News from the Executive Vice Chancellor’s Office

A satellite interactive teleconference focusing on current legal issues for adolescents and adults with learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder will be offered from 1 to 3 p.m. Oct. 30 in the Clendening Amphitheater. Program sponsors are: Donald Hagen, MD, executive vice chancellor; human resources; student services; and the office of equal opportunity and affirmative action. The conference is open to faculty, staff and students. For reservations, call Carol Wagner, ADA coordinator, ext. 7813.

News from the School of Medicine-Kansas City

The School of Medicine will begin to offer quarterly faculty meetings, and the first meeting for Kansas City faculty will at 5 p.m. Oct. 23 in Battenfeld Auditorium. During the meeting, Deborah Powell, MD, executive dean of the School of Medicine, will present a state-of-the-school address; Irene Cumming, chief executive officer, will give a hospital and hospital governance update; Herbert Swick, MD, senior associate dean for academic affairs at the school, will give an allocation planning advisory committee update; and the Association of American Medical Colleges liaison committee on medical education Nov. 10-13 site visit will be discussed. Refreshments will be served from 4:30 to 5 p.m. in the Francisco Lounge. (A videotape of the meeting will be made available for Wichita campus faculty.)

Cynda Johnson, MD, professor, and Jane Murray, MD, professor and chair, both in family medicine, recently presented a three-hour course, "Quality Health Care for the Mature Woman," at the annual Scientific Assembly of the American Academy of Family Physicians in Chicago.

Family medicine and international programs hosted a visiting physician Eva Brindzakova, MD, from Slovakia, through a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The purpose of the grant is to see how family medicine is practiced in the United States, as Brindzakova’s country is undergoing privatization. From Oct. 6-10 she visited the Medical Center’s family medicine department and its community office in Lenexa.

Ivan Damjanov, MD, PhD, professor and chair of pathology and laboratory medicine, was an invited speaker at the first European-American intensive course in PCR-based clinical and forensic testing Sept. 26-Oct. 1 in Split, Croatia.

News from the School of Medicine-Wichita

Anne Walling, MD, associate director for education in the office of primary care and professor of family and community medicine, has been accepted to the Harvard Macy Institute Program for Physician Educators through the Harvard Medical School’s office of educational development.

News from the School of Nursing

Two School of Nursing faculty gave presentations at the July 22-24 eighth International Conference on Reversal Theory in London. Sue Popkess Vawter, RN, PhD, professor, presented "Tension Stress Measures and Interventions for Women Who Weight Cycle," and Kathleen O’Connell, RN, PhD, professor, presented "Development of the Global Assessment of State: Just Tell Me, Are you Telic or Paratelic?" and "Development of a Smoking Cessation Program Based on Reversal Theory."

Nancy Hoffart, RN, PhD, associate professor, moderated a symposium, "A Qualitative Process Evaluation of the Care Coordinator Role as a Component of a Differentiated Practice Model," at the Sept. 26 Kansas Nursing Research Exchange in Wichita. Hoffart and Ann Cobb, RN, PhD, professor, also presented "Overview of the C.A.R.E. Model, Care Coordinator Role, and Evaluation Plan." Four doctoral nursing students, Joyce Neal, Vicki Ross, Barb Smith and Karin Roberts, presented papers as part of the symposium.

The KU School of Nursing was honored for its cooperation, participation and partnership in Project GROWTH (Girls Reaching Out With Their Hopes), which is sponsored by Nurse Midwives Associates of St Luke's. The school was recognized at an appreciation and recognition banquet Oct. 4 at the Westin Crown Center, Kansas City, Mo. The partnership between the Nurse Midwives Associates, four area baccalaureate nursing programs and the Teen Parent Center, an alternative school in the Kansas City, Mo., School District, provides age-sensitive, state-of-the-art maternity care and ongoing age-appropriate health education and support throughout pregnancy, delivery and early parenting. Undergraduate nursing students are trained as volunteer mentors and doulas for support. Two KU faculty members, Ann Schorfheide, RN, CNM, PhD, associate professor, and Julia Slaven, RN, MN, clinical instructor, support the program, which is funded by the Homer McWilliams Trust. During the past year, 24 KU nursing students have participated in the program.

News from the School of Allied Health

Debra Galvin Cook, MS, OTR, assistant professor of occupational therapy education, presented a two-day symposium, "Applying Sensory Integration Theory at Home and School for Children With Autism," for the Northwest Illinois Education Association Oct. 20 and 21.

Patricia Pohl, PhD, PT, assistant professor of physical therapy education and assistant scientist in the Center on Aging, and Perri Cagle, MS, PT, assistant professor of physical therapy education, presented "Learning New Skills: Challenges for the Older Adult" at the Oct. 3 Kansas/Missouri Physical Therapy Association Joint Fall Conference in Kansas City, Mo.

News from the Center on Aging

The Center on Aging will host a Research Seminar from 4 to 5 p.m. Oct. 28 in the Clendening Amphitheater. Cynthia Teel, RN, PhD, assistant professor at the School of Nursing, will discuss "Psychometric Analysis of an Environmental Assessment Scale."

Pamela Duncan, PhD, PT, director of research at the Center on Aging and senior research scientist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Kansas City, Mo., has been awarded a two-year $870,000 Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development grant. The grant will allow her to assess the structure, process and outcomes of stroke rehabilitation services provided in VA hospitals. This national study, which will include 11 VA hospitals, will be led by Duncan.

News from the Kansas Cancer Institute

"How to Prevent Our Children and Adolescents from Smoking: A Childhood Disease!" will be offered by the Kansas Cancer Institute from 7:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Nov. 1 in Battenfeld Auditorium. Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall, will be the special guest speaker and she will discuss efforts by the state of Kansas to deal child and adolescent smoking. Those interested in attending should contact Amy North, ext. 4702, for more information.

News from the KU Endowment Association

Through their estate, the late Edwin V. and Louise C. Perdue have established two scholarship funds for KU students. The Perdues' estate has established a trust at UMB Bank Kansas, Overland Park. This trust will provide $2,000 every semester in perpetuity to the KU Endowment Association for two scholarship funds benefiting KU students. One scholarship fund is designated for use by the School of Nursing, and the second is designated for general use at the KU Lawrence campus. Preference for the scholarships will be given to students from the communities where the Perdues lived and worked: Drexel, Mo., and Louisburg. Edwin Perdue grew up on a farm, and Louise Perdue was the second oldest of seven children. Neither family could manage the cost of college. Edwin Perdue was 15 when he started working at the Bank of Louisburg as a janitor. After years of on-the-job training, as well as courses at the American Institute of Banking, he eventually became co-owner and president of the Bank of Louisburg and the Bank of Drexel. Louise Perdue was on the board of directors of each bank. Before marrying Edwin Perdue in 1945, she was the owner of Investor's Abstract Co. in Paola. She received training as an abstractor at Ottawa Business College

and the American Institute of Banking. And, every year, even into her 80s, she attended the income tax school at Kansas State University, Manhattan. The Perdues lived in Louisburg throughout their married life. Edwin Perdue died in 1979. Before his death, he and his wife made plans to establish the scholarship trust. Louise Perdue died in 1993. The gift will be administered by the KU Endowment Association.

News from the Benefits Office

Open enrollment for group health insurance and flexible spending accounts has begun and continues through Oct. 31. Those interested should complete a form only if they want to change insurance providers, add or drop coverage, add or drop dependents from medical or dental coverage, change tobacco user status or change pretax status. Also, those wanting to participate in the health care or dependent care flexible spending accounts in 1998 must complete the new KanElect enrollment form. Participation will end Dec. 31, 1997, unless a new form is completed for 1998. Explanations of the plans will be provided at two upcoming 90-minute informational meetings. Those meetings will be Oct. 23 at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. in Sudler Auditorium. Open enrollment is being held in the Benefits Office, 1040 Wescoe, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., through the end of the month. For more information, call extensions 5142, 5088 or 5087.

News from the Student Union Corporation

Faculty, staff, students and volunteers are invited to a Birthday Party Celebration for the Student Union Corp. The corporation celebrates its 56th anniversary this year. Stop by Stoland Lounge in Orr-Major from 2 to 3 p.m. Oct. 23. Food and beverage will be available.

Miscellaneous News

The KU Medical Center Auxiliary Bazaar, a fund-raiser for KU Medical Center, will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 21 and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 22 in the KU Hospital Lobby. The Auxiliary Luncheon will be held during the bazaar Oct. 22 with two seatings: 11 a.m. and noon. The luncheon will be held in the Delp Pavilion cafeteria. Tickets are $5 and are available through either gift shop.

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