Current issue: November 25, 2011 Archive »
CAMPUS NEWS
Rockefeller walkers travel over 100,000 miles

This summer, 189 university employees participated in the Global Corporate Challenge (GCC), a worldwide walking program in which participants are issued pedometers and record their daily step totals on a dedicated Web portal.
Over 16 weeks, the participants walked a total of 269,705,477 steps. That translates to 107,256 miles, or 4.3 trips around the world. They burnt 10,874,525 calories and, by choosing to walk instead of drive, ride the bus or take an elevator, they prevented 14,270 pounds of carbon from entering the atmosphere. The average daily distance walked per person: 5.94 miles.
“Although we have sponsored walking programs at Rockefeller in the past, this was the first year that we joined an outside program and got the benefits of Web-based data tracking and incentives,” says Ginny Hansen, director of benefits. “It was more fun for the participants, and GCC’s data collection allowed us to see just how much of a difference the program can make in people’s habits and in their health.”
Registration for the 2012 program will begin in late April. 
Announcements

Holiday party is December 8. After a two-year hiatus, the universitywide holiday celebration is back. All are invited to Weiss Café from 3:30 to 5 p.m. for food and beverages.

Happy anniversary. At an afternoon reception on October 27, the university celebrated employment anniversaries for 147 members of the community who had reached 10 years of service in 2009, 2010 or 2011. For a list of the names of the 10-year honorees, visit http://benchmarks.rockefeller.edu/anniversary.php. Employees who have reached longer milestones will be recognized in the spring.

Bags for sale. Rockefeller reusable shopping bags are available for $3.25 each from the Weiss and CRC coffee carts. The sturdy, lightweight nylon bags are the size of a plastic grocery bag and fold into an attached pouch for storage. Carry one on your errands to help reduce waste.

Holiday Lectures are December 27. This year’s Rockefeller University Holiday Lectures on Science for High School Students, begun in 1959 by Alfred E. Mirsky, a biochemist and university librarian, will feature Sarah Schlesinger and Marina Caskey from Ralph Steinman’s lab. About 400 students from schools around the city attend the lectures each year. This year’s lectures are entitled “Not Just Another Macrophage: How Ralph Steinman’s Controversial Discovery of the Dendritic Cell Slowly Transformed Immunology.” Tickets are required. For more information, call Gloria Phipps at x8967. http://www.rockefeller.edu/holidaylecture/2011.