December 19, 2006

December CUPPA Briefing

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Congratulations to Hazel Brown on her new baby
Hazel Brown, Records and Registration Officer for the Urban Planning and Policy Program, gave birth to a baby boy named Nahzeer Nathaniel on Friday, December 8 at 6:33am. He was 8lb 5oz and both mother and baby are doing fine at home. Congratulations, Hazel and family!

Alan Voorhees to be honored at the "Evening at UIC"
Alan Voorhees will be honored at the "Evening at UIC" April 21, 2007 event with a special posthumous recognition for his support of CUPPA's Nathalie P. Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement. Alan, the Center's founder, passed away at the age of 83 in December 2005. The event
in April provides an opportunity to celebrate his generosity.

Natalie Kinney awarded NPELRA scholarship
Public Administration master's student Natalie Kinney has been announced as a National Public Employee Labor Relations Association Foundation Scholarship winner. As one of only three winners nation-wide, she will receive a check for $3,000 to put towards tuition and fees. A press release will go out at http://www.npelra.org/ and Ms. Kinney's photograph and biography will appear in an upcoming edition of the NPELRA newsletter. Our congratulations!

CUPPA involvement in the UIC Diversity Advisory Committee
Janet Smith, as Co-chair of the Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Disabilities (CCSPD), and John Betancur, as the Acting Director of the Institute of Research on Race and Public Policy (IRRPP), have been asked by Provost Tanner to serve on the newly formed Diversity Advisory Committee for
Academic Affairs (DAC). Per the Provost, the DAC is to "advise the Provost and those who report to the Provost on all matters pertinent to enhancing the positive impact of diversity in academic affairs. Specifically, it is asked to consider and give counsel on programs for faculty and students, including recruitment and retention, and formal curriculum and extracurricular offerings that promote diversity and educational benefits from diverse experiences and perspectives for the faculty and the student body. It will give general guidance as UIC articulates and takes steps to implement a plan for diversity at UIC."

Tim Johnson busy in D.C.
Tim Johnson, the Director of the Survey Research Laboratory, was in Washington D.C. in the last week of November as part of his involvement with the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Academies of Science. Dr. Johnson is serving his second three-year term on the U.S. Census Bureau's Advisory Committee of Professional Associations. The committee held its most recent meeting in D.C. to provide advice on the contents of the 2010 Short Form Questionnaire, which has now been finalized.

Additionally, during his trip Dr. Johnson did work for the National Academies of Science on whose Committee on Social Security Representative Payees he has served for the past two years. He and others are conducting a national study of the Social Security program and will be sending a report and recommendations to Congress in mid-2007.

Diversity in Higher Education Initiative
As part of the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy's (IRRPP) Diversity in Higher Education Initiative, Dr. Angela Ebreo has been working with colleagues representing underrepresented and underserved communities on campus to gain the Graduate College's endorsement of a survey that will
assess the needs and concerns of UIC's graduate and professional student population. Although the survey will focus on the experiences of underrepresented and underserved students, European American students will also be included. Members of the various communities will be consulted so that items of particular interest to their constituencies can be included in the survey.

GCI Roundtable on Federalism, January 18, 2007
In collaboration with the Forum of Federations, Great Cities Institute is hosting an invitation-only one-day event, the "Roundtable on Federalism" on January 18, 2007. Forum of Federations is sponsoring a series of dialogues across the world on local and regional governance. The purpose of the Roundtable is to promote the sharing of ideas between scholars and policy professionals at a national level and key players at a regional level. The event will bring together academic experts, government officials and policymakers, local leaders, and representatives of civic organizations to engage in-depth discussions about issues in local government and regional governance. These discussions will generate fresh ideas and potential prescriptions for new policies and solutions to challenges of local and regional governance.

Free diabetes and stroke screenings at CUPPA
February 2, 2007, 8:00-11:00 am
Room 110 CUPPA Hall

Michele Dreczynski of the Healthy CUPPA Committee has arranged for representatives from UIC's Nutrition and Wellness Center to provide free onsite diabetes screenings to faculty, staff and students, including blood sugar and body mass index calculations. In addition, the UIC Neurology Department will be present to provide stroke screenings. For a summary of information gathered by Healthy CUPPA's wellness survey of faculty and staff, go to: http://www.uic.edu/cuppa/admin/howto/HealthySurvey

CUPPA Presentations at the National League of Cities
The Annual Congress of the National League of Cities held in Reno, Nevada on 5-9 of December attracted around 5,000 delegates. Both Mike Pagano and Robin Hambleton gave presentations at the conference. Mike spoke on challenges relating to paying for new infrastructure - a theme he also talks about in the current issue of CUPPA Magazine (page 10). Robin spoke on international lesson drawing for cities focusing on the notion of the "creative city."

UTC co-hosts Global Supply Chain conference
UIC's Center for Supply Chain Management and Logistics Research and the Urban Transportation Center (UTC) co-hosted a major conference focusing on the freight issues facing the Chicago region and beyond. Other hosts of the event included Metropolis 2020, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce Foundation, and World Business Chicago. The day-long conference, titled "Making the Chicago Region More Competitive in the Global Supply Chain: A Forum for the Region's Business, Government & Freight Industry Leaders", was held on November 21 in the Student Center East. Over 200 participants discussed the future of Chicago's role in the global supply chain industry and possible actions that will solidify the region's role as the freight hub of the nation.

New working papers on the Great Cities Institute website
By Helen Liggett, Professor, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University: "Urban Aesthetics and the Excess of Fact"

By Vernon Jarrett fellow Julieanna Richardson: "The HistoryMakers, a New Resource for Scholars"

GRANTS AWARDED:

IRRPP invited to evaluate UIC's ASCEND program
IRRPP researchers have been invited to participate as internal evaluators of UIC's ASCEND program, funded by the National Science Foundation. ASCEND, Assuring STEM Credential Expansion through Nurturing Diversity, is designed to enhance the experience of UIC students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Dr. Sharon Telleen is leading the evaluation and Dr. Ebreo will be contributing time as a co-evaluator beginning in the spring semester.

2006 HUD Healthy Homes Technical Study: The Relationship of Housing and Health
With David Jacobs of the National Center for Healthy Housing as a principal investigator (PI) and the Center for Neighborhood Technology and Voorhees Center as Co-PIs, this study will help to address the lack of comprehensive evidence connecting housing conditions to general and specific health outcomes by first establishing the physical changes that are associated with health changes over the past ten years, and then those physical changes that can be integrated into routine housing repairs, improvements, financing and other changes. A research outcome is to develop ways to evaluate the effectiveness of housing interventions.

Revving up the Redline: Creating stations that work for our communities
Working with Edgewater Development Council, Brent Ryan of the City Design Center and Janet Smith of the Voorhees Center are serving as co-principal investigators on this project, helping to facilitate and lead a community based design charette to develop a vision for four Redline stations in the Edgewater community. This project is supported by funding secured by State Representative Harry Osterman.

The Grants Awarded list is compiled from unit updates submitted prior to
each CUPPA Cabinet meeting to angelas@uic.edu.

PUBLICATIONS and PRESENTATIONS:

David Perry recently presented on his book Universities as Urban Developers with Wim Wiewel at the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC).

Kawamura, K. Freight Planning and Strategies for Urban Built Areas". New Mobility and Accessibility: Interactive Dimensions. Center for Advancing Research and Solutions for Society, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. November 17, 2006

Kawamura, K. Panel member and session leader at Global Supply Chain Forum. November 21, 2006. Student Center East, UIC

Jiangping Zhou and Siim Soot (2006). Nationwide Survey of Transportation Planning Courses: Introduction, Findings, and Recommendations. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1956, pp. 175-183.

Siim Soot. Quoted in "Cairo, Egypt, starts to disperse a central symbol of its bureaucracy". In The Christian Science Monitor. Dec 11, 2006.

Lin, J. and L. Long (2006) A Hierarchical Logit Model Analysis of Transferability of National Household Travel Survey Data, the 53rd Annual North American Meeting of the Regional Science Association International, Toronto, ON, Canada, November 15-18, 2006

Lin, J., C. Chen, D.A. Niemeier (2006) An Analysis on Long Term Emission Benefits of a Government Vehicle Fleet Replacement Plan In Northern Illinois, presented at the 11th International Conference of the Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies, Dec 9-11, 2006

Lin, J. Integrating Land-use, Urban Transport, and Air Quality: A Comparative Study of China and India, Presentation made in the University of Michigan's Center for Complex Systems and Center for Advancing Research and Solutions for Society November 17, 2006

Haller, M., S. Fulla, J. Lin, E. Welch (Accepted) Cost-Effectiveness and Environmental Impact of Alternative Fuel Vehicle Fleet Conversion Program: A Local Case Study, submitted to Transportation Research Part D, December 2006

Ryan, Brent and Rachel Weber "Valuing New Development in Distressed Urban Neighborhoods: Does Design Matter?" Forthcoming in the Journal of the American Planning Association

Thakuriah, P. Modeling Accessibility and Equity in Transportation: Perspectives for the Indian Context. Presentation made in the University of Michigan's Center for Complex Systems and Center for Advancing Research and Solutions for Society, November 17, 2006

Tang, L and P. Thakuriah. An Analysis of Behavioral Responses to Real-Time Transit Information Systems. To be included in Proceedings of World Conference on Transport Research Society, June, 2007.

Weber, R., Dev Bhatta, S., and Merriman D. "Spillovers from Tax Increment Financing Districts: Implications for Housing Price Appreciation" Forthcoming in the Journal of Regional Science and Urban Economics

Weber, Rachel. "Negotiating the Ideal Deal" Forthcoming in Ann Markusen (ed.) Reining in the Competition for Capital. Upjohn Institute.

Yagi, S. and K. Mohammadian. Transportation Policy Analysis Using an Activity-Based Microsimulation Model. Presentation made in the 53rd Annual North American Meeting of the Regional Science Association International, Toronto, ON, Canada, November 15-18, 2006

The Publications and Presentations list is compiled from unit updates submitted prior to each CUPPA Cabinet meeting to angelas@uic.edu.

SAVE THE DATE:

December 25-29: CUPPA administrative offices and CUPPATech services closed

January 15: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - Campus offices closed, no classes

January 16: Classes resume

February 2: Free diabetes and stroke screenings, 110 CUPPA Hall, 8-11am

May 12: CUPPA Commencement

WORTH REPEATING:

Podcasts on CUPPA Website
Check out the CUPPA website Podcast link at http://www.uic.edu/cuppa. You can download various recorded college events in .mp3 format.

If your unit has an important talk you want podcast so more can hear it, please make plans in advance! Instructions can be found at http://www.uic.edu/cuppa/admin/howto/podcasting.htm.

CUPPABriefing is an electronic publication by the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs for faculty, staff, students, and alumni. Published and distributed via email monthly following the meeting of the CUPPA Cabinet, CUPPABriefing will contain announcements, updates, and facts that are important to those working and/or studying in CUPPA. Assistant Dean for Communications, Jodi White Jones, will be on leave until January 2, 2006. In her absence, questions, comments, or announcements may be sent to Angela Seeley, the Assistant to the Associate Dean, at angelas@uic.edu or 312-413-5445.