UAlbany Honors EOP Student with the Swygert Scholarship
By Dan Kinne
The University at Albany has recently recognized Hector Mejia as the seventh recipient of the highly regarded H. Patrick Swygert EOP Scholarship Award. The scholarship, in the amount of $500, is sponsored by the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) Office.

H. Patrick Swygert, president of the University at Albany from 1990-95, currently serves as president of Howard University. The H. Patrick Swygert EOP Scholarship Award was created to honor Swygert’s contributions to the educational community. Hector, a junior averaging a 3.8 grade point averge in a competitive accounting major, proved to be the perfect candidate for this award.

Originally from Honduras, Hector’s family moved to New York City when he was in the eighth grade. Hector’s grades in high school were among the best in his class. His final high school average was around a 92, which would get him into a good school, but his SAT scores totaled 720. Money and other factors came into play when choosing a school. UAlbany was his third or fourth choice and St. John’s was his first, but he didn’t want to live in the city. He liked UAlbany’s academic reputation and was accepted into EOP here. Inspired by his mother to do better and to succeed, Hector worked hard right from the start. After earning a 4.0 overall during his first year, he was accepted into the Presidential Scholars Program; his placement in this group challenged him to make sure he maintained high grades. As a student from a lower-income family, he challenges himself constantly to do his best. He wants to have a better way of life. Hector enjoys it here in Albany; he is involved in soccer, running, the Presidential Honors Society, and work as an EOP mathematics lab assistant. And although he is busy with many activities, he is constantly hitting the books. To make sure he is on track with school, he will stay in on weekends to keep up with work, stick to priorities, and study a lot.

EOP director Carson Carr said: “Hector is the American Dream. He was able to utilize EOP support services to become a rightly competitive student here at the University. As an economically low-income and nonadmissible student, he makes all the University community proud of his many accomplishments. All he needed was a chance.”

UAlbany’s EOP consistently has one of the highest graduation rates in the state. The program affords opportunities to students from lower-income families so that they can succeed academically.

“Dr. Carr, who runs EOP, is a man who wanted to make a difference in the community, and so he helped minorities and others to go out and succeed,” said Hector.

“I feel grateful to the administration for all the opportunities provided for students, and hopefully they will keep the EOP program because it has been a tremendous help,” he said.

After earning his B.A. from the University at Albany, Hector wants to become a professionally licensed accountant. He recently finished an internship with PriceWaterHouse Coopers, where he received firsthand experience in working as a professional accountant. Hector, who enjoyed his time there, will be returning to the firm this year. The experience will pay off: If the company likes Hector’s work, he may be hired straight out of college.

UAlbany, CSR Partner to Bring National Women’s History Month Speaker to Area March 7
By Marjorie Pryse
In recognition of National Women’s History Month, the University at Albany’s Department of Women’s Studies is working with the College of Saint Rose’s Department of English and Program in Women’s Studies to bring noted feminist and cultural studies author Susan Bordo to both campuses for a combined event March 7. Bordo will lecture on “Beauty 2002: An Illustrated Journey through the Innovations, Oddities, and Obsessions of Contemporary Culture,” addressing such topics as the “objectification” of the male body; the diversification and “globalization” of beauty; perceiving bodies in a surgical, digital age; the emergence of size zero and the disappearance of size 14; and new trends in theory and thinking about beauty. The free public lecture will take place at Saint Joseph Hall Auditorium, 985 Madison Ave., College of Saint Rose, 7 p.m. Bordo will also offer a seminar on the UAlbany campus for faculty and graduate students familiar with her work at 2:30 p.m. on March 7 in HU 290.

Faculty and graduate students from CSR will attend the seminar at UAlbany; Albany faculty and both graduate and undergraduate students will attend the lecture at CSR. Events on both campuses are jointly sponsored, in addition, by the University at Albany’s Institute for Research on Women. This marks the first cross-institutional collaborative event in which the department has engaged, responding to an initial invitation from Professor Catherine Cavanaugh at CSR. When asked about the collaboration, UAlbany Chair and Professor of Women’s Studies Marjorie Pryse said, “With the inauguration of the new M.A. in Women’s Studies three years ago, the department has become much more interested in working with other programs in the region, and we hope that this project will be the first of many.”

In another “first” for the department, March will also kick off a new Women’s Studies Colloquium Series, “Subaltern Voices, Exotic Bodies.” On March 8, panel speakers Naoko Ikeda, Eliann Rodriguez, and Melissa Tacke will lead a discussion on “Gendering War and Nationalism: Making Feminist Sense of World Politics and Current Events” from 2-4 p.m. in the CETL East Seminar Room. On March 22, Mark Anthony Neal from the Department of English will speak on the topic of “Baby Mama (Drama) and Baby Daddy (Trauma): Post-Soul Gender Relations,” (also from 2-4 p.m. in the CETL East Seminar Room). Watch UAlbany Update for further announcements of colloquium events in April.

“Father Bob,” UAlbany Alumnus, Reaches out to Catholic Students on Campus
By Carol Olechowski
UAlbany isn’t generally considered a venue for the formation of Catholic priests. But for Rev. Robert Longobucco, it was.

The Long Island native came to the University in the mid-1980s to study for a bachelor’s degree in history. He graduated in 1987, having gained a deeper understanding of his faith, as well. In July 2001, he returned to his alma mater - the first priest in several years assigned to serve full time in UAlbany’s Catholic campus ministry.

Known to his campus congregation as “Father Bob,” he recalls gratefully that “the Catholic community here at Chapel House, and the interfaith experience, really formed me more in my spiritual life than any earlier religious practice did.” In addition to attending daily Mass, which was offered on campus at that time, the future priest helped to start the Community Council, a parish council for the campus ministry; and worked with the hunger-awareness group People and Food. He also participated in the Emmaus retreat, “which is still going strong” and took place most recently the weekend of February 16 - with Father Bob acting as spiritual director.

After graduating from UAlbany and working for three years at the state Capitol as a speechwriter for Brooklyn State Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, the future campus minister entered the Theological College of Catholic University in Washington, D.C. “It was the first Catholic school I had ever attended. If there had been a UAlbany seminary, I would have gone there,” quips the affable young priest, who resides at St. Catherine of Siena rectory in Albany.

Ordained in 1998, Father Bob was sent to Oneonta, where he served as associate pastor at a parish and as campus minister at both the State University of New York College and Hartwick College. He was delighted when Bishop Howard Hubbard of the Albany Roman Catholic diocese transferred him back home to Albany.

With Sister Maureen O’Leary, F.S.P., who singlehandedly led the Catholic campus ministry at Chapel House for several years prior to Father Bob’s arrival, the priest is working to reach out to Catholic students. He noted: “We have Mass at 6 p.m. every Sunday in the Campus Center Assembly Hall, as well as Thursday at 5:15 p.m., followed by a dinner. There’s a Newman Club, our Student Association-approved and -funded Catholic presence on campus; it’s doing wonderful things this year in terms of community outreach. We’re planning to have Stations of the Cross and a dinner afterward at a church in Albany one Friday during Lent. Five students are preparing for confirmation; we hope to have the confirmation ceremony here on campus in early May. And so far, we have the largest number of participants of any institution in the diocese for attendance at World Youth Day.” For that event, Father Bob will lead a contingent of 10 students to Toronto in July to see Pope John Paul II. In addition, the priest would “love to do more with Catholic faculty and staff. Sister Maureen and I are here for them, too, so we’re brainstorming about how to reach out to them.”

The Catholic chaplains are also working with their Protestant and Jewish colleagues - Rev. David Moore, David Liebschutz, and Rebecca Charhon - on various interfaith efforts. One event last fall, the Festival of Lights, drew more than 100 students for “a celebration of Kwanzaa, Ramadan, Advent, Christ-mas, and Chanukah. The sharing that went on between the different groups was inspirational,” recalls Father Bob.

He and Sister Maureen are “grateful that the bishop decided to invest a full-time priest at the University. There hasn’t been one here in years and years. We’re grateful to have that kind of presence here. It also represents just how important the University is as the largest campus in the diocese, and highlights the diocese’s commitment to campus ministry.”

On a personal note, says Father Bob, “I have a great relationship with the students. A lot of them are away from their parents and on their own for the first time. Sister Maureen and I can provide a reality check for them.

“It’s great to come back to a place that meant so much to me,” adds the priest, who says he loves Albany and plans to stay here. “You know how they say you can never repay your parents for all they’ve done for you? Now I have a chance to repay Chapel House for all it did for me.”

Swygert: UAlbany “a snapshot” of America
ByGreta Petry
H. Patrick Swygert, president of the University at Albany from 1990-’95, told guests at the Martin Luther King Jr. Luncheon on February 14 that while many universities talk about diversity, UAlbany lives it.

Swygert, now president of Howard University, was the keynote speaker at the luncheon. The event was a part of UAlbany’s Black History Month celebration.

President Karen R. Hitchcock introduced Swygert. She noted: “When you left us in 1995, we were deeply sorry to see you go, but deeply grateful for all you had accomplished. Your leadership resulted in increased financial resources, an enhanced physical infrastructure, more sophisticated technology, greatly improved academic programs, and a greatly enhanced quality of life for our students. . .all of which helped to position the University at Albany as a nationally-regarded research university. And now, your leadership at Howard University is clearly advancing our nation’s preeminent historically black university. But do know that your legacy here at UAlbany continues to undergird all that we do. You left UAlbany a better place for your presence. From all of us, thank you so much.”

At the luncheon, Hitchcock presented Swygert with the Medallion of the University, the highest award for distinguished service that the University bestows. Also at the luncheon, artist Simmie Knox’s Portrait of H. Patrick Swygert was unveiled. Hitchcock presented Swygert with a certificate listing his many achievements.

While president of UAlbany, Swygert demonstrated outstanding leadership; strengthened the undergraduate experience and the University’s research mission; launched the Campaign for Albany, the first major fund-raising initiative at UAlbany and, at the time, the largest in the history of the State University of New York; initiated planning for the Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management; advocated, and brought to completion, the University’s Science Library; expanded the technology infrastructure of the campus, and enhanced the quality of life for our students. Today, he continues to exemplify commitment to excellence in higher education.

Speaking to a packed house in the Campus Center Ballroom, Swygert gave the keynote luncheon address. He said: “On May 21, 1990 the University at Albany adopted the Principles for a Just Community. These principles have really taken root. They have informed the greater dialogue on this issue.” Swygert said it is more important than ever to “speak to fairness, speak to civility, and speak to respect,” without orthodoxy or dogma.

While the climate is very different today than it was during the early ’90s, and things have changed since September 11, 2001, “one of the great strengths of this [UAlbany] community is that we do not run to easy rhetoric . . . it is not right to walk away from values,” even though today it is diversity with a lowercase d, instead of the capital D of prior years.

“One of the reasons I am so proud of this institution is that it has remained steadfast. You really are America,” Swygert said, adding that a glance around the room, with all of its ethnic diversity, was “a snapshot” of America.

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