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The University of Colorado at Boulder will host its 14th International Festival on Saturday, April 9, in celebration of the cultures, customs, foods and music of the nearly 90 countries represented by CU's international community. The festival will feature live entertainment, country and cultural booths and free food from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. in the Glenn Miller Ballroom at the University Memorial Center.

A team of University of Colorado at Boulder MBA students will compete in the national finals of the Venture Capital Investment Competition to be held April 7-9 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Leeds School of Business team joins seven other teams in the finals, including Harvard University, the University of Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The winning team will take home $10,000, with second place receiving $5,000 and third place $2,000.

Robert Palmer, Democratic staff director for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science from 1993 through January 2005, will speak at the University of Colorado at Boulder on April 11. Titled "Science, Policy and Politics: A View from the Hill," the talk will be held at the CIRES Auditorium at 2 p.m. in the Ekeley Sciences Building.

The newest discoveries and pictures from the Cassini spacecraft exploring Saturn will be presented at the University of Colorado at Boulder's Fiske Planetarium on April 7 and 8. Josh Colwell, a co-investigator on Cassini's ultraviolet camera and a research associate at CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, will present "Unveiling Saturn" at 7:30 p.m. on both days.

The Standing Committee on Research Misconduct at the University of Colorado at Boulder met Tuesday, March 29, to begin its work in reviewing the allegations of research misconduct related to Professor Ward Churchill. The agenda of the group's initial meeting focused on procedural matters. The formal allegations, outlined March 24 in a report by CU-Boulder Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano, will be forwarded to the committee this week.

The occupants of five University of Colorado at Boulder buildings saved the university about $72,000 in energy costs for the 2003-04 fiscal year and will be honored with the 2004 Buff Energy Star Award.

The Crosman Lecture presented by the University of Colorado at Boulder School of Journalism and Mass Communication on April 1 will feature Cees J. Hamelink, professor of international communication at the University of Amsterdam. Hamelink will speak on "Communication and Global Democracy" at 4 p.m. in Old Main Chapel. The event is free and open to the public and is co-sponsored by the Keller First Amendment Center. A reception will follow in the Heritage Center.

The Endangered Species Act and the many flora and fauna it has helped to protect will be the topic of an April 1 slide show and discussion at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Michael J. Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity based in Tucson, Ariz., will host the program beginning at 7 p.m. in University Memorial Center room 235. The presentation is free and open to the public.

University of Colorado at Boulder Chancellor Phil DiStefano today announced the findings of a preliminary review of allegations concerning the conduct and scholarship of Professor Ward Churchill. The review team, led by DiStefano, found that ChurchillÂ’s controversial essay on 9/11 and other public comments are protected by the First Amendment, but that other allegations of plagiarism, misuse of othersÂ’ work and fabrication may constitute research misconduct. Research misconduct, if proven, is subject to university sanctions.

A five-student team from the University of Colorado will travel to Salt Lake City to compete for a $50,000 prize in a national urban design competition against three other schools on April 1. The four finalists were selected from 81 submissions to the Urban Land Institute Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition, which is open to graduate students in real estate-related areas of study at universities throughout North America. The CU team has already won $10,000 in the competition for advancing to the final four.