Archives
People etc.
Maathai to speak Feb. 2
Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate and founder of the Green Belt Movement, will be the keynote speaker for the 31st annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Event, to be held at 8 p.m. Feb. 2 in the Mainstage theater in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.
The sponsor for the lecture, which is being presented as part of UB's Distinguished Speakers Series, is the UB Minority Faculty and Staff Association.
Named by Time magazine as "one of the 100 most influential people in the world," Maathai is a champion for democracy, human rights and environmental conservation.
The recipient of a doctorate from the University of Nairobi in 1971, she was the first woman in Central and East Africa to earn a doctorate. She chaired the National Council of Women in Kenya during much of the 1980s and founded the Green Belt Movement (GBM), a broad-based, grassroots organization focusing on empowering people to improve their community's quality of life by protecting their environment. GBM has facilitated the planting of 30 million trees in Kenya.
The movement's Pan-African Network trains individuals from throughout the continent to return to their own countries and share GBM's approach to community building, conservation and development of tree-planting programs. Initiatives based on the GBM model have been established successfully in Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe.
Maathai has served on the U.N. Commission for Global Governance and the Commission on the Future. In 2002, she was elected to Kenya's Parliament and appointed assistant minister for the environment.
In addition to the Nobel Peace Prize, she is the recipient of the Légion d'Honneur—France's highest honor—and the Disney Conservation Fund Award.
Tickets to the Maathai lecture can be purchased at the Center for the Arts box office from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, or by visiting www.ticketmaster.com.
Zodiaque to perform
The Center for the Arts will present "Zodiaque Dance Storm" Feb. 23-25, and March 1-4 in the Drama Theatre in the CFA, North Campus.
Performances will be at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
"Zodiaque Dance Storm" will feature diverse programming, including new and recent works by UB's Zodiaque Dance Company. Among the highlights are group works choreographed by UB dance faculty members Melanie Aceto, Tressa Gorman Crehan, Jeanne Fornarola and William Thomas; UB young choreographer Richard Ashworth; and invited guest choreographers Joseph Celej, Jody Dombrowski, Jon Lehrer, Roberto Villanueva and Leslie Wexler.
Premiering in week one, Zodiaque welcomes recent Princeton graduates and emerging composers Drew Fornarola and Scott Elmgreen. Fornarola and Elmgreen will present an original music theater score, choreographed by Jeanne Fornarola. In week two, Aceto's choreography will be showcased by music composed by Mark Olivieri, a composer in residence at Brockport State College and UB Ph.D. candidate. The new work will be performed by guest artist Nicola Melville, a New Zealand-born concert pianist.
Tickets for "Zodiaque Dance Storm" are $16 for general admission and $8 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, including Ticketmaster.com.
For more information, call 645-ARTS.
Linux training offered
The SUNY Linux Learning Collaborative, a partnership between Millard Fillmore College (MFC) and Just-in-Time Resources of Calgary, Alberta, is offering online Linux training leading to the Linux Professional Institute first level (LPIC-1) certification.
LPIC-1 certification, administered by the Linux Professional Institute, is considered to be the industry standard for excellence in Linux skills and knowledge for information technology professionals.
The LPIC-1 training offered by the SUNY Linux Learning Collaborative provides the latest information on the Linux computer operating system via streamed video and online text. It allows participants to learn any time, anywhere and avoid spending time at expensive, weeklong "boot camps." The training is conducted by noted Linux expert Barry Woodbridge, who has taught computer programming for more than 20 years. The cost of the training is $295, a fraction of the cost of most training programs or consultants.
"Many of the IT managers that I have spoken with would like their employees to learn more skills to be more effective in their jobs, but cannot spare their time or talent," says Larry R. Gingrich, associate dean of MFC. "As a continuing education professional, I know that our field is moving away from seated classes to online instruction for several reasons. One of the main reasons is that course content in today's ever-changing world can be updated quickly and seamlessly via the Internet."
David Ruiter of Just-in-Time Resources points to the advantages of using the Internet to deliver the training. "With all training modules online, students can refer back to earlier lessons and refresh their memories, or scroll ahead to see what they'll need to learn for an upcoming project," Ruiter says.
Scott Lamberton, director of communications for the Linux Professional Institute, says the SUNY Linux Learning Collaborative's training program is rigorous and "will prepare the serious student to pass the LPIC-1 exam." Once a student receives LPIC-1 certification, he adds, "the possibilities are endless for helping companies work more profitably in international contexts."
For more information about the LPIC-1 training, contact MFC at 829-3131 or mfcadmin@buffalo.edu.
Co-founder of Electronic Intifada to speak
Palestinian-American author and activist Ali Abunimah will speak at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 13 in the Student Union Theater, North Campus.
His lecture, which will be free of charge and open to the public, is entitled "One Country: The Alternative to Apartheid for Palestine-Israel."
Abunimah is the co-founder of the Web site Electronic Intifada and the author of "One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse" (Metropolitan, 2006). He is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Chicago, where he serves as a researcher in social policy.
He comments frequently on the Palestine-Israel conflict for public radio and television, CNN, MSNBC, Fox and the BBC. His articles have appeared in such periodicals as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Ha'aretz, and Lebanon's Daily Star.
Abunimah's talk is sponsored by the Western New York Peace Center; UB Progressive Alliance; the Muslim Student Association; the Center for Comparative and Global Studies in Education in the Graduate School of Education; the GSA for International Research, Education and Activism; UB Antiwar Action; Bruce Jackson, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the departments of English and American Studies and Samuel P. Capen Chair of American Culture; Othman Shibly, assistant professor of periodontics and endodontics; and Joanna Tinker.
SUNY program wins award
SUNY's dual-diploma program model with Turkey has been selected to receive the prestigious Andrew Heiskell Award for International Exchange Partnerships for 2006-07 from the Institute of International Education.
The award recognizes institutions for developing innovative and effective collaborative programs with counterparts abroad. The award for International Exchange Partnerships is new for 2006-07 and SUNY is the inaugural winner.
"Receiving the Heiskell Award from the Institute of International Education is a tremendous honor for SUNY," said Chancellor John R. Ryan. "SUNY's dual-diploma program greatly enhances the nature and quality of the education we are able to offer and the diversity of the student body on our campuses. SUNY's dual-diploma program with Turkey has become a model for how we wish to work with other countries in our effort to globalize our campuses."
Students enrolled in the dual-diploma program must fulfill the academic requirements of both their SUNY and Turkish institutions receive a diploma from each school.
Students typically spend freshman and junior years at their home campus and their sophomore and senior years abroad. In addition, students may use distance-learning technology to take courses.
The program exposes students to two cultures and two educational systems, better preparing the next generation—both American and Turkish—to work confidently and effectively in today's global environment.
This year, more than 330 Turkish students are enrolled at UB and Binghamton University, as well as at the colleges at Cortland and New Paltz, the Maritime College, the Fashion Institute of Technology and Empire State College. New programs have enrolled students in Turkey and will see students arriving over the next few years at the colleges at Brockport, Fredonia, Geneseo and Purchase.
Participating Turkish institutions of higher education include Istanbul Technical University, Middle East Technical University, the University of the Bosporus, Bilkent University, Anadolu University, Ege University, Izmir Economics University, Hacettepe University, Bah�esehir University and Isik University.