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Acrobats to perform
The Center for the Arts will present National Acrobats of Taiwan, ROC, at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Mainstage theater in the CFA, North Campus.
Balancing spinning plates on a pole, performing handstands on top of stacked chairs, riding one bicycle with a dozen friends—these feats look easy when performed by the National Acrobats of Taiwan. As world-class entertainers who defy gravity with their precision, strength and breathtaking agility, these artful acrobats create an inspiring and colorful drama with their national art form. Since the Han Dynasty (206 BC-240 AD), dramatic folk arts and variety shows have blended with the deepest roots of Chinese civilization. The skillful performers often use objects of daily life, such as chairs, tables, poles, ladders, bowls, plates, bottles and jars as stage props. The masters of the Fu Hsing Academy have preserved the systematic teaching methods of ancient China to cultivate performers of folk dramatic arts in order to preserve this traditional art form and to pass it on to the next generation.
The graduates of the Fu Hsing Academy have toured the world as the Republic of China's National Acrobatic Troupe and generally are considered to be the foremost company from all of China. The troupe currently is made up of more than 40 young performers, who have received about eight years of strict training. Tickets for National Acrobats of Taiwan are $15 for adults and $12 for children ages 12 and under. 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.
"Artificial persons" to be topic of Mitchell Lecture
The increasing role of artificial persons (APs) within the U.S. legal system will be the topic of the UB Law School's annual Mitchell Lecture, to be held from 3-5:30 p.m. Monday in 106 O'Brian Hall, North Campus.
Keynote speaker Marc Galanter, a leading scholar writing on litigation, lawyers and access to justice, will speak on, "Planet of the APs: Are Corporations and Other Artificial Persons Taking Over the Legal System?"
Galanter is the John and Rylla Bosshard Professor of Law and South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of several classic legal articles, including "Why the 'Haves' Come Out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change" and "Reading the Landscape of Disputes: What We Know and Don't Know (and Think We Know) About Our Allegedly Contentious and Litigious Society."
Galanter also is author of "Law and Society in Modern India" and co-author of "Tournament of Lawyers: The Transformation of the Big Law Firm." He has served as editor of the Law & Society Review, president of the Law and Society Association and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Commentators for the event will be Meir Dan-Cohen, the Milo Reese Robbins Professor in Legal Ethics at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law and author of "Rights, Persons and Organizations: A Legal Theory for Bureaucratic Society;" Gerald Berk, associate professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Oregon, and author of "Alternative Tracks: The Constitution of American Industrial Order, 1865-1917;" and David Westbrook, UB law professor and author of "City of Gold: An Apology for Global Capitalism in a Time of Discontent."
UB Law School professor James Wooten, chair of the 2005 Mitchell Lecture committee, said the lecture topic is especially timely. "Empirical research reveals that artificial persons, principally business corporations, consume a large and growing share of the legal services provided in the United States. It is important to ask how this trend will affect ordinary citizens. Can the legal system provide justice to individuals when large organizations possess much greater legal resources and sophistication? "
The James McCormick Mitchell Lecture was endowed in 1950 in honor of its namesake, an 1897 graduate of the UB Law School, and has been delivered annually since 1951.
The lecture is open to the public. A reception will follow from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the foyer of O'Brian Hall.
Alumnus' daughter leaves bequest for scholarships
A bequest of $484,020 from the late Gretchen Joyner, daughter of the late Arthur Goetzman, M.D. '27, will be used to fund scholarships for students in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in memory of her father.
"It is her gift to the University at Buffalo," said Mrs. Joyner's husband, Taylor Joyner. "She is respecting what her parents' wishes were. Arthur wanted to do that and she's carried that on."
Mrs. Joyner's bequest will be put into an endowment, The Arthur C. Goetzman, M.D. '27, Dorothy D. Goetzman and Gretchen E. Joyner Endowed Scholarship Fund, the earnings from which will provide unrestricted scholarship funds for medical students.
"We are very grateful to Gretchen Joyner for her gift to UB's medical school," said Margaret W. Paroski, interim dean of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and interim vice president for health affairs. "Scholarships make an incredible difference in helping our students obtain an education they can afford.
"We also gain a new friend in Dr. Joyner and a renewed appreciation for his late wife, Gretchen, who understood the value that her father placed on his medical school training, and how she could make that same education happen for others," Paroski added.
Taylor Joyner said his late wife's father held fond memories of his time at UB, where he earned a degree in ophthalmology. Goetzman practiced in the Rochester area before living in Florida, Arizona and New Mexico after retiring. Upon his death, he left a foundation, managed by Gretchen Joyner, who decided to give back to UB in accordance with her father's wishes.
UB Stampede name of new bus line
UB students have selected "UB Stampede" as the name of the university's new bus line, which will begin operation on May 16.
The university has entered into a new bus agreement with Cognisa, a national transportation-and-security company, to provide exclusive bus transportation services to the UB campus.
Campus Parking and Transportation Services conducted a "Name Your Bus" contest in March and April. Students submitted their ideas for names on MyUB and then voted for their favorite name from among the top five selected based on the number of submissions, repetitive themes and creativity. There were more than 1,500 votes.
The winning name, UB Stampede, was submitted by Michael Jason Nowak, who received $50 in Campus Cash and Cognisa promotional items for being a finalist, and a laptop computer and a UB gift basket of UB merchandise and tickets, as well as Cognisa promotional items, for being the grand-prize winner.
Nowak also will be invited to launch the new bus fleet during Opening Weekend in August.
The other four finalists and the names they submitted are David R. Stoller, Bull Rider; Margaret R. Tisbe, UB Express; Harsh Vardhan Jain; UB Link; and Charles T. McClive, The Bull.
EOC field tests worker readiness exam
UB's Educational Opportunity Center was one of two sites in New York State to field test the new National Work Credential Readiness Exam last Friday.
The National Work Credential Readiness Exam is designed to measure an individual's attainment of the Equipped For the Future (EFF) Work Readiness Skills, which include communication, interpersonal, problem-solving and learning skills. An individual's score on the exam will be "pass" or "no pass," which corresponds with "work ready" or "needs more skill development to demonstrate work readiness."
The pilot test on Friday was conducted to examine specifically the situational-test and structured-interview sections of the exam, according to Beverly Dove of EOC's Office of Marketing and Promotions.
The purpose of the pilot test was to try out administrative procedures, monitor the time required to complete each assessment instrument, check the clarity of the instructions, check for any conceptual problems with the assessment instruments and gather information about the relevance of the work-readiness skills assessed in the instrument, Dove said.
The national assessment instrument and test-administration procedures will be modified based on the results of Friday's field tests at UB, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce—the other New York State site to field test the exam—and elsewhere in the nation.
The EOC diversified the pool of those taking the pilot test to include entry-level workers, individuals seeking entry-level employment and individuals currently enrolled in education and job-training programs, as well as in-school and out-of-school youth, Dove noted.
Supervisors with at least three to five years of experience with entry-level workers also took the pilot test and will be evaluating the types of questions asked as part of the test, she added.
Sherryl D. Weems, executive director of EOC, serves as the New York State representative to the national policy committee for the proposed national work readiness credential.