Inside Iowa State for faculty and staff
Sept. 2, 2021
Inside news
A new website for campus COVID-19 test results as well as county- and state-level data will be updated every Wednesday. Free COVID test kits may be picked up at four campus locations.

With its striking back wall covered in white and pink silk roses and a menu of rotating flavors and novel creations -- a plate of gelato "nachos," for instance -- ISU Dining designed Dolce Freddo to be fun and a bit exotic.

If they test positive for COVID-19 this fall and feel well enough to teach, instructors may move their courses online during the required isolation period, senior vice president and provost Jonathan Wickert announced in a Sept. 1 message to department chairs. 

Student accessibility services adapted how it helped students during online and hybrid instruction. Those challenges taught lessons and brought technological advances that will continue benefiting students, even as they return to the classroom.

The under-construction plaza on the Memorial Union lawn promotes nine historically Black fraternities and sororities and will be a gathering place for celebrations and other events. An ISU Foundation crowdfunding site gives everyone a chance to support the project.

A new set of recycling receptacles received "show me" signage to test whether images help individuals choose the right container -- trash or recyclables.

Strolls for Well-Being at ISU helps participants center themselves while they learn more about their university campus. The new program works around busy schedules but still delivers the benefits.

Looking for some inspiration this fall? Check out the Student Innovation Center programming available to faculty and staff, a variety of presentations from industry leaders and ISU colleagues.
Announcements
The following announcements were added this week:
  • University closed Sept. 6 for national holiday
  • Central Stores is the preferred source for COVID-related supplies
  • Women Impacting ISU calendar nominations due Sept. 24
  • Nearly 1,000 lectures program recordings are digitized
  • Cyclone Cinema hits the 10-year mark
  • ClubFest has virtual, in-person and outdoor options this month
  • Presenters sought for girls STEM career conference
  • Honors program invites spring seminar proposals
  • Student health pauses Saturday, extended Monday service for fall
Around campus
Chemistry professor Arthur Winter received a $460,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to aid his work in photochemistry. Winter focuses on cancer treatment with the hope of developing strategies for delivering light-activated chemotherapies. Using light to break molecular bonds would allow doctors to target treatment and avoid killing healthy cells.

Ecology, evolution and organismal biology graduate students made a surprising discovery while conducting a research project when they found an endangered bee. The rusty patch bumble bee has been on the endangered species list since 2017 and had not been seen in Ames since 2018.
Appointments
  • Brittney Rutherford, ISU Dining/residence department, to senior manager of communications, College of Human Sciences, effective Sept. 7
Open houses and receptions
This week
  • The Sept. 2 retirement reception for professor of statistics and former vice president for research Sarah Nusser, who retired June 30, has been postponed to spring.

Next week
  • Retirement, Rob Bowers, emergency management and accreditation, department of public safety, Sept. 7 (1:30-3 p.m., program at 2 p.m., Speer Room, Reiman Gardens)

Employees, their colleagues or supervisors are invited to submit retirements and departures to inside@iastate.edu. University human resources doesn't provide them for publication.
Seminars and conferences
  • Conversations about Carbon series, Mike Naig, state Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Sept. 7 (10-10:45 a.m., via Zoom)
  • Innovators Forum, alumnus David Slump, president, HARMAN International, in person at 2206 Student Innovation Center; Team PrISUm solar car team member Braden Wakefield and Smeet Mistry, HARMAN engineer (and Team PrISUm alum), via Webex, Sept. 10 (noon-1 p.m.)
  • Innovators Forum, alumnus Paul Willard, venture capitalist and the "airplane whisperer" of Silicon Valley, Sept. 17 (noon-1 p.m., via Webex)
Arts and events
University museums is hosting "Student Innovation Center at Twilight" Sept. 2 (5:30-7 p.m.) to showcase artist Catherine Widgery's "Interface," technically a single piece of art but in multiple places in the building. It includes pleated glass in the main-level vestibules and a series of copper panels suspended over the second-floor interior courtyard embedded with LED lights whose brightness changes in real time with the outside wind. Registration is encouraged but not required for this free event.

The Lectures Program opens its fall lineup tonight with a panel of ISU experts discussing the effects of climate change and what can be done to mitigate or change the current situation. "The Uninhabitable Earth? Climate Change and Your Future" begins at 6 p.m. in the Memorial Union Great Hall. It's free, open to the public and also will be livestreamed.

Two ISU carillon students will present a 20-minute concert on the scale model carillon Friday, Sept. 3 (12:30 p.m., Sukup atrium). It also will be streamed live on Facebook. Their music program is online.
Learning opportunities
Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) programming

Student Innovation Center programming
Innovation Professional Practice virtual series for faculty, staff and graduate students
  • Methods to Inspire Ideation, Seda McKilligan, College of Design, Sept. 17 (2-3:15 p.m.), register online

Center for Communication Excellence programming
In-person workshop series, Writing with Advanced Technology, 2:30-4 p.m., register online
  • Research Writing Tutor, Sept. 10
  • Grammarly, Sept. 13 
  • Corpus of Contemporary American English, Sept. 17
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Inside Update is published Thursday mornings by Strategic Relations and Communications. Questions may be directed to 515-294-7065.