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The formation and evolution of stars and planets and their connection to the origin of life on Earth will be explored at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ's Fiske Planetarium in September. John Bally, a professor in the astrophysical and planetary sciences department, will present "The Birth of Stars and Planets" on Thursday, Sept. 1, and Friday, Sept. 2, at 7:30 p.m. Bally's talk is part of the planetarium's fall 2005 schedule of astronomy presentations given by CU-Â鶹ӰԺ professors and guest lecturers.

Students and employees at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ are reminded to take precautions with local wildlife in order to avoid contracting contagious diseases. Wildlife-related diseases reported in Â鶹ӰԺ County this summer include plague, hantavirus, tularemia and rabies, according to campus and county health officials. The CU-Â鶹ӰԺ campus is home to many animals including squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, prairie dogs and bats.

As part of the largest project of its kind in recent years, University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ Facilities Management officials have invested $1.2 million to improve the appearance, comfortableness and overall maintainability of campus classroom facilities. Carpeting, paint, new furniture and other upgrades were all part of the campus-wide Classroom Improvement Initiative implemented during the last year, according to Facilities Management Executive Director Jeff Lipton.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Olympic gold medalist Frank Shorter will be among the featured readers at the ninth annual "Words to Stir the Soul: Readings from the American West" events presented by the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ's Center of the American West. The programs will be held Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. at the LoDo Tattered Cover Book Store at 1628 16th St. in Denver and on Sept. 6 at 7 p.m. in Old Main Chapel on the CU-Â鶹ӰԺ campus. Both are free and open to the public.

University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ students out after dark this school year will have a safe, reliable way to get home thanks to the CU NightRide campus program. Formerly known as NightRide/NightWalk, the program provides free, nighttime escorts to CU-Â鶹ӰԺ students, staff and faculty around campus and anywhere within the Â鶹ӰԺ city limits.

The ninth annual Buffalo Racing Car Show will be held on the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ campus Sunday, Sept. 11, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. featuring all types of cars from classic to exotic, foreign to domestic and street cars to race cars. Spectators at the car show will serve as judges, and proceeds will benefit the project racecar of the CU chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers, which also will be on display at the show.

Campus administrators at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ have begun implementing plans to improve security for the 6,000 servers and 20,000 computers in use on campus, particularly for those that contain sensitive data that is more likely to be targeted in cases of identity theft. Although the full plan will require further review and funding approval to implement, parts of the plan already are under way, according to Bobby Schnabel, vice provost for academic and campus technology.

A new case of unauthorized computer access has been identified at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ as a result of current investigations and new procedures that were put in place following a series of computer breaches during the last month. The potentially exposed information includes about 49,000 database entries on a server containing ancillary information used by the Registrar's Office. The information is not a primary database of the Registrar's Office.

Note to Editors: Contents embargoed for use until 12:01 a.m. Friday, Aug. 19. The University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ was ranked in a tie for 34th among the nation's public universities offering doctoral degrees in U.S. News & World Report's 2006 Best Colleges undergraduate rankings released today. CU-Â鶹ӰԺ was tied for 34th with Clemson University, North Carolina State-Raleigh and Virginia Tech. In the ranking of all doctoral universities, public and private, CU-Â鶹ӰԺ was tied for 78th with five other schools.

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