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With
a specially commissioned performance by Artists-in-Residence the Second
Hand, Harpur College will launch its 50th Anniversary at Reunion 2000. Then,
throughout the upcoming year, be sure to watch for news on events planned
to celebrate and observe 50 years of academic excellence.
In the coming year, Harpur will be hosting a festival of historical observances and special events to celebrate the Anniversary. From special receptions to displays, student-oriented events to workshops, Harpur College plans to party hearty and invites the entire university community -- past, present and future -- to join in. "The celebration of our 50th Anniversary is a momentous occasion for Harpur College," noted Dean Sol Polachek. "And I would certainly encourage all Harpur friends to celebrate with us. We started practically from nothing in the post-war years to become one of the most prominent public universities in the country. The Anniversary festivities will allow us to celebrate the success of 50 years of development. And as we look back and learn from those achievements, we can ensure that our next 50 years are just as successful."
In the months ahead, the 50th Anniversary Committee, formed to coordinate the festivities, plans to observe two important Harpur milestones: the naming of Harpur College, which took place on September 11, 1950, and the dinner at which Harpur was officially dedicated, October 6, 1950. Then, throughout the Anniversary year, Harpur College will be inviting significant alumni from all departments to campus. During their visits, the alumni will give talks on their work, careers, research or significant publications, or appear in public presentations. These events will again be open to the entire university.
For those who may not be able to make it back to the campus to celebrate, anniversary celebrations will be held regionally and nationally throughout the year. Watch for news about the 50th Anniversary on the Harpur College website http://harpur.binghamton.edu. The site will also feature anecdotes, photos and special memories shared by alumni, faculty and staff.
Political Science graduate Kate Mogulescu '99 has the kind of problem that many law applicants wish they had. Not unlike many graduates heading into the legal field, Mogulescu faces the daunting task of choosing a law school. What makes her case a little different, though, is not in the number of schools that have accepted her application, but in which ones. Not one, but all three of the very top law schools in the country -- Yale, Harvard and Stanford -- have all extended invitations for her to join them in the fall, forcing Mogulescu to make a tough but enviable choice.
Over the years, Harpur students have set an impressive track record for acceptance rates at leading law schools. "We have many pre-law students and graduates who are accepted to multiple schools," said Heather Struck, Pre-Law Advisor. "And our overall rate of acceptance for pre-law seniors is around 90%, well above the national average of approximately 70%. However, news of Kate's acceptances is particularly rewarding because this is the first time in a number of years that a student has been accepted at all three of the country's leading law schools." According to Struck, two or three Binghamton University applicants are accepted at Harvard each year. Those same applicants in many cases are then also accepted at other top schools like NYU, Columbia, Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania. "But because Stanford and Yale are substantially smaller than Harvard, the good news from these schools for our students is more sporadic," said Struck.
"Kate has indeed hit the jackpot!"
Mogulescu is currently weighing up her 'big three' options along with others from Columbia, New York University and the University of Pennsylvania. Which way is she leaning? "As you can imagine, the choice is very tough," said Mogulescu. "But I have narrowed it down to Yale and New York University. They are both excellent schools and NYU has already offered me a scholarship." After law school, Mogulescu hopes to pursue a career in public interest law, a career path chosen after an experience working as an investigator at the Legal Aid Society's Criminal Defense division in Manhattan. "I loved what I did and the connections I made with so many people," said Mogulescu. "My own personal convictions coupled with an interest in helping people convinced me that public interest law is the only part of the law that I can see myself working in."
Alumni in California can look forward to two upcoming events -- a performance on April 8 by the world-renowned Harpur College Artists-in-Residence, The Second Hand, and a Law Alumni reception scheduled for April 10.
Join Dean Solomon Polachek and the Binghamton University Alumni Association for a fun-filled evening of family entertainment by The Second Hand on Saturday, April 8, at Pepperdine University. Creating a unique blend of theatre, dance, comedy and acrobatics, The Second Hand have appeared on and off-Broadway and on the "David Letterman Show." Before the performance, join alumni and friends for a reception in the Sculpture Garden of the Weisman Museum of Art. Curtain up is at 8 p.m. in the Smothers Theater. Cost for the performance is $10 per person, which includes a special $20 discount for BU alumni and guests (regular ticket price is $30 per person).
To reserve your tickets, send a check made payable to: Binghamton Alumni Association, PO Box 6004, Binghamton, NY 13902-6004. Payment must be received by April 6 and tickets will be available from 6 p.m. on April 8 at the "Will Call" window. For more details, contact Lee Nesslage at (607) 777-4278 or harprsvp@binghamton.edu
Then on Monday, April 10, the current president of the BU Alumni Association, Martin F. Triano '76, along with Dean Polachek, the Harpur College Law Alumni Council and the BU Alumni Association, will be hosting a law alumni reception. Triano will be facilitating the reception at his law offices located at 100 Bush Street, 25th Floor, Suite 2500 in San Francisco. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. and runs until 7 p.m. Law alumni are encouraged to stop by.
Alumni and friends wishing to attend either one of these two events can look forward to an evening of meeting old acquaintances and making some new ones. For more details about either event, contact Lee Nesslage at (607) 777-4278 or harprsvp@binghamton.edu
Lennard Davis has vivid memories
of his childhood, growing up as the "kid of the deaf people."
But it wasn't until his wife suggested that he write his recollections down
that he forced himself to not only document the good ones but also the memories
filled with frustration and terror. The result was his latest book, My
Sense of Silence: Childhood with Deafness. Originally written as a memoir
for his children, the book has become more than just recollection of this
English professor's childhood stories. It has struck a resounding chord
in literary circles and added another chapter in Davis' ongoing work in
disability studies.
With a release date of March, My Sense of Silence has already earned a positive response from the New York Times Book Review. According to reviewer Margaret Diehl in the March 5, 2000 issue, the book is "...offering the old truth: every life matters. Reminding us of this is what memoir does best, and My Sense of Silence is an engrossing contribution to the genre." Taken quite by surprise, Davis is still not quite sure why the New York Times chose to review his book. "Maybe as a memoir, it had some unique interest for them,’ he said. "But I was just as surprised as anyone to hear that they were going to do it. Then, of course, I hoped that it would be a good review. And thankfully, it was." A highly influential vehicle for any new book, the New York Times review is already opening doors for Davis. He was recently featured as a guest on the popular "Fresh Air" radio show, aired on National Public Radio, and is lined up to be a featured guest on a number of radio talk shows in New York City and Binghamton.
My Sense of Silence
documents Davis' childhood as the son of working-class Jewish immigrants
in the South Bronx during the 1950's. He recounts the frustration and loneliness
at being "a hearing outsider," trapped between two worlds while
also exploring the dynamic relationships of family life. Davis also delves
into the discrimination that both he and his parents faced during those
years. "People assumed that deaf people weren't smart and that they
were, sort of, lesser," he said. "When I was growing up, there
was no Marlee Matlin or movies like Children of a Lesser God. There
were also not many books or basic information available on the topic. The
deaf led very separate lives and as a child of deaf parents, people pitied
me. I heard "It's amazing how smart you are coming from a deaf family"
many times during my youth. The understanding and acceptance just wasn't
there in those days."
Davis took almost five years to complete the book, a sometimes painful, emotional experience. "I wrote it with two things in mind," said Davis. "For one, I was approaching my fiftieth birthday and before my memories faded completely, I wanted to make sure I could pass some of them on to my children. And it was also a way of taking the childhood experiences that were problematic for me and transforming them into something that was useful to other people, something of value."
An active member of an organization known as CODA (Children of Deaf Adults), Davis hopes that through My Sense of Silence, readers will have a heightened awareness of what it's like to be deaf and more specifically, what it's like to be a child of deaf people. "I don't think people understand the delicate combination of how difficult and how interesting it really is," he said. "Deaf people can have an interesting, valuable and complex life, just like anyone else."
Davis has also recently published an edition of his parents' love letters, titled, Shall I Say a Kiss: The Courtship Letters of a Deaf Couple, 1936-38. His academic work on disability includes the books, Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness, and the Body and The Disability Studies Reader. He is a founding member of the Modern Language Association's Committee on Disability Issues in the Profession and is on the editorial board of the Corporalities: Discourses of Disability Series at the University of Michigan Press.
Some of the student art on show will belong to those just starting out and some to those facing a new future as they head toward graduation. But the common thread will be the shared passion to translate what they see into visual art. At a reception scheduled for April 13, over 100 students and their friends, family and faculty will launch the 2000 Student Art Show, sharing a year's worth of artwork produced in Harpur College studio classes.
The Art Show, scheduled to run through to May 21, will present over 100 items, representing the best of student work. Pieces on exhibit will include drawing, painting, printmaking, photography and sculpture. John Thomson, chair of the Art Department notes: "For those of us on the faculty, the student show is always the high point of the academic year. It's the only time when we get to see in one place the work of the whole department."
The reception to launch the exhibition on Thursday, April 13 will begin at 6 p.m. and run until 8 p.m. Besides an evening of viewing pleasure, the event will also feature a recognition ceremony at which Foundation awards from the Studio Art department and the Art Museum will be presented.
Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 1-4 p.m. For more information about the Art Show or about the Binghamton University Art Museum, contact Jackie Hogan at 777-2434 or hogan@binghamton.edu
The minute Matt Kerbel '80 stepped
into the WHRW campus radio station studios, he knew that his future would
in some way be connected to the media. A reporting gig covering Jimmy Carter's
1976 bid for the presidency confirmed it. And although Kerbel was barely
old enough to vote, he was fascinated by the effect the media frenzy was
having on both his personal opinions and those of the general public. That
fascination led him to his first job as a television newswriter for Public
Broadcasting and, later, to a career as a writer and associate professor
of political science at Villanova University. Rather than writing for the
media, he now writes about the media and his latest book, If It Bleeds,
It Leads: An Anatomy of Television News is stirring the interest of
more than just a news anchor or two.
Written in the style of a TV news report, Kerbel uses a unique, ironic voice to play up the silliness and predictability of the news programming Americans are subjected to. "Having worked in the field, I know many of the 'tricks of the trade,'" said Kerbel. "And by using a report format, I can offer readers an entertaining way to help them separate the real news from the real nonsense."
In a real-time look at television
news shows, If It Bleeds, It Leads takes readers minute-by-minute
through two and a half hours of syndicated, local and network information
programming to uncover the truth behind what passes for news. "What
is the only real difference between Jerry Springer and Dan Rather?"
asks Kerbel. "Is it that Dan's guests usually don't need medical attention?
How many stories aren't stories at all, like a piece from Phoenix which
made a small disturbance look like a big riot, or one from Detroit that
raised fears of terrorist threats because a U-Haul was filled with what
turned out to be baking powder? I used real material like this from real
broadcasts and I think readers will be surprised to learn how often we are
fed 'news' that's really just hype."
The book has already stirred a significant amount of media interest, particularly in newspapers and on radio talk shows around the country. A recent interview with talk show host Jim Bohanan was broadcast to over 40 stations nationwide. "My book has a natural appeal with radio hosts because they're not on television, so they don't feel the need to be defensive about what they do," said Kerbel. "But this is a natural topic for television journalists who assert that they would like to improve their coverage. So far they've been resisting me because they fear being the subject of an attack. But my book doesn't attack journalists. All I do is show that there are other ways to 'tell' the news."
Besides the print and radio attention, If It Bleeds, It Leads is currently featured on leading consumer advocate Ralph Nader's recommended reading list. Kerbel is tremendously pleased with the way the book has been received by both critics and the general public. And over the next few months, he will be presenting a series of talks at venues across the country, with the goal of providing audiences with an entertaining and amusing method for experiencing television news in a different, more rewarding manner.
Kerbel graduated from Harpur College in 1980 with a BA in English Literature. He received his MA in 1985 and a PhD in 1987, both from the University of Michigan. If It Bleeds, It Leads is Kerbel's fourth book on television, politics and society. Others include Remote and Controlled: Media Politics in a Cynical Age and Edited For Television: CNN, ABC, and American Presidential Elections. He has also written Beyond Persuasion: Organizational Efficiency and Presidential Power. Kerbel is a member of the Television News Content Analysis Consortium, the American Political Science Association and the International Communication Association.
Patagonia collided with central Argentina and the rest of South America about 350 million years ago -- give or take a few million years. But with research led by Professor William MacDonald and research associate Dr. Renata N. Tomezzoli, geologists may soon have a better understanding of when the collision took place and what took place afterward, information critical to the ongoing study of continental drift.
Armed with a variety of samples from recent field trips to the area where the two landmasses collided, MacDonald and Tomezzoli have made significant strides in pinpointing the age of the rocks in the region. "Located in the La Pampa and Mendoza provinces, the area was once a mountain range and shows abundant evidence of folds and faults, shear zones and extensive volcanic deposits," said Tomezzoli. "By studying the magnetic properties of samples drilled from those old rocks, we are hoping not only to gauge the timing of the collision but also to figure out the position of the magnetic poles. This information will then allow us to calculate the positions of the former continental fragments relative to each other -- information very useful for compiling maps of the way continents were arranged in the past."
The project began two years ago when Tomezzoli, having receiving her PhD from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), began postdoctoral research under MacDonald's guidance. Awarded a fellowship by CONICET, the Argentinean equivalent of the National Science Foundation (NSF), Tomezzoli came to Harpur College to conduct her lab work, traveling back to Argentina regularly for the necessary fieldwork. In conjunction with Tomezzoli's study, MacDonald received NSF funding for a collaborative research program with the head of the Valencio Paleomagnetism Laboratory at UBA, Professor Francisco Vilas. By joining forces, Tomezzoli, MacDonald and Vilas have been able to cooperate extensively on the project, conducting analysis both in the laboratories on the Binghamton campus and at the state-of-the art facilities at UBA. They have also made joint trips to the La Pampa and Mendoza provinces to conduct field experiments and collect samples. "Through my analysis, one of my major discoveries has been to show that the deformation associated with the collision was probably time-transgressive,’ said Tomezzoli. "In other words, the collision did not take place all at once; it took place earlier in time towards the west and later in time towards the east."
Another aspect of the joint project has been the study of rock fabric. "By analyzing a different kind of magnetization, one can deduce such things as flow directions," said MacDonald. "Flow directions are preserved during the deposition of a volcanic flow, or of former river or sea deposits. The La Pampa and Mendoza areas have extensive volcanic deposits." MacDonald added that their research has been able to give clues as to the likely sources of the volcanic centers that produced those deposits, by measuring the magnetic fabrics of the rocks. The deposits, which are now mainly eroded or buried, provide a 'snapshot' of what this area must have looked like during Permian time, after the major collision with Patagonia.
In August, Tomezzoli returns to Argentina to continue her research and to initiate her professional career there. However, between now and then, Tomezzoli and MacDonald admit they have a lot of writing to do in order to document their findings. "We will be presenting some of our results at the International Geological Congress in Rio de Janeiro in August this year," said MacDonald. "There we will compare our results with those of other workers from many other countries. And we also aim to publish our findings through journals and upcoming conferences."
MacDonald expects to return to Argentina later this year to extend the range of sampling and continue the joint studies with the UBA researchers.
With little over four weeks to go to the annual Psi Chi Research Fair, Helene Jurgens, student president of Psi Chi, appears deceptively calm. As one of the facilitators of the event scheduled for May 5, Jurgens is currently coordinating logistic issues on an almost daily basis ... and all with the air of a veteran. Her only concern? "I hope the turnout is good!"
An annual event, the Psi Chi Undergraduate Research Fair is co-sponsored by the Psychology department and Psi Chi, the national honor society in psychology. Open to anyone engaged in research with a psychology or psychobiology laboratory, students are given the opportunity to present their findings in poster format before a campus-wide audience. "Last year, we had over 21 posters on display," said Jurgens. "And we are hoping to have just as many this year. Topics range from clinical and social psychology to child and neuropsychology, demonstrating the great degree of research variety within the Psychology and Psychobiology departments."
In addition to the poster session, the Psychology Department will also be presenting the Helen B. Daly Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. Awarded annually to an outstanding graduating senior who has excelled in the area of research in Psychology, it honors the memory of Helen B. Daly, PhD (1941-1995). Daly remains one of the most distinguished alumna of the undergraduate program in Psychology at Harpur College. She began her career as an undergraduate research assistant at Binghamton and went on to become a well-known behavioral scientist as Distinguished Teaching Professor of Psychology at SUNY-Oswego.
"I think the Research Fair is very important because it allows undergraduates to prepare and present the work they have done during the semester within an academic context," said Jurgens. "The preparation put into the presentations is great groundwork for further graduate work while also providing an exercise in conference preparation. It also encourages the building of communication skills necessary for students in their field, while allowing for a general sharing of information about current research projects. It is an event that truly brings all psychology and psychobiology laboratories together."
The Research Fair will be held on Friday, May 5 from 1:30 pm to 3:30 p.m. on the second floor of the Science IV building.
Watch the Psychology website at http://psychology.binghamton.edu/ for updated information about the Psi Chi Research Fair.
Last updated 4/3/00. Written by Gail Glover, Harpur College Public Relations Specialist.