Faculty and Staff Achievements, Jan. 24, 2008

Award

Kristie Ford, assistant professor of sociology, and Joshua Woodfork, assistant professor of American studies, will be among the honorees when the Saratoga Springs chapter of the NAACP holds its annual Freedom Fund Education Celebration on Saturday, Feb. 2. Ford and Woodfork will receive the chapter?s Community Service awards. The event, titled ?Dare to Dream,? will take place at the Holiday Inn Saratoga. Keynote speaker will be Norman R. McConney Jr., former executive director and chief of staff of the deputy speaker, New York State Assembly. His talk will address issues of political, educational, social, and economic equality of all minority groups. Reservation deadline is Jan. 30. For ticket information, please call (888) 278-5440.

Activities

Gail Cummings-Danson, director of athletics, and Megan Buchanan, associate director of athletics, attended the 2008 NCAA Convention Jan. 10-14 in Nashville. The annual convention provides the backdrop for Division III institutions to vote on proposed legislation affecting the division. Next year?s convention will be in Washington, D.C.

The Skidmore Athletics Department will host the Haverford Group?s spring meetings on Sunday and Monday, March 30 and 31. The group consists of institutions similar in size and academic orientation to Skidmore, and exists to promote and generate meaningful dialog on issues related to sports programs and the activities of student-athletes. The 26 colleges and universities in the group include Wesleyan, Amherst, Tufts, Clark, Colorado College, and Swarthmore.

Publications

Corey Freeman-Gallant, associate professor of biology, has had three papers accepted for publication. A manuscript to be published in Animal Behaviour explores the influence of different tutor types on song learning in a natural bird population; students and colleagues at Williams and Bowdoin colleges are coauthors. A manuscript to be published in Molecular Ecology explores the impact of agricultural management on social and genetic mating systems in a grassland bird; colleagues at the University of Vermont are coauthors. A manuscript recently published by the Journal of Avian Biology (Vol. 39, No.1, January 2008) explores geographic variation in the function of plumage ornaments in the common yellowthroat. Peter Dunn and Linda Whittingham (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and Jon DeCoste (Skidmore ?05) are coauthors.

David Vella, associate professor of mathematics and Honors Forum director, is the author of an article titled ?Explicit Formulas for Bernoulli and Euler Numbers,? published in the online journal Integers: Electronic Journal of Combinatorial Number Theory, Vol. 8, Jan. 16, 2008. View the article here.

In the News

Sandy Baum, professor of economics, was featured on National Public Radio?s ?Weekend Edition Sunday? Jan. 20. Larry Abrahamson interviewed her on the topic of financial aid for students at elite and state-funded colleges and universities. To listen, click here.

News of faculty and staff activities, achievements, performances, publications, and exhibitions is published regularly in Scope Online. Please send news items to awise@skidmore.edu for inclusion in the next edition.