The
Freshman Class: High-Quality Students from 30 States, 11 Nations
By Greta Petry
There’s something new about the freshman class at the University at
Albany this fall: Its 2,300 students hail from a wider geographic region
than ever before. A full 10 percent of the incoming freshman class is
made up of out-of-state residents (an estimated 190) or international
students (approximately 40). Students represent 30 states and 11 countries
in this entering class. The incoming freshman class is also increasing
in number, with 100 more students than last year.
“These are exciting times for the University,” said Robert K. Andrea, director of Admissions. “The addition of new facilities, as well as the renovation of existing classrooms and lecture centers, will continue to contribute greatly to positioning ourselves as a top choice for high-achieving students.”
The University has prepared for student enrollment growth with new housing at Empire Commons for 800 students, improved Internet service through ResNet, and a new sculpture studio. Students attending classes in the College of Arts & Sciences building (the former Administration building) are enjoying newly renovated classroom space, including the only registrar-scheduled classroom with computers for the students as well as the instructors. Any department can use this classroom, which has 25 computers for students.
UAlbany has completed a major overhaul of the entire residential network (ResNet). All of the old equipment was replaced by new Cisco switches, giving students 10 times as much bandwidth on a more secure network.
Andrea, who took the helm as director of Admis-sions July 16 upon the retirement of Harry Wood, said the changing face of the freshman class shows the University is achieving its recruitment goals while maintaining selectivity.
“Only 3 percent of the graduating Class of 2002 was made up of out-of-state students,” said Andrea, who joined UAlbany in 1999 after working in admissions at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., for 18 years in positions of increasing authority. “That number has increased to almost eight percent of Fall 2002 entering freshmen.” The increased percentage shows the emphasis Admissions has placed on making the University’s many advantages known beyond the borders of New York State.
“While increasing our outreach to other states and countries, we have also improved the quality of the applicant pool,” Andrea said. “Focusing on student quality keeps us on target with our Mission Review goals.”
In order to increase selectivity while admitting a larger freshman class, the University has made a targeted institutional investment in merit scholarships for high-achieving undergraduates by increasing these scholarships tenfold since 1996. The University welcomed 176 new Presidential Scholars to campus this fall, including a record 19 Frederick Douglass Scholars and 90 College Scholars. Since coming to Albany, Andrea has provided strong leadership in the continuing recruitment and admission of students from these key groups.
SEMATECH
North Moves to UAlbany
By Mary Fiess
When International
SEMATECH North comes to campus later this fall, its focus will be on
phenomena at the nanoscale. But the impact of its arrival is certain
to be measured on a scale billions of times larger.
From new opportunities for students and faculty and new jobs for the region and state to the development of the technologies of the future, the new center, in the view of University, governmental, and business leaders, will be transformational in its impact.
“Forty-nine other states and nations from around the globe would be thrilled to have secured this facility, but it’s coming right here to New York, where it will transform the upstate economy and bring thousands of new high-paying jobs to the Capital District,” said New York Gov. George Pataki when he announced on July 18 that International SEMA-TECH (an acronym for Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology) would locate its new research and development center at UAlbany’s Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics.
International SEMATECH is a consortium of 12 major computer-chip manufacturers in the world. The goal of its new R&D center at UAlbany is to help develop emerging semiconductor technologies for making the chips of the future with their ever-tinier transistors and nanoscale features.
“This is one of the most exciting days, I believe, ever in the history of upstate New York because the announcement means almost literally that the future, the 21st century, is being developed in upstate New York, and the centerpiece is going to be right here at our Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics,” said Pataki. The governor made the an-nouncement at the University’s Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management (CESTM), the current home of the Center of Excellence.
A little over a year earlier, Pataki had come to the very same place on campus to announce the creation of the Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics, with $100 million in support from IBM and $50 million in state support. That support is allowing UAlbany to build the first university-based 300-millimeter computer wafer prototyping and workforce training facility in the world. The semiconductor industry is moving to the 300-millimeter, or 12-inch, wafer platform for the next generation of computer chips. The University’s state-of-the-art 300-millimeter facility will provide the ideal environment for testing the processes and technology used to manufacture the bigger wafers with their ever-smaller features.
Construction of this one-of-a-kind facility is set to begin shortly, and when completed, will provide critical infrastructure for the work of International SEMATECH North, as well as University researchers and other partners.
International SEMATECH North, however, plans to get working even before the 300-millimeter facility is completed. Later this fall, International SEMATECH will begin moving up to 250 scientists and technicians into the soon-to-be-finished 118,000-square-foot “technology accelerator” facility rising near CESTM. In addition to that facility’s new research space, the scientists will be able to tap CESTM’s already existing pilot prototyping facility for the current standard in computer chip design, the 200-millimeter, or 8-inch wafer.
International SEMATECH had explored offers from across the U.S. and from abroad for its new research center. But C. Robert Helms, president and chief executive officer of International SEMATECH (ISMT), said he and his board were impressed by Pataki’s commitment and the University’s facilities and expertise.
The agreement between New York State and International SEMATECH includes approximately $400 million in state and industry support for the new center over the next five years. The support consists of $210 million in state funds (including $50 million previously announced for the Center of Excellence at Albany and included in the 2002-03 state budget) and $193 million from International SEMATECH and its member companies, including IBM.
“International SEMATECH North puts us on the map in a way that strengthens our efforts to recruit the best faculty and students and to compete effectively for research funding,” said University President Karen R. Hitchcock.
“This is also striking recognition of the strength of the programs we have already built in partnership with government and businesses. Thanks to these partnerships, we are able to respond to the economic development needs of our region and state, and we are able to leverage our capabilities in ways which provide major new resources for the University,” said Hitchcock.
Alain Kaloyeros, director of the Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics and founding dean of the School of NanoSciences and NanoEngineering, says the SEMATECH center will provide new intellectual know-how that will only enhance the University’s research and education programs in nanotechnology.
A recent report on the federal government’s National Nanotechnology Initiative stressed the importance of investment in both research and education in nanotechnology, citing its importance for the next breakthroughs in areas as diverse as medicine and healthcare, the environment, energy, information technology, and national security. The report notes that the University at Albany and the University of Washington (Washington State) are the first two schools in the nation to have graduate nanosciences programs under consideration.
UAlbany’s School of NanoSciences and NanoEngineering plans to offer doctoral and master’s degrees in selected science and engineering tracks pertaining to the nanoelectronic, optoelectronic, optical, nano/micro-electro-mechanical, nano/micro-opto-electro-mechanical, energy, and nanobiological fields. The school’s proposed curriculum has been approved by the State University System Administration; it must next be reviewed and approved by the state Department of Education. Kaloyeros says the goal is to begin enrolling students in January and notes that the school will also provide opportunities for undergraduates.
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Seeds for the Plan Last year’s meeting played a significant role in the process that led to the selection of UAlbany as the site for International SEMATECH North, as Gov. George Pataki recounted during his July 18 announcement. Pataki recalled how he had first met with C. Robert Helms, International SEMATECH CEO, and with Juri Matisoo, vice president of technology for the Semiconductor Industry Association, last September 10 at the symposium, sponsored by the University and the Center for Economic Growth, at The Sagamore resort. “I made a presentation to them and I said I’ve been to the Silicon Valley. I’ve seen the Silicon Valley. It’s hot. It’s dry. They have earthquakes. The lights go out. It’s very expensive. Come look at Albany. We’re on the shores of Lake George. Compare that to the Silicon Valley. What would anyone in their right mind want to be out there?” Both Pataki and Helms were scheduled to speak at this year’s symposium being held Sept. 11-13. |
Local
Businesses Highlight the Latest in Decorating Trends
By Carol Flax
Two local businesses,
Bed, Bath & Beyond and Target, have been helping the University at Albany
put its “best face forward” by offering decorative make- overs in models
of residential housing. Current and prospective students can now visualize
what their apartment or dorm room might look like with furnishings from
these popular stores.
When the model apartment at Empire Commons, the new apartment-style housing on campus, opened last spring, the merchandise and marketing professionals at Bed, Bath & Beyond of Colonie stepped in to give the apartment a new look for its summer visitors. The apartments are four-bedroom, two-bath units with kitchen, laundry room, and living room. The furnishings include everything from dishes in the cupboards to linens on the beds, highlighting the many amenities of the apartments and giving visitors a real sense of the potential of the living space.
Empire
Commons opened its doors this fall to 800 undergraduates and graduate
students, with another 400 beds available in January of 2003.
In time for summer Orientation, Bed, Bath & Beyond also decorated a suite on State Quad. Newly enrolled freshmen, transfer students and their parents could preview what a “typical” room might look like, and students could check out the furnishings for ideas for their own shopping needs for the fall.
The suite in Fulton Hall, which is seen by about 14,000 prospective students and their families every year on the admissions tour, was made over for the second year by the Target store of Colonie. These furnishings featured Target’s back-to-school line of the popular designer Todd Oldham, with everything from colorful clocks to boldly striped rugs. The suite was the location for an interview with Laurie Garafola, director of Residential Life, by WNYT Channel 13’s John Gray, who asked Garafola for moving-in tips for new students and what they should bring to college.
School
of Criminal Justice Names New Dean
Julie Horney,
the new dean of the School of Criminal Justice, has joined the University
at Albany from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Her appointment
took effect June 1.
Horney earned a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of California, San Diego, and completed her undergraduate work in psychology with honors at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her current research interest is in the situational determinants of violence.
“We are absolutely delighted with Dr. Julie Horney’s appointment as dean of criminal justice,” said Provost Carlos Santiago. “Her professional reputation, experience, and skills all contribute to the quality of the University’s distinguished criminal justice program, already a recognized leader in the profession nationally and internationally. She is also a wonderful addition to the Council of Deans.”
A professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha since 1991, Horney was most recently a visiting fellow at Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology and Clare Hall. From 1998 to 2001, she was director of the Situational Dynamics Research Program Area of the National Consortium on Violence Research. From 1981 to 1991 she was an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska. Horney was on leave from that position from 1982 to 1983 while participating in the Supreme Court Fellows Program.
The new dean has taught extensively at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Horney was deputy editor of Justice Quarterly from 1999-2001, and is currently a member of the editorial boards of Criminology, the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and Women and Criminal Justice. She was among the editors of the book Criminal Justice 2000, Volume III: Policies, Processes and Decisions of the Criminal Justice System (2000, Wash-ington, D.C.: National Institute of Justice); and, with Cassia Spohn, wrote Rape Law Reform: A Grassroots Revolution and its Impact, (1992, New York: Plenum).
Horney has written peer-reviewed articles on a wide range of topics, including rape law reform, plea bargaining, life circumstances and criminal behavior, weapons effects in the escalation of violence, and risk perceptions among serious offenders. She fills the position left vacant by the resignation of Dennis Rosenbaum. James Acker has served as interim dean.