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UN I V E R S I T Y O F D E N V E R 1 1 . 2 0 1 0
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t School renaming
t Pioneer hockey
A new Holocaust Memorial Social Action Site at DU is designed to that’s what we’re after
this time.”
transform the memory of the millions in Europe murdered by the Nazis
—Chancellor Robert Coombe
more than 65 years ago into acts of social justice. More than 200 people on kicking off DU’s giving
campaign and the effect it
attended a ceremony Oct. 10 to dedicate the outdoor gathering place will have on the University
>>www.du.edu/ascend
with the setting of the memorial’s first stone near Buchtel Tower. The
memorial is linked to an endowed chair of Holocaust studies and will
be home to performances, lectures, readings and vigils that advance
humanitarian causes, foster intercultural dialogue and incubate empathy
and public good works. Funded by alumni and community members, the
memorial is scheduled for completion by December 2012.
Knoebel School dedicated
Most-watched videos
DU’s Daniels College of Business changed the on DU’s YouTube
name of the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism
Management to the Fritz Knoebel School of Hospitality
channel
Management at a private naming event on Oct. 19.
Betty Knoebel, widow of Denver food services
1. Skiing on Carnegie Green
pioneer Ferdinand “Fritz” Knoebel, gave DU $17.5 2. Pioneer Passage
million in May. The Daniels College of Business will use
$7.5 million of the gift to increase student scholarships,
3. Why I Chose DU
faculty support, industry partnerships and experiential 4. Free Bike Library Launches
learning programs. The overarching goal is to achieve
5. Finding DNA Markers in
Wayne Armstrong
[ ]
unwanted electronic junk out of the basement and down to the Asbury Elementary School parking UN I V E R S I T Y O F D E N V E R
lot on Nov. 6.
That’s when Action Recycling will be on hand to take computer towers, batteries, TVs,
w w w. d u . e d u / t o d a y
stereos, mice (the inorganic kind), laptops, printers, cell phones, keyboards and monitors off your Volume 34, Number 3
hands and out of your life.
Action is an EPA-sanctioned recycling outfit that knows electronic trash from treasure. Its Interim Vice Chancellor for
University Communications
technicians strip electronic items down to what’s recyclable and what’s not, then see that the
Jim Berscheidt
pieces go where they belong. They can even scrape your computer’s hard drive to a safe, dataless
Editorial Director
magnetic strip before sending it off to hard-drive heaven. And they’ll mail you the papers to prove Chelsey Baker-Hauck (BA ’96)
that the hard drive was “degaussed” for only $8 per hard drive. Otherwise, disposing of electronic Managing Editor
junk, including hard drives you don’t want cleaned, will cost a donation of at least $10 or more per Kathryn Mayer (BA ’07, MLS ’10)
household. Art Director
The beneficiary of this electronic clean-up is University Neighbors, a registered neighborhood Craig Korn, VeggieGraphics
association that ran an identical e-cycling event last year. That event raised about $500, which Community News is published monthly by the
helped pay for the group’s annual ice cream social in August. University of Denver, University Communications,
2199 S. University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208-4816.
“It’s as much a community service as it is outreach for us,” says former president Liz Ullman. The University of Denver is an EEO/AA institution.
“It keeps electronics out of the landfill and from being scattered in the alleys. It also brings neighbors
together. They meet and hang out. It’s great.”
This year’s e-cycling event will be from 9 a.m.–noon, rain or shine, at Asbury School, which
Contact Community News at 303-871-4312
is one block north of Evans Avenue between Marion and Lafayette streets. Bring all the electronic or tips@du.edu
junk you want, but not fluorescent bulbs or devices containing mercury or Freon. To receive an e-mail notice upon the
>>www.universityneighbors.org publication of Community News, contact us
with your name and e-mail address.
—Richard Chapman
2
Daniels’ microfinance class
Wayne Armstrong
named to Forbes list of most
innovative business classes
The Deutsche Bank Microfinance Class at DU’s
Daniels College of Business has been named to the
Forbes.com list of the 10 Most Innovative Business
School Classes.
The list includes courses from business schools
around the country that “appeal to a different kind of
student — one who increasingly looks to do good
while also doing well.”
Students in the Daniels class work directly
with managers from Deutsche Bank’s Global
Commercial Microfinance Consortium to evaluate
loan applications from microfinance institutions
(MFIs). MFIs borrow from Deutsche Bank’s $80
million fund and use the money to make small loans
— some as low as $50 — to individuals and groups
in rural villages.
“The idea of microfinance has been around
a while, but we’re now finding that larger financial
institutions are getting involved, in addition to not-
for-profits,” says Professor Mac Clouse, who teaches
the course. “The idea is taking hold that you can earn
a rate of return as well as provide benefits to the
poor.”
The Daniels-Deutsche Bank partnership was
established five years ago when Daniels Professor
and Dean Emeritus Bruce Hutton was leading an
interterm course to New York. The group met University dedicates new Nagel Art Studios
with the director of Deutsche Bank’s microfinance
The University of Denver celebrated its new center for drawing and painting with a
division. The director was so impressed with the DU
dedication ceremony Oct. 19 that drew around 300 people to the Ralph and Trish Nagel
students and their questions that he invited Hutton
Art Studios, the new copper-plated structure located between the Shwayder Art Building
and the University of Denver to join as the bank’s
and the Ritchie Center. Classes began there in September.
only academic partner.
Built along with the University of Denver Soccer Stadium and the Pat Bowlen Training
The students in the class — which is capped
Center for DU’s athletic teams, the 12,500-square-foot structure features a large, open
at around 20 graduate students — receive a set of
studio area, high ceilings, concrete floors, movable walls and plenty of natural light.
loan applications from MFIs. Following a set of criteria Equivalent in space to an entire floor in the Shwayder Art Building, the new studio
provided by Deutsche Bank, the students research also frees up space in Shwayder for DU’s pioneering program in electronic media arts
the applying organization, compile information about design (eMAD). The building’s third floor has been turned from a labyrinth of classrooms
the economic and political environment in the region; and hallways into a large open space with the latest in digital equipment.
talk to people from the finance, human resources Chancellor Robert Coombe told those gathered at the ceremony that the art scene
and IT side of the MFI and examine past successes to in Denver is “absolutely percolating,” citing recent developments at the Denver Art
determine their suitability to receive a loan. Museum, the Vance Kirkland Museum and the soon-to-be-built Clyfford Still Museum.
After conducting initial research, the class then “It is an extraordinary time, and our goal is to once again position the School of
travels to the MFI’s location during spring break in Art and Art History in the center of things for the sake of our students, for the sake of
order to conduct on-site due diligence. Student our faculty, for the sake of our community,” he said, referring to the time in the 1950s
groups have traveled to Cambodia, Uganda and and 1960s when DU was the center of modern art in Colorado thanks to Kirkland, the
Kenya to meet the MFIs and visit local borrowers. painter who was the director of the art school from the late 1920s until 1969.
“[Students] can see how microfinance can The studio is named for Ralph and Trish Nagel, who donated $2.3 million to the
provide a real benefit to the poor of society,” Clouse project. Ralph Nagel also serves on the DU Board of Trustees.
says. “You can make a difference by approaching a Trish Nagel said the purpose of the studio is to “provide a welcoming home for the
problem from a business perspective.” art spirit and the students and professors who will do their work here.”
—Jordan Ames —Greg Glasgow
3
New hope
Professor receives $1.5 million grant to study children exposed to animal abuse
Wayne Armstrong
effects of animal abuse on children
who witness it: It can’t be good.
Here’s what we don’t know:
Everything else.
What mental health problems arise
when children are exposed to brutality
against a much-loved pet? How do
children cope when they see an animal
beaten or tortured?
These are among the questions
social work Professor Frank Ascione
(pictured) plans to explore in a four-year
study that follows children who have
seen or heard animal abuse at home.
The project, funded by a $1.5 million
grant from the National Institute of
Child Health and Human Development,
will allow Ascione, who holds the
American Humane Endowed Chair at the
Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW),
to advance his groundbreaking research
into the dynamics of domestic violence
and animal maltreatment.
As executive director of GSSW’s
Institute for Human-Animal Connection,
Ascione has emerged as the nation’s
go-to authority on questions related to the topic. His research has fueled a nationwide campaign to increase the number of domestic
violence shelters extending the welcome mat to family pets. And thanks to his publications and expert testimony, more than a dozen
states have passed legislation that makes it possible to include at-risk pets in civil protection orders.
For his new study, Ascione will partner with the Colorado Coalition Against Domestic Violence to interview 300 mother-child pairs
from domestic violence shelters around the state. Participants will be required to have had pets within the last year and be willing to be
re-contacted for two years following the initial interviews. Children will range in age from 7–12.
By the time the study ends, those children will be ages 9–14, allowing researchers to examine mental health over time. To Ascione’s
knowledge, no other study on animal abuse and domestic violence has attempted to follow its participants for such an extended
period.
“We may see serious behavioral issues at first,” Ascione says. “Two years later it may be very different.”
GSSW Dean James Herbert Williams considers the grant a breakthrough for scholars studying the human-animal connection —
whether they work at DU or elsewhere.
“This is the first time that federal funding has been put forward to look at this kind of issue,” Williams explains, noting that such
funding signals the importance of foundational research in this emerging field.
Ascione’s new project comes on the heels of his 2007 study revealing the strong connection between animal abuse and intimate
partner violence. From that project, Ascione learned that abusers often use animals to manipulate or terrorize family members. Troubled
by that information, Ascione felt compelled to address the next logical question: How is exposure to animal abuse related to a child’s
mental health?
Preliminary findings with adults suggest that witnessing animal abuse has lasting consequences for the individuals involved and
for society. True, the majority of children who have seen their pets mistreated grow up to have healthy relationships, but others become
abusers themselves. Earlier interventions will help professionals reach these young people.
“One of the findings that has been emerging is derived from studies of men who reminisce about their childhoods. If they were
exposed to animal abuse before age 13, that exposure is linked to a greater likelihood that they perpetrate abuse,” Ascione says. Curiously,
he adds, the same findings do not hold true for women who witnessed animal abuse.
The study will also examine how adults shape children’s responses to the violence. “It really is going to provide information that has
not existed in the scientific community in this field,” Ascione says.
—Tamara Chapman
4
Penrose hosts Weaver’s latest installation
Timothy Weaver, a DU associate professor of electronic media arts and design and digital media studies,
has installed his art in museums and festivals from Ecuador to Germany.
Fans won’t have to travel nearly that far for his latest creation, Hylaea (pictured). The video, print and
rare book installation opened Oct. 14 at DU’s Penrose Library; it runs through Feb. 14, 2011.
The exhibition will be distributed across three levels of Penrose in four media clusters. Weaver also
incorporates two different types of archives into the exhibit: rare books in the Penrose Library Special
Collections and the remains of extinct birds from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
“The project is an interactive video and print installation that seeks to reanimate the residues, record
Courtesy of Tim Weaver
and archives of lost ecological memory from the extinct species cabinets of the museum and the rare book
shelves of the library,” Weaver says.
Professor Peggy Keeran, an arts and humanities reference librarian at Penrose and coordinator of the
exhibit, says Weaver causes people to think about heritage and the cost of not preserving wildlife and the
environment.
Keeran saw Weaver’s installation that was part of the Embrace exhibition at the Denver Art Museum and asked him if he’d show the work at Penrose.
Instead, Weaver created an entirely new installation.
“My intention in seeding motion, sound, interaction and macroscopic detail across the library is for viewers to recall that within less than a century of
the publication of the first written and painted records of the astounding bird life of North America, both common and mythological species became the
icons of human-induced extinctions,” Weaver says.
The exhibition is free and open to the public.
—Kristal Griffith
Wayne Armstrong
For Phil Coan (BSBA finance ’07) and Mark Huebner, a good business idea is simple:
Create a good product and bring it to the masses.
The rest, they say, should fall into place, and that is exactly what is happening for the partners
who own and run the Denver Pizza Co., a Denver-based takeout and delivery pizzeria. They
have two locations — at 5022 E. Hampden Ave. and 309 W. 11th St. — with a third in the
works. They say the short-term goal is to be running five stores within two years. Long-term
planning? Global expansion.
“We’ve been doing great,” Coan says. “We started profiting at our second location in the
first month of operation [in August 2010].”
Despite a slumping economy, the partners weren’t worried about whether their business
would thrive.
“That’s the thing about the quick service industry — you can serve a family for as much as
you can go out to eat yourself,” Coan says. Pies range from $5 (8-inch personal) to $15 (18-inch
extra-large). Specialty pies cost more. Coan’s favorite is “The Hero,” which has tzatziki sauce,
lamb, feta, kalamata olives, tomato and basil leaves. Huebner’s favorite is “The 5280,” which has
mozzarella, pepperoni, mushrooms and a special blend of spices.
Calzones, salads and Glacier ice cream also are offered.
Their competitors, the partners say, are the places that are locally grown and owned —
say, an Anthony’s Pizza and Pasta — but Coan and Huebner are confident they can take them
over eventually. That’s because they claim the “highest quality” ingredients — they shred their
cheese daily off the block, bake dough daily and use Wisconsin mozzarella, which is not only
“delicious” but has a lower fat content, Coan says. Coan, in the driver’s seat, is pictured with two of his
“The toughest part is getting the doors open and people in them,” Coan says. But that’s employees
been taken care of, in part due to Huebner’s national exposure as a contestant on season five
of ABC’s The Bachelorette, which he admits he did for Denver Pizza Co. publicity. On the show, Huebner’s profession was simply dubbed as “pizza
entrepreneur,” a fitting description since neither partner had any prior culinary experience.
“We cooked for nine months straight so we knew what we were serving,” Huebner says.
Recently, the duo has been making their presence known by donating food to charity fundraisers and events throughout the Denver area. “I’m willing
to do whatever it takes to make people happy,” Coan says. “I love hearing people who eat our food say that it was a great experience and that they love
the food.”
The Denver Pizza Co. is open Friday–Saturday from 11 a.m.–midnight and Sunday–Thursday from 11 a.m. –11 p.m.
—Kathryn Mayer
5
Sports Beau
Freshman Pioneer contributes to success of the team, Gwozdecky says
E lizabeth Tromans has sterling credentials: an MA in international human rights with a humanitarian assistance certificate from
DU’s Korbel School of International Studies, a stint in the Peace Corps, numerous international service trips, fluency in Spanish and
Bengali, and now an International Development Fellowship with Catholic Relief Services (CRS).
But it’s the experience gained during her summer job as a teenager in Hamilton, Ohio, that has proved most valuable so far in her
work for the CRS in India.
On Sept. 19, while she was helping distribute humanitarian aid supplies in the northern part of the country, she rescued a woman
from rushing floodwaters and saved her life. All part of a day’s work for the former lifeguard, who says she “didn’t anticipate having to
use this skill in India.”
Tromans began serving her yearlong fellowship in July and was assigned to India to support the Disaster Management team. In non-
disaster times, she’s part of a team that helps communities vulnerable to disasters better prepare. During recent flooding in the Gonda
district of Utter Pradesh state, she assisted in emergency response efforts.
Just before the rescue, her group
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[Events]
November