminist teacher, I was most moved and impressed to hear what so many other women have been achieving on campus and in the community, how hard others have been working to contribute to women’s advancement. I was honored to be among this year’s recipients of a CSW award.”

Adds Welter: “I believe that the Commission on the Status of Women’s awards play an important role at ASU in acknowledging work toward gender equity, as well as raising awareness of the continued need for change to enhance the opportunities for women.

“I am very honored to have been selected as one of this year’s CSW Outstanding Achievement and Contribution Award winners. Since coming to ASU at the Polytechnic campus in 2004, I have worked tirelessly to create and sustain programs and events intended to support and enhance an equitable, just and safe environment for all.

“It has been a great privilege to be involved in creating the Women’s History Month Committee at the Polytechnic campus and bringing important events such as the ‘Vagina Monologues’ and ‘Take Back the Night’ to the Polytechnic campus. Clearly, I didn’t do any of this alone; it has been a great privilege to be involved with amazing groups of folks dedicated to making the world a better place for everyone in the creating, organizing and implementing of these programs.”

Adds Karen Engler, academic associate for the CSW: “This year’s program boasts an impressive group of award recipients who represent contributions at all levels of the university, from outstanding faculty to caring staff, to talented graduate and undergraduate students. They exemplify the fact that all contributions are significant – and that everyone can make a difference.” 

All the laptops are imaged, classrooms wired, chairs and desks neatly arranged and the scent of newness is in the air at the temporary space for the new Center of Educational Innovation’s Polytechnic Elementary School in East Mesa.

The center, which is managed by University Public Schools Inc., an affiliate of ASU, opens its doors Aug. 11 to its first class of about 220 students ranging from kindergarten age through sixth grade.

The principal, staff and teachers have been trained and are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to meet their new students and parents. Before opening day, ASU’s mascot, Sparky, will attend the “Meet the Teacher Night” Aug. 7 to “spark” everyone up for a great year.

“The opening of Polytechnic Elementary School is a tremendous step toward our goal of improving student achievement for all students in Arizona,” says Larry Pieratt, executive director of University Public Schools Inc. “We are most grateful to the ASU faculty, University Public Schools staff and teachers who have worked endlessly over the past months to prepare for this opening. Most importantly, we are grateful to the parents and students who have demonstrated their faith in the center and are now partners in our mission of developing leaders for our state’s future.”

More than 150 families and their children have been involved in the process of creating University Public Schools’ first school. In addition, ASU faculty members from nutrition, physical education, fine arts, early childhood, speech and language, science and mathematics have contributed their time and insights to the project.

“ASU’s efforts to partner with the pre-K-12 community to advance educational success in the state takes a significant step forward with the first center opening,” says Eugene Garcia, an ASU professor of education and vice president of Education Partnerships. “Using and sharing the multiple and substantial intellectual resources of ASU to address real Arizona educational challenges embodies the central mission of University Public Schools.”

University Public Schools will continue to form partnerships with ASU faculty for curriculum development and research opportunities, and to seek partnerships with school districts across the metropolitan Phoenix area.

Shortly after classes begin at the temporary facility located just north of the Polytechnic campus, University Public Schools will break ground for the permanent school site on about 24 acres in the southwest portion of the Polytechnic campus.

Once completed, the school will accommodate students from preschool age to eighth grade in fall 2009, and through high school by fall 2010.

Upon build-out, the Polytechnic school is expected to have 1,400 students students enrolled in prekindergarten through 12th grade.

For more details about the new school or future partnerships, contact Julie Kroon Alvarado, director of community and university engagement, at (480) 727-1195 or visit the Web site http://universitypublicschools.asu.edu.

Princeton Review rating based on environmental practices, policies and course offerings

Arizona State University has been named one of the nation’s "greenest" universities by The Princeton Review in its first-ever rating of environmentally friendly institutions.

The "2009 Green Rating Honor Roll" is a numerical score on a scale of 60 to 99 that The Princeton Review tallied for 534 colleges and universities based on data it collected from the schools in the 2007-08 academic year concerning their environmentally related policies, practices and academic offerings.

The Green Rating scores appear in the website profiles of the 534 schools that posted on The Princeton Review’s site (www.PrincetonReview.com) today.

In addition to ASU, 10 other colleges were named to the honor role, receiving scores of 99 (the highest score). These include, in alphabetical order:

• Bates College (Lewiston, Maine)
• Binghamton University (State Univ. of New York at Binghamton)
• College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor, Maine)
• Emory University (Atlanta, Ga.)
• Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Ga.)
• Harvard College (Cambridge, Mass.)
• University of New Hampshire (Durham, N.H.)
• University of Oregon (Eugene, Ore.)
• University of Washington (Seattle, Wash.)
• Yale University (New Haven, Conn.)

"Being recognized as one of the nation’s greenest universities is a proud moment for ASU. It is testament to our faculty, staff and students who have embraced the principles and values of sustainability and worked tirelessly to advance them in their research, teaching and outreach, as well as campus operations," ASU President Michael Crow says. "It also is a tribute to Julie Wrigley, who through her generous gifts, has helped ASU become a bold place that leaps beyond academic tradition to produce knowledge and discover solutions to global problems of sustainability."

With Wrigley’s support, ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability was established in 2004 as the hub of the university’s sustainability initiatives. The institute advances research, education and business practices for an urbanizing world. Its School of Sustainability, the first of its kind in the U.S., offers transdisciplinary degree programs that advance practical solutions to environmental, economic, and social challenges.

"Since 2004, ASU has been fully engaged in a massive effort to focus the nation’s largest university directly down a path toward sustainability in all we do," says Jonathan Fink, The Julie Ann Wrigley Director at ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability and University Sustainability Officer. "With momentum gathering on our current initiatives to deploy solar power on all four campuses, create highly efficient buildings, launch a first-of-its-kind School of Sustainability, and support a transdisciplinary research federation dedicated to finding sustainable solutions for issues of energy, water, urbanization, and climate change, we are justifiably excited about the future both for Arizona and the world."

"ASU and its School of Sustainability have a bold, comprehensive approach to sustainability-related education," says Charles Redman, director of the School of Sustainability. "We are engaged in a global-survival experiment, in a time when sustainable solutions must be envisioned and implemented. While we realize we have a distance to travel to fully reach our goals of educating the first generation of sustainability students, applying advanced research to the grand challenges of sustainability, and operating our campuses with carbon neutrality and zero waste, we are pleased to be recognized for our ambitious vision of the future and our remarkable accomplishments in just a few short years."

The Princeton Review developed the Green Rating in consultation with ecoAmerica (www.ecoamerica.org), a non-profit environmental marketing agency.

The criteria for the rating (which ecoAmerica helped formulate along with the rating’s data collection survey and methodology) cover three broad areas: 1) whether the school’s students have a campus quality of life that is healthy and sustainable, 2) how well the school is preparing its students for employment and citizenship in a world defined by environmental challenges, and 3) the school’s overall commitment to environmental issues.

The institutional survey for the rating included questions on everything from energy use, recycling, food, buildings and transportation to academic offerings (availability of environmental studies degrees and courses) and action plans and goals concerning greenhouse gas emission reductions.

Said Robert Franek, vice president / publisher at The Princeton Review, "The ‘green’ movement on college campuses is far more than an Earth Day recycling project or a dining hall menu of organic food. The commitment that many colleges and their student bodies have made to environmental issues - indeed, to the environment — in their practices, use of resources and academic and research programs is truly compelling. We are pleased to play a role in helping students identify, get into, and study at these schools. It is the students of today who will face and hopefully find solutions for the enormous environmental challenges confronting our planet’s future. "

Franek noted the rising interest among students in attending schools that practice, teach and support environmentally responsible choices. Among 10,300 college applicants and parents of applicants surveyed by The Princeton Review this year for its annual "College Hopes & Worries Survey," 63 percent of respondents overall said they would value having information about a college’s commitment to the environment.

Executive director of ecoAmerica, Lee Bodner, noted "Forward-looking colleges and universities see the alignment between policies that are both good for the environment and good for students. "

Only about 13 percent of the Washington daily newspaper press corps are journalists of color, according to a study on diversity by UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc. and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

There were slightly more journalists of color covering the nation’s capital in 2008 than there were four years earlier when UNITY conducted its first census of the racial makeup of the Washington press corps. But progress has been much slower than UNITY officials had hoped.

“With the nation growing increasingly more diverse, we need a press corps in Washington, D.C., that reflects what America looks like,” said Karen Lincoln Michel, UNITY president. “We represent a mere 13.1 percent of journalists pressing for answers from a federal government that serves a population nearly three times that size. UNITY considers the findings a call to action for media companies to reinvent their Washington news bureaus by staffing them with more journalists of color.”

Improvement is needed not just in overall numbers, but in the number of minority journalists in leadership positions and in the diversification of all news operations – big and small, she said.

The study, which was made possible by a generous grant from the McCormick Foundation of Chicago, showed that representation of journalists of color was lowest in top leadership positions. While there were three bureau chiefs of color in 2004 heading up major news operations in the nation’s capital, there was just one in 2008 – Dean Baquet of The New York Times.

Additionally, nearly 80 percent of the newspapers with their own staffs in Washington had no journalists of color working for them as reporters, editors, correspondents or bureau chiefs. Most of those were staffs of one or two people.

The release of the study coincides with UNITY 2008, the world’s largest gathering of journalists of color, which is being held this week in Chicago. The convention is the signature event of UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc. – an alliance representing the combined 7,000 members of the Asian American Journalists Association, National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Native American Journalists Association.

The study also found:

•    Among individual newspapers, USA Today made the biggest four-year gain in the number of journalists of color on its Washington staff, going from less than 4 percent to 20 percent. But other large newspapers, including The Dallas Morning News, the New York Daily News and the Houston Chronicle, reported no minority journalists covering Washington.

•    Some Washington bureaus of the large newspaper chains, including Newhouse News Service and Gannett News Service, reported the most diverse staffs in Washington, but other chain bureaus, including Scripps Howard, Hearst, Media General and Copley, had among the least diverse newsrooms in Washington.

•    Retention of minority journalists continues to be a concern. More than half of the journalists of color identified in the 2004 study were no longer part of the Washington press corps in 2008.

•    Asian American journalists have made the most progress proportionately in the Washington press corps since 2004, going from 1.9 percent to 3.2 percent of the total. There was one Native American journalist covering Washington for daily newspapers in 2008.

•    Journalists of color surveyed said they believe readers are interested in Washington news, yet they describe the Washington press corps as being out of touch with audiences back home and they attribute that, at least in part, to the lack of diversity in the Washington press corps.

•    Of those surveyed, many expressed uncertainty about their long-terms prospects as journalists. Almost 70 percent said they either don’t plan to end up in journalism or they’re uncertain whether they will finish their professional careers as journalists.
Kristin Gilger, assistant dean of the Cronkite School, was the project’s lead researcher and authored the report. She was assisted by Stephen Doig, the Knight Chair in Journalism at the Cronkite School, and two student researchers.

The new study follows up on one conducted by UNITY and the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland in 2004. That study, conducted by Cronkite Dean Christopher Callahan when he was at the University of Maryland, was the first to focus on the makeup of the Washington press corps. It found that fewer than 10.5 percent of the reporters, correspondents, columnists, editors and bureau chiefs in the Washington daily newspaper press corps were journalists of color. The findings led to calls from UNITY leadership to improve diversity in these high-profile journalism jobs.

UNITY leaders said the need for change is no less now than it was four years ago.

Rafael Olmeda, president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, said newspapers have to pay attention to not just hiring journalists of color, but to issues of career opportunities and advancement and job satisfaction. And Barbara Ciara, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, suggested that newspapers rotate staff members into their Washington bureaus as a way to add diversity.

The 2008 UNITY census shows “how much more work remains to be done in diversifying our newsrooms – particularly when it comes to covering the seat of power in this nation,” said Jeanne Mariani-Belding, president of the Asian American Journalists Association. “As an industry, we can do better.”  

The McCormick Foundation is a nonprofit organization committed to making life better for children, communities and the country. Through its charitable grant-making programs, Cantigny Park and Golf, Cantigny First Division Foundation and the McCormick Freedom Museum, the foundation positively impacts people’s lives and advances the ideals of a free, democratic society.

UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc. is an alliance of four major national journalism organizations: Asian American Journalists Association, National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists and Native American Journalists Association. Its mission is to advocate quality news coverage about people of color and improve ethnic diversity in the nation’s newsrooms. 

Rick Rodriguez, the former executive editor at the Sacramento Bee who joined the faculty of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University earlier this year, will be the school’s first Carnegie Professor specializing in Latino and transnational news coverage.

The Carnegie Professor is part of the curriculum enrichment component of the comprehensive Carnegie-Knight Journalism Initiative to improve journalism education at 12 universities nationwide. The program is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

“Today’s journalists must be steeped in experience and deeply knowledgeable about the subjects they report on,” said Carnegie Corporation President Vartan Gregorian. “To understand the underlying ideas and possible ramifications of import, even truly transformative events, requires that journalists be trained and informed enough to deal with complex, nuanced information with a richness and depth.”

Arizona State University, the University of North Carolina and the University of Nebraska were recently added to the Carnegie-Knight initiative, joining the University of California at Berkeley, Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Maryland, the University of Missouri, Northwestern University, Syracuse University, the University of Texas and the University of Southern California.

The Carnegie-Knight grants are used by the schools to “expand the intellectual horizons of journalism students, in large part by harnessing the tremendous subject-matter expertise that resides in each of the universities,” according to a joint statement from the foundations.

At Cronkite, the grant will be used to create a journalism specialization on covering Latino communities and U.S.-Mexico transnational issues.

“The rapidly changing demographics of the nation represent an enormously important – and complex – story,” said Cronkite Dean Christopher Callahan. “Today one-third of the U.S. population is people of color. By 2050, minorities will make up half of the U.S. population. Latinos are both the largest and fastest-growing minority group. Yet much of the news media coverage of Latinos and Latino-related issues is superficial and often polarizing. We believe there is a critical need to develop a cadre of young journalists who can draw on a deep reservoir of knowledge from multiple disciplines – history, sociology, political science, economics, art, culture, religion, law – to create powerful, sophisticated and insightful journalism about these increasingly important stories.”

Under the program, the Cronkite School will offer a new specialization in the coverage of Latino issues that includes a multidisciplinary seminar to explore cultural, historical, political, legal, economic, religious and sociological dimensions of Latino life in the United States and U.S.-Mexico transnational issues, featuring top faculty and experts from a wide variety of disciplines. There also will be a new field course in which students will delve in-depth into critical Latino-related issues and meet with discipline experts during trips to Mexico. Students in the specialization also will take appropriate Latino courses across multiple disciplines outside of the Cronkite School and do an in-depth project at Cronkite News Service.

Rodriguez is uniquely suited to serve as the school’s first Carnegie Professor, Callahan said.

“Rick is one of America’s leading newspaper editors, a champion of not only the kind of in-depth reporting that we want our students to produce, but a national leader on news diversity issues,” Callahan said.

Rodriguez, the first Latino president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, joined the Cronkite School faculty in March after serving as the top editor of the Sacramento Bee for nine years.

The Salinas, Calif., native graduated from Stanford University in 1976 with a bachelor’s degree in communications. He was only 18 when he began his career with his hometown newspaper, The Salinas Californian. One of his first assignments was interviewing legendary farm labor leader Cesar Chavez, and he says that reporting on Chavez’s career is among his proudest achievements as a reporter.

Rodriguez worked for another McClatchy newspaper, The Fresno Bee, before joining the Sacramento Bee in 1982 as a political writer. He was the Bee’s managing editor for five years before being named executive editor.

The Cronkite School has a deep commitment to journalism diversity issues. Later this week the school will unveil two national research projects conducted for UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc. at the group’s national convention in Chicago. And two years ago, the school conducted a major study for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists on the depictions of Latinos in America’s leading news magazines.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The format on these reports has changed. The June 2007 and June 2008 median prices along with traditional and foreclosed homes are broken down in the tables below. In addition, the previous month’s numbers are included.

In June 2008, a total of 7,845 resale homes recorded sold in Maricopa County. This sales activity includes 3,275 recorded foreclosed home transactions and 4,565 traditional market transactions. Foreclosed transactions represent home owners losing their property to successful individual bidders or the lender of record. In May 2008, the split was 2,895 foreclosed homes and 4,315 traditional transactions, while June 2007 was 575 and 4,570 recorded sales, respectively. Historically, June is a strong month and the 4,565 traditional recorded sales represent the best month of 2008. The 2008 year-to-date total is 21,060 traditional sales and 14,590 foreclosures.

The declining prices have fueled renewed investor interest and potential owner-occupants, especially in the lower income ranges. For the traditional market the median price was $218,000, while the foreclosed properties had a median price of $169,890. For a year ago, the median prices were $265,000 and $225,900, respectively. Investment interest is being driven by the anticipation that home prices will rise again in the next few years. The lower median price is being impacted by several forces including the large number of vacant homes, especially in certain neighborhoods. Further, capital is available for lower-priced housing, but lacking in the higher priced housing market.

Since the greater Phoenix area is so large, the median price can range significantly. In North Scottsdale, the median price for a foreclosed property was $502,275, while the traditional market was $570,200. In South Scottsdale the splits were $219,360 and $252,000, respectively. In Maryvale, the median price for traditional transactions were $111,000 and foreclosures were $125,990, while in Union Hills it was $263,150 and $205,460.

While lower prices can greatly improve affordability, they can adversely impact many owners and potential sellers that are watching their limited equity erode, as prices decline to and even below existing debt level. Thus, lower prices affect the ability and desire to continue owning the home and even overall confidence in the economy, which puts additional strain on the local housing market.

For the last year, the housing market has been confronting issues derived from the hyper-market of previous years such as the subprime meltdown and overly ambitious investors. Unfortunately, there is increasing data, such as job losses and layoffs, that the economy is now weakening and will add further stress for the housing markets. Though there has been little attempt to help investors, many programs have been started to help people save their homeownership.

Most of the attempts have dealt with adjustable interest rate mortgage being reset to higher interest rates. The basic premise is that the home occupant has the income but not enough to satisfy the new mortgage payment. In a weak economy, many households now will not have the needed income to save their homes, even with a new mortgage payment plan. Further, with increased energy and food costs, there is even additional strain on the household budget. Thus, the potential economic downturn and inflationary pressures will define how much further the housing market will worsen and when recovery will begin.

Within the 855 total recorded sales, the townhouse–condominium market had 230 foreclosed properties. A year ago the split was 1,215 for traditional sales and 40 for foreclosed sales. In June 2008, the median price for foreclosed properties was $133,215, while the traditional market stood at $164,950. For May 2008, the splits were $135,600 and $169,900, respectively.

The median square footage for a single-family home recorded sold as foreclosed was 1,665 and 1,865 square feet for a market transaction home. In Paradise Valley, the median square footage was 3,210 square feet at a median price of $2,167,000. For a year ago, the foreclosed market was at 1,790 square feet and the traditional market stood at 1,725 square feet. In the townhouse/condominium sector, the median square footage for a foreclosed unit was 1,075 square feet (1,050 square feet for year ago), while the traditional market unit was 1,120 square feet (1,060 square feet for a year ago).

See the full charts of the Maricopa County Resale Numbers.
 

Realty Studies is associated with the Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness at Arizona State University’s Polytechnic campus. Realty Studies collects and analyzes data concerning real estate in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area. Realty Studies is a comprehensive and objective source of real estate information for private, public and governmental agencies. Its director, Dr. Jay Q. Butler, may be reached at (480) 727-1300 or e-mail him at Jay.Butler@asu.edu. To subscribe to RSS feed for Realty Studies news, visit http://www.poly.asu.edu/realty/rss.html.

Contact(s):

Jay Q. Butler, 480/727-1300, jay.butler@asu.edu

Christine Lambrakis, 480/727-1173, 602/316-5616, lambrakis@asu.edu