Journal

Journal

ENTREPRENEURIAL PROGRAM A SUCCESS AGAIN
	U OF L BUSINESS EDUCATION IS among the nation's best, according to a study by Success magazine. In its September 1997 edition, the national magazine included U ofL's College of Business and Public Administration on its list of the Top 25 Best Business Schools for Entrepreneurs. Last year, the magazine ranked U of L one of the top 10 up-and-coming business schools in the area of entrepreneurism. Other schools on the list include Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania), Harvard, Northwest-, and Indiana Universities and the universities of Southern California, California at Berkeley, and North Carolina.

STATE OF AFFAIRS, A U OF L public radio program highlighting state and local issues, made its official debut in November. Hosted by George Graves, director of the Kentucky Center for Public Issues, the show is being produced at the studios of WUOL but will be broadcast on WFPL-FM 89.3. Executive producer D. Cameron Lawrence says the show is the first of its kind produced by the university. "We've set up a sophisticated call-in system that can handle several callers at once. It's the first show we've done using this type of equipment." U of L is sponsoring State of Affairs in conjunction with the Public Radio Partnership and the Kentucky Center for Public Issues. The show airs Thursdays at I p.m. in Louisville.

THE WAIT IS OVER FOR caffeine-lovers who have longed for gourmet coffees and teas to be served on campus. Faculty, staff, and students can now meet at Ritazza, a coffee bar in the lobby of Ekstrom Library. Traditionally, library policies have discouraged food and drink in the building, however, the coffee bar is an effort to provide a more inviting environment. A seating area is available in the cafe and most of the library is still off-limits to food and drink.

U OF L AND BELLSOUTH ARE teaming up to offer a new regional hub and high-capability Internet link that will provide cheaper, more efficient Internet access for Kentucky's educational institutions, libraries, government agencies, and nonprofit health care organizations. The new hub will be the first phase of an initiative called Community of Access. The hub will create an Internet point of presence (POP) in Louisville with a capacity more than 3,000 times that of a typical high-speed modem. Information Technology officials believe the change will position Louisville as a regional Internet leader able to offer access to state-of-the-art technology for a fraction of its current price.

GOOD NEWS WAS RECENTLY announced by the University Provost's office: the largest freshman class in six years - 1,992 freshman students - is among the nearly 21,000 students enrolled last fall at U of L. In addition, graduate enrollment climbed almost two percent, from 4,289 in 1996 to 4,370 this year. Provost Carol Garrison noted that the growth, which continues a trend that began in the early 1990s, reflects U of Ls growing role as a research institution.

Other highlights include:

The number of new freshmen on trustees, governors, National Merit, and related scholarships increased from 233 to 247, a six percent increase over 1996.

The average American College Testing score among entering freshmen is 21.4, up almost a half point from last year's freshman class.

African-American students make up 13.6 percent of the total student population.

The entering freshman class at the School of Law posted a median LSAT score of 157, the highest median score in the school's history.

The law school's first-year enrollment includes its highest-ever minority representation - 20 percent. Fifteen of the 124 students are AfricanAmerican, another record.

Student enrollment through tuition reciprocity with Southern Indiana grew from 148 to 160 students.

The African-American Collection at Ekstrom Library was rededicated in October with a celebratory reception featuring local authors, exhibits, and live jazz music. Established in 1960, the collection contains more than 4,500 books, videos, journal articles, manuscripts, oral histories, and photographs that deal primarily with AfricanAmerican literature, history, and social issues.

THE NEW JEWISH HOSPITAL Center for Cardiovascular Research opened recently at South Hancock Street in U of Us Health Sciences Center. The Jewish Hospital Foundation contributed $1 million to renovate the center, which will put heart research already being conducted by doctors and others at the university under one roof for the first time and provide room for expansion, laboratories, office space, and classrooms.

U OF L's MASTER OF PUBLIC Administration program, established in 1991 to train public servants such as public planners, city managers, and policy makers, was recently accredited by the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration. The interdisciplinary curriculum, which incorporates managerial training with government and public affairs, is offered through the School of Economics and Public Affairs in the College of Business and Public Administration and the Department of Political Science in the College of Arts and Sciences. A review earlier this year by NASPAA`s Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation found U of Ls efforts at public administration to meet its established standards. A professional organization and accrediting agency for public administration programs, NASPAA has a national membership of 238 programs; 138 of these programs are accredited.

DURING A VISIT TO U OF L Belknap Campus in October, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright touched on a number of economic and security issues in an address and question-and-answer session. Albright appeared at the invitation of U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell R-Ky. and met with a group of 50 McConnell scholars prior to her public address. "The success or failure of American foreign policy is not only relevant to our lives," she said, "it will be a determining factor in the quality of our lives."

A five-minute segment on the university's distance education efforts will be beamed to 800 television stations - and a potential 68 million households in January 1998. A crew from Florida-based TV Interactive, an organization that provides content to CNBC and other cable channels, visited the Belknap Campus in October to interview President John Shumaker and gather footage of distance education in action. Check out the segment January 10 at noon on CNBC and January 12 at 8 a.m. on the Bravo network.