Following a one-day closure due to a winter snowstorm, the University of Colorado Boulder is reopening Saturday, Feb. 4 with the majority of facilities and programs on normal operating weekend hours.

The CU Recreation Center will be on a delayed opening time of 9 a.m. and then will resume regular hours.

The Office of Admissions daily tour for today has been cancelled. See http://admissions.colorado.edu for upcoming visit opportunities.

The CU Men’s Basketball game, the CU Museum Family Day, performances in the University Theatre and the ATLAS black box theatre and other events planned for this afternoon and evening are scheduled to proceed. Visit www.colorado.edu/events for more information.

The University of Colorado Boulder today announced the appointment of former University of Colorado President Alexander E. “Sandy” Bracken to the Quigg and Virginia S. Newton Endowed Chair in Leadership at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Bracken, who served as the 19th president of the University of Colorado in 2000, succeeds former CU President Hank Brown as the Newton Chair. Brown held the inaugural chair from 2008-10. The Newton Chair supports and helps to coordinate the activities of several marquee leadership programs at CU-Boulder, including the Presidents Leadership Class, the Chancellor’s Leadership Residential Academic Program and the Leadership Certificate program.

The chair also helps to bring experienced leaders from government, business, higher education, the military and the public sector to campus to interact with students and faculty and advise students on leadership paths. Overall, the chair serves as a catalyst to expose more students campuswide to leadership training and development.

“I am delighted that former President Bracken has accepted the appointment to serve as our next Newton Endowed Chair in Leadership,” said CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. “He is both a scholar of leadership and an accomplished leader himself. His long record of public service has given him vital insights that will help guide our students and faculty in their studies of leadership.”

Bracken most recently served as executive director of the Bard Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado Denver’s School of Business from 2001-07. Prior to his service as interim CU president in 2000, he served as vice president for public affairs for 19 years with Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., and before that, as assistant professor of history at Anderson College in Anderson, Ind.

He currently serves on the board of directors for the Robert H. and Beverly A. Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business and the board of directors for the Presidents Leadership Class, both at CU-Boulder. He also serves as chair of the Imagine! Foundation board and is a board member of The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County.

Bracken also has been affiliated with several state commissions, including the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. He also served on the board of Boulder Community Hospital.

“It is an honor and a privilege to accept this appointment as the Newton Endowed Chair,” said Bracken. “Leadership is a key resource for Colorado and the nation, and I look forward to continuing the work of President Brown, Chancellor DiStefano, and the faculty and staff of CU-Boulder in elevating the campus’s leadership programs to new levels of success.” 

Contact:
Bronson Hilliard, CU-Boulder spokesperson, 303-735-6183

People who made New Year’s resolutions to eat healthier or lose weight might also want to brush up on their math skills.

In a new study, marketing professor Donald Lichtenstein found that nutrition labels on packaged food products in the United States can lead even the most health-conscious consumers astray, if they don’t “do the math.”

While the “Nutrition Facts” printed on food labels are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, companies are given some freedom to present food packages as a single serving or as smaller serving sizes within a package, according to Lichtenstein, chair of the Leeds School marketing department. Through this practice, referred to in the study by Lichtenstein and his colleagues as “health framing,” companies can present smaller serving sizes so that a food’s negative nutrients — calories and fat — on a nutrition label show up as a lower number per serving.

“The take-away message is when you look at the calories per serving on a candy bar or a can of soup at the grocery store, be sure to look at the serving size too,” Lichtenstein said. “Surprisingly, what we found was those people who are health conscious and are concerned about nutrition fall prey to health framing effects more frequently.

“The problem comes when people do pay attention, but they only pay attention to the calorie information and not the serving size,” Lichtenstein said. “And that’s what we find in study after study. Those consumers who are more health conscious pay attention to the calorie information, but they don’t take the extra step to look at the serving size. So they are duped, if you will, by a health framing effect.”

This is where the math part comes in. For example, if a candy bar is 2 ounces and has 200 calories for a whole bar, it might be labeled as one serving or two servings. If the manufacturer decides to make the serving size of 1 ounce it cuts the calories per serving in half.

“We found that many consumers only pay attention to the calorie information and don’t look to see exactly what the serving size is,” he said. “When you present a smaller serving size, it cuts down the calories per serving, which makes consumers feel less guilty about consuming the product, and that affects not only their purchase intentions, but actual choice.”

The University of Colorado Boulder topped two leader boards in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2011 Game Day Challenge — a national competition to eliminate waste generated at college football games.

CU won the 48-school “Diversion Rate” and 17-school “Organics Reduction” categories in the EPA’s NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision contest.

“Our achievements toward zero-waste reflect the efforts of an outstanding team committed to this initiative,” said CU Athletic Director Mike Bohn. “Being a national leader in the EPA challenge would not have been possible without the dedication and tireless efforts of campus leaders and the cooperation of event sponsors and vendors. The enthusiasm and willingness of fans, led by our students, has been key in driving the success of this endeavor.”

Data for CU’s competition in the EPA challenge was taken from the Oct. 22, 2011, home football game against the University of Oregon. Measures that marked CU as the division winner in “Diversion Rate” and “Organics Reduction” included diverting nearly 88 percent of total gameday waste from landfills. Also, about 2.5 ounces of organic materials per person were diverted from landfills and composted or donated instead.

“One of the most exciting aspects of this whole effort has been the reduction in overall waste generated despite record attendance and food sales,” said Edward von Bleichert, CU-Boulder environmental operations manager. “Compared to 2008, the 2011 season produced 21 percent less total waste per game and sent 44 percent less trash to the landfill per game due to aggressive composting and recycling efforts.”

According to the EPA, 2.7 million game-goers involved in the 2011 challenge from 78 participating colleges and universities diverted more than 500,000 pounds of waste from football games, preventing nearly 810 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. That is the equivalent of the annual emissions from 159 passenger vehicles.

CU also competed in the EPA’s 2009 inaugural Game Day Challenge against seven other schools, winning in the “Diversion Rate” and “Waste Reduction” categories.

In 2008, CU became the nation’s first major college football program to commit to zero-waste at football games through its own Ralphie’s Green Stampede initiative, later extending the same efforts to all athletics events.

“We would be remiss if we did not salute Boulder County’s own White Wave Foods for its inspiration and support in creating Ralphie’s Green Stampede,” said Bohn.

For more information on Ralphie’s Green Stampede visit http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=4457&SPID=274&DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=1549954. For more information on the EPA Game Day Challenge visit http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/partnerships/wastewise/challenge/gameday/index.htm.

Contact:
Mike Bohn, 303-492-7930
mike.bohn@colorado.edu
Edward von Bleichert, 303-735-3627
edward.vonbleichert@colorado.edu
Dave Newport, 303-492-8308
dave.newport@colorado.edu
Elizabeth Lock, 303-492-3117
elizabeth.lock@colorado.edu

CU-Boulder faculty members discuss the Journalism Plus curriculum and how it prepares students