Editor�s Note: This article about the 50th anniversary of the Capital Area School District Association originally appeared in a spring 1998 issue of the CASDA Newsletter.
CASDA: Half-Century of Partnership in Education
By Judy L. Genshaft, Ph.D., Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Fifty years ago, a group of educational leaders from several area school districts and the New York State College for Teachers began a series of informal meetings with a single purpose in mind. The school representatives saw a growing need for the development of professional services for their districts, which were about to undergo a dramatic post-war expansion. The college officials, meanwhile, were finding an increasing need for contacts with the schools as they carried out research and field service. The result was the establishment, in the fall of 1949, of the Capital Area School Development Association (CASDA), and its purpose was to serve as a link be-tween the rapidly expanding Teachers College and the school districts of the area. There have been shifts of emphasis in programming over the years, but the general structure and service function of CASDA have remained as envisioned by the founding fathers.
CASDA has been a huge success. The nation�s third such organization (the two earlier ones were affiliated with Columbia University and Harvard University), CASDA grew to embrace 72 school districts and BOCES organizations during its first quarter-century. Today, as one of about 40 study councils across the country, it serves 119 districts with a year-round series of seminars, programs and conferences geared not only for superintendents and principals, but also for teachers, business officials, librarians, secretaries, school lunch supervisors, custodians, transportation coordinators, and teaching assistants and hall monitors. In fact, CASDA is the only study council in the country which continuously provides programming for support staff. Without a doubt, CASDA is the single most important link between the University at Albany and its affiliated school districts.
A Strong Foundation
The CASDA offices, originally in Draper Hall on the University at Albany�s Downtown Campus, have moved over the years to Milne to Richardson to the Uptown Campus, back to Draper and now Husted Hall on the Downtown Campus. Despite the moves, however, CASDA has retained its mission of providing in-service programs for schools in the 11-county region and beyond and the field-service contacts for the University�s School of Education, with which CASDA is now affiliated. The groundwork for the Association�s first 50 years was well laid!
Although many people were involved in this venture, the names of Hamilton Bookhout, Joe Leese, Howard Goff, Bob Frederick, Bill Firman, Alan Hicks and Vivian Peckham appear frequently in the records of those early meetings. Evan Collins, who became president of the growing New York State College for Teachers during the early days of CASDA, also is prominently mentioned in the history of the fledgling organization. At a meeting on January 25, 1950, for example, President Collins outlined the college�s plans and policies toward CASDA. (He promised that the college would provide office space, telephone service and other equipment for CASDA at Milne High School, along with halftime secretarial service. "Active participation in and real contribution to CASDA is a real responsibility of the total college staff and the development of closer schools-college ties is sought," he told the Executive Committee.)
At the time, CASDA listed a membership of 18 school districts, all of which paid dues to support the organization, and an annual budget of $2,000. Today, affiliation fees, along with some grant money, support CASDA and pay for the salary of the executive director, the assistant director, and other expenses. The University continues to provide space, the salary of the associate director, half salary for the office manager, and a few other expenses.
Since its inception CASDA has been governed by a board representing the administrators of the affiliated schools. The first executive director was Joe Leese, who played a key role in getting CASDA underway. He served until 1952, when he returned to full-time teaching in the School of Education. Don Donley led CASDA for 14 years beginning in 1953, leaving to become dean of the School of Education at Boston College. Other executive directors included Bernard Bryan, Al Farnsworth and Greg Benson.
Under their leadership, CASDA has developed into one of the nation�s premier study councils during its first 50 years. Now headed by Dr. Richard Bamberger as its executive director, CASDA is planning a variety of programs and special events over the next year which will celebrate its unique heritage of service to education. (Watch for more details about these events in newsletters to come.)
Innovation and Collaboration
What explains the success of CASDA? In my opinion, it is strong leadership, innovative programming and the collaborative nature of the association. Here is a sampling of some of CASDA�s most noted and successful programs:
Select Seminars
CASDA has been sponsoring Select Seminars on Excellence in Education since 1985, when Nelson Armlin instituted them as a form of professional development. These seminars provide a forum for educators to consider major issues and make written recommendations to improve the quality of education. Reports of the Select Seminars are published by CASDA and circulated regionally and nationally. The Select Seminar process has been replicated across the country. Topics over the years have ranged from the role of technology in the schools to gender equity to teacher evaluation. Most recently, CASDA and the Greater Capital Region Teacher Center cosponsored a Select Seminar on "Educators� Professional Growth."
Principals� Center
The Greater Capital Region Principals� Center provides training to renew and improve administrative skills, as well as providing opportunities for networking and exchanging ideas. Each year the Center sponsors a series of workshops and conferences on such topics as "Standards of Learning," "The Internet," and "Potential Principals." "The Defiant Child" was the topic of the most recent round-robin table discussion on April 7.
Wired Scholars
A group of 10 high school juniors will tour New York State on excursions with teachers during July and August, followed by a series of six weekend field trips during which their reactions to regional history and culture will be filmed. The students follow the first graduating class of 10 New York Wired Scholars. They were selected last June for this project, which yielded a series of instructional films to be aired statewide by the Public Broadcasting System this fall. The project was coordinated by CASDA and supported by the New York Lottery. This year�s Wired Scholars will each receive a $15,000 scholarship to the University, as well as a computer, a printer and an Internet account.
"I Have A Dream"
The "I Have A Dream" program guarantees college tuition to 94 Albany students through a pledge from Janet and E. Richard Yulman of Albany and Key Biscayne, Florida. Most of the students graduated in 1994 and 1995, and 30 are now attending colleges and universities in New York State. CASDA oversees the program.
Scholars� Recognition Program
CASDA each year participates in the planning of the annual Scholars� Recognition Dinner, which was held this year on April 28. More than 100 senior scholars, and some 100 teachers nominated by the scholars, were honored. CASDA compiles the student and teacher biographical information for the Times Union insert.
Participation Is Essential
When CASDA was chartered by the State Education Department in 1971, the certificate of incorporation spelled out four purposes:
� To serve as a cooperative planning, research and development unit for member schools;
� To assist member schools to more effectively define their purposes and functions;
� To more efficiently serve the educational needs of their respective communities; and
� To more effectively promote a cooperative interaction between the University at Albany and the member schools.
CASDA, I believe, has met that challenge during its first 50 years. What will CASDA be like in the years to come? As we look to the future, it may be most useful to examine the past for guidance. Twenty-seven years ago, CASDA appointed a Long-Range Planning Committee, whose members were instructed to think about the future. Among the committee�s recommendations, which were all accepted, was this comment about participation:
"We are CASDA . . . Our participation is essential. The small amounts of money we commit as "fees" will not make a strong CASDA. Only our constant involvement in planning and executing CASDA programs and services can make a strong CASDA. We urge each member to make this commitment."
The committee submitted that recommendation in the Spring of 1971, but it is more relevant now than ever. The future is now up to us!
Editor�s note: Judy Genshaft served as dean of the School of Education from 1992 to 1997.
By Christine Hanson McKnight
Edward Blanchard, Distinguished Professor of Psychology and director of the Center for Stress and Anxiety Disorders, recently returned from an international conference in Bristol, England, on the psychological consequences of motor vehicle accidents. Titled "Road Traffic Accidents and the Mind," the event brought together mental health scholars and legal experts from around the world, joined by lawyers who try the cases that grow out of traffic accidents.
"It was exciting to be exchanging the very latest research information with the world�s experts in this field," said Blanchard, who presented separate reports on each of the conference�s three days on his own pioneering research on this topic. "We were pleased to see that our research is on the cutting edge of this growing field."
Blanchard said that over 3 million people are injured in motor vehicle accidents in the U.S. each year, and that 20-40 percent may develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or related problems. He and his co-investigator, Ed Hickling of Capital Psychological Associates, received a nearly $1 million grant last year from the National Institutes of Mental Health to evaluate psychological treatments for PTSD arising from motor vehicle accidents. Now in the middle of a four-year study, they are still seeking volunteers, including for the first time children and adolescents who have been in motor vehicle accidents. The detailed psychological examinations and treatments are free to eligible participants. For further information, call 442-4025 weekdays from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Blanchard said that the Center for Stress and Anxiety Disorders is the only research center in the country which has consistently studied the psychological aftermath of traffic accidents. "It�s surprising, given that roughly 900,000 people in this country suffer some psychological aftermath related to an accident," he said.
Factors that affect whether accident survivors develop PTSD include how badly the individual was hurt, how frightened he or she was as a result of the accident, whether the individual had been clinically depressed prior to the crash, and whether the victim had contacted a lawyer by the time treatment was sought. Of those who do not meet the PTSD criteria, between four and five percent will meet it six months to a year later � a development called delayed onset.
University and Music Provide Relief to Bulgaria
By Carol Olechowski
Usually, when a roof is repaired or cracked walls are patched, hammers, trowels, and other implements are required to complete the job. But the University and two performers from a faraway land found a way last spring to transform beautiful music into building materials and tools.
Last May 10, internationally known Bulgarian pianist Pavlina Dokovska and soprano Stefka Evstatieva presented a benefit concert at Page Hall to raise funds to renovate the Stara Zagora Home for Adolescent Girls in their native land. Organizing committee members had hoped the program, featuring works by Chopin, Débussy, Puccini, Rachmaninoff and others, would realize $3,000. That total was eclipsed long before the first note was played or sung � the event raised more than $11,000. The proceeds were transferred to the Bulgarian Red Cross in Sofia, which will then turn them over to the home.
Sue Faerman, associate professor in the Department of Public Administration & Policy, visited Stara Zagora and saw not only the home where the girls now live, but another facility to which they will relocate. The latter structure � a former kindergarten donated by the municipality � will be renovated: classrooms will be subdivided into bedrooms, the roof and cracks in the walls repaired, and bathrooms refurbished. Plans also call for installing a kitchen and a sewing room where residents can prepare for careers.
Faerman was working with Sofia University to help develop the institution�s public administration and administrative infrastructure and was delighted to accept an invitation to meet with directors from the regional Red Cross chapter, the orphanage, and the Bulgarian Ministry of Education. In return, she received an enthusiastic welcome.
The visit, she reports, was "wonderful," with local officials sharing blueprints and plans for the architectural changes to be made to the donated building. That structure, Faerman notes, "looked like a much better facility" than the original home. "It�s in a nicer area of town, and there�s a courtyard that looked like it would be a good place for the girls to plant a garden."
Originally, the Stara Zagora officials seemed concerned that the concert proceeds might have to be used for things "other than concrete." But, speaking through a translator, Faerman set their minds at ease. "I explained that we want the money to go into the building. They were thrilled to hear that, because permanent renovations are exactly what they need," she says.
Ivan Stoev, secretary general of the Stara Zagora regional Red Cross office, arranged for media coverage "so that the local people could see it," Faerman recalls. "They had heard that money was coming from Albany, but the fact that somebody from Albany had actually arrived made it all very real for them." The officials, she added, "seemed to believe that the publicity would allow the citizens to say, �If people from the United States can help our community, we can work harder to help ourselves.
For her part, Faerman also had some good news to bring back to her University colleagues: the Bulgarian Ministry of Education will match the funding that Albany, the Foundation for Bulgaria, and a foundation headed by billionaire investor George Soros, contributed toward the project.
It was, Faerman remembers, "just a wonderful trip. I came back feeling that we had really done something good."
Pavlina Dokovska
History Project Gets Historians Talking at Speed of the Web
by Tim Heinz
Advances in technology have inspired the History and Media Committee of the Department of History to devise a new way for history scholars to discuss ideas.
The Committee has started a virtual conference session through the World Wide Web that allows historians to discuss their views without having to use traditional academic publications or participate in conference presentations.
The idea behind this form of communicating is to allow participants quick responses and debates whenever they want, without having to distract them from their usual scholarly duties.
The site, linked to the history department�s own web site, started out by asking scholars to participate in an electronic conference session on a topic that they had a shared interest in: writing history and writing fiction.
All of the scholars that agreed to participate in this session have written both. They are: Allen Ballard of the Departments of History and African Studies; Steven Leibo, director of the International Studies Program at Russell Sage College and a professor of modern world history and Asian civilization at Albany; Reid Mitchell, a Fulbright senior scholar at Eotvos Lorand University; and William Rainbolt of the English department�s Journalism Program and a Ph.D. candidate in history.
The site was set up and run for the Committee by Richard R. Hamm of history and public policy. "The idea of the site was to use the advancements of the web to hold an ongoing discussion about the promises and perils of writing fiction by historians who have written fiction," said Hamm.
He added that the site is "an experiment to see if we can generate intellectual discussions without having to travel to foreign countries for conferences. We consciously avoided glitz in designing the project and used the most basic of the new technologies so that others could easily emulate what we have done and host their own virtual conferences."
The Committee set up the electronic "virtual" conference with the knowledge that most historians use e-mail and that most communicate their ideas through writing. Professors were contacted who have spent some time at Albany and asked to participate.
"We usually receive an enthusiastic response," said Hamm. Each participant writes a short essay on the topic and sends it as e-mail to the other panelists. They are then asked to respond to one another�s works and give comments. These comments, as well as the essays, are then posted on the web page for others to see.
Since the start of the site, the Committee has vowed to do more to use the potential of the new medium of the World Wide Web. The easy ability to store and retrieve material on the web has made it available for other information to be included on the site � such as background information on each of the participants and short excerpts from their published fictional writings.
Other materials of interest can be found outside the confines of the virtual conference by using the web�s capability to easily link to related websites. All were added in hopes of enriching the discussions and for the curiosity of the panelists and other visitors to the site. "We are beginning to explore all areas of Internet technology and hope to constantly continue to update the site," said Hamm.
It can be found at https://www.albany.edu/history/histmedia/index.html#A Virtual Conference, or by following the Writing History/Writing Fiction links from the department�s homepage.
"This site is a way to reach out to others and pitch ideas," said Hamm. "Our hope is that people are interested and will cause other scholars to participate. We believe that this is a good way to broaden communication to people beyond the guy next door."
Singers Bring Italy to Its Feet
By Suzanne M. Grudzinski
This past summer, the University Chamber Singers and the Skidmore College Vocal Chamber Ensemble combined their talents, became the Albany-Skidmore Singers, and embarked on a 12-day concert tour of Northern Italy.
Through Venice, Ravenna, Florence, Pisa, and Milan, the 40 students gave concerts featuring music from all over the world. One of the highlights of the trip was the group�s performance at a Mass in San Francesco Church in Ravenna, where Dante is entombed. "That was a stunning experience," said David Griggs-Janower of the Department of Music, who as chorus director led the ensemble. "Some of our concert pieces were sacred, so to perform them in the context for which they were written was so moving it was amazing. Singing Italian music at an Italian Mass was living a history."
Not all of the group�s concerts were planned. "We sang at the airport in Rome and the Italian people loved it. They were always very appreciative," said Tonya Burandt, an Albany sophomore. Griggs-Janower also remembered a similar impromptu concert on the steps of St. Mark�s Church in Venice, the church where composers such as Gabrieli and Monteverdi once wrote their pieces.
Tours are more than a musical experience. Griggs-Janower said they give students opportunities they haven�t had before musically, historically, aesthetically, and socially. He also said that discovering new places "gives them cause to open their eyes," seeing the world differently than they had before.
Joshua Blum, an Albany sophomore, added, "pictures don�t even do Italy justice. You have to be there. It was so much fun." "The architecture was aesthetically and acoustically beautiful," said Burandt. Blum agreed and added, "being able to sing with the group in churches hundreds of years old was indescribable."
"This tour definitely reinforced my desire to travel," said Meredith Russell, an Albany junior. "I loved just seeing what�s out there. I hope to do it again soon."
Said Griggs-Janower, "the students sang beautifully. We received standing ovations everywhere we went except in the Mass � and even there we received an ovation." The group is making a CD of the Italy tour and 500 copies will be available through the University. It is expected to be released Oct. 15.
To keep the excitement going, Griggs-Janower said that he�s planning for performances around the U.S. Some venue ideas are Chicago, Williamsburg, Va., or Washington D.C.
David Griggs-Janower, in driver's seat, poses with University singers in Italy.
Island Light: Watercolor and Oil Paintings
This fall the University Art Museum will exhibit the contemplative and visually elegant work of artists Derek Walcott, Donald Hinkson, and Don Aquilino.
Island Light: Watercolor and Oil Paintings, by Walcott and Hinkson, will be on display in the Main Gallery. The exhibit opens with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 7. Don Aquilino: Still Life Paintings, will be located in the Mezzanine Gallery. An opening reception for the Aquilino exhibit is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 3, from 5 to 7 p.m. Both exhibits run through Nov. 15.
Recipient of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature, poet Derek Walcott is also an accomplished painter. He uses the lyrical potential of both oil and watercolor painting in tropical landscapes that share the same inspiration as many of his literary masterpieces: his native St. Lucia in the West Indies.
"I wanted the lines to feel as if they still have the dew on them," reads Walcott�s epic poem "Omeros" (1990), which sums up the fresh-eyed passion he brings to both poetry and his painting.
The New York State Writers Institute will sponsor a reading by Walcott at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8, at Page Hall on the Downtown Campus, 135 Western Ave.
Donald Hinkson, a native of Trinidad, is a close friend of Walcott. Hinkson paints Port of Spain�s pre-modern architecture, its wind-swept beaches, and its sharply rising mountains. In all his work, Hinkson maintains an acute sensitivity to island light.
The still-life paintings, prints, and bronze sculpture of Boston-based artist Don Aquilino will be featured on the museum�s second floor. Aquilino�s distinguished career includes numerous exhibits in the U.S. and in Rome as well as teaching positions at the Rhode Island School of Design, Temple University, Dartmouth College, and the American Academy in Rome.
Museum hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The museum is closed on Mondays.
Donald Acquilino, Tomato Can, 1986
Derek Walcott, Dry Seasons, 1996
Donald Hinkson, Caretaker's House, 1998
Ford Foundation Grant
The University at Albany�s Gender Studies in Global Perspective project has received a $250,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to promote and strengthen gender studies graduate training with an international focus. The project is a collaborative effort of the Center for Latino, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies (CELAC) and the Institute for Research on Women (IROW).
Co-directors of the project are Edna Acosta-Belén, Distin-guished Service Professor in the departments of Latin American & Caribbean Studies and Women�s Studies and Christine Bose, associate professor in the departments of Sociology, Women�s Studies, and Latin American & Caribbean Studies.
One of the main goals of the project, according to Bose, is to "foster growing interactions between area studies (which focus on geographic areas of the world such as Africa, Latin America, and Asia) and gender studies."
Bose adds, "This program provides an incentive, through the use of assistantships, to encourage students to combine these interdisciplinary fields of study and indirectly encourages the University to hire faculty to support these fields. Through this program, international interests and an interest in gender can be linked."The three-year effort will make available a minimum of five graduate assistantship awards per year for those students specializing in women�s studies or pursuing gender studies in a global context. Selections will be made in an open competition, the criteria for which will be announced later this fall. A postdoctoral fellow position and an annual lecture will also be supported by the project.
The University has made a commitment to continue beyond the grant period by providing three assistantship awards per year for an additional five years (2001-2006) for graduate students doing gender-focused research from a global perspective in any department in the social sciences and humanities.
