The University's catalog of courses is now available (in
Hebrew) to anyone with access to the Internet. This is the first time that
an Israeli university has made its catalog available to all students electronically.
Being on-line allows the catalog to be updated continually, so that all
information about courses, instructors, prerequisites, hour s, etc., is
current and valid at all times.
One can surf the Web to reach the University for this information; or for
those with a direct connection to the University's home page (e.g., computers
in the University Library), just click on ÒAdmissions and Student
Services and browse under ÒCourse List.
The culture collection of the fungi and cryptogamic plants
at the University's Institute of Evolution is the first such gene bank
in Israel. Their cultivation under controlled conditions has enabled a
wide variety of biological studies of these organisms.
The collection covers all groups of mushrooms, and includes the world's
largest number of s pecies of one particular genus.
The collection serves to preserve the genopool of edible and commercial
mushrooms, preserve strains with interesting attributes, maintain species
used for biotests, permit comparative taxonomic and molecular genetics
studies. A collection of medical mushrooms has been started. This gene
bank is supervised by Dr. S. P. Wasser, whose work in the area was described
in the Spring
1996 issue of Focus.
This summer saw the participation on campus of hundreds
of students from various countries around the world in special programs.
Here is a round-up: Some 30 teachers and administrators from the Alliance
network of schools in France, Morocco, and Spain underwent an intensive
week-long program devoted to Topics in Judaism and Their Instruction.
This year, 30 mid-level officials from developing countries completed the
month-long course on ÒDeveloping Tourism in Developing States. Participants
countries represented by consular officials at the concluding ceremony:
Latvia, Philippines, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Burma, Poland, Ethiopia, Kenya.
In the summer ulpan sponsored by the Overseas Stu dents Program, Hebrew
may have been the only common denominator.
The record 140 participants who intensively studied the language came this
year from the United States, Canada, Argentina, Guatemala, South Africa,
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Greece,
Italy, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and South Korea. These Diplomas
- A World First The six graduates who received diplomas in Psychology from
the University's External Studies Unit this past summer were making history,
perhaps world history.
The Autumn 1993 issue of Focus reported on a group of residents of Kfar
Tikva, a residential community for those suffering from slight to moderate
mental and brain impairments, who were enr olled in a special academic
program at the University. The University did not undertake the program
lightly, and did so only after a great deal of persuasion on the part of
the director of Kfar Tikva, Arye Fincovitz, who was convinced that people
with light mental handicaps but otherwise normal characteristics could
learn on a higher education lev el if given the chance. The results have
proved themselves, and him; now other Israeli universities have taken an
interest in the course of study offered to this handicapped group. In addition
to psychology, they studied computers, art, Israeli geography, and political
science. The special courses now attract some 50 residents of Kfar Tikva
(which translates as Hope Village) and 30 other handicapped individuals
from Haifa and its suburbs.