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Class of 1997 college grads will find a better job market this spring than in recent years, but competition continues to be stiff, according to Gordon Gray, University of Colorado at ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ Career Services director. “I tell Â’97 grads their sense of timing is wonderful. The job market is better than in each of the previous five years,” said Gray.

Juniors and seniors in high schools throughout the nation may apply for the High School Summer Scholars Program scheduled from June 22 to July 12 at the University of Colorado at ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ. The new program is designed to give students a chance to experience college life while taking classes for credit or personal enrichment in a variety of topics.

CU-ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ’s Wellness Program for staff and faculty will present a free public Wellness Wednesday talk on April 9 by noted cancer researcher and Distinguished Professor David Prescott of biology. Prescott will discuss skin cancer in a “mini medical school” talk at noon in the Student Recreation Center conference rooms 3 and 4. Attendees are welcome to bring brown-bag lunches.

A high-tech plant-growth chamber developed at the University of Colorado at ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ that contains intriguing pharmaceutical and agricultural experiments will blast off on NASAÂ’s space shuttle Columbia from Florida April 3.

Physics Professor Carl Wieman of the University of Colorado at ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ will describe events leading to the globally acclaimed discovery of a new state of matter called Bose-Einstein condensation in a public lecture on April 2. Wieman will lecture on "The Circuitous Path of a Physics Discovery: How Tinkering with Lasers Led (After 10 Years) to Bose-Einstein Condensation" at 8 p.m. in the JILA Auditorium on the CU campus. The free lecture is intended for a general audience. A reception will follow on the 10th floor of the JILA Tower.

The University of Colorado at ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ will hold its second annual disability cultural forum from noon to 9 p.m. on April 2 in the University Memorial CenterÂ’s Glenn Miller Ballroom on campus. The forum, which is free and open to the public, will bring together poets, writers, activists and artists to celebrate and raise awareness of disability culture.

Construction of a new storm drainage system and other utility improvements on the CU-ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ campus will require a change in driving patterns for students, faculty, staff and visitors beginning April 1. Construction is expected to last from April to late August, when fall semester classes begin.

A University of Colorado at ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ geology student detected 23 small earthquakes within a 50-mile radius of ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ during a three-month period last fall. The earthquakes ranged from magnitude 0.5 to 2.0 on the Richter scale. The smallest earthquake a person is able to feel is about magnitude 3, and a quake of 3.5 can cause slight damage.

A team of faculty and students from the University of Colorado at ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ will fly an ultraviolet spectrograph on a NASA sounding rocket from White Sands, N.M., March 24 to probe the chemical makeup of comet Hale-Bopp.

Sociology Professor Gary T. Marx of the University of Colorado at ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ has been named a 1997-98 Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The fellowships are among the most coveted and competitive in the social sciences and humanities and are offered only to about 3 percent of all applicants. Marx will continue his work on the social implications of new information technologies.