UAlbany’s Information Technology Takes a Step Forward with Appointment of CIO
By Greta Petry
The recent appointment of Christine E. Haile to the newly created position of interim chief information officer (CIO) signals an era of positive change in the way the University at Albany manages technology.

UAlbany has seen a number of improvements in technology infrastructure and services over the past few years through the efforts of several offices. The appointment of a CIO promises to bring together under one roof responsibility for how UAlbany IT services are planned, funded, and implemented. Haile reports directly to Carlos E. Santiago, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, in his new role as chief operating officer. Santiago said the movement to a CIO position with campus-wide perspective is related to the decision to recraft the operational structure of the University under the chief operating officer model of provost. The CIO plays a similar role in that responsibilities cross traditional divisional lines.

Some of the recent improvements in UAlbany IT activities include:

• new equipment for student user rooms, and for ResNet, which were supported by the student technology fee. Santiago made it clear that all of this money goes to support student computing services.
• Internet expansion of campus connectivity to OC-3 speed, to respond to demand by students, faculty, researchers, and staff. This should improve response time. u continuing installation of high-tech multi-media “smart” classrooms.
• better coordination and streamlining of helpdesk services for all users.

The future of information technology is looking bright at UAlbany, with further progress on the boards. “We have a solid foundation on which to build. Our goal is to ensure that IT can deliver the services a growing campus expects and deserves,” said Haile, who most recently was associate provost for technology services at SUNY System Administration.

“The infrastructure has gotten better. Shortly, we’ll have connectivity to Internet 2 (a research network) as well. We are now at the point where we are very comfortable with moving to a more centralized organizational model,” Santiago said. “That’s where Christine’s appointment comes in. The need for a CIO has come to our attention many times in recent years. There was an extensive review in 1998 that recommended we move to the CIO model.”

As CIO, Haile is responsible for all information technology areas in Academic Computing, University Business Systems, Data and Telecommunications, Extended Learn-ing, and ResNet.

With Haile in place, the University can now move forward on two priorities: the development of an information technology strategic plan, and the creation of greater synergies and coordination among existing IT departments. The goal is to create a unified, cohesive network of services for UAlbany’s students, faculty, and staff.

Haile said, “The campus’s goals of expanded enrollment, research, and the new capital facilities present a challenge to IT. Every aspect of UAlbany’s activities is increasingly dependent on information systems and communication. The September 11 tragedies are a reminder of how important it is to get accurate and timely information to everyone. Our responsibility is to provide systems that enable learning, research, and business activities to be productive. Increasingly, we want anytime/anywhere access to information resources, but we need to develop that in a way that is secure, reliable, and safe.”

Among the initiatives Haile helped develop and promote in her last position were the SUNY Learning Network (see related story, p. 5), SUNYConnect, SUNYNet, the SUNY Conference on Instructional Technologies, and the University-wide Support Centers for Training and Software.

Santiago maintains a sense of humor and perspective about this new centralization. “We will not return to the days when everyone on campus had to use the same kind of computer - a Wang,” he said. Haile added, “It is great to be on campus, and I appreciate the warm welcome. I’m looking forward to working with the deans, directors, and many others as we move ahead.”

English Professors Travel to Beijing
The University at Albany has joined with Peking University to sponsor an international conference in Beijing, China, from October 24-27 on new approaches to the study of American literature and culture in the new millennium.

UAlbany faculty members Don Byrd, Judith Johnson, Judith Barlow, Judith Fetterley, Jeffrey Berman, Theresa Ebert, Bret Benjamin, Mike Hill, Charles Shepherdson, Belle Gironda, and Pierre Joris, all of the UAlbany English department, will be traveling to Peking University to participate.

Byrd is co-chairing the program committee for the conference on Reading for the New Millennium: A Global Dialogue on American Literature and Culture in a Time of Change. His co-chair is Dean Hu Jialuan of the School of Foreign Languages at Peking University. Johnson, Joris, and Barlow also represent UAlbany on the program committee.

“The conference will focus on the impact of technology and globalization of culture on the understanding and teaching of American literature,” said Byrd. “As co-chair of the conference, I will give one of the opening talks, which will focus on the general themes of the conference.”

The groundwork for this ambitious conference with 120 participants from the People’s Republic of China, the United States, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, and Taiwan was laid over a period of several years. Byrd said it began with the arrival at UAlbany in 1997 of Visiting Professor Huang Zongying, an associate professor in the English department at Peking University, and a member of the conference committee. He and Byrd are co-directors.

“Professor Zongying proved to be an energetic presence in our department and stayed on an additional semester to teach as a visiting lecturer. Subsequently, he has returned to teach in the summer sessions. He became friendly with several members of the faculty, including Professor Tom Cohen, when he was chair, and with Cohen, planned this conference. Professor Pierre Joris and I went to Beijing last fall to make plans for the conference,” Byrd said.

Some of the topics that will be taken up at the conference are American Literary and Cultural Studies: Past and Future, New Approaches to American Literary Theory, Contemporary Chinese-American Literature, and New Developments in Feminism and Literary Studies in the U.S. and China.

Scholars will share their findings toward a more comprehensive mapping of the 21st century literary and cultural landscape at the conference. “By looking backward to our rich histories, and beyond our present contexts to what divergent models can offer us, we hope to begin to envision a new future for the reading of texts of all forms: theoretical, poetic, narrative, dramatic, artistic, cultural, historical, religious, and technological,” notes conference promotional material.

The conference is jointly sponsored by the School of Foreign Languages at Peking University and the UAlbany English Department, with the collaboration of the Peking University Center for European and American Literatures and the China Association for the Comparative Study of Chinese and American Cultures.

UAlbany Hosts Conversations in the Disciplines Summit on Science Education October 22
ByGreta Petry
Bruce Alberts, president of the National Academy of Sciences, will be a featured speaker at a University at Albany conference on October 22 that is part of the SUNY Conversations in the Disciplines Program.

Titled “Rethinking the K-20 Science Education System in New York State: A Summit,” the conference features Alberts and engages the topic of why stronger science education is so important in many dimensions. The focus of the conference, which begins at 8:30 a.m. at the Marriott Albany, 189 Wolf Road, Albany, will be on developing an action plan to support, promote, and enhance science education at all levels.

Also speaking is New York State Commissioner of Education Richard Mills, who will talk about “New York’s Potential: What We Can Do Together.” Other speakers include John Bishop of the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. Bishop will give a status report on science education and the science workforce in New York. Barbara Schneider, senior social scientist for the National Opinion Research Center and director of the Alfred P. Sloan Center for Working Families, University of Chicago, will weave together the various perspectives of conference speakers and participants and help keep the program focused on the whole system of science education. University President Karen R. Hitchcock said: “Improving science education is an issue that affects the entire nation. As we educate students to compete in a global economy, we need to equip them with the skills that best prepare them for emerging fields in the sciences. We need to examine why so many American students drop out of the sciences while still in high school or shortly after they reach college. In sum, we need to attract greater numbers of students to work in the sciences at all levels.”

Vice President for Research Christopher F. D’Elia said: “Scientific and technical advances demand a scientifically literate population. For example, employers seek candidates with high technical skills, citizens need to understand complex environmental issues, and the economy is becoming global. The students educated today will be the scientists of tomorrow.”

The event will bring together a diverse group of researchers; policymakers; and private sector representatives, such as natural and social scientists, science teachers and administrators, business and government representatives, public policy advisers, and higher education administrators.

The summit is made possible, in part, by a “Conversations in the Disciplines” grant from the SUNY Provost’s office to Professor Audrey Champagne, Department of Educational Theory and Practice in the School of Education. It is co-sponsored by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce; the New York State Office of Science, Technology, and Academic Research; and several schools and colleges of the University.

Registration forms must be received by October 16, and may be obtained at http://www.albany.edu/aire/news.html or from Carline Davenport in the School of Education, ED 212. Call 442-4988 or e-mail cdavenport@uamail.albany.edu for more information. Cost is $30 per person.

Alberts has been president of the National Academy of Sciences since 1993. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1960 with an A.B. in biochemical sciences and earned a Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard University in 1965. He was a postdoctoral fellow funded by the National Science Foundation at the Institut de Biologie Moleculaire, Geneva, Switzerland, from 1965 to 1966.

From 1976 to 1981, Alberts was on the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco. In the early 1990s, he was UCSF’s American Cancer Society Research Professor of Biochemistry, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. He took a leave in 1993 to work with the National Academy of Sciences.

New York, One Week Later, September 18
By Brian Buff, vice president of the History Graduate Students Organization
I have just returned from spending the day in New York City. What was supposed to be a long-planned trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Whitney Museum of American Art turned into a powerful day of observing the people of New York, and witnessing how the city is fighting back exactly one week after terror struck from the sky.

I am still not sure why I did not stay home. Maybe it was the historian in me who just had to see it all for myself, especially as commentators were quick to label September 11, 2001 “This generation’s Pearl Harbor.” There were also the words of my friends in the city: “It is nothing like you see on television.”

Maybe my motivation ties to the briefing that I received before departing for undergraduate studies in London in mid-1987. The United States had recently bombed Libya in retaliation for the bombings in Europe, in which several servicemen were killed and a number injured. We were told to “lay low” and “blend in,” and if asked by a stranger if we were American, to simply respond, “No, Canadian.” Even with these words, I still thought that terrorism was something that happened in other parts of the world. Even a year later, when Pan Am Flight 103 was destroyed over Lockerbie, Scotland, it was still a case of a terrible event in a distant place. On September 11, we, as a nation, learned that terrorism and fanaticism reach over mighty oceans. They are here.

I finally decided to go to New York because I could. This was a way that I could show my solidarity with millions of Americans who heeded President Bush’s words to carry on and show the world that terrorism was not going to incapacitate the United States.

My first stop that morning was the Empire State Building. I wondered if I would be able to go up to the observation deck to see New York’s scarred and forever-changed skyline. I learned from one of the security staff that the observation deck was closed not only as a security precaution, but because, “It’s what you don’t see.” And with a quivering voice that trailed off: “That smoke still rising -- those poor people.”

I had heard that Union Square had a memorial for the victims. I came upon an outdoor cathedral with seemingly endless candles, flags, banners, signs, flowers and stuffed animals of every size, which poetically came together almost as a spiral, culminating with the great statue of George Washington on horseback, his head raised, determined and noble, and looking directly south at Ground Zero.

The mood was an ever-changing charge of sadness, anger, defiance, pride, and nurturance. Musicians alternated between playing a patriotic, and then soothing, melody. Church group volunteers distributed bottled water and sandwiches. Pilots and flight attendants stood vigil as people offered condolences for their lost colleagues. Police, firefighters, and soldiers in fatigues were quietly thanked for their heroic efforts. Complete strangers offered a shoulder or a few kind words for those stricken with grief.

I had brought a small sign with me. Even though I once lived and worked in the East Village, I knew that I was not the only person in the world who had a connection to the city, and some of the people who perished. The sign bore an American flag, and the words “You are not alone.” I signed it: “Someone who cares in Albany.” I knelt down to attach it to the fence, and as I did, I felt a hand on my shoulder. A woman in professional attire looked at me and said, “Thank you,” and walked away.

I knelt there a few minutes saying a prayer, and it was then that I noticed the cracks in the cement -- they were multi-hued. As the thousands of candles melted, their wax flowed down the cracks and crevices of the cement, blending together. It was the same with this crowd at Union Square. It was comprised of men, women, and children from all different races, creeds, and backgrounds. Yet all were there for a common purpose. They were testifying, showing the world the incredible strength and majesty of this community and nation.

On the periphery of this incredible display of unity, were several individuals who seemed to almost be unaware of the crowds. One of these individuals, an older woman with curly gray hair, was methodically affixing fliers to the fence, lampposts, mailboxes, and one of the many homemade bulletin boards that seem to be all over the city. She is looking for her daughter, who is “missing at the WTC.” Several hours later, I saw this same woman more than 30 blocks north of the square by St. Patrick’s Cathedral, still posting the fliers. I bought a bottle of water for her, and she told me that I was the third person that day who offered such a kindness.

I walked down West Broadway (which I had done many times before), and it seemed so unreal - the Twin Towers were really gone. At Canal Street, I watched as hundreds of people silently walked up to the barricades and offered a hand to the police, emergency workers, and soldiers manning the positions, thanking them for their efforts and sacrifices. I did the same.

I was deeply impressed by the guardians’ courage and professionalism. Even after countless hours, they still showed patience dealing with the Tribeca residents showing identification to get to their homes, as well as the many people who came to pay their respects. The faces of these diligent men and women run long from grief and exhaustion, but if you look deep into their eyes you can see that they are not going to stop until every last victim is found, and justice is served. This same look can be found at the several firehouses I passed in Lower Manhattan, each with their own memorials created by the people.

Throughout the entire day, what struck me most was the unstoppable spirit of Gotham. We all must continue to move forward, and learn from this tragedy. But we must temper this progress with steadfastness in finding the complete truth, providing proper justice, using common sense, and respecting one another.

Finally, as a public historian, my hope is that a museum will be created to remember and memorialize September 11, 2001. This may sound premature while more than 5,000 people remain unaccounted for and presumed lost, but plans for such a museum should begin soon.

Even though events are still unfolding, I think of all the memorials, and how one day items from them need to be properly collected if we are to save the memories for posterity, so that we will never forget that Tuesday.

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