Actors, dancers, musicians, directors, producers and critics will all meet at UBC May 9-11 to discuss the arts in our culture.

Performance Matters: A Forum on the Lively Arts May 9-11 is presented by UBC President David Strangway and the Faculty of Arts.

Panelists include former Canada Council chair Mavor Moore, film-maker Sandy Wilson, impresario Leila Getz, Eleanor Wachtel of CBC Radio's Writers & Co., dance company director Judith Marcuse and journalist Max Wyman.

Topics up for discussion include the relevance and role of the arts, arts funding, differing cultural perceptions and the arts in education.

For further information, call 990-5185 or 990-5180.

In most countries when the school day ends, children leave for home with assignments to complete and return to school the next day. The popular assumption is that homework provides opportunities for children to practise and consolidate new concepts and skills.

But are home assignments just that, or do they transform into a social and cultural process where discussion and mutual understanding between parents and children are key?

Jacquelyn Baker-Sennett, an assistant professor of Educational Psychology and Special Education, looks at the implications of parental involvement in homework for children's learning at home and at school during a free public lecture, At Home With Homework: Parents, Kids, Homework and School Success on Tuesday, May 13 at 7 p.m. in the Judge White Theatre at the Robson Square Conference Centre.

For more information, call 822-6239.

The Association of Administrative and Professional Staff (AAPS) has put forward a tentative Agreement on Conditions and Terms of Employment (ACTE) for review by management and professional staff. The agreement is the result of negotiation with the university administration and AAPS.

Included in the package distributed to staff in April is a ballot which asks staff if they agree with the terms of the agreement. The ballot must be returned to the Registrar's Office by May 8.

Information meetings on the agreement will be held: May 1, 12:30-2:30 p.m. in IRC#2; May 5; 12:30-2 p.m. at B.C.'s Children's Hospital, Rm. C240, Old Shaugnessy Bldg., 4500 Oak St.

Ballots should be sent by campus mail no later than May 5. After May 5 ballots should be hand delivered to the Registrar's Office. The results of the vote will be announced May 12.

The Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration has introduced its first co-operative education program in the Management Information Systems (MIS) Division. The first co-op students, who are completing their third year, begin their co-op terms May 1.

The program got off to an early start after a group of third-year students urged the division to introduce it in time for them to participate.

Selection of students for the program will usually take place during their second year at UBC. Students selected will enter their first work term in January of their third year at UBC. Co-op students will graduate after five years at UBC during which time they will have gained 16 months of work experience.

Companies who have already hired students for the work term beginning May 1 include BC Hydro, SHL Systemhouse -- which has hired several students--and Doane Raymond.

Division Chair Prof. Yair Wand said initial employer interest has been strong and more employers expressed interest in hiring co-op students. Applicants for admission to the co-op program for next year are currently under consideration. For further information contact Helen Jordin, program co-ordinator, at 822-8368.

The U.S.-based National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) has provided Dr. Sean Flynn with a research grant of $56,000.

Flynn, a clinical fellow in the Dept. of Psychiatry, will use a new magnetic resonance imaging technique to study myelin in the brains of schizophrenia patients. Myelin is an insulating substance that covers connections between various areas of the brain.

Flynn's award was one of 141 grants given by NARSAD this year and one of only four in Canada

A new edition graces the stacks of the Crane Resource Centre.

Simply titled, The Crane Story, the 60-page publication chronicles the life of Charles Crane who, in 1931, became the first blind person to attend a Canadian university when he was accepted at UBC.

The centre was originally established 28 years ago as the Charles Crane Memorial Library to house Crane's private collection of more than 10,000 volumes of braille books which were donated to UBC after his death in 1965.

The Crane Story was written by Laurie Bellefontaine who used the centre extensively as a UBC student in the mid-1980s.

The book also salutes Paul Thiele and his late wife Judith who were instrumental in the creation and evolution of the centre which produces materials in alternate formats and provides access to and training on adaptive technological equipment for blind and visually or print-impaired persons. Paul Thiele has served as head of the facility since its inception in 1969.