Campus News

Digest Oct. 13, 2008

Campaign for Charities kicks off Oct. 16
UGA’s annual Campaign for Charities will begin Oct. 16 with a kickoff breakfast in the ­Magnolia Ballroom of the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel. The event runs from 7:30-9 a.m.

At the breakfast, campaign captains (primarily vice presidents, deans, directors and department heads) will receive packets of pre-printed pledge cards and other campaign materials for distribution in their respective areas.

The fundraising goal for this year’s campaign is $425,000, and campaign officials hope to increase participation to 27 percent of faculty and staff, up from 24 percent last year.

This year’s campaign chairman is Rodney Bennett, vice president for student affairs.

As in the past, the university will conduct a single campaign for charitable contributions to United Way agencies, Georgia Share members and other organizations approved through the State Charitable Contributions Program.

The campaign will run through Dec. 19.

UGA Press to sell ‘Dirty Books’
The University of Georgia Press will sell deeply discounted books at its Dirty Book Sale from 9 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. Oct. 16-17 on the Tate Student Center Plaza.

The book sale-held by UGA Press every two years-features slightly damaged or shopworn books from the Press’ Athens warehouse. There will be thousands of books, most priced under $5, covering a range of subjects including African-American studies, American and Georgia history, civil rights history, Civil War history, decorative arts, ecology, environmental history, field guides, folklore, natural history and Southern studies as well as fiction and poetry.

“People often ask when our next campus book sale will be,” said Nicole Mitchell, director of the press. “There are always some amazing deals to be had, and people have really grown to love this event. It’s also a good opportunity for the press to let students and the community know about our mission.”

More information is available by phone, (706) 369-6156, on online (www.ugapress.org).

Cornell professor to discuss food crisis
The 2008 J.W. Fanning Lecture will be held Oct. 17 at 10:30 a.m. in rooms 553 and 554 of the Georgia Center.

This year’s lecture, “The Global Food Crisis: High Food Prices and How They Affect U.S. Farmers and Consumers,” will be given by Per Pinstrup-Andersen of Cornell University.

Pinstrup-Andersen holds three titles at Cornell: H.E. Babcock Professor of Food, Nutrition and Public Policy, J. Thomas Clark Professor of Entrepreneurship and professor of applied economics. He is also professor of agricultural economics at Copenhagen University.

Pinstrup-Andersen is past chairman of the ­Science Council of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and past president of the American Agricultural Economics Association. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the Danish Agricultural University and master’s and doctoral degrees from Oklahoma State University. He has received honorary doctoral degrees from universities in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland and India.

A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Agricultural Economics Association, Pinstrup-Andersen served 10 years as director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute and seven years as its department head. He was an economist for seven years at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia and served as a distinguished professor at Wageningen University for six years.