CAMPUS NOTES

The Eli Whitney Museum's 13th annual Holiday Train Show received some assistance on the exhibition from Hunter Nesbitt Spence, a lecturer in technical design and production at the School of Drama. With the assistance of museum apprentices, Spence painted the layout for the train show, which features American Flyer trains produced after World War II by the former A.C. Gilbert Company in New Haven. The exhibit, which runs through Jan. 24, is open 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturdays, and noon-5 p.m. on Sundays and on Dec. 21, 22, 28 and 29. Groups can view the display by appointment. Visitors can craft trains of their own with interchangeable wooden parts and tools. Admission to the museum, located at 915 Whitney Ave. in Hamden, is $2 for children and $3 for adults.

Roberto González Echevarría, Sterling Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literature, met with baseball legend Yogi Berra on Nov. 12 when the Yale scholar spoke at the Yogi Berra Museum in New York at a symposium titled "From Clemente to Sosa." During the program, which honored Hispanic Heritage Month, González Echevarría and El Diario journalist Juan Vene discussed Roberto Clemente Sr.'s legacy as a humanitarian and inspirational role model, as well as the Hispanic influence on baseball. The Yale professor is currently correcting proofs of his book "The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball," which will be published this spring by Oxford University Press. In addition, the scholar's CD-ROM "Miguel de Cervantes" (Primary Source Media) has just been included in Choice magazine's "Best Academic Book List."

An article by Daniel A. Updegrove, director of information technology services, has won the 1998 CAUSE/ EFFECT Contribution of the Year Award. The article -- titled "Is Strategic Planning for Technology an Oxymoron?" -- appeared in the Winter 1997-98 issue of the journal, which is published by EDUCAUSE, an association for advancing the use of technology in higher education. Written in collaboration with Martin D. Ringle of Reed College, the article focuses on the importance of strategic information technology planning and explores why many planning efforts fail. The article also offers practical advice for enhancing planning efforts on campus. The award, which was designed to encourage managers of higher education information resources to share their knowledge, was presented to Updegrove and Ringle on Dec. 11 at the EDUCAUSE annual conference in Seattle, Washington. Updegrove and Ringle requested that the $1,000 award stipend be divided between Yale's scholarship program and Reed University's Technology Innovation Fund. The text of the winning article is accessible on the Web at http://www.educause.edu/awards/ce/ce-award.html.

President Richard C. Levin has named Ian Shapiro as chair of the department of political science for a three-year term, effective Jan. 1, 1999. He will succeed David Cameron, who will be on leave of absence during the spring term.

The recent book "Cities of the Dead: Circum-Atlantic Performance" by Joseph Roach, professor of English, theater studies and African-American studies, has received the Joe A. Callaway Prize for the Best Book on Drama and Theatre. The prize, which carries a $9,000 award, was established by a donation from actor, drama lecturer and theater supporter Joe A. Callaway. Roach's book was characterized by the panel of judges as "the most outstanding work of theatre scholarship not only in this competition period but of this decade." "Cities of the Dead," which was also winner of the Lowell Prize, explores the after-life in performance of the web of racial, cultural and mercantile exchanges that tied Britain, Africa and America together for centuries.