Conference Officials Research Articles

Conference Officials

List of Conference Co-Chairs, Technical Program Chair, PowerMEMS School Chair, PowerMEMS in Action Chair, Sponsorship Chair, Awards Chair, Technical Program Committee, International Steering Committee and International Advisory Board are available in this pdf.

“Live on the Hills and Work in the City”

In November 1959, a group of businessmen and politicians from Wheeling, West Virginia, a small city of fifty-five thousand along the Ohio River, traveled to their larger neighbor upstream with hopes of recreating Pittsburgh’s successful urban renewal program in their own community. Over the previous six years, the Wheeling Area Conference on Community Development had pushed through a series of smoke control and infrastructure projects modeled on the Steel City’s Renaissance. In a letter to Edward Magee, executive director of Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Conference on Community Development, Wheeling retailer Robert Levenson expressed his gratitude for the “wonderful cooperation and inspiration you provided,” and declared that the trip had “galvanized our city government into action.” Adopting the slogan, “live on the hills and work in the city,” the Urban Renewal Authority of Wheeling (URAW), chaired by Levenson, subsequently cleared a rundown neighborhood along the river in the early 1960s with the goal of creating a new planned industrial district. “All citizens who believe in Wheeling find themselves welcome,” Wheeling Conference officials declared. We are “moving forward in giant steps and can become as great a city as its citizens want it to be.” 1 The public–private partnership behind the Pittsburgh Renaissance always understood its economic mission in terms of the broader metropolitan region. First and foremost, Allegheny Conference leaders and their political allies sought to improve the competitiveness of the Pittsburgh region with respect to other American cities. Smoke and flood control efforts, highway construction, a system of rural parks, and urban renewal projects, including the corporate skyscrapers of the Golden Triangle, were all conceived within an overall framework of attracting and maintaining population and business investment. In response to long-running concerns about a chronic shortage of space for commercial expansion due to the rugged topography, conservative business leaders reluctantly turned to federally subsidized urban renewal programs in the 1950s for assistance in transforming older, mixed-use areas along the riverfronts into planned industrial districts, such as one envisioned for the Manchester neighborhood on the city’s North Side. At the same time, Conference officials acknowledged and even encouraged the migration of other urban functions, especially housing, to the periphery, where there was “enough land so that housing objectives may be realized, and every family live within easy commuting distance of the heart of the city.” 2

State Gender Equity Law & Athletic Participation Among Community Colleges in Washington State

This paper presents an overview of partial tuition waivers for athletic participation among community colleges in Washington State and its implications for state and federal gender equity policy and legislation. Using a mixed-methods approach, this article presents findings from Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act data, document analysis, and interviews with athletic directors and conference officials. Implications of the partial tuition waiver program on participation rates among Northwest Athletic Association for Community Colleges member institutions in Washington and the recommendations for gender equity are presented.

What Happened in Cairo? A View from the Internet

An estimated 20000 government delegates UN representatives nongovernment organizations and media representatives participated in the 1994 UN Population Conference held in Cairo. Most UN conferences are carefully prearranged in a series of preparatory meetings with the actual conferences simply being ceremonious occasions during which political leaders can read prepared scripts and sign a consensus document. The Cairo conference however was different. The Vatican and its Muslim country allies voiced their firm opposition to abortion cohabitation without marriage and sexual behavior which deviates from their religiously-prescribed norms. Secular leaders countered vigorously and the debate was on. This ideological conflict sparked an enormous amount of attention both in the international media and through word of mouth. A compromise was eventually reached on wording which without condemning abortion stressed that abortion must not be considered a means of family planning. Conference officials may feel that the proceedings were out of control and a general waste of valuable conference time. On the contrary however a far greater international impact will be felt from this Cairo conference compared to other UN conferences without comparable controversy and international media attention. Had not the Pope and his Muslim country allies taken such a firm opposition stand to general consensus at the conference proceedings would have rolled along without controversy and the message of the event would have been disseminated little beyond official circles. The 1994 Cairo conference indeed contributed to a worldwide movement.