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Soul food, a taste that can be traced to plantations in the early days of the South, will be featured Feb. 28 as part of Black Awareness Month at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Chef Willie Bradley, food service manager in Cheyenne Arapaho Residence Hall, will cook a variety of traditional foods including barbecued ribs, catfish, collard greens, black-eyed peas with ham hocks, macaroni and cheese, candied yams, corn bread and okra-tomato gumbo. Dessert will be Chef Willie's homemade peach cobbler.

EDITORS: This event is not open to the public but reporters are welcome to attend. CU-BOULDER DIVERSITY SUMMIT The second annual Chancellor's Diversity Summit at the University of Colorado at Boulder will be held Feb. 21. Activities will run from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the University Memorial Center. Scheduled events include an address by CU-Boulder Chancellor Richard Byyny on "Diversity, Civility and Campus Climate" and remarks by all three CU-Boulder vice chancellors.

The CU-Boulder spring blood drive will be Feb. 25, 26 and 27 from 10 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. in the University Memorial Center west ballroom.

"Megan's laws" will be argued pro and con by teams of University of Colorado School of Law students participating in the annual Rothgerber Moot Court Competition on Feb. 12. The final round in the annual competition that provides training in appellate advocacy will be at 3 p.m. in the Lindsley Memorial Courtroom of the School of Law. Seating is available on a first-come basis. Overflow seating with closed-circuit television will be provided in room 104.

Tom Cech, the celebrated 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner and chemistry professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, will speak on "A New View of Life" Feb. 20 at the University of Colorado1s Denver campus. The presentation will cover some recent scientific breakthroughs that give insight into the origins of life, the origins of viruses and how viruses may have gotten started, explained Cech. He also will discuss the interplay of teaching and research in his position at CU.

Richard Kraft, professor of education at the University of Colorado at Boulder, is the winner of a national award for his pioneering work in combining community service and teaching. Kraft received the 1997 Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service Learning from Campus Compact, a national coalition of 525 college and university presidents based at Brown University in Providence, R.I. The coalition honors one faculty member annually.

Despite recent reports of possible fossils in Martian meteorites, Venus, not Mars, may hold the most promise for harboring life elsewhere in our solar system, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder professor.

A student at the University of Colorado at Boulder died Monday, Feb. 3, at University Hospital in Denver following a short illness diagnosed as meningococcal meningitis. Scott Matthew Connett, 19, a sophomore prejournalism major from Longmont, entered University Hospital on Sunday, Feb. 2. He lived at Farrand Residence Hall on campus. University and Boulder County Health Department officials are investigating the single case and report that no other cases of the disease have been identified.

CU-Boulder faculty and staff are invited to a "mini medical school" on how the heart works Feb. 12 at noon in room 235 of the University Memorial Center. The talk by Dr. Lonny Granston titled "Cardiology for Regular Folks" is part of the Wellness Wednesday series of brown-bag lunches featuring presentations on health, wellness and fitness. Granston, who practices family medicine at the University Medical Group Practice in Boulder, will explain "what EKGs, blood pressure readings and other tests really tell us."

The Friends of the University of Colorado at Boulder libraries will host Francine Mathews to discuss the Regency Period of England, from 1811 to 1820, and her new series of historical novels covering that period. The event will be at 7 p.m. Feb. 6 in room M549 of Norlin Library on the CU-Boulder campus. Admission is $20. Appetizers, desserts, beverages and wines of the period will be provided by the University Memorial Center catering service.