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This yearÂ’s 42nd annual Colorado Shakespeare Festival is set for a scrumptious start on June 25 when the opening night audience is treated to a free dessert reception before the show. University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ Chancellor Richard L. Byyny and Peter Spear, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, will host the reception which starts at 7 p.m. in the Norlin Quadrangle. First night ticket holders will be able to mingle for 90 minutes sampling such goodies as champagne and strawberries before the curtain rises on "Henry IV Part 1."

Thirty minority high school students from around the state will attend the 12th Annual Business Leadership Program from June 13 to June 19 on the CU-Â鶹ӰԺ campus.

More than a dozen faculty and students from the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ are part of an international team that has launched an unprecedented experiment in an attempt to explain how the universeÂ’s matter came to exist.

Local children can learn about seasonal changes and celestial mysteries of the night sky at the next CU Wizards show "Stars Overhead" on Saturday, June 19, on the CU-Â鶹ӰԺ campus. Katy Garmany, director of Fiske Planetarium and professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences, will give the free presentation at 10 a.m. in the planetarium. The CU Wizards program is recommended for children in grades five through nine. No reservations are required.

Michael Grant, professor of environmental, population and organismic biology, has been named associate vice chancellor for undergraduate education at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ. He will assume the position July 1, pending approval by the CU Board of Regents in June. "I am confident that Michael will provide the excellent leadership that is needed to enhance undergraduate education at CU-Â鶹ӰԺ," said Phil DiStefano, vice chancellor for academic affairs. "He has proven that we can provide quality programs that will attract top scholars to the university."

Note to editors: A conceptual drawing of the Discovery Learning Center is available by calling (303) 492-7426. Klipp Colussy Jenks DuBois Architects of Denver have been selected, pending approval by the CU Board of Regents, to design the Discovery Learning Center, an innovative new facility at CU-Â鶹ӰԺ's College of Engineering and Applied Science that will help expand student involvement in current research.

Migrant and seasonal workers who earned general education diplomas through the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ’s High School Equivalency Program at Alamosa will graduate June 11. Â鶹ӰԺ 250 people are expected to attend the ceremony, which starts at 7 p.m. at Ortega Middle School, Alamosa. Families, friends and other supporters will be there to see 60 students ranging in age from 16 to 50 receive their high school equivalency diplomas. Fifteen of them passed their exams in both English and Spanish.

The recent discovery of chlorine above Io, a moon of Jupiter, indicates the odd object may hold common table salt, according to two University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ scientists. Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system, said CU-Â鶹ӰԺ Associate Professor Nick Schneider and former post-doctoral researcher Michael Kueppers of CUÂ’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. They believe the presence of chlorine – an ingredient of sodium chloride, or common table salt – is related to the violent volcanic activity.

Visitors to the Lamar Public Library this summer will be treated to a fascinating look at the insect world courtesy of the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ. The library, at 104 E. Parmenter St., is hosting an exhibition of photographs as part of the universityÂ’s CU This Summer cultural outreach program. The exhibition, "Small Wonders: Insect Photos by Fran Hall," opens on June 14 and will run through Aug. 25. Admission is free and library hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt will speak June 8 at the CU-Â鶹ӰԺ Natural Resources Law Center program on western water law and policy, discussing the controversial report of the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission: "Water in the West: Challenge for the Next Century." The free Babbitt program, scheduled at 7 p.m. in Macky Auditorium, will kick off a three-day conference sponsored by the Natural Resources Law Center.