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From Michael Zimmerman

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As many of you may know, Michael Zimmerman is founder of the Clergy Letter Project, "an endeavor designed to demonstrate that religion and science can be compatible and to elevate the quality of the debate of this issue." On Wednesday, I received an e-mail from him that included a description of some recent events at his home institution, Butler University. According to Zimmerman, "Butler has now become the first university in the nation to file a lawsuit against on-line speech."

You'll find the text of Zimmerman's letter on the next page.

Charles Darwin: The Man Behind the Idea

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yos09-405x130.gif
If you happen to live near Storrs, here's an event you may want to attend this evening.

Friday Sept. 18, 2009
7-9 p.m.
Starbucks, Storrs

The human side of Charles Darwin is often lost in discussions of his work. What happened during the 23 years between his voyage on the Beagle and the publication of his seminal book? What was behind his struggles with his new idea? How can his humanity be conveyed through the arts? Join us for an evening of presentations, discussions and exploration. We'll have an introduction from Dr. Salman Hameed from Hampshire College followed by a reading from Timberlake Wertenbaker's "After Darwin" performed by students from the UConn Department of Dramatic Arts. Free coffee will also be available.

For more information, see the Year of Science webpage at http://clas.uconn.edu/yearofscience/index.html or email Mark Peczuh at mark.peczuh@uconn.edu with questions.

This event is sponsored by the UConn Year of Science.

Assessing Botanical Capacity

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From a recent e-mail:

The Chicago Botanic Garden and Botanic Gardens Conservation International's U.S. office are working with several partners, including the Botanical Society of America, to assess strengths and areas for improvement in plant science education, research and habitat management in the United States. We need your help. Please take a few minutes to complete our survey (links below), which includes questions about your academic background, management specialization, research interests, career goals, access to resources, and your opinion on several conservation issues. The survey is anonymous, and results will only be reported as a group or group subset.

We are asking individuals involved in plant science research, education and/or natural resource management in the United States to take this survey. The objective of this grant-funded project is to assess the collective ability of U.S. institutions and individuals to advance plant science research and application, while identifying gaps in capacity and highlighting opportunities to fill these gaps in the future. A summary report will be released in mid-2010 and freely available from www.bgci.org/usa/bcapinfo.

Thank you in advance for completing this survey. Your contribution is crucial to the study's success and is greatly appreciated. Please note that all surveys will close on Friday, September 19, 2009.


To TAKE THE SURVEY - please go to http://www.bgci.org/usa/bcap/

Please feel free to forward this message on to colleagues or students, and don't hesitate to contact us directly with any questions or concerns.

http://www.bgci.org/usa/BCAPInfo/

Sincerely,

Andrea T. Kramer, Ph.D.
Executive Director, U.S. Office
Botanic Gardens Conservation International
at Chicago Botanic Garden
1000 Lake Cook Road
Glencoe, IL 60022 USA
Phone: 847-835-6971
atietmey@chicagobotanic.org

Barbara Zorn-Arnold, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Chicago Botanic Garden
1000 Lake Cook Road
Glencoe, IL 60022 USA
Phone: 847-835-6858
bzornarnold@chicagobotanic.org

Not as good as I would like to see

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The Sierra Club just released its 3rd annual Cool Schools list. It ranks colleges and universities on a range of "green" criteria including efficiency, energy, academics, purchasing, and waste. The University of Colorado comes out on top with an A+. The University of Washington, Middlebury College, the University of Vermont, the College of the Atlantic, and Evergreen State College aren't far behind. All of them got an A+ too.

Sorry to say, the University of Connecticut did not do so well. We're #93 out of 135 schools ranked, but at least we passed -- with a C-. Yale did much better. It's #14 and got an A. Harvard's #11, and Brown's #64, Amherst's #71, and Williams is #52. Neither Princeton nor Cornell seems to be ranked.

You may also want to take a look at the College Sustainability Report Card. Colorado still beats us by a healthy margin, but at least we don't look quite as bad.

uconn-ucolorado-sustainability.png

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