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University of Colorado at Boulder faculty and staff drive to campus less, hold fewer campus parking permits and ride RTD, Skip and Hop buses more since the university initiated an EcoPass program for its employees Jan. 1. The pilot program allows unlimited free rides on all RTD buses, including the Skip and Hop services, for more than 5,600 full-time and part-time faculty and staff at CU-Boulder. The program was made possible through a partnership between the university, the city of Boulder and RTD.

Four University of Colorado at Boulder faculty have received prestigious Guggenheim fellowships for the 1998-99 academic year. The grants were announced this week by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York. CU-Boulder faculty receiving the awards are Mitchell Begelman, professor and chair of astrophysical and planetary sciences; Albert Chong, associate professor of fine arts; Steven Epstein, professor of history; and Russell Monson, professor of environmental, population and organismic biology.

Professor Jerry Zimmerman of the University of Rochester has withdrawn his candidacy for dean of the CU-Boulder College of Business and Administration, citing personal reasons. "He spoke very highly of the college and of the opportunity for a new dean here," said Harold Bruff, dean of the CU-Boulder Law School and chair of the search committee. "He wishes us the best of luck in our search."

James R. Gaines, a corporate editor at Time Inc., will deliver the 1998 Ralph L. Crosman Memorial Lecture, titled "A Fine Mess: Journalism in the Age of Monica," on Wednesday, April 22, in the Old Main Chapel at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be at 5 p.m. A reception will follow in the Heritage Center on the third floor of Old Main.

CU-Boulder will donate space to the Colorado Therapeutic Riding Center for its Fourth Annual Used Tack Sale on Saturday, April 25, and Sunday, April 26, in the Coors Events/Conference Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Both donated and consigned horse-related items will be sold at the event. Some of the items for sale include Western and English tack, horse and stable equipment and riding clothes for children and adults.

As ad agency creative departments become leaner and meaner and demand more of entry-level people, the CU School of Journalism and Mass Communication has responded with a new, aggressive curriculum designed to give students the extra training they need. The efforts are paying off for grads, who are getting jobs at both local and national agencies, and the program is generating national attention.

Â鶹ÒùÔº, faculty, staff and administrators at the University of Colorado at Boulder will convene for the fifth annual "Campus Earth Summit," April 20-21, to discuss environmental topics from alternative transportation to sustainable development on campus. The summit, which is free and open to the public, provides a forum to review the campusÂ’ environmental performance and to examine the potential for reducing environmental impacts. The goal is to bring together people who may not normally communicate with each other for a cross-fertilization of ideas.

A scholarship in American Studies has been established in memory of Susannah Chase, the CU-Boulder senior who was brutally beaten near her home in downtown Boulder and died on Dec. 22, a day after the assault. Professor Erika Doss, director of the American Studies program, said the scholarship has been established with seed money from the College of Arts and Sciences and a few small private donations, but contributions are welcomed.

CU-Boulder Professor David Monarchi and a group of undergraduate business students will present a new learning environment – or virtual world – that Monarchi has developed over the past 18 months with a grant from the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. The presentation will be from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, April 10, in room 224 in the College of Business and Administration. Monarchi, an information systems professor, received the CCHE grant to research ways students can learn to use new technology.

Factors that influence adolescents to begin smoking -- and factors that keep them from starting -- will be studied by University of Colorado at Boulder researchers with a $136,915 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The study will be conducted by co-principal investigators Frances Costa and Richard Jessor of the Institute of Behavioral Science, along with research associate Mark Turbin.