UAlbany In the News
By Lisa James Goldsberry
An April 3 distribution of the Associated Press wire featured a current project of UAlbany’s Lewis Mumford Center. The article, “Help Wanted From Amateur Genealogists,” focused on the “Mumford Genealogy Challenge,” a novel call over the Internet for help with an academic sociological study. According to the article, Mumford researchers chose 4,500 New Yorkers at random from the 1920 census, with hopes of matching as many as possible with the 1900 census. Many cases were complicated, involving women who changed their last names upon marriage. More than 120 people have registered for the challenge so far, solving 19 cases in less than two months. Everyone who scores a hit receives a Mumford Challenge Mug - a coffee mug with “I Won the Mumford Genealogy Challenge” printed on it.

The April 7 broadcast of CNBC News mentioned a report done by the University at Albany. In the portion of the program covering Business Center headlines, co-anchor Sue Herera discussed the headlines of the hour and included a report done by UAlbany. According to the program, the report says that states suffering from weak economies could still be years away from recovery, and citizens should expect to pay higher taxes as a result. An

April 11 distribution of the Associated Press wire featured information about researchers at the University’s Rockefeller Institute of Public Policy. The article, “Poverty-targeting Panel Urges Public Funding of Religious Charities,” discussed how a panel of religious and civil rights groups unanimously called for greater government funding of faith-based charities in order to reduce poverty. The panel is backed by the Rockefeller Institute and funded by Pew Charitable Trusts. It is chaired by former U.S. Senator Harris Wofford, who, in the article, praised the Senate’s passage of the CARE Act, which would grant new tax breaks for charitable donations but block efforts to open government programs to religious organizations.

The May issue of Ebony magazine features an interview with former University President H. Patrick Swygert. The article, “Howard University: Mecca of Black Education,” mentioned that Swygert left UAlbany to become president of Howard in 1995. The article listed Howard as the richest black educational institution in America, and stated that it produces more African-American Ph.D.s and M.D.s than any other university in the world. Swygert was quoted as saying, “I feel a tremendous sense of responsibility to those who came before me, and an even greater responsibility to those who come after me.”

Faculty & Staff
By Greta Petry

Winn Awarded Fellowship
Mary Beth Winn, professor of French Studies, has been awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This is the third time that NEH has supported Winn’s research with a year-long fellowship. Winn will spend next year investigating patronage and printing in early Renaissance France, focusing on books printed from 1470-1530 “at the king’s command.” This project has grown out of her prior work on the French publisher Anthoine Vérard and on the royal collections of books housed in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.

Winn’s articles on Vérard and his circa 1505 edition of the Horae ad usum Sarum has just been published on the Web site of the Royal Library of Denmark, in conjunction with the digitization of the vellum, illuminated copy of that edition, now located in Copenhagen.

In collaboration with musicologists Barton Hudson of the University of West Virginia and Laura Youens of George Washington University, Winn has also edited the fourth of seven volumes of chansons by the Renaissance composer Thomas Crecquillon. The American Institute of Musicology has published the volume as part of the complete works of Crecquillon in the series Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae.

A 1996 recipient of an Excellence Award in Academic Service, Winn serves as director of the D.A. Program in Humanistic Studies and is secretary of the Albany chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Since joining the faculty in 1974, she has received numerous awards for research, including three fellowships and two summer stipends from NEH, and grants from the Newberry Library, the Huntington Library, United University Professions, and the American Philosophical Association.

Fenn Honored
Lianne Fenn, assistant director of Institutional Services, received the Mail Center Manager Award from the U.S. Postal Service at a luncheon April 14 at the National Postal Forum in New Orleans, La.

Lianne Fenn

Fenn was selected by Jon M. Steele, vice president, Northeast Area Operations. The award is for dedicated industry professionals, working in concert with national and local postal managers, who help to make the industry a success. The award is a tribute to Fenn for having recognized the vital importance of innovation, teamwork, communications, and customer satisfaction.

Fenn was tapped for the award for the postal service’s Northeast Area, one of nine such organizational segments in the country. The Northeast Area is made up of nine districts, of which the Albany district is one. The Albany District is bounded by the

Vermont/Massachusetts border on the east, Canada on the north, the Syracuse region on the west, and Pennsylvania on the south. The Albany district contains some 700 post offices. In the greater Northeast Area there were 1,431 nominations for the award. The list of nominees was narrowed to 78 and presented to the vice president of the Northeast Area. At the awards luncheon, Fenn was seated at a table adjacent to the Postmaster General of the United States.

For several years Fenn has advanced her knowledge and professionalism in mail management in various ways, including attendance at courses and workshops. As a result, she has qualified to sit for an upcoming professional certification exam.

Lahiri Lectures in Japan

Kajal Lahiri (sitting) with faculty and graduate students of Hosei University.

Professor Kajal Lahiri of the departments of economics and health policy, behavior and management has recently returned from Japan after delivering a series of six lectures on health econometrics at the Hosei University Graduate School (Tokyo) March 3-14, 2003. Lahiri’s talks included presentations from his recent research on the economics of disability behavior; Medicare-eligible veterans’ demand of health care; and the effects of smoking on cancer, using models of self-selection.

The U.S. Social Security Administra-tion and the Research Department of the VA Healthcare Network have supported these projects. Lahiri’s visit to Japan was generously supported by travel and research grants from the Japan Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, and Hosei University.