Iowa State University


Inside Iowa State
June 27, 1997

Third-year projects wrap up

by Anne Dolan

Iowa State students -- and in some cases, staff -- were encouraged to understand various cultural values as a precursor to better communication. And high school students received an introduction to practical uses of all that stuff they learn in physics and chemistry. These were the results of two projects this year coordinated by professional and scientific staff. Leaders of the retention/recruitment projects gave year-end reports to the P&S Council during its June 1 meeting.

Suzanne Zilber and Martha Norton of Student Counseling Services reviewed two workshops, "Enhancing Inter-racial Communication" and "Lifestyles for Learning," attended by more than 1,000 people (mostly students) since last August.

Zilber said the workshops emphasize two messages: Don't offend someone when you don't intend to, and don't take offense when none is intended. The workshops have been used and improved upon since 1992; this is the second year SCS received a P&S grant for the program.

Brian Larson, an associate scientist in the Center for Nondestructive Evaluation, and Rick Lopez, a junior in pre- metallurgical engineering, summarized a high school visit program that involved three staff and four engineering students in visits to 17 physics classes at seven central Iowa schools.

Lopez said the program boosts communication skills, confidence and knowledge in the ISU students who participated, in addition to alerting high school students to ISU's engineering college. About 50 high school students were mailed more information on the college.

Last fall the President's Office offered $25,000 in grants to P&S teams with proposals aimed at recruiting or retaining ISU students. Seventeen of 28 proposals received full or partial funding. Awards varied from $350 to $3,500.

The council has requested $27,500 to fund retention and recruitment projects next year, a 10 percent increase over this year's allocation from the President's Office.

In other business, the council:

Iowa State homepage

Inside Iowa State, inside@iastate.edu, University Relations
Copyright © 1997, Iowa State University, all rights reserved
URL: http://www.iastate.edu/general/Inside/1997/0627/ps.html
Revised 6/26/97