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DONOR PROFILES • Celina Fletcher • Bob Herman • Meg Picotte McClarence • Joan Schulz • |
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Senior Class President Celina Fletcher has an abundance of gratitude for her University at Albany education. “Albany has been the perfect place for me in terms of my major and my career options, and also in terms of the diversity I have found here. I consider myself very, very lucky,” says Fletcher, a Project Renaissance student and political science major. The 21-year-old Brooklyn native, who is also a Judicial Board member and active in Delta Sigma Theta, the public service sorority, hopes to eventually be a civil liberties lawyer. But first she wants to give back to her alma mater. Fletcher is spearheading her class’s efforts to raise funds for a unique and tangible class gift, which will be determined later in the academic year. In addition to their own contributions, the members of the Class of 2001 are seeking the support of their parents, other UAlbany student groups, alumni and businesses through donations to the Annual Fund. Other recent senior class gifts supported by the Annual Fund include a bronze sculpture of UAlbany’s Great Dane mascot, art work in the Campus Center, and scholarships for needy students. To learn more about supporting the Senior Class gift and the Annual Fund, please contact: Annual Fund Director Christina Sebastian,(800) 577-7869, or click on www.albany.edu
Robert S. Herman was still in a U.S. Army uniform when he was hired in 1945 by John Burton, who was then the New York State budget director under Governor Thomas E. Dewey. One of Herman’s first jobs was to provide staff support for a bipartisan commission which was studying whether to create a state university system to serve New Yorkers after World War II. The commission recommended in favor of the idea, and legislation establishing the State University, including what is now the University at Albany, was passed in 1948. Some of the research for the far-reaching plan came from Herman. Herman worked under Governors W. Averell Harriman and Nelson Rockefeller, then served in several high-ranking staff positions for the leaders of both the state Assembly and Senate over the next quarter-century. He was also executive director of the state Commission to Prepare for the Constitutional Convention and staff director of the Convention itself in 1967, and served as advisor to more than a dozen foreign governments from 1956 to 1976. “I’ve been present when a lot of big decisions were made,” he modestly admits. “But I’ve always stayed out of the limelight. I think what’s done is more important than who did it.” Herman, who earned a Ph.D. from New York University, also taught courses in public administration and economics at UAlbany’s Graduate School of Public Affairs, Syracuse University, the World Bank, City University of New York, and the Sage Colleges, and was chair of the Economics Department at his alma mater, Union College. He retired in 1999 after 19 years as director of the Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research, which is affiliated with the UAlbany’s Rockefeller College. Now 81, Herman lives with his wife, Beatrice, B.A.’42, M.A.’62, in Slingerlands, N.Y. They met before the war on an Albany-bound train that was carrying Beatrice back to school at the State Teachers College and Bob to Union in Schenectady. “I’ve been so privileged all of my life,” says Herman, who has made three gifts of $10,000 each to the University in recent months, including support for both a GSPA graduate student stipend and a scholarship endowment for GSPA students. The third gift provides seed money for a new program in the English Department which will focus on the question of how to define an educated person in today’s complex society. — Christine McKnight
The University at Albany, says Meg Picotte MacClarence, "is an incredible asset for the Capital Region." Picotte MacClarence should know. Formerly an assistant director of major gifts at the University, she is now a student enrolled in the M.B.A. program. And she gained yet another perspective on UAlbany today when she worked as an M.B.A.intern in 1999 at Commerce Technologies, Inc., a fast-growing company that got its start in the business incubator at the University's Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management. Her husband Tom also worked for the University as director of development for athletics. "The University offers so many high-caliber programs, such as the Presidential Scholars program, the New York State Writers Institute, and the Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management. It will be interesting to see what happens next," says Picotte MacClarence. The Picotte family, now in its seventh decade as Capital Region builders and developers, is known for its commitment to community service and philanthropy, and Picotte MacClarence carries on the tradition. She has been a director of the Equinox Foundation, Inc. since the Picotte family founded it in 1990. The foundation supports a variety of community organizations in the areas of education, human services and the arts. Picotte MacClarence was the guiding force behind the Equinox Foundation’s decision to support UAlbany’s Campaign for the Libraries with a $25,000 gift. The foundation also gave the University $10,000 for Presidential Scholarships to benefit minority students from the Capital District. A 1986 graduate of Trinity College in Connecticut, the 35-year-old Picotte MacClarence is currently working part-time for the venture-capital arm of First Albany Corp. while she completes her graduate studies. In 1997, the University at Albany Foundation named the Picotte family a Community Laureate. — Lisa James Goldsberry
When Judith Fetterley decided to establish an endowment honoring Professor Emerita Joan E. Schulz, she knew it was a bit unusual to honor a living person this way. “But why shouldn’t Joan share in the fun?” asked Fetterley, a professor of women’s studies and English. “Joan loves to have fun; having fun was a big part of feminism in the 1970s. This has been completely missed, indeed distorted by mainstream media portrayals of feminism.” Schulz, who taught at the University at Albany from 1967 to 1997, played a leading role in founding the UAlbany Women’s Studies program and subsequent department. She was honored last November at a dinner for donors. To date, more than $110,000 has been raised. The ultimate goal is to increase the teaching capacity of the Department of Women’s Studies by raising enough money to support a visiting professorship. Fetterley, who kicked off the endowment with a significant donation of her own, undertook the drive with Women’s Studies Professor Bonnie Spanier. Fetterley said that Schulz is “very much the model feminist and educator . . . she is an institution in and of herself. “I wanted to keep alive the connection between academic knowledge and political activism, and also that sense of fun and play that Joan represents,” Fetterley added. — Greta Petry Checks to The University at Albany Foundation, with a note that the gift is to be designated to the Joan E. Schulz Endowment, may be mailed to Senior Major Gifts Officer Pamela A. Lowe, Development Office, University at Albany, University Administration Building, Room 209, Albany, N.Y. 12222.
Susan and Paul Supple of Glenmont, above, recently donated this Weber grand piano to the University at Albany for use in the President’s residence at 5 Englewood Place in downtown Albany. Manufactured around 1884, the piano is made of heavily carved rosewood and features a gold interior with small hand-painted flowers and still has its original ivories. Supple is director of special projects at the University.
As businessman Edward P. Swyer sees it, the University at Albany and Stuyvesant Plaza are good neighbors and good friends, so it’s only natural that he supports the University’s emergence as a leading public research university. “We share this area, and it is natural for us to work together,” said Swyer, who is president of Stuyvesant Plaza, near campus, as well as The Swyer Companies. He has also served for the last decade as a board member of The University at Albany Foundation, which leads UAlbany’s fundraising, asset management and stewardship activities. “We benefit greatly from being next door. People associated with the University go to Stuyvesant Plaza for everything from shopping to visiting their physicians. It makes good sense that we should reciprocate,” he said. Through the Lewis A. Swyer Foundation, named after his late father, Edward Swyer has supported wide-ranging private initiatives at UAlbany. They include major gifts for the Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management, Second Chance Scholarships and Presidential Scholarships, the Campaign for the Libraries, and the University Art Museum. In 1996, the University’s Alumni Association honored him as its Citizen of the Year, an award recognizing achievements by non-alumni. The Second Chance Scholarships, instituted in 1997, help disadvantaged students who have the potential and desire to continue their formal education, but do not have the financial resources. Swyer said he was inspired to give to the Second Chance Scholarships after talking with Carson Carr, Jr., assistant vice president for Academic Affairs and director of UAlbany’s Educational Opportunities Program, who oversees the scholarship program. “It feels great to make such a modest contribution and see it go such a long way. It really changes their lives,” Swyer said. Paul Stec, Albany’s vice president for finance and business, said that, as an active member of the Real Property Subcommittee of the Foundation’s Finance Committee, Swyer has advised on numerous property acquisitions and related issues over the past years. “Ed has truly helped to advance the work of the Foundation and the University,” Stec said. “I value his insights and perspective.” — Lisa James Goldsberry
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