Arvonne Fraser receives outstanding achievement award

Arvonne Fraser, in recognition of “her life’s work to advancing women’s right around the world,” was recently presented one of the University of Minnesota’s most prestigious awards, the Outstanding Achievement Award. It is conferred on graduates “who have attained unusual distinction in their fields or in public service,” according to an announcement by the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. The award was presented to Fraser by University Regent David Metzen.

Fraser and her husband, Don, former congressman and Minneapolis mayor, are residents of the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood. Arvonne Fraser is president of the Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association.

“Arvonne has been a recognized leader of all Minnesota women. She is second-wave feminism, Minnesota’s Gloria Steinem or Betty Friedan,” said Professor Sally J. Kenney, director of the institute’s Center on Women and Public Policy. “She continues to be a stalwart in women’s campaigns to this day, not just a role model,” Kenney said.

Fraser recently published a memoir, She’s No Lady: Politics, Family and International Feminism.

Neighborhoods invited to participate in Welcome Week

Next year’s University Twin Cities’ campus freshmen will be the first to participate in the new fall program “Welcome Week,” beginning in August 2008, the university’s Orientation and First-Year Programs office announced.

Welcome Week is scheduled between Wednesday, Aug. 27, and Monday, Sept. 1. The 5,000 students in the class of 2012 will be on campus a week before regular fall-semester classes, which start Sept. 2.

Neighborhood organizations, nonprofits and businesses are invited to participate as partners in learning experiences planned for students. Information meetings will be held in January. Check the website for dates, locations and complete information about Welcome Week plans. See www.welcomeweek.umn.edu/. Or, contact the Orientation office, 612-624-1979.

Each of the six days will have a theme and will focus on an aspect of acclimating students to campus life. The theme on Sunday, Aug. 31, will be civic responsibility, including the campus, the local community, and the global community, according to James Liberman, Welcome Week coordinator in the Orientation office. “We are looking for community service projects that our students can work on,” Liberman said.

The program is part of the university’s effort to “keep students on track toward meeting goals in both academics and personal growth,” Deane Morrison said in a university publication.

Craig Swan, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education, told Morrison that the overhaul is part of “a genuine culture change in the way the university structures the undergraduate experience for students.”

Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation
This exhibit of contemporary Native North American Art from the West, Northwest, and Pacific features an array of contemporary artists whose work acknowledges and pushes the long tradition of Native American visual art. The exhibition, organized by the Museum of Arts & Design, New York, features 150 works of art by more than 130 artists from areas west of the Mississippi including the Plains, Plateau, West Coast, Western Canada, Alaska, and Hawaii.
Through Jan. 13.

Wreck
Jan. 11–20
The Southern Theater
1420 Washington Ave. S.
The premiere of the dance theater piece by University Dance Program Drector Carl Flink and Black Label Movement — funded by a University Symposium Award — continues its examination of the presence of time. Time plays a unique and pivotal role, as the piece will last only as long as it takes 10 people to breathe the last oxygen in a watertight compartment of an ore boat that lies recently sunk on the bottom of Lake Superior. Contact the theater box office at 612-340-1725 or visit www.southerntheater.org for ticket information.

January events at the Institute for Advanced Studies
Most are free and open to the public and take place at 125 Nolte Center, 315 Pillsbury Dr. SE. For a full listing of IAS events, visit www.ias.umn.edu or call 612-626-5054.

“Tango Music: a history with illustrations” — A presentation by Bob Barnes and Emily McManus
Wednesday, Jan. 30, 4:00 p.m.

“Medical Complicity with Torture during the War on Terror” — A talk with Steven Miles, professor of Bioethics, U of M
Thursday, Jan. 31, 4:00 p.m.

U of M info
University of Minnesota information, directories, maps, parking, news and events can be found at www.umn.edu/twincities or by phone at 612-625-5000.

last revised: January 1, 2008

• Login or register to post comments