IFW Donors Rise to Ford Foundation Challenge
By Carol Olechowski
Supporters of the University at Albany’s Initiatives For Women (IFW) program are rising to the challenge - The Ford Foundation challenge grant, that is. The Ford Foundation has awarded IFW an $80,000 challenge grant - the first ever - that will support graduate fellowships for UAlbany women pursuing careers in the physical sciences. In order to receive the $80,000 grant, IFW must raise an additional $160,000 in endowment gifts. “We are most fortunate to have former IFW chair Carol Bullard leading the Ford Challenge campaign,” said recently installed IFW Steering Committee Chair Kathy Turek.

To date, the fundraising effort has raised approximately half - $79,847 - of the goal, reported Bullard. University faculty and staff members Judith Barlow, Bullard, Meredith Butler, Cecilia Falbe, Shirley Jones, Marilyn Northrop, Vivien Ng, Turek, and Lenore Mullin have been major contributors to the campaign. Alumnae Bernice Mosbey Peebles ’39, ’46 and Patricia Salkin ’85 have also made donations, as did former UAlbany staff Gloria DeSole, Judy Genshaft, and Isabel Nirenberg ’76; and Martha Lepow, M.D. Challenge grant support includes the first bequest intention ever for IFW, from Peebles, as well as the establishment of one new endowed fund and the development of two more.

Peebles’ bequest is earmarked for the Bernice Mosbey Peebles Fund, which will provide an annual scholarship to a deserving woman of color preparing for a teaching career. The retired New York City school teacher and administrator, who still serves as a consultant to the city’s board of education, set up the fund because “I was a student at Albany, and I have a feeling for the University. I am very interested in scholarships and other programs that help students.” Peebles is also impressed by UAlbany’s efforts to “branch out internationally,” which she termed “a great thing. When students have been exposed to people of other nationalities and religions, they have a much broader means of sharing information, especially in the various fields of teaching.”

Each gift to the endowment challenge grant is important, stressed Bullard. “Our main source of revenue has been from the annual fundraiser dinner. Our goal is to expand Initiatives For Women, and we feel the best long-term way of doing that is through building the endowment.” Endowed awards can be used to promote women in a particular field. One new fund under development is the IFW Women and Technology Endowed Fund, which will be used to support women pursuing studies or advancement in a computer technology field. Turek indicated that the establishment of the fund is progressing quickly, with several University women supporting the effort. “This fund will allow us to leave a legacy to encourage women in working with computer technology,” she noted. The first Women and Technology award will be given this year in the application round currently underway.

Added Turek, associate director of the University’s Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning: “A named award also provides a way to honor, in perpetuity, the donor or a loved one - a beloved mother, grandmother, other relative, or friend - in whose name the endowment is established.” Barlow added to her fund in honor of her mother, Lillian Barlow. Butler established a new endowed fund in honor of her parents, Louise C. and Earl M. Applegate; the first award will be given this summer.

Another new fund under development, The Shirley J. Jones Endowed Fund for International Community-Building, honors the longtime School of Social Welfare faculty member. It will benefit a minority student enrolled in the school’s master’s or doctoral program. Criteria for the annual award include demonstrated characteristics of a leader and change agent, as well as indication of interest in international community-building.

Initiatives For Women was founded in 1993 to support the educational and professional goals of women students, faculty, and staff at UAlbany. In the nine years since, the program has awarded more than $129,000 for study and research purposes to more than 200 University women. Over 100 applications are expected this year, of which IFW will be able to fund only about 25 percent. These figures underscore the importance of successfully completing The Ford Foundation challenge grant as soon as possible.

Currently, there are 10 IFW endowment funds. The challenge grant campaign seeks to raise $250,000 to build the IFW endowment to $375,000. Individuals interested in establishing a named fund or making a donation should contact Bullard, the campaign chair, at 437-4977.

Through grants and loans, The Ford Foundation seeks to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement. Since its founding in 1936, the foundation has provided more than $10 billion in support to people and institutions in the United States, Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Russia.

(IFW, the University, and Skidmore College are presenting a winter forum, Women in the Arts: The Creative Process, Monday, Feb. 25, at Skidmore’s Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery. For more information, contact Carol Spring at 580-5201 or cspring@skidmore.edu by February 21.)

Grant Boosts UAlbany East Asian Studies Program
By Karl Luntta
The University at Albany has received a major humanities grant to bolster its highly regarded East Asian Studies program. The four-year, $1.99 million grant will go toward expanding and enhancing the department’s existing undergraduate program by creating new courses, accommodating more students, and providing opportunities for undergrads to travel and study in East Asia.

The grant was awarded by the Freeman Foundation, a Vermont group founded by philanthropist Houghton Freeman and dedicated to expanding awareness and understanding of Asian cultures.

“One of the primary missions of the Freeman Foundation is to enhance Americans’ knowledge and appreciation about Asia, a part of the world increasingly vital to us and yet still largely strange to most Americans,” said Houghton Freeman. “This program at the University at Albany, we think, is a good one, and does much in its way to help us achieve our mission.”

UAlbany’s East Asian studies program is the only degree-granting, department level East Asian program in the 64-campus SUNY system, and maintains degree programs in Chinese, Japanese and East Asian Studies. Korean will be added as a major in 2003. Nearly 1,000 students per semester enroll in East Asian Studies courses, while some 20 undergraduates earn degrees each year.

UAlbany’s School of Public Health Works to Reduce Medical Errors in New York State
By Vinny Reda
In late 2001, the New York State Department of Health was awarded a $5.4 million, three-year contract by the federal Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality to reduce medical errors. Of that amount, the University at Albany’s School of Public Health will receive $1.4 million over three years as a subcontractor to DOH.

Professor Edward L. Hannan of the school’s Department of Health Policy, Management, and Behavior was charged with overseeing all of the analyses and evaluations related to the project. As director of research and evaluation, Hannan’s role is to identify risk-reduction strategies and foster hospital demonstration projects to test and refine quality care initiatives. Also, Assistant Professor Tim Hoff of the same department will serve as director of qualitative analyses on the study, and he will be charged with examining the impact of various types of hospital organizational characteristics on outcomes in the demonstration projects.

Principal investigator on the project is Wayne Osten, the director of the Office of Health Systems Management of DOH.

The funding builds on the state’s efforts to reduce medical errors in New York by 50 percent over the next five years, consistent with the Institute for Medicine’s “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System” report.

“We’ve taken aggressive steps in New York to help reduce medical errors and make quality health care more accessible to each and every New Yorker,” Governor George Pataki said. “This new funding will build upon the pro-active patient safety measures we’ve already taken so that our hospitals can continue reducing medical errors and providing the highest quality of care.”

The federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality awarded the funding in support of the New York State Safety Improvement Demonstration Project. The project goals are to identify the causes of preventable errors and patient injury in health care through the root cause analysis process and to develop, demonstrate and evaluate strategies for reducing errors and improving patient safety through hospital interventions.

Tommy G. Thompson, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, said, “We must ensure that patients receive quality care that doesn’t cause unintended harm. This grant will help identify the causes of medical errors and develop effective solutions to strengthen the overall quality of care in New York.”

State Health Commissioner Dr. Antonia Novello, who is also professor of health policy, management, and behavior in the School of Public Health, said, “I want to commend Governor Pataki for his commitment to ensuring that New York hospitals provide the highest quality health care. The funding will help the Department as we work with hospitals to reduce medical errors. Our New York Patient Occurrence Reporting and Tracking System (NYPORTS) already helps hospitals compare their incident reports against other hospitals thereby giving them information they need to improve and provide even better care. On top of that, we’ve produced preoperative protocols that are designed to help eliminate wrong site surgery errors. Clearly, the grant award is in recognition of the leadership position New York has taken in the areas of patient safety and providing high quality health care.

“We will not only continue to hold that leadership position, we will build upon it.”

The Health Department intends to accomplish these goals through two initiatives:

The first will improve the completeness of reporting under NYPORTS so that meaningful data analysis can occur to help identify risk reduction strategies and reduce medical errors.

The second includes sponsorship of three demonstration projects involving hospital networks or groups of hospitals that will be involved in the study of specific types of preventable errors and the development and testing of interventions to reduce their occurrence.

Two expert panels will be convened as part of the project to determine the areas of study, to choose the groups of hospitals to undertake the projects and to provide oversight for the demonstration projects selected.

Over the next three years, the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality will provide the funding to New York State. Approximately $1.73 million will be provided in the first year, $1.89 million in the second and $1.79 million in the third.

The Governor has consistently supported measures designed to ensure patient safety for New York State residents. For example, last year he signed into law the Patient Health Information and Quality Improvement Act of 2000, which established New York’s first-ever Patient Safety Center.

The Center collects and analyzes health-related data that may help reduce medical errors.

The Act was also the catalyst for the development of the State Health Department’s new Center for Consumer Health Care Information Web site (http://www.health.state.ny.us), which went on-line August 8 and offers New Yorkers pertinent health-related information so that they can make informed health care choices and lead healthier lives.

Right-to-Know Web Site Offers Answers
ByGreta Petry
Where would you go to find information on retention and graduation rates, or the cost of attending the University at Albany?

If your first thought was the Internet, you are right.

Under federal regulations, UAlbany, like other institutions of higher education, is required to annually notify and, upon request, disclose certain information to prospective and current students and employees. Wendell Lorang, director of the Office of Institutional Research, coordinates campus compliance with these federal regulations in cooperation with University Counsel John Reilly, and the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs.

Lorang said, “The campus community should be aware of these requirements and of the University’s efforts to comply with these regulations.”

Lorang has been implementing UAlbany’s compliance with the regulations since the summer of 2000. Prospective and current students and employees learn about the availability of these data through mailings, notices placed in campus publications and on office Web sites. “This notice directs interested parties to the Web site (www.albany.edu/ir/rtk) where they can find the information and data the University at Albany is required to make available,” Lorang said.

This site has information of interest to students, parents, faculty, staff, and alumni, and the general public. For example, if a student wants to request a change in his or her education records because the information contained in them is believed to be inaccurate or misleading, the site contains information on how to do so.

Suppose, for a moment, that you are a prospective graduate student who wants information on graduate academic programs, the libraries, and the availability of computing facilities. This time, the Web site directs you to the index of the Graduate Bulletin, which is a wealth of information.

And what if you are the parent of a potential student who wants to check campus policies on alcohol and drug use? And crime statistics? Again, the Right-to-Know Web site is your source.

Of course, prospective students and others can also find this information by going to the UAlbany homepage and searching for the information they are interested in. The Right-to-Know Web site makes it easier and meets the federal right-to-know regulations.

Additional information of interest to prospective and current students and their parents is available on

• financial aid
  
• disabled student services
  
• description of the campus, its facilities, faculty, academic programs and services
  
• accreditation
  
• retention and graduation rates
  
• athletic program participation and financial data
  
• student rights under the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

Information of interest to current and prospective employees is available on:

• description of the campus, its facilities, faculty, academic programs and services
  
• crime statistics and security policies and programs
  
• campus policies on alcohol and drug use.

“Our aim is to inform the University community,” Lorang concluded. “It is just helpful for everyone to know what is going on.”

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