David Hodge Named Dean of Arts and Sciences
Weeks to be Honored at A&S Dinner
There's Good Chemistry at Study Center
Conversations with Artists and Critics
Prehistoric Whale Fossil Reconstructed
Remembering the Seattle General Strike
UW Math Disciplines Earn Top Ranking
On the Web: CyberCanada

David Hodge Named Dean of Arts & Sciences
After serving as acting dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for eight months, David Hodge was appointed dean of the College by UW President Richard McCormick in March 1999, with the Board of Regents approving the appointment.

"David Hodge will be an outstanding dean," said McCormick. "He has the experience, energy and vision to provide exceptional leadership for a college that defines the very core of the University."

Hodge joined the UW faculty as an assistant professor of geography in 1975, after receiving a bachelor's degree from Macalester College and a master's degree and Ph.D from Pennsylvania State University. He became a full professor in 1992. He has chaired the Department of Geography and has served as divisional dean for computing, facilities, and research.

In 1990, Hodge received the UW's Distinguished Teaching Award, the University's highest honor for teaching excellence. His research has focused on urban geography, transportation geography, information technology, and quantitative methods. He served as the program officer for geography and regional science at the National Science Foundation in 1993-94.

Reflecting on his role as dean, Hodge says, "The past few months have given me a critical appreciation of the strengths and challenges of the College, especially in the context of the changing nature of higher education and the developing missions and priorities of the University. My goal is to help the individuals and units of the College gain the ability and the vision for ever greater accomplishments. I am extremely gratified to be chosen and very excited to help this college move forward."

Weeks to be Honored at A&S Dinner
In 1995, archaeologist and A&S alumnus Kent Weeks made a discovery that would forever change his life. He was excavating a tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, expecting to find a handful of chambers within. What he discovered instead was a massive structure with a labyrinth of hallways leading to more than 100 rooms. Weeks now believes that the tomb, known as KV5, is the burial place of the sons of Ramesses II.

A&S alumnus and renowned Egyptologist Kent Weeks will receive the College's Award of Distinction on May 11. Photo by Francis Dzikowski, Theban Mapping Project

Although Weeks--who has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, National Geographic magazine, and hundreds of other publications--continues his excavation of KV5, he will take time out to accept the Arts and Sciences Award of Distinction at the College's "Celebration of Distinction" dinner on May 11. The award is presented annually to an alumnus whose lifetime achievements have been exceptional.

At the celebration, Weeks will speak about recent findings at the tomb. "Crawling into a set of corridors for the first time is truly exciting, but the fun part is then taking all the little pieces of this incredible puzzle and putting them all together," he says. "It's like being a detective at a crime scene and trying to figure out, from little bits of data, what is going on."

The "data" Weeks has uncovered include broken pottery, fragmentary inscriptions on tomb walls, fragments of sarcophaghi, mummies, and other material that had been buried in flood debris that filled the tomb. The tomb was robbed thousands of years ago--about 50 years after the burials--so few materials have remained intact and undamaged.

Weeks looks forward to spending the rest of his career exploring KV5, which he describes as "going in every conceivable direction. It looks like the tentacles of an octupus." In 1998, he published The Lost Tomb, a book about his discovery.

The Celebration of Distinction dinner will begin at 6 p.m. in the HUB West Ballroom on campus. For more information, contact Donna Gilliam at (206) 616-7165.

There's Good Chemistry at Study Center
It's Wednesday afternoon. Bill Stier, teaching assistant (TA) in the Department of Chemistry, has just finished helping an undergraduate plot data on a computer. Now he's headed for another student who has a question about the titration of a weak acid. Stier figures he'll talk to eight more students in the next hour, guiding them through the intricacies of introductory chemistry. It's all in a day's work at the UW's Chemistry Study Center.

The Department of Chemistry has had a study center of sorts since 1992, recognizing that students in introductory chemistry classes often need extra help. But the facility has been nomadic, relocating almost annually to accommodate other departmental priorities. This year the Center finally settled into a permanent home on the third floor of Bagley Hall, with sufficient funding to address growing student demand.

Teaching Assistant Bill Stier helps a student with a chemistry question in the recently expanded Chemistry Study Center. Photo by Kathy Sauber

Thanks to support from the Department of Chemistry and the Office of Undergraduate Education, the Center now has a facility that can accommodate up to 80 students, with 10 study tables and 23 computers. Four graduate students and twelve undergraduates working in shifts serve as tutors, answering questions related to any introductory chemistry class.

"Most of the time it's non-stop with people asking questions--which is the way I like it," says Stier, who enjoys the opportunity to teach. "If the place is quite full, students put their name on a waiting list so that we can answer their questions in order. A lot of days, you could go for hours and hours just going down the list. Sometimes I get so into it that I forget to eat."

Although four graduate teaching assistants are specifically assigned to the study center, other TAs visit as well. Steve Moskowitz, a TA for CHEM 162, has decided to hold some of his office hours at the Chemistry Study Center rather than his own office. "Students tend to be more comfortable asking questions there," he explains. "It's been a better way to reach many students."

Sometimes students manage to solve their problems collectively before a tutor or TA arrives. That's one of the great benefits of the facility, says Frasier Nyasulu, lecturer in chemistry and director of the Center. "Each table has a course number indicated, so students can sit with people taking the same course," he explains. "Typically they have the same problems and try to help each other. From my point of view, that's the best part of it. They learn from helping each other, and there's a sense of accomplishment when they collectively figure things out for themselves."

The Center, which is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (2 p.m. on Friday), is more than three times the size of the previous facility. Nevertheless it is rarely uncrowded and at peak periods is absolutely packed. "It's really variable," says Stier. "Obviously it is very crowded right before an exam, but it can be just as busy at other times as well and sometimes we're not sure why."

Nyasulu is pleased with students' positive response to the facility. According to a recent questionnaire, about three-quarters of students in introductory chemistry courses use the study center on a weekly basis. "In a large department like this, it makes the entry-level student feel important," he says. "Before this, the perception was that the system didn't care. Now they see that we do care. That's an important message."

Conversations with Artists and Critics
Through the initiative of students in the School of Art, nationally prominent artists and critics have been visiting campus to share their views on contemporary art.

The students--members of the newly established UW Association of Student Painters--wanted to encourage discourse between practicing artists and critics, recognizing that each has a unique perspective on the visual arts. They designed a lecture series, "Exploring Word and Image: Critical Discourse in Contemporary Art," that pairs one artist and art critic each quarter.

"We felt that this would provide an opportunity for students and the general public to see the possibility of linking art criticism and theory with the actual creation of artwork," explains MFA student Noah Simblist, who secured a $12,000 grant from the UW Center for the Humanities and a smaller grant from the Graduate School for the series. "It also gives students a chance to have substantial interaction, both formal and informal, with respected artists and critics."

Two sets of visitors already have participated. Critic/historian Barbara Rose and New York painter Glenn Goldberg visited in October; painter David Reed and critic/historian Dave Hickey spoke in early March. Each visitor presented a lecture, participated in a panel discussion, and spent time with students in formal critiques and informal conversations.

"They come for three days and it's sort of a marathon," says Simblist. "They are constantly meeting and talking with students. Often it's in the moments between scheduled events that a lot of important conversations happen."

Christopher Ozubko, director of the School of Art, is understandably pleased with the new program and the energy it brings to the School. "This unusual series is a fine example of students making use of campus resources as well as engaging the general public in the University's explorations in contemporary art," he says. "I'm very impressed with what the students have accomplished."

The final group of lectures and panel discussions for 1998-99 will be held May 10-14, with painter Catherine Murphy and poet and critic John Yau participating. During Yau's visit, the UW Creative Writing Program will also present a reading of his poetry. For details, contact Simon Martin in the School of Art at (206) 685-2552.

Prehistoric Whale Fossil Reconstructed
After five years of study and preparation, the world's oldest known fossil of a toothless whale is on display at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. The fossil, a previously unknown genus and species, has yielded clues about the evolution of the ocean-going giants.

The fossil was unearthed in 1993 by bulldozers at a quarry about 80 feet above the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The quarry was on the sea floor 28 million years ago, in the Oligocene period in which the whale lived.

Bruce Crowley repaired and reconstructed bones of a whale fossil that dates back 28 million years. It is now on display at the Burke Museum. Photo by Mary Levin.

"That little time, the Oligocene, is a very important time in whale evolution and we have so little material from then," says Bruce Crowley, the Burke's fossil preparator. One example: unlike whale fossils that pre-date it, this whale had no teeth. Instead, like modern humpback and gray whales, it was equipped with structures called baleen, used to sift food from the ocean.

When the bones were found, they were in a haphazard arrangement and many were broken. Crowley put them in order and repaired damaged pieces. He then reconstructed missing parts by using bones on the opposite side of the body as models. Only a few tail bones and flipper bones have not been reconstructed. There was nothing to model them on and Crowley did not want to guess. Crowley plans to publish a scientific paper about the fossil, at which time names will be given to the genus and species.

Remembering the Seattle General Strike
In 1919, a walkout of 100,000 workers brought Seattle to a halt for five days. The strike--described by Seattle's then-mayor as "an attempted revolution"--was sparked by shipyard workers but quickly spread to include workers through the city.

To commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the Seattle General Strike (as well as the West Coast Maritime Strikes 15 years later), several UW units--the UW Center for Labor Studies, the Henry Art Gallery, UW Libraries, and UW-Tacoma--are collaborating on a series of exhibits and events. In early March, the Center for Labor Studies presented "STRIKES!," a symposium, lecture, and conference offering historical and political perspectives on strikes as they have occurred in Seattle and around the world. The UW Libraries has created a special exhibition, on display through April 4, featuring photographs and memorabilia from the Seattle General Strike. And the Henry Art Gallery is presenting Fish Story, a photography exhibit by Allan Sekula, which investigates the changing appearance of major international port cities and the social and political complexities of labor and life in the port setting. Fish Story runs through May 14.

"In my 25 years at the University, I have never experienced so many University departments and programs and so many unions and community groups work together so effectively and enthusiastically to put together such an exciting set of events and exhibitions," says Margaret Levi, professor of political science and Harry Bridges Chair in Labor Studies.

Several special events are still to come. These include a Henry Gallery talk by UW Political Science Professor David Olson on the culture and legacy of waterfront workers and a series of labor-related symposia and lectures organized by the Port of Tacoma, The Ernie Tanner Center for Labor and Ethnic Studies at UW-Tacoma, and the International Transport Workers' Federation.

More than two dozen collaborators and supporters helped make this ambitious series of events possible, including the Port of Seattle, AFL-CIO, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association, and the UW's Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest.

For more information about coming events, contact the UW Center for Labor Studies at (206) 543-7946 or pcls@u.washington.edu.

UW Math Disciplines Earn Top Ranking

In its November/December 1998 issue, Science Watch ranked the UW faculty first among universities in "relative citation impact" in mathematics, ahead of Harvard, Stanford, Caltech and other top schools.

The Institute of Scientific Information (ISI), which publishes Science Watch, determined the rankings based on how frequently professors' papers were cited, on a per paper basis, from 1993 through 1997 in about 300 mathematics journals, irrespective of the departmental affiliation of faculty. ISI found that papers with at least one UW author were cited 2.76 times as frequently as the worldwide average.

In the same issue of Science Watch, UW impact in the geosciences was ranked third and psychology/psychiatry tenth.

On the Web: CyberCanada
Curious about Canadian politics, environment, or arts? Try visiting a web site developed by students in Patricia Radin's CyberCanada class (SISCA 490). Each student researched a specific topic--ranging from the Canadian Mounties to the Canadian film industry to the history of Chinese Canadians--and developed an individual site.

"Website creation has become so easy that I find it a good tool for students to present their research results," says Radin, assistant director of the Canadian Studies Center in the Jackson School of International Studies. "It seems to give them an incentive to write cleaner copy, do more thorough research, and get it all done in a timely way so they and the whole world can see it 'live'."

The first CyberCanada class, held Summer Quarter 1998, resulted in 10 web sites. Additional entries, developed by students in Radin's Winter Quarter 1999 class, will be online by mid-March.

[Winter 1999 - Table of Contents]