UAlbany Russian-Language Students Win Competition
Three of University at Albany Professor Sophia Lubensky’s students were winners of the second annual 2001-2002 Young Writers Competition sponsored by the Albany-Tula Alliance. Graduate student Christy Wyatt won first prize; undergraduate Sarah Failla, second prize; and graduate student Sara Detmer, third prize. All three are students in the Russian language program in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. The topic for the 2001-2002 contest was “Coming of Age.” The UAlbany students wrote in Russian, focusing on a text of their own choosing from Russian literature. University students from the Lev Tolstoy State Pedagogical University in Tula wrote in English on the same theme, again using a text of their choice from American literature. For the first time, the contest was extended to high school students in both countries. The Russian students were judged by a committee assembled by Martha Fleming, professor emerita, UAlbany’s Department of English. Charlotte Buchanan, founding chair of the Albany Tula Alliance, made the awards in Tula in June. The UAlbany students were judged by a committee in Tula and by Dr. Catherine Chvany, professor emerita and chair, Russian Language and Culture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Lubensky, in addition to encouraging the students, has been a long-time supporter of the Tula Alliance, offering hospitality to visiting professors and dignitaries from Tula and expert advice to the alliance.

Keeping Up with Betty Morinelli
By Greta Petry
When the University offered an early retirement package this fall, many long-time employees took advantage. Not Betty Morinelli.

Morinelli, who turned 84 on December 9, would rather come to work, just as she has done part time for the past 13 years, working for Payroll in the Office of Human Resources Management.

“I’m not retiring because I want to keep up with the times - I want to go forward and not backward,” said the Rotterdam resident who works three days one week and two days the next.

As a Clerk 1, Morinelli works from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., verifying payroll records for employees who retire from the University. “I also assemble all paper- work for the distributions of checks for all payrolls, working three groups every other week. People really need their checks to survive these days,” said Morinelli, whose crisp tailored dress was accented by a silver pin in the shape of the letter M the day of her interview.

“You can’t go to work in wrinkled clothes,” she said. “You have to have some pride in yourself.” With her stylish hair and polished pink nails, it is evident that she practices what she preaches.

Raised in Burlington, Vt., as one of a family of 10 children, Mrs. Morinelli moved to the Capital District when she married her husband Neil, 59 years ago. (Neil Morinelli, who is 87, works for a local supermarket.) She graduated from Burlington High School in 1938. Growing up in a large family, she learned early on that if you wanted “a few extras” you had to go to work.

“And you always gave to your mom and dad, not board, but maybe my sister would pay the electric bill or I would buy some new curtains. You’d buy something for the house and share what you had,” she recalled.

Morinelli is the mother of two daughters, Rosemarie (who works for Arthur Applebee as a Secretary 1) and Monica Harper. In addition, she is the grandmother of four and the great-grandmother of six.

Following a routine that enabled her to wash, dry, and fold two loads of laundry before she left for work on a recent week day, Mrs. Morinelli habitually rises between 4 and 4:30 a.m.

“My husband has to be at work by 5 a.m., so if I want the car, I drop him off then,” she said. Other days she rides to work with her daughter, Rosemarie.

On Saturdays, “all four generations - me, my daughter, my granddaughter, and my great-granddaughter - will go out. We are very close,” she said. One of her granddaughters, Gina Underwood, graduated from SUNY Cobleskill and has taken classes at UAlbany as well.

Prior to joining the University in 1989, Mrs. Morinelli worked for the General Electric Co. from 1943 to 1980, where she used many different office machines and handled billing.

“At one time my daughter worked in Financial Aid doing the Federal Work-Study Program. At that time Barbara Gregg from Payroll needed someone to work for six weeks handling student payroll. My daughter volunteered my services. I took the temporary position and have been here ever since.”

“Why should I stay home?” asked Morinelli, who enjoyed Western-style square-dancing for 25 years, and was president of her square-dancing club for six. She also plays pinochle.

“I enjoy people. You come in contact with all kinds of people and you have to learn to give and take no matter what. You also can’t be your own boss. You have to learn to take orders from someone else or you don’t have anything,” she said.

When she first started at the University, she worked in student payroll. “I’d make a lasagna and I would invite co-workers and students over to the house.

“I don’t like to be bored,” she added. “I’m willing to carry my load. I come to work in order to work and that’s just what I do.”

In her spare time, Mrs. Morinelli sews and crochets. She made her daughters’ wedding gowns. She is also active in her church, Immaculate Conception in Rotterdam.

“The Lord has given me the grace and strength to go on. If I didn’t have strength from above, I would never be able to go on.”

Tisha Lewis’s Healing Room
By Paul Alan Rosen
Waiting patiently in the dark and cold November morning, I wonder what to expect. Tisha Lewis, a Ph.D. student in the University at Albany’s reading program, comes into sight toting a rolling suitcase behind her as if she were about to embark on a journey.

“Good morning,” Lewis says as she offers her hand and a cheery smile one does not expect to see at 6:15 a.m. “I’m not sure what time the person who is supposed to let me in will be here,” she says, “but you have to smile about these things… Everything happens for a reason.”

That moral quagmire so often debated turns out to be true this morning as I now have time to get to know Lewis before observing her in action on her WCDB radio show, “The Healing Room.”

“It’s actually named after a newsletter that my aunt publishes in Virginia,” she says. “I wanted to do a radio show that inspires and encourages people.”

“The Healing Room” airs on WCDB (90.9 FM) Tuesday mornings from 7-9 a.m. Content for the show is mainly gospel music mixed with inspirational passages from the Bible, encouraging e-mails from listeners, and occasionally a snippet from The Healing Room Newsletter.

“Having my own radio show was a hidden desire of mine,” Lewis says when I ask her how she became interested in being a D.J. at WCDB, “but when I was studying for my B.A. in journalism at Virginia Union University in Richmond, they didn’t have a radio station.”

Lewis, originally from the D.C. area, also attended Brooklyn College and graduated with an M.S. in TV/radio programming and management in 1995.

After graduating, Lewis worked in television advertising. At the same time she was a Sunday school teacher at her church, where she realized many children were having problems reading. It was there that Lewis decided she wanted to help children who have trouble in this area and enrolled in the Reading Specialist Program at Teachers College (Columbia University).

In 2000 Lewis graduated with her M.A. and then applied to the Ph.D. program in reading at the University at Albany. She is now in her second year and she enjoys her program as she seems to enjoy almost every aspect of life.

At 6:50 a.m. no one has arrived to let us into the WCDB studio. Just as I am about to give up hope, Mark Stevenson, who has his own inspirational show, “Rhythm and Praise” on WCDB, walks around the corner and greets us with a smile and a key to the studio. Lewis says that Stevenson was the one who trained and helped her pass the engineer’s exam so that she could be cleared to go on the airwaves monitored by the Federal Communications Commission.

“My friend and I were exploring the Campus Center late last semester,” she says, recalling how she discovered the student-run radio station, “and we saw the call letters written on the wall. We went in and I just knew we had stumbled onto the station for a reason. I knew I was supposed to do an inspirational show.”

“The Healing Room” time slot does not replace any other show, and it is easy to see why as I look out of the studio window, unable to spot a soul. However, 7-9 a.m. is a much-sought-after time slot on commercial and public radio stations because of the commuting time for those not in college, and with a power output of 100 watts, WCDB reaches all across the Albany area.

As Lewis begins broadcasting I get nervous that her content will not agree with me. I always get uncomfortable around affirmations of religion when they are not my own, but, listening intently, I find that Lewis’s selection of songs and content have more to do with inspiration and encouragement than religion.

The more I listen, the more relaxed I become. The messages she dispenses are invigorating and a perfect blend to start the morning whether listeners are going to work or to school, or whether they are of the Christian faith or not. Before I leave the studio I even find myself suggesting a passage from Proverbs for her to broadcast and interpret.

As I leave I remember the suitcase and realize it is filled with compact discs for Lewis’s show. I also realize that I was wrong. Lewis was not the one going on a journey. It was I who took a journey into her world of inspiration, and you should, too (every Tuesday morning at 7 a.m.). Maybe you will be inspired to send in your own request to Lewis at healingforyoursoul@yahoo.com.

Editor’s Note: Paul Alan Rosen is a graduate student in public administration, a published novelist, and a former Rhodes Scholar State Finalist. He graduated from UAlbany with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in May 1999.

UAlbany In the News By Lisa James Goldsberry The November 10 broadcast of CBS’s popular “60 Minutes” program featured David Carpenter, an environmental health professor at the School of Public Health. The segment, titled “Toxic Town: Town of Anniston, Alabama is Contaminated Due to Manufacture of PCBs,” focused on a town so saturated with these chemicals that it’s in the air they breathe and in the blood of the people who live there. “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Kroft utilized Carpenter’s expertise with PCBs. While showing footage of Carpenter in his lab, he was quoted as saying the town is the most contaminated site in the United States and that exposure to PCBs increases the risk of almost all major diseases, including cancer and heart disease. The November 21 edition of the New York Daily News featured a description of MSNBC’s “Hardball” program, which was broadcast live from the UAlbany campus on November 20. The article, “Hil Says Bush Too Eager to Fight Saddam,” listed comments by Sen. Hillary Clinton, the program’s special guest. During “Hardball,” in response to a question by host Chris Matthews, she said she was worried that the Bush administration was too eager to wage war against Iraq. The November 24 editions of both The Washington Post and The Seattle Times featured comments from Richard Nathan of Rockefeller College. The Post article, “Stiffing States and Cities,” and the Times article, “Washington’s Not the Only Cash-Strapped State,” focused on developments in state capitals which reflect “the worst crisis in state finances since World War II.” Nathan, described as an expert on intergovernmental relations, was quoted as saying that it is time for emergency revenue-sharing -- a direct cash transfer from the federal treasury to state coffers. The articles were attributed to syndicated columnist David S. Broder. A November 28 Associated Press wire story featured information from a study done by the Lewis Mumford Center. The article, “Census Shows America’s Metro Areas Becoming More Integrated,” noted how blacks moving to the suburbs and whites moving into urban centers helped make America’s metropolitan areas more integrated during the past two decades. The Mumford Center study determined the average white person lives in a neighborhood that is 80 percent white (down from 88 percent) while the average black person lives in a neighborhood that is 33 percent white (up from 30 percent).

PeopleSoft Improving Operations
By Mary Fiess
Three-part bubble sheets used by faculty to submit student grades are about to become a thing of the past.

Next semester, faculty will begin submitting grades via the Web as the University takes its next big step in the implementation of PeopleSoft software aimed at creating a single database for all student demographic and academic information. The goal is to streamline and improve student services and administrative operations.

The actual conversion from SIRS (Student Information Records System)to the new Web-based student record system will take place during spring break in March, and once that is completed, students, faculty, and staff will be able to more easily conduct University business online . This is the latest phase in what is known as the Integrated Administrative Systems (IAS) project, which began more than three years ago to update UAlbany business systems.

Marybeth Salmon, director of University Applications Development and IAS project manager, says the project team has been setting up the software for the University’s academic structure, as well as testing and documenting the functionality of the software to understand how it can be used to support business practices. The team has also been testing the conversion of data from SIRS to PeopleSoft and will be ready for the extremely complex conversion of millions of records slated for March, she says.

At the same time, teams have been assembled to begin preparing students, faculty, and staff for the transition. Training will take place next semester.

With the new system, faculty will submit grades online and have ready access to such information as their class rosters; students will register for Fall 2003 classes online and also have ready access to important information. With the new system, students will be able to easily search the catalog for courses that meet their requirements and fit their schedules, and thus more easily determine their courses. If there are “holds” on their records, they will be able to see that, along with the reasons for the “holds.”

Additional information about the IAS project is available at http://chef.fab.albany.edu/ias/ and more will be coming in the months ahead, says Salmon.

Faculty & Staff Moore Named as Finalist for Descartes Prize UAlbany sociologist Gwendolyn Moore was co-leader of a project that has been named a finalist for the European Union’s Descartes Prize, the premier science prize in Europe. “Our project was ‘gendering elites,’ a study of women (and men) in top economic and political positions in 27 industrialized nations,” Moore noted, adding it is unusual for a social science project to be included among the hard science and technology finalists. The comparative survey studied how “male monopoly of public life is opening up to women and what this means for them and the democratic societies in which they live. The researchers focused on the tiny number of women who have passed the hurdles, reaching top positions in the business world and the political arena, and compared them to their male colleagues in similar leadership positions. The study revealed some gender differences and many similarities in pathways and uses of power. Fewer gender differences emerge in activities and attitudes related to leaders’ power positions. Women leaders differ most notably from their male counterparts in their social and educational backgrounds, and their family lives. The research also confirms how adoption of public policies promoting gender equality - as in the Nordic countries - facilitates women’s access to leading positions,” notes the abstract included in a press release on the finalists released in Brussel by the European Commission. Professor Mino Vianello from the University of Rome co-coordinated the project in cooperation with research teams from 27 industrialized nations. Szalczer won Prize for Essay Assistant Professor of theatre Eszter Szalczer has won the 2002 American Society for Theatre Research’s (ASTR) Gerald Kahan Scholar’s Prize for her essay “Nature’s Dream Play: Modes of Vision and August Strindberg’s Re-Definition of the Theatre,” which appeared in the March 2001 special issue of Theatre Journal on “Theatre and Visual Culture,” edited by David Roman. The prize is awarded annually by ASTR for the best essay written in English on any subject in theater research, broadly construed. The author must be untenured and within seven years of the doctorate, or be a student working toward a doctorate, at the time the essay is published. To be eligible, essays must have been published in a refereed journal or anthology dated 2001. Zimmerman Publishes New Book Professor Joseph F. Zimmerman of the Department of Political Science at Rockefeller College has published a new book, Interstate Cooperation: Compacts and Administrative Agreements (Praeger Publishers). This latest publication on interstate compacts is the first and only book to examine interstate administrative agreements signed by heads of state departments and agencies with their counterparts in sister states. Formal and informal administrative agreements have increased dramatically in number during the past six decades. Compacts are identified and classified by type. Particular emphasis is placed on federal government promotion of compacts, including congressional enactment of federal-state compacts in which the federal government joins member states as partners to achieve stated goals. Although compacts and administrative agreements have lubricated the functioning of the United States government system, Zimmerman makes clear their full potential has not yet been realized and makes recommendations to improve interstate cooperation. Zimmerman is the author of nearly 30 books, including The Referendum: The People Decide Public Policy (2001), The Initiative: Citizen Law-Making (1999), The New England Town Meeting: Democracy in Action (1999), and The Recall: Tribunal of the People (1997). Martin Wins Prize for Dissertation Eric Martin of the Department of Public Administration and Policy has won the prestigious 2002 Best Dissertation Award of the Public and Nonprofit Division of the Academy of Management for his dissertation, “Bosnia and Herzegovina after the War (1995-2000): Interorganizational Relationships in Development Assistance.” Wang Honored Wei-Chyung Wang of the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC) and the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences was recently honored by the European Physical Society (EPS) and the Balkan Physical Union (BPU). The two international science organizations recognized Wang’s research with the EPS/BPU Environmental Physics Award at a recent European Society General Meeting in Budapest, Hungary. Kouba Appointed Co-chair Professor Vicky Kouba of the Department of Educational Theory and Practice in the School of Education was appointed co-chair of the SUNY Task Force on Mathematics Education.

BBL Construction Initiates Endowment
By Lisa James Goldsberry
Donald Led Duke, president of Albany -based BBL Construction Services, has established an endowment to aid University at Albany undergraduate students with exceptional academic talent and demonstrated financial need. Led Duke initiated the BBL Construction Services Scholarship, which will provide annual awards, with a $100,000 donation.

“We’re enormously gratified by Donald Led Duke’s generosity and support of the University’s commitment to exceptional education and research,” said President Karen R. Hitchcock. “This is a gift that will give for years to come, enabling deserving students to embrace, and contribute to, the world around them.”

BBL Construction Services is the area’s largest contractor, one of the Capital Region’s largest privately held firms, and among the top 100 construction management firms in the country. Founded in 1973, the company has approximately 800 employees with offices in New York, Ohio, Florida, Texas, and West Virginia. BBL Construction Services served as the design/build contractor for the University’s successful Empire Commons, an apartment housing project aimed toward upper-class and graduate students.

United Way Campaign Hits 77 Percent
With the holiday season upon us, we at the University of Albany are most mindful of the opportunities we have to build our community. The SEFA/United Way campaign at the University at Albany is one way we can pool our financial contributions to make a difference. We are hoping to have as many contributors this year as possible and seek to have a minimum of 20 percent participation rate in each department. To those of you who have already contributed this year, we thank you! Because of you, we are 77 percent toward achieving our goal of pledges totaling $104,000 from our University. If you have not yet joined in this campaign with a contribution, we hope you will do so now. If you need a pledge form, you can contact your campaign coordinator for your department. Thank you for making this one of the most successful years in our United Way/SEFA campaign.