Mitchell to speak on teaching, learning in the black community
Jacquelyn Mitchell, dean of the Graduate School of Education, will present a lecture, "Lessons Learned from Three Women: Teaching and Learning in the Black Community," at 4 p.m. Tuesday in Room 112, Center for the Arts. Mitchell's talk, to be given to the Graduate School of Education Alumni Association, is free and open to the public. Co-sponsor for the lecture is the Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender.

Mitchell, who received her doctoral degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, has extensive research experience in the field of ethnographic and sociolinguistic studies, cognitive development and community intervention. For reservations, call 645-2492.

Panel to discuss equity, leadership for women
A panel discussion on "Leadership and Equity for Women," sponsored by United University Professions, Buffalo Center Chapter, will be one of the events on the March Women's History Month calendar.

Free and open to all, the panel will be held from 4:30-6:30 p.m. on March 5 in Pistachio's in the Student Union. President William R. Greiner will be a panel member. Jean Dickson, associate librarian and president of the UUP Buffalo Center Chapter, will be moderator.

Others on the panel: Bernice Noble, UB professor of microbiology and co-chair of the President's Task Force on Women; Pamela Henderson, New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University; Susan Hoyt, chair, Erie County Commission on the Status of Women, and Vicki K. Janik, assistant professor of English at Farmingdale State College and chair of the state UUP Women's Rights and Concerns Committee.

NCEER receives 1997 'Build San Diego' award
A project carried out in part by the National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research headquartered at UB has received the Association of General Contractors' 1997 "Build San Diego" Award involving the design and installation of technology to protect a building at the San Diego Naval Station from earthquake damage. It was directed by Tsu-Teh Soong, interim deputy director of NCEER and Samuel Capen Professor of Engineering Science, with Andrei Reinhorn, professor of structural engineering, as co-investigator.

Global Ambassadors offer outreach for local schools
The World Languages Institute (WLI), a section of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, is collaborating with International Student and Scholar Services in the Office of International Education on the Global Ambassadors program, a new outreach program for local schools.

The Global Ambassadors program is designed to give teachers and students a firsthand introduction to various cultures around the world and to give UB international students an inside glimpse of K-12 education in the United States, as well as an opportunity to meet new people.

For information about the Global Ambassadors, call the WLI at 645-2292 or International Student and Scholar Services at 645-2258.

The program's homepage is http://wings.buffalo.edu/globalambassadors/

Libraries' Black History Performance Series features music, lecture
The UB Libraries' Black History Month Performance Series will present Kora Music of the Manding Griots, featuring Bubakar Cissoko and Landing Diatta, and a special lecture by Musa Abdul Hakim.

The event will take place tomorrow at 6 p.m. in the Undergraduate Library on the North Campus.

For more information, call Rick McRae, Music Library, 645-2924, or e-mail robien@acsu.buffalo.edu

Colloquium to look at gender, race discrimination in the courts
One of the few studies of race and gender discrimination in the federal courts will be the topic of a colloquium to be held from 3-5 p.m. tomorrow in 545 O'Brian Hall on the North Campus.

The three-year study of whether, and to what extent, gender, race or ethnicity affects the process of litigation in the federal courts of the Second Circuit also will be the topic of a luncheon panel discussion to be held earlier tomorrow in the Hyatt Regency Buffalo.

Both events, sponsored by the Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy in the UB School of Law, will feature presentations by Carroll Seron, acting dean of the School of Public Administration in Baruch College of the City University of New York; Beryl Jones, a professor at Brooklyn Law School, and Diane Zimmerman, a professor at New York University Law School. Jones and Zimmerman conducted research for the study for the Second Circuit task force concerned with issues of gender, racial and ethnic fairness; Seron presented an additional report to the task force based on surveys of judges, lawyers, law clerks and courtroom deputies.

The colloquium, which will be free of charge and open to the public, will be moderated by Frank Munger, UB professor of law and adjunct professor of sociology.

Sociologist explores limit of merit in higher education
What determines the academic merit of educators in universities and colleges today? Is the modern rule still "publish or perish?"

In a new edition of a previously published book, a UB sociologist points out that research and publication may not necessarily be the prime considerations of academic qualification. "Scaling the Ivory Tower" (Transaction, 1998) by Lionel S. Lewis, professor of higher education and former chair and director of graduate studies in the Department of Sociology, explores the limit of merit in academic careers.

Lewis, an expert on the sociology of higher education, as well as social stratification, affirms in a new introduction that the most apparent changes in higher education since the book's first publication in 1975 are that campuses are less meritocratic and are losing their reputation as a place where quality academic work is recognized and rewarded.

In the book, he considers highly charged subjects such as academic freedom, sexism, merit and tenure in the university setting. He also scrutinizes academic-freedom cases from the archives of the American Association of University Professors and explores such topics as how spouses and "significant others" factor into promotions; a typical day in the life, both academic and personal, of a professor; how the celebrity syndrome has spread to campuses; discrimination against minorities, and bureaucracy as a contributing factor to malaise on campus.

Lewis discusses how university communities are convinced that academic life can be improved only when faculty demographics reflect those in the larger society and how the need to consider age, gender, ethnicity and race in personnel decisions affects considerations of merit.

Two exhibits display art students' work
Attention art enthusiasts! Aspiring artists from the Department of Art will display their work during two special exhibits. Both exhibits are free and open to the public.

The competition for the Rumsey and Potenza fellowships, which began Feb. 19, continues to March 6, in the Art Department Gallery in B45 of the Center for the Arts on the North Campus.

This exhibit features the work of juniors in the department who are competing for the annual fellowships. Winners will be selected by departmental faculty.

The Art Department Gallery hours are Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

In addition, the Senior Show begins today and continues until March 20 in the UB Art Gallery on the first floor of the Center for the Arts. Graduating seniors from the art department will display their work, including painting, sculpture, photography, illustration, printmaking, computer art and communication design.

The UB Art Gallery hours are Wednesdays through Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m.

Author Benítez-Rojo to lecture March 6
Antonio Benítez-Rojo will present a lecture titled "Is there a Caribbean Aesthetic?" at 3 p.m. March 6 in the Screening Room in the Center for the Arts on the North Campus.

Benítez-Rojo, author of La isla que se repite (The Repeating Island: The Caribbean and the Postmodern Perspective) and Mar de las lentejas (Sea of Lentils), holds the Thomas B. Walton Jr. Memorial Chair at Amherst College.

His lecture is sponsored by Latina/Latino Studies in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures.

Nancy E. McGlen to speak at ACE/NIP breakfast seminar
The ACE/NIP breakfast seminar for March will be held at 8 a.m. March 20 in the main building cafeteria at Villa Maria College.

Nancy E. McGlen, professor of political science and director of the social-science program at Niagara University, will present: "Women Insiders: Women Administrators in Foreign Policy."

McGlen is co-author of "Women's Rights: The Struggle for Equality in the 19th and 20th Centuries;" "Women in Foreign Policy: The Insiders; Women, Politics and American Society," and "The Status of Women in Foreign Policy."

A breakfast buffet will be available. The registration fee is $10, payable at the door; RSVP by March 13 by calling 896-0700.

Foit-Albert Associates to present lecture and exhibit
An exhibit by Foit-Albert Associates, an architecture, engineering and surveying firm headed by Beverly Foit Albert, clinical associate professor of architecture in the School of Architecture and Planning, will be on display in the architecture school's James Dyett Gallery from March 16 until April 18.

The gallery, located in Hayes Hall on the South Campus, is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. The exhibit will be free and open to the public.

Foit Albert, president and chief executive officer of Foit-Albert Associates and an award-winning architect, will discuss the exhibit at 5:30 p.m. on March 18 in Harriman Hall on the South Campus. She has a master's degree in architecture from UB.

For more information, call Ruth Bryant at 829-8485.