8/17/01

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Allen Hays, director, graduate program in Public Policy, (319) 273-2910

Gwenne Culpepper, University Marketing and Public Relations, (319) 273-2761

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- The University of Northern Iowa's graduate program in Public Policy will collaborate with the Black Hawk County Tobacco Free Iowa Coalition in sponsoring "Penetrating the Smokescreen," a conference on tobacco prevention policy, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Mon., Sept. 17, in the Maucker Union Expansion at UNI. Featured speaker will be Alfred D. Watts, founder of Path of Success Inc., a personal development organization for youths.

Despite constant reminders that smoking is a hazard, the numbers of individuals who take up or continue smoking have not decreased significantly. And, says Al Hays, director of UNI graduate program in Public Policy, although smoking ads on television have been banned, some media still promote it. For instance, Hollywood has jumped back onto the smoking bandwagon, increasingly showing characters who smoke.

"It's a way for an actor to express him or herself as the character, but it's no excuse for what they do," Hays said; "We've pursued Hollywood on a lot of things like violence, and it's time to put pressure on them regarding this issue. The audience for movies is largely young, and they see this."

Those young audiences are impressionable, said Hays. "They see smoking as something cool, something that grown-ups do. The fact that their parents are telling them not to do it makes it more attractive."

Hays said the conference is aimed at those involved in smoking-prevention programs.

The conference is open to anyone, but the first 150 Black Hawk County residents to sign up will be allowed to attend the conference at no charge. Registration is $25 through Sept. 3, and $30 after that. Registration includes all sessions and lunch.

For more information, contact Al Hays, (319) 273-2910 or allen.hays@uni.edu.

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8/17/01

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

William Calhoun, vice president for University Advancement, (319) 273-6078

Gwenne Culpepper, University Marketing and Public Relations, (319) 273-2761

Note to editors/news directors: A 200 dpi color image of Corning and Eno is available on the Web at

http://www.uni.edu/pubrel/newsroom/photos/eno-corning.jpeg

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- Joy Cole Corning and Rex Eno, long-time supporters of the University of Northern Iowa, will co-chair the institution's national "Students First" campaign.

Now living in Des Moines, Corning taught school in Greenfield and Waterloo, following her graduation from UNI with a bachelor of arts in elementary education in 1954. She left the teaching profession to raise her family in Cedar Falls. She was elected to the Cedar Falls school board in 1973, serving 11 years, nine of them as president. She later served six years in the Iowa Senate. In the middle of her second term, Corning was elected lieutenant governor; a position she held for eight years.

An active volunteer, Corning serves on nearly a dozen boards, including the UNI Foundation Board of Trustees; UNI’s Performing Arts Center Advisory Board; the boards of the Des Moines Symphony, the National Conference on Community and Justice, and the Institute for Character Development. She recently established the Joy Cole Corning Distinguished Leadership Lecture Series at UNI. Madeleine Albright, former U.S. secretary of state, will be the inaugural speaker for the series.

Eno recently retired as president of Aegon USA., in Cedar Rapids. A member of the UNI Board of Trustees, he is a Storm Lake native who graduated from UNI and later served in the U.S. Army. He played an integral part of the "Leading, Building, Sharing" Campaign, and also was instrumental in securing a $150,000 gift from Aegon in support of UNI's Freeburg Early Childhood Center. Further, he headed the effort to complete UNI's outdoor track project in 1994.

He and his wife, Kathy, who is a UNI alumna, have established the Rex and Kathy Eno Scholarship Endowment Fund at the university. Rex helped establish UNI's Life Investors/AEGON scholarship.

Bill Calhoun, vice president for University Advancement, said the campaign is expected to be completed by January 2005. The "Students First" campaign has a goal of $75 million for scholarships, academic program support and facilities, including $15 million to build the McLeodUSA Center, a multi-purpose sports arena for basketball, volleyball and wrestling. Other capital projects include McElroy Hall, in Waterloo, which houses the Freeburg Early Childhood Program; a human performance center to be built onto the north end of the UNI-Dome; renovation of Lang Hall and Russell Hall; and equipment for McCollum Science Hall.

The university has raised more than half the funds already, including approximately $8 million for the McLeodUSA Center. The leadership gift phase of the campaign’s local drive is now underway. The Cedar Valley major gift drive kickoff will be in September, while the national kickoff will take place during fall 2002.

8/17/01

Following is a story lead and the University of Northern Iowa sources who can best address this topic. Feel free to contact the sources directly.

Leslie Jones, assistant professor of biology, recently addressed the creationism-vs.-evolution debate in an article, "Do We Need to Dismiss Creationism to Teach Evolution?" published in the Journal of Science Teachers' Association of Western Australia.

According to Jones, "It's possible to teach evolution in a manner that does justice to the significance of the scientific concept without dismissing the validity of other views of creation." The article goes on to address the need to develop constructive teaching strategies to reduce the impact that the dispute continues to have on science education.

Her research has explored the personal attitudes of college students taking required science classes. On the basis of her findings, an instructional strategy for evolutionary theory was developed, in which students were invited to explore the meeting of science and their personal/religious views.

Leslie Jones, assistant professor, Department of Biology, (319) 273-7153

Gwenne Culpepper, University Marketing and Public Relations, (319) 273-2761

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