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As winter approaches, its short dark days can give some people the blues and in others triggers depression, affecting everything from their work to their love lives. "When the days get shorter and there is less light, people's biological systems naturally slow down, causing them to want to sleep more and crave sweet and starchy foods," said David Miklowitz, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ. "Many people experience this, and it is typically called the winter blues."

Note to Editors: Interviews with speakers can be arranged by contacting Mindy Pantiel at (303) 443-4862. A digital photo of Simon Deng is available by calling Mike Liguori in the News Services Office at (303) 492-3117. A former Sudanese child slave and a former U.S. Marine captain who witnessed the genocide in that North African nation will be among the speakers at the Sudan Awareness Conference Nov. 1-3 hosted by the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ.

Exploring ways to streamline current and conflicting telecommunication regulatory policies in the United States will be the focus of a conference at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ School of Law on Oct. 26. Titled "Re-Examining the Role of State and Local Governments in Telecom Regulations," the conference will examine how the 1996 Telecommunications Act and the conflicting roles that state and local governments play in telecommunications regulation have hampered economic development in the telecommunications industry.

As CU-Â鶹ӰԺ's Office of Discrimination and Harassment initiates the process of training faculty and staff to identify, and prevent, workplace discrimination and harassment, the Office of Judicial Affairs will focus on cases involving students, and will face some issues unique to students in the process.

Some of the best and brightest computer programmers in the Rocky Mountain region will face off Oct. 29 in another all-out "battle of the brains" contest of logic, strategy and mental endurance at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ. The 30th annual Association for Computing Machinery's International Collegiate Programming Contest, sponsored by IBM, is the oldest and largest programming contest in the world with more than 5,000 teams competing worldwide this fall.

Several offices at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ are pledging money totaling $10,000 to bolster the Â鶹ӰԺ County Crime Stoppers reward for information leading to an arrest in recent GHB, or "date rape," drugging cases in Â鶹ӰԺ.

Procedures for handling faculty, staff and student complaints of racial and other forms of discrimination will be more clear cut at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ under a new policy that took effect in August, coinciding with the opening of the new Office of Discrimination and Harassment. The ODH replaces the former Office of Sexual Harassment, resulting in a larger office to address all allegations of discrimination. The two existing staff members of the sexual harassment office have been combined with two new staff members for a total of four investigators.

Author and naturalist Terry Tempest Williams will be honored by the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ's Center of the American West on Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. The center will present Williams with its highest recognition, the Wallace Stegner Award. The free public event will be in the University Memorial Center's Glenn Miller Ballroom. Williams also will be available to sign books at a reception before the event at 5 p.m. Given Williams' popularity, audience members are encouraged to arrive early for the reception and award presentation.

Jazz multi-instrumentalist and educator John Gunther, a Colorado native, began teaching this fall as a faculty member in the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ College of Music's Jazz Studies program.

The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ has awarded three doctoral dissertation fellowships in media, religion and culture for the 2005-06 academic year. The three recipients are Katherine Meizel, department of music, University of California, Santa Barbara; Joon Seong Lee, telecommunications, Ohio University; and Emily Zeamer, social anthropology department, Harvard University.