First Official December Commencement a Great Success
By Lisa James Goldsberry
Judging from the full house at the Recreation and Convocation Center on Sunday, Dec. 9, the University at Albany’s first official December Commencement was a resounding success.

This was the first year that an official ceremony was held for all August and December candidates for bachelor’s, master’s, certificates of advanced study, and doctoral degrees. More than 500 graduates attended.

The changes to the December ceremony came about after President Karen R. Hitchcock appointed a Graduation Task Force in 2000 to review all commencement activities at UAlbany. The new, official December ceremony was a direct result of task force research.

President Hitchcock conducted the conferral of degrees. Distinguished Teaching Professor and psychology department Chair Robert A. Rosellini was the commencement speaker.

In her welcoming remarks, the President said: “. . .my special welcome and heartfelt congratulations to all our graduates here today. It is always a most rewarding occasion for me to join our faculty in honoring you for your hard work, your perseverance, and all that you have sacrificed to arrive at this singular event in your life.”

The president went on to say that the graduates are making their passage at a unique time in history. She added that their University education has helped them to develop “the habits of mind” essential to their future role as informed and compassionate citizens.

“Many thoughtful people have wondered whether the terrorist attack on New York’s Twin Towers and Washington’s Pentagon will be a defining event for graduating classes today, as Vietnam and World War II were for prior generations. The Vietnam conflict and World War II produced a tremendous increase in civic and political engagement by the young generations of the 1940s and 1960s,” Hitchcock said.

Research conducted by Professor William Galston at the University of Maryland shows that “young people today are less engaged civically and politically than previous generations.”

“. . . September 11 demands that we all recommit ourselves to informed civic responsibility. . . that we reverse the dangerous trend toward civic and political disengagement. You, our wonderful graduates whose achievements we honor and celebrate today, can, indeed must, be leaders in this effort.”

She added, “Please seize this historic opportunity! Become involved in public life. Help reverse the steady decline in civic responsibility and political engagement which has characterized the past 30 years! No one, I submit, is better able to do so than you who are graduating today.”

Rosellini told the graduates they owe a debt of gratitude to the University, their parents, colleagues and friends. This debt can be repaid by their being successful.

“But how will you know when that debt is paid? That is, what do I mean by success? As a behavioral scientist, I am obligated to operationally define this term so that in the future you will be able to accurately and systematically determine whether you are indeed repaying your debt. In my view, Robert Louis Stevenson best operationalized this term when he said, ‘A successful person is one who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent people and the love of children; who has filled their niche and accomplished their task; who leaves the world better than they found it; and who looked for the best in others and gave the best they had.’ ”

Rosellini added, “This is the success I wish for you. And I sincerely hope that as you look back at the different points in your life you will know that you are indeed repaying your debt to us all.”

Conference on Community-Higher Education Partnerships
By Miriam Trementozzi
On December 4 at the Campus Center Assembly Hall, the University at Albany and Fulton-Montgomery Community College (FMCC) hosted 12 other academic institutions and many community leaders throughout the Mohawk and Hudson valleys to focus on partnerships that promote community and economic development. The half-day conference, titled “In It Together,” featured eight college and university presidents, and other senior higher education representatives, as well as community leaders who presented a snapshot of how they are working as partners to improve schools and neighborhoods, build a skilled workforce, enrich cultural life, and foster economic growth. More than 125 people came together for the event.

The conference was part of a joint project, funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, that was launched in January 2001 by FMCC and the University at Albany’s Mumford Center. The event featured welcoming and introductory remarks by City of Albany Mayor Gerald Jennings, UAlbany President Karen R. Hitchcock, and FMCC President Barry Weinberg.

Jennings noted the appropriateness of the conference theme “In It Together” and urged colleges and universities and their communities to continue to identify ways to build a common agenda. President Hitchcock provided a perspective on the conference as a distinctive event in itself, indicating it “culminates a unique collaborative effort between public and private academic institutions in the Mohawk and Hudson Region.” Half of the 14 colleges and universities participating in the project are private institutions and half public, she noted. Her remarks also focused on the many partnerships that already exist between higher education institutions and their communities. In referencing the conference title, she commented it could be read as both a “statement of fact as well as a statement about the future. . .While the conference will help us make these partnerships more visible, it will also provide a forum to think about future collaborations.”

The heart of the program was a series of roundtable “conversations” that covered six topics: neighborhood and community revitalization, research and technology transfer, partnerships with local schools, internships and other career development experiences for students, workforce training and development, and cultural enrichment. These conversations helped probe the needs and opportunities ahead and added insights about optimum strategies for addressing community challenges.

Dr. Anna Weitz, vice president of student and community services for FMCC, discussed the background of the joint project. Dr. John Logan, distinguished professor and director of UAlbany’s Lewis Mumford Center, highlighted two major results that were developed as part of this initiative. One is the development of an economic and demographic database that makes information from different sources easily accessible on many dimensions of community life in all counties throughout the state.

The database can be accessed at www.albany.edu/mumford/indicator. The other component of the project, which is being finalized, is an inventory that identifies some of the many ways that area colleges and universities collaborate with their communities. The inventory is envisioned as one tool that can help participating higher education institutions better share information with each other and the community.

For further information, contact Dr. John Logan.

UAlbany Alumni Return for Honors
By Carol Olechowski
In Milne Hall Room 200 - a lovely meeting space where friezes on the walls depict scenes from classical times and colorful paintings memorialize the history of Albany - Rockefeller College students gathered November 27 to welcome a UAlbany alumnus who is a witness to United States history and policy. Known to his colleagues as “The Mayor of the Pentagon,” David O. “Doc” Cooke, Sr., M.S. ’42, is director of administration and management for the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense. He oversees the operations, maintenance, and protection of the entire 280-acre Pentagon Reservation, which includes the Pentagon itself, a power plant, the Navy Annex, and numerous other buildings. In addition, Cooke was instrumental in lobbying Congress for the funding needed to renovate deteriorating sections of the Pentagon.

On September 11, Cooke was at the Pentagon during the terrorist attack but escaped unharmed. Nearly 200 Department of Defense (DOD) employees lost their lives at the military complex that day. “Pearl Harbor demonstrated that we were vulnerable, but the September 11 attacks shattered the myth of the invincibility of the United States,” he said.

At the November 27 gathering, which was hosted by the Rockefeller College Public Affairs Students Association (PASA), Cooke urged students to consider careers in public service. The advantages of a federal job, the Arlington, Va., resident pointed out, include “assuming more responsibility at an earlier age than [you would] in private industry.” Cooke, a U.S. Navy veteran who spent World War II as an officer aboard the U.S.S. Pennsylvania and the Korean War as an instructor in the School of Naval Justice, toured the University’s uptown campus for the first time ever November 27. “When I was here,” he remembered, “this [the downtown campus] was the entire University.” During his visit, the Buffalo native recalled one of his most vivid memories of UAlbany: He was in the Page Hall lounge when he learned about the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

After the session with Cooke, second-year MPA students Michael Holland and Manny Barbier chatted about the alumnus and his message. Holland, a Grand Prairie, Texas, native who earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, acknowledged that he would “eventually like to end up working in Washington.” He is in the process of applying to the Ph.D. program.

Added Barbier, a Marine Corps reservist and University of Buffalo graduate originally from Brooklyn: “I’m already with the federal government, and I’d like to get a civilian job with DOD. But I’m concerned that, since September 11, it will be a little harder for me to get that job. Will people’s feelings of patriotism last, or will they want to work for the private sector even more?”

On behalf of the PASA, Holland presented Cooke with a T-shirt as a memento of his visit to UAlbany. The following day, Cooke received the University at Albany’s 2001 Distinguished Alumnus Award at the Governor’s Mansion in Albany. He served as keynote speaker at the ceremony, which also honored fellow UAlbany graduates Christine A. Varney, B.A. ’77 (Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy Distinguished Alumna Award in Political Science); Judith R. Saidel, M.A. ’73, Ph.D., ’90 (Rockefeller College Distinguished Alumna Award in Public Affairs and Policy); Edmund F. McGarrell, M.A. ’81, Ph.D. ’86 (Distinguished Alumnus Award in Criminal Justice); Carol A. Desch, M.L.S. ’77 (Distinguished Alumna Award in Information Science and Policy); and Patricia P. Pine, Ph.D. ’93 (Distinguished Alumna Award in Social Welfare).

Home Page/ Front Page/ Campus News/ Features/ Sports/ Date Book