This article is from the archives of the UB Reporter.
News

Briefs

Published: October 20, 2011

  • Bone density clinics offered

    The School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Walgreens is offering free bone density clinics throughout October, National Pharmacists Month.

    Bone density tests can help to identify osteoporosis as well as determine bone fracture risk.

    “Walgreens Pharmacy was able to provide the machine that allows us to perform this service free of charge to the ‘at risk’ population, primarily females over the age of 40 and males over 60,” says Peter Brody, clinical assistant professor and director of the Office of Experiential Education in the pharmacy school.

    Brody explains that the October clinics also will provide drug information counseling, blood pressure screenings and other health information that the UB pharmacy school routinely makes available in its community outreach clinics.

    The clinics were made possible with the assistance and support of Karen Mlodozeniec, Walgreens pharmacy regional district manager, and Stanley Piskorowski, Walgreens supervising pharmacist. Both are UB pharmacy alumni and preceptors.

    UB pharmacy students will conduct screenings at the following Walgreens stores:

    • Oct. 20: 5:30-8 p.m., 6199 South Park Ave., Hamburg.
    • Oct. 21: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., 2043 Kensington Ave., Amherst.
    • Oct. 22: noon to 3 p.m., 2601 Sheridan Drive, Tonawanda.
    • Oct. 23: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., 10 Young St., Tonawanda.
    • Oct. 27: 5:30-8 p.m., 1202 Pine Ave., Niagara Falls.
    • Oct. 28: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., 2320 Grand Island Blvd., Grand Island.
    • Oct. 29: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., 5275 Transit Road, Clarence.
    • Oct. 30: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., 650 Delaware Ave., Buffalo.

  • Distinguished panel to judge moot court

    A distinguished panel of judges is slated to sit on the bench on Oct. 28 for the final round of the 2011 Charles S. Desmond Moot Court Competition, the most prestigious appellate advocacy competition at UB Law School.

    This year, final-round judges will include Hon. Eugene F. Pigott, Jr., associate judge of the New York State Court of Appeals; Hon. Erin M. Peradotto, associate justice of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Department; and Hon. Jeremiah J. McCarthy, magistrate judge of the Western District of New York.

    For more than 30 years, the Desmond competition has given UB law students the opportunity to brief and argue an appeal on timely and consequential questions, usually involving constitutional issues presented in cases pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. The week-long intramural competition, scheduled to begin Oct. 24, attracts more than 50 second- and third-year UB Law students annually.

    All rounds will be argued in O’Brian Hall, North Campus. Preliminary, quarter and semi-final rounds are scheduled from Oct. 24-27, beginning each day at 6 p.m.

    The final round will take place at 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 28 in the Francis M. Letro Moot Courtroom, on the first floor of O’Brian Hall.

    Competitors will argue two constitutional issues. The first deals with whether the First Amendment bars public school officials from imposing discipline on students for posting false and offensive messages concerning developments at school on the Internet from a home computer during non-school hours.

    The second issue addresses whether defense counsel’s negligent error in advising a defendant to decline the substantial benefits of a pre-trial plea offer deprived the defendant of her Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel when the defendant later was convicted of the original, more serious charges following a fair trial.

  • Theatre & Dance presents ‘Hedda Gabler’

    The Department of Theatre & Dance will present Henrik Ibsen’s masterpiece “Hedda Gabler” Oct. 26-30 in the Black Box Theatre in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.

    Performance times are 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday.

    “Hedda Gabler” is the story of a modern woman struggling for free will and equality in a restrictive, male-dominated society. As Hedda spins a web to shape the men in her life into ideal companions, her power plays and misjudgments ultimately isolate her within the very society she most loathes. Trapped, blackmailed and seeking redemption, she ultimately expresses her free will in the least likely and most disturbing manner imaginable.

    The UB production features a cast of BFA and BA students, including Sarah Lazar in the title role of Hedda, Edward McCole, Emily Croft, Nick Sitarski, Joseph Ferraro, Lauren Stricos and Jennifer Johnson.

    The production is the first to be supported by a generous gift from Theatre & Dance alumna Abbe Raven, BA ’74. Raven, CEO and president of the Arts and Entertainment Television Network, and her husband, Martin Tackel, established the Abbe Raven and Martin Tackel Student Theatre Project, which is intended to fund student-directed, student-acted and student-produced projects.

    Directing is Kevin Leary, a graduate student in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program. Tom Ralabate, professor and chair of the Department of Theatre & Dance, serves as producing artistic director.

    Tickets for “Hedda Gabler” are $20 for the general public and $10 for students and seniors, and are available at the CFA box office and at all Ticketmaster locations, including ticketmaster.com.

  • Eastman’s Higgs to perform

    The Department of Music, in conjunction with the Buffalo Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, will present organist David Higgs in a solo recital on at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 28 in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus.

    Tickets are $10 for the general public and $5 for UB faculty/staff/alumni, senior citizens and all non-UB students.

    The program includes Joseph Bonnet’s “Variations de Concert,” William Bolcom’s “From Gospel Preludes: What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542.”

    One of America’s leading concert organists, Higgs is also serves as chair of the Organ Department at the Eastman School of Music. He performs extensively throughout the U.S. and abroad, and has played inaugural concerts on many new organs, including those at St. Stephan’s Cathedral, Vienna; the Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas; St. Albans Cathedral, England; St. Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, Ireland; and the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City.

  • Conference to examine truth and reconciliation commissions

    UB Law School will host an international conference, “Implementing Truth and Reconciliation: Comparative Lessons for Korea,” on Oct. 24 that will bring together experts from around the globe to reflect on national experiences of the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions.

    Sponsored by the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, the Asian Studies Program and the Buffalo Human Rights Center, the conference will offer lessons on the recently concluded TRC process in South Korea.

    Two morning panels will be open to the public: “The Korean TRC Experience: Critical Reflections toward the Future” from 9:15-11 a.m.; and “Implementing Truth and Reconciliation: Lessons from Peru, Cambodia and South Africa” from 11:15 a.m. to 1 p.m.

    Both panel discussions will be held in the Cellino and Barnes Conference Center, 509 O’Brian Hall, North Campus. Those wishing to attend the public panels should register at BaldyRSVP@buffalo.edu. For more details and the full lineup of presenters, visit the conference website.

    The TRC Korea officially closed its doors at the end of 2010 after more than four years of work, during which time it investigated approximately 10,000 reported cases of human rights violations taking place between 1910 and 1993. Much work lies ahead, however, in publicizing and implementing the commission’s findings and recommendations.

    There is much to learn from the comparative experiences of the more than 30 other TRCs that have undertaken work in countries around the world. Such commissions have taken a diversity of forms, responded to distinct kinds of violence over distinct periods of time, and—given the diversity of approaches taken—had a wide variety of success rates with the implementation of their final recommendations.

    Experts in transitional justice and TRC processes in Peru, South Africa and Cambodia will seek to document the reasons behind these relative success rates. They will explain the distinct approaches taken to implementation, the web of actors involved in the implementation process and the lessons learned about what worked, what did not work and how, looking back, the implementation process might have been restructured to achieve better results.

  • Free tickets for Shepard lecture

    UB is offering 1,500 free tickets to area high schools for a November lecture by gay rights activist and author Judy Shepherd, the mother of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, whose 1998 murder provoked the passage of national hate crime legislation.

    She will speak at 8 p.m. Nov. 9 in Alumni Arena, North Campus, as part of the 25th annual UB Distinguished Speaker Series. She has made the prevention of hate crimes the focus of her life and urges her audiences to make schools and communities safe for everyone, regardless of race, sex, religion or gender identity and/or expression.

    Shepard’s talk is sponsored by UB’s Office of University Life and Services, and the free tickets are offered as part of the Distinguished Speakers Series Educational Outreach program supported by Hodgson Russ LLP, an affiliate series sponsor.

    Any area high school can register by Oct. 21 at the Office of Special Events website to receive up to 20 complimentary tickets. Requests will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

    Students should request tickets through their school principal or a school liaison for ticket distribution.

  • Nickerson to give keynote

    The director of UB’s anti-bullying center will share her knowledge of promoting a bully-free school with fellow educators at a “Dignity for All” daylong conference on Oct. 26 in Hamburg.

    Amanda Nickerson, director of the Jean M. Alberti Center for the Prevention of Bullying Abuse and School Violence, will discuss the scope of the bullying problem, an issue that again has gained national attention following the suicide of Jamey Rodemeyer, the Williamsville teenager who was bullied online before taking his own life.

    She will set the stage for the conference with a presentation focusing on the scope and problem of bullying and highlight current issues on both the state and national level.

    Other presenters will include three administrators from the Orchard Park Central School District who are certified trainers in the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, a whole-school model proven to prevent or reduce bullying in the school setting.

    The conference will end with a presentation from attorney Andrew Freedman, a partner in Hodgson Russ LLP and member of the firm’s Education Law Practice Group, detailing implementation of the Dignity for All Students Act (DASA). Effective July 1, DASA will require school districts to revise codes of conduct and implement new policies to create a “bully-free school district.”