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St. Joseph School sets open house
St. Joseph School, 3275 Main St., adjacent to the South Campus, will hold an open house from 1-2:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Registration will be accepted for the universal Pre-k to 4 and kindergarten classes, with some limited openings in grades 1-7.
Established in 1849, St. Joseph School is a private, Catholic school with an enrollment of 235 students. The curriculum is designed to include an emphasis on lifelong learning skills, and the academic program is supplemented with strong arts and athletics programs.
For further information, call 835-7395 or visit the school's Web site at http://www.sjsbuffalo.org.
Scholarships honor founder of home nursing movement
To honor a nursing pioneer and help alleviate the shortage of home-health nurses, the Visiting Nursing Association of Western New York (VNA) and the School of Nursing have established a $21,000 scholarship fund to provide five full-tuition scholarships for students interested in the field.
The VNA Elizabeth Coe Marshall Scholarships are named for the founder of the VNA, who established the agency in Buffalo in 1885 with a grant from the city's First Presbyterian Church. The scholarships will be available for the fall 2005 semester.
Students who graduate from the program will be guaranteed a full-time position at the VNA, said Larry Zielinski, VNA president.
"We are very pleased to be able to collaborate with the University at Buffalo School of Nursing on this effort," said Zielinski. "Home-health nursing is a wonderfully fulfilling profession. We have 97 percent patient satisfaction with our nurses.
"Home-health nursing is always one-on-one, personalized patient care," he said. "The nurse is able to see not only patients and their illness, but also their home, family and support system, which can influence care."
Mecca Cranley, dean of the nursing school, said the school is grateful to the VNA for its support of its students.
"The program also serves to honor the extraordinary work of the VNA and assures the continuation of the legacy of Elizabeth Coe Marshall," she added.
When Marshall founded the VNA, home nursing was available only to the very wealthy who could afford to pay for it. Marshall believed home care should be provided for people of all means and created a non-profit organization dedicated to that concept. VNA is now one of the nation's largest and most comprehensive home-care agencies, with more than 500 VNA centers in the U.S. serving 4 million patients annually.
Those interested in applying for one of the scholarships may contact Elaine Cusker, assistant dean in the nursing school, at 829-3311.
Hadighi to chair Department of Architecture
Mehrdad Hadighi, associate professor of architecture in the School of Architecture and Planning, who has received repeated notice over the past several years as one of the world's up-and-coming young architects, has been named chair of the school's Department of Architecture.
Hadighi will replace Kent Kleinman, professor of architecture, who has served as chair since 1999. Kleinman will step down to begin a semester-long academic leave as a study centre fellow at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), and will return to UB in the role of professor.
Hadighi's scholarly work focuses on the parallels between 20th-century theory and criticism, and the constructive principles of architecture. He has received considerable national attention for his innovative work and was named one of the country's six Notable Young Architects by the Architectural League of New York in 1996.
He and his wife, architect Shadi Nazarian, clinical associate professor of architecture at UB, are the principles in Studio for Architecture, a Buffalo architectural design firm that focuses on architectural research and experimentation, residential design and public design projects.
In July 2004, the firm was named one of the 25 most intriguing, innovative and intrepid architecture firms in the world by the influential British design magazine Wallpaper* in its Annual Design Directory issue. In 2003, the Design Vanguard issue of Architectural Record magazine named it one of "10 Young Firms Reshaping the Globe."
Hadighi has produced site-specific installations for galleries in Washington, D.C., Buffalo, Ithaca and New York City, and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Council on the Creative and Performing Arts.
He has taught at Columbia, Cornell and Miami universities, and also has served as a guest professor and critic at the University of Arizona, the University of Texas, Arlington, and in the countries of Korea and Liechtenstein. His work has been widely exhibited and published.
This year, Kleinman was one of 16 recipients of the prestigious CCA study centre fellowships, and will conduct research there on architect William Muschenheim. Muschenheim's life and work illuminate many of the most significant impulses and debates that framed the development of architecture in the United States between 1925 and the early post-war years.
Kleinman's work on the Muschenheim Digital Archive recently received national recognition as well. The archive virtually unites materials on Muschenheim held at the Avery Drawing Center at Columbia University and those in the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan. His most recent book, "The Krefeld Villas," written in collaboration with Leslie Van Duzer, associate professor in the Arizona State University College of Architecture and Environmental Design, will be published this month.
Students organize exhibition of Greek vases
An exhibition of Greek vases from the collection of the Buffalo Museum of Science that was researched, organized and designed by graduate students from the Department of Art History in collaboration with the UB Anderson Gallery and the Buffalo Museum of Science is on display in the museum through May 22.
"Life's Possessions: Treasures from Hades" focuses on the role of Greek vases from early Greece (1150-550 B.C.) to the Classical period (550-323 B.C.) in funerary practices and afterlife mythology in ancient Greece.
The Buffalo Museum of Science collection consists of whole vases, which are believed to have been found in graves rather than in settlements, where vases rarely are found in one piece. These vases most likely were everyday objects—either placed in a grave for use in the afterlife or given as grave offerings.
The exhibition is accompanied by a 44-page, full-color catalog written by the students and edited by L. Vance Watrous, professor of art history, College of Arts and Sciences. The catalog includes more than 30 illustrations and a description of each vase in the exhibition.
Conference to focus on humor as teaching tool
Using humor as a teaching tool will be the focus of the keynote address of a conference to be held Feb. 25 at UB.
"Teaching Matters: Spring Conference on Teaching & Learning," presented by the Center for Teaching and Learning Resources, in conjunction with the SUNY Training Center, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Center for Tomorrow, North Campus.
The keynote speaker will be Ronald Berk, professor of biostatistics and measurement in the School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, and author of "Humor as an Instructional Defibrillator."
In his presentation, Berk will offer 10 evidence-based, "low-risk" humor methods that can be integrated into handouts, examples, case studies, discussion questions, homework problems, project outlines, tests, wedding invitations and parking tickets. Examples include quotations, cartoons, multiple-choice items, top 10 lists, anecdotes, skits/dramatizations with music, and "Jeopardy!"-type reviews. The techniques are applicable to any course level, discipline or content area.
Berk served as assistant dean for teaching at Johns Hopkins from 1997-2003. He received the university's Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award in 1993 and the Caroline Pennington Award for Teaching Excellence in 1997.
He has written a monthly humor column, "Ask Mister Humor Person," for health professionals in the newsletter "MedWorldNEWS," and has published two books on humor: "Professors are from Mars, Students are from Snickers," as well as "Humor as an Instructional Defibrillator."
In addition to Berk's keynote address, the conference will feature sessions on "Motivating the Millennials: Getting to Know the New Generation of College Learners" by Stewart Brower, coordinator of library instruction, UB Health Sciences Library, and "How to Write a Case Study" by Clyde F. "Kipp" Herreid, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and director of the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science at UB.
Berk will close the conference with a presentation on "Test Wars: The Evil Empire Wants to Vaporize Multiple-Choice Tests."
The cost of the conference is $110 for SUNY Training Center members and $140 for nonmembers and includes continental breakfast and lunch.
For more information or to register, go to http:/ /www.tc.suny.edu/tlconf0205/welcome0205.html.
Teaching teleconference to be held
The Center for Teaching and Learning Resources will present a live satellite broadcast on "Teaching and Serving Authentically: The Teacher at the Heart of the College," from 2-3 p.m. Feb. 18 in B15 Abbott Hall, South Campus.
The speaker will be Sanford C. "Sandy" Shugart, president of Valencia Community College in Orlando, Fla., one of the nation's largest and most celebrated community colleges.
In the teleconference, Shugart will explore the changing college culture and what faculty members' work really means, and will address ways of dealing with the dilemma all faculty members face—getting so involved in the craft that they lose their "true selves."
To register for the teleconference, go to < strong>http://wings.buffalo.edu/provost/ctlr/starlink/feb_18_2005.htm or contact Lisa Francescone at lcf@buffalo.edu, or 645-7328.
Doug Varone and Dancers to perform
The Center for the Arts will present Doug Varone and Dancers at 8 p.m. Feb. 25 in the Mainstage theater in the CFA, North Campus.
A pre-performance talk will be held at 7 p.m. in the Mainstage. The performance is sponsored by KeyBank.
Doug Varone and Dancers performs a body of work heralded by critics as "among the most compelling in the contemporary repertory." Honored with eight New York Dance and Performance Awards (Bessies), the company has been singled out for its extraordinary physical daring, vivid musicality and genius for capturing through movement the nuances of true human interaction.
The company has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, performing regularly in such pre-eminent venues and festivals as the Joyce Theater, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Moscow's Stanislavsky Theater and the Tokyo, Jacob's Pillow and American Dance festivals.
Doug Varone, dubbed a "choreographer's choreographer" by the Philadelphia Inquirer, is widely acclaimed as one of our nation's master choreographers. His unique artistic output has won the company more than 20 commissions—12 in the past three years alone—from leading dance presenters across the United States. Other honors include the receipt of three National Dance Project Awards, as well as the American Dance Festival's Doris Duke Award for New Work.
The company's performance on Feb. 25 will conclude its three-week professional dance residency at the Center for the Arts. Among the activities scheduled for the company during its residency are a lecture-demonstration and master classes at the Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts, a lecture-demonstration at Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet School and a master class for the Buffalo Contemporary Dance Company.
The company also will teach a series of master classes to students in the UB Department of Theatre and Dance.
Tickets for the Feb. 25 performance of Doug Varone and Dancers are $20 for the general public and $14 for students, with discount coupons available at all KeyBank locations. Tickets are available at the CFA box office from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and at all Ticketmaster locations.
For more information, call 645-ARTS.
Nominations sought for PSS officers
The Professional Staff Senate Elections Committee is seeking nominations for the positions of chair, vice chair and recording secretary for two-year terms beginning on July 1.
The primary duty of the chair is to serve as liaison between the PSS and the UB president. The chair also is responsible for convening and presiding at meetings of the executive committee, the senate and the general membership.
The vice chair takes over the prescribed tasks of the chair in his/her absence.
The recording secretary prepares minutes for the meetings of the general membership, the senate and the executive committee.
All full-time members of the professional staff are eligible to submit nominations to run for office and to vote.
To nominate individuals, submit his/her name with email address and department to pssenate@buffalo.edu no later than Feb. 16.
Theatre and Dance sets production
The Department of Theatre and Dance will present "We Tell the Story: The Songs of Ahrens and Flaherty" Feb. 16-20 in the Black Box Theatre in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.
Shows will be at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty wrote and composed the well-known Broadway musicals "Ragtime," "Seussical," "Once on This Island," "My Favorite Year" and "Lucky Stiff."
"We Tell the Story: The Songs of Ahrens and Flaherty" was the first-ever revue of Ahrens and Flaherty songs. It premiered on July 7, 2002, at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music (CCM), Stephen Flaherty's alma mater. The revue was conceived and directed by Richard Hess and starred a cast of CCM students.
Songs from all the major Ahrens and Flaherty shows were included, as were some rare gems.
The UB production of "We Tell the Story" is directed by Lynne Kurdziel-Formato.
Tickets for "We Tell the Story: The Songs of Ahrens and Flaherty" are $15 for general admission and $6 for students and seniors. Tickets are available at the CFA box office from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and at all Ticketmaster locations.
For more information, call 645-ARTS.
Lord to read from work
M.G. Lord will give a reading from her book "Astro Turf: The Private Life of Rocket Science" at 7 p.m. Feb. 16 in the theater in Allen Hall, South Campus.
The reading is part of the "Meet the Author" series presented by WBFO 88.7 FM, UB's National Public Radio affiliate. The reading, which will be free and open to the public, also will be broadcast live on WBFO.
Bert Gambini, WBFO music director, will serve as host. A book signing will take place immediately following the reading and light refreshments will be served.
As a teenager living in Southern California during the late 1960s, M. G. Lord's mother was dying of cancer and her father—an archetypal, remote, rocket engineer—disappeared into his work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, building the space probes of the Mariner Mars 69 mission.
Thirty years later, Lord found herself reporting on the JPL, triggering childhood memories and a desire to rediscover her father and revisit her past as a way of understanding the ethos of rocket science. "Astro Turf" is the result of her journey of discovery.
An author and critic, M. G. Lord has been a regular contributor to The New York Times Book Review and The New York Times Arts & Leisure section. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including ARTNews, Vogue, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, and The New Yorker. Her most recent project is a family memoir about aerospace culture during the Cold War