Â鶹ÒùÔº

Today's perceptions of the western tourist and the role tourism has played in shaping western communities will be addressed July 10 in a public event sponsored by the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Patrick Long, professor in the CU-Boulder College of Business, and David Wrobel, associate professor of history at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, will draw from the contents of the center's newly published book "Seeing and Being Seen: Tourism in the American West."

Chancellor Richard L. Byyny has announced a title change and increase in responsibilities for Mary Jo ("Joey") White, long-time executive assistant to the chancellor. Effective July 1, White will be Executive Assistant to the Chancellor and Chief of Staff. The change in title was approved by President Elizabeth Hoffman on May 17. The president uses the same model of organization in her office.

Susan Krane, director of the CU Art Galleries, the visual arts museum of the University of Colorado at Boulder, has accepted the directorship of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Scottsdale, Ariz. The Scottsdale museum is a new facility of 22,000 square feet with an operating budget of $2.3 million.

The unique structure of materials like shaving cream and gelatin will be explored during the July 5 lecture "Squishy Physics: How Foam Flows, Jello Gels and Sand Slips" at the University of Colorado at Boulder. David Weitz, a physics professor at Harvard University and participating faculty member in a summer physics institute at CU-Boulder, will present the lecture at 7:30 p.m. in Duane Physics room G1B20 on the CU-Boulder campus.

Note to Editors: All of the scientific sessions are closed to the public but open to the media, except for the June 28 talks at the Millennium Hotel, which are open to all. Roughly 250 scientists from around the world have converged on Boulder this week to present their latest findings on Jupiter, its satellites and magnetosphere. Attendees will present the latest results from NASA's Galileo Mission now at Jupiter, the Cassini Mission to Saturn which recently passed by Jupiter, the Hubble Space Telescope and several ground based observatories.

Reporters and photographers are invited to cover CU-Boulder's second annual "Picnic on the Quad," Saturday, July 7, beginning at 4 p.m. in the Norlin Quadrangle on campus. Free activities at the picnic will continue into the evening and include live music, hands-on science workshops for kids through CU's Science Discovery Program and the CU Museum of Natural History, ice skating, ice cream, sidewalk chalk art projects and face painting. Special visits from "Chip," CU's animated mascot, and Will Shakespeare himself also are part of the program.

A University of Colorado at Boulder study foresees increasing sprawl in 11 Western states during the next 50 years as greater numbers of people choose to reside in low-density suburban and rural settings. By 2050, the total number of developed acres in the contiguous states is expected to grow by more than 26 million acres as the population surges by 48 million, according to geography professor and project leader William Riebsame Travis.

Approximately 400 students from several CU-Boulder summer diversity programs have been invited to the third annual Diversity & Excellence Summer Gathering on June 27 from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The gathering will be held at Observatory Field, south of the Business College along Regent Drive, and will include food and entertainment. The event is an opportunity for middle school, high school and undergraduate students from various summer diversity programs to meet each other and experience a college atmosphere, according to organizers.

The Department of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Colorado at Boulder received approval of a $28.1 million budget for fiscal 2001-2002 from the CU Board of Regents at its June 21 meeting in Denver. The 2001-2002 athletics budget is part of the overall Boulder campus budget submitted by Chancellor Richard L. Byyny. As an auxiliary enterprise, Intercollegiate Athletics must generate increased revenue to cover all increases in expenditures. This year's budget represents a 5.1 percent increase from last year.

Editors: The media is invited to visit the ITL Laboratory on June 21 or June 22 when K-12 students will be using the new laptop computers in the pre-college engineering class "How Do Things Work?" The class, made up exclusively of older elementary and middle-school girls, meets both days from 9 a.m. to noon in ITLL room 150.