The University Record, March 11, 1997
REGENTS’ ROUNDUP
Note: Regents’ Roundup appears as a semi-regular feature in The Record.
Editor’s Note: The following actions were taken by the Regents at their February meeting.
$28.3 million in gifts accepted
At their February meeting, the Regents accepted $28,328,867 in gifts received by the University during January.
The total included $23,309,510 from individuals, $1,721,385 from corporations, $2,006,026 from foundations, and $1,291,946 from associations and others.
Four tenure appointments approved
Faculty appointments, with tenure, approved by the Regents included:
Kaushik Amin, from Lehman Brothers on the New York Stock Exchange, as associate professor of finance,
effective March 1.
Karen E. Smith, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as associate professor of mathematics, effective Sept. 1, 1996.
A. James R. Sneyd, of Canterbury University in New Zealand, as associate professor of mathematics, effective Jan. 1.
George A. Kaplan, chief of the Human Population Laboratory, California Department of Health Services, will be professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology, effective July 1.
Dann reappointed Clements director
John C. Dann, director of the William L. Clements Library since 1977, was reappointed as director for a five-year term, effective Aug. 1. He also is adjunct professor of history.
Faculty members appointed
to named professorships
The following faculty were appointed to named professorships:
Rachel S. Goldman, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, will hold the Dow Corning Assistant Professorship of Materials Science and Engineering; Victor B. Lieberman, professor of history, will hold the Richard Hudson Research Professorship of History; and Maris A. Vinovskis, professor of history, will hold the A.M. and H.P. Bentley Professorship of History.
Goldman’s research interests center on “the correlation between structural and electronic properties of semi-conductors,” according to Stephen W. Director, dean of the College of Engineering. “While just beginning her faculty career, she has already published several articles on her research.”
Lieberman is “an historian of Southeast Asia, working on a book titled Eurasian Variants; A Comparative History of State and Culture Formation, c. 1400-1830,” said LS&A Dean Edie N. Goldenberg, dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. “This project in essence argues that those criteria on which premodern Eurasian comparative historiography always has rested—the presence or absence of `feudalism,’ `capitalism,’ and in recent studies of China and India, of a `public sphere’—are inappropriate because of their unabashed Eurocentricity.”
Vinovskis is “a specialist in the social history of the United States, and a leader in the study of family and population, education and social change, and the social history of the Civil War,” Goldenberg said. “Prof. Vinovskis is widely respected for his innovative scholarship and served as president of the History of Education Society in 1994-95.”
H.H. Dow Building addition approved
The Regents approved the proposed addition to the Herbert H. Dow Building on North Campus.
“In order to accommodate research laboratories and faculty offices needed by the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the College of Engineering proposes to erect a three-story addition to the Dow Building,” said Interim Executive Vice President Chandler W. Matthews.
The project will provide a receiving area for heavy equipment access to the ground floor of the Dow Building. Interior work will include standard interior architectural finishes, laboratory casework and fume hoods with typical laboratory mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. The building structure will be specially designed to minimize the transmission of vibration to accommodate current electron mciroscope standards.
The project is estimated to cost $7 million, with funding provided by the College of Engineering.
Regents approve Parking Services Building
The Regents approved construction of a Parking Services Building on North Campus.
“The Parking Services and the Utilities Department will collaborate to construct a building similar in design to, and sited just west of, the existing Property Disposition Building on Baxter Road,” Matthews said.
The building will include offices to be used by Parking Services for those operations currently located in the Buhr Building and the North University Building. A portion of the building will be used for storage of Medical Center buses and maintenance and plowing vehicles. The remainder will be used by the Utilities Department to house shop operations.
The project is estimated to cost $1.9 million, with funding from Parking Services ($1.7 million) and the Utilities Department ($200,000).
Regents approve eight renovation projects
The Regents approved these renovation projects:
The second floor of the C.C. Little Building will be renovated to provide wet laboratories for the Center for Great Lakes and Aquatic Sciences. The project, estimated at $2 million, will involve installation of chemical benches, casework and an environmental chamber, as well as upgrading ventilation and fume hoods.
The existing elevators servicing East Quadrangle residents and programs do not comply with ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requirements. This project will remove and modify an existing supplemental stair shaft and install a new compliant elevator in its place. The project is estimated to cost $330,000.
The Housing Division has a continuing program to upgrade domestic hot water systems serving students. This project for Vera Baits I, estimated to cost $270,000, will install two hot water heaters in the Eaton House to service Eaton House and Lee House and replace the domestic hot water heat exchange serving Smith House.
The domestic hot water piping supply and return lines in the tunnel from Central Power Plant to the School of Dentistry are in poor condition. Any further leaks cannot be easily repaired. Under the project, estimated at $400,000, the existing black iron piping will be replaced with new copper piping.
The Buhr Building is heated from the boilers in the Hoover Heating Plant through an underground steam piping system. This system leaks and is in poor condition. The project, estimated to cost $315,000, would install two low pressure steam boilers in the Buhr Building.
The 1997 Parking Services safety, maintenance and repair program will include elevator replacement and repairs in several structures and the resurfacing of miscellaneous parking lots. Several safety and security initiatives, including new and improved lighting, also will be undertaken. The project is estimated to cost $4,348,226.
As a part of the overall cost reduction effort in the Medical Center, 11 laboratories have been consolidated into three sections within the Department of Pathology. The physical rearrangement of some of these laboratories necessitates renovation of a portion of the second floor of University Hospital. The project is estimated to cost $315,000.
To provide an appropriate environment for research lasers, three rooms in the G.G. Brown Building will be upgraded with new support services. Renovations, estimated at $260,000, will include a chilled water loop, supplemental space cooling, laser exhaust, and additional electrical service for the new equipment.
