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    Behind the scenes of the University's move to Division I sports, a senior art student has been quietly toiling away, sculpting a larger-than-life Great Dane who will one day grace the lobby of the Recreation and Convocation Center.
    Brian Caverly, 22, of Ballston Lake, a senior with a dual major in art and psychology, has been working on the big dog since January.
     The Great Dane is the University's mascot, chosen for the qualities of strength, courage, speed and stamina during a contest in 1965.
     When completed, the bronze sculpture will be a gift from the Class of 1999 to the University. Funds for the artwork were raised from among last May's graduating seniors and their parents. The work is expected to be unveiled sometime in February 2000, appropriately enough, at the Big Purple Growl event.
     Caverly has been assisted in his work by a real-life model, a black Great Dane with a very long name: American Canadian Champion Wysiwyg's (kennel name: What You See Is What You Get) Black Sambvca, C.G.C., nicknamed Bucca. The title preceding Bucca's name has to do with his distinction as a retired show dog. Bucca is a 6-and-a-half year old Great Dane owned by Patrick and Susan Touhey of Ballston Spa. Bucca is the father of another Dane with credentials in the dog show world. Bucca's offspring goes by the official name BIS (for Best in Show - all breeds), BISS (for Best in Specialty Show - Great Danes) Champion Wil-Tor's Reflexion in the Dark, more simply nicknamed Jack. Jack is currently the #2 Dane in the country, according to Susan Touhey, and is owned by Peg and Andy Sigler of Vermont, and Eve Williams of Hartford, N.Y.
     Caverly hasn't met Bucca's boy, but he has high praise for Bucca the retired show dog who is embarking on a modeling career. 
    "Bucca is a great dog with a great personality," Caverly said. "He's so friendly. Show dogs are used to having to stand still."
The artist started with numerous photographs of the dog, from which he made drawings that plaster the walls of one room in the University's Art Annex on Railroad Avenue. He made small clay models of the dog. Finally, Bucca himself came down to the sculpture studio for a sitting, so that Caverly could make a careful comparison between live model and the sculpted one.
    Using the "lost wax method" of casting bronze, an ancient tradition of art bronze casting that was revived by Renaissance artists of the 15th and 16th centuries, Caverly first created an original clay Bucca to be cast. Then, a silicone rubber material was sprayed over the clay dog to form a perfect imprint of the original.
    Plaster was placed over the rubber to make a hard mold to hold the rubber in place once the original work was removed. In this process, after the plaster is set, the seams are forced open and the rubber seams are cut, allowing the mold to be peeled from the original.
     Once the mold is done, wax is either brushed or poured into the rubber mold. The result is a perfect wax reproduction of the original. It is this wax figure that is used to create the second mold into which the bronze is poured.
     Bucca's owners are understandably proud of their dog's latest accomplishment. According to Susan Touhey, he was recently shown running around their back yard by Fox News in connection with the UAlbany story. And Channel 6 News featured Brian Caverly's Dane-in-progress one evening this summer.
 

UPD Wins Community Policing Awards; Campus Crime Shows Steady Decline
By Lisa James Goldsberry

     SThe University Police Department (UPD) has been selected as a finalist for the 1999 Community Policing Award by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and by ITT Industries Night Vision. Ten finalists and five winners were selected from approximately 200 entries worldwide to receive this recognition for outstanding community policing initiatives. Albany's UPD was cited for producing positive change in the University community by adopting a community policing philosophy.
     UPD continues to stay hard at work to keep the campus a safe and secure environment for learning. Crimes on campus have decreased steadily over the past five years due to police efforts. As an example, felonies have dropped from 213 in 1993 to 78 in 1998.
     The successes of the department have not gone unnoticed. UPD was the subject of a special report in the June 1999 Campus Security Report titled "How Personalized Policing is Employed to Fight Crime at a State University." The report focused on UPD's community policing model and cited the extensive personal contact as a major element of its success. It also credited aspects of the model such as door-to-door contact, bike patrols, and the quality-of-life unit as key factors for reducing crime on campus.
     In addition to this recognition, last semester UPD received an award for service from the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Association on campus.
     Other campuses have also benefited from what has been done here at Albany. Doug Kern, an assistant chief of police, gave a presentation at a conference at the University of Southern California in August. The lecture, titled "Cultural Diversity: How the Responding Officer Experiences It," was based on an article Kern wrote which was published in 1993 in the journal Campus Law Enforcement. The conference, for street level personnel working in law enforcement or security, featured a variety of training and professional development workshops as well as opportunities for networking and information sharing.
     Not content to rest on its accomplishments, UPD has several new initiatives planned to further improve campus safety. The department is in the process of tracking all car stops in an effort to provide better service. Also, they will be outfitting all officers with voice-activated mini-cassette recorders to tape and monitor transactions between the police and the community. In addition, the department has issued its officers Oleoresin Capsicum spray (popularly known as pepper spray) as another option for low level use of force.
To provide even better service, UPD officers have changed to a four-day, 10-hour-a-day schedule to improve staffing during nighttime hours.
     "All of these developments are a testament to the support of the University for its police department and the exceptional level of professionalism of my staff," said UPD chief Frank Wiley. "We are committed to progressive, professional, and effective law enforcement."
     In addition to Kern, UPD Investigator Paul Berger was invited by the Department of Justice to participate on a peer review panel for the Grants to Combat Violence Against Women on Campuses Program. Berger was selected for his work in developing crime prevention programming and investigating cases on online harassment. Information on online harassment as well as other crime prevention topics is available on the UPD web page at http://www.albany.edu/police/.

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