Items tagged with 'St Rose'
Common Side Effects
"Coming Attractions" by Lisa Hoke
We got a chance to stop in at the Esther Massry Gallery at Saint Rose to catch a look at Common Side Effects, the exhibition by Lisa Hoke that's there right now. It's a series of sculptures, murals, and collages made up of product packaging.
Exhibition blurbage:
Quirky, intensely colored sculptures, giant wall murals and small collages are made from cast-off, familiar packaging reclaimed from our mass-produced, consumerist culture. Formerly trash bin detritus, these intricate and labor-intensive creations add gravitas to an ethos of excess and waste. The exhibition features a large-scale, suspended sculpture constructed in the vertical gallery.
Nancy Princenthal, writer, critic and contributing editor of Art in America, states "The ready-made graphics of her materials are meant by their commercial producers to be seductive, and Hoke only bumps up their appeal, organizing them into tapering cones, telescoping cups, fanned plates and pinwheeling spirals of the most dizzying allure." (Excerpted from 2015 essay on Lisa Hoke's exhibition "Attention Shoppers," published by Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York.)
The pieces are vibrantly colorful, and they draw you in as your eye picks out all the various types of packaging involved.
Common Side Effects is on display through December 4 in the Esther Massry Gallery, which is in the Massry Center building (1002 Madison Ave). The small exhibit's worth a stop if you're in the neighborhood.
Saint Rose advertises on AOA.
Preet Bharara at Saint Rose
US Attorney Preet Bharara will be at Saint Rose October 6 for an event titled "Bribery or Just Access to Elected Officials: Tawdry Tales of Ferraris, Rolexes and Ball Gowns." Bharara will be part of a panel discussion that will include:
+ U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska (also a Saint Rose alum) -- Preska will also offer opening remarks
+ Grant Jaquith, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York
+ E. Stewart Jones Jr., the high-profile local criminal defense attorney
+ Times Union editor Rex Smith
Bharara is the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. It's not a stretch to say that he's has had as much influence as anyone on New York State government over the past year, with his office winning convictions of both Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos, former leaders of the state Assembly and Senate.
The Saint Rose event is Thursday, October 6 at 5:30 pm in the Lally School forum space (1009 Madison Ave). It's free and open to the public -- but pre-registration is required: preskaevent@gmail.com.
Saint Rose advertises on AOA.
photo: US Department of Justice
Saint Rose faculty vote "no confidence" in college president
The full-time faculty at the College of Saint Rose issued a no-confidence vote in college president Carolyn Stefanco Wednesday. The vote stems from the college's move to cut 23 full-time tenure and tenure-track faculty positions in December, along with eliminating a range of academic programs.
The org representing faculty said 158 of approximately 200 eligible faculty cast votes -- 120 for "no confidence," 35 against, and three abstained. The result will be delivered to the college's board of trustees this Friday along with a petition calling for Stefanco to rescind the cuts or resign.
It sounds like the college administration knew this was a likely outcome. Leading up to Wednesday Stefanco gave interviews indicating her intent to the stay the course regardless of the vote. And after the vote the college issued a statement from Stefanco that read in part:
While some faculty members embrace and support constructive change at Saint Rose, others resist it. Regardless of our personal feelings, we share a solemn responsibility to make the changes necessary to meet the changing needs of our students.
I will proudly continue to lead Saint Rose, working alongside our trustees, staff, administration and those members of the faculty who support the efforts to improve our financial standing, increase our enrollment and chart a course for a strong future.
Back in December when it announced the cuts, Saint Rose cited a $9 million deficit and a 16 percent decline in enrollment since 2008. (For some context, the college had a $121 million budget in 2013, according to its 990 form.) It said about four percent of the college's 4,400 students were enrolled in the programs that would be eliminated (12 programs had no students).
"Say hi to everybody in Albany ... not now, later"
Two Saint Rose students were on the Tonight Show Tuesday night as part of the "Freestylin' With the Roots" bit -- and it was all spring flowers and... candy corn.
And, of course, Jimmy Fallon is an alum, so they had that to talk about, too.
Frequency North 2014 fall
Chloe Caldwell
The Frequency North series at Saint Rose starts its fall this season this Thursday with an appearance by writer Chloe Caldwell. Blurbage:
A native of Hudson, NY, Chloe Caldwell is the author of the forthcoming novella Women (SF/LD Books, 2014) and the essay collection Legs Get Led Astray (Future Tense Books, 2012). Her nonfiction has appeared in Salon.com, The Rumpus, Thought Catalog, Nylon, The Nervous Breakdown, xoJane, The Frisky, The Sun, SMITH, Jewcy, Mr. Beller's Neighborhood, Freerange Nonfiction, The Faster Times, The Fix, and Men's Health, and has also appeared in the anthologies Goodbye To All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving NYC (Seal Press), GIRLS? (Thought Catalog), and True Tales of Lust and Love (Soft Skull Press). She is the founder and curator of the Hudson River Loft Reading Series in Hudson, NY, and has taught Creative Writing workshops at Omega Teen Camp, The Hudson Opera House, The Independent Resource Center, and personal essay classes online through Lit Reactor.
Lena Dunham is a fan, apparently.
The reading/talk is Thursday, October 9 at 7:30 pm in the Events and Athletics Center, Standish Rooms, Second Floor (420 Western Ave). It's free and open to the public.
Here's the rest of the Frequency North fall season lineup...
Saint Rose adjuncts vote to unionize
Adjuncts at the College of Saint Rose have voted to unionize with SEIU Local 200 by a tally of 175-61. In a statement, Saint Rose said it "will work with the SEIU to address the issues concerning the adjunct faculty." [Supporters of Saint Rose Adjunct Faculty FB group] [College of Saint Rose]
Contingent labor is a big issue across higher education right now. Adjuncts make up a majority of nation's faculty work force -- all the while they often make much less than tenure-track faculty and have little job security. And in recent years at campuses around the nation there has been a rising call for unionization. [Chronicle of Higher Ed] [US House Committee on Education and the Workforce] [NYT]
Earlier on AOA: Work Week: Con Job: Stories of Adjunct and Contingent Labor
The College of Saint Rose advertises on AOA.
Saint Rose names college's next president
The College of Saint Rose announced today that its next president will be Carolyn Stefanco, who's currently the vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia.
Stefanco is scheduled to start the position July 1. Her selection caps an unusual transition at the college. In a surprise announcement last summer the school and former president David Szczerbacki parted ways after he had spent just one year in the role, with no mention about what caused the split. Margaret Kirwin, the school's VP for academic affairs, has been serving as interim president.
Stefanco has a PhD in history from Duke, an MA in women's history from Binghamton, and an undergrad history degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her scholarly focus has been American women's history, higher education, and international education.
Agnes Scott College, Stefanco's current school, is a private 900-student women's undergraduate liberal arts college in Decatur, which is just east of Atlanta. Prior to Agnes Scott, she was the founding dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at California State University, Stanislaus, and she held teaching positions at Oklahoma State, Cal Poly (a handful of student reviews) and Wheaton College in Massachusetts.
Frequency North 2013-2014
Rick Moody will be at St. Rose September 26.
The "aggressively eclectic" visiting writers series Frequency North is back for another season at St. Rose starting in September. One name that jumps out immediately on first scan of the lineup this time around: author Rick Moody.
A compressed, easy-scan version of the lineup is post jump. As in the past, FN events are free and open to the public.
"But even very rich people who may have commissioned portraits of themselves as centaurs deserve to be treated fairly."
Over at Deadspin today St. Rose political scientist Scott Lemieux plays a different angle on A-Rod and the situation surrounding performance-enhancing drugs in baseball:
But the particular focus on players of the '90s makes it clear where baseball's anti-PED hysteria comes from. It's about the boomers who are offended that better players have taken over records they believe should belong to their childhood heroes in perpetuity. The nostalgic sentimentalism that used to produce lots of drearily irritating tributes to baseball now leads to lots of drearily irritating attacks on baseball. ...
That's what the war against A-Rod is about. Not all MLB PED-users have been singled out, after all. Prominent accused users like Andy Pettitte, Jason Giambi, and David Ortiz aren't treated like pariahs, because they haven't broken certain iconic records or passed certain statistical benchmarks or threatened any sportswriter's right to remain a child forever. After comparing Rodriguez to a murderous gangster, Bill Madden goes on to complain about "the steroids plague that has tarnished the game's integrity and made a mockery of the home run records." In a sentence, that's what motivates the anti-PED fanatics.
In addition to the professoring at St. Rose, Lemieux also writes regularly at the blog Lawyers, Guns, & Money as well as The American Prospect.
Massry Center 2013-2014 season
Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile will be there in October (as mentioned).
The Massry Center at St. Rose has announced its slate of show for the upcoming 2013-2014 season. Tickets are on sale now. (There's a discount if you buy a multi-event pack.)
Ending the ado, here's a compressed look at the slate...
Chris Thile at the Massry Center
Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile -- from the Punch Brothers, and Nickel Creek -- is scheduled to play a show at St. Rose's Massry Center October 27. Tickets are $30 and on sale now.
Thile has bee on fire over the last year or so -- earning acclaim with the progressive bluegrass band the Punch Brothers (including a show at The Egg), and being named a McArthur fellow. From his profile for the "genius grant":
Chris Thile is a young mandolin virtuoso and composer whose lyrical fusion of traditional bluegrass with elements from a range of other musical traditions is giving rise to a new genre of contemporary music. With a broad outlook that encompasses progressive bluegrass, classical, rock, and jazz, Thile is transcending the borders of conventionally circumscribed genres in compositions for his own ensembles and frequent cross-genre collaborations. Although rooted in the rhythmic structure of bluegrass, his early pieces for his long-time trio, Nickel Creek, have the improvisatory feel of jazz; his current ensemble, Punch Brothers, evokes the ethos of classical chamber music even while adhering to the traditional instrumentation of the bluegrass quintet.
See also: a cover of the Strokes' "Reptilla."
Thile has a new album of Bach recordings coming out in August. The show at the Massry Center will draw "from his new Bach recording, while also exploring his own compositions and contemporary music."
More Thile:
+ He's playing with Michael Daves at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival in Greene County July 20.
+ Thile will be at Tanglewood August 15 to play as part of Yo-Yo Ma's Goat Rodeo Sessions with bassist Edgar Meyer, fiddler Stuart Duncan, and singer Aoife O'Donovan.
[via Val]
photo: Danny Clinch
St. Rose president out after one year
This comes as a surprise: St. Rose president David Szczerbacki is out after one year in the job, the college announced this morning.
Szczerbacki "elected not to renew his contract as president for the 2013-2014 academic year," according to a press release, which states that he cited "personal reasons" in his letter to the board of trustees.
Prior to becoming president Szczerbacki had been CSR's provost and vice president for academic affairs, the #2 job there, starting in 2004. He succeeded Mark Sullivan, who had been the college's president for 16 years.
St. Rose says it's starting a national search for a new president. In the interim, the duties of the president's job will be shared by current provost and VP for academic affairs Margaret Kirwin and VP for finance and administration Marcus Buckley. Sullivan will also be advising. (And the school is set to get a new provost starting July 1 -- Hadi Salavitabar, former dean of the School of Business at the SUNY New Paltz.)
Earlier on AOA: New president for College of St. Rose
The College of St. Rose advertises on AOA.
Poetry Out Loud at St. Rose
(crotchety old person voice) Oh, teenagers today, with their Facebook and their dubstep and their... public poetry reciting.
St. Rose is hosting the local regional finals of a national competition for high school students called Poetry Out Loud. Blurbage from CSR:
Poetry Out Loud is a national contest program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance and competition. Sponsored by The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, Poetry Out Loud seeks to foster the next generation of literary readers by building on the resurgence of poetry as an oral art form, as demonstrated by the slam poetry movement and the immense popularity of rap music among youth. By performing great works of literature, students can master public speaking skills, build self-confidence and learn more about their cultural heritage.
The first regional final is Thursday evening. There's another next week. And the state final is in March. All three are free and open to the public. The schedule is post jump.
This just in: college continues to be expensive
The website Campus Grotto recently released its annual list of the 100 most expensive colleges -- and, as in years past, RPI, Union, and Skidmore are on the list (table above).
Both Union and Skidmore have been sliding down the list over the last few years. For 2008-2009, they were both in the top 20.
Other schools in the greater region that also made this year's list: Bard College (#10, $57,580) Bennington College (#27, $56,990), Williams College (#33, $56,770).
Of course, these totals are like the list price on a car -- not everyone ends up paying that. In fact, at a lot of schools, very few students end up paying full price because of scholarships, grants, and other financial aid.
Campus Grotto notes this school year marks a new era -- for the first time a school's total cost has exceeded $60,000. Sarah Lawrence -- #1 on the total cost chart again -- checks in at $61,236.
St. Rose, Siena, Sage, and UAlbany did not make the top 100 list. Their 2012-2013 total cost figures are post jump.
Capital Region college president compensation
UAlbany's uptown campus.
When it was announced last week that Robert Jones will become the next UAlbany president, there were a few eyebrows raised about his compensation -- he'll receive a total of $555,000. That includes salary, money from the Research Foundation, and a housing allowance.
That's a lot, no matter what job you're doing. And given that the SUNY system has faced budget cuts recently, it's understandable that the figure would catch attention.
But is it too high? That's a hard question. And people are going to have different answers based on their own perspectives.
To get some context, we pulled data about presidential compensation at UAlbany, RPI, Union, Skidmore, St. Rose, Siena, and the Sage Colleges -- and broke it down to see how it compares across multiple categories.
Here's the result...
Frequency North 2012-2013
Melissa Febos and Darin Strauss are both on this year's slate. (Fact: a black and white photo makes you look even more writerly.)
The Frequency North series at St. Rose is back for the upcoming school year -- and the slate is now out. The lineup includes fiction writers, non-fiction writers, memoirists (including a former dominatrix), poets, and the return of Pitchapoolza.
The full schedule is post jump.
Frequency North readings are free and open to the public.
Massry Center 2012-2013 season
The Picotte Recital Hall at the Massry Center.
The Massry Center for the Arts at St. Rose has released its schedule for the upcoming season. The lineup includes Medeski Martin & Wood; Doc Severinsen; Ben Allison; and the return of the popular Vince Guaraldi holiday concert.
The season starts with Severinsen on September 14. Full schedule is post jump.
St. Rose goes SAT/ACT optional
St. Rose announced this week that it's making the SAT and ACT optional for many of its applicants. From the press release:
The new Saint Rose admissions process will continue to place the greatest weight on the level of, and success in, college preparatory courses taken in high school along with recommendations from teachers and participation in other school and outside activities. As part of the pilot, an applicant who does not submit scores will be required to complete an essay designed to help further identify the individual and provide a glimpse as to what he or she might bring to the Saint Rose community. ...
"Our own data show that there is a wider pool of students who perform well in college preparatory high school courses who we believe would be successful at Saint Rose but for the fact that they do not perform well on one four-hour standardized test. Our new policy eliminates that roadblock," said Mary Grondahl, vice president for enrollment management.
A bunch of schools around the nation have adopted SAT/ACT-optional admissions policies during the last few years. Here in the Capital Region, both Union College and the Sage Colleges are already test optional. [FairTest] [Union] [Sage]
Here's your diploma -- and a payment schedule
One of the interesting things in a recent NYT package about student debt is an interactive listing that includes school-by-school breakdowns of the average student debt for each school.
We were a bit surprised by the numbers from Capital Region schools (above). Even though Skidmore and Union College both have expensive sticker prices (both locally and nationally), their average graduate debt figures were among the smallest in this area -- and they had the lowest percentage of grads carrying student debt.
That result probably speaks to a few things about those schools: a) a not insignificant share of the students attending come from families that can help them cover the price and/or 2) many of the students whose families can't cover the cost probably aren't paying the full sticker price. In fact, Union says more than 60 percent of its students "receive some kind of financial assistance."
Contrast that to St. Rose and UAlbany. CSR had the highest average graduate debt -- with 86 percent of its graduates carrying debt. And UAlbany, though having one of the lower debt numbers probably as a result of its relatively inexpensive tuition, had by far the highest debt-to-tuition ratio.
The NYT interactive feature has more info and is worth checking out.
Noted: Americans now owe more in student debt than they do in credit card debt -- the total amount of outstanding student debt in the country is roughly $1 trillion. [USA Today]
Fine print: All the tuition and debt total numbers are for 2010 and via NYT, with one exception: NYT didn't have a tuition number for Union. So we pulled it from College Grotto's rankings for 2009-2010. It appears NYT pulled the numbers from The Project on Student Debt, from which we pulled the "grads with student debt" percentages. The debt:tuition ratio is our own calculation.
Pitchapalooza at St. Rose
Pitchapalooza -- sort of like the opening round of American Idol for authors -- will be at St. Rose April 15. At the event authors will get one minute to pitch their book to a panel of judges and get feedback. From the blurbage:
At Pitchapalooza, judges will help you improve your pitch, not tell you how bad it is. Judges critique everything from idea to style to potential in the marketplace and much, much more. Authors come away with concrete advice as well as a greater understanding of the ins and outs of the publishing industry. Whether potential authors pitch themselves, or simply listen to trained professionals critique each presentation, Pitchapalooza is educational and entertaining for one and all.
The judges will pick one winner and that person will get an intro to an agent or publisher.
The catch: to pitch a book or idea you have to buy a copy of The Essential Guide To Getting Your Book Published by Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, who bill themselves as "The Book Doctors" and run Pitchapalooza. (The book is $10.85 online, though it's not clear if you have to buy the book at the event.) Book buyers also get a free 20 minute consultation.
If you just want watch other people pitch, the event is free. It's presented as a collaboration with the Frequency North series at St. Rose.
photo via Book Doctors Twitter
New president for College of St. Rose
The board of trustees at the College of Saint Rose has picked David Szczerbacki to the college's next president. Szczerbacki is currently the school's provost and vice president for academic affairs, the #2 job there.
The school says Szczerbacki take over in July of this year. He's succeeding Mark Sullivan, who's had the top spot at CSR for 16 years. The school announced last summer that Sullivan would be retiring this year.
Szczerbacki has been at St. Rose since 2004. Before that he held a similar position at Alfred University. He has a PhD in policy studies from SUNY Buffalo, and a master's degree in urban systems. He went to Gannon in Pennsylvania for undergrad, where he got a degree in political science. In the press release, the school says his professional work outside of academics has "focused on the fields of urban and regional planning, economic development, leadership training, environmental management, strategic management and organization development."
It's interesting that Szczerbacki has a background in urban planning. St. Rose has been very active in recent years developing the neighborhood around it in Albany, with a bunch of new buildings that have influenced the character of the area and, more recently, signage that's more clearly defined its neighborhood campus.
Oh, and we hear his name is pronounced: "sir-BAH-kee."
Full press release after the jump.
RPI's Jackson stays in top 10 for private college president compensation
RPI president Shirley Ann Jackson's salary is the 7th highest in the nation among private college presidents, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education's annual salary rankings. The Chronicle reports Jackson's 2009 total compensation was $1,771,877, up 7 percent from the year before.
The average professor at RPI gets almost $154k/year in compensation, according to the Chronicle -- giving RPI an 11.5/1 president to professor pay ratio. (A few quick comparisons: the ratio is 4.7/1 at MIT, and 3.7/1 at Cal Tech.)
Said RPI's VP of strategic communications and external relations to the TU about Jackson's salary: "[it is] a reflection of her extraordinary accomplishments, and of the desire of the Board of Trustees to have her continue the comprehensive transformation at Rensselaer."
Jackson topped the Chronicle's chart for the 2007-2008 academic year with reported total compensation of $1,598,247. In March 2009, the school announced she was giving 5 percent of her salary to a student scholarship fund.
There have been a lot of impressive developments at RPI during Jackson's tenure. But there also has been what seems like a not insignificant amount of discontent. The most recent sign was a student senate resolution calling for Jackson's removal if "significant changes" aren't made at the school. And a group calling itself the "Alliance for Responsible Governance" has also been pushing for change. [RPI] [Reddit RPI]
The Chronicle also lists compensation for other local private colleges. Those are after the jump.
Yuja Wang at the Massry Center
Here's something to get things moving on this dreary morning: pianist Yuja Wang playing "Flight of the Bumblebee." It is freakish.
Wang is playing the Massry Center at St. Rose this Saturday night. Tickets are $35.
It should be quite a performance. YouTube is full of clips of the 24-year-old Wang playing -- and people completely plotzing over what they just watched. As a person commented on a clip of Wang playing an arrangement of Mozart's Turkish march backstage before a concert: "Her fingers have fingers." The commenter may not be wrong.
Yuja Wang seems to have fully embraced being a classical rockstar. For a concert at the Hollywood Bowl in August, she wore a dress you'd probably expect more from a popstar (we would argue she pulled it off rather well). It prompted a critic for the LA Times to snark:
Her dress Tuesday was so short and tight that had there been any less of it, the Bowl might have been forced to restrict admission to any music lover under 18 not accompanied by an adult. Had her heels been any higher, walking, to say nothing of her sensitive pedaling, would have been unfeasible. The infernal helicopters that brazenly buzz the Bowl seemed, on this night, like long-necked paparazzi wanting a good look.
The review prompted calls of sexism. Noted a critic for the Washington Post:
Let's have a reality check for a minute. Yes, the dress is short, tight, and revealing. But in the real world -- the world outside classical music's still-prurient bubble -- this is not unusual attire for a young rising starlet in the public eye.
As with any modern star, Wang is on Twitter. Oh, and she says she'd like to play with Lady Gaga.
This at least the second time Wang has made a stop in the Capital Region. She played at SPAC in 2008 -- to rave reviews.
New city of Albany homeownership program
The city of Albany and group of the city's largest employers today announced a new package of incentives to encourage people to buy homes in the city.
The incentives include zero-interest and forgivable loans for down payments and closing costs, and in some cases grants for home improvements.
If this gets more people to live in Albany, great. The city could use more homeowners (as do many of the Capital Region's other urban centers) -- as long as those people really can afford to buy a house . And if it gets more people living closer to where they work, even better -- a short commute pays off in all sorts of ways.
Highlights from the program after the jump, along with the full press release.
US News ranks for Capital Region colleges
Union will probably Nott be disappointed.
US News released its vaunted college rankings today (not important, of course... unless your school ranked well). Here's how local schools ranked.
(Plus a ranking in which UAlbany tops RPI.)
... said KGB about Drawing: What's something that brought you joy this year?