Contract approved; construction phase draws near

An artist’s rendering of the Student Union Pavilion’s interior, which will be constructed between the Student Union Building and the Haggerty Administration Building. Work on the project is scheduled to begin later this month. Image submitted

The New York State Attorney General’s Office and the Office of the State Comptroller have blessed the Student Union Building expansion contract and work on the project is expected to begin at the end of the month.

“The hard work of students, faculty and staff who were all part of the planning and contracting has paid off,” said L. David Rooney, vice pre

sident for student affairs and chair of the Student Union Building Advisory Committee. “We are about to enter the construction phase that we have all been anxiously waiting for. Once completed, the new space will add so much to the functionality of a vital campus hub.”

Representatives from Niram Inc. of Boonton, N.J., the general contractor, visited the campus on Nov. 11 to walk through the building with members of Facilities Design and Construction to determine where and when they can start work. Niram will return the week of Nov. 17 to discuss a schedule.

Garry Nack, project manager for Facilities Design and Construction, said work on the project will begin in the Purple Lounge on the building’s second floor. The space will be renovated into office space for Student Activities and Union Services and the Disability Resource Center. Once the staff has been relocated, work will begin on the north side of the building, nearest the Haggerty Administration Building.

John McEnrue, director of Facilities Design and Construction, said the project should take 16 months to complete.

Meanwhile, changes made in preparation for the project can be seen on campus. The most visible is the Backstage Café in Parker Theatre, which is scheduled to open on Nov. 20, providing the campus community with another dining option when Jazzman’s in the Student Union Building closes. In September, the ID/Meal Plan office was relocated from the Haggerty Administration Building’s basement to Student Union Building room 100.

A ground breaking ceremony and construction schedule will be announced soon.

For more information about the project, visit www.newpaltz.edu/construction.

At a networking session prior to his appearance as the first guest of the college’s Distinguished Speaker Series on Nov. 12, author Dave Barry (far right) spoke with (l-r) Chrissy Corrigan ’09 (English), Marlea Liguori ’09 (Organizational Communication), Lee Conell ’09 (English) and Alyssa Jung ’10 (Journalism) about the future of journalism. Following the networking session, Barry spoke to an audience of 900 in the Athletic and Wellness Center. The evening ended with a reception with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author for premium-ticket holders. On April 29, the college will welcome Newsweek senior editor Jonathan Alter in McKenna Theatre. The focus of his talk will be "The American Presidency in War and Peace" as it relates to the new administration’s first 100 days in office. Photo by Danny Wild ’06 (Journalism)

For more photos of the Dave Barry event, visit http://tinyurl.com/5o2yb8.

For more information about the Distinguished Speaker Series, visit www.newpaltz.edu/speakerseries.

Benjamin to be honored at Gala

Benjamin

Gerald Benjamin (Political Science) will be the guest of honor at the sixth Celebrating New Paltz Gala on Nov. 23 at the Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz.

“He embodies what this gala is all about,” said Sally Cross (Development). “He has served the public as a political representative, the college as a well respected scholar, author and expert on New York State government and New York State constitutional law.”

In addition to his role as associate vice president for regional engagement and director of the Center for Research, Regional Education and Outreach (CRREO), Benjamin is a Distinguished Professor and author.  He served as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 1996 to 2008. Benjamin is an expert on state and local government, who has been involved in major reform efforts.

Proceeds from the annual fundraiser provide scholarships for residents of Ulster, Dutchess and Orange counties to attend SUNY New Paltz. The five previous galas have raised nearly $185,000 in scholarship endowment funds.

The Celebrating New Paltz Gala is open to the public and tickets are available by calling x3240. For more information, visit www.newpaltz.edu/gala.

Commencement marshals sought

All members of the campus community are invited to participate in the upcoming December commencement ceremonies.

There will be three ceremonies for the college’s August and December candidates; all will take place in the Athletic and Wellness Center. On Friday, Dec.19, from 6 to 8 p.m., the ceremony for undergraduate candidates from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the School of Education will take place; on Saturday, Dec. 20, from 10 a.m. to noon, the event for School of Business, School of Fine and Performing Arts, and School of Science and Engineering undergraduate candidates will be held; and on Saturday, Dec. 20, from 2:30 to 4 p.m., will be the ceremony for all graduate candidates.

Individuals who wish to marshal will need to register at my.newpaltz.edu to participate. Those who register by Friday, Nov. 21, will have their names included in the programs.

For more information, visit www.newpaltz.edu/commencement or contact Jennifer Montalbano (Development), special events coordinator, at x3972.

Holiday gatherings approaching

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 5 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 13. The 23rd Annual Awards Luncheon, sponsored by Sodexo, will take place at noon on Tuesday, Dec. 16, in the Student Union Building Multi-Purpose Room.

Evaluation packets available

The Student Evaluation of Instruction (SEI) will be administered from Nov. 17 to Dec. 10. Faculty may pick up packets in the following locations: Liberal Arts and Sciences in department offices; Education in South Classroom Building room 129;  Science and Engineering, Business and Fine and Performing Arts in their respective dean’s office; and Music in College Hall room 100. Faculty teaching Honors and Interdisciplinary courses may pick up their packets one of the above locations, based on the school they teach in. All faculty should inform the administering students of the drop-off box locations: Coykendall Science Building upper lobby; South Classroom Building outside room 138; and Lecture Center north-side lobby.

Call Mary Ann Landolina (Institutional Research) at x3227 with any questions or visit www.newpaltz.edu/oir.

Connecting engineering elements

Assemblyman Kevin Cahill ’77 delivered the keynote address at the Conference on Electric Power Engineering on Nov. 14 at the College Terrace. The conference brought together representatives from such companies and organizations as the Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation (Energy East) and The Solar Energy Consortium in Kingston, as well as engineering faculty from such universities as New Paltz and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, to discuss how to bridge curriculum with the needs of regional engineers in the power industry. For more information about the college’s engineering program, visit www.newpaltz.edu/engineering.

AWARDS, HONORS, APPOINTMENTS AND RECOGNITION

Jacqueline Ahl (Special Programs) received an honorable mention award in the stage play script category of the 77th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition for her absurdist one-act script, “Fear Itself.”

Margaret Gutierrez (Migrant Education Outreach Program) has been awarded a $51,688 grant by Geneseo Migrant Center BOCES for her project, “Promesa II Even Start Project 08-09.”

PUBLICATIONS

Daniel Freedman (Chemistry), Matthew Buck ’08 (Chemistry) and Lucas Vandenburgh ’08g (Education) published “Preparation, Separation, and Characterization of Ruthenium(II) Thiocyanate Linkage Isomers” in the American Chemical Society journal, “Inorganic Chemistry.”

Howard Good’s (Communication and Media) poems have recently appeared in such publications as “whispers & [Shouts],” “Origami Condom,” “Waterlogged August,” “The Honey Land Review,” “Neon” and “qarrtsiluni.”

Aaron Haselton (Biology) wrote a paper, titled “FMRFamide-Like Immunoreactivity in the Central Nervous System and Alimentary Tract of the Non-Hematophagous Blow Fly, Phormia Regina, and the Hematophagous Horse Fly, Tabanus Nigrovittatus,” with John Stoffolano and Chih-Ming Yin at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which appeared in the Journal of Insect Science.

John Langan’s (English) short fiction collection, “Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters,” will be published in December.

Frances Ricciardi Saraceno (Foreign Languages, Emeritus) published a translation of Rogelio Cuesta’s work, “Escaping from the Prisons Within (Escaparse de las Prisiones Interiores).”

Tad Richards (English) had his poem “What’s That Over by the Wheelbarrow?” appear in Masthead #11, an online anthology.

Anne Roschelle’s (Sociology) article, “Welfare Indignities: Homeless Women, Domestic Violence, and Welfare Reform in San Francisco,” was published in the September 2008 online volume of “Gender Issues.”

Scott Saccomano (Nursing) co-authored an article with Deborah DeLuca of Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., “Too Toxic: Firm Up on the Facts and Considerations Associated with Acetaminophen Toxicity,” in the September 2008 issue of Nursing Management.

PRESENTATIONS, EXHIBITIONS

Karl Bryant (Sociology, Women’s Studies) and Ellice Litwak ’09 (Sociology) presented a paper at the Marist Women and Society Conference in October.

Julio Gonzalez (Engineering) presented the results of his educational research, “An Interactive Teaching Approach Based on Student-Teams,” at the Frontiers in Education conference in Saratoga Springs in October.

Mary Kahl (Communication and Media) delivered a lecture, “It’s Not Who Wins or Loses, It’s How They Play the Game,” at Hofstra University in Hempstead, prior to the Oc. 15 presidential debate, as part of Hofstra’s “Educate ’08” initiative.