CAS Turns 25

A decision that revitalized the undergraduate experience and enhanced cooperation across disciplines is celebrated this month.

Architect/scholar David Gersten and senior producer of "Nova" Melanie Wallace visit UAlbany this month to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the College of Arts and Sciences. Both will participate in afternoon panels and nighttime presentations, Oct. 16 and 22.

ALBANY, N.Y. (Oct. 2, 2018) — Two visits from national figures, artistic showcases and a closing dinner highlight the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) this month.

David Gersten, professor in the Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, will join CAS faculty on Tuesday, Oct. 16, for a 4:15 p.m. panel discussion on “Engaging in a Changing World: The Transformative Power of Education Across Disciplines.” At 7 p.m. he’ll present a lecture (followed by Q&A) on “Developing New Ways of Knowing: Education, Art, Space, and Place.” Both events are in the Recital Hall.

On the following Monday, Oct. 22, Melanie Wallace, senior series producer for PBS-TV’s “Nova,” will engage with a CAS panel on the topic “Science, Scholarship, and Citizenship” at 5:35 p.m. in the Standish Room of the Science Library, followed at 7 p.m. in the Recital Hall by her presentation with film clips on “History, Science, and Truth in the 21st Century.” There will again be a Q&A session afterward.

“It is an honor for us to host these nationally respected thought leaders as part of our commemoration of the College of Arts and Sciences’ 25th anniversary,” said CAS Dean Edelgard Wulfert.

“The creation of the college, which unified our core disciplines and allowed the establishment of new programs, effectively revitalized the University’s undergraduate experience and enhanced academic and research cooperation across disciplines. This continues to be a great cause for celebration. This month’s events present a small but profound example of the wide-ranging achievements of our past and current faculty and students.”

In a commemorative booklet, 25 Years of Excellence, released in September, Wulfert contributed an essay on the evolving but continuing relevance of a liberal education and CAS’s mission to “educate the whole person.”

This month, artistic presentations featuring past and present faculty and students of CAS will highlight the creative achievements of fostered by the College. These showcases began on Sept. 20 with the Capital Region’s Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company performing works made over the years in collaboration with current and emeritus CAS faculty.

That theme continues on Friday at 3 p.m. in the Recital Hall with “Songs and Sounds for Silver,” a musical variety format that includes a new work composed by Music Professor Max Lifchitz and inspired by the poetry of Africana Studies Professor Leonard Slade, three musical vignettes by pianist and Associate Professor Duncan Cumming and Theatre’s Kim Stauffer; Dvořák’s Biblical Songs performed by Cumming and John Cimino; and an aria by Music & Theatre Assistant Professor Kyra Gaunt.

The visual arts will be represented from Thursday, Oct. 11 through Dec. 8, with FLOW: Alumni Artists from Mohawk Hudson Region Exhibition 2009-2017. It features 11 UAlbany alumni artists in the University Art Museum. The opening artists’ reception will be Friday, Oct. 19, 5 – 8 p.m.

The CAS 25th Anniversary Dinner for CAS faculty and staff and their invited guests will be held on Thursday, Oct. 25, starting at 5:30 p.m. in Treviso by Mallozzi’s. The featured speaker will be UAlbany professor of Journalism and English Thomas A. Bass, discussing his recent travels to the Fukushima and Chernobyl exclusion zones.

25 Years of Excellence includes congratulatory messages from President Rodríguez and past president H. Patrick Swygert, who made the decision 25 years ago to consolidate three schools into CAS, and essays by faculty on the work of the college today in the natural sciences, arts, social sciences and humanities. A tribute was also paid to the college’s growing commitment to public engage.

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