Campus Report
News, Calendar & Events

On Jan. 1, Associate Professor Roderick Macdonald will be a trumpeter in a live television broadcast of Beethoven's 9th Symphony from London and seen across Europe. He will perform with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the world's oldest classical orchestra.

Emily VanDette (English) has received a $1,500 grant from the COPC Service Learning Incentive program to support her interest in benefiting the Dunkirk community through a poetry correspondence program.  The goal of the COPC awards program is to create sustainable, cooperative efforts that benefit the City of Dunkirk by tapping the abundant resources of SUNY Fredonia.

James Thomas Stevens, associate professor of English and director of American Indian Studies at SUNY Fredonia, will appear as a featured poet at City Lore, a center for urban culture in New York City, on Friday, Dec. 12.

The Chautauqua County Rural Ministry (CCRM) Nominating Committee has selected Dr. Richard Goodman as the recipient of the 2008 Prophet’s Hoe Award. Dr. Goodman is currently serving as the Campus Liaison for the SUNY Fredonia/Dunkirk Community Outreach Partnerships Center (COPC) and he is a Research Associate for the Center for Rural Regional Development and Government Center (CRRDG).

SUNY Fredonia senior Ciara O’Neill-Mendoza of Vestal, N.Y., has been selected as the recipient for the October 2008 Student of the Month. The Department of Resident Life’s Student of the Month Committee members Cate Shrum, Jennifer Cinque and Allison Adams chose O’Neill-Mendoza following her nomination by Dr. David Herman, Vice President for Student Affairs.

Coached by Philosophy Professor Andrew Cullison, SUNY Fredonia students recently competed in the Northeastern Regional Ethics Bowl Tournament at Villanova University. The debate-style competition, sponsored by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, focused on all theoretical or applied ethics issues. SUNY Fredonia did well but ultimately lost a chance to go to the nationals by a very small margin

Four seniors at SUNY Fredonia have raised $600 to send to a foundation in Ecuador. The money-raising effort was named AMIGOS (A Mission In Giving Opportunities to Students) and was a project for Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE). The foundation, La Fundación Crecer, is an organization whose central purpose is to provide poor Ecuadorian children with an education.

 The next CD to be released by Natalie Merchant, former lead singer of 10,000 Maniacs, will become the newest link between SUNY Fredonia and the beloved alternative rock group founded in Jamestown, N.Y.   Raymond Stewart, associate professor of Music and member of Meridian Arts Ensemble, spent a day-long recording session this fall with Merchant in September.

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards announced that Gregory Cole, lecturer in the Computer and Information Sciences department, has achieved National Board Certification in 2008. 

Students taught by National Board Certified Teachers make higher gains on achievement tests than those taught by teachers who have not applied or did not achieve certification, according to a report issued by the highly-respected National Research Council of the National Academies. The report stated, “evidence is clear that National Board Certification distinguishes more effective teachers from less effective teachers with respect to student achievement.”

The Congressionally-mandated report also found that National Board Certification has a positive impact on teacher retention and professional development.

Research consistently shows that National Board Certified Teachers provide their students with quality learning. Like board certification in medicine or accounting, National Board Certification is teaching’s highest professional credential.

“Better schools and improved student learning are goals we all support. The key is better teaching. With each new class of National Board Certified Teachers, more students are benefiting from the innovative strategies and renewed commitment to student learning that these advanced teachers bring to the classroom,” said former Georgia Governor Roy E. Barnes, chair of the NBPTS Board of Directors. “The certification process itself and incentives for those who earn the credential help meet the challenges of retaining our most accomplished teachers in the classroom and in the profession.”

Mr. Cole is also an Information Technology faculty member for the E2CC  BOCES, where he teaches at the Lakeshore/Carrier Career and Technical Academy.

SUNY Fredonia’s Golden Key International Honour Society chapter is first in its region, and fifth highest in the U.S., for member join response rate. A total of 330 SUNY Fredonia students were eligible to join Golden Key and 147 opted to joined. There are 23 chapters in the region encompassing SUNY Fredonia, and just under 300 chapters in the United States. Membership is offered exclusively to students ranking in the top 15 percent of their class.Advisors to the honor society at SUNY Fredonia are Ann Carden and Mark Suida.

William Graebner (History, emeritus) just published (October 15) a book, Patty's Got a Gun: Patricia Hearst in 1970s America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008).  The book has been discussed or reviewed in the Atlantic Monthly, the Economist, and Newsday. It is the first substantial reconsideration of Patty Hearst’s story in more than twenty-five years, William Graebner vividly re-creates the atmosphere of uncertainty and frustration of mid-1970s America.

For the third time overall and second straight season, Fredonia State's Geoff Braun is SUNYAC Coach of the Year. In addition, sophomore Kaitlin Erdmann (Randolph) was named Player of the Year and freshman Chelsea Senn (Hamburg/Frontier) the Rookie of the Year in the conference's West Division.

The SUNY Fredonia college of natural and social sciences is hosting a Social Sciences Colloquium on the SUNY Fredonia campus Wednesday, Nov. 12. The colloquium’s guest speaker will be Nina Shah, assistant professor of management for the department of business administration.

Dr. Rob Deemer, Chair of the Fredonia School of Music composition department, will be the keynote speaker at the "Inside Opera" event hosted by OperaBuffs of Western New York on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 10 a.m. at the Westminster Presbyterian Church of Buffalo.