IN BRIEF

Banner applications: With a 16 percent increase over last year, applications for the freshman class have broken the 10,000 mark --a record for Rochester --and many of them now arrive via the Web. Applications are up generally among many of the University's competitive institutions as well, but the trend continues to bode well for Rochester's admissions picture. The quality of this year's applicant pool is as strong as last year's.

Ground broken for Schlegel addition: With a ceremonial groundbreaking on May 12, work got under way on a major addition to the Simon School's Schlegel Hall on the River Campus. The project was facilitated by a $4 million gift from the Gleason Foundation funding approximately half of the costs.
  The 38,000-square-foot wing, which will increase usable space in the building by nearly 60 percent, will house five new classrooms, up to 16 study rooms, and a significantly expanded Career Services suite.

Plutzik center unveiled: An impressive new center at Rush Rhees Library--the Hyam Plutzik Library for Contemporary Writing--was dedicated in April. The new facility serves as a center for the teaching of creative writing as well as for scholarly research related to modern American poetry. It also houses the 10,000 items in the University Library's newly acquired William and Hannelore Heyen Collection of the works of major contemporary writers. The Heyen collection is considered among the finest assemblages of inscribed first editions, manuscripts, and correspondence from major American writers of the past 30 years.

Reflecting the mission: The Susan B. Anthony University Center has a new name and strategic plan under the leadership of Nora Bredes, who was appointed its director last year. The five-year-old center is now called the Susan B. Anthony Center for Women's Leadership to better reflect its fundamental mission. Among the center's plans are the expansion of its lecture series, the Elizabeth Cady Stanton/Susan B. Anthony Conversations on Contemporary Issues, and the launch of a new project, Women Leading Local Governments.

Peer-led teaching program wins recognition: A program in which undergraduates lead other students in discussions and problem-solving workshops has been so successful that the National Science Foundation has awarded $2.3 million to spread word of its success. At the University, one of a half-dozen institutions nationwide that have developed the program, the workshop idea is spreading across campus and is now used in several departments, including chemistry, physics, economics, and biology, largely because the students themselves have asked their teachers to adopt the idea.

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