First fall Reporter is August 23

This is the final summer issue of the Reporter. Regular publication for the fall semester will begin Aug. 23.

Seitz promoted

Kevin Seitz, associate vice president and controller, has been appointed senior associate vice president for University Services, effective July 2.

Seitz replaces Leonard Snyder, who retired earlier this year.

Michael LeVine, assistant vice president for financial services, has been named associate vice president and controller, also effective July 2.

The appointments were announced by Senior Vice President Robert J. Wagner.

"This reorganization is intended to provide the financial expertise needed to continue our current financial-plan efforts, insure that our growing dependence on non-state revenues is adequately managed and to support the university's principles for resource management," Wagner said.

O'Neill reading of "Oscar" rescheduled

A reading of "The Importance of Being Oscar" by Vincent O'Neill, chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, and artistic director of the Irish Classical Theatre, has been rescheduled for 7:30 p.m. Aug. 22 in the Drama Theatre in the Center for the Arts on the North Campus.

The reading originally had been set for May 16.

The event will benefit the Pan-Am Centennial Celebration 2001, a grassroots, community-wide initiative commemorating the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo.

"The Importance of Being Oscar" is Micheál MacLiámmóir's magnificent tribute to the genius of Oscar Wilde, which took the theatrical world by storm during the 1960s and '70s. The evening ranges from Dorian Gray to De Profundis, from "The Importance of Being Ernest" to "Reading Gaol."

The Irish Classical Theatre originally produced "The Importance of Being Oscar" in 1991. The production starred O'Neill and was directed by his brother, Chris O'Neill.

Tickets for "The Importance of Being Oscar" are $30 for patrons, which includes a post-reading reception; $15 for the general public, and $5 for UB students. They are available at the Center for the Arts box office from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and at all Ticketmaster locations. For more information, call 645-ARTS.

WBFO expands weekend offerings

WBFO 88.7 FM, UB's National Public Radio affiliate, has added five programs to its weekend schedule and revised its Saturday and Sunday broadcast presentation, effective the weekend of July 14 and 15.

The popular NPR News show "Weekend All Things Considered" returned to WBFO at 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Lisa Simeone hosts "Weekend All Things Considered."

More blues music has been added to the Sunday schedule, which now mirrors Saturdays on WBFO. A second "Blues" show with Jim Santella can be heard from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

"Selected Shorts" airs at 4 p.m. on Sunday. Celebrity readers bring their talents to short fiction in this show, which pairs such Oscar and Tony Award-winning actors as Meryl Streep, Holly Hunter and Leonard Nimoy with short stories by acclaimed authors like James Thurber and Grace Paley.

NPR's "On the Media" now airs at a more accessible time—6 p.m. on Sunday. This show decodes what citizens hear, read and see every day. It is partnered with the full hour of NPR's weekly environmental newsmagazine "Living on Earth," which airs at 7 p.m. on Sunday. "Living on Earth" had been broadcast as a half-hour presentation at 6 p.m. on Friday

"Weekly Edition: The Best of NPR News" now is on the WBFO schedule at 6 a.m. on Sunday.

Public Radio International's "Afropop Worldwide," a program on the music of Africa and the African Diaspora, has joined the WBFO schedule at 10 p.m. on Sunday.

To accommodate these programs in the schedule, some shows have been shifted to alternate timeslots. "This American Life," hosted by Ira Glass, has moved to 4 p.m. on Saturday; "Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz" has shifted to 8 p.m. on Saturday; "At the Jazz Band Ball" is broadcast at 9 p.m. on Saturday; "Bebop and Beyond" has taken the 8 p.m. hour on Sunday, and "Jazz Favorites with Macy Favor" follows at 9 p.m. on Sunday.

Programs that have left the WBFO schedule are "Sunday Polka Party," "Bluegrass," "Opus Classics Live" and "Whadya Know."

Bernardino assumes dean's role

Provost Elizabeth D. Capaldi has announced that Michael Bernardino, vice president of health affairs and executive dean of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, has assumed the role of dean of the medical school, effective immediately.

John R. Wright, dean of the medical school dean since 1998, has returned to the UB faculty as a professor of pathology. Before assuming the deanship, Wright had been chair of the Department of Pathology for 23 years.

Wright's predecessor as dean, John Naughton, had held both the vice presidential and decanal positions.

In explaining the consolidation, Capaldi said that "given the current period of rapid change in the field of medicine, the university has decided that leadership for the school can most effectively be provided by one individual who is responsible for its overall educational and research mission, its financial affairs and its relationship with its affiliated teaching hospitals."

"We all appreciate Dr. Wright's leadership in developing the school's new curriculum and in building a support base for the school with the alumni, students and other constituencies," Capaldi said. "These contributions form a strong basis for continued excellence."

Bernardino has served as vice president for health affairs at UB since the spring of 1998, with responsibility for overseeing the clinical and collaborative activities of the university's five health sciences schools: Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Dental Medicine, Health Related Professions, Nursing, and Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

He also has spearheaded the university's relations with its affiliated teaching hospitals and led the health-science deans in planning and executing joint and cooperative programs of teaching and research.

UB named IBM partner

MyUB, a personalized Web site linking UB students to important information—including academic and student services—has earned the university designation as an IBM "Best Practice" partner.

UB will be recognized for "best practices in student services" for MyUB during the sixth annual IBM Innovation in Student Services Forum, subtitled "Models Blending High Touch/High Tech," being held next week at Tufts University. A presentation on MyUB will be made by Rebecca Bernstein, director of creative services in the Office of University Communications and Web Team leader; Robert Wright and James Gorman, IT managers in Administrative Computing Services, and Lori Chiarilli, media coordinator in the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs.

The IBM Best Practice Forum is designed to help institutions undergoing change to sustain momentum and fine-tune improvements, and to illustrate best practices for those institutions embarking on change.

Presentations at the Innovation in Student Services Forum will be focused on an emerging model in effective student services that is student-centered, that may be highly interpersonal or that may be delivered largely by sophisticated technology. A key feature of the new model is a customer-service approach based on thorough knowledge of, and sensitivity to, the needs of the student. Each tailored institutional model blends high touch with high tech.

 

	Photo: United Way

SEFA campaign recognized

UB has been recognized as having the highest employee campaign and the highest number of leadership givers to the 2000 United Way/SEFA campaign by the United Way of Buffalo & Erie County.

UB raised $763,247 during the 2000 State Employees Federated Appeal to earn the title of highest employee campaign based solely in Erie County. UB also recorded the greatest number of leadership givers at 162. Leadership givers are those individuals who contribute at least $1,000 to the annual United Way Campaign.

Donald and Jane Ogilvie (far left), co-chairs of the United Way 2000 Campaign, presented crystal buffaloes to SEFA representatives (from left) Ruth Bryant, School of Architecture and Planning; Roosevelt Wardlaw, Educational Opportunity Center; Tonalee Batchelor, EOC, and Connie Holoman and Julie Klas, Office of the President. The awards were presented during United Way's "Week of Thanks" kickoff reception.

RIA psychologist studies impact of alcohol on marriage

Alcohol's impact on marriage—for better or for worse—is the focus of a study being conducted by a research scientist at UB's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) under a new $1.5 million grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Kenneth E. Leonard, a clinical psychologist at RIA who also is a research professor in the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, is studying alcohol, the transition to marriage, and spouse and peer influence on alcohol use.

One goal of the project is to determine whether specific patterns of husband-and-wife drinking and drinking problems have an impact on marital happiness and divorce.

"While it seems common sense that drinking problems can cause divorce, there also is evidence that some couples can incorporate heavy drinking into the marriage," Leonard said.

"Our previous research has found that couples who drink frequently and drink above-average amounts, but who drink together and in their own home, tend to be very satisfied with their marriages. We also have found that couples in which the husband and wife have dramatically different drinking patterns are often the least satisfied with their marriage.

"The current study," he added, "will examine how husbands and wives change and adapt their drinking patterns to each other over the early years of marriage, and which couple-drinking patterns can have a deleterious effect on marriage."

The project continues a study Leonard began in 1996 that looked at spouse and peer influence on alcohol consumption in early marriage.

"This award," Leonard explained, "extends our assessment of couples from the time they took out marriage licenses through the celebration of their fourth anniversary. As we examine the impact that drinking has on marriage, we will also continue to investigate how marital experiences shape the drinking patterns of the couple.

Leonard's original study on alcohol and marriage was a three-wave, longitudinal look at changes in drinking patterns and problems over the first two years of marriage. The goal of both projects is to examine the continuity/discontinuity of alcohol-consumption patterns and alcohol problems over the transition to marriage.

To date, the project has recruited and assessed 642 couples as they applied for their marriage license. Couples participating in the project are assessed for drinking patterns and problems, individual difference factors, marital relationship factors and social network characteristics.

Brass quintet to present concerts

The Atlantic Brass Quintet will present a series of three faculty concerts next month as part of its 2001 International Brass Quintet Seminar being presented at UB.

All concerts will be held at 7:30 p.m. in Baird Hall on the North Campus. The opening concert on Aug. 2 will highlight new and traditional brass repertoire featuring the music of Liszt, Stravinsky, Bach and Zappa. The series will continue on Aug. 7 with a program featuring solo performances by ABQ members performing well-known sonatas and concertos written by Tomasi, Hindemith and Strauss. In the final concert on Aug. 9, the quintet will be joined by guest faculty and students playing the music of Gabrieli, Luke, Bach and Boehme.

Although the series will be presented free of charge, a donation of $5 is suggested for non-seminar participants.

The seminar, which is being hosted by the Department of Music and faculty member Jon Nelson, began on June 30 and will run through Aug. 10 in Baird Hall.

It features ABQ members leading chamber music coachings, master classes, private lessons and student and faculty concerts. Participants—high school and college brass students from as far away as Japan, Haiti and Mexico, as well as from Erie County—present concerts at the end of each week, performing the music they have studied.

Composers unite on disc

Works by two important American composers with UB ties—the late Morton Feldman and David Felder, professor of music—have been brought together for the first time on a new compact disc.

The just-released CD "Felder/Feldman" coincides with the 75th anniversary of the birth of Feldman, a member of the UB music faculty from 1972-87, and the 25th anniversary (2000) of his founding of the "June in Buffalo" festival of contemporary music.

Felder has been the artistic director of June in Buffalo since 1985, when he came to UB to teach and assume the artistic direction of the festival at Feldman's request.

The recording brings together important threads of Feldman's compositional works with his time spent in Buffalo, the legacy of which has been continued and re-interpreted with a fresh perspective by Felder. The composers' works— Feldman's "The Viola in My Life IV" and "Instruments II," and Felder's "In Between" and "Coleccion Nocturna"—were recorded at last year's June in Buffalo festival.

The CD, produced by EMF Media, can be purchased through CDeMUSIC at www.cdemusic.org or by calling (888) 749-9998.

 

Freeman grant to fund China trip

The Freeman Foundation has awarded a $152,775 grant to the School of Management to fund an annual educational trip to China for students enrolled in the school's Joseph T.J. Stewart Honors Program.

The 19 students currently in the program, all sophomore business students, will tour sites in Hong Kong and mainland China Jan. 4-10, 2002. Their itinerary will include visits to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Chinese cultural sites and the Asian headquarters of HSBC and Rich Products.

"The Freeman grant is helping the School of Management offer one of the most dynamic business honors programs in the United States," says Lewis Mandell, dean of the School of Management. "The students are very excited about visiting China and learning about the country's gradual move toward capitalism. Our hope is that the trip will encourage their interest in international business."

The School of Management has a long history of educational innovation in Asia, notes Mandell, having established the first American MBA program in China in 1984 and currently operating two Executive MBA programs in Beijing and one in Singapore.

In addition to the China trip, as part of the Stewart Honors Program the students will visit New York City in September to tour Wall Street, the Federal Reserve Bank and the New York Stock Exchange, and will attend a Broadway play.

The honors program was established at the School of Management in 2000 through a $315,000 bequest from the estate of Joseph T.J. Stewart, a prominent area businessman, civic leader and philanthropist who died in 1999.

Forty-six students currently are enrolled in the honors program, which provides special academic programming to outstanding undergraduate business-administration students with the goal of enhancing the students' understanding of the role of business in society.

Based in Vermont, the Freeman Foundation was established in 1992 to support greater understanding between Asia and the United States through the establishment of education programs and institutes.

UB football goes digital

UB football coaches are going digital, thanks to a $250,000 gift to the Division of Athletics for a video-editing system from former UB football player Gerald H. Scriver.

Scriver, president, CIO and CEO of Westpeak Investment Advisors, L.P., was inspired by recent changes in the UB football program and asked how he could be of assistance. Told that a digital editing system would benefit the team, Scriver was quick to respond with a cash gift.

"I always thought that if I was ever in a position to make a contribution to the university," said Scriver, "I would be glad to do so because UB had a major impact on my life and the success that I have achieved."

Head football coach Jim Hofher said he was "indescribably grateful for the gift from Gerry and Gaile Scriver."

"This cutting-edge, video-editing system will allow our coaches and players to do our best with in-season and off-season game-planning preparation, opponent study and self-study of our own performances," he added. "The possibilities are endless in what this state-of-the-art equipment can do for us."

Hofher said the Pinnacle Systems Team Sports' editing stations are good for digital video breakdown and analysis, and provide an opportunity for the team to capture, view, edit and manage game and practice footage instantly.

Scriver, who graduated from UB in 1964 with a bachelor's degree in finance, was a Dean's List scholar who was grateful for the scholarships that let him obtain an education while playing football.

Gift honors SOM's Shellum

The School of Management Alumni Association has pledged $150,000 to the school for creation of a symposium suite to be named in honor of John H. Shellum, assistant dean of external affairs at the school.

Known for his dedicated efforts to promote the School of Management throughout Western New York and beyond, Shellum has served as assistant dean at the school since 1978, playing a major role in many significant developments during his tenure.

The executive-style suite, to be constructed within the Jacobs Management Center on the North Campus, will be used as a meeting and reception site for external affiliates of the school, including its alumni association, the Dean's Advisory Council and other departmental and community groups. In addition, the suite will serve as a classroom for the school's Executive MBA program.

"This gift is a tribute to John Shellum's outstanding service as a devoted administrator and ambassador for the School of Management for these many years," said Michael Brace, president of the alumni association. "His work has had a lasting impact on the success of the school and has positively affected all of the school's constituents—students, alumni, faculty, staff and community members."

Among his duties, Shellum is responsible for many of the school's special events, such as its annual Niagara Frontier Executive of the Year dinner, annual golf tournament, commencement exercises and receptions and reunions for the school's 25,000 alumni.