Preparation for installation of glass under way

Work on the Student Union addition continues as the building's design wins an international design award.

The design of the Student Union addition has received a 2009 American Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Metropolitan Arts Press.

“I’m thrilled that the Student Union addition received an American Architecture Award. It’s a great honor for the college,” said John McEnrue, director of facilities design and construction.

A group of German architects recently selected 64 projects as the best new United States building and designs. The awards program – established in the 1990s – honors and recognizes outstanding new achievements and innovation for new architecture designed and built in the United States by national and international architecture firms practicing in the states.

“This award is highly sought after and will most certainly draw further attention to our campus from both here, in the United States, and from Europe,” said McEnrue.

“The award celebrates the new structure’s unique design, its symbolic relationship to the Shawangunk Mountains and, most importantly, its purpose.”

Sample of installed glass.

Project manager Garry Nack (Facilities Design and Construction) said the steel frame of the building is up and construction workers are preparing the frame for the installation of glass. The exterior framing is nearly 75 percent complete. The installation of glass is to begin this week. The entire structure should be enclosed by mid-January.

The project includes approximately 12,000 square feet of additional space and approximately 12,000 square feet of renovated space to provide students with new places to gather and hold meetings. Work on the interior renovations has been taking place throughout the process, which officially began in December 2008. The addition is set to be open in mid-2010.

Visitors to the "The Hudson River to Niagara Falls: 19th-Century American Landscape Paintings from the New-York Historical Society" exhibition at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art.

Those looking for something to do over the Thanksgiving weekend won’t have to look any further than the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art.

The museum will be closed on Thursday, but will reopen and maintain regular hours (11 a.m.-5 p.m.) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A free gallery tour will take place on Sunday, Nov. 29.

Visitors are encouraged to visit the current exhibitions: “Inscription” and “The Hudson River – A Great American Treasure,” which close on Nov. 29, and “Panorama of the Hudson River,” which closes on Dec. 13, but will reopen in February. The flagship exhibition of the Dorsky Museum’s Art and the River project, “The Hudson River to Niagara Falls: 19th-Century American Landscape Paintings from the New-York Historical Society,” will conclude its successful run on Dec. 13.

By Samantha Thomson ’09 (Communications and Media)
Public Affairs Intern

Jaimie Pattipeilohy ’09 (Communication and Media) is capturing the experience of studying abroad at New Paltz with her video journals.

Pattipeilohy, a student from Haarlem, Netherlands, and several other international exchange students from different countries are participating in the new video documentary project. The students are recording their educational and cultural experiences while studying at New Paltz and the short documentaries they produce will be shown to potential international exchange students.

“It is the start of many new projects in the future between Noord University and New Paltz,” said Pattipeilohy.

Patricia Sullivan, chair of Communication and Media, agrees with Pattipeilohy that the project is the start of many collaborations.

“We’ve established a significant partnership with Noord University,” she said. “Technology made it possible for students to work together via the Internet and then come together for intense working sessions to finalize the project.”

Pattipeilohy’s work will be part of a larger project, ‘gnr8,’ that will consist of two three-minute videos that will reflect campus life and the educational experience at New Paltz. She said the videos highlight the similarities, the differences and the once-in-a-lifetime experience for international students. The final films will be available for prospective international study abroad students, their families and friends, as well as faculty members.

“The opportunities – including partnerships and networking around the world – that projects like these open up to students and faculties alike in both nations are awesome,” said Pattiepeilohy. “And the people that you meet are energetic, creative, and like-minded. It is a really positive thing to be involved in.”

By Samantha Thomson ’09 (Communications and Media)
Public Affairs Intern

The college was well represented by eight students at the 67th Annual Conference of the New York State Communication Association held in Ellenville from Oct. 23-25.

The conference, “Ritual, Community and Technology in this New Century: A Global Discussion in New York State,” included faculty from dozens of New York universities, including Columbia and New York University, as well as faculty from all over the world including researchers from the University of Lisbon in Portugal.

Donna Flayhan (Communication and Media) organized this year’s conference.

Six New Paltz students in Flayhan’s fall 2009 Advanced Public Relations class displayed work from their semester-length campaign projects, in which they promoted small businesses. International students from the college made a strong showing in the poster session. They are:

• Malorie Ginsberg ’11 (Journalism, Public Relations) presented her work on the band When All Else Fails;

• Sean Haberkorn ’11 (Journalism, Public Relations) presented his work on Gourmet Pizza;

• Jelena Ilijevska ’09 (Journalism, Public Relations) of Macedonia presented her work on Radiance Day Spa;

• Brianna Lee ’10 (Journalism, Public Relations) presented her work on Sowa Dry Cleaning and Laundry;

• Lilien Sokolova ’09 (Speech Communication) of Macedonia presented her work on The Village Tea Room and Bake Shop;

• Samantha Thomson ’09 (Communication and Media) of Australia presented her work on Kyogle Plumbing Services and Supplies.

Additionally, four students presented research papers that were written for Mary Kahl’s (Communication and Media) spring 2009 Theories of Persuasion course. They are:

• Nicole Famulare ’10 (Communication and Media) shared “Garnering Support for the Child Victim’s Act: A Persuasive Campaign to Eliminate the Statute of Limitations on Child Sexual Abuse”;

• Colomba Fronda ’10 (Journalism, Public Relations, Visual Arts) presented “Abolishing Abstinence-Only Sex Education in New York State: Answering a Rhetorical and Reproductive Crisis”;

• Brianna Lee ’10 (Communication and Media) presented “Knowing Your Rights Regarding Search and Seizure: A Campaign for College Students.”

• Erin O’Connor ’10 (Communication and Media) shared her paper, “Increasing Collegiate Enrollment Rates Among Hispanic Males: A State-Wide Campaign”;

“It was wonderful to be able to include so many New Paltz students at this international conference,” said Flayhan, who along with Kahl, paid the students’ registration fees, so that money would not be a barrier to student participation.

The college was also represented in other ways. New Paltz’s new a cappella group Male Call opened the Saturday evening music and the official photographer for the conference was student Colomba Fronda.

To recognize the accomplishments of the August and December 2009 graduation candidates, the college will be hosting a series of receptions in early December. Schedules for the specific schools are listed below. Faculty members are encouraged to attend the receptions for their respective schools.

Friday, Dec. 4

The School of Business will hold its recognition and awards ceremony at 5 p.m. in the Coykendall Science Building Auditorium. Graduating students who would like to attend the ceremony must register with the Office of the Dean at x2930 by Monday, Nov. 23.

Wednesday, Dec. 9

The School of Fine and Performing Arts will hold a student toast from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the Fine Arts Building Rotunda area. The toast is scheduled for 4 p.m. No registration is required.

The School of Science and Engineering will hold a reception at 4:30 p.m. in the Coykendall Science Building Auditorium. No registration is required.

Thursday, December 10

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the School of Education will hold a joint reception from 3:30 to 6 p.m. in the Student Union Multi-Purpose Room. No registration is required.

Questions regarding any of the receptions should be directed to the corresponding dean’s office.

Invitations to the annual Holiday Open House for academic and professional faculty and the Awards Luncheon for classified staff, including Research Foundation grants recipients and University Police, will be sent via e-mail in the coming weeks. The Open House, hosted by President Steven Poskanzer and his wife, Jane, will be held at their home from 2 to 4 p.m. and 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 12. The 24th Annual Awards Luncheon, sponsored by Sodexo, will take place at noon on Friday, Dec. 11, in the Athletic and Wellness Center.

The Student Evaluation of Instruction (SEI) will be administered from Nov. 23 to Dec. 9.

Faculty may pick up their packets in the following locations:

• College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: individual departments

• School of Business: Dean’s Office

• School of Education: South Classroom Building mail room (room 129)

• Educational Administration: Faculty Office Building

• School of Fine and Performing Arts: Dean’s Office

• School of Science and Engineering: Dean’s Office

• Honors and Interdisciplinary courses: department of the school

• Music Department: College Hall room 100

Faculty members should inform administering students of the drop-off box locations, which are also listed on the instruction sheet inside of each packet. The drop-off locations are as follows:

• Coykendall Science Building: upper lobby (exit closest to room 110)

• Lecture Center: north side lobby, outside double doors to rooms 102-113

• South Classroom Building – East side back vestibule (outside room 138)

The Individual Faculty Student Evaluation of Instruction Data is considered public information under New York State’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). As a result, the fall 2009 packets will now read “Confidential to the extent allowed by law.”

It is important for faculty who participate in this process are to be aware that these documents could become public if such a request were received in the future. If future requests for these data are received, the college will attempt to protect faculty members’ and students’ personal information to the extent allowed by law

For more information, contact Mary Ann Landolina (Institutional Research) at x3227 or visit the Institutional Research Web site.

Civil rights lawyers Stephen Bergstein ’89 (Political Science) and Christopher Watkins ’85 (English) conducted on-campus workshops in a series of critical thinking classes on Oct. 29., Nov. 2 and 3.

In the classes, which are offered by the Office of Special Programs funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Bergstein and Watkins presented real cases for the students to argue. Wendy Vierow’s (Special Programs) class focuses on the development of both verbal and written analytical skills. In recent weeks, students have been learning to identify fallacies in arguments as well as examining the validity of evidence.

The lawyers’ visits to class were well-timed to coincide with the students’ current course of studies. Vierow said both lawyers were impressed by the students’ abilities to analyze the cases and the lively discussions that resulted in the mock courtroom.

Kristine Harris (History, Asian Studies) served as visiting associate professor at the University of Chicago in spring 2009. There she developed two new courses, Women Chinese Film and Shanghai Film Mediascape, for graduate students and undergraduates in cinema and media studies, East Asian languages and civilizations and gender studies. Harris also taught Chinese cinema at the University of Chicago in spring 2007. At New Paltz, she will offer a revised version of Shanghai Film Mediascape in spring 2010.

Mary Kahl (Communication and Media) won the 2009 Neil Postman Award from the New York State Communication Association. The award, which was presented to Kahl at the organization’s convention in October, recognizes outstanding and sustained work with students in research endeavors within the discipline of communication.

Photographs by Joan Barker (Communication and Media) are on display at the Garrison Art Center in Garrison, the Barrett Art Center in Poughkeepsie, the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colo., and the NAVE Gallery in Somerville, Mass., throughout November.