Faculty/Staff News

The University Chamber Singers recently performed in Costa Rica under the direction of David Griggs-Janower of the Department of Music. A select group of students from a wide range of majors and backgrounds, the UAlbany Chamber Singers are accomplished performers of a cappella music, with a repertoire spanning the centuries and the world. They perform at the University and in the community several times a month. The group performed at the Cartago Cathedral, the Catholic Church of Quepos, and the National Cathedral in San Jose. They also visited Manuel Antonio National Park and Arenal Volcano. Above right, the Chamber Singers, just before ziplining over the top of the rain forest canopy in Costa Rica. Ziplining is traveling along the tree tops on cables.

Joseph F. Zimmerman, professor of political science, is the author of Interstate Economic Relations, published by the State University of New York (SUNY) Press in July. Professor Nelson Wikstrom of Virginia Commonwealth University described the book as a �groundbreaking volume.� SUNY Press will also publish Zimmerman�s book, Congressional Preemption: Regulatory Federalism, next year.

Christine Haile, UAlbany�s chief information officer, received the �Best of New York� award in July for demonstrated leadership in management of information technology. �She was the unanimous choice,� said Paul Taylor, chief strategy officer of the Center for Digital Government, the national research and advisory institute that sponsors the awards program. Haile joined UAlbany in 2001 as its first chief information officer. She has campus responsibility for information technology policies, programs, and services. Under her leadership the campus has increased the number of technology-equipped classrooms and implemented a new student information system. This past spring, the University acquired new high-performance computing capacity from IBM to support the University�s burgeoning research enterprise.

The Middle Earth Peer Assistance Program was awarded a $10,000 gift from the Dominion Foundation at a July 8 reception at Alumni House. The gift will be used to advance the program�s work in alcohol and other drug prevention in college students.

Leonard A. Slade, Jr., professor and chair of the Department of Africana Studies and director of the Humanistic Studies Program, has published an essay, �The Days Before Brown: Keys to Successful Education Reform,� in Education Next: Journal of Opinion and Research at Harvard University (August 2004).

Professor Robert Osuna of the Department of Biological Sciences has accepted an invitation to serve as a member of the Microbial Physiology and Genetics (2) Study Section, Center for Scientific Review of the National Institutes of Health through June 30, 2007. Members are selected on the basis of their demonstrated competence and achievement in their scientific discipline as shown by the quality of research accomplishments. Study sections review grant applications submitted to the NIH, make recommendations to the appropriate NIH national advisory council or board, and survey the status of research in their fields of science.

Min Xie, a Ph.D. student in criminal justice, was an invited speaker in Washington, D.C., on July 12. She was asked by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and Office on Violence Against Women to a one-day meeting of researchers and practitioners to discuss the development of a special supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) on stalking. �We are very proud of her being recognized in this way,� said School of Criminal Justice Dean Julie Horney.