announcements

The University of Rochester is combining scholars, researchers, and resources from more than 15 academic departments and multiple schools to create the Center for Energy & Environment (CEE). Its purpose is to improve energy systems and to understand the impacts of energy technologies on the environment and human health.

Tuition for University of Rochester undergraduates in The College will rise 2.8 percent to $47,450 in the 2015-16 academic year. Room and board will be $14,294, a 4.8 percent increase. The total cost of attendance increase is 3.3 percent.

The Manufacturing Universities Act of 2015 would establish a program within the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) charged with designating 25 schools as “Manufacturing Universities.”

The University’s Horticulture and Grounds Department achieved the Tree Campus USA title by again meeting the program’s five standards, which include maintaining a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan, dedicated annual expenditures toward trees, an Arbor Day observance and student service-learning projects.

River Campus Libraries has been awarded a $100,672 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund a pilot program designed to strengthen librarians’ competencies in digital scholarship. “21st Century Skills: Digital Humanities Institute for Mid-Career Librarians” will launch during the summer of 2015.

Joe Testani succeeds Burt Nadler, current director of the Greene Center, who announced his intent to retire last year after 16 years in the position. Testani will join the University in June 2015.

From the archives: Philip Levine, former poet laureate of the United States, was a keynote guest when the Department of English's Plutzik Reading Series celebrated its centennial in 2012. The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet died Sunday at the age of 87.

O'Dette, professor of lute, won for Best Opera Recording, and Ludwig, alumnus and mastering engineer, took home three Grammys: Best Surround Sound Album, for his work on Beyoncé; Best Engineered Album Non-Classical, for Beck’s Morning Phase; and Album of the Year.

Deborah Bial, founder and president of The Posse Foundation, one of the most comprehensive and renowned college access and readiness programs for urban high school students in the United States, will deliver the 165th College commencement address.

The WasteWise program helps organizations and businesses apply sustainable materials management practices to reduce municipal and industrial wastes. WasteWise participants reported preventing and diverting a total of nearly 7.6 million tons of waste from being disposed in landfills or incinerators in 2013.