The new Current Periodicals Reading Room, located in the former Special Collections and Archives Research Room, is part of about $1.5 million in rehabilitation projects either recently completed, now under way, or scheduled for the near future at the University Library. The work follows the opening in fall 1999 of the new library, which created opportunities to rethink space usage and allowed for the “decompression” of periodicals stacks in the 35-year-old University Library, according to Meredith Butler, UAlbany’s dean and director of libraries.

University architect David LaComb, who is overseeing the work, said completed upgrades include installation of two new “smart classrooms,” renovation and expansion of collections in the Media, Microforms, Periodicals and Reserves Department, and new carpeting and furniture in the basement and first and second floors. The third floor will be re-carpeted this spring and summer.

The Periodicals Room, on the lower level, experienced the most dramatic changes, according to Brenda Hazard, head of Media, Microforms, Periodicals and Reserves. After the science collections were moved to the new library, the remaining shelving was dismantled and shifted to create wide aisles that meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Then, volumes were reshelved in a more logical and user-friendly order, Hazard reported in the Fall 2000 issue of Library Update. Group study tables, which can accommodate two to four students, have replaced individual carrels near the photocopier area. New compact shelving for the microfilm area was purchased.

In the Current Periodicals Reading Room, all current issues of newspapers and periodicals are now available in call number order until they are scheduled for binding. The Reading Room, which looks out on a courtyard with a southern exposure, features new paint, carpeting and shelving. Outside the Current Periodicals Reading Room, the Interactive Media Center features 20 new work stations arranged in clusters of four.

Also on the lower level, former office and archival space has been converted into “smart classroom” space with 23 computer work stations and two projection units. LaComb said he opted to use exposed ductwork on this project to achieve a more “high-tech” look and to preserve the palm-shaped lighting features that are an architectural feature of the library.

“Because everything in the library is concrete, and because of the ‘palm’ features, it was a challenge to run new lighting, power, heating and cooling. With everything being so tightly integrated, we tried to be creative and use the existing structures as best we could,” he said. “The hanging ductwork was a little nicer option for us.”

LaComb also used ductwork to preserve the “palm” lights in a second, larger computer user room on the first floor of the library. That area, which offers 43 personal computers for students and other users, was converted to this high-tech use following the move of the library preservation laboratory to the new library.

To carry out all of the upgrades at the library, the University is using a combination of funding that includes its capital construction budget, special “smart classroom” funds from the State, and private support generated by the Campaign for the Libraries.

UAlbany Roller Hockey - Taking an Intramural Team on the Road
By Greta Petry
When Jeff Bodner took over the University at Albany’s intramural roller hockey league as a freshman, he had an idea. Bodner, a native of Middletown, N.J., and now a senior political science major, thought the members could do more than just play against each other.

“I offered to take the league over for them. I wanted to set up a small, intercollegiate league in the area,” he said.

What is roller hockey? It is hockey played by in-line skaters who skate on a special tile called sports court, the surface used by professional leagues. Games are played on a full-sized National Hockey League rink.

Bodner’s vision has materialized. Today, UAlbany’s intramural team is playing such schools as the Rochester Institute of Technology, Penn State, Binghamton University, the Virginia Institute of Technology, and the University of Maryland, he said.

“Every once in a while a team comes into play from another part of the nation,” Bodner said, recalling a game against the University of Colorado.

While most of the games are away, when home the team plays in April or early September at the BIG Arena (Bethlethem Ice Group) in Delmar.

“There are 9 teams in the league and next year we are hoping to go to 25,” Bodner said. The growth has come about because UAlbany joined the Eastern Collegiate Roller Hockey Association (ECRHA).

“We set up games with teams from all over the Northeast. We travel to play against each other. There are three tournaments per semester, and four regular season games per tournament,” Bodner said. “We are playing all Division I schools. Most of the schools are in the tri-state area. We go up against the No. 1 teams in the nation,” he said.

Students purchase their own equipment. Each one pays a team fee of $200, which goes to rent vehicles and pay the league dues of $3,000 per year.

“Last year we received $1,000 from Student Association, but most of the money comes from the players’ pockets,” said Bodner, who, with Mike Mead, is co-captain of the team.

“There is a good family atmosphere to the team. We never knew each other before tryouts. After tryouts the first term we all became very good friends,” Bodner said.

With two to three practices a week, each one three hours long, the team spends a lot of time together. Bodner noted that while the roller hockey team is open to female students as well as male, none have tried out so far.

In its second year of intercollegiate competition, the team has five wins and seven losses. About 60 students are involved with UAlbany intramural roller hockey, attending drills, playing against each other, and trying out for the team. Practices are also held at the Bubble.

The next games are Jan. 27 in Harrisburg, Pa., where the University of Pennsylvania, Westchester College, and Syracuse University are on the schedule.

Bodner himself is resuming the sport after a few years away from it.

“I started as a kid. When I was 13, my sister gave me my first pair of in-line skates. I played street hockey. I just wanted to get involved in roller hockey again - I hadn’t played for a few years, before coming to college,” he said.

“I’m glad that I was allowed to accomplish the formation of the team in the few years I was at the school. Players constantly come up to me and tell me that this is an experience they will never forget,” Bodner said.

Sexuality Week in Memory of Matthew Shepard
By Greta Petry
Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard, will be the keynote speaker on Tuesday, Feb. 13, at 8 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballroom during the University at Albany’s 18th Annual Sexuality Week.

Matthew Shepard was a 21-year-old college student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten by two men he met in a Laramie, Wyo., bar on Oct. 6, 1998. He died six days later. Matthew was allegedly attacked because he was gay. Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson are serving life sentences for his murder.

The tragedy became the catalyst for a public outcry across the nation. After the incident focused the nation’s attention on hate crimes, the Shepard family received tens of thousands of letters and e-mails of support.

After their son’s death, Judy and Dennis Shepard started the Matthew Shepard Foundation (www.matthewsplace.com) to help carry on his legacy of social justice by embracing the causes he had championed. This includes working for gay and lesbian equality and helping to prevent hate crimes.

On May 11, 1999, Mrs. Shepard testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. She delivered a powerful message to those who oppose hate crimes laws: “I can assure opponents of this legislation firsthand, it was not words or thoughts, but violent actions that killed my son.” She also appeared in two Human Rights Campaign public service television spots aimed at curbing anti-gay violence. Produced by the Matthew Shepard Foundation, they were distributed to every network affiliate and cable operator in the U.S. In one of the ads, there is a home video of Matthew on-screen as Judy says: “In a perfect world because your child is gay, you don’t worry about their safety. You just worry about them being happy. I loved Matt just the way he was. Just the way he was.”

In September 1999, Mrs. Shepard appeared in another public service announcement campaign decrying hate crimes. She has become active in Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), and she wrote an open letter to school administrators that the organization included in a mailing to high school counselors around the U.S. In the letter, she encourages school officials to make schools safer for gay students by promoting tolerance, and reprimanding students who harass gay students. Mrs. Shepard says she is using her grief over her son’s death to do what she can to ensure that no other parent will have to endure what she has. She has made the prevention of hate crimes the focus of her efforts, and she is currently speaking to audiences nationwide about what they can do to make their schools and communities safer.

“I feel Matthew with me every day, or I would not be able to do this,” she says. “We just hope we’re doing what he would want us to do. We realize that we must use the voice his death has given us. I realize that what I can try and accomplish is to make people aware. We get so complacent in our lives that we forget not everyone is safe, and frequently, it is our children who aren’t safe.”

Estela Rivero, director of the University Counseling Center, said, “Mrs. Shepard’s keynote will continue the tradition of the Sexuality Week speakers by challenging us to think about and address an important issue that we face as members of our society and community. We are pleased that Middle Earth will host this presentation.”

Mrs. Shepard’s talk is free to those with a SUNY or other school ID or National Association of Social Workers (NASW) membership and $5 to the general public. There will be a book signing and reception after the program.

Workshops will be given throughout the week by professional health educators on many topics related to sexuality. Sexuality Week is coordinated by the Middle Earth Peer Assistance Program at the University Counseling Center, and funded by the Student Association. M. Dolores Cimini is chair of the Sexuality Week 2001 planning committee.

For a complete listing of Sexuality Week programs, go to the University home page http://www.albany.edu/feature2001/sexuality_week/
workshops_programs.html.

Dolores Cimini and Daniel A. Trujillo Win National Award
By Vinny Reda
University at Albany psychologists M. Dolores Cimini and Daniel A. Trujillo of the Middle Earth Peer Assistance Program received a U.S. Department of Education award earlier this month for their work in developing and implementing a nationally recognized model program to prevent alcohol and drug abuse.

The awards ceremony took place in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., and included representatives from the U.S. Department of Education (U.S. ED) and invited legislators. Kelly Aylward, legislative assistant to Congressman Michael McNulty (D-Green Island) attended, representing the congressman’s home district.

In response to alcohol-related tragedies and research which shows that, while most college students are younger than the legal drinking age of 21, more than 43 percent have engaged in “risk drinking” (20 percent do so frequently), Congress in 1999 authorized U.S. ED to identify and promote effective campus-based prevention programs. Through grant competitions held in 1999 and again in 2000, 13 institutions of higher learning were designated as having “model programs.”

In July 2000, UAlbany was one of these 13 institutions to be awarded an “Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Models on College Campuses Grant,” with Albany’s funding totaling $100,324. The funds were used to enhance the comprehensive, targeted, and student-driven Alcohol Prevention Program already in place for UAlbany’s campus community of 17,000 students through its 30-year-old alcohol education and peer assistance center, Middle Earth.

Created in the spirit of students helping students, Middle Earth offers a variety of student-driven services, such as a campus hotline, peer education programs, and an interactive peer theater initiative. The Middle Earth program has served as a local, state, and national model for alcohol and drug prevention since the 1970’s. In recent years, the program has begun to collect data on its effectiveness and has shown an impact in reducing binge-drinking rates in students.

Cimini, holder of a Ph.D. in psychology from UAlbany, serves as Middle Earth’s program director. She has worked since 1982 on a number of grant-funded programs and has more than 15 years of experience with young adults. Cimini has designed and implemented training programs and credit-bearing courses in peer education and helping skills for students entering the health and mental health fields, and she consults in the development of peer education programs at other colleges and universities on a nationwide level.

Cimini, who is legally blind, has been honored for professional service by UAlbany, the Chancellor of the State University of New York, and former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo.

Trujillo is the University’s coordinator for alcohol and drug prevention and is a staff psychologist at the University Counseling Center. He received his doctorate in counseling psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he worked in a nationally recognized alcohol and other drug prevention program. Trujillo comes to his work roles with campus-based clinical experience, as well as specialized research and educational expertise in alcohol and other drug prevention for at-risk college students. He has skillfully assumed leadership for all UAlbany alcohol and other drug prevention education initiatives.

In May 2000, he was presented with an award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the design and implementation of an “Exemplary Alcohol and Drug Prevention Program.”

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