Unleashing Greatness for UAlbany’s 175th
Giveaways, refreshments, speeches, and prizes were all on the agenda Jan. 23 in the Campus Center when members of the University community gathered to “Unleash Greatness” with the kickoff of UAlbany’s yearlong 175th-anniversary celebration. Students newly arrived for the beginning of the spring semester, faculty, and staff also enjoyed learning about some of the activities – including University Art Museum exhibitions, New York State Writers Institute offerings, sporting events, and Performing Arts Center presentations – planned for late January and beyond. Happy 175th, UAlbany!
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Stuart Milk Visits Campus
Stuart Milk, international human-rights activist, youth advocate, and Harvey Milk Foundation co-founder and executive chair, visited the University Oct. 25 to speak about “Global LGBT+ Rights and the Power of Your Story.” Milk is the nephew of 1970s gay-rights icon and UAlbany graduate Harvey Milk ’51, a San Francisco supervisor at the time he and the city’s mayor were assassinated 40 years ago.
Schell Is Named Distinguished Professor
The SUNY Board of Trustees has elevated Lawrence M. Schell of the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Public Health to the rank of Distinguished Professor. Schell, a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology, holds a joint appointment in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. He also directs the Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities and serves as a clinical associate professor in Albany Medical College’s Department of Pediatrics.
Influencing Change
In November, Samhita Mukhopadhyay ’00 returned to campus for the first time in 18 years to give the Joan E. Schultz Biennial Lecture, hosted by the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. The Teen Vogue executive editor’s talk, “Feminism Goes Viral: A Women’s Studies Alumna Addresses the Changing Media Landscape,” focused on her career, UAlbany’s impact on her work, how blogs have helped to launch feminism into the public consciousness, and the ways young writers and women can influence change.
Olympian Aly Raisman discussed her life experiences Dec. 3 as the headliner for the University’s Fall 2018 Speaker Series. Raisman, one of the most decorated American gymnasts of all time, won six Olympic medals as a captain of the U.S. women’s gymnastics teams, 2012’s “Fierce Five” and 2016’s “Final Five.” The author of Fierce: How Competing for Myself Changed Everything, now uses her platform to promote body positivity, advocate for sexual-abuse survivors, and push for systematic changes within the sport of gymnastics.
Citizen Laureates Are Honored
Former University at Albany President Karen R. Hitchcock, civic leaders Peter M. and Barbara J. Pryor, and longtime Capital Region businessman and promoter Richard Kotlow were honored Nov. 1 at the 39th Citizen Laureate Awards Dinner.
Hitchcock, a cell biologist, joined the University staff in 1991; served as UAlbany president from 1996-2004; and led Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, from 2004-08. In the Capital Region, she chaired the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Center for Economic Growth, and was a trustee of WMHT and The Doane Stuart School.
The Pryors, who held leadership positions under New York Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, are active in the community. Peter, who founded the Albany Urban League, was president and general counsel of Albany’s NAACP chapter. He served with the SUNY Board of Regents from 1996-2000. Barbara, a longtime supporter of the University at Albany School of Social Welfare, was also a member of its Community Advisory Board.
Kotlow retired in 2012 as CEO of UHY Advisors NY, where he served 40 years in leadership positions. He has made expansive contributions to such Capital Region organizations as the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Albany Convention and Visitors Bureau.
UAlbany’s Architecture Garners Acclaim
Architect and author Sam Lubell says the UAlbany campus is one of the 10 most impressive highlights of modernist architecture on the East Coast.
For his Mid-Century Modern Travel Guide: East Coast USA, published last fall by Phaidon, Lubell compiled a list of 250 sites along the Eastern Seaboard, then selected just 10. In describing the University’s uptown campus, designed by architect Edward Durell Stone in the 1960s, Lubell singled out its “cast-concrete and stone-paneled structures”; “large ornamental overhangs”; “gridded stone walkways, colonnades, plazas, gardens, sunken fountains, and reflecting pools”; “four symmetrical residential quads”; and “space-age flourishes.”
In an Oct. 8, 2018 story about Mid-Century Modern Travel Guide: East Coast USA, Dan Howarth of the London-based online architecture magazine Dezeen noted UAlbany’s selection for the work. Other highlights included structures designed by I.M. Pei, Eero Saarinen, and Frank Lloyd Wright.