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Office of Alumni Affairs Purchase CollegeState University of New York735 Anderson Hill RoadPurchase, NY 10577-1400Address Service Requested

Purchase College Alumni Association

Board of Directors 2009Fadi Areifij ’99

Paula Cancro ’79

Antonio Commisso ’09

Audrey Cozzarin ’79, President Emeritus

Alison Kaplan ’86

Emily O’Leary ’06, Treasurer

Mark Patnode ’78, Secretary

Jeffrey Putman ’96, President

Pietro Rotondo ’88

Gorman John Ruggiero ’76, Vice President

Morgan Selkirk ’05

Steven Tartick ’07

Adam Tyrrell ’08

Simone Varadian ’05

EX OFFICIO:

Thomas J. Schwarz President, Purchase College

Margaret Sullivan Vice President, External Affairs

& Development

Cristina Necula ’97 Director of Alumni Affairs

Carla Weiland-Zaleznak Associate Director of Annual Giving

Address UpdatesIf this address is not current, kindly forward correct address information to us at alumni@purchase.edu or (914) 251-6054. Thank you.

PURCHASEPUrchaSe college alUmnI magazIne | THINK WIDE OPEN SUMMER 2009

Meserve-Kunhardtand Gordon Parks

Photographic Archives Come to Purchase College Library

PlUS:

Purchase in the City, Westchester, and Beyond: In the reAL WorLd

First-Class Purchase Profs: the nAtIon’s FInest

Joining Forces: the ALumnI AssoCIAtIon And CAreer deveLoPment Center

Purchase has had an eventful year. Our students have made quite a splash in New York City these past few months, performing with jazz legend James Moody at the B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, and joining Pete Malinverni at Carnegie Hall for a concert with the Purchase Soul Voices Gospel Choir in the Weil Recital Hall. The Purchase Jazz Orchestra performed with Todd Coolman conducting and our own Jimmy Greene as special guest at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center. The Purchase Repertory Theatre performed David Ives’s All in The Timing at the Emelin Theatre in Mamaroneck, and the Neuberger Museum exhibited its Milton Avery paintings and prints at the UBS Gallery. It was quite a showcase for our students and there is much more in this issue, including our new partnership with the New York Academy of Sciences.

The economy continues to influence what we do. Budget cuts have tested our mettle, and we have faced a spring 2009 tuition increase, with 90 per-cent of that increase going to the Department of the Budget to reduce statewide deficits.

The College has endured several rounds of budget reductions since the start of the fiscal year, with a 12% or $2.4 million reduction for 2008–09. We are considering measures that will preserve academic funding as we move for-ward with the College’s strategic plan.

Our endowment was subjected to the volatile market. While the loss of mar-ket value was significant, it is not crippling. We have successfully insulated the projected investment income for 2009–10, which supports scholarships and academic programs.

As we plan for the upcoming academic year, we will aim to protect our faculty, core curriculum, and academic services by continuing to invest in a prudent long-term faculty hiring plan. We will also maintain and even expand financial aid and campus service jobs for students to keep their education affordable.

We are asking our alumni, parents, and friends to help more than ever during the next few years. We will weather this gale and emerge stronge, with a brighter future.

School of the ArtsProfessor Bradley Brookshire, Music, performed the Goldberg Variations by Bach to a sold-out audience at the Wave Hill music series. His recent Bach concert at Corpus Christi Church in New York City received a rave review from the New York Times. It illuminated the ways in which Bach mixed traditional and contemporary forms.

Professor Donna Dennis, Art+Design, was recently awarded the Malvina Hoffman Artist Fund Prize and the Daniel Chester French Medal for Sculpture by the National Academy Museum. A work of art from her Tourist Cabin series was recently acquired by the Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey which will install it permanently.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band head-lined the halftime show for Super Bowl XLIII in

Tampa, Florida, with an assist from Professor David grill. He once again served as lighting director for the Super Bowl game, seen by an esti-mated 140 million people in the US and broadcast to more than 230 countries and territories.

Professor Stuart Isakoff, Music, recently gave four lectures on micro-tonal music in conjunction with performances by microtonal composer Michael Harrison at the Vancouver Academy of Music in Canada. In May he delivered lectures throughout Italy at conservatories, scholarly centers, and festivals in Florence, Vicenza, Latina, Cremona, and Rome. He is also at work on another book for Alfred A. Knopf, on the cultural history of the piano, which should be finished by early summer.

Professor laura Kaminsky, Music, was a guest lecturer at the Reese Environment Studies Institute in Hickory, NC when her concerto for three percussionists and orchestra, Terra Terribilis, was performed recently by the Western Piedmont Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro John Gordon Ross.

Professor greg lock, Art+Design, exhibited his work in two group shows. In “Marking Time” at the Hudson Opera House (N.Y.), he showed a series of prints from the Barnfold project and a new video phantogram installation. His “Pixelated Log” digital prints continue to tour China as part of the “e-form” exhibition and were recently dis-played at the Artmap Gallery in Wenzhou.

Professor charles mccarry, Design/Technology, was a nominee again this year (he won last year) for Best Production Design for a Single- Camera Series, “Ugly Betty, at the 2008 Art Directors Guild Awards in Los Angeles.

Professor Joann Walters, Art+Design, won second place in the Women in Photography Juried International Competition held at Gallery 2008.

Jennifer Wroblewski, Art+Design, exhibited her work at the A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, N.Y., last winter in an exhibition called “New Monuments to the Anti-Concept.”

carol Walker, Dance, was invited by the Ministry of Education to adjudi-cate the Singapore International Youth Festival. She was one of seven judges on a panel that viewed 123 dances over three days. Her fellow panelists were from Taiwan, Jakarta, Malaysia, and Singapore.

megan Williams, Dance, performed the role of Lady Capulet in the new Mark Morris production of Romeo and Juliet.

arturo o’Farrill, Director of the Purchase Latin Jazz Orchestra, received a Grammy award for Best Latin Jazz Album for his Song for Chico performed by Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, Zoho Music (2008). Woodrow Wilkins in All About Jazz called the album a showcase for O’Farrill’s skill as a leader and musician.

O’Farrill composed one of the eight tracks and was a pianist on the album. A distinguished composer and performer, he adopts various cultures and instru-ments into his music. O’Farrill has performed with musical giants such as Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, and Harry Belafonte, and also directs the Chico O’Farrill Afro-Cuban Latin Jazz band, which preserves much of his late father’s music.

Several Purchase students were thrilled when he invited them to perform with him at a recent Birdland engagement.

PURSUITS/FACUlTy newS & nOTeS

Pursuits 1–2

Purchase in the City, Westchester, and Beyond 3–6

News Briefs 7

Meserve-Kunhardt and Gordon Parks: Photographic Archives Come to Purchase College Library 8–11

First-Class Purchase Profs 12–16

Joining Forces: The Alumni Association and Career Development Center 17–18

Alumni in Action 19–20

Annual Fund 21

TABleOF COnTenTS

Purchase College Alumni magazine is published biannually by the Office of External Affairs and Development, Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase, NY 10577-1400

Phone: (914) 251-6046 Fax: (914) 251-6047 email: alumni@purchase.edu

editor: Margaret Sullivan, Vice President, External Affairs & Development

Publications Director: Sandy Dylak

Design: Worksight

cover Photography: Alexander Hesler, 1860. © Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation

Photography: Kelly Campbell, Juliana Thomas, Mark McCarty, Thomas Moore

alumni editor: Cristina Necula ’97

[THIS MOMenT] In TIMe

By Thomas J. Schwarz

Thomas J. Schwarz President

Please visit the College’s website www.purchase.edu or contact the Alumni Association by email (alumni@purchase.edu) for programs and activities that may be of greatest interest to you.

All THAT JAZZProfessor todd coolman, Music, headlined a new program at the Jacob Burns Film Center. It began with a Q & A session about jazz followed by a Purchase Jazz Endeavor concert of classic jazz, and modern experimental music with Coolman as conductor. After the sextet performed, the audience enjoyed a screening of the film Play Your Own Thing: A Story of Jazz in Europe. Coolman also arranged for the Jazz Endeavor to perform live on WBGO radio 88.3 FM in celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month.

Carnegie Hall beckons next spring when Professor Todd Coolman will perform with a host of jazz musi-

cians in celebration of NEA Jazz Master James Moody’s 85th birth-day. Some of today’s greatest jazz musicians and surprise guests will perform an evening of bebop, swing, and standards in the style of Dizzy Gillespie’s big band at the concert, billed as “James Moody’s 85th Birthday Party,” at Carnegie Hall on April 7, 2010.

todd coolman

Donna Dennis

PURCHASE | 1

Bernie Williams’s latest album, Moving Forward fea-tures Purchase faculty mem-bers Dave gluck and Peter Denenberg along with Bruce Springsteen, John Secada, and others.

Williams writes in the liner notes that the title song, “Moving Forward,” was born out of one of my studio composition classes at Purchase,” and he mentions the Conservatory of Music and several faculty in the acknowledge-ments. Portions of the CD were recorded at Purchase.

At the album release party at the Nokia Theatre, Professor Gluck was on stage performing with Bernie.

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Professor Jason Pine, anthropology & media/society/arts, and his col-laborators from the University of Missouri and the University of Minnesota, were awarded a grant by the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center to host a conference, “Crimes of Honor in a Mobile World, Past and Present,” next fall.

School of HumanitiesProfessor lenora champagne, drama studies, had a recent play, Traces/Fades, included in the play anthology Plays and Playwrights 2009.

Professor elizabeth guffey, art history, launched the first issue of Design and Culture, a peer-reviewed journal in design studies.

Professor elise lemire, English literature, was appointed chair of the CLEP American Literature Committee. CLEP is the College-Level Examination Program, which gives students the opportunity to receive college credit for material they already know by earning qualifying scores on any of 34 examinations. Professor Lemire has served on the CLEP American Literature Committee for the past two years.

Professor Kathleen mccormick, literature and writing, was invited to give lectures on her work in reading theory and international reading at an international reading and writing conference in Malmo, Sweden. Professor McCormick was also invited by the journal Pedagogy to contribute to a special issue on teaching literature in the small-college environment.

Professor ronnie Scharfman, French and literature, had her essay on poet Aime Cesaire published in a special political edition of the Callaloo Journal.

Peter Sprague, manager and technical director of the Humanities Theatre and instructor in drama studies, performed the role of Cliff in the Ohio Theatre’s production of playwright Robert Lyon’s Red Haired Thomas to favorable reviews in the New York Times and Flavorwire

Professor robert Stein, English literature, co-organized a panel, “The Post-postmodern Middle Ages,” for the 123rd annual meeting of the American Historical Association in New York, at which he also presented a paper, “Past/Present: Post modernity and historical Explanation.”

Professor Jennifer Uleman delivered an invited commentary, “Can We Think for Ourselves by Ourselves?” on Kate Moran’s “Kant on Public Participation and Moral Virtue,” at the American Philosophical Association Central Division Meeting in Chicago.

School of liberal Studies and Continuing educationProfessor Beth gersh-nesic gave a paper at the annual College Art Association Conference in Los Angeles on the topic “The Match Game: Kathleen Gilje’s Portraits of Curators, Critics, and Connoisseurs.”

The School of Liberal Studies and Continuing Education honored Professor melissa Febos as Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year at this year’s liberal studies graduation reception in May. Professor Febos teaches the Senior Capstone course, True Stories: The Craft of Memoir, and Short Fiction. Her short memoirs “The Hole,” “Chambermaid,” and “Vega” were recently published in the literary magazines Redivider, The Southeast Review, and The Rambler Magazine, respectively. Professor Febos also sold a book-length mem-oir, Whip Smart, to Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press. It will be published in March 2010.

PURSUITS/FACUlTy newS & nOTeS

Purchase lights nyCProfessor Brian macDevitt was the lighting designer for Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, the August Wilson play at the Lincoln Center Theater at the Belasco. Purchase College alumni, faculty, and students joined MacDevitt on the show. Jennifer Schriever’02 was asso-ciate lighting designer, rachel eichorn was assistant lighting designer, zach Blane’09 was a lighting design intern. Associate Professor narda e. alcorn was production stage manager, michael zaleski’06 was assistant stage man-ager, Benjamin Bales Karlin’11 was a stage management intern, and along with carly anechiarico’11. MacDevitt was also the lighting design-er for Accent on Youth at the Manhattan Theatre Club. Brian hoerburger’02 was his assistant lighting designer on that show.

School of natural and Social SciencesProfessor Shameem abbas, political science, was interviewed by the Voice of America about her research on Sufism. The television interview was conducted while she attended a Middle Eastern Studies Conference in Washington, D.C.

Professor zehra arat, natural and social sci-ences, participated in the Annual Convention of the International Studies Association where she chaired a panel on “Current Issues Concerning Genocide” and presented two papers in addi-tion to appearing on several other panels.

Professor lisa Keller, history, gave a paper at the American Historical Convention in New York. Her paper, “Dodos, Dod Street, and Destitution: London’s Metropolitan Police

Confront Order,” was part of a panel she organized on “Safety, Security, Prosperity, and Order in the Transitional City.”

Professor george Kraemer, environmental science, was a panelist at the first Bedford Environmental Summit at Fox Lane High School. More than 1,000 participants and 100 organizations, including public officials, educators, and environmental activists, gathered to encourage people to take actions in their local communities to live sustainably without sacri-ficing quality of life. Professor Kraemer discussed “Ocean and Fish in Peril” on a panel with alumnus Carl Safina and Timothy Fitzgerald.

He also summarized his research on non-native species and their impact on Long Island Sound with fishing industry groups, including the New York Lobstermen’s Association and the Marine Advisory Council.

Professor anthony lemieux, psycholo-gy, gave the invited address, “Poverty as a Product of Human Social; Relationships: The Impact of Power, Prejudice and Dominance,” at the United Nations in New York City.

Professor lisa Jean moore, sociology and women’s studies, gave the keynote address at the Tucson Chapter of Sociologists for Women in Society’s conference at the University of Arizona.

zehra arat

lisa Jean moore

Purchase in the City,Westchester, and BeyondBy Mark Damon Puckett

PUrchaSe “In the real WorlD” oFF-camPUS

The creative spirit of Purchase is everywhere these days.

At first glance, you might not think that saxophonist James Moody playing at B. B. King’s with his renowned friends has much to do with author David Ewing Duncan discussing DNA in his new book, Experimental Man, at the Performing Arts Center.

Or how the Purchase Repertory Theatre’s one-acts at the Emelin Theatre in Mamaroneck could relate to Professor Pete Malinverni playing at Carnegie Hall with his Soul Voices Choir.

Or, for that matter, what the Neuberger Museum of Art’s exhibi-tion of the works of Milton Avery at the UBS Gallery might have to do with the Purchase Jazz Orchestra performing at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola with Jimmy Greene.

Don’t forget alumnus Sean Weiner’s recent film at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, and the Neuberger’s permanent presence in midtown Manhattan in the SUNY Optometry building.

Such a dazzling list sounds like what you might read in a New Yorker calendar of events. Incredibly varied, this constellation of talent does share a theme: an expanding college presence not just in New York City but across Westchester and beyond. Purchase’s inimitable student body and faculty are sharing their gifts with the world—in the spheres of art, film, literature, music, science, and theater.

Brian macDevitt

ProFeSSor Pete malInVernI at carnegIe hall WIth SoUl VoIceS choIr anD DeVoe Street BaPtISt chUrch choIr

As a pianist, Professor Pete Malinverni bridges Purchase and the city and performs often in both—sometimes at Smalls in Manhattan, sometimes at the Watercolor Café in Larchmont. He was teaching in the jazz studies program at Purchase when he decided to get a master’s degree here. A win-win: professor and alumnus.

On February 18, 2009, he performed at Carnegie Hall with the Soul Voices Choir and the Devoe Street Baptist Church Choir.

“It was supposed to be a solo piano recital. I played my own compositions, yes, but in the second half I wanted to bring in some people who are very, very dear to me.”

Malinverni also serves as minister of music at an African-American church in Brooklyn, Devoe Street Baptist. “I have a choir there and also started the Soul Voices Gospel Choir here on campus last year. I took my church choir and a bunch of the Soul Voices and put them together, bringing a 28-voice choir to the recital hall. We did all this music I had written for gospel choir. It was an amazing experience.”

He says it was indeed a good opportunity to get music he had written to a different audience. “But it was also a chance to get my church choir and students on the stage at Carnegie Recital Hall,” he adds. “Because, you know, they need to know what that feels like.”

PUrchaSe rePertorY taKeS ShoW to emelIn theatre

The Emelin is Westchester’s oldest operating performing arts theater. And what better way to merge Purchase with the city and Westchester than by performing an off-Broad-way hit at such a venue with Purchase actors? David Ives’ quirky, award-winning All in the Timing, a series of absur-dist one-acts touching on Philadelphia and monkeys had run previously for 606 shows off-Broadway. Purchase Repertory did a limited run from February 27 to March 1.

Olivia Osol, a participating acting student, says that the dressing rooms at the Emelin were small, but they ended up creating an even greater sense of ensemble backstage. “I thought it might be difficult to adjust to the space, but it felt just like home and created this wonderful energy fueled by being ‘in the real world’ off campus.”

It was the first time the junior acting company had the opportu-nity to perform off campus and to work with an outside director who had no previous ties to the Conservatory. “We were blessed enough to get to work with Darrell Larson,” actress La Teisha K. Dukes says. “He’s an inspiring teacher as well as director.” Larson has been in film, television, theater, and radio for 35 years.

For Dukes, the most exhilarating thing about working at the Emelin was being able to share “this little gift” called All in the Timing with an audience made up of people from the Westchester community. “Being in the Conservatory day and night,” she said, “we forget there is a world outside here. This time, instead of us inviting them into our world, they invited us into theirs.”

JameS mooDY BeneFIt concert at B. B. KIng’S

Jazz sax legend James Moody turned 80 in 2005, but this musician is not slowing down. Known simply as “Moody” and also for his James Moody Scholarship Fund at Purchase, he played March 30, 2009, with his scholars at BB King’s for the “Moody and Friends” Benefit Concert.

In addition to jamming with his scholars, Moody was on stage with Jon Faddis, Todd Coolman, Randy Brecker, Paquito D’Rivera, Hank Jones, and many other greats. “All of our Moody Scholars have been exceptional,” Moody says, beaming. “They are wonderful musicians and great people and conduct them-selves accordingly.” Scholars have included: Andrew Gould and Max Darche in 2007; Duncan Hardy in 2008; and Andy Roninson in 2009.

Moody and his wife Linda had always wanted to establish some-thing to help kids who might never have dreamed of a college education, but had talent and perseverance. “Thank goodness for our dear friend Dr. Todd Coolman, who has also been my bassist for 25 years and is a longtime professor at Purchase,” Moody says. Coolman currently heads the Purchase College jazz program.

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“Not everyone at Purchase is in the arts,” says Kessler, smiling. She is a proponent of raising visibility for the sciences and the creativity happening therein. To date, the only partnership of New York Academy of Sciences has outside the city is with Purchase College.

neUBerger mUSeUm oF art eXhIBItS at SUnY-oPtometrY anD UBS

SUnY optometry“The Neuberger exists in a very funny space in terms of audi-ence development,” Neuberger Director Thom Collins states.

“We’re 35 minutes from Manhattan, one of the more densely populated cultural communities in the world.”

For Collins, that brings both promise and a certain kind of challenge. Why would you come to the Neuberger if you’re in the city, unless you know the richness of what the museum has and the progressive nature of what the Neuberger does in its programs? Getting people over the threshold from the city—or even elsewhere in the region—is difficult.

Collins wants to flip this notion around to where people are saying, “Why wouldn’t I go to Westchester?” The quality is just as high and they’re doing things that aren’t being done in the city.” But you have to create a certain visibility to encourage people to cross that threshold. Having a presence in the city makes what Purchase is doing unavoidable—“to signpost what we’re doing up here is a really brilliant idea,” says Collins.

Enter SUNY Optometry, which recently moved into the top floors of a vast space, with a huge lobby that spans 42nd and 43rd Streets, running the whole block in the building. “So,” says Collins, “we entered into a dialogue about transforming part of it into an exhibition space.” It will allow the Neuberger to present shows in the city with an auditorium for events and at no cost except for transport and installation.

SUNY Optometry has clinics and programs, so there is an obvious brand relationship. “They are an optometry school and we’re a visual arts institution,” Collins remarks. “It’s a no-brainer, right?” The first show has yet to be chosen, but will likely highlight the Neuberger’s collection and programs.

Music Professor Pete Malinverni performed at Carnegie Hall with the Soul Voices Choir and the Devoe Baptist Street Church Choir.

We had approached several schools about our idea,”says Linda Moody, “and they all jumped on it, but something was missing.” When they spoke to Professor Coolman about their passion—because of him —Purchase College seemed like a perfect fit.

The dream is now thriving and helping young people exactly as the Moodys envisioned.

The Bensusans, who own the B. B. Kings’ Blues Club and Grill, are the Moodys’ heroes.

“We have a longstanding friendship with them because I have appeared at their other club, the Blue Note, for many years,” says Moody. “They have told Linda that they would help us in any way that they can—and they do. Purchase College has been wonderful at supporting us and we are thrilled that they now have a presence in the city. It’s long overdue.”

PUrchaSe PartnerS WIth the neW YorK acaDemY oF ScIenceS

In March 2009 Purchase teamed up with the New York Academy of Sciences to invite bestselling writer David Ewing Duncan to speak about his new book, Experimental Man, which he makes himself a human guinea pig for DNA research.

Right before his presentation, he sat casually on the stairs at the side of the stage, talking affably with strangers. “Human beings like to tell stories and scientists are so data-driven,” he noted. “There is that difficulty of making science writing com-pelling. I try to do that.” During his presentation, he clicked through slides with surprising humor, eliciting chuckles from the audience while sharing his factual and personal information about genetic research.

Back in February, the same partnership brought to Purchase the unique co-lecture “Scents & Sensibility: The Science of Smell in Everyday Life.” Fragrance expert Avery Gilbert and Columbia University’s Professor Stuart Firestein were the lec-turers. It’s science from the city but not in the city.

In the future, Suzanne Kessler, dean of the School of Natural and Social Sciences, wants to embed these ongoing events into the school curriculum, capitalize on the relationship in the public sphere, and make it all advantageous to Purchase science students. She hopes to build on the New York Academy lineup in the city—and keep redo-ing it in Westchester, bringing science events here that people would otherwise have to trek to the city to see.

James moody

At the UBS Gallery opening reception for the Neuberger’s Placing Avery (L to R): Tony Maddalena, Natalia Kolodzei, Harris Mehos, George Gottlieb, and Thom Collins.

UBS and milton avery

UBS Gallery maintains a commitment to modern and contempo-rary art with a full-time curator to reach out to the art world and offer different institutions the chance to present exhibitions. It is, however, without an actual collection. “UBS approached us maybe two years ago,” says Collins, “and we have such extraor-dinarily rich collections at Neuberger that it was not too difficult to come up with ideas about what to do there.”

One of the Neuberger curators, Jacqueline Shilkoff, decided to present highlights from the Milton Avery collection to flesh out the story of Avery’s career and his place in the New York art world. The show juxtaposes works from various points in Avery’s career—artists with whom he had dialogues, artists he inspired, artists who inspired him, such as Rothko, Picasso, and Matisse. “You can see in the juxtaposed works the resonance of one practice and another practice,” says Collins. “Thus the title Placing Avery. It’s a very beautiful show.”

UBS rotates the floor with other exhibitions, but they were so thrilled with the Avery, they’ve asked the Neuberger to do another one in about two years. The Milton Avery show ran from February 5 to May 1, 2009. UBS Gallery is at 1285 Avenue of the Americas between 51st and 52nd Streets. Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

JImmY greene anD the PUrchaSe Jazz orcheStra at DIzzY’S clUB coca-cola

The Purchase Jazz Orchestra was performing its first concert at Dizzy’s Club on February 23, 2009, and Professor Todd Coolman wanted a guest soloist from among the faculty. A lot of the students mentioned saxophonist Jimmy Greene. “I was obviously honored to hear that,” admitts Greene humbly.

Greene has played Dizzy’s many times and really loves the aes-thetics, with big windows looking over Central Park South and Columbus Circle. “But the SOUND,” he said, with obvious admi-ration, “the way it’s built acoustically—man, the sound is really good from the stage and from the audience.”

With the 17-piece Purchase Jazz Orchestra, he played two sets and both were very well attended. “I know virtually all the guys because I’ve had them in a course or combo of mine,” Greene proudly says. “It was nice getting to interact with them, not just as teacher/student. They were all playing great, sounding won-derful, a real tribute to the music program.”

The best players at Purchase, Greene feels, are pretty much at the pro level. “It’s not just a situation where I’m bringing them something. I’m being inspired presumably as much as they are. And it’s great to hear, in jazz especially, grad and undergrad.”

Greene has a brand-new upcoming record called Mission Statement from Razdaz, his seventh album as a leader. “It’s my vision from beginning to end—from the actual recordings to the liner notes to my core group of musicians, even the clothes in my photo, so I’m very satisfied.”

alUmnUS Sean matthIeU WeIner, WeStcheSter coUntY JaIl, anD the JacoB BUrnS FIlm center

Purchase alumnus Sean Weiner was a cinema studies major in the School of Humanities when he became an instructor in a pioneering program at the Westchester County Jail. He was hired by the Jacob Burns Film Center to educate juvenile inmates in video-making. “The goal was to provide students with a visual literacy program and the technology to make it happen,” says Weiner.

The objective was to make a movie, leaving the subject matter up to the students. In orange uniforms, they questioned how others viewed them and focused on judgment as a theme. What resulted was a captivating PSA.

The film was screened to a packed theater of friends, family, jail personnel, former inmates, and advocacy groups. Two students, who had since been released, joined Weiner on stage with their former principal, Donnie Simmons, and Commissioner Joseph K. Spano for a panel discussion after the screening. “It was a powerful night,” notes Weiner. “The Jacob Burns Film Center plans to continue this program and I intend on remaining very much involved. The effect on our students and their moving appreciation makes me certain that we have done something good here, if not great.”

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PROVOST FeRnAnDeZ HOSTS COnFeRenCe On THe FUTURe OF THe ARTS In CUBAAn international group of scholars assembled for discussions about the arts in Cuba at an event hosted by Provost Damian Fernandez. Purchase College joined Florida International University and the Cuban Artists Fund in co-sponsoring the conference, “The Future of the Arts in Cuba,” at the Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in late April.

“During times of political and social change,” says Fernandez, “the arts play an important role in innovation, communication, bridging divisions and stimulating civic participation. This con-ference brought together some of the world’s leading voices to move the topic of arts and culture in Cuba to the very forefront of a timely conversation about the island’s future and its reinte-gration into a global economy.”

Joining Provost Fernandez were scholars from Moscow, South America, Mexico, China and the U.S. Representing Purchase were: Thom Collins, director, and Helaine Posner, deputy direc-tor of curatorial affairs at the Neuberger Museum of Art; Wiley Hausam, executive director of The Performing Arts Center; and Professor Laura Kaminsky of the Conservatory of Music. Ambassador William Luers, chairman and president, United Nations Association of the United States of America, was the keynote speaker.

COMMenCeMenT HIGHlIGHTS Purchase awarded honorary degrees to filmmaker Frederick Wiseman and dancer and interdisciplinary artist Dianne McIntyre at the 37th commencement ceremony, presided over by President Schwarz, and held before a crowd of nearly 1,000 graduates and their families and friends.

Distinguished alumni awards were presented to Chris Wedge, Oscar-winning film director and co-founder of Blue Sky Studios, and Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Donald Margulies.

PRInCeTOn ReVIew’S TOP 100: BeST VAlUe COlleGeS FOR 2009Purchase College is once again included in Princeton Review’s

“Top 100: Best Value Colleges for 2009.” The education services and test-prep company’s annual list ranks the top 10 public and private colleges and universities, and lists the others in alpha-betical order.

Of the USA’s 643 public four-year institutions and 1,533 private four-year campuses, the Princeton Review analyzes data from approximately 650 campuses that it considers the best. The selection looks at academics, costs, and financial aid, using the most recently reported data from each institution for its 2008–09 year.

“We are proud to be included in this ranking. It is a testament to our terrific students, the quality of the total educational experi-ence we provide at Purchase and the commitment and dedica-tion of our esteemed faculty,” says Thomas J. Schwarz, President of Purchase College.

newSBRIeFS

PURCHASe wInS BeST OPeRA AwARDThe Purchase Opera has once again won the National Opera Association’s Opera Production Competition. This year’s award was for Lee Hoiby’s, The Tempest, which was presented at The Performing Arts Center in the spring. Jacque Trussel, chair of opera and vocal performance studies, accepted the award at the National Opera Association’s annual convention in Washington, D.C.

“This is the fourth first-place win in five years,” said Trussel. “What an exciting time for the college and our department. This award recognizes the outstanding caliber of our productions and the commitment of our distin-guished faculty and our dedicated students.” The production honored Mr. Hoiby’s 82 birthday, and the composer was involved with the production.

Jacque Trussel directed the production, and Hugh Murphy, conductor and music director of the Purchase Opera, was the conductor.

chris Wedge Frederick Wiseman

Donald margulies Dianne mcIntyre

PUrchaSe connectIng WIth the WorlD

It is one thing to remain an insular beehive of creativity, and quite another to merge private acts of continuous creation on campus with the presentation of that work in the larger public realm. Purchase has always been filled with buzzing ingenuity, housing talented actors, artists, dancers, directors, filmmakers, musicians, scientists, and writers who are networking even more today, spreading honey from the comb and sweetening the world beyond in the process.

The first is the Meserve-Kunhardt private collection of 100,000 photo-graphs, including early photography pioneers like Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner. The second is more than 4,000 photographs and 22,000 negatives of filmmaker and civil rights activist Gordon Parks.

“We are physically renovating the balcony space right now,” explains library director Patrick Callahan, during a tour of the space. “And we will move the collections there sometime this spring. So we’re just in

the process right now.”

The upstairs library section will house these collections—available by appointment to students and members of the public with research interests. There is also the potential of ongoing digitizing of the oeuvre.

In fact, the possibilities range from physical to virtual projects to web exhibits to curatorial museum projects, the details of which are under con-sideration. Scholars, students, and researchers may come to read, lay out, browse, and retrieve practically endless photographic materials of historical relevance.

“Originally, it was President Thomas Schwarz’s idea to find a home for these photographs,” adds Callahan. “Then Thom Collins, director of the Neuberger Museum of Art, and I talked with people who administer the Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation and found that it would be mutually beneficial.”

he Purchase College Library, in conjunction with the Neuberger Museum of Art, is partnering with the highly esteemed Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation to bring two very remarkable art photography archives to campus on extended loan. To house these notable collections while they are here, there will be a dedicated area in the library balcony of the main floor—for research and educational purposes.

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Meserve-Kunhardt and Gordon Parks Photographic Archives Come to Purchase College Library

Above: Frederick Hill Meserve (1865–1962), America’s first great photograph collector, with the famous Lincoln photo-graph made from his cracked glass-plate negative behind him.

Below: Gordon Parks, photographed by Johanna Fiore.

Opposite page: Muhammad Ali, 1970. © Gordon Parks.

T

By Mark Damon Puckett

PURCHASE | 9

Lincoln (www.pbs.org/wnet/lookingforlincoln/about/about- looking-for-lincoln/250/).

At the moment, though, Pat Callahan will be concentrating on the logistics, building secure walls in the library balcony space, and just focusing on bringing in these colossal archives. It should be emphasized that these collections are not exhibits, per se, but arrangements to house the two archives, most of which will reside in the library.

“Essentially we’re giving them space in return for access to their collections for our faculty and students,” says Callahan. “They are not donating but lending us their collection; we’re in a part-nership. Right now we’re getting the balcony area ready for them, and moving them here. Once we’re situated, we’ll talk more about the spectacular possibilities for actual exhibits around campus.”

“To be able to have two such exquisite collections, the Meserve-Kunhardt and the Gordon Parks, at Purchase College has endur-ing pedagogical potential for our community, students and pro-fessors alike,” says President Thomas Schwarz. “Not only this, our partnering with the respected Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation itself aligns us with a community of intellectual wealth in the pro-moting of digital, oral, and visual history.”

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Gordon Parks’s photographs have a vast capacity to be utilized in curricula involving civil rights and African-American traditions in the second half of the 20th century. Parks, who died in March 2006, is best known for directing the movie Shaft in 1971. But he is widely known for his photoessays in Life, where he met and befriended Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., managing editor at the magazine at the time. Therein, the Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation maintains a deeply personal connection to Parks’s photos. In fact, that collection is actually managed by Peter Kunhardt, son of Parks’s good friend, Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr. Undoubtedly, Purchase students and filmmakers who are inter-ested in documentation of civil rights will find a plethoria of archives to mine.

While no actual exhibits of all these photos have yet been planned for the Neuberger Museum of Art, the idea has been discussed and could be considered down the line. Peter Kunhardt, Jr., assistant director at the Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation, comments: “The Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation is pleased that our collections of 19th- and 20th-century photogra-phy, including the Gordon Parks Collection, will reside at the Library at Purchase College, and that we will be able to work in conjunction with the museum. We look forward to collaborating with students and faculty in our efforts to make these photo-graphs more accessible to the public.”

Of course the appeal to the museum and campus community is as a rich resource for research, study, and senior projects, as well as for public presentations, for scholars on campus and for visiting scholars.

“Parks is a recent addition,” explains the Neuberger’s director, Thom Collins. “There are quite honestly thousands of photo-graphs in the separate Meserve-Kunhardt collection that predate Parks, many of them 19th century, including Mathew Brady’s photos of Lincoln. But it all becomes part of the same founda-tional collection.”

a PartnerShIP to PreSerVe hIStorY

The Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation will have its own staff that catalogues and organizes the collection, and Purchase Library will give them a working space here. While it is all jointly curat-ed with Purchase Library, Meserve-Kunhardt is responsible for displays and for how everything is organized and collected. The overall foundation itself also has an influx of people from all over the country coming to use its resources.

Furthermore, there are many chances for the museum to work with representatives of the foundation, faculty and others to bring this treasured material to public attention through exhibi-tions here at the Neuberger. “These two collections are enor-mously rich,” Thom Collins says, “with all manner of interesting art and social documentary material. The fact that we’re going to have them right on campus is just a way to amplify the col-lections we already have.”

The Meserve-Kunhardt itself, as a foundation, has a committed mission to preserve oral and visual histories through digital media, with a special emphasis on Lincoln artifacts. Peter W. Kunhardt, along with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., was recently one of the executive producers of the PBS broadcast, Looking for

“Right now we’re getting the balcony area ready for them, and moving them here. Once we’re situated, we’ll talk more about the spectacular possibilities for actual exhibits around campus.”

From the Meserve Collection:

12th New York Regiment Soldier

The 12th New York Regiment was guarding Washington when this picture was taken of a soldier smoking a pipe outside his tent. 1861 circa 5 years.

Opposite page: Ingrid Bergman at Stromboli, 1949, © Gordon Parks.

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Purchase college is privileged to offer the first nikon/gordon Parks Scholarship to chiara marinai, a B.F.a. photography candidate. the scholarship is facilitated by nikon and the gordon Parks Foundation.

PURCHASE | 12 PURCHASE | 13

Trying to separate a professor from his or her syllabus is like attempting to take a trip without a ticket or a map. A professor provides the syllabus, which, in turn, becomes your atlas to a new country of knowledge. And the faculty member is your guide in this exotic place. A syllabus is not only a few pieces of paper, but it also serves as your calendar, your reading list, your index, and, in the end, your bible. Rooted in the Greek sullambanein, which means “to put together,” syllabus also comes from the Latin sillybus, or “parchment label.” Without this “put-together parchment,” you would be lost. Enter the professor.

We chose in this issue of the magazine to focus on Purchase College faculty, Jan Factor and Tracy Fitzpatrick, who have brought much to their fields— science and art, respectively. Think of this as a chance to take a class with them without enrolling. What will follow here are course descriptions, syllabi, reading lists, lectures students are required to attend, student presentations, and even some suggested assignments culled from the day-to-day aspects of the course pre-

sentations. There is also a mini-lecture from each pro-fessor—in his or her own words. So if you don’t have time to take a class right now, this conspectus will give you a comprehensive view of two amazing, memorable courses.

Although it’s not quite the same as the course itself, this article can serve as a guidebook to a class you might not have taken. Read some of the books. Look into some of the topics. Finally, though, it is a teacher’s spirit that enlivens the syllabus, those simple pieces of “put-together parchment” that effloresce in the hands of scholars like Jan Factor and Tracy Fitzpatrick. Teaching is also a choice of taking the time to share knowledge with students. Clearly, Professor Factor’s passion for lobster research and microscopes and Professor Fitzpatrick’s love of art as a curator–both define what happens in their classrooms. They do what they love so that they may teach what they love with superior knowl-edge, credibility, and pedagogical fervor. Purchase College students are enriched–and guided well–because of them.

Do you remember in college looking in the course

catalogue and seeing a class you just had to take?

Perhaps you had heard about a “cool” professor. maybe

your friends kept mentioning a phenomenal course that

was impossible to get into because it filled up so quickly.

or you took a class just because you wanted to read the

books on the list—and then found out that those books

were not a mere list but true manifestations of the

professor’s life work and passion.

First-Class Purchase Profs

T H e n ATI O n ’ S F I n e S T

M E M O R A B L E

T E A C H E R S

By Mark Damon Puckett

JAN ROBERT FACTOR C O N T I N U E D

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JAN ROBERT FACTOR

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Science in the Modern World

An understanding of scientific principles is essential for an educated and engaged citizenry. This course investi-gates the substance and process of modern science and its role in society, including: the scientific method and nature of scientific inquiry; scientific principles, analysis, and critical thinking; sources of scientific information, crit-ical reading, and evaluation of authenticity; and distin-guishing science from pseudoscience.

Section Description: Genetic Engineering and Biological Technologies: Life-Saving Advances or Dangerous Follies? FRS.1200.21

Genetic engineering has made possible the genetic altera-tion of organisms in ways that have tremendous positive possibilities, as well as significant potential consequences. This course will explore the science that forms the basis of genetic engineering, from cells to organisms.

PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY

SCHOOL OF NATURAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

• B.S., Biology, Brooklyn College

• M.S., Zoology, Cornell University

• Ph.D., Zoology, Cornell University

TRACY FITZPATRICK

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Museum Studies: Exhibition Seminar ARH4200/5200

4-credit course open to both undergraduate and graduate students. Students co-curate an exhibition at the Neuberger Museum of Art drawn from the permanent col-lection. Throughout the semester students meet with members of the museum’s staff to conceptualize, design, and program their exhibition. Students learn about curato-rial work, exhibition design, registration, education and public programming, marketing, public relations, and finance. Special topics for discussion include the role of art museums today, current theories and methodologies of display, and recent ideas in museum education.

CURATOR, NEUBERGER MUSEUM OF ART, AND

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, ART HISTORY,

SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES

• B.A., Double Major—Art History and English, Tufts University

• M.A., Art History, George Washington University

• Ph.D., Art History, Rutgers University

Learning Practical Choices about the Environment

This year’s college theme is “Environment Is Everything.” Students in all sections are required to attend a series of plenary lectures, and it’s quite a sight to see 400 freshmen in one of the theaters in The Performing Arts Center listening to a visiting lecturer talk about global climate change, melting ice caps, or lobsters and sushi. Students learned a lot about lobsters and fish but also how to make smarter choices when choosing seafood or items in a sushi restaurant. It also introduced freshmen to this format of a formal lecture with a speaker, which is exciting for them.

Lobsters and Microscopes

I’m mostly interested in the way lobsters deal with disease agents invading microbes, and the mechanism they have for fighting off disease. I focus on a population of cells in the diges-tive gland of lobsters (big greenish-brownish organism, most people see when eating lobsters). This population of cells has much of the responsibility for identifying and removing foreign particles from the blood.

I also teach a course called Transmission Electron Microscopy and Cell Ultrastructure and a course in Scanning Electron Microscopy. And as a result, I have taught generations of Purchase students how to use advanced technology, advanced microscopy techniques, so that they can do sophisticated senior projects. They can then go off to jobs in corporations, medical research, and research in graduate school. This sets Purchase aside from a “normal” biology class and our senior thesis students are on the level of a master’s thesis.

Excerpt From Actual Syllabus

Professor Factor’s syllabus includes four units. Here are two:

Unit I: Introduction to Science and Scientific Methods

• Steps of the scientific method; controlled experiments; alternative approaches to doing science; reductionist vs. synthetic (holistic) approaches

• The flow discovery, levels of certainty, scientific truth

• Hypothesis; theory; model; law of nature; paradigm

• Developing of an experimental plan; hypotheses; experimental design; controlled experiments; measurements; collecting and recording data; analysis of data; presenting data in graphs; drawing conclusions

Some Jan Factor Publications

Factor, J. R., Editor. 1995. Biology of the Lobster Homarus ameri-canus. 528 pp. Academic Press, San Diego. ISBN 0-12-247570-4.

Factor, J. R., K. Orban,* D. H. Szarowski, G. Lin, T. LaRocca,* A. Becker,* and K. Jacoff-Kapusta.* 2005. A method for assessing removal of foreign particles from the blood by fixed phagocytes of the lobster, Homarus americanus. Journal of Shellfish Research, 24: 713-717.

Castro, K. M., J. R. Factor, T. A. Angell, and D. F. Landers, Jr. 2006. A model of lobster disease: The conceptual approach to shell dis-ease revisited. Journal of Crustacean Biology, 26(4): 646–660.

Factor, J. R., V. Parente,* C. Santiago,* D. Rampersad,* D. Meyer,* and B. Byrnes.* 2007. Occurrence and distribution of cyclio-phorans on the American lobster, Homarus americanus. (Paper presented at the Eighth International Conference and Workshop on Lobster Biology and Management, Prince Edward Island, Canada, Sept. 23–28, 2007.)

* indicates Purchase student co-authors

A Former Student

This beautiful watercolor on my wall right here behind me was made by one of my former students, Liz Bryant. She did a wonderful project on electron microscopy of the digestive gland in lobsters using transmission elec-tron microscopy. After her project was finished, she gave this to me [points admiringly to it on the wall]. It has all of the crustaceans I’ve worked on in my research: American lobster, green crab, blue crab, stone crab. It was a terrific gift and I hung it on the wall immediate-ly. Liz went off to an M.D./Ph.D. program at a medical school in Chicago, and she became a pathologist.

And she did her senior project on lobsters!

List of Speakers

• Andrew Revkin, environmental reporter, the New York Times

“The Hot Seat: Making Sense of Global Warming, from the North Pole to the White House”

• David Ehrenfeld, Rutgers University

“Truth and Fiction in Modern Science—How Dishonesty Damages Our Health and Environment”

• Trevor Corson, author and journalist

“Sexy Lobster, Succulent Sushi: How We Can Save the Seas with Good Eating!”

Student Presentations

In addition, students research a topic through authoritative sources, then put together a PowerPoint presentation and teach the class, becoming experts in the process.

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“Everybody wants to know about their marketability.”

With that phrase, Purchase’s Career Development Director, Wendy Morosoff, best summed up the recurring theme in this year’s surge of alumni requests for career counseling—a theme no less present at the February alumni networking event in White Plains, New York. For the first time, the Alumni Office and the Career Development Center joined forces in an off-campus event at Pizzeria UNO Chicago Bar & Grill in White Plains, with the generous sponsorship of the Purchase College Association. The event combined the social and spontaneous networking aspects of an alumni get-together with the job-searching focus, tips, and resources of a Career Development event.

The combination was a winning one.

“The alumni were enthusiastic and appreciative,” says Tara Malone, the Career Center’s assistant director of internship/diversity programs who along with Jessica Mazzia, the Center’s assistant director of employer and technology services, joined Wendy Morosoff in offering one-on-one consultations to alumni at the event. “The alumni networked with us,” explains Tara,

“but then they went off on their own and networking was occur-ring instantly, without us guiding it. I think it was a comfortable environment for them. The event seemed to naturally flow.”

The environment was made particularly comfortable by the two gracious hosts, the husband-and-wife owners of Pizzeria UNO, who are themselves alumni: Pat Shanahan Keenan ’75 and Gregory Keenan ’76. Both acting majors turned successful entrepreneurs, Pat and Greg reserved a special section of the restaurant that included the bar area and several tables for the event, turned off the music for Wendy’s, Tara’s, and Jessica’s

speeches, and were generously accommodating. They mingled with the other alumni and served as a source of encouragement. In Wendy’s words: “It was great to hear the success stories at the event, to see that the alumni who are working were there to possibly help alumni who aren’t, and spread a little inspiration.” Tara concurs: “As a result of the event, one person contacted us back to join the mentoring network, another contacted us to post job positions, someone was open to hiring interns, others wanted to participate in panels. It’s great to see that the suc-cess stories are so willing to give back; that’s much needed. Especially now.”

Most of the 25 alumni in attendance had either recently gotten laid off or were looking for a career change. “One had a temp position, another was a part-time working mom looking to return to work full time, so the alumni were in various life situa-tions,” says Tara. “But all of them were actively looking, either for employment or for their next career move.”

One of the issues many alumni seem to be grappling with these days is the lack of response to their resumes. “Five years ago, they might have sent out resumes with no problem because the job market was better,” explains Wendy. “Now there’s a lot of competition, so it’s harder, particularly for people on the middle-manager level, and also for people 5 to 10 years out.”

Self-employed alumna Robin Kaplan Messer ’76 (graphic arts), does contractual work, graphic design, promotional merchan-dise, and art-production sales. Her interest in attending the White Plains event was sparked by the prospect of making new contacts. She says: “As a Purchase +30-er [a term for alumni who graduated 30 years or more ago], I gave some new gradu-ates my advice. They listened and thought it useful.”

Ramat De-Leon Nwaha ’06 (liberal studies) came to the event in search of employment opportunities. Currently unemployed, he had volunteered for a legal services firm, and is now looking

JOInInG FORCeS:

a first-time off campus joint event combines alumni socializing and networking with career tips and resources, under one timely theme: Job Searching in a challenging Job market.

The Alumni Association and Career Development Center

By Maria-Cristina Necula ’97

TRACY FITZPATRICK C O N T I N U E D

Sample Assignment

Exhibition Design Writing Assignment: Observe a temporary exhibition (special or permanent collection) at a museum for one hour and write a 600-word summary of the experience:

• How do people move through the exhibition?

• What patterns of behavior did you notice?

• Did people organize themselves into groups?

• Did people read texts and signs and how (at what point during looking at the show did they read)?

• Did the space dictate movement?

• What questions about space and exhibition features arise?

Excerpts from Actual Syllabus

1/29 Roles for the Museum in Contemporary Society

Guest Speaker: Thom Collins, Neuberger Director Readings: ▪Thom Collins, Introduction to Somewhere Better Than This Place: Alternative Social Experience in the Spaces of Contemporary Art, Contemporary Arts Center, 2003

2/5 All Students: exhibitions writing Assignment Due

Distribution of topics; Discussion of Exhibitions Purpose and Process

Readings: ▪Svetlana Alpers, “The Museum as a Way of Seeing,” in Exhibiting Cultures, ed. Ivan Karp and Stephen D. Lavine, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991

▪Peter Vergo, “The Reticent Object,” in The New Museology, ed. Peter Vergo, 1992

▪David Dean, “Introduction,” “The Exhibition Development Process,” “Exhibition Administration,” “Exhibition Evaluation,” and “Storyline and Text Development,” in Museum Exhibition: Theory and Practice, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996

2/12 Guest Speaker: Pat Magnani, neuberger Registrar

Readings: ▪Rebecca Buck, “Collection Roles,” in The New Museum Registration Methods, ed. Buck and Jean Allman Gilmore, American Association of Museums, 1998

▪Steven Weintraub, “Creating and Maintaining the Right Environment,” in Caring For Your Collections, National Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Property, 1992

▪David Dean, “Controlling the Exhibitions Environment,” in Museum Exhibition

▪Stephen A Horne, Way to Go: Crating Artwork for Travel! Gallery Association of New York State, Hamilton, NY, 1985

Partial Museum Studies Reading List

• Nick Merriman, “Museum Visiting as Cultural Phenomenon,” in The New Museology.

• Stephen Weil, “The Museum and the Public,” in Making Museums Matter.

• Carol Duncan and Alan Wallach, “The Universal Survey Museum,” Art History (December 1980): 448-69, reprinted in Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts.

• Alan Wallach, “Long-Term Visions, Short-Term Failures: Art Institutions in the United States, 1800-1860,” in Exhibiting Contradictions: Essays on the Art Museum in the United States.

• Vera L. Zolberg, “Art Museums and Living Artists: Contentious Communities,” in Museums and Communities: The Politics of Public Culture.

Recent Tracy Fitzpatrick Publications

Art and the Subway: New York Underground (in bookstores May 2009)

Hannah Wilke: Gestures (exhibition catalogue, June 2009)

“Ellen Day Hale: Painting the Self, Fashioning Identity” (article to publish in Women’s Art Journal, fall 2009)

“As a professor, Tracy Fitzpatrick is articulate, well prepared, and committed to helping her students achieve success. Assigning relevant readings and challenging projects, she provides useful feedback and invites students to meet with her for further development of their ideas. I was both her student and teaching assistant, so I was amazed at the way Tracy encouraged all students to share their insights and interpretations of the art, whether in an intimate room of 11 graduate students or an Intro to Art History class of 120 underclassmen. I graduated with my M.A. this past January 2009 and am grateful that Tracy continues to contact me with opportunities she thinks will suit me.”

—Camilla Cook, former student

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to channel his experience into an actual job. He says the event helped him meet new people and network. Fellow Liberal Studies alumna, Amanda Ramharack ’07, agrees, adding: “The pamphlets from Career Development were helpful with [employ-ment] websites and tips.” Having worked at Central Irrigation Supply in Accounts Payable/Inventory Control, Amanda was unemployed at the time of the event. Her recommendation for useful future events: a job fair for alumni.

Bob Kahan ’79 (Sociology) a former Event Coordinator/Editor and currently unemployed, believes that joint Alumni /Career Development events have great potential. “The Career Development staff has a sense of what’s been going on with other Purchase people. And Purchase people tend to be an odd bunch in terms of employability, having wide-ranging and varied experience levels. Everyone’s experience is a valuable tool that you can learn from,” says Bob. “In this market, employers are very reticent to make a commitment, so it’s important to throw as many balls in the air as possible.” Bob would love to attend a job fair for alumni.

The establishment of the Purchase College Alumni Association groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, and MyWorkster—consisting of 635, 421, and 287 alumni members respectively (as of March 2009)—has been a significant step in developing a Purchase alumni worldwide network. President of the Alumni Association, Jeffrey Putman ’96, says: “In launching these groups, the Alumni Association looked to the sites—Facebook and LinkedIn—where alumni were already connecting on their own or as part of other Purchase-related groups. We’re striving to establish a central networking place for all alumni.”

By looking at the various professions of the group members, the vast potential of the Purchase Alumni network becomes increasingly obvious. The Purchase alumni community is an international community of individuals of various skills, from diverse professional/occupational backgrounds. The more alum-ni join these groups, the greater the opportunities to connect possible employers to employees. Alumni members of both the LinkedIn and Facebook groups have only recently started to become more active in discussions and postings, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. There is an untapped potential of connections and resources among our alumni population. “We ask you to take that step, join our social and networking sites, and help us help you network,” says Jeffrey.

The numbers of alumni who have joined the Purchase College Alumni Association groups on Facebook and LinkedIn may appear minuscule, taking into account that the Purchase alumni population counts over 15,000. However, membership is steadi-ly, if slowly, growing, and the connections are starting to pro-vide small opportunities to alumni.

But as the prominent orator of ancient Athens, Demosthenes, declared: “Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.”

dear Fellow Purchase Alumni,The current state of the economy and the continuing recession have left many more questions than answers. The country’s financial situation—and certainly that of New York State—continues to be tenuous at best. Purchase College has not been immune, especially to the situation as it has unfolded in Albany. Closer to home, the College has faced a state budget cut of at least 12 percent. President Thomas Schwarz and his team, through sound and careful financial planning and making some hard choices, have continued to move forward to provide the distinctive and well-rounded education that we all enjoyed during our time at Purchase. The College is actively engaged in the development of a Strategic Plan mapping a course for the next five years.

In a recent campus-wide e-mail, President Schwarz stated, “We are a strong and caring community with a distinctive mission. While these are the most challenging financial times for our State in recent decades, we rely on our strength as a community focused on the future.”

Like the College, you and I and all of our fellow alumni have been making those tough choices in our personal lives. Some of us have had a loss of income; others have lost or been unable to find employment as workforces have shrunk or been eliminated in almost all sectors of our economy. We are asking tough questions about redefining necessity ver-sus luxury items, trying to save money, and deciding the kind of support we can provide to our favorite charities and causes.

Collectively, alumni play a very important role in maintaining Purchase College’s momentum. The Alumni Association is working to keep you and all our constituents engaged and energized, as the College continues to strive for excellence in both the traditional liberal arts and sciences pro-grams and the conservatory-based arts programs.

Are you interested in being part of the solution? Membership in the Alumni Association is automatic (and more important, it is free). Attend Purchase-sponsored events both in Purchase and New York City, as well as in other locations, and get reconnected. If you are so inclined, please consider making a philanthropic gift to a the Purchase College Annual Fund to support scholarships for students at Purchase now.

The College recently held a number of events for alumni from the 1970s entitled “Purchase Plus 30,” organized by Bob Kahan ’79, with Cristina Necula ’97, the College’s director of alumni affairs. We have also launched the “GOLD” (Graduates of the Last Decade) group with the goal of holding events focused on alumni from the last decade. In both cases, funds were raised and set aside to recognize contributions from these groups. These funds are going directly to support the “Purchase Plus 30 Scholarship” and the “GOLD Scholarship,” which will provide direct sup-port to students in need who are attending the College.

Working collaboratively through the Office of Career Development, we held our first alumni networking reception to help connect alumni who might be out of work or looking to advance their careers to Career Development, and to employers. In addition, a reunion of alumni from the 1990s and 1980s are also in the works and we urge you to stay in touch with the College and your fellow alumni.

These times do indeed call for vigorous and unqualified support for our alma mater; please join me in our common plan for action. Join us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=6077034818), MySpace (www.myspace.com/purchasealumni), LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/e/gis/132024), or Twitter (http://twitter.com/purchasealumni). Visit our web site at www.purchase.edu/alumni.

Of course, you can always call the alumni office at (914) 251-6054 or even snail-mail us (Purchase College Alumni Association, c/o Purchase College, SUNY, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY 10577-1400).

As alumni and friends of Purchase, you have a place on our team as we join with the administration, faculty, staff, and current students of Purchase to continue the efforts to build a better College. Help lead the charge as a donor, or become a part of our team through scholarship support, volunteerism, and active participation in campus and alumni life. Please stay in touch by sending professional and personal news for Class Notes, as well as updated addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses, to alumni@purchase.edu.

Do you have any suggestions for how we can better connect with your fellow alumni? Let us know. I look forward to hearing from you and am honored to serve as your president.

Jeffrey S. Putman ’96 President, Purchase College Alumni Association, Inc.jeffrey.putman@purchase.edu

1973marc Blatte’s (philosophy) novel Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed was published by Schaffner Press. Referred to as “the first truly wonderful hip-hop noir yet,” the book is avail-able at B&N, Powell’s, Amazon, and IPG —www.ipgbook.com.

eileen York clawson (literature) has been working in publishing since her graduation, doing everything from running a freelance typesetting business when her two girls were young to working for local print shops and corporate publish-ing companies. Now she’s back to freelanc-ing as a copyeditor and project manager; she is remarried, with two stepchildren. After years of campaigning for grandchildren, she finally got her wish! Her daughter Morgan and her son-in-law Eric pre-sented her with a beautiful grandson, Dean, on September 13, 2008. And now, with the recent election, her world is complete.

1974glenda Davenport (psychology) is back at Purchase! In August, 2007, she accepted the position of administrative assistant to the Purchase chapter of the United University Professions (UUP), the union supporting faculty and staff. Her office is located in the Natural Sciences building, and she says: “I feel like I’ve come full circle!” Glenda continues to pursue her music career as a jazz vocalist per-forming regularly throughout the tri-state area. Her first CD, Sophisticated Lady, is available at: http://cdbaby.com/cd/glendadavenport. Her second CD, entitled More Than You Know, will be released this spring. Glenda can be reached at glenjdiva@aol.com.

1975Daniel rosenberg (history) has published a new book, Underground Communists in the McCarthy Period: A Family Memoir (Edwin Mellen Press, 2008). His publications include Racism, Dissent, and Asian Americans: From 1850 to the Present (Greenwood, 1993) and New Orleans Dockworkers: Race, Labor, and Unionism, 1892-1923 (SUNY Press, 1988). He teaches history and directs the General Studies Program at Adelphi University. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and evolving children. rosenber@adelphi.edu.

1976gorman John ruggiero (acting) is currently founder and executive director of World Theatre of Children in Newtown, PA, where child actors are taught professional acting

technique and perform plays at local venues. In addition to World Theatre of Children, Gorman has developed Basic Communications Skills programs at Delaware Valley Children’s Center and the Philadelphia Mental Health Clinic’s Northeast Division, as well as many public schools and colleges.

Through Purchase, Gorman is also working at King Street Elementary School in Portchester, N.Y., teaching communication skills to high-functioning Asperger’s disorder children. Purchase psychology majors are working as interns with Ruggiero teaching the Dynamic Interactive Technique.® He has just contracted with the Clara Barton Elementary School near Philadelphia to produce the same program. The culmination of their work is presented with short performances of folktales, myths, and fables that impart valuable life values to chil-dren. The program provides arts and psychol-ogy students with an applied experience while engaging them in a service learning project that benefits autistic children in the local community.

In addition, Gorman recently opened Painted Pony Ranch Productions, a professional the-atre company that operates in summers and is based in Upstate New York.

1981Pedro de alcantara (music) is having a banner year. Last spring, Oxford University Press named him editor of a book series, The Integrated Musician, for which he’s slated to prepare several volumes. Yale School of Music, where Pedro pursued his master’s degree, gave him a generous grant to develop a dedi-cated website, with audio and video files that will support The Integrated Musician. Pedro’s second novel for young readers, Backtracked, is being published by Delacorte Press (an imprint of Random House); his third novel is already under contract at Delacorte. Pedro lives in Paris, France, and continues to travel the world teaching classes and seminars. Recent destinations have included Düsseldorf, Pamplona, New York, Minneapolis, and Denver.

1983Jeremy Swerling (music) is the senior vice president of Cala Records—a London-based independent classical recording label—where he manages all phases of Cala Records, including sales, finance, marketing, and pro-duction of over 100 titles. In addition to his position with Cala, Maestro Swerling is the music director of the North East Texas Symphony, which he joined in 1998. He main-tains an active international conducting career having led orchestras such as the Janacek and Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestras in the Czech Republic, Indianapolis Symphony, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Sacramento Symphony, Arkansas Symphony, North East Texas Symphony, Lafayette Symphony (IN), Danville Symphony (IL), and Bloomington

Symphony (IN). He is also the executive direc-tor of the Inter-Atlantic Music Foundation—www.iamf.org. Mr. Swerling resides in Baltimore, MD, with his family.

1984linus coraggio (visual arts) is making metal sculpture and one-of-a-kind furniture and objects for the home in NYC and Bushwick, Brooklyn. His 2007 one-man show of over 200 works at Michael Steinberg Gallery garnered reviews in Art News, the Village Voice, and the New York Times. Linus has also done a 20-page woodcut book of images of his abstract sculptures dedicated to Antonio (“oh too much ink”) Frasconi and “to artists who see their 3-D work from a specific view or van-tage point and seek to capture and expose that perspective to themselves and others.” The book recently debuted at the Artist Book Fair in Chelsea. Linus is about to embark for Russia to do a 25-years-in-the-making large-scale anti-war sculpture. “The idea is to weld 5 Russian army tanks and several spent nuclear missiles into an arty configuration that renders them more useless as weapons and elevates them into works of art for public viewing,” says Coraggio. This antiwar concept came to him originally in the woods behind the art building where he lived in a yurt for two years as a per-formance piece for an independent-study proj-ect with Tal Streeter. Check out his site: www.linuscoraggio.com.

1986Ursula roma (visual arts) is a fine artist, illus-trator, and sculptor. She has her own business, Little Bear Graphics, where she does commis-sioned work for local and national clients in various mediums including acrylic, oil, and watercolor painting, collage, and pen and ink. She has also been creating found-object art for 12 years. Her portfolios can be viewed at www.ursularoma.blogspot.com and www.ursu-laroma.com.

1993Jenifer Vogt (art history) founded the Creative Compendium, a global public relations and marketing firm whose clients reflect the belief in an interconnected world where people can, and do, positively affect each other’s lives.

1994Jen Blazina’s (visual arts) work has recently been on exhibit at the Kala Institute of Art in Berkeley, CA, the Bahdee Bahdu Gallery in Philadelphia, PA, Pictura Dordrecht in the Netherlands, Morgan Contemporary Glass in Pittsburgh, and Silica Galleries in Philadelphia, featuring new works on glass panels as well as a collection of glass purses. Her studio is located in Philadelphia, PA. Visit www.jenblazina.com.

ALUMNI in Action

PURCHASE | 19PURCHASE | 18

Eileen York Clawson with grandson Dean.

1996Stephanie Silber (literature) is proud-ly celebrating the tenth year of Home Team Productions (www.hometeam-productions.tv), along with her hus-band/partner, Vic Zimet. The team has been producing and directing award-winning documentary films, television, and not-for-broadcast projects since 1999. In January they released a short documentary for the Asia Society, Expanding Horizons, which addresses the importance of incorporating global literacy into U.S. after-school and summer programs—www.AsiaSociety.org/AFTERSCHOOL. Black 47 at Connoly’s and Random Lunacy continue to travel on the festival circuit. One of twelve films selected to be part of the NEA-funded Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers, Random Lunacy will screen in eight states in March. www.pop-paneutrino.com

1997Franklyn a. Strachan’s (design tech) film Last Night in Brooklyn is slated for release on August 1, 2009, and it features several Purchase alumni, including andrea argiro (music ’04), Benjamin Bauman (drama stud-ies ’97), Bristol Pomeroy (acting ’97), Kelli o’toole Patterson (design tech ’03), and matt Dacey (design tech ’98). Find out more at: www.imdb.com/title/tt1331106/.

2000Stephanie leon-Santiago (language & culture) is currently a marketing manager for a com-pany called GLM, a dmg World Media busi-ness. Based in White Plains, the company is the largest producer and marketer of consum-er product trade shows in North America. Her role is to develop and promote marketing materials for exhibitors to enhance show par-ticipation and to develop and organize exhibi-tor sponsorship packages. She continues to live in White Plains and she is married to fel-low alum anthony Santiago (liberal arts ’00). They have a beautiful two-year-old daughter, Sienna Rose.

2002Samara l. Basilone (psychology) has received a promotion as the program manager for the Suffolk County Supported Housing program for Federation of Organizations in September 2008. She received her master’s in mental health counseling in the summer of 2007 and is currently pursuing her MHC license.

Kevin Doyle (drama studies) and his Brooklyn-based theater company Sponsored by Nobody—www.sponsoredbynobody.com—presented the world premiere of W.M.D. (just the low points) at the Vooruit Arts Centre in Ghent, Belgium. This critical American-Iraqi dialogue was a fitting collaboration to present at an international arts festival with the theme The Game Is Up! How to Save the World in Ten Days. The company also took the show to Amsterdam at the De Balie Centre for Culture and Politics.

2004Jonathan cristaldi (drama studies) works out of his apartment in Williamsburg. While at Purchase, he performed regularly as the famed Jonny Cigar. After graduation, he per-formed solo, but then decided to build an ensemble. Today, there are 5–8 rotating actors in Jonny Cigar productions, and the productions have become full-scale spectacles with professional collaborations with popular dance choreographers, video-installation art-ists, musicians, and underground supper clubs. See what is up and coming at www.jonnycigar.com. Jonny also has a weekly radio segment called An Uphill Battle. Visit www.jonnycigar.tumblr.com.

anna Darr (political science) credits Professor Peter Schwab, her senior project advisor, and Professor Connie Lobur as crucial contribu-tors to making her Purchase experience very rewarding. Anna is now in her last semester at Southwestern University of Law. In August 2008 she married Jonathan Darr, who owns a catering company called Love Catering.

2005Siobhan cole (history) joined White and Williams, LLP as an associate in the commer-cial litigation department and will work in the Philadelphia office. After graduating summa cum laude from Purchase, she received her Juris Doctor in 2008 from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. She is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. While in law school, Siobhan was an editor and executive board member of the Journal of Business Law. Originally from Red Bank, NJ, Siobhan currently resides in Philadelphia.

allison esposito (journalism) toured interna-tionally and nationally as the drummer of her band, The Vibration. In December 2008, she graduated with an M.A. in interactive media and urban affairs from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

(L to R) Purchase College Career Center’s Tara Malone, assistant director of internships/diversity programs; Wendy Morosoff, director; Cristina Necula ’97, director of alumni affairs; and UNO owners Pat Shanahan Keenan ’75 and Greg Keenan ’76.

engagementS:

elizabeth nieves (drama studies ’97) and David Burke (design tech ’98) are engaged! They met in 1995 at Purchase. They began dating after many years of friendship and are now getting married this summer. They are excited to be able to share the big day with their friends from Purchase who will be at the wedding. Cha Cha Crew and J51!

WeDDIngS:

Samara l. Punicki (psychology ’02) married Christopher Basilone on October 18, 2008.

BIrthS:

morgan Selkirk (media, society & the arts ’05) and husband Jack welcomed their son, Jack Bradley Selkirk Jr., on October 22, 2008.

In memorIam:

rachel Forsen Bulger (culture & society ’85), wife of James C. Bulger of Mamaroneck, NY, and daughter of George and Esther Forsen of Potomac, MD, died on January 6, 2001, after a long and coura-geous battle fighting cancer. She was 38. From the time she was born in Palo Alto, CA, until her death at Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center, Rachel brought light and happiness into the lives of people she touched. Her professional life took her from a modeling career to the position of patron guild administrator for the New York City Ballet, and culminated with her appointment as development director at the Rye NY Arts Center. She is survived by her husband, her parents, her brother, Richard Forsen, and her grandmother, Mrs. Beryl Forsen.

Stephanie Silber Zimet and husband Victor

PURCHASE | 20

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Our students are eager to pursue their academic and artistic goals as they engage in the wonderful learning opportunities at Purchase and work toward their degrees. However, economic realities have become a concern for many students, as the prolonged recession and recent State University of New York tuition increases have made affording an education more difficult. Already, 76% of our students receive some form of financial aid and there are many students who may be unable to return in the fall without additional financial assistance. This past year, the Annual Fund provided over 69 scholarships to deserving students with exciting plans for the future. We want to help even more students next year.

Our students are depending on the generosity of all of us to make the opportunity of a Purchase education a reality. In the current economic environment, it is more important than ever that we all work together to strengthen Purchase College. I hope you will consider a gift to the Purchase College Foundation for the Annual Fund. A gift of any size will be appreciated and will be so helpful in providing critical scholarship funds for students in need, and maintaining the superior academic programs that are a vital part of the Purchase experience.

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