By Samantha Thomson ’09 (Communications and Media)

Public Affairs Intern

On the Esopus, Meadow Groves, ca. 1857-58, oil on canvas by William Hart (1823-1894). Image submitted

The college is hosting “Revisiting the Hudson: 19th Century Landscape Painting in Context,” a daylong symposium on Saturday, Nov. 7, focusing on the art featured in the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art’s “The Hudson River to Niagara Falls: 19th Century American Landscape Painting from the New-York Historical Society” exhibition.

Kerry Dean Carso (Art History) organized the symposium, which will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Lecture Center, room 102.

The lectures will cover a wide range of topics relating to the Hudson River School of Art, including discussions of notable artists Thomas Cole and Frederic Church; landscape painting in the Shawangunks; and architecture found along the Hudson River. Lecturers include art history scholars and professionals from colleges, historical sites and museums from the East Coast.

In addition to the lectures, guided tours of the museum’s successful exhibition, which is on display through Dec. 13, will be available between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

The event, like the “Hudson River to Niagara Falls” show, is part of the Samuel Dorsky Museum’s “Art &The River” project – a six-month series of exhibitions, lectures and events celebrating the Hudson River’s Quadricentennial.

The symposium is free and open to the public and was made possible through the generous support of The Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area.

LISTENING TO LOCAL NEEDS: Adrienne Halloran ’11g (Communication Disorders), front, and Samantha Link ’11g (Communication Disorders) transcribe a narrative sample using the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software program.

Listening to the needs of the local community, Leah Fabiano-Smith (Communication Disorders) and her students have created a speech-development testing program for bilingual children that will also help advance research in their field.

Fabiano-Smith said there is no speech-language testing facility in the area for bilingual children, so she created a program that would fill the gap. Since August, Fabiano-Smith visits the Agri-Business Child Development Center in New Paltz once a week to perform free speech evaluations.

“It’s a win-win program,” said Fabiano-Smith. “They get the free service and we get the data.”

She has also turned the program into a learning experience for her students. Two New Paltz students – an undergraduate and a graduate – accompany Fabiano-Smith to the school, which serves children, from birth to 5 years old, of migrant workers. The team tests two children each week in both English and Spanish using such programs as Microsoft Access, laptops and digital recorders. The college students participating this semester are bilingual, but it is not a requirement.

Fabiano-Smith said having her students experience this type of setting is ideal because it provides them with the real-life research clinic experience. She said students will learn what it is like to work in a setting where there can be distractions or situations they have to address while gathering data.

If a child exhibits signs that there is an audiological or speech development issue, he/she is brought to the college for a full audiological exam or recommended to a speech language pathologist.

“We’re helping families make connections with professionals in the area,” Fabiano-Smith said.

The data and digital recordings collected during the visits are also helping to advance research in the area of speech-language development in bilingual children. The project is one of four projects Fabiano-Smith is working on to study what normal speech development looks like in bilingual children, specifically those whose first language is Spanish.

While the clinical positions are primarily for Communication Disorders students, there are other research experiences open to students of all majors. In total, Fabiano-Smith has 10 students working for her in paid positions or as volunteers on transcribing, translating and data entry.

Fabiano-Smith said that all information about the subjects is confidential. While trust-building is very important, so, too, is the well-being of the child’s language development.

In that vein, Fabiano-Smith tells the parents that their child’s participation in the project will not only benefit them, but also help many bilingual children.

By Samantha Thomson ’09 (Communications and Media)

Public Affairs Intern

The college’s participation in an energy savings program over the summer paid off financially and environmentally.

The Special Case Resource (SCR) Emergency Load Reduction Program called for the college to commit to a 300-kilowatt reduction, with a larger target of 333 kilowatts by performing such energy-saving measures as turning off lights where possible; closing blinds in unoccupied areas or where possible; turning off any individual air conditioning units; powering down any unoccupied equipment; and unplugging small appliances in break areas and lunch rooms.

During a test of the college’s energy use on July 28, the total amount of energy being used on campus was 2,740 kilowatts, which met the 300-kilowatt reduction target. For its efforts, the college received a payment from the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) of more than $2,000.

“Reducing energy consumption at the college not only benefits the college, but also the New York state electricity grid,” said Brian Pine, director of facilities, operations and maintenance. “The process is about creating more energy readily available, and this is done by reducing energy use.”

A ROCK N’ ROLL EDUCATION: The college’s only all-professor band, Questionable Authorities, will perform for first-year students on Saturday, Nov. 14. The band is (l-r) Maureen Morrow (Biology), Peter Kaufman (Sociology), Annee Roschelle (Sociology), Glenn Geher (Psychology) and Brian Obach (Sociology). Photo submitted

Q&A with Questionable Authorities

Glenn Geher (Psychology), Peter Kaufman (Sociology), Maureen Morrow (Biology), Brian Obach (Sociology) and Anne Roschelle (Sociology) are best known by academic personas, but add a few guitars, drums and a flute and they become Questionable Authorities – the only all-professor band on campus.

On Saturday, Nov. 14, the band will take the stage as part of the Office of Student Development’s Saturdays @ the Terrace programming series, which provides students with free weekend entertainment. The show runs from 9 p.m. to midnight.

Tara Sestanovich, coordinator of first-year programming, said the event will provide an opportunity to bring the faculty and student communities closer together in an atmosphere outside of the classroom. “Glenn and his band mates have shown a lot of enthusiasm for their upcoming campus show and I’m very eager to see Questionable Authorities perform for their students,” she said.

As the band members prepare for their upcoming campus show (and maintain their teaching schedules), the members took some time to share their thoughts about the band’s creation, rehearsal schedule and more.

News Pulse: How did band come together?

Questionable Authorities: Brian and Maureen started learning how to play guitar. They found out that Peter used to play drums as a kid and they cajoled him into getting a drum set. Around the same time, Annee picked up the flute after a 20-year hiatus. We played like this for a few years and then Glenn joined in to add some musicality to our cacophonous din.

NP: How did you come up with the band name?

QA: Three of us were on our way to lobby State Assemblyman (and New Paltz alumnus) Kevin Cahill ’77 when we came up with the name. Since we always encourage our students to question authority, since we have a self-deprecating sense of our own importance, and since we are unquestionably questionable musicians, the name seemed more than appropriate.

NP: What are rehearsals like?

QA: We perform in Magnolia Studios—the name given to the drummer’s basement because his dog, Maggie, often runs down and dances to the music. The fact that we even have rehearsals is somewhat of a miracle, given that we try to juggle five different teaching schedules, office hours, campus meetings and family obligations.

NP: Who are some of your influences?

QA: Given that we are composed of three sociologists, an evolutionary psychologist and a micro-biologist, we believe that we are influenced by our evolutionary history as a species, our upbringing, various microbes and our social environment. And Elvis.

NP: What was the best venue you performed in?

QA: We once opened for Dar Williams in Studley Theatre. Although we only played five songs, our last song, an anti-Bush punk version of “We Shall Overcome” has become one of our many signatures and elicited a spontaneous standing ovation.

NP: What is your dream performance venue?

QA: The roof of the Jacobson Faculty Tower with the whole student body as a mosh pit down below. At the end of the performance, we would stage-dive into the pit and body-surf. (EDITOR’S NOTE: News Pulse readers should not try this stunt on their own!)

NP: Describe the band in 10 words or less.

QA: SUNY New Paltz’s best all-faculty, punk-rock cover band.

NP: If you went on tour, what would the show’s name be?

QA: Yes, This Will Be on the Exam.

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.

Marya Hornbacher, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of “Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia” and “Madness: A Bipolar Life,” will speak to the campus community on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 7:30 p.m. in Lecture Center, room 100.

The author and mental health advocate will discuss how culture – through media messages and social norms – frame the public’s understanding of eating disorders. Hornbacher will share her own experiences at the event, which is presented by the campus’s Psychological Counseling Center.

The event is free and open to the public. Admission tickets are available at the information desk located on the second floor of the Student Union. For more information, call x2920.

Hornbacher will also host a student writing workshop on Thursday, Nov. 5, from 9:30 to 11 a.m. in the Jacobson Faculty Tower, room 1010. Students interested in participating should contact the English Department at x2727.

The 22nd annual H. P. Lovecraft Forum will take place on Thursday, Nov. 5, at 7:30 p.m. in Jacobson Faculty Tower, room 1010.

Participants include Robert Waugh (English), John Langan (English), Jed Mayers (English) and Judith Johnson, professor emeritus of the University at Albany.

The event is free and open to the public. Any questions should be addressed to Robert Waugh (English) at x2754.

Sara Pasti (Dorsky Museum) has been awarded a $4,818 grant by the Hudson Valley Greenway Communities Council for a project titled “Revisiting the Hudson: 19th Century Landscape Painting in Context.” The symposium will be held in conjunction with the exhibition, “Views and Visions: The Hudson River to Niagara Falls – 19th Century American Landscape Paintings from the New-York Historical Society,” which is on display through Dec. 13 at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art. The interdisciplinary symposium will contextualize 19th-century American landscape painting.

OUTSTANDING ASSESSMENT AWARD: Lynn Spangler (Communication and Media), center, received the 2009 award for outstanding service in educational assessment at the college’s General Education (GE) forum on Oct. 28. Associate Provost Laurel Garrick Duhaney, left, and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences James Schiffer presented Spangler with the award.