Online registration is under way for WMU Day at the Capitol, a first-of-its-kind event celebrating WMU pride and achievement on the lawn of the Michigan Capitol Building in May. Join students, alumni, faculty and staff in a unique Universitywide event in Lansing and show your support for WMU.

The latest issue of WMU Recycles, the semiannual newsletter of WMU Recycling and Waste Reduction Services is available on the Web as a PDF file. Past issues are also available. Each issue contains news about recycling efforts and helpful hints for improving campus sustainability.

Miller Auditorium presents three performances of the Tony Award-winning musical “Movin’ Out,” with the music of Billy Joel, tonight through Thursday.

University of Michigan economist Dr. Linda Tesar explores global markets and cash flow tomorrow, April 9, in a public lecture in Knauss Hall.

During his first U.S. visit, Russian poet Vyacheslav Kupriyanov reads from his work in Russian and English tomorrow, April 9, in Sprau Tower.

The Ethics Film Series concludes Thursday evening, April 10, with “When the Levees Broke,” a Spike Lee documentary about Hurricane Katrina.

The Frostic School of Art invites the campus community and public to a full day of events tomorrow, April 3, with the opening of two exhibitions, art student awards, an afternoon reception in the Richmond Center, and open house and tours of the new art studios in adjoining South Kohrman Hall in the evening.

Financial advisors from TIAA-CREF will be on campus April 15-17. To schedule an individual appointment, visit TIAA-CREF on the Web and click Meetings and Counseling under Services. You can also make reservations for available dates in May, June and July.

An information session on open learning courses will be held from noon to 1 p.m. Friday, April 11, for faculty, deans, directors and department heads. A complimentary lunch will be provided for those attending. More information about open learning and registration is available online.

“Science, Ethics and Politics: Are They Compatible?” a panel discussion with WMU faculty and former Gazette science editor Bill Krasean, is today at 7 p.m. in the Bernhard Center.

Human rights expert Dr. Scott Pegg presents “The Real Price of Oil” tomorrow, April 3, at 7:30 p.m. in the Fetzer Center.

“Paper Clips,” an award-winning documentary about an extraordinary school project and lesson about prejudice, will be shown free of charge Sunday, April 6, at the Little Theatre.

The complete text of President Dunn’s inaugural address is available in WMU News along with a link to an audio recording of the address, courtesy of WMUK.

Flags will be lowered tomorrow, March 28, in honor of Army Pfc. Antione V. Robinson of Detroit, who died March 19 while on active duty in Afghanistan.

There are 33 public events scheduled through Monday, including talks by Sen. Carl Levin, sponsored by the College Democrats, and Ted Nugent, sponsored by the College Republicans.

University Theatre has two productions this weekend, “Fuse 1″ and “North Star.”

Miller Auditorium presents the music of Johnny Cash in “Ring of Fire,” the School of Music presents a tribute to jazz legend Billy Hart, and there is a free performance of Chinese dance and music by students and faculty from Sichuan University.

There are lectures on linguistics, ethics and science, and Great Lakes water management.

Western Film Society presents the Kalamazoo-area debut of Academy Award-winner “I’m Not There,” and Chi Omega is sponsoring a fundraiser for Make A Wish of Michigan.

Students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the University are organizing a first-of-its-kind display of pride and achievement at the Michigan Capitol during a daylong event in May. Learn more about WMU Day at the Capitol in WMU News.

The date for homecoming has been confirmed with the release of the 2008 Bronco football schedule. Homecoming Saturday is Oct. 4, the earliest homecoming has fallen on the calendar in 20 years.

Jazz guitarist John Abercrombie makes his only Southwest Michigan appearance tomorrow, March 18, in the Dalton Center. Admission is $15 and $5 for students.

Dr. Peter Wielhouwer, political science, joins local representatives of the media and government for a panel discussion on the timely topic, “Civility in the Political Arena,” Wednesday, March 19, in the Bernhard Center.

KALAMAZOO–A historic book on African Americans in Michigan is now available worldwide to anyone with access to the Internet, thanks to the digitizing efforts of University Libraries at Western Michigan University.

The 1915 edition of “Michigan Manual of Freemen’s Progress” has been fully digitized, including photographs, charts and searchable text, and is available for download as PDF files.

“We are extremely pleased to have this unique primary source available for our students to use,” says Dr. Marion Gray, chair of the WMU Department of History. “It is also wonderful that, thanks to Western’s Digitization Center, we can make such a resource available to students and scholars virtually anywhere in the world.”

The project was a collaborative effort by Dr. Mitch Kachun, associate professor of history and Dr. Sharon Carlson, director of archives and regional history collections, who worked with the WMU Digitization Center. The goal of the project was to have comprehensive access by history students and colleagues to this out-of-print book in the classroom and for research anywhere. Financial support came from the history department’s Burnham Macmillan Endowment fund and the College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Research and Teaching Awards program.

“This book was originally compiled to record and preserve the history of African Americans and to demonstrate to the broader society the achievements and advances made by blacks in the half-century after emancipation,” Kachun says. “It’s extremely valuable today for similar reasons. A researcher might scour numerous libraries, archives and historical societies and still not find information on the dozens of black educators, journalists, professionals, veterans, politicians and community leaders contained in this single volume. It’s just a fantastic tool for researchers, students and teachers.”

Carlson agrees the book is an invaluable resource.

“This is unprecedented access for this book, and for this type of information on Michigan African Americans,” Carlson says. “This first edition book is in most Michigan libraries, but usually only one copy or a later edition from the 1960s or 1980s. Also it is one of those out-of-print ‘orphan works’ that is a challenge to get into the classroom.”

The book’s 371 pages contain the accomplishments of Michigan African Americans through 1915. Optical character recognition technology was used for capturing the text for searchability. Two digital versions of the book are presented for downloading–a large file of 8.7 MB and a file without photos 2.3 MB in size.

“We are pleased to offer this level of classroom support and academic research through technology,” says Paul Howell, digitization center manager. “It opens many new possibilities to teaching and research. This book is now accessible around the world, 24/7, with full searchablity.”

Links to the book are available through the WMU Libraries Catalog; the history department’s Web site at www.wmich.edu/history; the WMU Archives and Regional History Collections, where the original book also is housed, at www.wmich.edu/library/archives; and the Digitization Center at the WMU Libraries Web site at www.wmich.edu/library/digi. The book soon will be available in MelCat, Michigan’s e-library at elibrary.mel.org/search and on WorldCat at www.worldcat.org.

The WMU Digitization Center is a full-service center within Waldo Library that offers comprehensive digitization and planning for access, preservation and research and provides estimates for custom digitization projects for the University and community.

Media contact: Mark Schwerin, (269) 387-8400, mark.schwerin@wmich.edu

KALAMAZOO–Members of Western Michigan University’s gymnastics team are encouraging others to “think pink” in the fight against breast cancer with an auction Sunday, Jan. 20, to raise money for cancer awareness.

The team will compete at 1 p.m. in WMU’s University Arena against the University of Illinois-Chicago. WMU and UIC will put school colors aside and wear pink leotards for the competition. The Bronco’s will be auctioning off their competition pink leotards in a silent auction during the competition. Areas also will be set up for the audience to make donations with the first 100 donors receiving a “think pink” t-shirt. Admission is free, and participants are encouraged to come to the event wearing pink.

Terry Karwoski, WMU gymnastics head coach, said a similar event started in 2004 with the University of Alabama, and it has caught on with other gymnastics teams in the NCAA.

“In both our gymnastics team and our families, we know breast cancer survivors. It is something that is close to us,” says Terry Karwoski, head gymnastics coach. “We saw this as something we can do as a team.”

“The Think Pink meet is excellent opportunity to increase awareness of breast cancer and raise funds for programs to educate and treat patients throughout southwest Michigan,” adds Jessica Hermann-Wilmarth, director of development for the West Michigan Cancer Center that is partnering with the WMU gymnastics team for the event.

KALAMAZOO–A recent Western Michigan University graduate is the recipient of a $35,000 grant to work as a special assistant in Liberia as that African nation rebuilds from 14 years of civil war.

Norris Tweah, who earned a master’s degree in development administration from WMU’s Department of Political Science in 2006 and his bachelor’s degree in communication in 2003, was chosen one of six Scott Family Fellows, a program run through the Center for Global Development. The program recruits young professionals to work for senior Liberian government officials with the goal of helping with reconstruction and development efforts. The six were chosen from among 230 applicants.

The grant program is conducted in cooperation with the Liberian government, and Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf participates in choosing the assignments for the grant recipients.

In his role, Tweah is the chief of office staff and special assistant to the minister of information, Dr. Laurence K. Bropleh. His work focuses on writing project proposals, press releases and attending meetings on behalf of the minister. He also helps develop communication strategies for the Liberian government and the Poverty Reduction Strategy and supervises all employees in the minister’s office.

“At the ministerial level, I developed the concept paper and wrote the project proposal/framework called `The Liberian Renaissance, Changing Minds, Changing Attitudes,’” says Tweah. “The concept takes some of its theoretical justification from such theory which asserts, `Unless democratic transitions are accompanied by distinct elite transition–from an experience of disunity to consensual unity in the case of democratic transition–they should be regarded as strictly temporary.’ The Liberian Renaissance takes this theory further in advocating for a total societal transformation instead of just an elite transformation.”

Tweah worked for the Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia. He is a member of the board of directors at Able and Willing, an international foundation that builds schools in Congo-Kinshasa, and he is leading the organization’s exploratory initiative for a micro-finance project to benefit urban women in Monrovia.

While at WMU, he received the Howard Wolpe African Field Research Award and twice received the Zoa D. Shilling Award. Tweah also studied at the University of Liberia from 1995 to 1999.

The Scott Family Fellow program is funded by a grant from the family of Edward W. Scott Jr., chair of the board of directors of the Center for Global Development. The program, announced in February 2007, is a collaborative effort between the Liberian government, the John Snow Inc. Research and Training Institute and the Center for Global Development.

KALAMAZOO–A team of Western Michigan University students has finished in the top 10 of a leading marketing competition that attracted 50 teams from universities across the nation.

This marked the fifth consecutive time that a WMU team has finished in the top 10 in national case study competitions sponsored by EdVenture Partners. The most recent contest, held this fall, was called the EdVenture Partners Chevrolet College Marketing Challenge Case Study Competition and marked the first time EdVenture Partners had worked with Chevrolet on a national case study competition. Previous competitions were held in the spring and involved Cadillac. The WMU team’s exact placement in the fall contest was not announced. Only the top five teams were invited to the final level of the fall competition.

In the contest, small teams of students within a class are challenged to consider and answer a number of analytical questions regarding a client’s brand positioning, a communication strategy or any other current strategic situation as identified by the sponsoring client.

WMU’s team was composed of seniors majoring in the University’s Advertising and Promotion program. Members were Amanda Meister of Fruitport, Mich; Paris Jackson of Kalamazoo, Mich.; Kristen Ross of Brownstown Township, Mich. and Danielle Ross of Harbert, Mich. The team, named Detonate, developed an integrated campaign for Chevrolet that accurately targets the vehicle buyer, aged 18-30, who is interested in a vehicle with a fuel-efficient solution, such as a hybrid. The team’s “Envi-Smart, Envi-Cool” campaign was designed to increase awareness of Chevrolet as a preferred option and motivate consumers to become a brand loyal Chevrolet buyer.

The team’s advisor was Dr. JoAnn Atkin, WMU professor of marketing, who uses the competition as the advertising and promotion major student’s capstone project in the class called Integrated Marketing Communications Campaigns. The students won the right to represent WMU in the competition by beating three other student teams in the class.

“This was a brand new case for us to work on, and we are proud that our students, once again, finished in the top 10 nationally,” Atkin says. “What the students do for this competition mimics what they will face when they enter the advertising industry. Developing a campaign from start to finish, as well as competing against other teams of advertising students in the nation, is an extremely valuable experience.”

Media contact: Mark Schwerin, (269) 387-8400, mark.schwerin@wmich.edu

Western Michigan University’s Ethics Bowl team has won its regional championship and is headed to the national match Feb. 21 in San Antonio. Read more.

Original media productions produced by students in the Western Michigan University School of Communication will be exhibited Thursday, Dec. 13, in 3502 Knauss Hall on WMU’s main campus. Read more.