INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — College students using the miracle of modern technology to reach out to professors and potential employers may be doing more harm than good, according to a professor at Indiana University.

Never use email or text for important, delicate or questionable communication. It's better not to have a written history of these discussions.

Email and texting are efficient and convenient, but drawbacks include potential misinterpretation of the message or a negative reaction from the recipient, according to Jim Parham, who teaches journalism classes at IU.

“Somewhere in the e-revolution, we found that short-form messages, delivered electronically, are an adequate replacement for face-to-face interaction,” states Parham.

Email “wars”, endless strings of communique and unrepentant language can make a bad situation worse, according to Parham.

“When you write a professor about missing today’s class, it’s probably not a priority on her/his to-do list. It’s even worse to ramble on with long-winded excuses and pabulum.”

Many employers have switched to electronic applications on their Web sites for both job applicants and internships. Unfortunately, this company-centric process eliminates the human interaction, thereby negating any interpersonal skill strength a candidate may possess.

Here’s Parham’s partial list of “Do’s” and “Don’ts”

Do

1. Write emails and text with the same care and specificity of a hard-copy document.
2. Use full sentences and proper grammar.
3. Construct your email as you would any written correspondence, with a beginning, middle and end.
4. Determine if an email or text is a proper way to communicate with another party.
5. Understand that colleges and universities retain most student emails in their databases, keeping a record of your informal banter.

Don’t

1. Take the easy route on an internship or job hunt by simply “applying online.” Press hard and find a warm body willing to talk.
2. Use popular online abbreviations and electronic shorthand. The recipient may have no idea what you mean.
3. Use email or text for important, delicate or questionable communication. It’s much better not to have a written history of these discussions.
4. Use electronic correspondence to wage war or bicker. In the heat of the battle, it’s much too easy to “fire off an email.”
5. Rely on email as your sole source of social and business interaction. Human interaction and telephone calls can help you gauge another person’s demeanor and viewpoint much more accurately.

WEST LAFAYETTE and BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana University and Purdue University announced Thursday (June 19) that they will jointly ask the 2009 General Assembly to create a broad-based research alliance that will help the state grow its bio- and life-sciences industries, improve public health and increase the number of physicians being trained in Indiana.

The Indiana Innovation Alliance would be led by Purdue and IU and would bring together a wide spectrum of businesses, government and universities to share research facilities and other resources to expand the state’s capacity to support new and existing companies in the biology and health-related fields.

The focus of the alliance would be on research with applications in business, including the potential to create new companies. Research also would be directed toward improving the overall health of the state. Indiana public health ranks among the lowest of the 50 states, a statistic that is costly to businesses and a drain on economic development.

Research focuses of the alliance would encompass medical and health-related fields, pharmaceuticals, bioenergy and biofuels, nanotechnology, health-care delivery and the environment.

The universities are proposing that the Legislature create the Indiana Innovation Alliance by appropriating $35 million in each of the upcoming fiscal year 2009-2011 state biennial budget. The funding would include $5 million each year to expand the capacity of the IU School of Medicine to educate physicians.

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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — A federal award to fund the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute validates Indiana’s position as a biomedical research leader, and citizens across Indiana and beyond will benefit, say Hoosier life sciences leaders.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a five-year grant of $25 million to the IU School of Medicine to fund Indiana CTSI activities at Indiana and Purdue Universities. The NIH created the clinical and translational awards program as a high priority effort to improve the process by which the laboratory discoveries of basic science are transformed into new medical treatments and products – a process called translational research.

Officials at the NIH said the Indiana CTSI is one of the most broadly collaborative of the more than two dozen such programs it has funded to date, with community partners including Clarian Health, Eli Lilly and Co., BioCrossroads, Cook Group, Roche, Wellpoint, the Indiana Economic Development Corp., the Indiana Department of Health and the Marion County Health Department.

“The institute harnesses all of Indiana’s major life sciences research centers into a commonly focused enterprise that will give Indiana’s research scientists many new advantages in finding ways to do their work more effectively and efficiently,” said IU President Michael A. McRobbie. “Over the long term, this will have an enormously positive impact on the state and will make laboratories at both IU and Purdue far more competitive for the major research awards of the future.”

“This partnership creates the only national clinical and translational sciences institute that’s a statewide research laboratory, and the National Institutes of Health acknowledged that,” said France A. Córdova, president of Purdue. “This unique structure means Purdue and Indiana university researchers can address the human health needs of the entire state, especially those in our more rural communities.”

One key to the success of the Indiana CTSI will be its ability to go beyond translating scientific discoveries to treatments and standard health care practices, said Anantha Shekhar, M.D., Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at IU School of Medicine and IU assistant vice president for life sciences, who has been named director of the Indiana CTSI.

“We will build systems that facilitate all levels of research and provide community feedback to researchers. This will enable the researchers to improve and refine the conduct of their science and improve care of their patients. We call it the “translational circle,’ ” Dr. Shekhar said.

Connie Weaver, Ph.D., head of the Department of Foods and Nutrition at Purdue, has been named deputy director of the CTSI at Purdue. Bennett Bertenthal, Ph.D., dean of the IU College of Arts and Sciences, has been named deputy director for the IU Bloomington campus.

D. Craig Brater, M.D., vice president for life sciences of IU and dean of the IU School of Medicine, noted that the institute represents the future of biomedical research.

“The health issues facing us are enormous, the science is complex, and resources must be used carefully. Just as the emphasis on translational science is of vital importance, so are broad-based partnerships and collaborations keys to our success in Indiana. Both are epitomized by the CTSI,” Dr. Brater said.

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