Berman’s Risky Writing Gains National Attention
By Carol Olechowski
Many ordinary activities - driving a car or crossing a street, for example - involve some element of risk. So does writing, according to a new book by University at Albany Professor of English Jeffrey Berman.

Risky Writing (University of Massachusetts Press, 2001) is the final entry in a trilogy that also includes Diaries to an English Professor (1994) and Surviving Literary Suicide (1999). The two earlier works focus on “psychoanalytic diary writing and suicidal literature,” respectively. The third explores the risks of personal writing - in particular, “self-disclosure and self-transformation in the classroom.” Risky Writing includes insightful - and often jarring - student essays on such topics as sexual abuse, suicide, racial and ethnic stereotypes, divorce, and abusive relationships.

Based on five different sections of English 300 (Expository Writing) Berman taught between 1994 and 1999, Risky Writing was featured in the February 15 Chronicle of Higher Education. “Syllabuses of Risk” detailed feedback the author received about course content from three students, Olivia, Chrissy, and Justine, and included excerpts from their class writings. These exchanges are also recorded in Risky Writing.

In the Chronicle article, Berman noted that Olivia had come to him, troubled by the psychological “one-two punch” she had received after reading Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar for her English 447 (The Historical/ Hysterical Imagination) class, also taught by Berman. Justine likewise reported feeling “anxious and depressed” after reading The Bell Jar. A few months earlier, Chrissy had confessed to experiencing sleep disturbances and nightmares while reading The White Hotel by D.M. Thomas.

Berman, a Cornell University Ph.D. who also studied for three years at a psychoanalytic institute in New York City, is “one of the few English professors in the country who is doing what would be called ‘human research,’ for which I need approval from the University’s Institutional Review Board.” So he took his students’ comments seriously. “My own experience suggests that. . .we can and must alert students to the possibility that some of them might respond to a classroom reading or writing assignment in a way similar to how some people react to a flu vaccination: namely, by developing symptoms of the illness against which they have been inoculated,” Berman wrote in “Syllabuses of Risk.”

“Beyond that,” he continued, “teachers can make themselves available to students who become anxious or depressed from a reading or writing assignment. They can try to be sensitive to the many students who, sitting alertly or perhaps not-so-alertly in their classrooms, struggle with personal problems that seem overwhelming.”

Making himself available to students is just one way Berman raises the comfort level in the classroom. In addition to “empathy” - the only prerequisite listed for the course - “I put ‘safeguards’ into place to minimize the possibility that students become at risk. For example, I never require a student to write on a topic that is too personal; I never grade an essay by its degree of self-disclosure; students never have to read an essay aloud if they don’t want to.” Other protocols set forth in Chapter 1 of Risky Writing include “allowing anonymity” - permitting Berman to read a student’s essay to the class if the student prefers not to identify him/herself; and “prescreening essays” to ensure that they are suitable for sharing with the class. “I am reluctant to have students read aloud essays indicating that they are in a present crisis,” he explains in his book.

“I love to teach Expository Writing because I help students write the stories of their lives,” says Berman, who also teaches such courses as Literature and the Healing Arts and The Age of Freud. “Their writings are always interesting, insightful, and often powerful. I think that the power of my last three books lies in my students’ voices. Some of the student essays are not well written, and I spend a great deal of time helping them to revise. Sometimes this is tedious for them and for me, but it is essential for good writing. The more suggestions I make for revision, the better their next essays are.

“Sometimes,” he admits, “their essays are emotionally wrenching, and their voices occasionally waver as they read the essays aloud. A few times the writers become teary-eyed - as do I. But these essays are often the most honest and the most powerful.”

Risky Writing, Berman feels, “will primarily interest college students and professors.” However, “with some modifications, I think that high school teachers can encourage their students to engage in risky writing, though they have less freedom than do college teachers. But the process is the same, as are the protocols necessary to minimize the possibility of risk,” adds the author, whose other books are Joseph Conrad: Writing as Rescue (1977), The Talking Cure: Literary Representations of Psychoanalysis (1985), and Narcissism and the Novel (1990).

From their writings, “students gain heightened awareness of themselves and their classmates, a heightened connection to their classmates, heightened empathy toward themselves and others, and - because they want to express themselves as clearly as possible - a significant improvement in their writing skills.”

Berman himself benefits, too - from “the belief that I have not only helped my students to become better writers but also that I have made a difference in their lives. As much as I give to my students, they give to me. I love being in the classroom and cannot imagine ever wanting to retire. I have the perfect job!”

UAlbany Mourns Passing of Ralph W. Harbison II, School of Education Dean
Ralph Warner Harbison II, 59, of Slingerlands and Willsboro, N.Y., dean of the School of Education and Service Professor, Department of Educational Administration and Policy Studies at the State University of New York at Albany and a former World Bank sector manager, died suddenly of a heart attack while cross-country skiing in the Adirondack Park High Peaks on Saturday, Feb. 16.

Harbison graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College, where he was president of the Glee Club, and earned both his master’s and Ph.D. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Following graduation from Harvard College, Harbison worked (1965-66) as a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica, where he met his wife Irene. He later worked as a program adviser for the Ford Foundation for 11 years, primarily in developing educational initiatives in Bogotá, Colombia, where the Harbisons’ two children were born, and subsequently in Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire. In 20 years with The World Bank, based in Washington, D.C. and working abroad, he encouraged and oversaw the development of human resource and social sector programs as an education economist, operations advisor, and division chief in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. In 1997, he was appointed education sector manager for the South Asia Region, heading the bank’s largest education lending program worldwide. After retiring from The World Bank, he was appointed dean of the School of Education at the University at Albany in January 2000.

President Karen R. Hitchcock said: “Dean Harbison was a passionate advocate for leadership, for generalized citizenship, and for excellence throughout the University. He believed deeply in the power of education to improve living conditions and to increase mutual awareness and appreciation among individuals and societies throughout the world. He will indeed be sorely missed.”

An avid conservationalist, hiker, sailor, and opera buff, Harbison is survived by his wife, Irene Moss Harbison, an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher retired from the Montgomery County, Md., schools; a daughter, Jennifer, a high school history teacher most recently in India; a son, Frederick, a wilderness guide, firefighter and EMT, his wife, Bethany, a public defender, and their daughter Nina, all of Fairbanks, Alaska; a brother, William, a cardiologist, and his family of Longmeadow, Mass. and Willsboro, N.Y.; and his mother Mrs. Frederick H. (Josephine) Harbison of Newtown, Pa.

Memorial donations may be sent to the Adirondack Nature Conservancy, P.O. Box 65, Keene Valley, N.Y. 12943, earmarked for the Champlain Valley Fund, or to The University at Albany Foundation, c/o M. Green, ED 239, University at Albany, Albany, N.Y. 12222, to be directed towards a new scholarship in his name. Plans for memorial services at the University at Albany, in Washington, D.C., and in Willsboro, N.Y. will be announced.

Science Features Groundbreaking Work of Lanford and Huthwelker
By Heidi Weber
Research completed at the Ion Beam Laboratory at the University of Albany is featured in the February 8 issue of Science magazine, a weekly peer-reviewed journal that publishes the best original scientific research, plus reviews and analyses of current research and science policy. The article, “Rutherford Backscattering to Study the Near-Surface Region of Volatile Liquids and Solids,” reports a method that for the first time allows quantitative measurement of the near surface elemental composition of highly volatile materials, such as ice or liquid or frozen acids.

UAlbany researchers, along with Professor Thomas Peter and colleagues at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), one of the world’s great scientific universities, developed a chamber that holds samples in a controlled atmosphere of water and acid vapors so they do not evaporate, but still allows them to be analyzed using MeV ion beam analysis. MeV ion beam analysis, which is highly developed at the University at Albany, is normally conducted in vacuum. However, by careful control of the gas vapors surrounding the samples, it is possible to achieve stability of the sample and in situ ion beam analysis.

The article’s authors include UAlbany Physics Professor William Lanford; UAlbany Adjunct Professor Thomas Huthwelker, who is simultaneously a postdoctoral fellow at ETH; Ulrich Krieger, a UAlbany alumnus who now works at the ETH; and Christian Daniel, a UAlbany alumnus who is currently at the University of Wurzburg in Germany.

Most modern analytical methods cannot be used to study highly volatile materials because these methods require samples to be placed in vacuum. By their very nature, highly volatile materials cannot be placed in vacuum because they would evaporate - destroying both the sample and the required vacuum, according to Lanford.

While the development of this new method was motivated by interest in studying chemical reactions that occur on small atmospheric particles (aerosols), it has potential for broad application in studies of the near surface chemistry of volatile materials. In the atmosphere, chemical reactions on such aerosols influence the atmosphere’s life- protecting functions, such as shielding from UV radiation (the ozone hole) and regulating the earth temperature (the greenhouse effect).

President Hitchcock Wins 2002 MECA
By Susan Supple
President Karen R. Hitchcock was awarded the Marketer-Executive-Citizen Award (MECA) by the Sales & Marketing Executives of Eastern New York at the organization’s 21st annual dinner, held February 20 at the Albany Marriott.

Hitchcock was honored for having demonstrated the ability to unify many sectors, both public and private, towards a common goal, and leading transformational change of the University’s role, joining advanced technology education with business and economic development.

Sales & Marketing Executives of Eastern New York is a chapter of SME-International, a worldwide association of sales and marketing management. Founded in 1935, SME is the primary forum in which the world’s top sales and marketing managers meet.

In celebration of National Sales and Marketing Month, an outstanding Capital Region individual or organization is honored with the [MECA] Award. This individual must have demonstrated sales and marketing excellence by directing his/her business or organization to a prominent position within his/her market and playing an active role in community activities. A MECA winner must possess a personal and professional commitment to improving the Capital Region’s business climate and overall quality of life.

Past recipients include the Albany International Airport Team, Wally Altes, Albany Mayor Gerald Jennings, Hugh Johnson, Neil and Lewis Golub, and John Picotte.

John Baackes, also a past MECA recipient, and secretary to The University at Albany Foundation Board, presented the award. Ed Dague, anchor and managing editor, WNYT-TV NewsChannel 13, served as master of ceremonies.

A portion of the proceeds from the annual dinner will be donated in Hitchcock’s name to The University at Albany Foundation Scholarship Fund.

UAlbany Students Seek to Increase Organ Donation in Pilot Project
By Greta Petry
Students in Larry Sombke’s class are learning by doing in a pilot project that may one day be used by SUNY students around the state.

Each Monday this semester, about 20 students meet from 6:30 to 9:20 p.m. in Earth Science 140 for a Communication Campaign Practicum. They’re learning firsthand to create and carry out a public information campaign to encourage University at Albany students to add their names to the New York State Organ and Tissue Donor Registry.

“During the first two sessions, we have been planning a real live public relations campaign to support National Organ and Tissue Donation Week, which begins April 22,” said Sombke, an adjunct instructor with more than 20 years of experience in public relations. “We are going to put on a campaign. Our goal is to raise awareness about the importance of donation among college students. We are working with the New York State Department of Health (DOH) and the registry to get more students to sign up.”

Carla R. Williams, project director of the New York State Task Force to Increase Organ and Tissue Donation, said: “Each person who becomes educated and who makes a decision about donation has the potential to impact up to 50 other people. This is the goal: to get every New Yorker to become educated and make a decision and share that decision with his or her family.”

This class is a unique example of how the University and its students can be effective partners with state government, non-profit agencies, and the community.

“It’s certainly a successful partnership with the community because the guest speakers in class have included experts and other professionals, as well as a representative from Mothers of Donors. So many people have been personally touched by organ donors. We want to bring in people who have been involved in organ donation, and I think that will make such a difference in the public’s willingness to address the issue and get involved,” Sombke said.

All but two of the students are undergraduates. Depart-ment of Communication Chair Teresa Harrison sits in on the course to supervise the work of the graduate students, since they have additional requirements to meet.

Harrison said, “At this point we expect some pretty significant things to be happening in April. Right now, one possibility is a kickoff press conference with DOH Commissioner Antonia Novello and President Karen Hitchcock. Larry brought in Suffolk County Assemblyman Jim Conte, who has had a kidney transplant. Jim really impressed the students with the importance of this issue.” Conte’s own surgeon was another visitor.

“Terri Harrison is there to make sure we are class-oriented,” Sombke said. “I’m very oriented in a practical way. We have really bright and interesting students. These students are so impressive. They have had internships with other companies. I’m always impressed with the experience they bring to the class. Many of them have taken a theory class (Persuasion in Public Relations) to get into this one. Some have begged their way into Dr. Harrison’s good graces to get into this class.”

Williams said: “This project is the pilot for what we hope will become a SUNY-wide project. To go statewide, we have to demonstrate its value as both a learning tool for students as well as having an impact on enrollment in the registry. The plan is to develop a template at UAlbany that can be replicated at other campuses.”

Currently, more than 80,000 people are on transplant waiting lists. Sixteen people die each day in the U.S. waiting for a life-saving organ. Each year, 15,000 people are treated with needed eye, tissue, and bone donations for blindness, tumors, burns, cancer, and many other life-threatening diseases and injuries.

According to the organ donation task force, signing the back of one’s driver’s license is appropriate as long as people share this decision with their family. The registry (go to www.health.state.ny.us and scroll to Life Pass It On) allows for a confidential database to be accessed by donor recovery organizations only after death so that the individual’s intent to donate can be verified.

“Studies have demonstrated that families are more likely to consent if they know what the wishes of their loved ones are as they relate to donation. Studies of donor families have demonstrated the value to a grieving family during what is most often a tragic and unanticipated loss,” Williams said.

Learning in Sombke’s class is a two-way street.

“What I’ve learned is if you are open, honest and creative, they will respond. You just can’t imagine the depth of intelligence and experience these young students bring to class,” he said.

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