FRONT PAGE
by Carol Olechowski
With the start of the
1999-2000 academic year, the University at Albany welcomed new deans to
the schools of Business and Criminal Justice, as well as to Undergraduate
Studies. A new dean will also join the School of Social Welfare early next
year.
Among the new arrivals was Richard A. Highfield,
who succeeded the retiring Donald D. Bourque as dean of the School of Business
Aug. 1. Highfield was formerly associate dean at Cornell University's Johnson
Graduate School of Management.
An alumnus of Stanford University, Highfield earned his master's in
business administration at Santa Clara University and a Ph.D. in econometrics
and economics at the University of Chicago. As a faculty member at Cornell's
Johnson Graduate School, he taught courses in macroeconomics, international
trade, and business forecasting. For the past six years, Highfield was
associate dean for the school's MBA program and operations, and assistant
dean and director of the MBA program. In addition to directing the school's
internally oriented business and service operations, he was credited with
the development of a 12-month MBA program for scientists and engineers.
Highfield's scholarly interests include business forecasting methods
and monetary economics. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Monetary
Economics, the Journal of Econometrics, and other publications.
Rosenbaum earned his bachelor's degree in psychology at Claremont McKenna College in California; an M.A. in social psychology at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, in 1976; and his Ph.D. in the same field in 1980 at Loyola University. In addition to teaching at the University of Illinois at Chicago, he has taught at Loyola and at Northwestern University.
Rosenbaum has written, collaborated on, or edited eight books; his latest work, The Hidden War: The Battle to Control Crime in Chicago's Public Housing, will be published in 2000 by Rutgers University Press.
Rosenbaum succeeded David Bayley as dean of the School of Criminal Justice. Bayley, who headed the School for four years, has returned to the faculty as a teacher-scholar; with the assistance of an external grant, he will begin a major research project on international criminal justice.
During her years at Albany, Faerman has played an integral role in furthering its mission of teaching, research, and community outreach. She is a past or current member of the Council of Women's Groups, the National Coalition Building Institute, the Rockefeller College Faculty Council, the Student Health Advisory Committee, the SUNY-Wide Information Literacy Initiative Committee, the University Budget Panel, the University Senate, and the Women's Concerns Committee of the University Commission on Affirmative Action. Most recently, Faerman chaired the Steering Committee for Self-Study for the Accreditation by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. At the national level, she is involved with the Academy of Management's Public and Nonprofit Division; she is also book review editor for the Journal of Public Affairs Education. In 1998, Faerman was a winner of the Evan R. Collins Award. Her other honors include a 1987 Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award; a Disabled Student Services Program certificate of merit, presented in 1990; the Bread and Roses Award, which Faerman received in 1992; and a 1997 Award for Excellence in Academic Service.
Faerman earned a bachelor of science degree in applied mathematics and statistics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and her M.S. in applied mathematics from George Washington University. While completing her doctoral studies in public administration at the University, she directed the Institute for Government and Policy Studies' Center for Organization and Policy Studies at Rockefeller College. She was hired as an assistant professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy in 1987. Faerman is also a member of the University's Organizational Studies doctoral program faculty and an affiliate member of the Information Sciences doctoral program.
Former Dean of Undergraduate Studies John Pipkin, Faerman's predecessor, has returned to the Department of Geography and Planning faculty.
Briar-Lawson served five years as assistant professor of social work at Pacific Lutheran University; nine years at the University of Washington's School of Social Work; and another three at the Department of Social and Health Services in Olympia, Washington. While a professor of social work at Florida International University in Miami, she founded and directed the Institute for Children and Families at Risk and served as director of the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services' Professional Development Center. Subsequently, as a visiting professor at Miami University of Ohio, Briar-Lawson was instrumental in creating a Department of Family Studies and Social Work. She later joined the Miami University faculty, concurrently chairing the new department.
Briar-Lawson has contributed a great deal to the social work field by writing or co-writing a number of books, book chapters, monographs, conference proceedings, and papers. Among her books are Expanding Partnerships for Vulnerable Children, Youth and Families (1996, Council on Social Work Education), and Social Work and the Unemployed (1988, National Association of Social Workers), which is currently being revised. She is a member of the National Association of Social Workers Book Committee; she also serves as associate editor for New Global Development: Journal of International and Comparative Social Welfare, and as consulting editor for Social Work in Education.
After attending Oberlin College in Ohio, Briar-Lawson earned her B.A. in sociology at Connecticut College for Women. She received an M.S.W. from the Columbia University School of Social Work, then went on to complete her doctoral studies at the University of California (Berkeley) School of Social Welfare.
Lynn Videka-Sherman, dean of the School of Social Welfare for the past ten years, will step down next January when Briar-Lawson arrives. Videka-Sherman will remain at the School as a faculty member and director of the Center for Human Services Research.
President Hitchcock thanked Videka-Sherman, Pipkin, Bayley, and Bourque for their “many wonderful contributions to the University and its programs.” She then cited the new appointees' “outstanding record of accomplishment” and added: “The University at Albany is very fortunate to gain their talent, energy, and new perspectives. I am delighted to welcome them to a leadership team dedicated to enhancing the University's academic quality and to building a distinctive learning environment for our students.”
University Welcomes Class of 2003
by Carol Olechowski
The last full academic year of the millennium
got underway at the University this week, when classes began for nearly
17,000 students for the start of the Fall 1999 semester.
Among the 11,645 undergraduates are 2,350
freshmen, the same number admitted last fall. The enrollment figures
reflect a modest increase in the number of transfer students entering the
University this year, with more than 1,150 expected for the start of the
new academic year. About 5,300 graduate students are also included
in the student body.
According to University Director of Undergraduate Admissions Harry
Wood, interest in the University on the part of students from other colleges
and universities continues to increase, as does the number of Capital Region
students electing to enroll at Albany. “Our efforts to provide improved
service and a smooth transition for transfer students are widely recognized
and have produced a larger number of highly qualified transfer candidates
seeking admission to the University,” added Wood.
More than 65 new international students are
enrolled in the entering class as freshmen and transfers. University
administrators also anticipate an eight percent increase in the out-of-state
population making up the Class of 2003. Twenty-four percent of the
freshman class will be made up of multicultural students, emphasizing the
University's commitment to student diversity.
Albany's applicant pool increased by more
than 600 students in 1999 - the culmination of a three-year trend in application
growth that has resulted in greater selectivity in admitting a freshman
class.
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Judy Genshaft observed that the University's increased enrollment, its
high academic standards, and the outstanding quality of incoming students
“underscore Albany's reputation for excellence. Its outstanding education,
research, and service programs have made the University a leader among
our nation's institutions of higher learning, and I'm pleased that so many
young men and women recognize that Albany can help them attain their personal
and professional goals.”
Budget
Leaves Questions, But Offers New Research Initiative
by Vinny Reda
While special legislative initiatives in this
year's state budget offer several significant enhancements to programs
at the University at Albany for 1999-2000, final details of the allocations
for SUNY campuses will remain somewhat uncertain until the SUNY Trustees
release the coming year's financial plan. They are scheduled to do so at
their Sept. 22 meeting in Albany.
Brian T. Stenson, SUNY Vice Chancellor for
Finance and Business, reported to the campuses on Sept. 2 that a $32.2
million gap in contractual salary raises to employees will be funded by
"additional resources." Those raises had not been accounted for in the
original state budget. Still to be reckoned with, however, according to
System Administration, are approximately $11.8 million in inflationary
costs and $7.9 million in non-recurring revenues. The budget also does
not provide relief for a growing problem with revenues from SUNY hospitals.
The encouraging budget news for UAlbany is
headlined by the fact that for the first time New York State has established
an independent office to manage a pool of funds for carrying out university-based
high-technology research. The University will be a prime competitor for
much of the $118.5 million allocated by the Jobs 2000 for New York State
(J2K) Act.
The proposal, spearheaded by Senate Majority
Leader Joseph Bruno, creates the New York Office of Science, Technology
and Academic Research (NYSTAR), which will devote $80 million for six separate
Capital Facilities Awards. These funds for construction, new research and
development facilities will be granted to private or public research universities
where Centers of Advanced Technology (CATs) are sited. UAlbany is home
to the Center for Advanced Thin Film Technology, one of the top-ranked
CATs in the state.
“The Jobs 2000 Act is an extraordinary accomplishment
for Senator Bruno and the Legislature, and an exciting new beginning for
higher education, research and technology-transfer in the 21st Century,”
said President Hitchcock.
“The exciting opportunities that the Jobs
2000 Act will afford the University at Albany are of vital importance if
we are to continue to advance fundamental research and play a major role
in building a diversified high-tech economy for the Capital Region and
the state.”
Awards from NYSTAR, made on a competitive basis, will take into account
the potential technology growth and economic impact of current programs
at New York research universities with CATs, and the ability of the technology
to aid existing and engender new business, and to leverage federal and
private funding.
Also included in the NYSTAR program is $15
million for rehabilitation of existing research facilities, $7.5 million
for research faculty recruitment and retention, and a $5 million “incentive
program” to assist institutions with economic development and research-related
costs. All institutions of higher education in the state are eligible to
apply for these monies.
Improving the overall outlook in the state
budget was an additional $5.6 million from the Legislature directed to
30 state-operated campuses, which system-wide will add $2.6 million for
Educational Opportunity Programs, $2.2 million for new faculty lines,
and $800,000 in child care funds for student parents.
The President noted with pleasure that within
the final iteration of the budget Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was successful
in adding $2.5 million toward the clean room infrastructure in the planned
addition to CESTM and $500,000 for the University's Fuel Cell Institute.
She also thanked the Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus for support
of a bill that will bring to the School of Public Health $125,000 in funding
for its Center for Minority Health Education Research. Another special
initiative, sponsored by Assemblyman Edward Sullivan, will provide $100,000
to enhance international education programs at Albany. The initiative has
been partially responsible for a 44 percent increase in the number of University
students abroad in the last two years.
Hitchcock also expressed “great appreciation”
to State Sen. Hugh Farley '58 for sponsorship of bills that bring $15,000
in support for the School of Business's Institute for the Advancement of
Health Care Management and $10,000 for allergen research. Farley was also
pivotal in obtaining a new grant of $14,000 for the University's Community
and Public Service Program to expand the program from Albany to Schenectady
and Rensselaer counties.
University officials also hope to hear this fall of an announcement
of major additional state funding for the East Campus.