WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — First-time visitors to China can score points with the host country if they study the local culture and etiquette before they arrive, says a Purdue University expert who helped prepare college students who are interning at the Olympics.

“People in China are very friendly and welcoming,” says Wei Hong, a professor of Chinese who is from Hangzhou, China. “When you meet someone, smile, say ‘Ni-Hao,’ and shake hands.”

Hong recently taught Chinese etiquette and culture to 11 Purdue students and three graduates from Purdue who are interning at the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Olympics. Hong is director of the university’s Confucius Institute, which offers Chinese language and cultural programs for students and the public.

Hong also recommends people traveling to China for the Olympics print business cards with a Chinese translation on the back.

“You never know who you will meet in China, plus it is a great conversation starter,” she says.

Hong has led four study abroad trips to China, and she says students are most surprised by the food. For example, seafood and poultry are often served with the animal’s body intact, she says. Whether dining at a restaurant or with friends, tourists may not expect the host to continue refilling a person’s plate without asking.

“It is OK to tell them you enjoyed the food but you are full,” she says. “If you don’t, the food will keep coming.”

Hong also says be prepared to negotiate prices with market vendors and at small shops. She says not to do so at the department stores.

“Chinese people admire Americans a lot, so I certainly encourage tourists to be understanding and eager to learn about China and its people,” Hong says.

The Purdue students and recent graduates are spending seven weeks in China to assist with news media coverage for events related to bicycling.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A pilot program this summer is giving Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine students surgical experience while helping the Almost Home Humane Society prepare shelter animals for adoption.

The school has set up a spaying/neutering surgery site at the humane society’s shelter in Lafayette with equipment that isn’t needed on campus during the summer, said Lynetta Freeman, associate professor of small animal surgery and biomedical engineering.

Without the in-house surgical unit, the shelter has to transport animals to local veterinarians’ offices or the Purdue campus for spaying or neutering before they are adopted. Michelle Warren, executive director of Almost Home Humane Society, said that involves added costs for the nonprofit shelter and often means adopting individuals or families must wait to take their pets home.

“Our board and staff were looking for ways to cut costs and still provide for the animals,” she said. “For at least two years, we have been talking about doing on-site spays and neuters. Then we received a bequest that let us renovate an attic space for surgeries.”

Warren said she mentioned the new space and the desire to do on-site spaying and neutering to Freeman and the idea for the summer program was born.

Freeman has been taking two fourth-year veterinary students and one veterinary technician student to the shelter once a week since the beginning of July. The students perform the surgeries under Freeman’s supervision. They do between four and six surgeries each week.

“The students like it because it’s real-life experience for them,” Freeman said.

But the program will end Aug. 18 because the equipment will be needed back on campus for the beginning of the fall semester, Freeman said.

Warren said that while the humane society doesn’t have the thousands of dollars needed to buy the equipment in its budget currently, it is looking for ways to get the funds.

“What we’re hoping to accomplish is showing a mutual benefit,” Freeman said. “If so, we will try to find a donor or grant program to provide equipment for the humane society. Purdue students could go over once a week, and area veterinarians might also volunteer.”

“The goal is to have all animals spayed or neutered before they go to the adoption floor,” Warren said. “Adopters could take animals right home either from the shelter or from off-site events.

“I’m anticipating we’ll have substantial cost savings while still being able to provide the best possible care for the animals.”

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — All central IT services on the West Lafayette campus will be down for up to 16 hours this weekend.

At 4 p.m. Saturday (July 26), a complete power outage in Freehafer Hall will allow steps in installing larger transformers to support IT data center loads.

Services should resume by 8 a.m. Sunday.

There will be no access to Purdue home directories, shared files or folders, e-mail, Blackboard Vista, Software Remote, Purdue Air Link wireless Internet connections, Purdue or ITaP Web pages, VPN service, or OnePurdue SAP or Banner.

The outage is also expected to prevent campus users from accessing any IT service that requires a Purdue career account login and password.

Suggested preparations and more about the improvement project are at www.itap.purdue.edu.

WASHINGTON, DC — “High-impact” firms create Indiana’s new jobs and growth, according to a study recently released by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Distributed across all industries, high-impact firms account for almost all employment and revenue growth in the national economy, the study concludes.

Of the 376,604 high impact firms identified by researchers nationwide, 6,777 are located in Indiana. That number represents 2.2 percent of Indiana’s firms. Of the 6,777 high impact firms located in Indiana, 181 are located in the Lafayette MSA.

The study High-Impact Firms: Gazelles Revisited, defines high-impact firms as those whose sales have at least doubled over a four-year period and which have an employment “growth quantifier” (the firm’s absolute change in employment multiplied by the percent change) of two or more.

The study notes that such firms are found across all industries and in all geographic regions. It ranks regions, states, metropolitan statistical areas, and counties by their percentage of high-impact firms. The study finds, with some data limitations, that high-impact firms are not start-ups but are on average around 25 years old, and that they come in all size classes. The report also documents that over the periods studied, nearly all job losses came from large, low-impact firms.

“High-impact firms are important to Indiana’s economic growth and development,” said Dr. Chad Moutray, Chief Economist for the Office of Advocacy. “State policy makers would be wise to consider how their policies can encourage such firms.”

The Office of Advocacy, the “small business watchdog” of the federal government, examines the role and status of small business in the economy and independently represents the views of small business to federal agencies, Congress, and the President. It is the source for small business statistics presented in user-friendly formats, and it funds research into small business issues.

For more information, a complete copy of the report and rankings of high-impact firms by region, state, MSA, and county, visit the Office of Advocacy website at www.sba.gov/advo.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — The Indiana Arts Commission (IAC) announced today the implementation of a new regional funding formula designed to more equitably distribute public arts funding throughout the state.

“This new funding formula was developed with the input of all 12 of our Regional Arts Partners, and represents their joint recommendations,” explained Lewis C. Ricci, IAC executive director. “The purpose was to adjust our regional block grant distributions in such a way to more fairly reflect the geographic size and population of each region, as well as its unique cultural needs.”

Early this year the Regional Arts Partners formed a taskforce to tackle the problem of under-funding in some of the more rural IAC regions. The primary challenge was to redistribute the available funds – regardless of any future changes in the IAC’s budget allocations.

“The Regional Arts Partners all agreed some regions were severely under-funded,” said Jeff Kuehl, chair of the Regional Arts Partner Consortium and Regional Coordinator for the Columbus Area Arts Council. “With the limited funds available the Partners knew some regions could experience a modest reduction in their block grant, but they also recognized that for the future health of the partnership initiative and the cultural interests of all 92 counties, something needed to be done to level the arts funding in Indiana.”

Recommended jointly by the 12 Regional Arts Partners and ratified by the Indiana Arts Commission at its June meeting in Fort Wayne, the new funding formula is almost totally based on region population as documented by the U.S. Census.

“The Regional Arts Partners really took the initiative in trying to resolve this issue knowing that in some cases it could mean a slight funding reduction to some regions,” Ricci said. “The Partners agreed that a more equitable funding formula was not only needed, but should be maintained regardless of what may happen with state budget allocations.”

The resulting formula will be applied each year based on available state funding for the Regional Block Grant. The new regional funding formula will be introduced in stages to allow for a period of budget adjustment. Fifty percent of the funding change will occur in Fiscal Year 2010 (July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2010) with 100 percent of the change taking place in Fiscal Year 2011.

For more information on the Regional Block Grant revisions, please visit: www.IN.gov/arts/3047.htm.
For more information about the Regional Arts Partnership, please visit www.IN.gov/arts.

The Tippecanoe Arts Federation is the Region IV Arts Partner. Region IV serves 14 surrounding counties. Activities of the Tippecanoe Arts Federation are provided, in part, with support from the Indiana Arts Commission, a state agency, with funds from the Indiana General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts.