Dr. Darren Williams, associate professor of Physics and Astronomy at Penn State, Behrend College, will be giving an illustrated public lecture, “Oceans of Water on Distant Earth-like Planets,” at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 29, in McEwen Hall Room 202 at SUNY Fredonia.

Having student teachers from SUNY Fredonia is a common sight for children at Pine Valley Elementary School in South Dayton and Fredonia’s Wheelock and Elementary schools. However, recently it sounded a bit different in those schools as they welcomed student teachers from Exmouth, England, and Swansea, Wales.

As part of the Sigurd Raschèr Centennial Celebration at SUNY Fredonia, the world-renowned Raschèr Saxophone Quartet will perform at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 11 in the Juliet J. Rosch Recital Hall.

Over 100 musicians from throughout the U.S. and Germany will meet at the Fredonia School of Music for the Sigurd Raschèr Centennial Celebration Conference on Nov. 10 and 11.

SUNY Fredonia computer science and physics alumnus Gentian Buzi, now a Ph.D. student at Caltech (California Institute of Technology), will deliver a talk Friday, Nov. 9, at 4 p.m. in Fenton Hall Room 105 about the set of chemical reactions that occur in cells.

Dr. Bulent Atalay, professor of physics at the University of Mary Washington and author of the book, “Math and the Mona Lisa,” will give a general lecture on Monday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. in McEwen Hall Room 209 at SUNY Fredonia.

The Henry C. Youngerman Center for Communication Disorders at the State University of New York at Fredonia has started a support group for parents of children with autism spectrum disorders. The next meeting is December 4.

The red carpet -- lined with tours, delicious food and live performances -- will be rolled out during Family Weekend, Sept. 28 to 30, when SUNY Fredonia welcomes parents and family members of its more than 5,000 students to campus. “Family Weekend is a tradition at SUNY Fredonia, and a great time to re-connect students with their loved ones after the busy first month of the semester. There are activities for people of all ages, and we encourage families to visit on this special weekend.”  Registration will be held Friday, 3 to 7 p.m., at the Williams Center. Festivities begin with a buffet with hot hors d’oeuvres and other light fare at the Williams Center, 5 to 7 p.m.

 
Kim Tillery, above, has been selected as one of about a dozen audiologists from the United States to go to China in late September to conduct hearing assessments on thousands of Special Olympic athletes. 

The appointment of Alison Barry as the new manager, along with the installation of a computerized ticketing system, are among the recent changes at the SUNY Fredonia Ticket Office.

The sixth annual Jurgen P. Banse-Fay Memorial Production Management Intern award at the Michael C. Rockefeller Arts Center was presented recently to Jeff Mace, a B.F.A. Theatrical Technical Production major at the State University of New York at Fredonia. 

Tina Hastings has been named to head the Michael C. Rockefeller Arts Center Art Gallery . A native of Ohio, she holds a master’s degree in public administration with a museum focus from Southern Illinois University, where she also served as assistant museum curator.

The 18th Annual Early Childhood Conference will be held Saturday, Sept.  29, from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m., at McEwen Hall.  The annual event is held to offer professional development opportunities to members of the Chautauqua County early childhood community, including teacher education students.

A special multi-media musical tribute featuring the music of alumnus Tony Caramia is the highlight of the Saturday, Sept. 29, dedication of the Steinway concert grand piano resulting from a gift from the Sorel Charitable Organization to the Fredonia School of Music.

The College of Education at SUNY Fredonia has been awarded two federal grants totaling $3 million over the next five years to continue its English Language Acquisition (ELA) program and to also establish the new Bringing Resources that Incorporate Development in General Education (BRIDGE) program. “It’s highly unusual to have two grants funded from the same source to one institution,” said Dr. Barbara Mallette, principal investigator for the Project BRIDGE grant and professor in the Language, Learning and Leadership department at SUNY Fredonia. Both are designed to help schools serve growing student populations whose native language is not English.

Visiting Assistant Professor Gurmukh Singh will present the 2007 Kasling Memorial Lecture, "The Birth and Death of a Star," at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 18, in the Juliet J. Rosch Recital Hall. The Kasling Lecture recognizes a member of the faculty whose scholarly excellence has enhanced the reputation of the university.

SUNY Fredonia senior Social Work majors Briana Palmer of Silver Creek, Craig Felton of Jamestown, and Jessica Slomiany of Dunkirk will have an opportunity to complete their field placement in a local public child welfare agency, take a course specific to child welfare practice and put their skills to work right after graduation. They are among the first beneficiaries of the New York State Child Welfare Scholarship Program, an effort to recruit high-achieving undergraduate social work students into the field of public child welfare.

Four students from the School of Music were declared the “best of the best” as winners of the annual Concerto Competition, a tradition at Fredonia for decades. After several hours of back-to-back performances on Sunday, ensemble directors and studio faculty deliberated and Assistant Director Barry Kilpatrick announced this year’s winners.

A unique look at hip-hop culture will be presented by activist and documentary filmmaker Byron Hurt during a talk and screening of his film, “Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes” on Tuesday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. in Room 202 McEwen Hall. Among the scholars giving on-screen interviews during the film is Fredonia alumnus and author, Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, who teaches at Duke University.

The lecture, "Evolution and Design: At the Crossroads of Science and Religion," by Dr. Kenneth Miller will be presented on Wednesday, Sept. 26, at 6 p.m. in Juliet J. Rosch Recital Hall, as the first event in the 2007-2008 SUNY Fredonia Convocation series with the theme, "Reflections of the Past."