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St. Patrick’s Day conjures up images of lucky four leaf clovers, the color green, and crowded Irish pubs filled with people wearing buttons that say, “Kiss Me, I’m Irish. But the true meaning behind the holiday is in the saint himself. St. Patrick was seen as the savior of Ireland 1,500 years ago and still is today, according to University of Colorado at Boulder English Professor Michael Bell.

Patrick McQuillan, assistant professor of education, teaches a class on middle school philosophy and is a proponent of the approach. He believes the junior high school model tries to force children into a high school curriculum too early. The middle school approach is geared to the intellectual, social and physical development needs of young adolescents, he says. It emphasizes team teaching and an integrated approach to learning the subject matter and does require more planning time for teachers.

For many people, the thought of getting a tattoo conjures up images of sailors and leather-clad bikers adorning themselves with skulls, hearts and other symbols of machismo. But, in fact, tattoos carry a rich cultural significance that dates back many centuries. And while still popular with the biker crowd today, tattoos now adorn a broader segment of the population.

The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado at Boulder has received a $210,000 grant from the Metropolitan Life Foundation in New York City for its work on reducing juvenile violence. The CU-Boulder center was named the co-winner of the 1997 Positive Choices Youth Anti-Violence Initiatives Program sponsored by the foundation. The other winner was the Institute for Urban and Minority Education at Columbia University's Teachers College, which will receive $190,000.

The CU-Boulder Division of Continuing Education and the University Book Store will present three well-known faculty, who are authors, in a Lunch and Learn Series to be held at the Chautauqua Community House. The lunch-time talks will entertain, provoke and inform, according to Gwen Thornton, academic coordinator in the Division of Continuing Education.

Volunteers from the Boulder community and the University of Colorado at Boulder are joining forces to help prevent the type of violent behavior exhibited in the Hill area last May. Dubbed the “Peacemakers Project,” the program will utilize trained volunteers to listen, discuss and intervene before issues mushroom into violence. The project is coordinated by the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center of Boulder.

Ofelia Miramontes, associate professor of education at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has been named interim associate vice chancellor for diversity, pending approval by the CU Board of Regents. The appointment will be considered at the Feb. 19 meeting of the board. Miramontes will serve in the interim position until a search for a permanent associate vice chancellor is concluded. A search for a permanent appointee will begin no earlier than the fall of 1998.

A $9 million instrument designed and built at the University of Colorado at Boulder was shipped to Baltimore today for integration into a new NASA ulatraviolet-light gathering satellite now set for launch in October.

Popular music and cultural critic Greil Marcus will give a public lecture Thursday, Feb. 19, at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In the lecture, titled “Prophecy in the American Voice -- John Winthrop, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and Allen Ginsberg,” Marcus will address the prophetic strain in American political rhetoric. The talk, which will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Old Main Chapel, is free and open to the public. Best known for his work as a popular music critic, Marcus also has written extensively on literature, art, movies and politics.

RICHARD PFAFF, professor emeritus of political science, has lived in Iran and Turkey, and is an expert on the Middle East and world affairs. He can address the politics of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf War. Pfaff has given expert testimony on Middle Eastern affairs in Congressional hearings, has been a consultant to the Department of Defense and taught classes on the Persian Gulf crisis in 1989-90. He can be reached at 303-499-4060.