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CU Money Sense will hold a student workshop with help from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation on the prevention of identity theft in the college-age population on Oct. 10. The workshop is open to all CU-ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ students and will be held in University Memorial Center room 245 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Students planning to attend should email CUmoneysense@colorado.edu .

A groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 5 at 4 p.m. will kick off a $63 million project to renovate and expand the Student Recreation Center at the ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ. The ceremony, located on the pool patio, will include light refreshments and remarks by Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano and other campus and student leaders at 4:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $12 million grant to a CU-ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ-led team to explore ways to maximize the benefits of natural gas development while minimizing negative impacts on ecosystems and communities.

Excited as she was about being at CU-ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ, Melanie Ferraro’s freshman year got off to a rocky start. Ferraro was eventually able to find her footing, however, in a class she was required to take as a Norlin Scholarship recipient, called Constructions of Knowledge. It wasn’t the class itself that led to her transformation from scared and unhappy to confident and successful. It was the connections and friendships she made with the other students.

The ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ’s Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology building has received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, platinum rating -- the highest possible evaluation -- from the United States Green Building Council.

The ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ has hired its first Colorado Chair in Environmental Studies, an endowed chair awarded to Daniel Doak, a conservation biologist known for his quantitative analysis of how different government policies could affect the populations of species ranging from sea otters, California condors, corals and rare plants. The endowed chair in environmental studies was made possible by $4 million in gifts made anonymously in 2009 and 2010 toward the chair.

Colorado business leaders’ attitudes remained almost unchanged going into the fourth quarter, according to the most recent quarterly Leeds Business Confidence Index, or LBCI, released today by the Leeds School of Business . The LBCI’s reading remained positive, above the critical mark of 50, but fell from 53.6 in the third quarter to 51.6 in the fourth. A reading greater than 50 indicates positive expectations, while one lower than 50 indicates negative expectations.

Colorado business leaders’ attitudes remained almost unchanged going into the fourth quarter, according to the most recent quarterly Leeds Business Confidence Index, or LBCI, released today by the ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ’s Leeds School of Business. The LBCI’s reading remained positive, above the critical mark of 50, but fell from 53.6 in the third quarter to 51.6 in the fourth. A reading greater than 50 indicates positive expectations, while one lower than 50 indicates negative expectations.

Apollo and shuttle astronaut Vance Brand will present ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ student Srinidhi Radhakrishnan with a $10,000 scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF) during a public lecture and award presentation on Oct. 5. During the presentation, which will begin at 3 p.m. in the lobby of Andrews Hall, home of the Engineering Honors Program, Brand will share his experiences from the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and three space shuttle missions, in addition to presenting the award. The presentation is free and open to the public.

More than 100 students, faculty and professional engineers from a seven-state region are expected to gather in ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ Oct. 5-7 to learn about sustainable engineering practices that can benefit the developing world. The ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ will host the 2012 Mountain Region Conference for Engineers Without Borders-USA, a nonprofit organization founded by CU engineering Professor Bernard Amadei 10 years ago after he was asked to engineer a water pump for a village in Belize.