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Vice chancellor resigns, returns to classroom Staff Reports Bradley W. Fenwick recently resigned his position as vice chancellor for research and engagement. Fenwick will resume a full-time professorship in the UT College of Veterinary Medicine to continue his nationally recognized research regarding microbiology and infectious diseases of animals. Hailed with leaving a legacy of improvement, Fenwick has led efforts focused on expanding UT’s research base and shaping the infrastructure necessary to help the university recieve large-scale awards. Fenwick began his vice chancellorship in 2007 and has focused heavily on improvements necessary to continue UT’s upward trajectory. Contributions include service as chair on research productivity and facilities and economic development strategic planning subcommittees as well as co-chair of the engagement subcommittee. Duties on the subcommittees ranged from improving the acquisition of federal and private funding for research to relations with ORNL. According to a UT press release, Chancellor Jimmy Cheek thanked Fenwick for his service. “Since he arrived in 2007, Brad has led a comprehensive effort to expand our research base and strengthen the support systems that work to make the university more competitive for large-scale awards,” Cheek said. “I hope you will join me in thanking Brad for his leadership and service as vice chancellor.” According to Greg Reed, associate vice chancellor of research,
new programs have included strengthening the emphasis on undergraduate contributions with Research Week and an undergraduate research journal that highlights their accomplishments. During his service, Fenwick emphasized faculty engagement, focusing on building staff resources to handle proposals and awards as well as holding intensive
BRADLEY W. FENWICK
Rallies over NYC mosque get heated Associated Press NEW YORK — The proposed mosque near ground zero drew hundreds of fever-pitch demonstrators Sunday, with opponents carrying signs associating Islam with blood, supporters shouting, “Say no to racist fear!” and American flags waving on both sides. The two leaders of the construction project, meanwhile, defended their plans, though one suggested that organizers might eventually be willing to discuss an alternative site. The other, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, said during a Middle East trip that the attention generated by the project is actually positive and that he hopes it will bring greater understanding. Around the corner from the cordoned-off old building that is to become a 13-story Islamic community center and mosque, police separated the two groups of demonstrators. There were no reports of physical clashes, but there were some nose-to-nose confrontations, including a man and a woman screaming at each other across a barricade under a steady rain. Opponents of the $100-million project two blocks from the World Trade Center site appeared to outnumber supporters. Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” blared over loudspeakers as mosque opponents chanted, “No mosque, no way!”
Signs hoisted by dozens of protesters standing behind police barricades read “SHARIA,” using dripping, blood-red letters to describe Islam’s Shariah law, which governs the behavior of some Muslims. Steve Ayling, a 40-year-old Brooklyn plumber who carried his sign to a dry spot by an office building, said the people behind the mosque project are “the same people who took down the Twin Towers.” Opponents demand that the mosque be moved farther from the site where nearly 3,000 people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001. “They should put it in the Middle East,” Ayling said. On a nearby sidewalk, police chased away a group that unfurled a banner with images of beating, stoning and other torture they said were committed by those who followed Islamic law. A man wearing a keffiyeh, a traditional Arab headdress, mounted one of two mock missiles that were part of an antimosque installation. One missile was inscribed with the words: “Again? Freedom Targeted by Religion,” the other with “Obama: With a middle name Hussein. We understand. Bloomberg: What is your excuse?” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has fiercely defended plans for the proposed mosque,
saying that the right “to practice your religion was one of the real reasons America was founded.” The mosque project is being led by Rauf and his wife, Daisy Khan, who insist the center will promote moderate Islam. The dispute has sparked a national debate on religious freedom and American values and is becoming an issue on the campaign trail ahead of the midterm elections. Republicans have been critical of President Barack Obama’s stance: He has said the Muslims have the right to build the center at the site but has not commented on whether he thinks they should. Rauf is in the middle of a Middle East trip funded by the U.S. State Department that is intended to promote religious tolerance. He told a gathering Sunday at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain that he took heart from the dispute over the mosque, saying “the fact we are getting this kind of attention is a sign of success.” “It is my hope that people will understand more,” Rauf said without elaborating. Democratic New York Gov. David Paterson has suggested that state land farther from ground zero be used for the center. Khan, executive director and co-founder of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, expressed some
openness to that idea on ABC’s “This Week with Christiane Amanpour” but said she would have to meet with the center’s other “stakeholders” first. “We want to build bridges,” Khan said. “We don’t want to create conflict. This is not where we were coming from. So, this is an opportunity for us to really turn this around and make this into something very, very positive. So we will meet, and we will do what is right for everyone.” But Khan also said the angry reaction to the project “is like a metastasized anti-Semitism.” “It’s not even Islamophobia,” she said. “It’s beyond Islamophobia. It’s hate of Muslims.” At the pro-mosque rally, staged a block away from opponents’ demonstrations, several hundred people chanted, “Muslims are welcome here! We say no to racist fear!” Dr. Ali Akram, a 39-year-old Brooklyn physician, came with his three sons and an 11-year-old nephew waving an American flag. He noted that scores of Muslims were among those who died in the towers, and he called those who oppose the mosque “un-American.” “They teach their children about the freedom of religion in America — but they don’t practice what they preach,” Akram said. See MOSQUE on Page 6
searches for available research funding. Other strategies for improvement included collaborations with departments like UT Libraries in various endeavors. “The result of Dr. Fenwick’s initiatives has been an increase in faculty involvement in sponsored programs, dramatic growth in proposal submissions and awards and creation of a staffing structure that enables the increased workload success has brought,” Reed said, according to a UT press release. Under Fenwick’s leadership, the Office of Research has had a host of changes and new programs that have contributed to UT’s continued success and growth. “From laboratory to laboratory, researcher to researcher, that’s where the partnership happens,” Fenwick said, according to a UT press release. “It’s an asset you cannot ignore.” A national search will be conducted by UT using an Atlanta-based firm for the vice chancellor’s replacement. Whoever is chosen as an interim replacement will not be allowed to apply for the position. Fenwick joined UT from Virginia Tech where he served as vice president of research and had previously served as chief science adviser for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s competitive research program. Fenwick received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in veterinary medicine from Kansas State University and also earned a doctorate from the University of California, Davis where he first became interested in university administration. Fenwick has also served as an editor for the Journal of Microbiology, publishing more than 130 research papers, and was chosen to participate in the Fellows Program of the American Council on Education.
Russian police detain leaders of rally to support national flag Associated Press MOSCOW— Police prevented about 100 opposition activists from marching through Moscow on Sunday with a giant Russian flag and detained three of their leaders, including prominent politician Boris Nemtsov. The opposition activists were celebrating Flag Day, a holiday honoring the tricolor flag adopted by a newly democratic Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed. Nemtsov said the decision to stop a march honoring the Russian flag showed the mentality of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s government. “The flag is a symbol of freedom and democracy, only not for Putin,” Nemtsov said. The date for the holiday was chosen to celebrate the defeat of a hardline communist coup on Aug. 22, 1991. Boris Yeltsin, who famously climbed onto a tank to lead the resistance against the coup plotters, turned the flag into a symbol of an independent Russia. When the Soviet Union ceased to exist on Dec. 25 of that year, the white, blue and red flag was raised over the Kremlin. Nemtsov accused Putin, a former KGB officer, of sharing the mentality of the coup plotters, who were determined to prevent the democratization of the Soviet Union. Putin did not support the coup plotters at the time, but as president he lamented the demise of the Soviet Union and rolled back many of the democratic reforms that Yeltsin had introduced. Nemtsov, who stood with Yeltsin in 1991, served in Russia’s government in the 1990s, including two stints as deputy prime minister. Moscow police said Nemtsov and Mikhail Shneider were detained for trying to lead an unsanctioned march. They had permission to hold a rally but not to march through central Moscow. “You get the impression that Nemtsov and Shneider intentionally provoked the police,” police spokesman Viktor Biryukov told Russian news agencies. Lev Ponomaryov, another prominent opposition leader, was detained later, police See RUSSIA on Page 6 said.