News and Notes ......................

     Visitors to the University this spring will notice that Perimeter Road, which circles the main campus, is being shifted as the initial step in a historic five-year, $130 million master plan. This first step on the west side of campus will move congested parking areas farther west of the academic podium and help create a “green belt” of open spaces and pedestrian walkways surrounding the campus. As part of this work, the University Police Department (UPD) Building, now on the west side of campus, will be demolished and a new security facility will be constructed on the east side. Most of the road realignment is scheduled to be completed by fall, with the UPD building expected to be finished in spring of 2000.

     Planning is also underway for a new life sciences research building east of the podium and a sculpture studio on the eastern edge of campus. The Hillier architectural firm has been selected to oversee construction of the life sciences building, expected to get under way late in the year 2000. The sculpture studio is expected to go up in early 2000.

     Also planned are renovation and conversion of the current Administration Building into academic offices, with eventual construction of a new entrance building on the south side of Collins Circle. The new building, with a pedestrian walkway linking it to the podium, is expected to be completed toward the end of the five-year plan, but renovation of the current Administration Building is expected to get under way early in 2000.

     The University is also developing plans for an overhaul of Husted Hall on the downtown campus and an annex to the Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management on Fuller Road.

     The Legislature approved funding for the master plan last spring following the University's study of the steps it needs to take to maintain and strengthen its position as a premier public research university.

Robert R. Ashton

Christopher F. D'Elia

University Names Ashton, D’Elia As Vice Presidents

   The University has named two new vice presidents. They are Robert R. Ashton, an experienced fund-raiser who became Albany’s vice president for advancement in January, and Christopher F. D’Elia, a marine ecologist who was to assume his responsibilities as vice president for research March 1.

    Ashton, who served previously as vice president for college relations at Sarah Lawrence College, oversaw a successful $50 million fund-raising campaign at the Bronxville college. He has also served as vice president at New School for Social Research and associate dean at Stern School of Business at New York University, both in New York City; and as director of development at the University of Maryland Central Administration in Adelphi, Md. Ashton also worked at the SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, where he was director of alumni affairs. He holds a B.S. in radio-television news and an M.S. in broadcast journalism from Syracuse University.

    D’Elia, former director of the Maryland Sea Grant College of the University of Maryland System, is considered an expert in marine pollution and global climate change. He has won contracts from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. D’Elia received his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Georgia and his A.B. from Middlebury College.

Albany Part of Prestigious Semiconductor Coalition

     The University at Albany and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will play a major role in a prestigious national research alliance being sponsored by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). The Focus Center-New York component of the coalition will receive at least $45 million in funding over the next three years—$25 million from private industry and $15 million in matching funds from New York State. Another $5.85 million will come from the Microelectronics Advanced Research Corp., a subsidiary of the Semiconductor Research Corp., which administers the Focus Research Center program. Cornell and the State University at Stony Brook are also participating in the Focus Research Center, along with MIT and Stanford.

     The coalition, whose contracts will be administered by Georgia Institute of Technology, will tackle the most challenging of the technological issues that must be solved to create ever-faster computers. A second consortium, headed by the University of California at Berkeley, will undertake projects on chip “design and test” issues. The two consortia are the first of six the semiconductor industry hopes to form and fund with $10 million a year each. The SIA announced details last Dec. 9 in San Francisco.

     University President Karen Hitchcock said the Focus Center designation catapults the University into the top ranks of research universities carrying out semiconductor-related work. “This is a huge leap for us,” she said. “It means that we will be working on projects here on this campus that are critical to the future of the semiconductor industry.”

     The University at Albany and Rensselaer will carry out the consortium work through the Focus Center-New York, located at the University’s Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management (CESTM) on Fuller Road. Work at CESTM will also include research by Cornell and Stony Brook on a project-by-project basis. Albany Physics Professor Alain Kaloyeros, director of the Center for Advanced Thin Film Technology, is director of the FC-New York program.

Official Residence: The University at Albany Foundation has purchased a home in downtown Albany to serve as the official residence of the University at Albany president. The house, built around 1887, is literally around the corner from the University’s downtown campus, which houses the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy. University President Karen R. Hitchcock and her husband Murray Blair are expected to move into the residence later this year.

University Teams Up With Coke

The University and Coca-Cola Enterprises have established a 10-year partnership that will include new joint marketing initiatives, internship opportunities for students, scholarships and other significant financial support for University programs.

While Coca-Cola will serve as the exclusive vendor of soft drinks at the University for the next 10 years, its partnership is expected to generate approximately $6 million in revenue for the campus.

Harry Wood

Wood Named Undergraduate Admissions, Recruitment Director

     The University has a new director of undergraduate admissions and recruitment. He is Harry Wood, who before coming to Albany served as vice president for enrollment at Marist College for 11 years and director of admissions at Siena College for 15 years. He was considered instrumental in improving the enrollment picture at both colleges.
     At Albany, Wood will be responsible for recruiting approximately 2,300 freshmen and 1,500 transfer students each year.

   
Albany Seeks New Athletic Director

     Bob Ford, Albany’s head football coach for nearly three decades, is serving as interim athletics director while the University carries out a national search for a successor to Milt Richards, who resigned as AD last Oct. 9. Vice President for Student Affairs James P. Doellefeld said the University expects to have a new athletics director in place by next Labor Day, when Albany upgrades its entire 19-sport athletics program to Division I.

     Ford, who led the Danes (10-1) to their second straight Eastern Football Conference championship last fall, served previously as Albany’s athletics director for five years beginning in 1977, when the University had a Division III program. He was appointed head football coach in 1970 and directed the program through three club seasons prior to the first varsity campaign in the fall of 1973. He has a 158-100-0 record as the Great Dane mentor, and his 167 career victories rank him among the top 10 active NCAA Division II head coaches. In 1997, he was named the Football Gazette Division II non-scholarship national Coach of the Year.

Sports

In Brief
  • Albany won its second consecutive Eastern Football Conference championship with a come-from-behind 25-24 victory against American International in a game televised regionally by New England Sports Network (NESN) last November 21. The Great Danes posted a 10-1 overall record and finished the Division II era with victories in 21 of their last 22 contests. The Albany football program will compete at the NCAA Division I-AA level in 1999 as a member of the Northeast Conference.
  • Matt Caliandro, a senior defensive end from Valley Stream, N.Y., was chosen to the Burger King Division II Coaches’ All-America Team, and played in the 1999 Snow Bowl as a member of the East All-Stars. Caliandro recorded 60 tackles and led the team in sacks (7.0).
  • Caliandro and junior linebacker Mike Grever led a group of six Albany football players who were named to the 1998 Eastern College Athletic Conference-North Division II All-Star squad. Grever, who became the first Albany defender to record 120-plus tackles in back-to-back seasons since 1982, and Caliandro made their second straight appearance on the all-star unit. Troy Rhett and Jason Barra, both All-Eastern Football Conference selections, and Deron Regev and Steve Checksfield were also chosen.
  • The Division I era in basketball doesn’t officially begin until next year, but the Great Danes are already taking on Division I opponents. Head Coach Scott Hicks and his men’s team faced Duquesne, Toledo and Arkansas-Little Rock last November to kick off the season, losing in all three contests, but playing a close 74-72 game at Arkansas-Little Rock. The Great Danes will play at Syracuse and Rutgers this fall as a part of a full slate of Division I competition in 1999-2000. Albany also has tentative home dates with Army, Vermont and Dartmouth. Coach Mari Warner and her women’s squad have also added quality programs to next year’s schedule. The women’s Great Dane team, which met St. John’s and Houston in their final Division II season, will tangle with the likes of Harvard, Brown and Navy, and host Akron in late December at the Recreation and Convocation Center.

Editor’s note: As we went to press, the women’s basketball team had compiled a 9-7 record with 10 games remaining. The men’s squad was 9-8, also with 10 games to play.

  • The University enshrined four former athletes into its Athletic Hall of Fame last Oct. 31. The inductees are Nick Ascienzo, B.A.’73, baseball; Frank Sarcone, B.A.’88, football; Frank Selca, B.S.’79, soccer; and David Theleman, B.S.’86, baseball. There are now 78 former athletes, coaches and administrators in the Hall of Fame.
  • Albany placed three players on the AstroTurf-National Field Hockey Coaches Association Division II All-America Team. Tovah Atwell (#21) of West Winfield, N.Y., who was voted to the first team, set the school’s single-season scoring record with 17 goals and 16 assists. Liz Peck, who earned All-America honors for the third consecutive season, and freshman Amy DiMicco, were second-team selections.

  • Tashi Campbell-Tulloch, a second-team All-New England Collegiate Conference outside hitter, led the Great Danes to their second straight ECAC tournament berth in women’s volleyball. Campbell-Tulloch averaged 3.41 kills and 5.22 digs per game for Albany (18-14).
  • Albany won the New England Collegiate Conference men’s cross country championship for the second straight year. Brendan Howell of Suffern, N.Y., was third with a time of 25:36.8 over the 8,000-meter course. The Great Danes went on to capture both the men’s and women’s ECAC Division II titles. Andrea Viger, a junior from Granville, N.Y., was the women’s individual champion at both the NECC and ECAC meets.

Judy Genshaft, provost and vice president for academic affairs, presented a special University Medal to DNA research pioneer Rollin D. Hotchkiss Nov. 6. The occasion was a symposium marking the 50th anniversary of his discovery of 5-methylcytosine, the fifth base in DNA which plays a critical role in human gene regulation. Now retired, Hotchkiss joined Albany’s Department of Biological Sciences in 1982 and maintained a research laboratory on campus for several years.


Celebrating Irish Art, Culture and Ideas

Acclaimed Irish writer John Montague is a highlight of the University’s Irish Semester program now running through May 7. Montague, Poet Laureate of Ireland and Writer in Residence with the New York State Writers Institute, will present “Recollections of Samuel Becket,” reminiscences of his personal relationship with the playwright, on March 23 at 8 p.m. in Recital Hall of the University’s Performing Arts Center. His talk is free and open to the public.

For more information on the Irish Semester, which is sponsored by the Center for Arts and Humanities, please visit the Center’s website at www.albany.edu/cah, or call 518-442-4207.


Awards and Honors

  • Celine Racine Paquette, Ed.D.’80, has been appointed by Gov. George Pataki to a seven-year term on the SUNY Board of Trustees. Paquette, who is owner and operator of Paquette’s Insurance Agency in her native town of Champlain, earned her bachelor’s degree from SUNY-Plattsburgh and her master’s in guidance and counseling and doctorate in educational administration from Albany.
  • Arthur N. Applebee, director of the National Research Center on English Learning and Achievement at the University, is the recipient of the David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English. The award, which recognizes more than three decades of scholarly work by Applebee, is from the National Council of Teachers of English, the world’s largest association of English teachers. Applebee is a member of the School of Education faculty.
  • Paul Miesing of the School of Business has received Fulbright Award to support his work in China teaching in Fudan University’s M.B.A. program and developing business cases. An associate professor in the Department of Management, he is an expert in strategic management and instructional technologies.
  • University President Karen Hitchcock has been elected chairwoman of the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors for 1999. The 2,700-member Chamber works to enhance the business climate and quality of life in the Capital Region.
  • Donald P. Cushman, an emeritus Communication Department faculty member, is a recipient of the Lifetime Teaching Award from the National Communication Association, the oldest and largest scholarly society in the communication field.
  • Eloise Briere of the French Studies program in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, is serving a three-year term as president of the International Council for Francophone Studies.
  • V. Mark Durand of the Psychology Department has been named a fellow of the American Psychology Association. He is known for his work in autism, sleep disorders and behavior and developmental problems in children.
  • The School of Public Health has awarded Steven Tome its first William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fellowship. Tome, who is enrolled in the University’s Master of Public Health Program, is a member of the Seneca Nation of Indians.
  • Thomas J. Kinney is the new president of the National Adult Education Foundation, a nonprofit, Washington, D.C.,-based organization which promotes adult and continuing education. Kinney is special assistant to the provost in the University’s Rockefeller College.
  • Colin Izzard and John Schmidt of the Department of Biological Sciences have won a $433,891 grant from the National Science Foundation to purchase a confocal laser-scanning microscope. The microscope and image analysis system will support research on cell adhesion and movement, gene expression, protein function and neural development.

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John Delano / Dean Falk / Caro-Beth Stewart / Thomas Constantine / Michael Forbes / John McHugh / Robert Bellafiore / Washington Semester Program / James Jaccard / Darcie and Joe Trapasso / Faculty Books / Kresge Grant