Manatee Community College in Bradenton, Fla., has been chosen as the permanent site of the Family Heritage House collection of African American historical materials. The collection contains books, photographs, and video and audio tapes of and about African American national, state, and
local figures.
To house the collection, construction was scheduled to begin last month on a 2,085-square-foot wing that will be added to 1,719 square footage of existing library space. The facility, expected to cost $370,000, is scheduled for completion in July 1999. For the past nine years, the collection has been housed in a trailer.
  
Roosevelt University in Chicago has announced the creation of a new program in North American studies that will integrate all cultures on the continent in an interdisciplinary approach by studying the historical, political, cultural, and economic facets of North America.
"We feel that such a program is timely as international borders gradually dissolve in favor of increased continental integration through programs like the North American Free Trade Agreement," says Dr. Ronald D. Tallman, dean of the university's College of Arts and Sciences.
For more information on the program, contact Margaret Rung, assistant professor of history and coordinator of the program, at (312) 341-3725.

Northern Arizona University has launched a program with industry, government, and university partners that will provide engineering students — particularly Native Americans, other minorities, and women — with opportunities to work with the new scientific methodology of high-performance computer modeling and simulation.
Students in the Pilot Pipeline to Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative - Pathways Leading to Success Program will do undergraduate research in conjunction with the University of Utah's Center for the Simulation of Accidental Fires and Explosions. They will also have access to the ASCI Blue Pacific super-computer, which broke the speed barrier for computing last November, through the Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. And, IBM is sponsoring student internships as well as donating computer equipment, three RS/6000 workstations and an IntelliStation PC to conduct research.
The program has three objectives: to ensure a highly skilled diverse workforce consistent with science and technology needs within DOE Defense Program mission and goals; to advance the use of parallel computing and simulation technologies with a special emphasis on national security relevant disciplines; and to enhance scientific and technical literacy with appropriate appreciation for and sensitivity to cultural diversity.
For more information, contact Mason Somerville, dean of the College of Engineering and Technology at <Mason.Somerville@nau.edu>, or call (520) 523-2880.