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University Relations Tip Sheet - June 5, 2007

Study sheds light on global corruption
Public corruption is present in governments the world over and a new study sheds light on the pervasiveness of corruption and offers an array of potential solutions. "Fighting Corruption in the Public Sector" presents a comprehensive analysis of corruption that highlights not only the problems, but also potential solutions for a broad range of corruption manifestations in tax administration, government expenditure programs and other areas of fiscal policy and management. The study was authored by Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, director of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies International Studies Program, Javier Arze del Granado, an economist with World Bank Indonesia and Jameson Boex, assistant research professor of economics and senior associate in the International Studies Program. For more information on the study, or to schedule interviews with the authors, contact Michael Wall at 404-651-3572 or mtwall@gsu.edu.

New Take on an old subject
Georgia State's Philosophy chair, George Rainbolt, was faced with a curious problem: while student evaluations showed they enjoyed a beginning philosophy course titled "Great Questions in Philosophy," enrollment in the class was plummeting. Since determining the textbook was an outdated bore for the average 18-year-old, Rainbolt set out to create a more relevant and appealing text. The result is Critical Thinking in College, a new academic text containing 22 sections for all the major academic disciplines written by professors in those disciplines. Rainbolt says the new text will prepare nearly 3,000 Georgia State students who annually take the class for the courses they will take in their core and in their majors. To speak with Rainbolt, contact William Inman at 404-651-3578 or winman@gsu.edu.

Clash of the titans
Georgia State University astronomers Stephen Williams and Douglas Gies are part of an international team of scientists that has determined the properties of an extremely massive pair of young stars locked together in a violent solar wrestling match some 165,000 light years from Earth. Williams and Gies collected data about the giant O-type stars using the 4.9-foot telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Other members of the team collected data using NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite. The giant stars are relatively young at 3 million years and orbit around a common mass every couple of days and contain a combined mass of about 100 suns. Each star blows off powerful stellar winds that emit superheated gases, X-rays and ultraviolet radiation. For more information, contact Aaron Baca at 404-651-1444 or abaca@gsu.edu.

Starting college early includes studying abroad
A Hindu Temple in Panama and the wildlife of Costa Rica are among the sites 14 Atlanta Carver High School students will see on a 10-day study abroad program with Georgia State University which began May 30. The students, who began studying either Introductory English or Psychology at the start of the spring semester, are part of an accelerated program at Carver that aims to give students an early start to their college education through the Georgia Board of Regents' new Early College High School initiative. "Exposing students to the global world allows them to see how people live in other parts of the world," said Kim White, Georgia State's College of Education liaison at Carver, which is in the Atlanta Public School District. "It broadens their mind to increase their world view as they look for specific observations of race, class and gender within the context of another culture." For more information, contact Leah Harris at 404-651-3575 or lvh@gsu.edu.

Happenings at Georgia State:

On the surface
From June 7 to Aug. 30, the Welch School of Art and Design Gallery at Georgia State will present On the Surface, two environmental installations that explore the relationships between art, architecture and the environment. Amy Landesberg, an assistant professor in the Welch School, presents "Veneers" in tandem with "Dressings" by Mark Cottle, who teaches in the architecture program at Georgia Tech. The opening reception will take place from 5-8 p.m. Thursday (June 7) and will also be part of the First Thursday Downtown Artwalk for June. For more information, contact William Inman at 404-651-3578 or winman@gsu.edu.

Diane L. Fowlkes celebration/lecture
The Diane L. Fowlkes Spring Event, held annually to highlight collections in the Georgia State University Libraries' Women's Collection, focuses this year on the history of the nursing profession at 5 p.m. June 12 at the Student Center, Senate Salon. The guest speaker will be Elizabeth Norman, author of We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese, and Women at War: The Story of Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in Vietnam. Mary N. Long will be recognized as the 2007 "Shero of the Year." For more information, contact Leah Harris at 404-651-3575 or lvh@gsu.edu, or visit the library's Web site: http://www.library.gsu.edu/spcoll/pages/pages.asp?ldID=105&guideID=544&ID=4830.

Mind-meld
A wine-and-cheese reception and poster presentation featuring the works of Georgia State University's Brains and Behavior faculty members is scheduled for 5 p.m. June 13 at the Loudermilk Center, 40 Courtland St. in downtown Atlanta. The presentations will spotlight the research of the program's newest scientists. The reception follows an all-day Brains and Behavior retreat at the center that will include talks by faculty members and a keynote by Duke University neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis. For more information, contact Aaron Baca at 404-651-1444 or abaca@gsu.edu.

 

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