Open house planned for undergraduates
"Discover UB," an open house for prospective undergraduate students, will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday on the North Campus.

The event will include a wide-range of presentations, tours and special events in which participants plan their day by choosing specific events they would like to attend based on their individual interests.

Registration will be held from 8-10 a.m. in the Alumni Arena lobby.

A welcome address by President William R. Greiner will open the event. It will be followed by presentations in various areas of interest, including the College of Arts and Sciences and the schools of Architecture and Planning, Engineering and Applied Sciences, Health Related Professions, Management, Pharmacy and Nursing.

There also will be sessions on "Frequently Asked Question about Student Life," "Campus Computing and Technology," "Academic Advisement," "A Brief Overview of Admissions," "Tips for Financing your Education" and special sessions on prelaw and preprofessional health advising.

Journalist Bill Moyers to speak Nov. 3
Bill Moyers, well-known television producer, journalist and author, will speak at 8 p.m. Nov. 3 in the Center for the Arts Mainstage on the North Campus.

The lecture will be part of the Distinguished Speaker Series, presented by UB and the Don Davis Auto World Lectureship Fund. The series is sponsored by the undergraduate Student Association; the Office of Conferences and Special Events will sponsor Moyers' lecture.

Since establishing Public Affairs Television as an independent production company in 1986, Moyers has produced such programs as "God and Politics," "Listening to America With Bill Moyers" and "Addiction: Road to Recovery."

Author of the best-selling book "Listening to America," Moyers wrote four others, based on his television series, that also became best-sellers: "Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth." "A World of Ideas I," "A World of Ideas II" and "Healing and the Mind."

He just published "Fooling With Words: A Celebration of Poets and Their Craft," in which 11 poets talk about how and why they write poetry and the influences on their work.

Tickets are available through the Center for the Arts box office at 645-2787.

Talk to discuss oral, general health
Research establishing a connection between individuals' dental and general health will be discussed by Sara G. Grossi at a UB Senior Alumni Luncheon, to be held at noon Tuesday in the Center for Tomorrow on the North Campus.

A senior research scientist in the Department of Oral Biology in the School of Dental Medicine, Grossi has been involved in numerous pioneering studies that have demonstrated a link between patients' health habits and their oral and general health.

The cost of the luncheon is $12 per person.

For more information or to make reservations, call the Office of Alumni Relations at 829-2608.

Masquerade ball to benefit dance group
The Center for the Arts Atrium will be the setting for a Masquerade Ball to be held from 6 p.m. to midnight Oct. 30.

Proceeds from the event, sponsored by the Friends of the Center for the Arts, will benefit the center's José Limón Dance Residency, a community outreach program designed to expose children to professional dance.

The gala will feature sumptuous food, dancing and prizes. Guests are encouraged to wear creative black tie, costumes or colorful masks.

Tickets to the event are $100 per person. For more information, call 645-6774.

GSE to hold reunion
"Renewing Old Ties," the first reunion of the Graduate School of Education, will be held Nov. 6 in the Hyatt Regency Buffalo.

The evening, designed for alumni, faculty, staff, students and fellow educators, will begin with registration at 6 p.m., followed by a welcome at 6:15 p.m., faculty session at 6:30 p.m., dinner at 7:30 p.m. and an awards presentation at 8:30 p.m. The evening will conclude with dancing from 9:30 p.m. to midnight.

Advance reservations are required and must be made by Oct. 29 by calling 645-2492. The cost is $20 per person and $15 for GSE students.

Pataki to attend grand opening of supercomputing center
Gov. George E. Pataki will make his first visit to campus Tuesday as the guest of honor at the grand-opening of the Center for Computational Research (CCR), one of the nation's leading supercomputing centers.

Ceremonies will begin at noon in the Woldman Theatre in Norton Hall on the North Campus, with remarks by Pataki and President William R. Greiner. Russ Miller, professor of computer science and engineering, and director of the CCR, and Richard Hirsh, deputy division director of the National Science Foundation's Division of Advanced Computational Infrastructure and Research, also will speak.

Special guests will include Jeremy Jacobs, chair of the UB Council, and representatives of IBM, Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems, all of whom contributed financially to the center.

Following the ceremonies, Pataki will tour the world-class computational facility, where he will interact with CCR's virtual-reality machine, the Pyramid Systems ImmersaDesk. Scientists use the machine to visualize and "walk through" complex systems in three dimensions, including molecules, meteorological simulations and engineered structures, such as factories and buildings.

Together with researchers in the Virtual Reality Laboratory in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Innovative Business Communications, a local animation company, the CCR has developed a special three-dimensional presentation for Pataki in which he will be able to interact with a virtual world that has been designed to explain different aspects of the CCR and computational science.

"This is different from what people see when they go to Disney World, for example, and see the Muppets in 3D," said Miller. "In those cases, there is a lot of high-end computing used in order to prepare the film. However, what you see is preprogrammed-the viewer cannot interact with the environment. In this case, the governor and other visitors will be able to wear glasses that are tracked by the system and use a wand to navigate the environment."

The presentation was created by Ben Porcari of IBC and Thenkurussi ("Kesh") Kesavadas, director of the Virtual Reality Laboratory and a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

When CCR was established in January, UB was dramatically transformed from a campus with no supercomputers to one of the leading supercomputing centers in the nation.

CCR's mission is to enable world-class, computationally intensive research at UB, foster industrial partnerships in high-performance computing and visualization, and serve as a focal point for technology transfer of high-performance computing and visualization within Western New York.

The research facility, featuring more than $7 million in computer equipment, was made possible by gifts of more than $1 million each from IBM and Silicon Graphics, Inc.; $1 million in funding from the SUNY; a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, and a gift of more than $400,000 in computer equipment from Sun Microsystems. UB made an initial investment of approximately $1.5 million to create and support the center.

The CCR conducts three tours weekly, all open to members of the UB community and the public.

"Millennium Madness" set to increase alcohol awareness
"Millennium Madness," a celebration of National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Month, will be held from 7 p.m. to midnight tomorrow in Alumni Arena.

Formerly called "Fall Fun Fest," the event is designed to encourage alcohol-free fun and will be free of charge and open to all members of the UB community.

It will feature free food and drinks, including "mocktails;" volleyball, basketball and wallyball tournaments; gladiator jousting; a rock-climbing wall; a bungee run; tug-of-war, and swing-dance lessons.

The event is sponsored by Recreation and Intramural Services, Student Health Services, the Office of Residential Life and the undergraduate Student Association.

Anti-Rape Task Force to hold annual "Take Back the Night"
The ninth annual "Take Back the Night" program to raise awareness of violence against women and men, will be held tonight in Harriman Hall on the South Campus.

Sponsored by the Anti-Rape Task Force, the focus of the event is to make the streets safe and encourage all to join the fight against violence.

The program will open at 7 p.m. with a brief skit featuring state Assemblyman Sam Hoyt. Also featured will be presentations on rape drugs and rape-drug legislation; campus crime-reporting procedures; poetry readings, and survivors' stories.

The event will include a candlelight vigil and procession from Harriman Hall to Main Street and back to Harriman.

For more information, contact Heather Ward at 829-2584.

Poet C.K. Williams to present 23rd annual Silverman Lecture
C.K. Williams, award-winning contemporary American poet and translator, will present the 23rd annual Oscar Silverman Memorial Poetry Reading at 8 p.m. Nov. 12 in 250 Baird Hall on the North Campus.

The event, part of the Poetics Program's "Wednesday at 4 PLUS" literary series, will be free of charge and open to the public.

The reading will be presented in memory of Oscar Silverman, the distinguished UB scholar and teacher who chaired the Department of English and directed the University Libraries. Silverman also helped to develop UB's remarkable collection of 20th-century poetry.

Williams, who teaches English and writing at Princeton University, is viewed by readers and critics as an original stylist. His subject matter has developed from political and social protest in his early books into bleak descriptions that often show the states of alienation, deception and occasional enlightenment that exist between public and private lives in modern urban America.

Williams has published 15 books of poetry, many of which have won prestigious literary honors and awards, and two that were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. In 1987, he won a National Book Critics Circle award for his book of poetry "Flesh and Blood." His most recent book of poetry is "Repair."

Among his recent awards are the Harriet Monroe Prize in 1993, the Pen/Voelker Career Achievement Award in Poetry in 1998 and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Award in 1999.

In The New York Times Review of Books, Edward Hirsch described Williams' poetry as having a "notational, ethnographic quality" that presents "single extended moments intently observed."

UB to host TIAA-CREF teleconference on personal finance
Within the financial world changing faster than ever, many people are wondering about the state of their own savings and investments. How are online stock trades and global cash flows affecting individual investors with money in a retirement plan, an IRA or a mutual fund? What poses a bigger threat today, inflation or deflation? What about the impact of the Y2K problem?

A distinguished panel of investment and financial experts will address these questions and others at 1 p.m. tomorrow in 120 Clemens Hall on the North Campus when UB joins hundreds of colleges and other institutions via satellite for "Financial Strategies for a New Century: Tips From America's Experts," a free national teleconference. The broadcast will be presented by TIAA-CREF.

For further information about the teleconference, contact E. Suzy Shallowhorn at 645-5000, ext. 1272.

Scientific fraud to be topic of lecture
"Scientific Fraud in American Political Culture: Reflections on the Baltimore Case and the Investigative Powers of the Government" will be the topic of the first talk in a new lecture series, "The University and The World," presented by the College of Arts and Sciences.

Nationally known author Daniel Kevles, who has written extensively about issues in science and society, past and present, will deliver the lecture at 8 p.m. Oct. 28 in Room 225 of the Natural Science Complex on the North Campus.

It will be free and open to the public.

The Baltimore case was one of several involving allegations of scientific fraud that commanded high public attention during the 1980s. Congressman John Dingell held a number of hearings on scientific fraud, and the media latched onto these allegations as evidence of scandal in high places.

The "University and the World" lecture series highlights issues of broad intellectual and public concern, bringing to UB prominent scholars from different fields to address common problems. It is supported in part by the John W. Cowper Visiting Lecture Fund.

Crop Walk to benefit hunger relief
A Crop Walk to benefit local food pantries and world hunger relief will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday under the clock tower in The Commons on the North Campus.

The 10K-route, which also will end at The Commons, will include two rest stops and refreshments.

The slogan for this year's event, which is sponsored by the Office of Residence Life and the Campus Ministry Association, is "We walk because they walk."

A portion of the funds raised will be donated to the Interfaith Food Pantry in Tonawanda. The remainder will be donated to world hunger-relief organizations through the Church World Service.

For more information or to obtain sponsor packets, contact the Lutheran Campus Ministry office at 688-4064 or via email at riina@acsu.buffalo.edu. Sponsor packets also will be available the day of the walk.