Writers Institute Names State Poet, Author for 1998-2000

James Salter is New York�s new State Author and Sharon Olds the new State Poet, the New York State Writers Institute announced last week.

Salter, novelist and short story writer, and resident of Bridgehampton, will receive the New York State Edith Wharton Citation of Merit for fiction writers; and Sharon Olds, a resident of New York City, received the New York State Walt Whitman Citation of Merit for poets, at a special ceremony at the State Museum in Albany on March 24.

The citations, established in 1985 by the governor and state legislature to promote fiction and poetry within the state, are awarded biennially under the aegis of the New York State Writers Institute, which is based at the University at Albany. Awardees serve two years in their honorary positions and each receive a $10,000 honorarium.

James Salter

James Salter was born in New Jersey in 1925 and raised in New York City. He is the author of five novels, a short story collection and a memoir. Considered a unique figure on the literary landscape and one of his generation�s most admired stylists, he is not well-known by the general reading public. James Wolcott in Vanity Fair called him "the most underrated underrated writer," and the Dictionary of Literary Biography asserts that "his admirers, devout in their loyalty, pass his name along to the uninitiated with the trust of a personal secret."

Novelist Robert Stone, a member of the advisory panel that selected Salter, described his spare and stoical prose as "the idiom of insight. In its essential eloquence and concision it conveys the courage, thoughtfulness, and wisdom for which Salter�s readers turn, again and again, to him. He is an artist of rare and singular accomplishment; literally a resource of his state in terms of pride and encouragement."

Salter�s novels include The Hunter (1957) and The Arm of Flesh (1961), both of which draw on his experience as an Air Force fighter pilot; and A Sport and a Pastime (1967) about the affair of an American drifter and a young Frenchwoman, judged "as nearly perfect as any American fiction I know," by Reynolds Price in the New York Times Book Review. His short story collection Dusk and Other Stories (1988) won the PEN/Faulkner Award. His most recent book, Burning the Days (1997), a memoir, provides insights into his long career as fighter pilot (over 100 combat missions in Korea), his work as a filmmaker/screenwriter, and his passionate interests in outdoor sports and all things European.

Salter expressed his pleasure and surprise upon notification of the award, saying: "Well, as someone, said, �To write! What a marvelous thing!� I didn�t say that, but I believe it. And now this!"

The advisory panel that recommended Salter as state author included the present laureate, novelist and nonfiction writer Peter Matthiessen, novelist Robert Stone and E. Annie Proulx, and William Kennedy, novelist and director of the New York State Writers Institute.

Sharon Olds

Olds, who resides in New York City, is the author of five major volumes of poetry. She uses an intense, personal voice to convey truths about family relationships, domestic and political violence, and sexuality. A reviewer for the New York Times hailed Olds�s poetry for its vision: "Like Whitman, Ms. Olds sings the body in celebration of a power stronger than political oppressions."

In describing Olds�s poetry, outgoing New York State poet Jane Cooper said: "In the quick fall and rise of Sharon Olds�s images, everything seems to be happening now, in the present, and happening to ourselves. The thrust of these poems is always to find out the hidden life, the pulsing moment of coming-into-being. Olds is a bold writer, risky, powerful, profoundly humane, who through five collections has extended our awareness of what can be written."

Olds�s poetry volumes include Satan Says (1980), which received the inaugural San Francisco Poetry Center Award; The Dead and the Living (1984), which was the Lamont Poetry Selection of the Academy of American Poets, and the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; The Gold Cell (1987); The Father (1992); and her most recent collection The Wellspring (1996).

She is a founding chair of the writing program at Goldwater Hospital for the severely physically disabled and currently chair of New York University�s graduate creative writing program.

Upon the announcement of the Whitman Citation, Olds said: "The invitation to join Stanley Kunitz, Robert Creeley, Audre Lorde, Richard Howard, and Jane Cooper, in serving and celebrating poetry in the Bluebird Rose Sugar-Maple State, is such an honor and encouragement.

"The first thing I plan to do is to go to the nearest grammar school and offer an hour a week to help someone learn to read. The school is Manhattan P.S. 75; the name over its door is Emily Dickinson."

The advisory panel that recommended Olds as state poet included Jane Cooper, the present state poet; Robert Pinsky, current Poet Laureate of the United States; poet, editor, and prose stylist Donald Hall; and Donald Faulkner, poet and associate director of the Writers Institute.

Previous state authors have been Grace Paley, E. L. Doctorow, Norman Mailer, William Gaddis, and Peter Matthiessen. Previous state poets have been Stanley Kunitz, Robert Creeley, Audrey Lorde, Richard Howard, and Jane Cooper.

University Tackles Online Harassment

by Lisa James

The University Police Department (UPD) has begun a new program to warn the campus community about on-line harassment. On April 7, Paul Berger, a UPD Investigator, will give a presentation on the subject to the staff of the University Counseling Center. Anyone wishing to arrange a presentation for their office or department should contact Berger at 442-3130.

Paul Berger

On-line harassment is a course of conduct directed at an individual that causes substantial emotional distress in that person and which serves no legitimate purpose. It includes unwanted or unsolicited e-mail, unwanted or unsolicited talk requests, private or public messages on IRC, disturbing messages on Usenet bulletin boards, and unsolicited communications about you to others. It is a crime in New York state that is punishable by up to a year in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both.

"We try to maintain an atmosphere where people can have their educational pursuits without worrying about being the victim of a crime," Berger said. UPD, in conjunction with the Albany Police Department, recently arrested a student for on-line harassment. According to Berger, who also was the arresting officer, in the incident, this has been the only case of on-line harassment this semester. There was one last semester as well. "This issue is becoming more prevalent as e-mail is taken for granted as a means of communication," he said.

Berger has developed a list of what to do if you have been harassed on-line and hopes to incorporate these messages into already existing safety/crime prevention program offerings.:

Sanders Works With Weather Service
to Enlighten Public About Forecasts

Bolstering public confidence in weather forecasts by providing consumers with the reasoning behind the predictions is the goal of a collaborative research effort being launched by the University and National Weather Service (NWS). The project is headed by Robert Sanders, a professor of communication at the University, and Richard Westergard, warning coordination meteorologist for the NWS Albany forecast office.

"People like to make their own decisions about how to react to approaching weather," said Westergard. "We think if we can show people the atmospheric changes that are influencing the weather, they�ll be able to make better decisions than if we just present them with our predictions. Increased confidence in everyday forecasts should lead to better reactions during weather emergencies, and that�s the mission of the National Weather Service."

Sanders explained that the research will investigate how to communicate about weather processes in ways that are readily understood without being too simple. "We think the key is to develop visual illustrations of what is happening. This would make the information easy to get, and also take advantage of the growing importance of television and the Internet."

The research project will be headquartered at the University�s Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management, which was selected as the new home of the Albany forecast office as part of the weather service�s modernization program.

"With an operating forecast office right on campus, we are in a strong position to expand the parameters of weather research for the benefit of the American public," said Gene Auciello, meteorologist in charge of the Albany forecast office. "While the weather service modernization effort continues to enhance the forecaster�s ability to predict the weather, this research promises to enhance consumer confidence in weather forecasts and warnings."

One of 123 modernized forecast offices across the country, the Albany facility is served by state-of-the-art Doppler weather radar, and the latest computer and communications equipment. The office serves New York�s capital region and surrounding counties, as well as parts of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont.

The project has three phases. First, focus groups around the country will clarify their needs for weather information and how they use it. "Then we will work with programmers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration�s Forecast Systems Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, to develop appropriate computer-based visualizations," explained Sanders. Third, the visual imagery that is developed will be shown to focus groups for their evaluation.

Sanders and Westergard�s research is being funded by UCAR/COMET, the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training, which is managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.

Sarah Cohen's Soul Sisters Explores Cultural Alienation and Discovery

By Vinny Reda

It seems that Sarah Cohen no sooner witnesses the fruition of one idea than another plants itself beside her.

Playwright Sarah Cohen

Some two years ago, Cohen, professor of English at the University, was sitting in the audience in a Miami, Fla., theater waiting for a performance of her newest play with music, Molly Picon�s Return Engagement. She was sitting beside an actress, Carol Provoncha, who had co-starred in Sophie, Totie & Belle, Cohen�s previous play, as Sophie. Alongside her was a black actress, Avery Sommer, who had toured with national productions of such musicals as Chicago.

"They began talking during the intermission about the struggles in their careers," said Cohen. "And eventually they both got around to their deeply held obligations to their mothers, and how they both wanted to be more of what their mothers wanted them to be, but that they also had this great tugging in their souls to perform.

"And I thought, �How wonderful, these two women, white and black, having so much in common.� They were really soul sisters."

Two years later, on Saturday, April 4, the New York State Writers Institute in conjunction with the Departments of Africana Studies and Judaic Studies will sponsor benefit performances of Cohen�s new musical (co-written, as with her previous ones, with Chicago playwright Joanne Koch) Soul Sisters. Directed by Carole Bellini-Sharp, performances will be held at the Lewis A. Swyer Theater of the Empire Center at the Egg on April 4 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 5, at 3 p.m.

Proceeds from the performances will be used towards black and Jewish cultural programming that will enable the University and the community to share more of the cultural riches of the black and Jewish experience.

Soul Sisters is the story of two women singers, one African-American, one Jewish-American, who help each other through success, tragedy, and a rediscovery of their roots. Despite some divergent views, the emphasis of the show stresses common ground, conveyed through such music as Billie Holiday�s "Strange Fruit" � the blues evocation of a lynching � and Rosalie Gerut�s moving song of Holocaust survivors, "We�re Here." Included also are traditional songs of survival and triumph, "Oh Freedom," "We Shall Overcome," and Debbie Friedman�s "Miriam�s Song."

Unlike her other works, Cohen, a leading scholar on Jewish humor(her books include Saul Bellow�s Enigmatic Laughter (1974), Jewish Wry: Essays on Jewish Humor (1987), and Cynthia Ozick�s Comic Art: From Levity to Liturgy (1994)), found the literary path to Soul Sisters an enlightening one.

"I grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin, and I don�t remember ever seeing a person of color there," she said. "Of course, I was friendly with many black kids in college and graduate school, but never close friends. I had taught black plays in my �American Drama� course at Albany for years, but I knew next to nothing about the cultural differences between whites and blacks.

"Joanne Koch, on the other hand, was friends with and knew the families of many black kids growing up in Evanston, Ill. And her husband was an investigative reporter during the civil rights movement in the 1960s, so she had a great sensibility and knowledge. And I learned from that, and also from a lot of research.

Soul Sisters Jacque Tara Washington and Vikki True

"What we have in Soul Sisters is Sandra, a Jewish woman singer who in the early 1960s has denied her roots, but is very committed to the black civil rights movement. She�s not concerned with the slavery of the Jews 3,000 years ago. But by the late 1960s, Stokely Carmichael and others were ridding their movement of Jews, and Sandra is confused and hurt. Her assistant, Cleo, a black woman singer who has also denied her culture, ultimately rises to stardom, and Sandra sinks to depression and alcohol.

"They are brought together in the end, with a common bond to fight oppression, but it is with much soul searching and rediscovery for both. Unlike my other plays, I think this is one that will appeal to both young and old."

The theme encouraged Cohen and Koch to reward a number of people in the Capitol Region for their work in enhancing multiculturalism, and in particular black-Jewish relations. The awards will be bestowed at a reception for the production�s honorary committee members after the April 5 performance in The Egg�s Hart Lounge.

President Karen Hitchcock, who will serve as the benefit�s honorary university chair, will receive the Bella Abzug/Barbara Jordan Award "for advancing social justice;" Rabbi Martin Silverman of Temple Beth Emeth and Rev. Robert Dixon of Calvary Baptist Church will receive the Martin Luther King/Abraham Joshua Heschel Award "for promoting the ideals of brotherhood;" Nancy Belowich-Negron, the University�s director of Disabled Student Services, and Jackie Davis, assistant SUNY chancellor for affirmative action, will receive the Lorraine Hansberry/Lillian Hellman Award "for advancing the causes of women and minorities;" and two University students, SA President Rasheem-Ameid Rooke, a senior, and sophomore Jessica Firger, will receive the Julian Bond/Barbra Streisand Award "for student advocacy of unity and diversity."

Honorary community co-chairs for the event include noted Capital Region citizens Neil and Jane Golub, Peter and Barbara Pryor, Arlene Reed Delaney, and Samuel Strasser.

University Students Build for Habitat for Humanity

Lisa James

Twelve members of Purple and Gold, an honorary service organization at the University at Albany, traveled to Miami, Fla., on March 14 to participate in Habitat for Humanity�s week-long Collegiate Challenge school break service program. The students worked at building decent, affordable homes for families in need. In one of Habitat for Humanity�s most ambitious goals ever, a goal was set of new homes for 50 families in 1998.

The University's delegation to Habitat for Humanity
pose before their trip to Florida.

Amy Andino, graduate student advisor for Purple and Gold, said members of the University�s Tour Program participated as well.

Collegiate Challenge: Spring Break �98, a program coordinated by the Campus Chapters and Youth Programs department of Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), runs from Feb. 15 through April 11. It offers construction experiences to students at HFHI affiliates around the country. More than 6,500 collegiate participants will travel to over 140 host affiliate sites and approximately $600,000 will be contributed to the Habitat for Humanity house-building work at these locations.

Now in its 21st year, Habitat for Humanity International is a non-profit, ecumenical Christian organization dedicated to eliminating poverty housing worldwide. It works in partnership with people in need to build simple, decent, affordable houses. The houses then are sold to the partner families at no profit, through no-interest loans. To date, the organization has built over 60,000 homes worldwide.

Moscow Trip Celebrates 20 Years of Exchange

By Carol Olechowski

When Albany began its exchange program with Moscow State University (MGU) in the 1976-77 academic year, the highly charged political climate in each nation impacted everything from participants� travel arrangements to their whereabouts in their host countries. But with the recent commemoration � a year late � of the program�s 20th anniversary, administrators at both institutions are looking forward to expanding the partnership.

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Judy Genshaft, Associate Vice President Carlos Santiago, International Programs Director Alex Shane, and assistant provost for SUNY System administration Linda H. Scatton headed a delegation that visited the Russian capital for a week in January to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Albany-MGU program � the oldest such partnership between American and Russian institutions of higher education.

From left to right: Professor Azara Santiago-Rivera, Associate Vice President
Carlos E. Santiago, Professor Nikolai Borisov,
Provost Judy L. Genshaft, Dr. Alex Shane, Ms. Mila Shane.

The anniversary, which coincided with both Tatiana�s Day, a Russian holiday dedicated to the patron saint of students, and MGU�s 243rd anniversary, probably occasioned more festivity than the visitors had anticipated. They attended receptions for the observances and were entertained by students and by Russian folk dancers, musicians, and singers.

However, there was also work to do. The Albany delegation met with the representatives of MGU�s faculties [schools or colleges] of philology, history, international studies, psychology, and economics, among others, to discuss the partnerships between those entities and the University.

"One of the things we discussed," recalled Shane, "was doing more to make the programs at MGU available to Albany students who have little or no knowledge of Russian. In the past, the program was open primarily to advanced students; then we dropped the requirement to two years of Russian. This year, we�d like to open it to students with no Russian or just one year.

"We also talked about establishing bilateral centers � one at MGU and one here in New York � that would promote easy access of information exchange and possibly set up a degree program." The centers would increase research collaboration between the two countries. Talks with MGU and the American embassy in Moscow are continuing.

From left to right: Provost Judy L. Genshaft,
Rector Viktor Antonovich Sadovnichy,
Assistant Provost for Academic Planning and Evaluation (SUNY-System Administration)
Linda Scatton.

The Albany-MGU connection is significant for two reasons. MGU, Santiago pointed out, "is the largest academic institution in Russia and is recognized as the country�s premier university for teaching and research. We�ve had a longer linkage with Moscow State than it�s had with any other American university. It�s also Moscow�s first linkage with an American institution, and it has lasted the longest, through thick and thin."

Shane, who has headed Albany�s Office of International Programs since 1981, remembers the thinner times � during some of the most frigid years of the Cold War � when restrictions placed on students mandated that his staff notify the federal government as to when and where Russian students would be traveling within the U.S. However, the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union nearly a decade ago eased such prohibitions, resulting in a freer exchange of students and faculty.

Over the past two decades, 137 faculty, 149 graduate students, and 66 undergraduates have made the trip from Albany to Moscow. During the same time period, 151 faculty, 61 graduate students, and 68 undergraduates from MGU have visited Albany. On average, MGU hosts seven to eight Albany participants each semester.

That number may rise significantly in the near future. Through the Sullivan Initiative � named for Assembly Higher Education Committee Chair Edward Sullivan � Albany has received an initial $100,000 grant to promote expansion of study abroad beginning this summer. With the enthusiastic endorsement of University President Karen R. Hitchcock and Provost Genshaft, particular emphasis will be placed on programs in countries where Russian, Chinese, French, Spanish, or Arabic is the native language.

Aside from enhancing existing programs, the Sullivan Initiative will assist the University in developing new programs attractive to prospective participants. The $1,000 scholarship being offered to each student who elects to study in a country where one of the aforementioned languages is spoken may prove to be an added incentive.

Shane credits the success of the University at Albany-MGU exchange during the past 20 years, in part, to the support of Chancellor Ernest L. Boyer, who signed the original exchange agreement in late 1976, and his successors, Acting Chancellor Jerome B. Komisar and Bruce D. Johnstone, who renewed the compact in 1982 and 1988, respectively. Shane also acknowledges Albany�s Slavic Languages and Literatures Department (now part of the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures) and to his own staff in International Programs for their efforts.

Shane is optimistic about the Albany-MGU partnership�s continued growth, in particular, and about the success of the University�s Study Abroad programs, in general. Through their participation in overseas study, he said, students "acquire a love for the culture and language of that country. If they have opportunity to study abroad at an earlier stage of their college experience, I hope they�ll also continue with more advanced language study upon returning to Albany."

The Rollins Exhibition

by Carol Olechowski

For Tim Rollins, art does not merely imitate life; art is life. And since 1982, the artist-teacher has used both literature and art to get that message through to young people in the tough neighborhoods of the South Bronx � and to encourage them to acquire the skills they will need to paint bright futures for themselves. Now, the Albany community will have a chance to see some of the remarkable works he and his students have created when the University Art Museum presents Tim Rollins and KOS (Kids of Survival), which opens this Saturday (March 28) with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. in the museum and continues through April 19. The exhibition is being held in conjunction with the University�s Shakespeare Semester, a cross-disciplinary event celebrating the work of the English poet and dramatist.

Amerika-The Stoker
Tim Rollins and K.O.S.
1996, watercolor, bookpages on linen

With Rollins, KOS participants read and discuss literature, using themes from literary classics to inspire their artistic collaborations. Their works are on display in such noted venues as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Washington D.C.�s Hirshhorn Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Some of their art has been sold; the proceeds help to provide stipends for the young artists. In addition, KOS is the subject of a recent critically acclaimed documentary, Kids of Survival.

Through residencies, Rollins has shared his artistic vision with other young people throughout the U.S. and abroad, focusing their creative energies while giving them valuable lessons in art history, post-modernist art strategies, and literary analysis. In one workshop with the Oklahoma City public schools, Rollins collaborated with teen-aged survivors of the Murrah Federal Building bombing to create a painting based on Stephen Crane�s The Red Badge of Courage. The piece is now part of the Oklahoma Arts Institute�s permanent collection. Other works, including Nathaniel Hawthorne�s The Scarlet Letter and Gustave Flaubert�s Temptation of Saint Anthony, have also provided inspiration for Rollins�s protégés.

Animal Farm
Tim Rollins and K.O.S.

A highlight of the Tim Rollins and KOS exhibition will be a work crafted Tuesday through Thursday this week by Rollins and 15 selected students from C.A. Bouton Junior-Senior High School, Ichabod Crane Middle School, Philip Livingston Magnet Academy, and Hadley-Luzerne High School. The in-situ creation, based on Shakespeare�s Midsummer Night�s Dream, afforded observers a rare, first-hand glimpse at Rollins�s work methods and his interactions with his young artists. The event was co-sponsored by the Capital Region Center for Arts in Education.

The University Art Museum is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. It is closed to the public Mondays.

Juried Undergraduate Student Exhibition

The University Art Museum�s second floor will feature the Juried Undergraduate Student Exhibition, which will present a variety of imagery drawn from Shakespearean themes. The exhibit, which includes works in all media, is open to all University undergraduates. It is juried by College of St. Rose Art Department faculty and painters Scott Brodie and Deborah Zlotsky.

Its opening reception will run concurrent with Tim Rollins and K.O.S., on Saturday, March 28, from 6-9 p.m. Awards ceremonies will be held at 7 p.m. A performance by the University Chamber Singers will follow.