Two Named as Fellows at UAlbany’s Emeritus Center

Randal Craig, smiling in a blue suit and red tie, is surrounded by clapping men in graduation garb or prison garb

Professor Craig is honored at a graduation at Greene Correctional Facility.

ALBANY, N.Y. (April 21, 2022) — Randall Craig and George Robinson have been named William L. Reese Fellows for 2022 by the University at Albany Emeritus Center. The fellowship, named after the center’s founding president, honors University emeriti for sustained, consequential and exemplary post-retirement professionally related contributions in scholarship, creative productions, teaching or service.

Craig began teaching in 2015 at Greene Correctional Facility in 2015, two years prior to his retirement from the English Department in 2017. He teaches two to three credit-bearing, college-level courses per semester at Greene, a medium security state prison for men in Coxsackie.

The teaching program at Greene is administered by the nonprofit Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison, which honored Craig at the first graduation in 2019. College credits are offered through SUNY's Columbia-Greene Community College, where Craig is an instructor. He also pioneered a Writing Center within the correctional facility, which is staffed primarily by faculty and graduate student volunteers from the University's English department.

George Robinson smiling, wearing round glasses and a brown corderoy jacket — George Robinson

Since retiring from the Department of Biological Sciences in 2017, Robinson has continued his work on the impacts of invasive species and climate change. He continues to publish research articles and reports and serve as a peer reviewer for journals and grant award panels. He is a member of the statewide Invasive Species Advisory Committee (ISAC), helping to develop regulations and policies.

Since retirement, Robinson also has supervised 10 UAlbany student research theses and dissertations dealing with the study of invasive plants and animals. Many of these research projects were funded by an MOU he negotiated with ISAC. He maintains a longstanding relationship with the E.N. Huyck Preserve in Rensselaerville, continuing to make important contributions to its missions of research, conservation, and education

“UAlbany emeriti have a vital role to play in the continued success of our university, and professors Randall Craig, George Robinson and the Emeritus Center provide wonderful examples of what emeriti excellence can look like,” said Glyne Griffith, the University’s associate vice provost for faculty success and the administrative liaison to the Emeritus Center.

Edward Fitzgerald, president of the Emeritus Center, said both Craig and Robinson “exemplify the Center’s goal of encouraging emeriti to stay actively engaged with their profession, the community and the University.”

For more information about the Emeritus Center and the Fellows Program visit the center’s website.