University of Rochester

In Review

See the World

When the Class of 2015 arrived on campus for the fall semester, they received a novel challenge: to fill in “passports” with the signatures of fellow classmates from geographic regions around the world. Among those who complete the project, one student—whose name will be announced in mid-November—will win a round-trip ticket anywhere in the world. Through the Freshman Passport Challenge, first-year students are encouraged to meet more of their peers and discover how diverse their class is.

“It’s an experiment,” says Jonathan Burdick, dean of admissions and financial aid. “But I think it’s an activity that the entire class can participate in, have fun with, and hopefully, creates an appreciation for diversity across the world.”

Sneak Previews

Not sure what to read next? Three Percent, the literary blog at the University’s translation press, Open Letter Books, has some suggestions. With an eye to readers interested in perusing books before making a selection, the new blog Read This Next (readthisnext.org) offers a free preview each Monday of a work of international literature due to be published within the next month. Previews can be read online, printed, or downloaded to a phone, Kindle, or e-reader. An interview with the author or translator and a full review are also available.

Faces and Places: Appointments at Warner, Nursing, and Optics, and in Research

Raffaella Borasi has been appointed to a third five-year term as dean of the Warner School. A mathematics educator, Borasi—who holds the Frederica Warner Professorship—is known as an innovator in designing programs that prepare teachers to be effective leaders in the classroom. As Warner’s sixth dean, she has led the school during a decade of significant growth in student enrollment and research funding. Borasi is a graduate of the University of Torino in Italy and received master’s and doctoral degrees in mathematics education from the University at Buffalo. She joined the Warner School faculty in 1985.

Kathy Rideout, a faculty member of the School of Nursing for more than 25 years, has been named interim dean of the School of Nursing, pending the outcome of a national search for a successor to Kathy Parker. Parker, who was appointed dean in 2008, announced in September that she was stepping down as dean to devote herself more fully to her research interests within the Medical Center as director of its Sleep Research Program. Rideout has recently served as the school’s senior associate dean for academic affairs. She has also worked as a nurse practitioner within Golisano Children’s Hospital.

Xi-Cheng Zhang, the director of the Center for Terahertz Research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, becomes the new director of the Institute of Optics in January. Zhang succeeds Wayne Knox, who is stepping down after 10 years to become associate dean of education and new initiatives at the Hajim School. Internationally regarded for his work in the field of lasers and electro-optics, Zhang has received some 30 honors and awards during his career, most recently the William Streifer Scientific Achievement Award from the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Photonics Society.

David Williams, one of the world's leading experts on human vision, has been appointed dean for research in Arts, Sciences, and Engineering. The William G. Allyn Professor of Medical Optics and director of the Center for Visual Science, Williams has pioneered new technologies to improve the eyesight of people around the globe, from the legally blind to those with 20/20 vision. He succeeds Paul Slattery, a professor of physics who has overseen research programs in Arts, Sciences, and Engineering since 1998, a period in which total research funding more than doubled, to $135 million in 2010.

Gandhi Institute Has a New Home

The M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence has opened the doors to its new offices in the Plymouth-Exchange neighborhood across the Genesee River from the River Campus. Housed in the Interfaith Chapel for the past four years, the institute opted to move to a house on South Plymouth Avenue owned by David Skinner ’79, a chemist with Xerox, and David Knoll, a mortgage officer and the principal founder of Genesee Co-op Federal Credit Union, a Rochester community development institution. The rehabilitated 1890s house, vacant for the last 17 years, will give institute staff more workspace, as well as room for a community garden site and outdoor meeting space. The institute will maintain a strong presence on campus, with an office in the Interfaith Chapel and continued use of the Gandhi Reading Room in Rush Rhees Library for events and programs. The new location will provide greater opportunities to work directly with the community. “We’re excited about creating an on-the-street presence in Rochester so close to campus,” says institute director Kit Miller.