Campus News: bike lanes on campus?

Doctoral student Zachary Bannor rides his bicycle to school throughout the year. Photo: S. K. Vemmer

Pros, cons of bike lanes

Should campus walkways have bike lanes?

Join a pilot study on the pros and cons of adding bike lanes to select walkways on campus.

Two hour-long focus groups will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday in 2650 University Hall for the study, sponsored by the Office of Sustainability and Facilities Management. To sign up, email kyoshi3@uic.edu

See the campus

UIC will host its second annual Open House Sept. 13 to welcome prospective students, their parents and members of the public to campus.

The event, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., features an information fair, campus tours, activities, demonstrations and opportunities to explore student life and housing.

Colleges, departments and units can participate in the Open House Exhibit Hall. Academic units can offer programming for the event.

More than 5,000 visitors attended last year’s open house.

Build professional skills

UIC staff members can sign up to be mentors and protégés for the 2014 Academic Professional Mentoring Program.

The program, open to all academic professional and civil service employees, helps staff members build professional and leadership skills. Civil service employees must have their supervisor’s approval to join the program.

A kick-off event will take place in September and the program runs through May.

Applications will be accepted through July 28.

The program is sponsored by the Office for Access and Equity and a volunteer committee with members from the Academic Professionals Advisory Council and the Chancellor’s Status Committees.

Urban neighborhoods

The 2014 Urban Forum will spotlight “The Return of the Neighborhood as an Urban Strategy.”

The event, which takes place Sept. 18 at the UIC Forum, examines the complexities of metropolitan regions. Co-chairs for the forum include UIC Chancellor Paula Allen-Meares, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Susana Vasquez, executive director, LISC/Chicago. For more information, call 312-413-2194.

Looking for a lunch spot?

Employees who have parking assignments can park for free on South Campus during the lunchtime hours.

Employees can use their valid UIC standard parking assignment to park for free at the Maxwell Street Parking garage for free from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Support for researchers

Investigators can apply for support from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research’s Bridge Funding program.

The program provides short-term financial support to sustain research programs and laboratories during funding gaps. The awards are given to investigators with established projects that have a high probability of continued support from extramural sources.

Run for a good cause

Sign up to run the Chicago Marathon and raise money for diabetes research with UIC’s Cellmates on the Run team. The team, organized by José Oberholzer, chief of transplantation surgery, raises money for the Chicago Diabetes Project. Last year’s marathon team raised about $200,000 for diabetes research.

The 2014 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, a 26.2-mile race through 26 Chicago neighborhoods, is scheduled for Oct. 12.