Release

Hall to Host Community Pancake Breakfasts Throughout Capital Region
First breakfast, Saturday, May 7, 9 a.m., First Lutheran Church, Albany

Contact: Catherine Herman (518) 437-4980

ALBANY, N.Y. (May 5, 2005) -- UAlbany President Kermit Hall will host a series of pancake breakfast gatherings throughout the Capital Region this spring in an effort to meet and build relationships with various sectors of the community.

The first pancake breakfast will be held Saturday, May 7, 9-10:30 a.m. at the First Lutheran Church, 181 Western Avenue, Albany. Residents, business owners and community groups of the neighborhoods surrounding UAlbany's downtown campus will attend. Hall, who also resides in this neighborhood, plans to introduce members of the University faculty and staff and have an open discussion with his neighbors.

"It is vital to the success of this University and the people it serves to discuss where we stand as neighbors, where we intend to be in the future, and, most important, how we're going to get there," President Hall said. "A pancake breakfast in a relaxed atmosphere is a good way to get to know one another."

Later in May, the President will hit the road to serve pancakes to area health care professionals at a breakfast hosted by the Institute for the Advancement of Health Care Management. Hall will introduce faculty experts whose outreach and research have long been resources to the healthcare community. In June he will invite the region's arts and culture groups to breakfast in Saratoga Springs.

Since becoming UAlbany's 17th president on February 1, President Hall has set undergraduate education, academic success, community involvement, and fundraising for scholarships as primary goals for the University. In one of his first initiatives, he created the Inaugural Scholarship Fund, seeded with money that would have been spent on the presidential inauguration.