US News Ranks 22 SUNY Schools Among Best In Nation

Albany -- Twenty two State University of New York (SUNY) schools earned top rankings in categories including top 50 public national universities, campus diversity, and least student debt in the 2008 edition of “America’s Best Colleges” by U.S.News & World Report.

SUNY New Paltz was chosen as the “Hottest Small State School” in the nation by the 2008 Kaplan/Newsweek “How to Get into College” Guide. The school was recognized for its academic excellence and its appeal to students seeking entry into the top schools in the country.

In the recently released U.S.News rankings, the Binghamton University is ranked 37^th among public national universities and 82nd overall for national universities. SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) ranked 38^th among public national universities, and 85^th on the roster of best national universities, which includes both public and private institutions. In the “Great Schools, Great Prices” category for national universities, ESF ranked 33^rd.

SUNY Old Westbury is the No. 1 school in the country for campus diversity. University at Albany ranked in the top 10 of national universities with the least debt for its students.

“These national rankings reflect the quality, accessibility, affordability and diversity of a SUNY education,” said Dr. John B. Clark, interim Chancellor of the State University of New York. “SUNY schools provide the people of New York and the country with an education of the highest quality, with the broadest possible access, fully representative of all segments of the population.”

Grandson of Ida B. Wells Follows in her Footsteps.

On October second at ten o’clock, the Recital Hall in the Campus Center was completely filled with eager students and faculty members. Dr. Troy Duster, the grandson of famous muckraking journalist Ida. B. Wells had come to lecture the audience. The idea that such a prominent historical figure had a direct descendant who was ready to relay some of her ideals and principles had many leaning out of their seats in anticipation.
The event was hosted by the First Year Experience and the Office of Student Affairs. It began with an introduction by Cynthia Anderson, the director of the first year experience. After giving a quick account of Dr. Duster’s qualifications and achievements, she invited him to the podium.
The most prominent issue addressed was the importance of diversity. After theoretical ideals were discussed, a very informative PowerPoint presentation was given by Dr. Duster. He imparted to a rapt audience many historical and contemporary statistical representations reflecting the various ethnicities of college students. It was proven that the diversification process is on the path to success. Several stories were told which were designed to spur people to a more open mind. Dr. Duster incited the idea that perspectives of certain issues vary with different ethnicities.
The conclusion of the speech was met with a thunderous applause. Students were then given the opportunity to express themselves and ask questions.

by Casey Riley

Campus News- Jena 6

On September 20th SUNY College at Old Westbury hosted an event discussing the injustice taking place in Jena, Louisiana. The event was held in the Recital Hall and was hosted by several fraternity and sorority organizations on campus in association with the Media Communications /American Studies Department.
Six black students were charged with attempted second degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder after a school yard fight where a white teenager was left beaten. The charges of the six boys led to many protests around the country criticizing the rulings by the Jena judicial system. The situation in Jena has sparked racial outrage that has led to support from personalities such as Radio host Michael Baisden and Rev. Al Sharpton. The national attention that the case for these six boys is receiving is bringing back memories of the great civil rights movements from the 1960’s.
The campus of SUNY Old Westbury made its presence known about the Jena 6 throughout the week by students holding candle light vigil’s and marches. The day of the 20th everyone on campus was encouraged to wear black in protest as there was an open forum on the Jena 6 was held. Guest speaker Divine Pryor, a forensic psychologist and criminal justice professor at Medgar Evers College stated that “discrimination too often remains in people’s hearts” and “the country needs to do more to eradicate the stereotyping that leads to a preponderance of people of color in the nation’s prisons”.
The students at the end of the speech voiced their opinions on the Jena 6 making comparisons to whether blacks or whites were treated equally by law in this country. The diverse comments from the audience helped to further prove how the situation in Jena affects everyone no matter what race.
The students at the end of the speech voiced their opinions on the Jena 6 making comparisons to whether blacks or whites were treated equally by law in this country. The diverse comments from the audience helped to further prove how the situation in Jena affects everyone no matter what race.

by Edmond Easton

Award Winning Ugandan Author Doreen Baigana to offer Free Public Lecture

Doreen Baingana, author of the award-winning "Tropical Fish: Stories Out of Entebbe," will present a free public lecture at SUNY College at Old Westbury on Wednesday, October 10, at 6:30 p.m. in the College’s Student Union.
Baingana’s appearance is being held in conjunction with the common reading program of the Colleges First Year Experience for freshman students, which using "Tropical Fish" as its cornerstone this fall. Her visit is being made possible by support from the Keyspan Foundation.
"Our entire campus community is excited to welcome Doreen Baingana," said College President Calvin O. Butts, III. "Through skillful writing and superb story telling, she has made our students reflect on issues of class and religion, and the complex process that takes place as we each seek our own true meaning."
According to its publisher, University of Massachusetts Press: "’Tropical Fish’ is a collection of linked short stories that explore the coming of age of three African sisters. Introspective and personal, the stories reveal the unexpected ambiguities of the young women’s lives. The setting is the lush beauty of Uganda and the background is the aftermath of Idi Amin’s dictatorship. But even in such trying circumstances, the stories show that people everywhere face the same basic human struggle to understand themselves, their world, and their place in it." A Ugandan-born fiction writer and poet who resides in the United States, Baingana was awarded the Commonwealth Prize for First Book for "Tropical Fish" in 2006.
She has also won the Washington Independent Writers Fiction prize, was twice nominated for the Caine Prize in African Writing, has won the Associated Writing Programs Award for Short Fiction, and received an Artist Grant from the District of Columbia Commission of the Arts and Humanities.

Icelandic artist featured in Amelie A. Wallace Gallery Exhibition

The Amelie A. Wallace Gallery at SUNY College at Old Westbury is pleased to announce the opening of a solo exhibition by Icelandic artist Guðjón Bjarnason. Comprising paintings, sculptures, videos, photographs, and an architectural model, the show represents the multi-talented Scandinavian artist's first appearance in a U.S. university gallery. Indeed, many of the works have never been previously displayed in an American venue.
The title of the show, SquARE zERo alludes to the dominant shape of the sculptural works on view and to a destructive impulse -- a seeming desire for nothingness, for degree zero -- that paradoxically results in a creative act. Most of the works begin with a square format. The major piece in this show, MurMur zERo-desert (2006), began as a collection of 40 steel squares (each 31.6 inches x 31.6 inches) that were detonated with dynamite near the artist's hometown, Reykjavik. As a result, many of the units are now disrupted and twisted, and have thus lost their status as squares, becoming instead something more chaotic and irregular. These "open" forms will be arranged systematically according to the levels of destruction on the wall and the floor.
The exhibition also includes I'MAGE Minglement (2006), a chromed sculpture of 6 exploded metal bars. Bjarnason's vocabulary of architectural steel beams resonates directly with works by Minimalist sculptors such as Richard Serra and Donald Judd. The authoritarian blankness and silence of the industrial objects, however, is shattered --offering a pointed critique of the kind of stolid virility that has led to cold and calculated war tactics, and their explosive consequences. This volatility also echoes the general dynamics of natural phenomena.
To complement the sculptural works, Bjarnason will here introduce BlUe BluE EmbryONics-SquARE (2007), a new series of 80 paintings (each 19.7 inches x 19.7 inches), whose dark abstract geometric images, showing disintegrated digital squares on square canvases, pay distant homage to Malevich's Suprematist squares.
The exhibition also showcases an architectural model of Bjarnason's own residence, Explosive House-Blacksand (house completed 2007), recalling such prime deconstructivist structures of Frank O. Gehry's house in Santa Monica and Zahra Hadid's Vitra Fire Station in Weil am Rhein. Bjarnasons aggressive, centrifugal displacement of walls and spaces, subverting the alpine A-frame motif, bespeaks today's fragmentation and compartmentalization of daily life, and the instability of post-modernity.
Born in Reykajvik, Iceland, in 1959, Bjarnason studied law at the University of Iceland and received advanced degrees in fine arts and architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design, the School of Visual Arts and Columbia University, all in the U.S. Since returning to Iceland, he has shown his work widely both at home and abroad. His more notable exhibitions include the semi-retrospective EXploding MEaning at the Reykajvik Art Museum and a solo museum exhibitions at the Snug Harbor museum in New York.
A panel discussion is scheduled at 3 p.m. on October 16th. The speakers for the public program are Lilly Wei, art critic and independent curator, and Jonathan Goodman, art critic and lecturer at Pratt Institute. The exhibition remains on view through October 26th. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., and by appointment.
This exhibition has received generous support from the Center for Icelandic Art (CIA.IS), the "Muggur" travel grant of Reykjavik, Iceland, the Consulate General of Iceland in New York, and HP Garcia Gallery. The panel discussion is sponsored by the American-Scandinavian Foundation.
For further information regarding SquARE zERo: Guðjón Bjarnason, please contact gallery director Hyewon Yi at yih@oldwestbury.edu or 646-421-5863.

Photo by Piano Zhong