UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA University News Service 6 Morrill Hall 100 Church St. SE Minneapolis, MN 55455 news 612-624-5551 STORYTELLER LORRAINE JOHNSON-COLEMAN TO IDGHLIGHT U OF M MARTIN LUTHER KING CONCERT JAN. 18 Lorraine Johnson-Coleman, a noted African American folk culture expert and author who combines blues and storytelling in her performances, will headline the University of Minnesota's 17th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 18, at the Ted Mann Concert Hall on the west bank of the Twin Cities campus. A native of North Carolina, Johnson-Coleman is known for her ability to combine research, personal experience and remembered conversations to weave a web of tales that are enlightening and entertaining. She has held readings and performances at many prominent national events, including the 1996 Olympics. She recently completed her fIrst book, Just Plain Folks, a collection of original short stories and essays written in tribute to and preservation of African American rural living and folk culture. National Public Radio is developing a 13-segment series, to be aired in 1999, based on her book. At the Martin Luther King concert, Johnson-Coleman wilGead some of her original poetry and stories, accompanied by Carolina bluesmen "Little Pink" Anderson and Freddy Vanderford. The concert will also feature performances by the University of Minnesota Reginald Buckner Memorial Ensemble and the University of Minnesota Gospel Choir. The concert is free and no tickets are required. Parking is available in the 21 st Avenue ramp, one block southwest of the concert hall. Contacts: Mike Tracy, Special Events, (612) 624-4160, [email protected] Bob San, News Service, (612) 624-4082, [email protected] 1/6/98 News releases also on WWW at http://www.umn.edulurelatelnews.html This publication is available in alternative formats. Contact University RelatiOns, 612.624·6868. The University ofMinnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer. *10% pew UN IVERSITY OF MINNESOTA University News Service 6 ~1orrill Hall 100 O1urch S[. SE Minneapolis. MN 55455 news 612-624-5551 U OF M PRESIDENT MARK YUDOF TO JOIN GOVERNOR'S DELEGATION IN CHINA At the invitation of Gov. Carlson, University of Minnesota President Mark Yudof and his wife, Judy, will travel to China to participate in portions of the Minnesota Business Development Mission and meet with Chinese higher education officials. Accompanying the Yudofs will be university chief of staff Tonya Moten Brown and David Pui, director of the university's China Center. The group, which will join the governor's delegation in Beijing, departs Friday, Jan. 9, and returns Wednesday, Jan. 14. While in China, Yudof and representatives from the university will meet with Vice Premier Li Lanqing and Vice Minister Wei Yu of the Chinese State Education Commission to discuss academic opportunities, student exchange programs, faculty linkages and ways to strengthen ties between the university and Chinese higher education institutions. Yudof and the university delegation are also scheduled to meet with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, State Council of the People's Republic of China Vice Premier Zhu Rongji and China Council for the Promotion of International Trade chair Yu Xiaosong. The University of Minnesota enrolled its first student from China in 1914, and since has established a tradition of forming and maintaining beneficial educational partnerships with Chinese colleges and universities. Currently there are nearly 300 University ,of Minnesota faculty members actively collaborating with more than 150 Chinese institutions; nearly a dozen members of the Chinese National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Science and Engineering are University of Minnesota alumni. Contact: Mike Nelson, University News Service, (612) 626·7701, [email protected] 1/8/98 News releases and more at WWW at http://www.umn.edulurelatelnews.html This publication is available in alcemative bmaa. Contact Universiry Relations, 612-62+6868. The Univasiry ofMinnesota is an equal oppom,miry educator and employer. • 10'J(, pew UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA Cniversitv :-;ew, Semce 6 ~{orrill Hall ICC Church St. SE ~Iinneapoli,. ~IN 55455 news 612-624·5551 C OF ~I RECEIYES $2 ~nLLIO~ FOR CHRISTL\~STCDIES CHAIR, ~IE~'S ATHLETICS The Cniversity of Minnesota has received a gift of 52 million from Leland (Lee) and Louise Sundet and their family to endO\v a new chair in New Testament and Christian Studies, and to improve the university's football facility. "The University of Minnesota has always held a special place in our lives." said Lee Sunder, a 1951 graduate of the university's College of Agriculture. "This donation is in appreciation of the university and also in hopeful anticipation of what it can become." Sundet and his wife, born in Spring Grove, Minn., both attended the university; three of their four children are graduates of the university. Lee Sundet was owner of Century Manufacturing and oViller and founder of Goodall ~Ianufacturing, both of which he sold in 1996. He is founder and current owner of Fountain Industries, Inc., and an active community volunteer. The major portion of the gift will be used to endow the Sundet Family Chair in New Testament and Christian Studies. This chair complements the Berman Family Chair in Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies, created in 1996. and will help build a premier religious studies program in the College of Liberal Arts (CLA). "The Sundet family gift guarantees the enduring presence of New Testament and Christian Studies in the curriculum and in the intellectual life of the University of Minnesota," sald University President Mark Yudof. "In making this gift, the Sundets have drawn on their own deep religious convictions to provide students with expanded opportunities to study religion in the academically demanding environment of a university." The chair, the first of its kind at the university, will be based in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies. It will be held by a yet-to-be-named scholar of international stature who will bring renown to Christian studies at the university and enrichment to the broader community. "The gift will enable us to build one of the nation's leading interdisciplinary programs in religious studies," said William Malandra, department chair. (More) This publication is available in alternative formalS. Contact Univasity Relations, 612-624-6868. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer. *10% pew _L _ John Roach, retired archbishop of St. Paul and ~linneapolis, and Herbert Chilstrom. retired Lutheran presiding bishop, co-chaired the university's campaign to endow the chair. "The combined effons of these two very distinguished religious leaders have succeeded in engendering broad, ecumenical support for the scholarly study of a Christian tradition that, along with the Judaic tradition, underlies much of Western thought," said CLA dean Steven Rosenstone. "Support of this magnitude is quite extraordinary." The Sundet Family gift will also provide $500,000 to men's athletics for a renovation project to improve the entrance to the Gibson-Nagurski Football Complex, including the creation of a Hall of Fame in the building's lobby. The Sundets have been longtime supporters of men's athletics and have made major gifts in support of university sports facilities such as Mariucci Arena. Contributions to the endowment fund for New Testament and Christian Studies may be sent to the University of Minnesota Foundation, Suite 200,1300 South Second Street, Minneapolis, w-IN 55454, or by calling (612) 624-3333 or (800) 775-2187. Contacts: Martha Douglas, University Foundation, (612) 624-4897, [email protected] ~like Nelson, University News Service, (612) 626-7701, [email protected] 1112/98 News releases also on WWw at http://www.umn.edulurelatelnews.html UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA University News Service 6 Morrill Hall 100 Church Sr. SE Minneapolis. MN 55455 news 612·624·5551 IMedia note: Recorded sound bites with Schacker are available on the Newsline, (612) 625-6666. I ANTI-VIRAL DRUG REDUCES SHEDDING OF HERPES VIRUS IN HIV-INFECTED INDIVIDUALS WHEN TAKEN DAILY Famciclovir (Famvir®, SmithKline Beecham) significantly reduces asymptomatic shedding, the time in which the herpes virus is contagious but there are no signs or symptoms, in HIV-infected individuals when taken daily, according to a study in the January issue of the Annals ofInternal Medicine, led by Dr. Timothy Schacker, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota. Herpes simplex virus infection is one of the most common infections among HIV-infected patients. Herpes outbreaks are often more frequent and severe in HIV-infected individuals and other patients whose immune systems are weakened. "Because these people have an abnormal immune system they tend to develop herpes more often. It is important to have more drugs that will decrease the symptoms and hopefully prevent transmission to others," Schacker said. While 60 to 80 percent of the general population have been exposed to either genital or oral herpes, almost all HIV-infected individuals have been exposed. In Schacker's trial, 48 patients (45 men and 3 women) with the herpes simplex virus, either genital (HSV-2), oral (HSV-1) or both, were initially administered 500 mg of famciclovir twice daily as a suppressive therapy or placebo for eight weeks. After a seven day washout period, patients were then switched to the other treatment, which continued for another eight weeks. Each patient served as his or her o\vn control so individual differences, such as the degree to which patients' immune systelns had been affected by HIV, would have no effect. In addition to recording the number of symptomatic recurrence during the entire 16-week treatment period, patients collected daily swabs from the mouth and anogenital regions to measure the amount ofHSV-l and HSV-2 asymptomatic shedding.