Building a Habitat Home Takes UAlbany Student to South Africa
ByGreta Petry
Nkosi Martin was excited about the prospect of traveling to Durban, South Africa, last June 1-7 to help build a Habitat for Humanity house.

But he wasn’t expecting to meet former President Jimmy Carter, whose name is synonymous with Habitat. So Martin was as surprised as anyone when Carter showed up.

“Suddenly, he came out of the house and was shaking my hand,” said Martin, 20, a UAlbany junior and a business major with a concentration in management science and information systems. Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize December 10.

There were other discoveries for Martin to make. Durban is mainly a large, urban setting with hotels along the beachfront. While it was winter in Durban in June, in that part of the world the season brings with it 85-degree days and clear skies instead of ice and snow.

How did this young man from Lindenhurst, N.Y., end up in South Africa swinging a hammer to build a house for Boniwe Daniso, a woman whom he had never met before?

It all started when Albany businessman Charles Touhey approached Carson Carr Jr., Ed.D., associate vice president for Academic Affairs and head of the Office of Academic Support Services, with the idea of funding a Habitat trip to South Africa for a few UAlbany students. Christopher Fernando recommended Martin to Carr, having known him as a peer mentor for Project Excel, a federal TRIO Student Support Services program for first generation, low-income or disabled students, .

Martin moved to the U.S. from Guyana, South America, when he was 4. “My parents are living the American dream,” he said. While raising their four children and working full time, the Martins went back to school, Martin’s mother Bridget graduating magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, and his father, Neville Sr., earning bachelor’s degrees in management and marketing, an MBA in MIS, and a master’s degree in urban planning. His father is working on a Ph.D. in business administration.

While the family now lives on Long Island, Martin grew up in Brooklyn. He and his brother Neville, now 24, attended Brooklyn Technical High School, which requires an entrance exam. He has two sisters, Natashia, 28, and Nyoto, 23.

In Durban, Martin joined more than 4,000 Habitat volunteers after a 16-hour flight to Johannesburg, and another one-hour flight to Durban.

The volunteers built 100 concrete-block houses. Near the site, Martin and the other volunteers saw a shack the size of a closet, a reminder of the history of apartheid the Habitat workers were seeking to overcome.

“Things are changing slowly,” said Martin of the separation of blacks and whites in South Africa. “There is not much mixing. It is significant that we built next to a white community. That should hopefully encourage change.”

At the Habitat work site, Martin learned more about apartheid from those who lived through it. One man who worked with Martin turned out to be a Cape Town minister who had been chased by dogs and stabbed, arrested and beaten during the violence that accompanied apartheid.

The minister had holes in his work shirt; each hole represented a different attack in the struggle for racial equality. Martin also met volunteers from Jordan, Egypt, Australia, and Germany.

Martin also learned construction skills. “I have done some do-it-yourself jobs with my father before, but I’ve never built a house before. I learned to sheetrock walls, put the trusses on the roof, tile the roof, and lay bricks,” he said.

From the recipient of the new house, he learned some Zulu and Xhosa words. A photo of Daniso giving Carter a hug can be seen at http://www.habitat.org under the Jimmy Carter Work Project: A Living and Lasting Legacy feature. On the left side, in the background, one can just make out the image of Martin, who is wearing a red shirt.

“It was definitely a worthwhile experience. It gives you a sense of accomplishment to help out a family by providing decent housing,” Martin said.

Martin’s sense of commitment to community extends to the UAlbany campus. In addition to his work with Project Excel, he is a resident assistant as well as vice president of the Angelic Voices of Praise gospel choir. Last year he was vice president of the NAACP chapter which was begun anew on campus. At home, he sings with the Church of God of Prophecy choir in West Babylon, N.Y.

UAlbany Gives Hope to AIDS Sufferers in Africa
By Lisa James Goldsberry
More than 15 million people have died of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa; approximately 5,000 die each day from the disease. The problem has reached pandemic levels in many African countries, and governments there are increasing anti-AIDS budgets to try to combat the problem. UAlbany’s Department of Africana Studies has joined this fight with its Save Africa From AIDS (SAFA) program.

“We are focusing on the part no one else seems to focus on -- helping people who already have the disease to live a better life,” said Ketsia Aristhene, a sophomore psychology major from Brooklyn who is working with the program.

“In 1997 while on a trip to South Africa, I encountered a colleague who said every weekend he has to go home to participate in a burial,” said Kwadwo A. Sarfoh, a professor in the Africana Studies department and co-chair of SAFA. Sarfoh later gave a presentation to people who wondered if going to South Africa now was a good idea and worried about contamination. This showed him there was a need to educate the public on the issue. “Because we have study-abroad linkages with several African countries, there has to be a level of education to raise the awareness so when our students go to these countries they will be in a position to spread the knowledge they have learned,” Sarfoh said. “The people there who are dying represent the future of Africa.”

He and Marcia Sutherland, co-chair of SAFA and also a professor of Africana Studies, discussed the problem and came up with a way to help. The SAFA program has now expanded to include UAlbany students, alumni, faculty, and staff as well as both internal and external organizations all working together on a common mission. They are committed to a campaign to increase AIDS literacy, control, and prevention. Among the groups that have helped are Albany Medical Center and the Ghana Association of the Capital District, which gave SAFA money and an award in recognition of its services. UAlbany’s ASUBA and Omega Phi Beta have held fundraisers for SAFA, including fashion shows and banquets. The African Students Association is also involved.

SAFA currently has projects in Tanzania, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, and Sierra Leone primarily to assist children orphaned by AIDS. They raise money through a variety of sources, including a yearly spring yard sale and badges (see inset), made by South Africans, which are sent here and sold. The proceeds are sent back to Africa to help the people there who are infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. For more information about the projects and to find out how you can help, visit http://www.albany.edu/ africana/SAFA.html.

The group is currently trying to get chapters formed on other campuses, as well. Winell Jones (B.A. ’00), an M.A. student and the graduate coordinator for the program, said she would like to get more students involved. “I hope to enlighten students about the seriousness of this pandemic in Africa and to stress that their manpower and ideas are needed,” she said.

The work done by SAFA does have an impact. The money sent helps to feed and educate Africans suffering from AIDS. The Hope Africa project, working with Bishop Desmond Tutu’s Church of the Province of Southern Africa, will create a community in which South African rural villagers living with HIV/AIDS can pool their resources while empowering and caring for one another. “The badges we sell for $5 help provide shelter for people with AIDS. It is difficult for them to get shelter because of the stigmatization that many Africans experience because of AIDS,” Sutherland said.

Just $300 will support one child for an entire year. “It’s a rewarding feeling to know that by raising a few hundred dollars you can help a child who has suffered a lot,” said Ruth Senchyna (B.A. ’92, M.S.W. ’02), an alumna who began working with SAFA while a student and continues to do so. She is also the recipient of the SAFA Outstanding Volunteer Award.

“One of the best things about our program is that we provide hope. The letters we receive from the children are amazing,” Sutherland said. She added that SAFA members also give ideas to their partners in Africa about empowering themselves.

MBAs Learn by Doing at Hudson River Bank
By Greta Petry
Gayathri Rajendran, who uses “Sir” or “Madam” in addressing business colleagues at home in Vishakhapatnam, India, was surprised the first time she heard Americans call each other by their first names in the office.

Manuel Ramos has noticed that in America, unlike his hometown of Bogota, Colombia, the supervisor-employee relationship is very business-like. At home one is like a member of the boss’s family; the boundaries between business and social relationships are less distinct. He finds the American way to be more efficient, and different.

And Michelle Dray, of Newfoundland, Canada, is just happy to be using her banking experience on a real-world project.

Rajendran, 23, Ramos, 25, and Dray, 32, are three University at Albany second-year MBA students with a bird’s-eye view of the American business world as they team up to develop an internal Internet, or intranet, for Hudson River Bank & Trust Company of Hudson, N.Y.

They are combining the management science and information systems skills of Rajendran and Ramos with the human resources information systems expertise of Dray. MIS lecturer Peter Ross said the field project joins students from the technical end with those from the people end “just as you would in the real business world.”

Ross has been placing MBA students in field projects since he joined the University in 1999. For this particular project, however, he sought the help of Cecilia Falbe, chair of the School of Business’s Department of Management and an associate professor who joined UAlbany in 1986. Falbe brought in Dray, whose banking experience and human resources training dovetailed perfectly with the project. Rajendran and Ramos will analyze what the software and hardware can and cannot do, and will translate the technical side for the employees.

The students spend one day a week at the bank’s corporate headquarters in Hudson, and 10 to 12 hours a week on the project, to earn three credits at the end of the semester. In all, they commit to two semesters. A fourth UAlbany student with graphic design experience will join the team in January. “The need for an intranet was identified about a year ago, but with all of the daily demands placed on our information technology department, we haven’t had the individuals available to focus on developing an intranet,” said Susan Hollister, Hudson River Bank’s vice president for human resources. “The students have scheduled meetings with all of the department heads, met with them, gathered information, answered questions, and are currently working on developing the program. The feedback that I have received from the managers is that the students are well prepared, punctual, and interested in addressing their needs.”

The intranet, a model of which is to be introduced in January, will let employees know about such things as wellness events, an interactive employee benefits survey, and routine changes in policies and procedures affecting employees of Hudson River’s many branch offices.

Hollister noted, “At the bank the need for effective communication with employees has only grown over the past few years. We have acquired three other financial institutions and have significantly increased our workforce. Although we have experienced such growth, we still feel strongly that employees need to be informed and feel comfortable expressing their opinions and points of view.”

Falbe said, “There are a number of ways the bank has supported the project.” “All the way up to President and CEO Carl A. Florio,” Ross added.

Florio, who earned a B.S. in public accounting from UAlbany in 1971, is also a member of the University at Albany Foundation Board. He said, “Hudson River Bank and Trust Company is grateful for the opportunity to partner with UAlbany on this project. The students have demonstrated a professional approach in planning and developing an intranet for our company. I was very impressed with their ability to meet with our managers and access the needs of each department within the bank. The knowledge the students are gaining is invaluable. Everyone’s efforts are to be commended. We anxiously look forward to the intranet going live this January and further developing this useful tool.”

“Carl has done a phenomenal job,” said Ross. “He is a great leader. And Susan has championed this project from the very beginning.”

Ross said, “The students are learning valuable skills, and it’s a nice line on their resumes.” Falbe said, “And they can say how they went about it in real life, not just in a classroom exercise.”

Lecturers in Film History Pen Matthau: A Life
By Janet Topal
Matuschanaskayasky. . . that’s the surname by which Walter Matthau identified himself to a journalist after becoming a major movie star. The journalist printed the information; the name was associated with Matthau for the rest of his life. Matthau, whose real last name was Matthow, changed it to Matthau while he was an acting student, but he continued to use Matuschanaskayasky as a prank.

A new biography of Walter Matthau by two University at Albany film history lecturers in the Department of Art, Rob Edelman and Audrey Kupferberg, traces anecdotes like this and many others in Matthau: A Life (Taylor Trade Publishing, $25.95). Edelman and Kupferberg tell the compelling story of the man who rose from abject poverty to Hollywood stardom. They write about Matthau’s gambling addiction, his health scares, and his personal and professional relationships with Jack Lemmon and lifelong childhood friends.

Matthau liked to fabricate stories about his Lower East Side origins because he and his older brother were so impoverished as children. His mother was forced to do whatever menial jobs she could find because his father abandoned the family when Matthau was 3. They moved from tenement building to tenement building whenever the rent money ran out. He once commented: “When my mother bought socks, she didn’t buy seconds. She bought fourths.”

Only after realizing he couldn’t be as good as his idol, Hank Greenberg, at playing baseball, did Matthau turn to acting. As a child, he loved reading and reciting Shakespeare. He was also inspired by the actors of the Yiddish Theater while selling ice cream, candy, and soda. It was his lifelong friend, Anna Berger, who essentially convinced him to go into acting.

The authors give a captivating account of Matthau’s behavior with regard to gambling. As a little boy, he organized games on tenement rooftops. If he had change in his pocket, he would bet it. He made wagers on everything from sports and horses to whose limousine would show up first. He once said to Roger Ebert, “I made $50 million over the years as a movie star, if you pardon the expression, and most of it went to bookies.” Jack Lemmon said, “If you couldn’t find Walter on the set, you could look in the phone booth; he’d be placing a bet.” Matthau claimed that when he was gambling large amounts of money it was the only time he really felt alive. He also paid dearly for his habit, both financially and physically. The stress of losing large amounts of money contributed to his having a heart attack at age 45. He did seek help by going to a psychologist to explore his gambling obsession, but the treatment didn’t work. All in all, it is rumored that his gambling cost him an estimated $5 million.

Matthau started out as an actor on Broadway. He appeared in many plays that flopped, but he received rave reviews from the critics. He supplemented his income between plays by acting on television. TV was his least favorite medium because it was too fast and unrehearsed. Much of the TV acting he did in the 1950s was live, including his appearances on “Kraft Television Theatre” and as a regular on the children’s TV show “Mr. I. Imagination,” using comedy and funny accents.

Unlike most film actors, Matthau entered the movies later in life. He spent a large part of his career in the theater. It wasn’t until he was in his 40s that he did regular film work. Even then, he spent a few years as a character actor in supporting roles. It wasn’t until 1965, when he was 44 years old, that Neil Simon cast him as Oscar in “The Odd Couple” and Matthau finally received stage and film stardom. Initially, Matthau wanted to be cast as Felix, but Simon insisted that he wrote the part of Oscar specifically for him. Once he did the film version of “The Odd Couple” he never returned to Broadway, enjoying the stardom and salary of Hollywood.

Edelman and Kupferberg have written an insightful book about a most unlikely leading man and “on-screen grouch extraordinaire” who entertained the world for more than 50 years. Matthau died July 1, 2000, after appearing in such films as The Fortune Cookie, Grumpy Old Men, and Grumpier Old Men.