A United Campus Responds
By Mary Fiess
With an outpouring of compassion and unity in countless ways, UAlbany students, faculty, and staff quickly responded to Tuesday’s horrific events.

By the hundreds, UAlbany community members lined up to donate blood at the Campus Center in the hours after the terrorist attacks. UAlbany members of National Guard units, six Five Quad EMTs, and others prepared to join rescue efforts in New York City. And in small and large groups, in organized and informal gatherings, UAlbany community members offered support to one another.

On Tuesday evening, as many as 1,000 students, faculty, and staff attended a candlelight vigil around the main fountain area at the center of the campus.

And an even larger UAlbany group - an estimated 3,000 in number - walked together, joined hands, shared prayers, and sang together on Wednesday during a Campus Unity Walk.

“As we all come together today, we are united in our compassion for the members of our University family - indeed for all who have lost loved ones in yesterday’s tragic events, united in our support of those who suffer the agony of grave injury or the terrible anguish of not yet knowing the fate of their friends and family, united in our desire to be of service to those in need, and united in our commitment to democratic ideals - to freedom and the value of each and every human life,” said University President Karen R. Hitchcock at the Campus Unity Walk.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Raymond Murphy and his family. A freshman here, Raymond lost his father, one of the many courageous firemen who gave their lives to save others,” said Hitchcock.

“Our students have come together like I have never seen them come together before,” said Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Carson Carr. Then, speaking directly to the many students who participated in the walk, Carr said their many acts of compassion boded well for the future for “you are our future leadership. We are counting on you.”

As she walked, sophomore Lakiesha Hall recounted how she had spent the hours following the attacks trying to get information about relatives who worked at the World Trade Center. An uncle, she said, was one who escaped before the buildings collapsed, but her family had not yet heard from a cousin. Her godmother, Elaine Penn, had come to Lakiesha’s residence hall on Tuesday night to pray with her and friends.

Following the Campus Unity Walk, faculty members led campus forums and teach-ins.

The School of Business faculty held a session on current events in the context of ethics, reason, and culture in the Campus Center Assembly Hall.

The New York State Writers Institute offered readings by English department faculty William Kennedy, Judith Johnson, Pierre Joris, and Donald Faulkner, in Humanities 354.

Wednesday evening, School of Social Welfare faculty held a session on coping with trauma in the Page Hall lounge of the downtown campus.

Also holding teach-ins were the College of Arts and Sciences, the Schools of Criminal Justice and Education, the School of Information Science and Policy, and the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy. The latter offered a session on international, domestic, and political policy implications of the tragedy.

Approximately 36 percent of the University’s undergraduate students come from Long Island and New York City.

Classes were cancelled Tuesday afternoon and Wed-nesday, but were scheduled to resume Thursday.

UAlbany Symposium Draws Semiconductor Industry Giants
By Vinny Reda
New York Governor George Pataki told more than 175 representatives of the semiconductor industry and investment world on Monday that “a large part” of the future of the semiconductor industry will take place in New York State.

Delivering the keynote lunch address for the opening day of the three-day Albany Symposium on Global Semiconductor Issues, held at the Sagamore Hotel on Lake George, N.Y., Pataki said that New York “has in place all of the elements that support a robust semiconductor industry.” He included among those strengths a “strong economic climate,” a social climate with reduced violent crime, and “the workforce to get the job done.”

New York’s semiconductor opportunities were a recurring message on the first day of the three-day symposium, which is subtitled “A Global Semiconductor Economics Roadmap for the 300 mm and Nanotechnology Era.” The political/economic state of the industry and its prospects were the overriding themes.

Dr. John E. Kelly III, senior vice president and group executive of the IBM Technology Group, told the opening session that IBM will continue to invest in New York State and the Northeast because of “the great resources the region offers,” including a skilled workforce and a government-friendly environment.

Kelly also said, “The challenges presenting themselves to the industry today demand collaboration between industry, universities and government . . . We’ve had a great history of partnership and a network to work with in New York State. Especially noteworthy has been our investment of $100 million worth of equipment, software, services and technology licenses with the University at Albany.”

The Symposium addressed how the semiconductor industry’s explosive growth since the 1950s has taken a cyclical path, but that the current cycle appears headed toward a crucial juncture. Nanosystems, biochips, MEMS (MicroElectro Mechanical Systems), and other technologies, plus the transition to 300-millimeter wafer chip manufacturing, are planting the seeds of new industry and forcing all to respond to increasing consumer demands.

Semiconductor industry leaders from around the world were joined by key government figures and academicians at the Symposium, which was co-hosted by Albany NanoTech, UAlbany’s university/industry/government research and development complex, and the New York Capital Region’s Center for Economic Growth.

“A wafer size shift is under way that may alter established supply and demand relationships,” says Juri Matisoo, Ph.D., vice president for technology of the Semiconductor Industry Association and the Albany Symposium chairman.

The demand-side factors will result in new product development, which will in turn create an industry/government challenge to tap the intellectual and workforce development potential of research universities. This paradigm will occur at UAlbany’s Institute for Materials, whose Center for Excellence in Nanoelectronics and 300-mm chip-fabrication plant received critical support in 2001 with a $100 million gift from IBM and $50 million from New York state.

“The 300-mm transition is an immediate though unsettled issue that concerns manufacturing economics and profit,” said Matisoo. “In contrast, nanotechnology is nascent, warranting consideration because its technological potential is so significant that it could foster a host of new 21st century industries.

“Geopolitics and global economics are resculpting the landscape of international business, forcing local and regional industry into the arena of world trade,” he added. A session of the symposium was devoted to various economic and political dynamics facing industries in North America, the European Community, the Pacific Rim, and “the emerging behemoths,” China and India.

Among the scheduled speakers on this topic were Wei-Wen He, economic and commerce counselor for the Peoples Republic of China, and Dr. Shekhar Wadekar, principal of the Royal Bank of Canada Dain Rauscher Wessels.

Special guest speakers for the symposium included Dr. C. Robert Helms, president of International Sematech of Austin, Texas; Dale W. Jorgenson, Frederic Eaton Abbe Professor of Economics at Harvard University; and George Scalise, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association.

All three men addressed the Symposium on Monday. Also scheduled to speak was UAlbany Executive Director of the Institute of Materials Alain Kaloyeros, who addressed the topic of the “latent resource” of industry/university/government interaction.

Grant Will Expand CLD Initiative in Lebanon
By Vinny Reda
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded the Center for Legislative Development at the University at Albany a $17.26 million grant to continue CLD’s efforts to strengthen municipal institutions in Lebanon and increase their effectiveness in support of democracy.

Over the past several years, CLD, supported by a cooperative agreement with USAID, has provided technical assistance for 82 municipalities in Lebanon toward achieving these goals. As part of the Lebanon Project, CLD has helped to streamline key central government oversight agencies that create regulations deemed necessary to strengthen the role of municipalities.

This new USAID award, which expands CLD’s assistance to the country’s remaining 700 municipalities, “is an integral part of the foreign assistance program to Lebanon to foster economic growth and enhance citizen participation in the political process,”said Jon Breslar, USAID Lebanon mission director. “This project will enhance the newly emerging democratic process, and strengthen the relationship between citizens and their elected institutions.”

“This will, in turn, protect the emerging democratic process from certain negative aspects that were a result of 16 years of civil war in Lebanon,” added CLD director Abdo I. Baaklini, who also directs the Lebanon Project. He noted that, with the 1998 municipal elections in Lebanon - the first in 35 years - more than 7,000 council members were elected to design and implement local public policies in the nation’s municipalities.

“Municipalities, the intermediary government, the various oversight agencies, and the Lebanese Parliament will act capably and efficiently, by modern standards, once certain weaknesses in their structure have been addressed,” said Baaklini. “The USAID and CLD program will usher in a new era in local government in Lebanon.”

UAlbany President Karen R. Hitchcock noted: “This latest expansion of CLD’s Lebanon Project is a striking example of the critical difference a research university can make by infusing global perspectives throughout its academic programs. Under the leadership of Dr. Baaklini, our Center for Legislative Development has compiled an extraordinary 30-year record of facilitating efficient self-government in emerging democracies across four continents. Along the way, it has brought valuable educational experiences in public administration to more than 1,000 students from America and abroad.”

CLD’s goals in Lebanon are to simplify municipal administrative procedures; standardize municipal budget revenue and expenditures; and use information technology to allow municipalities to provide services to their citizens in a transparent, efficient, and accountable manner. CLD will work with central government oversight agencies and the Lebanese Parliament on updating decentralization laws and improving intergovernmental procedures.

Mahmoud Batlouni, Lebanon Project director for CLD, noted that, because of its extensive experience in Lebanon, the Center has developed “superb working relationships with all the principal actors in Lebanon. We do not need any start-up time to begin implementation of the project, since the required project implementation structure is in place.”

Batlouni, a computer engineer with 15 years of system development experience, added: “We have developed most of the required information systems and databases for the municipalities. After minor modification to meet regional and district government needs, they will be ready for implementation. This will bring significant savings in resources and will permit immediate implementation.”

CLD is the primary institution in the U.S. offering academic and applied studies in the administration of legislative organizations and in legislative research and information technology. For three decades, it has mounted training and technical assistance programs aimed at strengthening the capacity of governmental institutions - particularly legislatures - to support democratic development.

Successful activities and projects have been implemented in such diverse areas as Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Central Europe, and the Middle East. CLD has worked with USAID in Lebanon since 1993 to implement the Lebanon Relief and Redevelopment Project.

TRIO Grant to Aid Disadvantaged Students
By Lisa James Goldsberry
The University at Albany has a new program that will help 250 disadvantaged students realize their full academic and professional potential. The program will offer services designed to increase retention and graduation rates for students disadvantaged by low income, disabilities or because they are first-generation college students who lack support.

UAlbany has received a four-year, $760,000 award from the U.S. Department of Educa-tion to fund a Student Sup-port Services Program under the TRIO grant program. TRIO evolved from the three DOE initiatives - Upward Bound, Talent Search, and Student Services - created in the 1960s under the terms of the Higher Education Act.

Students who meet the eligibility requirements will benefit from many services, including academic advisement, counseling, financial aid planning, culturally enriching activities, and field trips to local industries. An 80 percent graduation rate is the program’s goal.

“These services will provide opportunities for students to realize the expectations of the professional world, as well as offer insights into graduate school and employment opportunities available,” said Carson Carr, associate vice president for Academic Affairs and director of UAlbany’s Educational Opportunity Program.

The Federal TRIO Programs are educational opportunity outreach programs designed to motivate and support students from disadvantaged backgrounds. TRIO includes six outreach and support programs targeted to serve and assist low-income, first-generation college, and disabled students to progress through the academic pipeline from middle school to post-baccalaureate programs.

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