Multidisciplianary Colloquium to Debut

A multidisciplinary colloquium titled “Globalized China: Implications for Energy, the Environment, and Women” gets under way at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13, in Gannett Auditorium, Palamountain Hall. Harvard University researcher Kelly Sims Gallagher will give the presentation, which is designed to appeal to a wide range of academic interests. Learn more here.

Employee Benefits Decisions Due Soon

It’s that time of the year – the open enrollment period for benefits changes for calendar year 2003 is upon us. All employees should have received information packets from the Office of Human Resources. Those who plan to make changes in their plans for the coming year are reminded to complete and return the appropriate forms by Dec. 2, 2002.

To provide more information about the benefits options available to employees, the Office of Human Resources is hosting a benefits fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13, in the Sports and Recreation Center. All employees are welcome. Click here for more benefits information.

Ramirez Installation on View at Tang Museum

A new work by New York City painter Paul Henry Ramirez, described by
Artforum magazine as a “sensual formalist and a formal sensualist,” is on view through Jan. 5, 2003, at the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery in an exhibition titled Elevatious Transcendualistic.

In this second of the Tang’s series of “Openers” – exhibitions that showcase upcoming artists and new works – 14 Ramirez paintings, each measuring eight feet by two feet, are on display in the museum’s atrium. The candy-colored, loopy paintings feature biomorphic shapes ranging from bulbs to tendrils, which The New York Times has described as “complex, naughty, and elegantly refined.”

Using the paintings as his starting point, Ramirez has created a site-specific installation that begins with the large canvases and then escapes onto the adjoining walls, in the form of blocks of solid color that the artist has painted directly onto the museum’s surfaces. The dynamic style exemplifies Ramirez’s approach to architectural space as an empty canvas into which to extend his playfully organic images.

That sense of visual animation will also be extended into dance, in the form of an original contemporary dance work choreographed by Associate Professor of Dance Debra Fernandez and performed by students from the College’s Dance Program. The performances, which will take place in the Tang atrium amid the artworks of the Ramirez installation, will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday and Tuesday, Nov. 16 and 19, and at 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17. Tickets are $10 each for general admission, $5 for students and senior citizens. For more information, call 580-8080.

Joern Boehme, German Green Party Representative, to Visit Campus

Joern Boehm, coordinator for foreign policy and human rights policy for the German Greens in the Bundestag (lower house of parliament), will speak at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 19, in the Pohndorff Room of the Lucy Scribner Library.
The campus community is welcome.

Boehme, who holds degrees in sociology and political science from Free University in Berlin, specializes in Mideast policy and reconciliation and is a frequent visitor to Israel and the occupied territories. He will discuss the environmental and other policy priorities of the “Red-Green” coalition of Social Democrats and Greens just re-elected to four more years to lead the German government.

Students will have ample opportunity to talk with him about such topics as German opposition to military action against Iraq, the new European emissions-trading program designed to meet European Kyoto commitments to reduce fossil fuel emissions, and the crisis in the Middle East.

Boehm’s talk is sponsored by the Skidmore Greens; the Environmental Studies and International Affairs programs; and the departments of Foreign Languages and Literatures, History, and Government.

In the News

A number of Skidmore faculty have been featured in recent news reports, including the following:

Michael Arnush, associate professor of classics, was quoted on the importance of studying Latin in a Nov. 2 story in The Saratogian (“‘Dead’ language is alive and well”).

Sandy Baum, professor of economics, was a source for a number of major media outlets carrying the College Board’s Oct. 22 report on the increase in college costs. Baum was quoted in USA Today, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Boston Globe, The Chronicle of Higher Education and on the Black Entertainment Channel on things that contribute to higher college costs, as well as the availability of student aid.

Mao Chen, director of the Asian Studies Program and associate professor of Chinese, was interviewed by Time-Warner Channel 9 Oct. 25 for a story on the annual meeting of the New York Conference on Asian Studies. Students in Jinying Ye-Germond’s Chinese class also were interviewed for the story.

Jack Ling, director, Office of Diversity and Affirmative Action, was interviewed by The Sunday Gazette for a Nov. 10 story on campus activism (“Anti-war sentiment unites campus activists in region”).

Margo Mensing, assistant professor of art, was interviewed by The Sunday Gazette for a Nov. 3 story on the growing popularity of knitting (“Knitting returns as enjoyable, therapeutic craft”).


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