Medaille College News

On Tuesday, April 1, first-year students from Medaille’s learning communities made presentations on the theme “Building a better Buffalo, Medaille’s Role in a Civic and Sustainable Future” at the first of three receptions leading up to the Inauguration of Dr. Richard T. Jurasek, sixth president of Medaille, on Saturday, April 5.

The students presented overviews and results of their community outreach projects from the spring semester on the following topics:

BuffaLOVE: designed and implemented a Persuasive Action directly related to the city of Buffalo (informational boards, PowerPoint presentations, brochures, letters to the editor, op-ed pieces, and becoming involved in community service.)
Buffalo Urban Blight: Causes, Effects, and Solutions: examined the causes, effects and solutions of urban blight in Buffalo.
Buffalo Rewind: Using the Past to Envision the Future: researched and documented the architecture, education, sports and business history of Buffalo.
What Are We Burning to Change About the World?: created visual representations of social issues.
Reading to Rover Literacy Program: designed a reading to dogs program to offer to local schools.
“Let’s Talk Trash” Recycling Program: created a campus-wide recycling effort.

A complete description of each undergraduate project is available at the Inauguration web site. Pictures of students, alumni, faculty and staff at the event are available on flickr.

Dr. Todd Riniolo, associate professor of psychology, will discuss why everyone is vulnerable to developing foolish beliefs in a Meet the Author event on Monday, April 7 at 12:30 p.m. in the Lecture Hall. His book, When Good Thinking Goes Bad: How Your Brain Can Have a Mind of Its Own, examines unconscious biases in critical thinking, and poses such questions as:

In 1975 who warned us “the world as we know it will likely be ruined before the year 2000??
What role (if any) did critical thinking play in the famous “Monkey Trial”?
What was Albert Einstein’s failure as a critical thinker?

The event is sponsored by the Medaille College Scholars Program.

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The Buffalo History Speakers Series continues on Tuesday, April 15 with Dr. Michael Frisch at 6 p.m. in the Medaille College Lecture Hall. Professor Frisch is a professor of history and American studies, and a senior research scholar at the University at Buffalo. He will speak on the topic “Buffalo’s Deindustrialization through Photography and Oral History.”

As a specialist in urban, oral and public history, Dr. Frisch has written over one hundred articles and essays, and four major books. His book, Portraits in Steel (Cornell University Press, 1993), documents the history of workers impacted by deindustrialization in through photography and oral life history. Dr. Frisch is a principal at Randforce Associates, LLC, an Amherst-based consulting firm that uses digital tools for the digitization and indexing of audio/video documentation .

The Buffalo History Speakers Series brings authors, historians and activists to speak on topics related to the social, cultural and economic history of the Buffalo/Niagara region. The events are sponsored by the Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies Departments at Medaille College.

The School of Education’s Literacy Program will welcome local author Norma Gentner and Dr. Fran Murphy, Founding Dean of the School of Education, at an event for alumni and guests on April 2, 2008 from 6 - 8 p.m. at the Amherst Campus Multipurpose Room.

Gentner has 33 years of experience as an elementary, special education and enrichment teacher, and was honored as a finalist representing New York State in the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Award for Science and Mathematics Teaching in 1995 and 1997. She regularly speaks to state and regional reading and literacy conferences, and visits local schools to give grade-level workshops to elementary students.

Prior to coming to Medaille, Dr. Murphy was an associate professor at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY, where he was the chair of the Education Administration Program and a co-author of the Doctoral Program in Executive Leadership. He taught special education and English in elementary, middle and high schools before becoming a principal and a superintendent of schools for 23 years.

The Write Thing Reading Series at Medaille College will present poet Rebecca Maslen ‘00 on Thursday, April 17 at 7 p.m. in the Huber Hall Library on Medaille’s Main Campus. This event is free and open to the public; refreshments are occasionally served.

Maslen graduated from Medaille College with a bachelor of arts in humanities and a certificate in interactive multimedia in 2000. She earned a master of fine arts in creative writing from Rosemont College in Rosemont, Penn. Her work has been published in Parlor Journal and Flashquake, with her poem “rock me amadeus,” earning a Pushcart Prize nomination.

A native of Buffalo, she currently lives in Philadelphia, and travels with her husband, a professional wrestling promoter, to shows in Boston, Chicago and abroad. She teaches technology at a community center in south Philadelphia, and is currently writing a novel set in the independent wrestling scene.

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On March 7-9, 20 children visited their older brothers and sisters on campus at the annual Little Siblings Weekend.

Siblings of resident students were treated to a weekend of activities based on the “Get Lost in a Good Book” theme. Friday night, participants made clay figures inspired by the Harry Potter series. On Saturday, the children and Medaille students descended on the gymnasium in the Kevin I. Sullivan Campus Center, where a carnival with a bounce house and a build-a-stuffed-bear activity provided the day’s entertainment.

The Office of Residence Life coordinates this annual event to give resident students a chance to bond with their younger siblings. Karen Schranz, North Residence Hall and House Residences Director, said, “We were happy with this year’s turnout, and have already begun thinking about Little Siblings Weekend ‘09.”

Commencement speakers for the graduate and undergraduate ceremonies, to be held on Friday, May 16 at Kleinhans Music Hall, have been announced.

Byron W. Brown, Mayor of Buffalo, will speak to graduating students in the master’s degree programs for mental health counseling, psychology, education, business administration and organizational leadership at 1 p.m. As the 58th Mayor of the City of Buffalo, he came into office emphasizing greater accountability and efficiency in City Hall, improving the quality of life for all city residents and a commitment to strengthening and expanding the city’s economic development activities. A surge of economic development activity has also followed Mayor Brown’s election, including over $4.5 billion in planned, ongoing or completed development projects occurring throughout the City since 2006. More »

Peter Giambrone ‘78, a graduate of the media/communication program, will speak at the undergraduate ceremony, scheduled for 7 p.m. With a career in the field of new media, he has over thirty years of practice in the art and science of emerging and transformational media. As a successful entrepreneur and executive manager, he has committed himself in the most recent fifteen years of his career to business development focusing on advanced visualization for total immersion, augmented and virtual reality media. More »

The Student Involvement Center and Center for Multicultural Diversity & Education presents Poetry Night with spoken word artist Gemineye (a.k.a Christopher Kuretich) on Thursday, March 13 at 7 p.m. in the Main Building Lecture Hall.

Open mic for Medaille students will take place from 6-6:45 p.m., and refreshments will be served.

Gemineye made his way into the poetry scene August 2001 at Newark, New Jersey’s Euphoria Café, which was hosted by HBO Def Poetry Jam’s Flowmentalz. Becoming a crowd favorite in nearly every venue he entered, Gemineye sought to hone his skills through poetry competitions. He has performed throughout the nation for audiences ranging from college students and high school students to celebrities such as P.Diddy, Russell Simmons, Ludacris, Tweet, and Tommy Hilfiger.

Since his start, Gemineye has worked diligently to use this art form as an avenue to express personal feelings about today’s issues, tales of truth pertaining to life, love and urban events.

Dr. William Graebner, former professor of history at SUNY Fredonia, will present “Taking the ‘local’ out of local history: Making meaning through Buffalo’s past,” as part of the Buffalo History Speaker Series on Thursday, March 27 at 6 p.m. in the Medaille College Lecture Hall.

Dr. Graebner wrote Coming of Age in Buffalo: Youth and Authority in the Postwar Era, and retired from SUNY Fredonia after 30 years of teaching history. This event is free and open to the public. A question and answer session and refreshments will follow.

The Buffalo History Speaker Series is sponsored by the Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies Departments at Medaille College.

The Buffalo History Speakers Series event with Dr. Lillian Serece Williams originally scheduled for Tuesday, March 4 has been rescheduled for Tuesday, April 8 in the Main Building’s Alumni Room (first floor) at 6 p.m. This is a change from the previously rescheduled date of April 1.

Dr. Williams is an associate professor and chair of the department of African-American studies at the University at Buffalo. She wrote Strangers in the Land of Paradise (Blacks in the Diaspora), a look at Buffalo’s black community from 1900 to 1940.

This event is free and open to the public. A question and answer session and refreshments will follow. The Buffalo History Speaker Series is sponsored by the Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies Departments at Medaille College.