UAlbany's Will Brown, 30, is the third-youngest Division I coach in the nation.

Will Brown to Lead Men’s Basketball

Will Brown, UAlbany’s new head men’s basketball coach, has pledged that the GreatDanes will be “very competitive” next season.

Brown, who joined the UAlbany staff as an assistant in September 2001, was appointed as Albany’s interim head coach last Dec. 20 when Scott Beeten was reassigned. Brown coached the Great Danes to a 7-13 record, including an impressive win over Vermont, the America East Conference’s regular-season champion. Albany was also among the conference leaders in scoring defense at 65 points per game. On March 14, UAlbany Athletic Director Lee McElroy removed the “interim” from Brown’s title, saying Brown had demonstrated that he was ready to manage a Division I program.

“He has high energy, commitment and integrity, plus values the student-athlete. I have been impressed with his professionalism and his ability to handle challenging circumstances,” McElroy said.

At age 30, Brown becomes the third-youngest Division I head coach in the nation.

“We’re heading in the right direction,” he said. “The young men in this program are committed; they are determined to be successful, as am I. We have a lot of work ahead of us right now, we have to hire a new staff, I have to get a couple more recruits in.
“I want to get this program to a point where we can consistently compete for the America East Tournament Championship, and have a chance to play in the NCAA tournament. I think we are two years away [from winning the America East tournament]. We’re bringing in four scholarship players, five players next year, that’s nine new players in two years and I think we will be ready to compete for the conference championship. I fully expect to be very competitive next year.”

Brown previously served as head coach at Sullivan County Community College in Loch Sheldrake, N.Y., from 1998-2001. He led the Generals to a 90-10 overall record and in 1999 was chosen the New York State Coaches Asso-ciation junior college coach of the year. Before that, Brown spent three years at The College of Saint Rose in Albany as an assistant coach.

UAlbany to Play Role in Bioterrorism Fight

The federal government has enlisted the University’s School of Public Health to help in the fight against the threat of bioterrorism. The School has been designated a Center for Public Health Preparedness, one of 15 such sites in the country, and will receive $1 million to go toward training the public health workforce to handle bioterrorism attacks. The funding is part of a $2.9 billion bioterrorism appropriations bill signed by President Bush last Jan. 10.

UAlbany’s award will be used to bolster the region’s public health infra-structure and provide training for the public health workforce to deal with health catastrophes. School of Public Health Dean Peter J. Levin said one of his goals is to have an expert on bioterrorism in every county in the state.

University President Karen Hitchcock said the University and the state’s Health Department had envisioned such a center long before anthrax was sent through the mail last fall, killing five people and causing anxiety among Americans nationwide.

Other schools of public health receiving a total of $20 million in grants to set up similar centers include Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore and Harvard University School of Public Health in Cambridge, Mass.

In other grants:

The University has received a $1.99 million grant from the Freeman Foundation to expand its East Asian studies program. It is the only degree-granting, department-level East Asian program in the SUNY system, and offers degrees in Chinese, Japanese and East Asian studies. Nearly 1,000 students enroll in East Asian studies courses each semester.

UAlbany to Welcome Tel Aviv University President Itamar Rabinovich

Itamar Rabinovich

As we went to press, the University was preparing to welcome Itamar Rabinovich, president of Tel Aviv University, for a special visit. Rabinovich, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, was expected to be on campus April 25 as part of the celebration of the inauguration of the University’s new Center for Jewish Studies. As part of the festivities, University President Karen Hitchcock was expected to present him with the Medallion of the University, UAlbany’s highest award. Rabinovich is a noted historian and political scientist, and also served as the chief negotiator with Syria under the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The Center for Jewish Studies was established in 2001 to advance UAlbany’s commitment to overall academic excellence and, in particular, to the field of Jewish studies. A Jewish Studies Advisory Board, made up of distinguished community leaders and nationally renowned scholars in Jewish studies, is now in place, charged with overseeing the Center’s initiatives and the growth and expansion of the Department of Judaic Studies. Alan P. Goldberg, president and director of First Albany Corp., serves as the chair of the advisory board. The vice chair is Carl H. Rosner, chairman and CEO of CardioMag Imaging, Inc. and also a founder and chairman of the Board of Intermagnetics General Corp.

Campus Unity Walk after Sept.11

UAlbany Seeks Proposals for Sept. 11 Memorial

The University at Albany is soliciting proposals for a memorial to be constructed in remembrance of Sept. 11, 2001. Seventeen alumni, in classes from 1977 to 1997, died in the terrorist attacks on that day. In addition, 10 students lost 12 members of their immediate families.

For details about the memorial, or to propose an idea, please contact Robert Ashton, vice president for Advancement, at 518-437-4770, or e-mail: rashton@uamail.albany.edu.

UAlbany in the News

he Chronicle of Higher Education featured a series of UAlbany distance-learning courses on autism in February. V. Mark Durand, a professor of psychology and interim dean of the University’s College of Arts and Sciences, developed the three-course certificate program, which provides instruction to parents and teachers via CD-ROMs featuring his lectures.

William Danko

he Millionaire Next Door, a book co-authored by Univer-sity at Albany Marketing Professor William Danko, has made USA Today’s “Top 30 Business Books of 2001” list. Written in 1996, The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy identifies seven common denominators that appear again and again among those who have accumulated wealth. The New York Times, Business Week, Publishers Weekly, The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times have ranked it as a best seller.

William Kennedy

ulitzer Prize-winning author and UAlbany English Professor William Kennedy’s seventh novel, Roscoe, received a rave review and was the cover story in The New York Times Book Review last January 13. The novel, the latest in Kennedy’s “Albany cycle,” focuses on Roscoe Owen Conway, a lawyer and one of three friends who in 1921 ran an insurgent campaign that took over the Democratic political machine in Albany.

he February 14 edition of The Daily News featured UAlbany alumnus James Jones, B.A.’86, M.A.’95, who is now coach of the men’s basketball team at Yale University. The article, “Bulldog Mentality Makes Yale Ivy’s Best,” focused on the path Jones took to his current position and his time spent playing for former UAlbany Coach Richard “Doc” Sauers while he was at Albany.

lumna Ginny Brown-Waite, B.S.’76, now a Republican state senator and president pro tempore of the Florida Senate, was featured in the February 14 issue of The Tampa Tribune. She said she owes much of her success to the public administration degree she earned at UAlbany. The article focused on a new prepaid scholarship program Brown-Waite announced that will go to students who are the first in their families to go to college.

UAlbany Unveils New Sports Logo

The University has a new intercollegiate sports logo featuring “Damien,” the Great Dane mascot. The Department of Athletics and Recreation unveiled the logo family last fall as the University kicked off its inaugural season in the America East Conference. Berkshire Marketing Group of Troy, N.Y., developed the logo design.

Awards and Honors

ee McElroy, director of Athletics and Recreation, has been appointed to the NCAA Division I Management Council as an at-large representative. The 49-member Division I Manage-ment Council adopts bylaws and rules to govern Division I, interprets them, and oversees the Division I budget.

our faculty members are the recipients of Fulbright scholar grants. They include Henryk Baran and Toby Clyman, both of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures; Thomas Daniels of the Department of Geography and Planning; and Harry Frisch of the Department of Chemistry.

Daniel Hogarty

Hogarty Named A SUNY Trustee

Daniel Hogarty, president and chief executive officer of the Troy Savings Bank, has been appointed to the State University of New York (SUNY) Board of Trustees. His term will expire in 2008. A longtime Troy, N.Y., resident, Hogarty is also treasurer and chairman of the Finance Committee of The University at Albany Foundation Board.
He has a lifetime record of civic activity and received the University’s prestigious Community Laureate Award in 1998.

Carl Rosner

CardioMag CEO Carl Rosner Is Honored

Carl Rosner, who founded Intermagnetics General Corp. and is now chief executive officer of Cardio-Mag Imaging, is the recipient of the 2002 Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award from the University. The award, presented Feb. 6, recognizes Rosner’s accomplishments in developing Intermagnetics into a superconductivity firm with annual sales of nearly $150 million, and his efforts on behalf of CardioMag. CardioMag is a Schenectady, N.Y., company which has developed a line of equipment that can scan a heart for defects without any physical contact.

Apartment-style Living: Empire Commons, UAlbany's new student housing complex, will open this fall on the west side of the main campus, offering apartment-style living. Interest has been strong, with students signing up for all 800 of the beds that will be available. Accommodations for another 400 students will be available in January 2003.

Quote, Unquote

– Former UAlbany President H. Patrick Swygert, speaking at the University's Martin Luther King Jr. / Black History Month Luncheon on February 14

Ralph Harbison   Ralph Harbison, Education Dean, Dies Suddenly Ralph Harbison, 59, dean of the University’s School of Education since January 2000, died of a heart attack while cross-country skiing in the High Peaks region of New York’s Adirondack Mountains Feb. 16. Prior to joining UAlbany, Harbison had a distinguished career with The World Bank and at the Ford Foundation. At UAlbany, he was at the forefront of the University’s collective effort to strengthen academic and research programs, expand involvement with the community, and reform planning and management systems. University President Karen R. Hitchcock said: “Ralph believed deeply in the power of education to improve living conditions and to increase mutual awareness and appreciation among individuals and societies throughout the world.” After his graduation from Harvard College, Harbison worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica in 1965-66, then became a program adviser for the Ford Foundation for 11 years. In his 20 years with the World Bank, he oversaw the development of human resource and social sector programs in Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. In 1997, he was appointed education sector manager of the World Bank’s Southeast Asia region, heading the bank’s largest education lending program in the world. An avid conservationist, hiker, sailor and opera buff, Harbison is survived by his wife, Irene, two children and a grandchild. Memorial contributions may be sent to The University at Albany Foundation, c/o Michael Green, ED 239, University at Albany, Albany, NY 12222, or to the Adirondack Nature Conservancy, P.O. Box 65, Keene Valley, NY 12943, earmarked for the Champlain Valley Fund. Susan D. Phillips, meanwhile, is serving as interim dean of the School of Education while the University organizes a search for a new dean. Phillips, who earned her Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Colum-bia University, has more than 20 years of experience as a faculty member and administrator at UAlbany.