September 1997
Conferences Are Highlights of Summer '97 This summer, UMass Boston took a leading role in hosting several international and national meetings. A brief summary of four conferences follows.
*** For the Urban Harbors Institute staff, the summer of '97 will likely be remembered as the summer of Coastal Zone '97 (CZ '97). As co-sponsor and primary coordinator of the conference, they hosted 1,100 people from 50 countries at Boston's Park Plaza Hotel from July 19-25.
Participants discussed issues from treating oil spills to revitalizing urban waterfronts. Richard Delaney, Director of the Urban Harbors Institute and Executive Officer for CZ '97, said that one critical step discussed was the establishment of a federal inter-agency to coordinate coastal management. "Right now, 31 of 35 eligible states have coastal management frameworks, and each state has a working mechanism. What is missing is a mechanism on the federal level," says Delaney, who is hopeful that such an initiative will go forward.
Encouraging the involvement of the individual in coastal issues was also stressed. "It is the thousands of small decisions on the local level that ultimately determine the health of our coastal resources," says Delaney.
*** A Social Security Town Meeting, co-sponsored by the Gerontology Institute and 40 other organizations, was held at UMass Boston on July 21. Over 250 people came to hear three members of the National Advisory Council on Social Security discuss the administration's reform proposals.
Although Social Security is presently sound and growing, by the year 2019, revenues and interest will not meet demand. Proposals for change range from maintaining social security as is, but loosening restrictions on investments, to incorporating publicly or privately held individual retirement accounts. A three-hour question and answer period followed the presentations.
The meeting was the brainchild of Prof. Yung Ping Chen, who said there should be security guarantees while the system experiments with new approaches. "I would avoid any reform plan that places participants in financial jeopardy," he says.
He added, "Judging by the questions and comments, most people came to the meeting with a point of view, but if forums like this can be held frequently, I think we will begin to see some merging of opinions."
*** Studies indicate that four out of ten college students are considered "binge drinkers." Despite this, faculty often don't see what they can do about it. A three-day national think-tank on how faculty can help reduce alcohol and drug abuse on college campuses was held here July 10-13.
According to Sociology professor Gerald Garrett, UMass Boston participants offered their experiences in "curriculum infusion"&endash; integrating information on abuse prevention into courses in psychology, sociology, criminal justice and applied research. "We explained how we placed the issue into disciplines where you wouldn't usually find it," he says.
For example, Health Services' annual drug and alcohol use survey was redesigned by students in an applied sociology course. "Now, Health Services has valuable data on the nature of substance abuse, and we've incorporated this into the curriculum as part of instruction and state-of-the-art research," he says.
UMass Boston participants were Profs. Garrett and Xiaogang Deng of the sociology department, graduate student Joseph Bebo, and Linda Jorgensen, director of the PRIDE program. The meeting was sponsored by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention.
*** "Building Our Future on Yesterday's Success" was the theme of the 20th international conference of AHEAD, (Association on Higher Education and Disability), held in Boston July 15-19. Carol DeSouza, AHEAD conference chair and president-elect, enrolled her UMass Boston colleagues in providing workshops and activities for the 1100 attendees, who came from the U.S., Canada, England and Australia. "The World of Adaptive Technology," a day-long program of activities held at UMass Boston attracted 60 people. Ray Kurzweil, inventor of the reading machine, was honored with an award at the conference banquet.
"Participants had fantastic professional development opportunities, and were able to interact with many beyond our usual membership&emdash;including people from the City of Boston, vendors, the press, and the high-tech community," says DeSouza.