Faculty-Staff Achievements, Sept. 11, 2008

Honors

Thomas S.W. Lewis, professor of English, is one of three area residents who will be honored at the ninth annual brunch hosted by the Saratoga Springs Rotary Education Foundation. Scheduled Sunday, Oct. 26, at the Saratoga Springs City Center, the event helps raise scholarship funds for local high school students whose post-secondary educational plans include college or advanced vocational education. Lewis is being recognized for his work in the development of the Universal Preservation Hall; other honorees include Nan Guslander, whose philanthropy has included support of Skidmore's annual Polo by Twilight scholarship benefit; and Lt. Col. Clarence Dart, a 2007 recipient of the Congressional Medal for heroism for his service during World War II as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen Unit 15. Tickets for the Rotary event may be purchased by calling 583-9794.

Jay Rogoff, lecturer in the Department of English, has been named "Poet of the Month" by poetrynet.org, "a loose association of poets" unconstrained by the "considerations of personality, purse, and proximity" that influence more traditional print forums. In addition to a biographical profile, the web site features an essay by Rogoff on his work, as well as several poems. Click here to view.

Publications

Victor Cahn, professor of English, is the author of Sherlock Solo, a one-man play about Sherlock Holmes, to be presented April 2-11, 2009 by Curtain Call Theatre in Latham. The play opened off-Broadway in January.

Mary Ann Foley, Class of 1948 Professor for Excellence in Teaching and professor of psychology, has had a paper titled "Imagery encoding effects on memory in the DRM Paradigm: A test of competing hypotheses" accepted for publication in Applied Cognitive Psychology. Her co-authors are the following Skidmore alumni who graduated in 2007: Carly Hughes, Hannah Librot, and Amy Paysnick. Research reported in this publication was partially supported by the Class of 1948 by way of the Class of 1948 Endowed Chair for Excellence in Teaching.

Andrew Skinner, visiting assistant professor of physics, had a paper titled "Chain-boson model for the decoherence and relaxation of a few coupled SQUIDs in a phonon bath" published in Physical Review B, Vol. 78, 014302 (2008). It was subsequently selected to appear in the Virtual Journals of Quantum Information, Applications of Superconductivity, and Nanoscale Science and Technology.

In the News

Paul Arciero, associate professor of exercise science, was featured on the Aug. 20 segment of the "Olympic Zone," a series produced by WNYT, News Channel 13, that aired prior to NBC's Olympic programming in August. Arciero discussed performance nutrition for athletes. He also was featured in Q&A story titled "8 Things You Always Wanted to Know About Dieting" that appeared in August on redorbit.com

Sandy Baum, professor of econmics, was featured in two USA Today stories on Sept. 4: "Less affordable colleges may get 'F,' land on Wall of Shame," and "Tuitions freeze across the USA." She was interviewed by Medill Reports, a publication of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, for an Aug. 28 story titled "Private student loans, private nightmare." She also was a source of "Families Look All Over for College Cash, Survey Finds," published Aug. 21 in usnews.com. In addition, she was interviewed by delawareonline.com for the Aug. 11 story titled "Easing costs part of UD plan." Baum also was a source for an analysis titled "The New Higher Education Act: Where It Comes Up Short," published Aug. 8 by chronicle.com, the online edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Erica Bastress-Dukehart, assistant professor of history and director, Law and Society Program, and Muriel Poston, dean of the faculty, were interviewed on the topic of faculty mentoring for a story titled "A Helping Hand for Young Faculty Members" appearing this week in chronicle.com, the online edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Kelly Dempsey-Little, training and documentation coordinator, IT-Academic Technologies, is featured in a profile posted on the web site of the of the New York State Division of Veterans Affairs. Dempsey-Little was the first female aviation electrician's mate in the U.S. Coast Guard, where she served from 1978 to 1982.

Steve Otriembiak, AV technician, IT-Media Services, was interviewed by WAMC-FM in his capacity as treasurer of the Saratoga Farmers Market. Otriembiak explained the market's new policy of accepting credit and electronic benefit cards (food stamps) to make locally produced food available to more consumers. The story aired in late August.

Ron Seyb, associate professor of government, was interviewed by WNYT, News Channel 13, for a Sept. 3 story on developments at the Republican National Convention.

Robert Shorb, associate dean and director, Student Aid and Family Finance, was interviewed by the Albany Times Union for a Sept. 8 story titled "College financial aid pleas on the rise."

Mary Zeiss Stange, professor of women's studies and religion, was cited in an Aug. 22 story titled "Jonesin' for those Jonases" and published on chicagotribune.com

Bob Turner, associate professor of government, was interviewed by The Saratogian for a story titled "Local GOP lauds ticket," an Aug. 30 story on Sen. John McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Reports of honors, activities, and publications should be sent to Andrea Wise for inclusion in upcoming editions of Scope Online.