A HOME Utah’S Acclaimed Housing First Program to Eliminate Chronic Homelessness Has Strong University of Utah Ties
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
SPRING 2016 PROVIDING A HOME Utah’s acclaimed Housing First program to eliminate chronic homelessness has strong University of Utah ties. CULTURE IN LIVING COLOR UNDERGRADS GET CLINICAL AN ANTIDOTE FOR THE OVERDOSE EPIDEMIC Continuum_Spring16_cover.indd 1 2/11/16 7:37 AM FOR MATTERS OF THE HEART It’s a full-time job. 24–7. 365 days a year. No vacation days. It’s your heart. Love it. heart.uofuhealth.org Cardiovascular Center UUHC_Continuum_Heart_v3.indd 1 2/12/16 4:31 PM Continuum_Spring16_cover.indd 2 2/16/16 9:51 AM SPRING 2016 VOL. 25 NO. 4 14 Providing a Home Utah’s acclaimed Housing First program to eliminate chronic homelessness has strong University of Utah ties. By Stephen Speckman 26 ‘Why should it be so hard to die?’ Bioethicist Peggy Battin ponders some of life’s most difficult questions. By Elaine Jarvik 32 14 Undergrads Get Clinical A new minor gives undergraduates valuable clinical research experience. By Peg McEntee DEPARTMENTS 2 Feedback 4 Updates 10 Discovery 40 Alum Notes 48 One More 26 10 (Cover photo-illustration by Dave Titensor) 48 32 Continuum_Spring16_TOC Feedback.indd 1 2/12/16 1:33 PM FEEDBACK A LIFELINE degree. However, given tuition of students? I love Thank you for writing that the tuition when I higher education, but I this wonderful article graduated (not that long think legislators shouldn’t focusing on mental ago) was about $5,000 a give universities any more Publisher illness and young adults year, it is disappointing to money until the Regents William Warren (“When Bright Minds Turn hear the U use, “At least stop trying to make Executive Editor Dark,” Winter 2015-16). we aren’t as bad as the universities farm teams for M. John Ashton BS’66 JD’69 I’m impressed with the other guys!” as a defense professional sports that Editor J. Melody Murdock efforts that the University for constant tuition hikes. cause brain damage. Managing Editor of Utah is displaying to I feel like the U is failing Marcia C. Dibble in its charter to provide Sue Frenzel BS’94 help alleviate the stigma Associate Editor that can be attached to good, affordable, acces- Minneapolis, Minnesota Ann Floor BFA’85 This [“When Bright such topics. This is a great sible education to Utah Advertising Manager Minds Turn Dark”] resource for young adults students. Where do these Ed. note: We at the David Viveiros or any individual who may rate hikes end? …For a University of Utah care Art Director is a great resource David E. Titensor BFA’91 be struggling with mental public institution to follow deeply about the safety Corporate Sponsors for young adults or illness. the private model shows a of our student-athletes. KUTV 2News profound disregard for the The sports medicine University Credit Union any individual who University of Utah Health Care Lisa Spencer, MLS special trust it is given. team at the University University of Utah Health Plans Utah Red Zone may be struggling University of Utah Eccles of Utah is actively Editorial Advisory Committee with mental Health Sciences Library Zeb Fisk BS’07 involved in concussion Julie Barrett BA’70 Madison, Alabama research. This research Joe Borgenicht illness.” Dhiraj Chand COLLEGE COSTS is contributing to Tal Harry BS’87 Mike Lageschulte I don’t think there is any Given the current research the understanding, Jeff Metcalf BS’74 MEd’77 Mary Lee Peters question that getting showing that playing diagnosis, and Randall Smith BFA’72 BS’72 Laura Snow BA’88 a college degree is a football causes brain prevention of these Kathryn Stockton reasonable investment damage, isn’t it ironic that serious injuries. Policies Continuum is published in in one’s future (“The Cost universities fund football on the awareness of summer, fall, winter, and spring by the University of Utah Alumni of College,” Fall 2015). My teams and pay million- symptoms of concussion Association and University Marketing & Communications. career has certainly been dollar salaries for coaches and return-to-play Subscriptions are available to U benefited by my BSEE from the skyrocketing protocol follow faculty/staff (visit continuum.utah. edu/subscribe.php) and through standards approved membership in the Alumni Association by the NCAA and the ($50/year). Call (801) 581-6995 for more information. Pac-12. Opinions expressed in Continuum As far as salaries are are not neccessarily those of the University of Utah administration. concerned, please under- Copyright ©2016 by the University of Utah Alumni Association. The stand that state money University of Utah is an equal opportunity/affirmative and tuition do not fund action institution. the University of Utah’s For advertising opportunities, football program. please call David Viveiros, (801) 581-3718. Standard postage paid at Salt Lake City and additional mailing offices. Send address changes to: Continuum University of Utah 155 S. Central Campus Drive Professor Kam Leang works with graduate students in the U’s DARC Lab. Salt Lake City, UT 84112 ~ or ~ [email protected] PROGRESS We’re eager to Dr. Leang’s work is interesting, fascinating, and pioneering hear from you! (“Man in Motion,” Winter 2015-16). It will add significantly to Please go to continuum.utah.edu/ humankind’s progress. contact-us/ for our contact Lawrence P. Bestmann PhD’75 information. Windermere, Fla. 2 CONTINUUM.UTAH.EDU Continuum_Spring16_TOC Feedback.indd 2 2/11/16 4:31 PM Continuum_Spring16_TOC Feedback.indd 3 2/11/16 7:53 AM UPDATES MATH WIZARD CHRISTOPHER HACON WINS PRESTIGIOUS PRIZE University of Utah mathematician Christopher Hacon and three colleagues have won the 2016 American Mathematical Society E.H. Moore Research Article Prize—an honor so prestigious that it is awarded only once every three years. “It’s definitely a big deal, and it’s great they chose to recognize my field of research,” says Hacon, who received GEORGIA DABRITZ the award January 7 at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Seattle, Washington. ONE OF 10 COLLEGE ATHLETES Hacon co-authored the prize-winning Journal of the American Mathematical Society TO WIN NCAA AWARD research paper in 2010 with Caucher Birkar of the University of Cambridge, Paolo Cascini of Imperial College London, and James tah gymnast Georgia and punter/kicker Louie Sakoda BS’11 McKernan of the University of California, Dabritz, who as a senior in 2009. San Diego. last year won the NCAA Dabritz, a 16-time All-American, is This is only the latest in a series of uneven bar champion- the only gymnast in NCAA history to honors for Hacon. He was named a Simons Uship while leading Utah to a runner-up score a perfect 10.0 on the uneven bars Foundation Investigator in 2012. A year team finish, received the 2016 NCAA in both the NCAA semifinals and Super earlier, he won Italy’s top math honor, the Today’s Top 10 Award. The award is Six. Winner of the AAI Award for Senior Antonio Feltrinelli Prize in Mathematics, given each year by the NCAA to honor Gymnast of the Year, a team captain, Mechanics and Applications. In 2009, Hacon 10 outstanding senior student-athletes and a three-time Utah MVP, she led Utah and McKernan received the American across all divisions, male and female, to back-to-back Pac-12 championships Mathematical Society’s Frank Nelson Cole from the preceding calendar year. and captured six individual Pac-12 titles. Prize in Algebra. Dabritz received her award at the She won every major Pac-12 award Hacon, a native of Manchester, England, Honors Celebration during the NCAA during her career, made three Pac-12 graduated from Italy’s University of Pisa with Convention on January 15 in San All-Academic teams, and held a 4.0 GPA a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, and later Antonio. She is the third Ute to win her last semester as a competitor. She obtained master’s and doctoral degrees in the honor. The other Ute winners were expects to complete her degree at the mathematics at UCLA. He has been teaching gymnast Missy Marlowe BS’93 in 1993 U this semester. math at the U for 18 years. 4 CONTINUUM.UTAH.EDU Continuum_Spring16_Updates.indd 4 2/11/16 8:10 AM U FORCES UNITE TO BRING BASKETBALL TO HARTLAND KIDS Last summer, the University of Utah’s College of Social and Behavioral Science and the local yogurt shop Ugurt, started by U alumni, joined together to raise the remaining funds needed for a great cause—kids and basketball. The children are mostly refugees and other minorities who live on the west side of Salt Lake City and attend the youth program at the U’s University Neighborhood Partners (UNP) Hartland Partnership Center. Hartland is a program of UNP that brings together University departments, local nonprofits, and residents for reciprocal benefit. The kids had been yearning for a basketball court since 2008, when their old court was closed due to safety concerns associated with evening gang activity. In spring 2013, the U held its first annual Community Engagement Day in which students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to participate in a one-hour walkathon around campus and donate to a U-related endeavor. Through the event, more than $8,000 was raised for a new court at Hartland—not quite enough to build it, but enough to begin planning. U architectural students submitted design ideas, which engaged their skills and is an example of the collaborative work UNP supports by aligning University U PROVIDES and community resources. In 2015, with the additional funds in place, UNP was able to install a lockable, fully STEWARDS OF fenced 20-foot-by-36-foot soft-surfaced half-court that addressed concerns about liability and loose balls.