D’Elia: Better Science Education is Critical
By Greta Petry
Vice President for Research Christopher F. D’Elia is passionate about the need for better science and math education.

Pointing to statistics showing that one out of every four graduate students in science and math is from abroad, D’Elia underscored the need to attract more U.S. students to the sciences. “We are becoming very dependent on foreign nationals who are trained in science and math, and are not educating enough of our own citizens in this area,” he said. “Should they no longer choose to come here to study and live, or, worse yet, should they feel unwelcome here, our technology-based economy will be extremely vulnerable,” he continued.

In remarks D’Elia made on behalf of President Karen R. Hitchcock at the recent UAlbany summit on science education, he said, “To compete in a global economy, we must educate scientifically literate students who have the skills that best prepare them for emerging fields in the sciences. This will require that we do the research on science and math education necessary to understand the most effective way to do this.”

D’Elia said we must make science “more than just the rote memorization of a litany of seemingly unrelated facts, and we must engage our students to be active learners and participants in their own education.” In addition, “to support a scientifically literate workforce, we must create a system that encourages people with an interest in science to pursue careers in teaching. We must support teachers and teacher preparation programs that will provide the knowledge and resources reflective of this goal.”

The October summit was conceived of and organized by Professor Audrey Champagne, a nationally respected leader in science and math education. It featured Bruce Alberts, president of the National Academy of Sciences and a passionate advocate for better science and mathematics education, who opened the conference by calling for rethinking introductory science courses in college. He advocated that these courses allow college students to experience science in a way that they come to understand what science is, rather than conducting planned laboratory experiments whose outcomes are known in advance - what he calls the “cookbook” approach to teaching science. Alberts also expressed concern that many science teachers are retiring, yet those replacing them are often teaching out of the field in which they were trained.

The conference drew 130 business, education, and policy leaders from New York State to rethink the science education system from kindergarten to graduate school and beyond. Participants met to develop an action plan to support, promote and enhance science education at all levels.

• Topping the list of concerns was the preparation, quality and supply of science teachers. Participants proposed:
• forgiving college loans for science teachers who prepare to teach in New York State and accept positions in the state upon graduation;
• districts providing support for teachers assigned out of field;
• colleges and universities offering master’s-level courses for teachers in the evening and during the summer; and,
• developing a distance-learning network with instructors at various schools who could share their expertise in mathematics and science.

D’Elia said, “It was exciting to have such a diverse group of educators, scientists, legislative policymakers and business people focusing on this common and strategically important theme. A stronger science education system is extremely important because it plays a large role in students’ lives - from how they perform in mathematics, to preparation for more advanced science courses, to their ability to understand and make life decisions in our increasingly technological world. Our goal is to continue to work together to enhance awareness and develop a continuing dialogue to improve our state and national science education system.”

Test results on 15-year-olds from 32 of the world’s most developed nations released earlier this month showed that the U.S. ranks 18th in math and 14th in science. The students were tested as part of the Program for International Student Assessment.

“Unfortunately, we are average across the board compared to other industrialized nations,” said Education Secretary Rod Paige in a recent statement to the Associated Press. “In the global economy, these countries are our competitors - average is not good enough for American kids.”

Another recent study showed that more than 80 percent of the nation’s high school seniors are not proficient in science. The performance of 12th-graders on the science portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress was slightly worse than four years ago. “The results add to concerns that U.S. students are growing weaker in a subject whose importance is increasingly important to the nation’s future,” wrote Michael A. Fletcher in a recent article in The Washington Post.

Other featured speakers at the UAlbany conference included SUNY Chancellor Robert King; New York State Commissioner of Education Robert Mills; John Bishop of the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University; and Barbara Mills, a sociologist at the University of Chicago.

Sponsors included the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR). The summit was hosted by UAlbany in partnership with the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. It was supported, in part, by a SUNY Conversations in the Disciplines award to Champagne.

New Graduate Certificate Offered in Nonprofit Management
By Carol Olechowski

A new interdisciplinary graduate certificate program at the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy will provide educational enrichment for the regional voluntary sector workforce and UAlbany students interested in not-for-profit careers. And for women and men contemplating study at the master’s degree level, it affords a comprehensive overview of the exciting learning opportunities available at Rockefeller College, the School of Social Welfare, and the School of Information Science and Policy.

Planning for the Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management and Leadership was part of the Center for Women in Government and Civil Society’s Nonprofit Education Initiative, a four-year program made possible by a $600,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

According to Judith Saidel, director of UAlbany’s Center for Women in Government and Civil Society, the certificate program promises to appeal to “new student audiences, who might include entry and mid-level nonprofit managers; CEOs of small nonprofits; clinicians who become managers; and trustees, volunteers, and advocates.” Students in graduate degree programs will find it valuable since it affords an overview of master’s programs in social work, public affairs and policy, and information science and policy. The certificate program will also attract “individuals considering a career change,” noted Saidel.

Coursework, she explained, will enable students to “examine the central ideas in the growing literature on nonprofit management and leadership, promote change, and enhance individual, group, and organizational effectiveness.” The certificate - which includes such classes as Issues in Not-for-Profit Management (PAD 613), Managing Systems in Human Service Organizations (SSW 791), Administration of Information Agencies (ISP 614), and Health Policy Analysis and Management (PUB 501) - was intended as a multi-year program but “could conceivably” be completed within a year.

Saidel expects the program to attract 15 to 20 students by the start of its second year. Robin Christenson and Nakeshia Knight are among those already enrolled for the first class this coming January.

“I’ve been away from school for 30 years,” said Christenson, a vice president at the Albany-based Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, a public policy organization. For Christenson, a State University of New York College at Oswego graduate with a background in fundraising and organizational development, the certificate program “seemed like a perfect aligning of the moons because its components are exactly what I’m interested in. The content will help me as I move along the career path to more management responsibilities and a finer grasp of public policy issues. It’s also a very nice way, because of the interdisciplinary aspect, to investigate the various master’s programs. My husband and I have launched three children into the world, so it may be time for me to go back to school.”

Knight, an Ohio University alumna who majored in psychology, spent five years with the Peace Corps in west Africa, working to improve health care delivery and education in rural areas of Togo and Senegal. Now a student in the University’s MSW program, she looks forward to participating in the certificate program in the spring. “My interest stems from the move toward privatization of social services to make them ‘big business,’ and the great implications privatization creates for trying to get people into the nonprofit sector. The interdisciplinary aspect of it is interesting, as well.

“As a social worker, I believe that the graduate certificate program will broaden my knowledge base and certainly position me for a wider range of options. It will equip me with the tools to become a more effective manager at a nonprofit,” added Knight, who aspires to “run my own internationally focused nonprofit.”

Christenson is impressed that UAlbany faculty and professionals in the voluntary sector “thought this whole program up and shepherded it through the [approval] process. It’s very exciting because this program is just so right for me at this point. As I read the course offerings, such as Issues in NFP Management, Information Management, and Methods of Public Policy Analysis, I could see that they’re going to be meaningful.”

“This certificate represents the culmination of a unique collaborative process involving many wonderful partners from local, regional, and statewide nonprofit organizations,” noted Director of the Nonprofit Education Initiative Margery Saunders. “We very much appreciate their input and guidance in shaping this curriculum and in ensuring a flexible and interdisciplinary approach. We are also very grateful to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which funded the Nonprofit Education Initiative, for its incredibly creative vision and long-term support.”

For more information about the Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management and Leadership, contact Alison Olin at 442-3898.

Biggs Explores Moral Education in the Classroom
By Vinny Reda
For eight years, UAlbany students have been guiding Donald Biggs to a greater understanding of the challenge of teaching good citizenship in a pluralistic society. He and a fellow scholar have found that the answer lies neither in multiculturalism nor individualism, but in adoption of the public role of “citizen.”

The research and observations of Biggs, a professor in the School of Education, and his former UAlbany doctoral student and fellow class instructor, Robert J. Colesante, B.A. ’92, Ph.D. ’95, now an assistant professor at Siena College, have produced the study “The Moral Education of Citizens in the United States.” It will be a chapter in a book, due for release in fall 2002, tentatively titled Exemplary Programs for Improving Intergroup Relations (Teachers College Press). The reactions and reflections of hundreds of students dealing with a variety of concepts, and real and theoretical situations regarding social and moral issues, are the laboratory for Biggs and Colesante. The first site for their efforts was Biggs’ education course Social Morality and Citizenship Education in a Pluralistic Society, begun in 1993. A few years later, he added a more advanced course, Social Responsibility and Citizenship Education in a Pluralistic Society.

His route to these courses, however, began in 1991 with a course that looked at multiculturalism and its promise of “celebrating diversity.” Biggs noticed that, unlike his later courses, which bred closeness among class members, this class established different “camps” within the classroom.

Students who were more involved in the course did in fact enjoy it, said Biggs. “Still, we were convinced that we had gone ‘overboard’ with diversity and individualism and that we needed to prepare students to play a more active role in maintaining a common public life that respected the rights and welfare of all citizens . . .

“Multicultural education courses did not help students understand how their lives were connected through a community. Students learned to see themselves as members of disconnected groups vying for political power rather than as citizens attempting to improve the quality of their public lives.”

The result was courses that focused on “the collective responsibilities of citizens to deal with issues of social morality in a pluralistic society.” One conclusion Biggs and Colesante formed from these courses is that “the formation of a public conscience is an outcome of collective decision-making about what is best for the public citizen rather than what is in the self-interest of individuals.”

The chapter details the history of citizenship education in America, often in light of historical events, extending back to the 19th century. The authors weigh the effectiveness and inefficiency of various methods. They write, for instance, that while the “liberal tradition, with its emphasis on enhancing the individual freedoms, served the United States well in that it fostered individual enterprise and economic prosperity,” it also contributed to “public malaise and the deterioration of public life.”

Answers are hardly more clear-cut today, but Biggs points with pride at what his classes at UAlbany have fostered. He has seen conflicting claims among individuals resolved by their successfully identifying moral standards, with neither side violating a sense of fairness.

“The task for students is to develop a moral community on campus which manifests a sense of fairness, obligation, and concern for others,” he writes.

He notes also that course evaluations have consistently indicated strong involvement and gained knowledge, suggesting that levels of tolerance and moral competence have increased as well.

Still, write the authors, the challenge of improving moral education proceeds: “This journey has involved a weaving back and forth through periods of theoretical reflection, systematic evaluation and instructional experimentation. Where are we now? The journey has not ended, but we have reached a shady spot on the side of the road! The word ‘cooperation’ keeps coming to mind. We are teaching about public morality or those rules that govern cooperative living in a pluralistic society.”

University’s Small Business Development Center Helps Financial Victims of September 11 Attacks
By Lisa James Goldsberry
It seems that no one was left untouched by the terrorist attacks on September 11. Many people lost friends, loved ones and co-workers. Among those hardest hit were business people, entrepreneurs in particular. As a result, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has sprung into action by starting a disaster loan relief fund to help those affected by September 11, either economically or physically.

At the University at Albany’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC), two advisers have traveled to New York City as disaster relief counselors to share their expertise and lend a helping hand.

Joseph Verbanic, a business adviser, and Howard Wildove, the veterans’ business adviser, traveled to New York City to help clients, many of whom were immigrants, with some of the paperwork required of the small business owners to apply for a loan and get back on their feet. Some people were still so distraught, they were in tears. “It was somewhat of a culture shock to see the despair and devastation in their eyes,” Verbanic said.

The SBA has eight centers in New York City. Verbanic and Wildove were located at the newest one, at LaGuardia Community College in Queens. They worked alongside advisers from Buffalo, Utica, and Watertown, among others.

Businesses can apply for assistance from the SBA’s disaster relief fund until June of 2002. Those seeking help because of physical damage have until January 2002 to apply. The loans, for which applicants can receive up to $1.5 million for up to 30 years at four percent, are available to all who are eligible. The SBA determines how much an applicant will actually receive.

Originally, the program was designed to help those in the New York City area. It soon grew to more than seven counties. The program was eventually expanded nationwide after it was discovered that businesses as far away as travel agencies in California had suffered losses.

Verbanic says many of the clients he worked with in New York City were in transportation. “The transportation sector was among those hardest hit,” Verbanic said. “I worked with one client who received more than 90 percent of his business from the World Trade Center. This is just one example of the impact the attacks had on just one industry, the executive limousine and taxi medallion services.” Wildove added that many of these workers own their cabs and medallions, and others just rent. “Medallions cost approximately $750,000 each. Now, the drivers can’t afford to make their payments and they can’t sell them because the value is down to about $300,000,” Wildove said. “Many of them came in looking for long-term financing.”

Wildove spoke with one client, a street vendor who sold handmade goods, who said she was emotionally unable to return to New York City so she came to the SBA looking for funds to relocate.

Since this situation is unprecedented, Verbanic explained that there is a lot to learn, for everyone. Wildove, who was also a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War, experienced something similar while working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during floods that affected New York. However, he noted that the attacks seem to have had more of a psychological effect on people than natural disasters.

Both Wildove and Verbanic note that business is beginning to return to the city. “New York is New York. If you didn’t know about the attacks, and you didn’t go below 14th Street, you might not realize there was anything wrong,” Wildove said. To illustrate, he added that the hotel where he stayed was full. “People are trying to get their lives back on track and get back to a sense of normalcy, if there is such a thing now since September 11,” Verbanic said. “The spirit of New Yorkers in this situation has been great. People are really coming together.”

Funded by UAlbany, the Small Business Administration, and New York State, the center has provided business assistance to more than 6,400 entrepreneurs. According to center statistics, it has generated $54 million in local economic investment and saved or created 2,164 jobs. There are 23 centers throughout the state, with the central office here in Albany on State Street.

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