Objectives

• Give Academic functions first priority in the occupancy of the podium.

• Where appropriate, new facilities can be de-centralized from the core of the University�s existing facilities.

• Consolidate and realign programs and functions where appropriate.

Schafer noted that the Master Plan WWW site has grown considerably and now includes many pictures of the University�s research facilities (including CESTM construction) as well as graphical depiction of much of the data gathered throughout the first phase of the Master Plan. �We encourage all members of the campus community to provide feedback regarding the Master Plan and the goals and objectives via the WWW site,� he said. It�s address is http://chef.fab.albany.edu/mastplan/mastplan.htm

Chemistry professors Yash Myer and Bernard Laurenzi remember the days when graduate students performing key physical chemistry experiments brought their cots into the lab so they could snatch some sleep during the lengthy ordeal of controlling the experiment and recording the data.

Albany students today, however, are learning the underlying laws of physical chemistry in a whole new way, thanks to a physical chemistry lab that integrates computer technology into laboratory courses. Because the technology eliminates drudgery and speeds up experiments, cots are rarely needed now. But even more important, says Myer, the overall learning experience has dramatically improved.

�Physical chemistry has traditionally been one of the most difficult labs,� says Myer. �There�s lots of data collection and interpretation.

�In our lab, we�ve interfaced experimental laboratory equipment to personal computers, thereby gaining the ability to �computer-control� the acquisition, processing, plotting and analysis of experimental data. For students, this has meant a lot less drudgery and monotony, and generally, better experiments.�

The newly configured lab in Room 140 of the Chemistry Building was financed by a $25,000 grant from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation and largely built by Myer and colleagues. With the grant, Myer and Laurenzi purchased six personal computers, a printer, software, electronics equipment and other necessary items; then Myer went to work writing programs and building �interface boxes� to control communication between the lab equipment and the computers.

The first experiment which was completely integrated with a personal computer was one in which the temperature of a water bath was monitored and maintained by the computer with a precision of +0.01 degrees Centigrade.

The water bath, its associated heater and cooler, and a temperature probe, are standard pieces of equipment in physical chemistry labs, but the job of interfacing them with a computer was a challenge. Through the interface boxes he designed, Myer converted the analogue signals from the traditional equipment into digital signals the computer could understand, and converted the digital signals back into analogue signals. And he wrote a program that orchestrates those conversions and the control of the temperature probe, heating unit and cooling unit.

The program Myer wrote queries students on the desired temperature and the precision to which it is to be maintained, and at any time during the experiment, it allows users to change those values. While an experiment is running, the program also displays a graph of the temperature as a function of time and indicates when it is in a heating or cooling phase.

This experiment is one of seven that have been completely computerized. Another 17 are now �computer-assisted,� says Myer. For those, students use pre-lab and post-lab computer programs that give detailed instructions on how to carry out the experiments and how to process the data collected.

The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Special Grant Program in the Chemical Sciences, which made the $25,000 award to Albany, is designed to encourage and respond to opportunities that can result in imaginative and innovative ways to advance the chemical sciences. Myer and Laurenzi believe the new lab achieves that goal.

Laurenzi says the lab is one step in a broader plan to reform the chemistry curriculum by taking greater advantage of technology and by doing a better job of �conveying our excitement about chemistry to our students.�

�Laboratory courses play an important role in whether a student decides to be a chemistry major or not, or to continue to study chemistry at all,� notes Laurenzi. �It is in these courses where students are exposed to the aspects of chemical and physical phenomena which excite and deeply stir their interest in doing science.

�Our hope is this: if we make it easier for students to follow pre-lab instructions, remove the drudgery of data collection, processing and analysis, the excitement of observing natural phenomena will come through more clearly and immediately. Equally important is the need to bring these students to a working knowledge of what the �state of the art� in experimental chemistry is.�

Through the new physical chemistry laboratory, the Department of Chemistry is �gaining experience for the time when we will be able to introduce these new methods into all of the laboratory courses,� says Laurenzi.

The new physical chemistry lab is also linked to the two-year-old Chemistry Electronic Learning Laboratory (CELL), a computer classroom with 22 computers connected to a server loaded with specialized chemistry programs and a wide array of other software.

It has been said that politics make strange bedfellows. However, its effect on history and beliefs is even more striking. This subject is explored in Samuel G. Freedman�s new book, The Inheritance: How Three Families and America Moved From Roosevelt to Reagan and Beyond. Freedman will visit the campus and speak about his book on Wednesday, April 9, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the Campus Center Assembly Hall. It is free and open to the public.

As he writes in the foreword, �This book is the saga of three families and their journey across three generations. It starts with a plumber, a domestic and a ward heeler, all the children of immigrants and all ardent Democrats. It ends with their grandchildren, college friends turned political comrades, each one a Republican.� All three members of the last generation live in the Capital District and work in Albany politics and are graduates of the University: Leslie Maeby �75, Governor George Pataki�s director of intergovernmental relations; Tim Carey �74, chairman of the state Consumer Protection Board, and Frank Trotta Jr. �75.

A former Pulitzer-prize nominated columnist for the New York Times and Rolling Stone magazine, Freedman is also the author of two other books: Upon This Rock, about a black church, and a book about teaching at a public high school in New York City, titled Small Victories. Both used what he described as a �year-in-the-life� format.

�This time, I wanted to do a work of history,� Freedman said. �I thought that this historical change of citizens and voters was fascinating.�

Big time Division I sports is not about student participation in athletics; it is about marketing the University through the medium of sports entertainment. The supporters of the proposal claim that a move to Division I will enhance the quality of campus life, that it will focus national attention on UAlbany, and that it will result in increased student recruitment. As Professor Richard Hall has rightly noted, these are �soft� areas, where not much evidence � pro or con � exists.

But I challenge the assertion that a Division I program is necessary to lure top-notch students to the Albany campus, or that it will keep them here. If these are the students we hope to attract, can we not do it just as well by putting our resources into academic programming and related infrastructure, not sports entertainment in the RACC?

And the promise of national � visibility� is wildly optimistic. To be sure, there are the Michigans, UCLAs, and Notre Dames, and perhaps a dozen or so more, whose sports programs are so successful that they bring national attention to a university. But, it is more realistic � and honest � to imagine that we, like the vast majority of programs, will be destined to find a niche much farther down the food chain and much farther out of the limelight.

To sum up, I�m concerned that we are devoting University resources, time, and energy to a flashy but illusive goal, a Division I program that will add in any way to our University�s stature.

Several of my colleagues are rightly concerned about two other issues, the first of which is financial. The budget which has been presented takes us through the year 2000 � the very beginning of Division I. After this point, it appears that the surplus from the prior three years � built up by stockpiling the students� Mandatory Athletic Fees increases � will be quickly used up. What happens then? Where will the resources come from to run a program whose avowed purpose is to achieve national prominence and bring home national championships?

The fact is that over 80% of Division I programs operate at a loss. Even with the slickest, most aggressive and state-of-the-art sports marketing effort, there is an eight of ten chance that, sooner or later, we too will wind up operating in the red. What do we do then � commit more resources?

A final area of concern is programmatic. What used to be a thriving Division of Physical Education, Athletics, and Recreation is now completely out of the education business; no sports activity courses, no recreation courses, no water safety instruction courses, no fitness, coaching or sports medicine courses. Resources which used to go, in part, for a fine instructional program have been evidently been diverted elsewhere, for other purposes. Where have these resources gone? And, resources aside, can anyone name a state-supported Division I (or II) university which has no instructional program in athletics, fitness, or coaching?

These, then, are some of the issues and questions which have fueled concern and, in some cases, opposition to the Division I proposal among myself and many of my colleagues. Let us hope that President Hitchcock is provided with answers to these questions when she makes her very difficult decision.

Edward Thomas
Department of Mathematics and Statistics

(Editor�s note: Mandatory Athletic Fee increases now must go only for athletic scholarships. Any additional resources must come from private funding, not additional state funding.Three physical education courses have moved to other departments: self-defense and athletic training to the School of Education, and dance to the Department of Theatre).

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