Jaccard: Quality of Mother-Teen Relationship Affects Adolescent Sexual Behavior
By Carol Olechowski
Distinguished Professor of Psychology James Jaccard’s 15-plus years of researching parent-adolescent communication have revealed that “what parents say and do, and the kinds of relationships they have with their children, make a difference in their children’s lives.” And the results of his latest study are “consistent with this view.”

Jaccard and Patricia J. Dittus, Ph.D. - a former UAlbany doctoral student and post-doctoral researcher now employed as a scientist at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta - published results from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health in the September 2000 American Journal of Public Health. The article, “Adolescent Perceptions of Maternal Approval of Birth Control and Sexual Risk Behavior,” notes that 10,000 students in grades 7 to 11, and their mothers, were interviewed once, then again 12 months later. Teenaged participants responded to questions regarding their mothers’ attitudes toward birth control and their own sexual activity; their perceptions of their own physical development; and their satisfaction with their relationships with their moms. Queries to mothers focused on the likelihood that their children were romantically involved with members of the opposite sex. Moms were also asked to articulate their views on contraception and adolescent sex.

In the broader study, Jaccard and Dittus collaborated with some of the very best social scientists in the country. More than 20 federal agencies, with the National Institute of Health as the lead funding organization, supported the project, a large-scale, multidisciplinary effort centered at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Launched in the interest of better understanding of the dynamics of adolescent health, the study included students of all ethnic backgrounds throughout the continental United States.

“The study results suggest that perceived parental approval of birth control may increase the probability of sexual activity in some adolescents,” Jaccard and Dittus conclude in the journal article. “‘Safer sex’ messages must be conveyed by parents with thought and care . . . Relationship satisfaction between adolescents and their mothers had a consistent effect on all outcomes, such that higher-quality relationships were associated with a higher probability of using birth control and a lower probability of both engaging in sex and becoming pregnant.”

Jaccard added: “Many people think that adolescence is a time when children reject their parents and are peer oriented. But, in general, my research has found that, if parents have a good relationship with their child, then their child is less likely to engage in problem behaviors - such as those leading to the misuse of alcohol, unintended pregnancy, and HIV.”

He conceded that “the issue of talking about birth control, and how best to do this, is a complex one. Most parents try to discourage their child from having sex by emphasizing only the threats of unintended pregnancy and various sexually transmitted diseases they may contract - most notably AIDS. My past research suggests that if parents effectively convey their disapproval of their child engaging in sex, and convey reasons for not having sex beyond simple pregnancy and disease issues, the chances that the child will do so are lessened. However, some children will think their parents are less disapproving of sexual activity if the parents also talk with them about birth control.

“Parents need to make certain that their children fully understand, in no ambiguous terms, how they feel about the children having sex. Parents who, for religious or moral reasons, do not want their children to use birth control need to understand that their adolescents may be at greater risk of experiencing an unintended pregnancy or contracting a sexually transmitted disease. They must be that much more vigilant about making sure their children do not put themselves in a position to experience these outcomes.”

The NIH and other agencies that supported the study have committed additional funding so that the original participants, interviewed in 1995, can be interviewed again next year. “Our goal is to re-examine these adolescents and then trace the experiences that made a difference in how they turned out as young adults,” said Jaccard, who is putting together an 80-page manual that offers helpful advice for parents on how to discuss such topics as sex and birth control with their children. “It includes what to say, when to say it, how to say it, how often to say it, and where to say it,” Jaccard added. “I can’t imagine parents not talking with their children about such important issues. They must do it!”

UAlbany Assists Industry
By Carol Olechowski
UAlbany School of Business Dean Richard A. Highfield feels it’s important to “give our students a very thorough education in the basics, as well as experience where theory meets practice.” Through the MBA field project, they get both.

The field project program, supervised by Management Information Systems faculty member Peter Ross and his School colleagues, is a two-semester program that offers students six academic credits and the opportunity to “go in not as experts, but as problem-solvers.” It also affords them work experience that will assist them in getting jobs - and in meeting the challenges their careers will present.

At the start of the Fall 1999 semester, Ross assigned three of his graduate students - Viral Patel, Jeffrey Shore, and Yinzhi Yuan - to assist Hudson-based L&B Contract Industries by putting in a job-costing system. (Ross’s other students were engaged in field projects at Latham Medical Group, MapInfo, and other area businesses last year.)

L&B, a 60-year-old firm with a workforce of several hundred, manufactures furniture for hotels, restaurants, and other businesses within the hospitality industry. And, although company managers knew that L&B’s annual sales number in the millions of dollars, they had no way of knowing precisely how much it cost to manufacture each table and chair. Joined by another grad student, Lei Shen, in January, Patel, Shore, and Yuan set to work to find out. Initially, said Yuan, the four tried to calculate manufacturing costs using a stopwatch. That method, however, wasn’t practical, noted the Fudan University graduate.

New Jersey native Patel, who earned his undergraduate degree at Penn State, recalled the process as “difficult”: The 24-year-old consultants had to “learn the manufacturing process and speak with the workers.” But because the jobs had become second-nature to L&B’s employees, “it was hard for them to say how much time they spent making the furnishings,” Patel added.

From September 1999 through early May 2000 - just prior to their graduation - the quartet dedicated 10 to 12 hours a week to the L&B field project. They concluded that the most effective method for the firm to handle its job-costing needs would be the installation of a bar-code scanner that would automatically record manufacturing time. Made by the company whose software L&B already owns, the scanner “would be easy to integrate,” said Yuan, who was hired by a California-based Internet startup shortly after graduation.

Each of the 24-year-old consultants found the L&B experience helpful. Shore, of Liverpool, New York, commented that the field project not only helped him “learn how to deal with people” but offered insight into “where I should be on the team.” “Yinzhi and Viral are more technologically inclined,” he pointed out, “while my strength is in dealing with people. Everyone learns from everyone else. I’ve learned more technical things, and others have learned more of the ‘business’ side of things from me.” Shore, who earned his bachelor’s in economics at Albany, is employed by Price Waterhouse Coopers in Boston.

Shore’s colleague Shen received a degree in international marketing at Nankai University in China. His participation in the L&B field project convinced him that “I will do some kind of applications development work. I’ve also learned more about the cost of [manufacturing] processes. You have to give the company as much information as possible to make its operations cost-effective.”

Highfield is delighted with the field project, which gives students “credit for what they learn.” He added: “It’s a real learning experience, and it’s more than just book learning. It’s also very much married to the University’s goal of being more involved, more a part of business development in the Capital Region. L&B is a good example of a regional company that is benefiting considerably - at least as much as our students do.”

L&B’s board chairman and CFO, Michael Dranichak, termed the experience “rewarding for the students and for us. It’s not ‘make-work.’ They’ve done a lot of work in preparing background materials for us. They’re very sharp, and they have great computer skills. I think they’ve enjoyed not only being exposed to this whole operation but sharing with their peers what they were learning.

“We’ve enjoyed having them and look forward to the next group.”

Edgar W. Flinton, 94
Edgar W. Flinton, 94, of East Dennis, Mass., died September 7 at Rosewood Manor in Harwich. Flinton was dean of Graduate Studies at the University at Albany, retiring in 1971.

Born in Ballston Spa and reared in Leominster, Mass., he graduated from Boston University and earned a master’s in education and education doctorate from Harvard University.

He and his wife, the late Doris S. (Holt) Flinton, co-founded Pine Cobble School, Williamstown, Mass., in 1930. He was the father of Dr. John H. Flinton, Suzanne H. Flinton and Jennifer S. Diener.

Albany Molecular Celebrates Expansion
By Mary Fiess
Albany Molecular Research, Inc. (AMRI) held an open house at the University’s East Campus today to celebrate its expansion there and to honor State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno for his significant contributions to economic development in the Capital Region and New York State.

Through an $11 million renovation, Albany Molecular is transforming a building on the East Campus into a state-of-the-art biotechnology development center, which it dedicated today in honor of Bruno.

Bruno provided pivotal support for the initial $5 million state economic development grant that financed the acquisition of the East Campus by the University at Albany Foundation, and he also helped secure $2 million in economic development funding for the AMRI facility.

AMRI CEO Thomas D’Ambra said Senator Bruno’s “support of this project and his efforts to help us secure state funding are, in large measure, responsible for our decision to invest millions of our own dollars to renovate the University’s facility rather than purchase a more up-to-date facility out of this area.”

“The University’s vision for the East Campus as a national center for biotechnology and biotechnology research is moving closer to realization, thanks to the inspired leadership of Senator Bruno and such dynamic business partners as Thomas D’Ambra. It is great partnerships like these that advance both our University’s research mission and the economic vitality of our region and state,” said University President Karen R. Hitchcock.

In Print

The Organizing Property of Communication

Professor François Cooren of the Department of Communication has written a new book, The Organizing Property of Communication, (John Benjamins Publishing Company, 255 pages, $50) that examines the building blocks that constitute an organization.

Cooren looks at the mechanics of organization by mobilizing concepts traditionally reserved to linguistics, analytical philosophy, and semiotics. Based on Algirdas Julien Greimas’s semio-narrative model of action and Jacques Derrida’s concept of écriture, Cooren proposes a reconceptualization of speech act theory. The idea of (speech and physical) acts that are deferred introduces another theory of action that mobilizes not only human, but also non-human actors (texts, machines, architectural elements and computers). Congruent with the development of the sociology of translation developed by Michel Callon and Bruno Latour, this perspective illustrates the organizing property of communication through a process called “interactoriality,” i.e., a process that implies the interaction of actors with variable ontologies - essentially discursive and physical - that structure and organize our universe.

James R. Taylor, professor emeritus of communication at the University of Montreal, said, “François Cooren’s remarkable book is destined to become one of the keystone texts of an emerging new school of theorization and research: the investigation of organization as a phenomenon of language . . . it represents a genuinely new approach to some old questions, and it does so without ever abandoning the highest standards of academic scholarship. The book is meticulously written, cogent, and profound. It is destined, I believe, to become one of those works that marks a transition in our way of thinking about our fields.”

University at Albany Brings College to State Education Department Work Place
By Greta Petry
Imagine. You’re working away all morning at your desk at the State Education Department (SED) in downtown Albany. Suddenly, you look up at the clock and realize it’s 11:40 a.m.

Is it time for an early lunch? Another cup of coffee? A walk to the water fountain? No.

It’s time for University at Albany classes.

UAlbany and the State Education Department announced on Friday a pilot program to bring the college classroom into the work place.

Under this program, called College at Work, SED employees will be able to take undergraduate classes right in the SED building at lunchtime. The program is designed for those without a bachelor’s degree. For workers who have been out of school for many years, this program is a convenient way to adjust to the rigors of the academic world on a part-time basis.

SED Commissioner Richard P. Mills said, “Our mission at the State Education Department is to raise the knowledge, skill and opportunity of all the people in New York. We have to show that we mean that by acting that way close to home. It was essential that we form an alliance with a first rate University and we found that partner at the University at Albany.”

UAlbany President Karen R. Hitchcock said, “The University at Albany is reaching out to non-traditional students in a variety of ways, and we are very delighted to be a partner with the State Education Department in offering this innovative opportunity to working adults. Our faculty and staff are committed to helping the students in this program achieve their educational goals.”

The pilot program is one of the innovative educational initiatives that have been developed under the leadership of Jo Ann Weatherwax, UAlbany’s special assistant to the President for planning.

Lisa Trubitt, College at Work project manager and coordinator for UAlbany’s Office of Extended Learning, said, “The College at Work Program is one example of how the University at Albany is creating a friendly and welcoming environment for non-traditional student populations.”

The announcement of the program was made by Hitchcock and Mills in the second floor rotunda of the State Education Department building in Albany.

An orientation was held in August to introduce these new SED students to the University community. UAlbany’s Jim Trudeau made himself available to help the new students obtain their SUNY cards, which are used for many purposes, including photo identification and to borrow books from the University Libraries.

Carson Carr, Jr., associate vice president for Academic Affairs, was on hand at the orientation to tell the new students what is expected of them, and to let them know that study skills workshops are available for them.

Trubitt said, “We wanted the SED employees to know that they are also our students. As such, each of them is entitled to the same services as any other UAlbany student.”

Trubitt said that Michele Lasak and Louise Lifford of the Office of General Studies have been “wonderfully helpful” to her in setting up the program. “Theirs is a truly student-centered office,” she said.

The pilot program will be offered for two semesters. At the end of the one-year period, SED management will evaluate the effectiveness of the program. During the pilot project, only Albany-based employees will be eligible to participate.

The University will send in its faculty members to do the teaching, and it will offer the workers a series of undergraduate credit-bearing course sequences. The first two sequences will be Written Communications and Information/Data Analysis.

Participation is limited to 50 students for the first year. If there is sustained interest in the program, that number has the potential to increase. Students are expected to maintain a B average.

For the 2000-2001 academic year, the SED is paying 53 percent of the cost of tuition; UAlbany will pay 12 percent; and the student will pay 35 percent, as well as the cost of books and materials.

Using historical artifacts and the work of ten contemporary artists, Searching the Criminal Body explores how current ideas about criminal behavior are influenced by 200 years of visual information on the subject. The curators, Susan Erony, an artist and independent curator, and Nicole Hahn Rafter, Ph.D., a professor in the Northeastern University College of Criminal Justice, share a mutual interest in history, gender, and the social construction of crime and criminals. Their selections for the exhibit shed light on discarded scientific theories about criminal behavior and reflect their belief that the latest theories on criminal behavior should be met with cautionary vigilance.

The exhibit’s historical artifacts come from private and public collections - many of the objects are on public view for the first time. Nineteenth-century phrenological charts, journals, and illustrations featured alongside phrenological heads made of ivory, porcelain, and scrimshaw are graphic reminders of how pseudo-science permeated 19th century thought and culture. Margaret Bourke-White’s photographs taken in the 1930s at Letchworth Village, N.Y., are poignant examples of society’s need to define and contain potential criminal behavior in our own time. Also featured is a special exhibit of vernacular photographs from the Burns Archive, one of the world’s largest collections of criminological images. Included are shots from as early as the 1840s of crime scenes, criminal files, penal institutions, law enforcement and forensic sciences.

The museum’s second floor Mezzanine Gallery features ten artists who use a variety of contemporary art practices to investigate the complexities of defining criminal behavior in visual terms. Several artists appropriate the scientist’s visual vocabulary in installations that include data, charts and documentary photography; others take on the voice of the accused by combining invented identities with written text and personal artifacts. At the heart of these artists’ investigations is a united attempt to understand and come to terms with the line between criminal and non-criminal behavior. The results are often troubling, sometimes funny, and always provocative. Among the featured artists are internationally renowned conceptualist Dennis Oppenheim, political activist Ellen Rothenberg, UAlbany Assistant Professor of Art Danny Goodwin, and UAlbany alumni Lillian Mulero and Michael Oatman. Also featured are Michael Bramwell, Erony, Homer Jackson, Jay Jaroslav, Ruth Liberman and Erika Marquardt.

In conjunction with the University Art Museum’s Searching the Criminal Body, the New York Writers Institute will screen a series of six film noir classics of the 40s and 50s during October and will feature a lecture by Ted Conover, author of Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing on Thursday, Oct. 26, at 8 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center Recital Hall.

Other special programs include a conference by UAlbany’s School of Criminal Justice on Science, Technology, and the DNA Debate on Friday, Oct. 27, and a downtown forum organized by the Center for Arts and Humanities.

Official Opening of the Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope Facility Purchased initially for a group of twelve researchers in the Department of Biological Sciences, the Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope and its separate computer work station are available for use by any trained faculty members and their students from this campus, or other Capital Region universities and colleges, and by the staff from the Wadsworth Research Laboratories and local commercial companies. Information on availability, training and fees can be obtained from the facility manager, J. Travis, (518-442-4329), or facility directors C.S. Izzard (518-442-4367) and J.T. Schmidt (518-442-4309).

EOP Wins National Award
The University’s Educational Opportunities Program (EOP) has received one of six national awards in the 2000 Retention Excellence Awards Program competition sponsored by Noel Levitz, U.S.A. Group Company. The award application was submitted by Maritza Martinez, assistant dean of Academic Support Services. Six colleges and universities were chosen to receive awards which were presented at the 2000 National Conference on Student Retention, held in Washington, D.C., July 12 to 15.

“This award publicly recognizes the excellence of our program. It exemplifies institutional commitment, both financially and morally, in assisting economically disadvantaged students. Also, it recognizes the effective collaboration of the EOP staff,” said Carson Carr, Jr., EOP director and associate vice president for Academic Affairs.

Retention figures rose more than 10 percent, from 83.87 percent for the entering class of 1994 to 94.02 percent for the entering class of 1995. The one-year retention rate for fall 1998, the latest year for which statistics were available, is 94.7 percent. In addition, EOP first-semester freshmen have made the Dean’s List at a higher rate than have their non-EOP counterparts.

Of the EOP program participants, about half of the UAlbany graduates enter graduate school immediately after graduation. The other half secure employment positions. They enter a variety of professional positions (physicians, lawyers, teachers, social services positions, and business careers), becoming productive tax-paying citizens and contributing members of their communities. Many of these graduates remain active with the University by contributing to the EOP Emergency and Scholarship Fund and are involved in the University’s Alumni Association. They also return to the University periodically for reunions.

“It can be quite a challenge to find one’s niche at a mid-sized university of 17,000 plus undergraduate and graduate students, particularly during that most critical first year of college life. The Educational Opportunities Program at the University at Albany is geared to address just that challenge. By combining intensive interactive programs, early orientation, and continued outreach and academic support, the University has created a national model program,” Carr said.

IFW Dinner Slated for October 24
By Lisa James Goldsberry
The University’s Initiatives For Women will present its seventh annual Fall Fundraising Dinner on Tuesday, Oct. 24, at 5:30 p.m. at Herbert’s at Birch Hill, 1 Celebration Way in Schodack. The program will be Women in the Media: the Inside Scoop, a conversation moderated by University President Karen R. Hitchcock. She will host a conversation with Susan Arbetter, WAMC Northeast Public Radio; Liz Bishop, WRGB Channel 6; Joann Crupi, Albany Times Union; Benita Zahn, Channel 13; and Tasha Jamerson, co-anchor at WTEN Channel 10. Tickets are $65 each; tables of eight can be purchased for $1,000. Sponsor and donor tickets are available for $100, $150, and $250. For more information or tickets, contact Diane Cardone in the Office of Affirmative Action at 437-4780.

Susan Arbetter is the news director at WAMC Northeast Public Radio. She has worked in radio for 12 years, starting in Boston at WBOS-FM. Arbetter moved to upstate New York in 1991, working as a deejay and a morning personality at WTRY/WPYX before joining the staff of WAMC in 1993.

Liz Bishop’s career has spanned more than two decades at Channel 6. A 1984 UAlbany graduate, she became the first woman reporter allowed into the New York Yankee locker room after the Supreme Court ruled it should be open to women reporters.

Joann Crupi is editor of the opinion pages at the Times Union. She is responsible for the editorial pages, daily op ed pages and Sunday Perspective section. Before taking this job, Joann was executive city editor of the Times Union where she directed local news coverage.

Tasha Jamerson has been co-anchor of the morning show at WTEN-Channel 10 since 1988. She began at the station in 1996 as a reporter. Prior to coming to Albany, she worked as a producer and then morning anchor/reporter for WABI-TV, the CBS affiliate in Bangor, Maine, where she became the first African- American local news personality in the state. Jamerson graduated from the University of Maine in 1994.

Benita Zahn began at Channel 13 in 1979. During her tenure, she has covered the 1996 Republican Convention and the 1984 Democratic Convention and general assignment stories. A native of Long Island, Benita is a graduate of SUNY Oswego where she earned a bachelor’s degree in communication studies/broadcasting and a bachelor’s degree in theater arts.

Initiatives For Women Awards Announced
Initiatives For Women (IFW) recently announced its award recipients for the year 2000. This year IFW gave a special “Support Her Dreams” award of $1,000 to Katea Dale, a UAlbany graduate student who appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in May. Dale, who is currently working on two master’s degrees, in reading and special education, already has a master’s degree in social work from UAlbany. Dale, 24, has been raising her five brothers and sisters under the kinship foster care program of Social Services since last year.

Presidential Awards ($1,000 each)
Belle Gironda, Grace Mose, Librada Pimentel-Brown, Judy Postmus, Sarah Sobieraj

Endowed Gifts Susan VanHorn-Shipherd '64 Women in Science Scholarship ($500)
Karin Ford

Bernice Mosbey Peebles '39 Scholarship Award ($500)
Tamara Stovall

The Lillian Barlow Initiatives For Women Award ($500)
Jenny Wistedt

The Christine E. Bose and Edna Acosta-Belen IFW Feminist Research Award ($500)
Harry Ann Pearce

The Gloria R. DeSole Fund for IFW ($500)
Stephanie Madnick

The Judy L. Genshaft IFW Award ($500 + $500 from the General Fund) Maritza Martinez

The IFW Fine Art Scholarship Award ($500)
Jessica Morrison

Anne Gustin Scholarship for Women in Law and Government ($250 + $250 from the General Fund)
Rochelle Haynes

The Secretarial/Clerical Council IFW Award ($250 + $250 from the General Fund)
Marina Taylor

The Gladys and David Groudine IFW Award ($500)
Constance Spohn

Patrick A. Foti Award in Memory of R. Thomas Flemming ($500)
Sarah McClean

John S. Levato Award in Memory of Lai Wah Kui '97 ($500)
Wendy Gobeil-St. Pierre

John S. Levato Award in Memory of Jennine O'Reilly-Conway '88 ($500) Kimberly McClive

The Lena Tucker IFW Memorial Award ($500)
Ozioma Egwuonwu

General Awards ($200-$500 for individual awards; $900 to an organization)
Nancy Belowich-Negron, Judeen Byrne, Elizabeth Campisi, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning -The Ariadne Project, Tracey Chance, Michele Guzmán, Jennifer Hays, Danielle Kassow, Jennifer Keys, Kristen Knutson, Julia Monakova, Julie Osland, Josephine Ravida, Rosann Santos, Edie Watson

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