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NEWS TIP SHEET Key campus administrators, faculty, staff and students at the University of Colorado at Boulder are available for comment regarding the forthcoming U.S. Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action in the University of Michigan cases. Responses to the Supreme Court's decisions by CU-Boulder Chancellor Richard L. Byyny and Ofelia Miramontes, associate vice chancellor for diversity and equity, will be available soon after the decisions are announced.

The mechanical engineering department at the University of Colorado at Boulder has been awarded a five-year, $900,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish a new program where graduate students will research and design devices for improved treatment of heart disease.

Surging student interest in energy issues has sparked the creation of a unique new environmental studies graduate curriculum set to begin this fall at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The energy specialization within the environmental studies master's degree program will include core courses and electives in classes such as "Solar Technology," "Environmental Economics" and "Renewable Energy Policy."

The Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder has received a $960,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to continue the program through 2007. The McNair Program prepares selected CU-Boulder undergraduates to study at the doctoral level. It is a federally funded program primarily designed to prepare low-income, first-generation college students to pursue a Ph.D. Colorado Congressman Mark Udall's office recently notified McNair Director Ramona Beal of the welcome news.

University of Colorado at Boulder student artists are hoping their class project, a work comprised of miscellaneous trash collected from students' favorite Boulder walkways, will send a message to those inclined to litter. "We hope that others might be made aware of the trash people have thrown away in Boulder along some beautiful places to walk," said Professor George Rivera, instructor of CU-Boulder's "Art and Contemporary Society" Maymester course.

The National Science Foundation has granted $1.5 million to a team of CU-Boulder scientists and graduate students who are working with the Boulder Valley School district on a program designed to improve science, math and literacy in area schools.

Some of the University of Colorado at Boulder's engineering outreach programs will be leaving campus this summer to provide better access for K-12 students and teachers across the state. Presented by the acclaimed Integrated Teaching and Learning Program, the weeklong "Kids Invent Toys" workshop will be offered at Alicia Sanchez Elementary in Lafayette today through June 20, and then at the Western Colorado Math and Science Center in Grand Junction July 14-18.

Kids age four to 16 can still get in on the fun of the University of Colorado at Boulder's CU Science Discovery summer program of classes and wilderness camps. Space is still available in a number of the nearly 200 weeklong classes offered, including "Kids Chemistry," "Lego Structures," "High-Tech Expeditions," "Marble Madness," "Science Magic," "Physics for Fun," "Model Rockets," "Kid Pix," "Electronics for Girls," and many others.

University of Colorado at Boulder Chancellor Richard L. Byyny has announced details of campus budget reductions resulting from a $16.7 million shortfall in state support. With the latest round of budget cuts, the permanent funding base of state support for CU-Boulder has been reduced by about $30 million in the last 18 months, cutting state funding for the campus by nearly 29 percent. State funds now comprise less than 8 percent of the total Boulder campus budget.

Twenty undergraduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder have received the prestigious Jacob Van Ek Award for outstanding academic achievement and contributions to the university and Boulder communities. The recipients were honored last month along with faculty members they named as mentors. The award was established in 1973 to honor Jacob Van Ek, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at CU-Boulder from 1929 to 1959. Van Ek died in 1994 at the age of 97.