UAlbany In the News
By Lisa James Goldsberry
The January 12 edition of The Columbus Dispatch featured comments from David J. Hanson, professor emeritus of sociology. The article “Some People Question Further Need for Organization” discussed how Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has become a victim of its success. “It has become an organization that exists to exist,” Hanson was quoted as saying. “When organizations like this achieve their purpose, they don’t just stop. They change their focus, pass more laws, and raise more money. People are afraid to speak about this,” he added.

The January 18 edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution featured quotes by Lawrence Wittner of the Department of History. The article “The Anti-War Movement: Protest American as Apple Pie; Since 1815, Wars Have Drawn Demonstrators” focused on current marches against war with Iraq and the annual Martin Luther King Jr. peace march. Wittner, who has studied the anti-war movement, said, “You get all this upsurge in activity before there’s any war or it’s clear that there will ever be a war. I think that’s, in some ways, impressive.”

The January 13 online edition of USA Today posted an article which prominently featured Alain Kaloyeros, dean of the School of Nanosciences and Nanoengineering. The article “Can High-Tech Boom Make New York the Next Silicon Valley?” focused on how he has wooed two semiconductor heavyweights to the region. According to the article, Kaloyeros envisions a “high-tech mall” on the college campus with anchor tenants to attract other companies, spur investment, and create jobs. “You build it and they will come,” Kaloyeros explained. “So, now they’re coming,” he was quoted as saying.

The January 23 edition of The New York Times featured quotes from Richard Alba of the Department of Sociology. The article “Embracing Mother Russia, Warmly; To Emigres in Brooklyn, Furs are Badge of Success,” discusses why Russian immigrants of modest income in the Brighton Beach neighborhood must have a fur. “The ways of demonstrating that they have been able to maintain or enhance status are really very critical for immigrants,” Alba is quoted as saying. Russians, Ukrainians, and other immigrants from the former Soviet Union now number more than 212,000 in the metropolitan New York area, according to the article.

Faculty & Staff
By Greta Petry

Associate Deans Appointed
Joan Wick-Pelletier, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, has announced the appointment of two associate deans. Jeanette Altarriba, associate professor of psychology and Latin American and Caribbean Studies, will serve as associate dean (academic). Her duties will include program and curriculum development, personnel issues, and acting as a liaison with the Office of Undergraduate Studies. Lawrence Schell, professor of anthropology and epidemiology, will serve as associate dean (research). He will be the chief liaison between the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of Sponsored Programs, helping to identify research opportunities for faculty and working to enhance the research environment of the college.

According to the dean, the structure of the dean’s office was a frequently discussed topic during her visits to the campus last spring. “Everyone concurred that a unit of our size needed an administrative structure able to respond to the demands and the opportunities facing it,” she said. “The associate deans will play an important role in the development of the college. I am confident that, together with assistant deans Gaffney, Galime, Parker, and Stevens, we now have an excellent team in place.” The college is seeking a senior development officer, as well, to help in formulating and implementing the fund-raising plan for the college.

Susan Phillips Named
Susan Phillips, interim dean of the School of Education, has been named an American Council on Education Fellow for the class of 2003-04. She was named after rigorous external evaluation in recognition of her outstanding record of teaching, scholarship, service, and administrative achievements.

Bonnie Steinbock Appointed
Bonnie Steinbock of the Department of Philosophy has been appointed to the Ethics Committee of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine. The committee met in Dallas recently to discuss several practice statements.

Steinbock gave a lecture, “Choosing Our Children’s Genes: Promises and Perils,” at The Storefront Genome, a conference sponsored by the Center for Society, the Individual, and Genetics at UCLA on January 26, and presented a paper, “Moral Status, Moral Value, and Human Embryos,” to the philosophy department of Syracuse University on February 7.

On March 12, she is giving a seminar on “Alternate Reproductive Technologies” to the first-year fellows at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C.

In addition, she will be the opening presenter at a future conference on Bioethical Issues Raised by the Mapping of the Human Genome, sponsored by the AMDeC Foundation at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Albany.

Shai Brown Chosen as Fellow
Shai Brown, an employee in the Department of Residential Life, has been named as one of ten 2003 fellows nationwide by the National African-American Women’s Leadership Institute (NAAWLI). Fellows are named for leadership talent and commitment to constructive change in the black community, and represent the economic, social, cultural, educational, political, and religious diversity of women in the African- American community.

Brown will participate in four weeks of leadership and public policy training in preparation for a two-year local community service project. Among other activities, she will visit the Gallup Polls in Nebraska, study at Clark University in Atlanta, and network with national politicians in Washington, D.C.

Brown oversees the living spaces of 2,300 UAlbany undergraduates. Among the programs she has developed are sign language classes, panel discussions on prominent University women, and program incentives supporting attendance at UAlbany athletic events. She also volunteers her time as a board member of the Arbor Hill Development Corporation and the American Heart Association. In addition, she coaches in a midnight basketball league.

Neal’s Book Listed in Top 10
English professor Mark Anthony Neal’s book Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic was named one of the top 10 books of 2002 by Africana.com. This AOL-Time Warner Company is one of the largest providers of online content geared toward an African-American perspective. In Soul Babies, Neal explains the complexities and contradictions of black life and culture after the end of the Civil Rights era. He traces the emergence of the “post-soul aesthetic,” a transformation of values that marked a profound change in African-American thought and experience.