The Association of
Retired Rice University Faculty
Welcome to ARRUF, where innovation and collaboration transform retirement.
ARRUF Continues to Explore LONGEVITY MAGNET HOUSTON
ARRUF’S FALL 2023 offers frequent, intellectually rich meetings and trips along with lunches and discussions with friends! For example, the three figures in the top photo above, seen in ARRUF's 2022 visit to the MFAH exhibition, "Golden Worlds: The Portable Universe of Indigenous Colombia," convey how human experiences of JOY, CONTEMPLATION, and HUMOR persist across centuries.
This fall ARRUF continued to explore Houston as a longevity magnet. Like the US as a whole, Houston has a fast-growing 65+ population. ARRUF seeks a role in encouraging Houston’s communities to become a national model of collaboration, mutual appreciation, and success. ARRUF’s interest groups—in travel, nature, and arts—also show how individuals can pursue their passions in retirements and share them with others.
ARRUF activities this semester explore Houston’s fascinating cultural sites, longevity challenges, and beckoning pleasures
Monday, December 4th, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
JOIN IN THE ART OF FESTIVITY AT KARIN BROKER’s STUDIO.
Take the ARRUF Bus to Karin’s Studio and Home (details below) or drive your own vehicle.
506 Delz Street, off of North Shepherd Drive
At ARRUF we treasure the season’s most basic and cherished gift of all, friendship. Please come to THE ART OF FESTIVITY at Karin Broker’s award-winning studio on Monday, December 4th, to see your friends in ARRUF.
Your Contribution to the Party: A BOTTLE OF YOUR FAVORITE BEVERAGE, which can be wine or a non-alcoholic drink. (Punch is provided). The party is being catered by Alice Blue Catering, whose food Karin rates, “Sensational!”
Also on view will be Karin’s own stunning art, her collections, and inimitable decorations.
The bus will leave from the Faculty Club parking lot (gather at the front entrance) at 4:30 p.m. and return to the campus shortly after 7:00 p.m. You may also come to the party in your own vehicle and arrive and leave as you choose.
Tuesday, December 12th, 11 a.m. Hybrid (ZOOM and in person at Fondren 412). A Reading of Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory featuring light holiday refreshments and holiday lunch at the Faculty Club:RESERVATIONS REQUIRED.
ARRUF has enjoyed a shared read-aloud (one page per person) session devoted to A Christmas Memory each year since our founding. We are especially fond of this event in part because ARRUF member and founding dean of the Shepherd School of Music, Sam Jones, composed an opera, with Truman Capote’s blessing, based on the work. We hope that it will be performed in Houston soon.
Come join us in ARRUF’s room, Fondren 412, with the big screen where we can connect with members near and far. If you’re joining from home, choose your favorite holiday beverage and some fruitcake (yes, fruitcake--you’ll see why when you hear the text) or another sweet treat, and join in the 2023 reading of A Christmas Memory.
Book Discussions: A SERIES, every other week, beginning in October.
Monday, October 23rd, 11:00 a.m. Hybrid Session (In person, Zoom (Room 412 Fondren for those on campus.11:00 a.m.
The books and materials to be discussed are a serious effort to understand the population shifts ahead, the cultural differences that exist, and the opportunities to reframe Houston’s situation in preparation for the spring special event, which will bring together experts and Houston leaders.
“The Rise of the Gray and the Brown,” some have called it, but Houston is a special case; our older population is growing fast, but so are our ethnic subgroups, which will soon be of comparable size and increasing influence. How can Houston make the shifts POSITIVE FOR ALL?
This reading group will discuss issues related to this spring’s principal conference.
First book: Becca Levy’s Breaking the Age Code: How Your Beliefs about Aging Determine How Long and How Well You Live. (2022). Note: Levy is Yale U. faculty. Highly readable.
Coming in January, Discussions of ARRUF's Susan Lieberman's In the Country of OLD: Nine Reflections from a new immigrant to the Country of Old.
ARRUF Interest Groups: "If You're In ARRUF, You're Interested"
ARRUF's Travel Group is led by Viqui Arbizu Sabater and Alfonso Da Luca, who live in Seville, Spain. They're ideal leaders for this group because as owners of a travel company, they can apply their expertise to program planning. Past interest groups have focused on memoir writing, travel, nature, and arts. This fall the NATURE GROUP will arrange our Harris Gully excursion; the Travel Group will arrange for a spring adventure, and the ARTS INTEREST GROUP will share arts performances on line and in person.
A new BOOK GROUP will tackle varied books related to our programs, beginning with Yale Professor Becca Levy's 2022 book: Breaking the Age Code: How Your Beliefs about Aging Determine How Long and Well You Live. (If you would like to read ahead of the first meeting in October, the book is available on Amazon.)
SEND US YOUR IDEAS FOR OTHER EVENTS AND FUN TO arruf.invites@rice.edu
ARRUF usually holds general meetings once each month. Interest groups meet on a flexible schedule determined by their specific projects. Click on the interest group headings above to find out more. And check the emails for dates for lunchtimes at the Faculty Club.
SHAPE ARRUF's FUTURE
Volunteers are needed for the following committees to support ARRUF's directors as we expand into full operation again this fall.
• The Activities Committee needs additional members.
* The Membership Committee, Thad Logan, Chair, has produced a list of all current members and intends to expand this project. They could use your help!
* The first Benefits and Privileges Committee, we hope you noted, succeeded in fostering changes in the library policies for retired faculty. Their survey is now over two years old; we need an update!
Want to get involved in virtual committee work for these committees? For more information, please contact former Director Mark Kulstad at kulstad@rice.edu.
Arts Group Fall Book Discussions: A SERIES, every other week, beginning in October.
Monday, October 23rd, 11:00 a.m. Hybrid Session (In person, Zoom (Room 412 Fondren for those on campus.11:00 a.m.
The books and materials to be discussed are a serious effort to understand the population shifts ahead, the cultural differences that exist, and the opportunities to reframe Houston’s situation in preparation for the spring special event, which will bring together experts and Houston leaders.
Houston is a special case; our older population is growing fast, but so are our ethnic subgroups, which will soon be of comparable size and increasing influence. How can Houston make the shifts POSITIVE FOR ALL? This reading group will discuss issues related to this spring’s principal conference.
First book: Becca Levy’s Breaking the Age Code: How Your Beliefs about Aging Determine How Long and How Well You Live. (2022). Note: Levy is Yale U. faculty. Highly readable.
November 6th, 11:00 a.m.
Discussion of Paul Irving’s 2018 presentation to ARRUF: Purposeful Aging and the Longevity Economy. Download under “Newsletters and Reports” on the ARRUF website arruf.rice.edu. View in advance, please. Room 412 Fondren for those on campus. 11:00 a.m.
What's Been Happening at ARRUF This Fall? (and see events list of Past Hits!)
Wednesday, November 15th 8 a.m. (you read that right)! WILDLIFE IN THE CAMPUS
PUT ON YOUR WALKING SHOES. GUIDED EXPLORATION: LOCAL PLANTS, ANIMALS, AND BIRDS of Rice University’s Harris Gully.
CIN-TY LEE, Professor and Chairman, Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, has championed awareness of the Rice University campus as a special environment with distinctive ecosystems, habitats for migrating birds, and wildlife. His efforts have especially focused on the Harris Gully, which has been left in a “natural” state for the benefit of human, avian, and mammalian residents. Thanks to Cin-Ty Lee and his colleagues, greater efforts and policy changes are ensuring the Gully will remain a respite on long migration routes and a center for remaining wildlife. ARRUF will visit the Gully and see for ourselves in the cool autumn.
Yes, Rice is an Urban Campus, BUT WILDLIFE ARE ALSO MAKING THE CAMPUS HOME, or at least a critical stopover on migration. Come see for yourself.
We will meet at the recently-built shelter in Harris Gully. Please spread the word to other members who may be interested.
Monday, November 13, 11:00 a.m.
LONGEVITY BRIEFING: Vaccinations: History, Efficacy, Risks, and Controversies
Hybrid Session (In person and Zoom) Room 412 Fondren for those on campus. Lunch afterward.
Alma Novotny, PhD – ARRUF Member and Rice University Faculty Member
During the second half of the 20th Century, vaccines for smallpox, polio, pertussis (whooping cough), diphtheria, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, pneumonia, influenza, chickenpox, and shingles were heralded as dramatic scientific breakthroughs that would eradicate most infectious childhood diseases and prolong the life of the elderly. Vaccine technology seemed to be keeping pace with both older and emerging pathogens, including HIV, Ebola, RSV, papilloma virus (major causative agent of cervical cancer), and even Covid19. Most medical check-ups for people over 65 involve vaccination histories and suggestions for booster or new shots.
However, at the beginning of the 21st century, an anti-vaccine movement arose, based in part on a study of 12 children, who were diagnosed with autism, either just before or right after they received their first mumps, measles, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. These anti-vaccine groups have grown over the past 20 years and become politically influential in recommending against vaccines and opposing mandatory requirements.
John Olson (Professor Emeritus in BioSciences) will interview Dr. Novotny to explore these two opposing views, focusing on the biology of vaccines, their history, and reported medical outcomes. The key questions to be examined are:
• How does our immune system work to get rid of infectious viruses and bacteria?
• How were the first vaccines developed and were they safe?
• What are the different types of modern vaccines, and how are they formulated?
• Where can I find the results for how well modern vaccines work, and what do these data show?
• What are some of the rare serious side effects of vaccines, and when it is not a good idea to be vaccinated?
• Is there any link between childhood vaccinations and autism or other medical problems?
• Is there any harm caused by vaccine hesitancy, or is it just a personal choice?
• What does the future hold for immunotherapy?
Alma Novotny retired as a Rice University faculty member in May 2023 after 23 years in the BioSciences Department. She also taught biology courses for adults in Rice's Masters of Liberal Arts programs, offering "Plagues and Populations" and "DNA: Human Origins and Identity." Her Coursera [on-line] four-course "Fundamentals of Immunology" series currently enrolls approximately 70,000 registered students. At Rice, Dr. Novotny received three George R. Brown Awards for Superior Teaching and a Graduate Liberal Studies (GLS) John Freeman Faculty Mentoring Award. She was also nominated for a National Piper Teaching Award, based on student letters from UH Clear Lake where she taught before coming to Rice.
Dr. Novotny's signature course at Rice was Immunology 372, which she taught for 20 years. Over time, she experimented with different formats, eventually "flipping" the course to provide on-line instruction (continued next page) coupled with reinforcement and individualized responses during class time. She has also delivered public and Rice-community talks on childhood vaccinations and general principles of immunity. Alma Novotny proudly identifies as a Polio Pioneer, having served as a control during the 1954 Salk vaccine trials and promptly getting immunized the following year."
ARRUF is continuing to explore Houston's remarkable ethnic diversity as a context for longevity. Look at our recent events (Past Hits) to see how the program of trips, museums, lectures and more is developing on this theme.