EmpireEmpire StateState CollegeCollege ALUMNIALUMNI AND AND STUDENT STUDENT NEWS NEWS VOLUMEVOLUME 3030 •• NUMBERNUMBER 22 •• SPRINGSPRING 20052005

ALUMNI MAKING THEIR MARK Their Passion, Their Vision, Their Lives

DONORS REPORT ALUMNI TRAVEL PROGRAM Empire State College ALUMNI AND STUDENT NEWS Contents VOLUME 30 • NUMBER 2 • SPRING 2005 ¥¥Joseph Moore President Kirk Starczewski FEATURES Director of College Relations Upfront ...... 1 Publisher [email protected] Poet Alice Fulton ...... 3 Maureen Winney Director of Alumni and Student Relations Jazz Musician Kenny Barron ...... 4 Managing Editor Vocalist Laurel Massé ...... 4 [email protected] Hope Ferguson Journalist, Documentary Photographer Lorna Tychostup . . . . . 5 Community Relations Associate Editor PR Practitioner Rose-Marie Armstrong ...... 6 [email protected] Gael Fischer Journalist, Original Anchor of CNN Bill Zimmerman ...... 6 Director of Publications/Designer Author, Journalist Deborah Gregory ...... 7 Debra Park Secretary, Office of College Relations University of Buffalo Basketball Coach Reggie Witherspoon . . . 8 Alumni News and Copy Editor Dancer, Journalist, Editor Wendy Perron ...... 8 CONTRIBUTORS President and COO Richard Sager ...... 9 Janet Aiello-Cerio Alumni and Student Relations President and CEO Brenda Copeland ...... 10 Kim Berry Director of Gift Planning/ President and CEO Carol Evans ...... 11 Campaign Coordinator Company President and CEO Christopher Calisi ...... 11 Jeremy Jones Executive Director, Cover Story: Entrepreneur, Inventor and CEO Clifford Gross . 12 Empire State College Foundation Renelle Shampeny Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs, Director of Marketing Department of Defense Daniel Stanley ...... 14 WRITERS Assemblyman Mark J. Schroeder ...... 15 Hope Ferguson Civil Rights Attorney Helen Ullrich ...... 16 Laura Arpey

U.S. Representative Ginny Brown-Waite ...... 17 PHOTOGRAPHY Assemblyman Gary Finch ...... 18 Mel Rosenthal Member of House of Commons, Canada, Walt Lastewka . . . . 18 Beatriz Schiller and Len Irish, courtesy of Dance Magazine Assemblyman Luis M. Diaz ...... 19 Tom Bushey, courtesy of Director, New York State Emergency Management Office The Times Herald-Record James Tuffey ...... 19 All other photos courtesy of our alumni Infant Development Expert, Philanthropist Susan Turben . . . . 20 PRODUCTION Activist Marcia Pappas ...... 21 Jerry Cronin Director of Management Service Assemblyman and Labor Leader Brian M. McLaughlin ...... 22 Ron Kosiba Print Shop Supervisor Community Activist, City Council Member Gladys Santiago . . 22 Janet Jones President, Communications Workers of America Morton Bahr 23 Keyboard Specialist College Print Shop President of the New York State AFL-CIO Denis Hughes . . . . . 24 Central Services

Empire State College Alumni and Student News is published by the Office of College Relations at INSIDE NEW - Travel Abroad Program: Visit Vienna and Prague Empire State College BACK ✈ One Union Avenue COVER Saratoga Springs, NY 12866-4391 Empire State College DAY AT THE RACES 518 587-2100 ext. 250 • www.esc.edu UPFRONT UPFRONT Past the Headline By Melba Tolliver ’98

he function of any great news headline is to make readers, listeners and viewers sit up and take notice. And you might say T that the notable women and men we celebrate in this issue of our alumni and student news magazine serve that same purpose. They are our headliners, our bold face names; their biographies and achievements pique our interest just enough to keep us reading on.

Representing various years in the college’s extraordinary lifetime, they were selected by the faculty, staff and friends. And as you read through the list you’ll see that their accomplishments are wide-ranging – in the arts, politics and law, public and community service, journalism, sports, business and technology, education and labor. Past the headline and within the details of individual successes, is the Empire State College story. Melba Tolliver Like the old notion of the world in a grain of sand, each of our notables is

UPFRONT Empire State College. And that’s also true about the rest of us. UPFRONT

Don’t be surprised to find that you know some of the notables personally. Because if one thing can be said about our headliners it is that they are not strangers to us. Not distant celebrities or people famous for being famous. Some on the list may have graduated from your center. Maybe one of them introduced you to the college. Perhaps you shared a mentor with one or more of them. Or were enrolled in the same study group. It could be that someone on the list is your neighbor or your best friend. For me, two names stand out. I co- anchored the news with one. And another was the first person to tell me about Empire State College. Our conversation stayed in the back of my mind for nearly three decades before I enrolled and got to work on completing my degree. I still marvel at how my mentor managed to match me up with just the right faculty member and study group for each of my courses.

Something else about our notables, they – like most of us – set aside their formal education for one reason or another, then at some point down the road, circled back to pick it up again, seeking the best of public institutions for adult learners, and continued on their journeys. Our notables continue to demonstrate the possibilities and the value of adult education even as they go about distinguishing themselves in their diverse communities of interest.

When a law professor, who also is an Empire State College alumna, brings her unique learning experience to her teaching, her students – whether they know it or not – are getting a lesson in quality adult education and the commitment an individual has made to obtain it. And if word gets around that the CEO of a leading technology company is an Empire State College graduate … well it’s no surprise if people who know him begin wanting to know more about how he juggled work, family, social and civic responsibilities while completing an undergraduate degree at one of the first and most successful experiments ever in adult education.

(continued on page 2)

EMPIRE 1 Notice as you read through the list how consulting, the acknowledging, the Past the Headline far back it goes – 1972, the year one of smoothing over, the appreciating, the over- our notables was among the college’s first coming – all in the service of making (continued from page 1) three graduates. From then until now the student-centered, mentor-supported, The planning, success stories have grown as steadily as faculty-guided, curriculum-appropriate, “ the ranks of alumni and students. But technologically-advanced, outside-the-box the prodding, again, that’s the headline. The full story learning opportunities available for educa- lies in the life details, in the hows and tion-seeking adults. Whew! And all of this the strategizing, whys of the individual challenges met by even as state tax support for the college is the deliberating, our 45,000 alumni and our nearly 16,000 declining and costs to keep it going – currently enrolled students. What’s more, including tuition – keep rising. the fund raising, we can’t overstate the importance of what one of the college’s most generous donors So, you see why your financial support is the prioritizing, says is the “vision” of those who have vital to the vision. And, deeply appreci- the persuading, kept the college focused on the students ated. Why all of us who can claim an and on the ever-evolving future. Empire State College experience must the site-selecting, pass it on. Share it; make it accessible I confess that it was only after I joined the to all motivated adult learners while we the bookkeeping, foundation board three years ago that I continue writing the story that supports the advocating, began to appreciate the magnitude of the the headlines. “vision” – that is to say the power of the socializing, imagination – that created Empire State Please, read on. And do take us up on the College and that keeps it going. The invitation to keep us informed of your the appointing, planning, the prodding, the strategizing, achievements and activities. the inviting, the deliberating, the fund raising, the prioritizing, the persuading, the site- Melba Tolliver ’98, is an award-winning the budgeting, selecting, the bookkeeping, the advocating, journalist who has anchored ABC’s the socializing, the appointing, the inviting, Eyewitness News in NYC, News 12 Long the explaining, the budgeting, the explaining, the Island, and has written for print media, the investing, investing, the conferencing, the awarding, including USA Today. the upgrading, the expanding, the the conferencing, the awarding, the upgrading, the expanding, the consulting, the acknowledging, the smoothing over, the appreciating, the overcoming – all in the service of making student-centered, mentor-supported, faculty-guided, curriculum-appropriate, technologically-advanced, President Moore greets a new graduate. outside-the-box learning opportunities available for education-seeking adults.”

2 EMPIRE at a concurrent session after her reading. Dickinson, her favorite poet, is, she explained, “difficult, but straightforward. The depth of emotion appeals to me. I started reading her in grade school. Much of her life was depressed and lonely; so she spoke to what I was going Poet through. I have a real affinity with the fact that she lived in such solitude, and I am very solitary. I need time to

Alice Fulton ’78 MEL ROSENTHAL be alone to think.” It is Dickinson’s “complexities of syntax … the way Northeast Center that she uses silence and deletions, that I really like,” she added. hen she attended Empire her latest, Cascade Experiment (W.W. As for Fulton, she composes in an State College in her early Norton, 2004), a compilation of orderly sequence, she said, writing, W 20s, poet and “genius selected poems from her previous five and then polishing a poem line by award” winner Alice Fulton ’78, was books. The Atlantic Monthly notes line. “I used to never revise,” she that Cascade Experiment “amply already recognized by her peers and admitted, “so it was hard for me to demonstrates not only Fulton’s broad professors as something more than a teach my students how to revise. My range of interests, but also her student poet. Younger at 22 than process was very linear – line 1, line continual and evolving sense of how most Empire State College students 2, line 3, they were all finished before to use the seemingly most insignifi- when she enrolled, she calls her years I went on.” Lately, she said, her at the college “the happiest and most cant details to illuminate the nuances of difficult moral ideas.” Felt, process is more like doing collage. creative years of my life.” published in 2001 (W.W. Norton), Fulton, who has been a recipient She has been prolifically creative in was lauded as one of the “Best Books of a John D. and Catherine T. the decades since her graduation. Her of 2001,” by the Los Angeles Times, MacArthur Foundation Fellowship work has appeared in such places as as well as being recognized with the (popularly known as the genius The New Yorker, The Atlantic 2002 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt award), was also given an honorary Monthly, The Paris Review, New National Prize for Poetry from the degree from the State University Republic, and in six editions of The Library of Congress, given on behalf of New York during an Empire Best American Poetry Series. of the nation in recognition of the State College graduation ceremony Although she only wrote her first most distinguished book of poetry in 1994. serious poem while studying women written by an American during the Fulton is now working on a short poets at the college, she went on to preceding two years. fiction collection, and also will soon publish in a number of small journals Fulton read a “memoir in poems” publish a new book of poems, with names like the Washout Review at Empire State College’s 2005 All although she has yet to write most before graduation. College Conference. Accompanied by of them, she said. However, she has Today, the Cornell professor of her husband, Hank De Leo, Fulton, a a comfortable relationship with her English and Troy native is described tiny woman with a cascade of editor at Norton, and is not forced as one of the finest poets of her reddish-brown hair and dressed to meet contract deadlines or shop generation. Her literary efforts simply in a pale beige linen pant suit, new books around to various include award-winning short stories shared her love of Dickinson, publishers. Instead, “I’ll say to my and an ever-growing roster of Whitman and Ammons (as well as editor, I think I have a book, and acclaimed books of poetry, including her reasons for being a vegetarian) she’ll say, that’s wonderful!” ❏

EMPIRE 3 enny Barron has been named “one of the top jazz pianists in the world” by the Los Angeles Times and K “the most lyrical piano player of our time” by Jazz Weekly. With five Grammy nominations to his name, he has consistently won plaudits and awards from such arbiters of the style as Downbeat, JazzTimes and the Jazz Journalists Association, who has named him best pianist every year since 1997. A Philadelphia native, Barron has been playing the piano since the age of 12. He received international attention while touring with the Dizzy Gillespie group, which then led to working with jazz musicians such as Freddie Hubbard, Buddy Rich, Yusef Lateef and Ron Carter. Throughout the ’80s, Barron toured with Stan Getz, and he remains in demand as a pianist by musicians who appreciate his “elegant playing.” Barron developed an interest in Latin and Caribbean rhythms while playing with Gillespie, and his latest CD, Canta Brasil, with Trio De Paz, is a reflection of this. According to his web site, Barron was convinced to Jazz Musician return to college by fellow musician Lateef, earning a degree in the arts from Empire State College in 1978. He was a tenured professor of music at Rutgers from 1973 to 2000, Kenny Barron ’78 mentoring such musical luminaries as Terence Blanchard and Regina Bell.

Metropolitan Center PHOTO BY JOHN SANN

tions as The New York Times, People and The Village Voice. After seeing her Vocalist Laurel Massé ’05 perform at the Hollywood Roosevelt, a critic at the Los Angeles Times proclaimed, “she didn’t just sing the Singing with the group from 1972 to Hudson Valley Center songs, she lived them, and in doing so 1979, Massé left to recuperate from she held the audience in such dramatic an automobile accident. After a aurel Massé – co-founder of suspension that they had no choice but sabbatical in the Adirondack the Manhattan Transfer, a jazz to live them with her.” Mountains, she has since L vocal group with a meteoric Today Massé is known gone on to forge a rise in the 1970s, has a voice that has as one of the finest inter- career as a soloist who been called “luminous,” “full-bodied” preters of song of her has performed at and “idiosyncratic” ranging from generation. Performing in well-known venues a “melting tenor sax” to the edge clubs and concert halls such as Carnegie of soprano. nationally and interna- Hall, Salle Pleyel The Holland, Michigan native tionally, she also in Paris, the became the self-described “original hosted The Laurel Smithsonian redhead” in the Grammy-award Massé Show on Institution and winning quartet, when, while working WAMC Northeast the governor’s as a waitress, she by chance got into a Public Radio from mansion in cab driven by musician Tim Hauser, 2002 to 2004, who was looking to start up a vocal Albany. group. With the addition of singers She has (continued Janis Siegel and Alan Paul, the won on page 24) Manhattan Transfer was born, and glowing went on to record a number of reviews Grammy-winning albums and to tour in such nationally and around the globe. publica-

4 EMPIRE Journalist, Documentary Photographer Lorna Tychostup ’99 Hudson Valley Center

orna Tychostup’s hope for peace haunting photographs and poignant Another photograph shows an older has led her to document what she stories enable her audiences to share the man holding his young child while L terms “the most conspicuous tragedy, the struggle and the triumph of displaying a finger stained with the crisis” of our time – war-torn Iraq. the various communities that make up purple ink that shows that he has voted. Tychostup, senior political editor for the Iraqi people. Tychostup brings these images to Chronogram magazine, a progressive The photographs posted on her web colleges and other organizations across publication based in the mid-Hudson site: www.LornaTychostup.com, demon- the U.S., via a Powerpoint presentation Valley, has traveled to Iraq four times – strate this. In a series of photos of a containing over 150 photos titled, once before the war, and finally, last wedding party, the bride, with a shy/ “Looking Into the Eyes of the Enemy – January, where she witnessed the Iraqi proud expression on her face, is shown The War You Won’t See on TV.” As part elections. She continues to chronicle, in in Western dress, as she clutches a of the presentation, Tychostup takes word and image, the people on a journey to Iraq everyday lives of ordinary and attempts to explain the Iraqis in the midst of complexities of life there extraordinary times. today. Her work has appeared Tychostup, who admits she in Foreign Policy, YES!, was against the war, said she Z Magazine, Covert Action has learned that the situation Quarterly, War Times and in Iraq cannot be viewed Major League Baseball through the polarized lens of Magazine. She has been American politics. interviewed frequently, on Tychostup’s reputation is both radio and TV, including built on her ability to report Fox’s Hannity & Colmes and stories that go beyond main- NBC’s Nightly News with stream media coverage. Tom Brokaw. During her trips to Iraq, she Tychostup believes that chose to get as close to the much can be learned from people as possible. Living in the meeting of Iraq and the modest, unprotected hotels Western world. “This coming Lorna Tychostup learning the story of the country firsthand in Iraq. and traveling in beat-up together of cultures can cabs, she found her way contribute to the healing of from the ordinary people in the street, to bouquet of red roses; in another, the the planet, as well as individual lives,” the squatters living in bombed-out, groom beams proudly in the mirror, and she says. “I have fallen in love with a government-owned properties, to high- later, a guest is seen swinging half of his country and its people, and in the ranking state ministers and judges of the body out of a moving vehicle on the way process I am rediscovering my own inno- new Iraq who have chosen to participate to the wedding in an expression of cence. I could not not go back.” ❏ at incredible risk to their lives. Her unadulterated joy.

EMPIRE 5 PR Practitioner Rose-Marie Armstrong ’74

Metropolitan Center

agazine writer, public relations whiz, adver- M tising executive, administrator of a faith-based Journalist, program, Rose-Marie Armstrong has variously worn all of these hats, Original Anchor of CNN but the common thread in her life is that she enjoys doing things to serve others. “Generally, that’s the kind of Bill Zimmerman ’96 person I am,” she explains. A former fashion and beauty Long Island Center editor for Brides and Essence maga- zines, Armstrong has, over the eteran journalist Bill Zimmerman’s illustrious career has taken him across years, contributed to several maga- the United States and around the globe as an ABC bureau chief and zines including New Woman, V Washington correspondent. He has covered stories as diverse as wars and presidential campaigns, the election of a pope and the death of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Zimmerman has filed reports with datelines such as Capetown, South Africa, Port Said, Egypt, DaNang, South Vietnam, Beirut, Lebanon and Washington, D.C. Assigned as bureau chief in Lebanon, Zimmerman recalls arriving when that city was known as “the Paris of the Middle East.” Within one year, it was embroiled in an ugly civil war. Such mercurial changes were all in a day’s work for Zimmerman. In 1980, Zimmerman helped make television news history as one of two original primetime anchors (with Kathleen Sullivan) on a nascent CNN. Zimmerman began his career as a DJ for a radio station in Richmond, Virginia in 1961. After making his own documentary about John Glenn’s orbital flight, he Christian Century, US, McGraw was recruited by a local news station. In his 35-year career, Zimmerman saw news Hill Travel Guide, WorldWide grow from the basic five-minutes local, five-minutes weather, five-minutes of sports Reports, as well as Brides and to the virtually 24-hour news cycle as pioneered by CNN. More recently, he was Essence, in addition to working as a the driving force behind the creation of News 12 Long Island, the first regional all- senior account executive for Ayer news cable channel. Advertising. From 1987 to 1989, One of the highlights of Zimmerman’s career was being in on the start of the she was an appointee to the New cable news network. According to Reese Schonfeld, in his book Me and Ted York State Division for Youth, Against the World: The Unauthorized Story of the Founding of CNN, Turner had where she served as director of no interest in news and no liquid money, but since other cable networks were community relations. She moved on, already doing movies and sports, he turned to Schonfeld to remake the news land- from 1990-1999, to become area scape as we knew it. So Schonfeld recruited names like Lou Dobbs, Bernard Shaw, director for Prison Fellowship Daniel Schorr, a fresh-from-college Katie Couric, and Zimmerman, among others. Ministries in the Washington, D.C. “When CNN started it was sort of a band of renegades,” Zimmerman, recalled in area. The ministry, founded by the a phone interview from his Long Island home. “ I went there from being a corre- convicted Watergate figure Chuck spondent at ABC, so it was like going from first class to steerage – we got an Colson, who became born again in opportunity to do everything!” prison, equips churches with Bill Zimmerman has received a New York Emmy, a Houston International resources to volunteer and minister Film Festival Gold Award, and been named the Long Island Press Club’s in prisons across the nation and Outstanding Journalist of the Year. Semi-retired, he currently heads Bill around the globe. Zimmerman Communications, producing occasional cable television and informational video programs. ❏ (continued on next page)

6 EMPIRE Author, Rose-Marie Armstrong Journalist (continued from page 6) “My guiding philosophy is Jesus Deborah Christ, but not everyone believes. So I think you must have a strong moral foundation regardless of Gregory ’86 your beliefs – and you have to be faithful to it. People tend to Metropolitan Center compromise. I think you cannot compromise if you want to build a strong foundation,” she says. rue story: Two little girls, After graduating from Empire ages 6 and 7, are presented State College’s Metropolitan matching outfits with T Center, Armstrong went on to leopard trim on the skirts at their earn two master’s degrees, one in joint birthday party. Immediately, journalism, from Columbia one squealed, Cheetah Girls! That’s University in 1975, and a second, what’s called “brand recognition,” and that’s what Deborah Gregory has in faith and culture, from Trinity achieved with her hit Cheetah Girls series of books. The now 14-book series International University in 2002. (Disney Publishing Worldwide) is geared to preteens ages 8-12, and was adapted In 2001, she became a fellow at into an original Disney movie produced by Whitney Houston’s Brownstone the C.S. Lewis Institute. Lately, Productions in 2003. Now there’s even more for the group’s growing number Armstrong, who is semi-retired, of young fans: The Cheetah Girls Supa Star Scrapbook (Disney books) came has turned her attention to her out in May. The Cheetah Girls Bindup (books 13-16) Off the Hook! (Disney work as a public affairs reservist publishing) will hit the shelves in September. Also, Gregory reports that plans for the Federal Emergency for a Cheetah Girls movie sequel are in the works. Not only that, but the Management Agency, where she Cheetah Girls soundtrack is Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) handles media inquiries and helps certified platinum, and has to date sold 1.4 million copies. In 2001, Gregory publicize resources available to was recognized with the 2001 Blackboard Children’s Book of the Year for the victims of disaster, natural and Cheetah Girls. otherwise. She also volunteers In the series, Gregory, a former fashion model, chronicles the growing pains three days a week with the of five ninth-grade girls who are looking for stardom through their Destiny’s African Medical & Research Child-style singing group. According to Gregory’s web site, the “message is Foundation (AMREF), a Kenya- simple: Pounce on your dreams and make them come true … These five fierce based nongovernmental divettes-in-training are gonna pounce, of course, when they finally get discovered organization, with the mission of and signed for that Beyoncé-sized record deal. But while they’re trying to hone alleviating suffering on the their musical chops, these singing sensations learn all about the joys and chal- African continent. lenges of growing up and getting along.” After reading a story in The Besides her Cheetah Girls projects, Gregory says she is currently at work on New York Times about the civil an adult novel, Leopard Lives, “about a girl who grows up in the foster care strife in Sudan, Armstrong picked system in New York City, becomes involved in the underworld, then reinvents up the phone and volunteered her herself to wholeness.” services to AMREF. It just so Gregory got her start by writing a beauty column for Essence, and has gone happened that the organization on to write for Redbook, Seventeen, Entertainment Weekly, Vibe, More and was in need of a public informa- Grace magazines. But it is the Cheetah Girls series that has really put Gregory tion officer. on the map as a writer. And that seems only fitting for a former foster child with As they say, if the hat fits, a love of books. wear it. ❏ “You know, the most glamorous thing to me is a book,” Gregory says. “Maybe it has something to do with my foster mother being illiterate. As much as I love movies, as much as I love clothes, there’s something about a book I have tremendous respect for. No movie can compare to the power of a book; to something on the written page.” ❏

EMPIRE 7 SPORTS University of Dancer,Dancer, Journalist,Journalist, EditorEditor Buffalo Basketball Coach WendyWendy PerronPerron ’01’01 Reggie Center for Graduate Witherspoon ’00 Programs Niagara Frontier Center fter more than 30 years as a dancer, teacher estern New York native and choreographer in Reggie Witherspoon is A New York City, and four years entering his sixth season as W as a part-time editor, last year the head coach of the Bulls, the men’s Wendy Perron was named editor- Division I basketball team at the in-chief of Dance Magazine, the University of Buffalo (UB) and it’s been premier publication for profes- the team’s most successful season yet. sional dancers. As this issue was going to press, the “It’s a huge job,” Perron says of her current assignment. “It’s like being an editor-in-chief, exec- utive editor and copy editor all at once.” She assigns almost all the features, works closely with the writers, approves the layouts, and reviews every story of every department. If it’s a big feature, she will typically take the writer out to lunch. Perron began dancing at age five when her dancer mother opened a modern dance school in the basement of their New Jersey home. Her first professional job was performing in a local produc- team was poised to be “invited to the tion of Hansel and Gretel at the dance,” – the 64-team NCAA tourna- age of 14, for which she earned ment, that would solidify UB’s place $2 per performance, pretty good in the big leagues. (Although a later pay for the time, she recalled in a loss to Ohio shattered that dream, UB recent interview. did make it to the National Invitational In the 1970s, the Bennington Tournament, the next biggest thing.) College graduate joined the Trisha The team also had recently played Brown Dance Company before their first nationally televised game in going on to found her own school history in February, a 67-58 company in the ’80s, performing win against Ball State on ESPN2. nationally and internationally. Reached at his office at UB, Wither- Perron has danced for many spoon was low-key, despite the fact renowned choreographers over that the local NBC affiliate had just the years, becoming associate packed up their cameras, and director of Jacob’s Pillow in the Witherspoon had three more interviews early ’90s. She has variously lined up that afternoon. taught technique, composition,

(continued on page 16) PHOTO BY BEATRIZ SCHILLER (continued on next page)

8 EMPIRE Perron also likens her work to teaching – noting how she antici- Wendy Perron pates what one of the 20 or so writers she has in regular (continued from page 8) rotation, or a new or occasional writer, will come back with for a given assignment. “If they come in with something half improvisation, criticism and dance history at Bennington, baked, and I bake the other half, it’s a challenge.” She may urge Princeton, SUNY Purchase, Rutgers, New York University and her writers to go back for better quotes, dig more deeply or to the Trisha Brown studio. In 1997, Perron was commissioned by put more heart into the story. “Like a teacher, you want them Lincoln Center to present a full-length work, in which she inte- to be the best they can be, to turn in the best assignment. I do a grated the work of subway musicians. little hand holding along the way. It’s like having a garden Although she wrote on and off for publications like the where you must tend to all the different flowers, or you may go Village Voice and The New York Times since the ’70s, she did back and find that not devote herself more fully to writing until the advent of one is wilting.” computers, she says. “Every time I sat down at a typewriter I’d She’s also found get a pain in my back, so I said, I will wait until I’m 80 years a solution for the old before I write.” more sedentary life Because of her interest in artists who are also politically of an editor, where active, she was considering a book-length treatment of the the focus shifts to topic. But when she was approached to be the part-time New the mind over the York editor of Dance five years ago, “I was happy to do it. As intense physicality I grew older, it became harder to dance and keep up the dance of dance. “I have a life,” she explains. Without a graduate degree, teaching jobs kneeling chair, also were more difficult to find, despite her prior experience. which is good for That was one reason Perron decided to pursue her master’s my back; otherwise degree at Empire State College. I wouldn’t be so Being an editor – especially of a dance magazine – allows good at sitting her to be in both of her worlds – dance and journalism, at once. down,” she says. “I am around dancers and dance writers who love it. Everyone “In this job, I am is so passionate. People in the field just love it, and crave it too awake in all parts

– it’s the total art.” of my body.” ❏\ PHOTO BY LEN IRISH

Company President and COO Richard Sager ’78

Central New York Center

f you’ve used an iPod, a cell phone or a DVD, then chances are you’ve used a product with components made by Williams Advanced Materials Inc. Richard I Sager, the president and chief operating officer of the multinational precious metal/specialty alloys firm based in Buffalo, NY, says the company provides products to the cell phone, data storage (hard disc/DVD’s), dental, semiconductor and consumer electronics markets, as well as to the auto industry. Sager graduated with a degree in business, management and economics from Empire State College in 1978, after completing courses in electrical technology at SUNY College of Technology at Canton in the late ’60s, and earning an associate degree from Herkimer Community College in accounting. Sager has gone on to cap his educational career with an M.B.A. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), partly through an extension program based in the Utica-Rome area. (continued on page 10)

EMPIRE 9 taking such courses as Chinese and President and CEO American art history, poetry and other courses as part of a broader educational experience, all while she was senior vice Brenda Copeland ’92, ’94 president of a burgeoning bank. Looking back, Copeland attributes Genesee Valley Center some of her drive and initiative to her parents. “Both parents were people who rom the time she accepted an appreciated a solid work ethic, meaning entry-level position at the Bank of not just to work hard but to work smart F Castile following her graduation and balance your life.” She also thinks from business college, Brenda Copeland that juggling so many roles calls for the has loved community banking. Rising steady support of both employer and through the ranks to bank manager and family, which for Copeland meant senior vice president before being named husband, Lyle, and two now-adult to the top job of president and CEO, children. Copeland’s career path paralleled the “I always enjoyed taking additional growth of the bank. She retired from initiative in the community,” says the Bank of Castile as president/CEO Copeland, who is active on a number of following its sale to a multi-bank boards and committees. “It sounds holding company. cliché, but I think it never hurts to have Copeland is now president and CEO not only a strong work ethic, but of Steuben Trust Company, another commitment to the communities and similar-sized independent community residents where you live and serve.” bank with 11 branches in Western and Although it’s rarer today for a young Southern NY and about $300 million in person to be able to rise steadily through assets. She recalls that she always had an specialized banking training from the ranks of one company, Copeland still aptitude for, and an interest in, business – Rutgers and the University of Delaware, likes to encourage gifted junior especially “fostering the growth of small along with Cornell University agricul- employees to follow their dreams. “I businesses and its intrinsic job develop- tural bank training, she needed to pull work diligently at identifying people to ment.” She likes working with all her education together, and Empire State bring along. I look for opportunities to customers, and helping them meet their College offered the wife, mother and mentor those people with the right banking needs, but found that she partic- executive the opportunity to do so. attitude, initiative and work ethic, to ularly enjoyed small business lending. Because Copeland had so many business make a difference for themselves and Although Copeland had business and banking classes as part of her educa- their families, as well as their companies college experience and several years of tional and career experiences, she was and communities.” ❏ able to concentrate on liberal arts –

Richard Sager he led Williams’ successful commercial You must be willing to stay abreast of (continued from page 9) efforts to broaden its product range technology and be willing to move and expand internationally. In 1997, forward. Twenty-five percent of our He began his career with Mohawk Data Sager was brought into general manage- business – product, customer and market Sciences, a $500 million dollar mini- ment with his appointment to executive – changes in any given year. We have to computer systems firm that was located vice president. In 2001, Sager became replenish that 25 percent. It can be costly in Herkimer County. He worked his way president and chief operating officer if we make the wrong moves. The up to vice president of sales for the for Williams. personal challenge is to keep everyone service division of the company. After the With manufacturing sites in Taiwan, focused on making sure we know who company was dissolved, Sager partici- Singapore and the Philippines, and with we are to the market we serve.” pated in a leveraged buy out and bought offices throughout the world, Sager said Sager attributes his success not only to a business called Advanced Materials that the main challenge he faces “is to “being true to myself and walking the Technology. Fifteen years ago, Brush stay ahead of the technology curve. If talk,” but also to the recognition that Engineered Materials Inc., the parent you don’t morph yourself and continue any organization is a team effort. As company to Williams Advanced to diversify, you won’t survive. A someone who rose through the ranks to Materials, acquired the firm, and Sager company must accept change as a chal- COO, he knows his job is pivotal, but so joined the company as director of sales, lenge – product change and cultural are the jobs of the rank and file. responsible for sales at Williams and two diversity. The way we do business is a “Everyone else has equally important other Brush operating companies. In little different from the way business is positions. If you have respect for, and 1992, he was promoted to vice president done in Taiwan, the Philippines and take care of employees, it benefits your ❏ of sales and marketing. In that position, China, and a lot different than in Europe. shareholders and customers.” \

10 EMPIRE BUSINESS AND President and CEO TECHNOLOGY Carol Evans ’77 Company President and Genesee Valley Center CEO

arol Evans, CEO and president of Working Mother Media, wife, and Christopher mother of two teenagers, is committed to changing the career land- Calisi ’86 C scape for working mothers. Starting as a sales representative for McCall’s in 1979, Evans’ impeccable timing led her to be in on the launch of a new magazine that would focus on a newly emerging force, Working Long Island Center Mother. She moved up through the ranks becoming, at age 27, national adver- tising manager for the magazine, and, at age 32, was named the youngest vice hen Christopher Calisi, president in McCall’s history. now president and CEO Evans’ 10-year tenure at the magazine, ending as publisher, had seen the W of Overland Storage, a publication’s circulation rise from 100,000 quarterly to 700,000 monthly. data storage firm, decided not to go Evans left to pursue another exciting business challenge – the opportunity to to medical school as planned, he left have an ownership stake, under the leadership of former Securities Exchange SUNY Stony Brook and took a Commission (SEC) chairman Arthur Levitt, Jr., in Playbill, the theater “ground floor” job as a stock boy magazine. As president, she grew the circulation by more than 45 percent, before overseeing the sale of the publication to Primedia in 1995. She went on to bring another publication, Chief Executive, to profitability. When Working Mother, along with a roster of other magazine titles, went on the block in 2001, Evans, in partnership with MCG Capital, jumped at the opportunity to purchase the group, renaming it Working Mother Media. The flagship publication underwent a total makeover and relaunch. Executive Female Magazine, the publication of the National Association of Female Executives, was freshened up. The third magazine, Working Woman, was retired. In the four years since she has been reunited with Working Mother magazine, Evans has retained its influential annual list: “100 Best Companies for Working Mothers,” and launched the brand-new list “The Best Companies for Women of Color,” with ancillary conferences and events. at a small computer firm on Long Evans added the new list Island. After that, he joined because, according to executive editor Computer Associates and eventually Betty Wong, “Thirty percent of our worked his way up to a sales job. readers are women of color, and When the sales force was cut back, they’re looking for companies he was asked to join the develop- in which their voices will ment team – which, Calisi notes, is be heard, their talent the opposite of the typical career developed, and their path. He spent many years on compensation commen- software product development, and surate with their during that time, in the mid-’80s, he contributions.” also decided to return to school to Ahead for Evans’ finish his Bachelor of Science degree company is the launch in computer science from Empire this year of a new State College. annual publication, Although he enjoyed working on Working Through the development side, “as a people Pregnancy. ❏ person I wanted to get back out (continued on page 18)

EMPIRE 11 Entrepreneur,Entrepreneur, InventorInventor andand CEOCEO CliffordClifford GrossGross ’79’79

Long Island Center

12 EMPIRE COVER STORY

By Laura Arpey

illions of dollars are spent each year on university research and thousands of new technologies are developed in federal labs and universities. Seventy B percent of these developments go to waste. Clifford M. Gross, Ph.D., chief executive officer and chairman of UTEK Corporation, saw the need and had a vision for a more efficient marketplace.

It all began at the University of university and then transfers it to the ergonomic focus into their entire South Florida (USF) where Gross was customer, in exchange for equity in the company, from the design of the work- a researcher and professor. His friend, company. In 2000, Gross took his place to its manufacturing processes colleague and then director of USF’s company public, where it trades on the and its final products.” More recently, Research Foundation, George American Stock Exchange. UTEK has he also is the author, with Joseph P. Newkome, Ph.D., asked Gross to since acquired six companies and has Allen, of Technology Transfer for come up with the reasons why such a equity stakes in more than 30 others. Entrepreneurs (Praeger Publications) great amount of newly developed Currently, Gross is working on and with Uwe Reischl and Paul university technology was not making expanding the company. He discussed Abercrombie, The New Idea Factor: it to the marketplace. This was a UTEK’s goal of “becoming the world’s Expanding Technology Companies common frustration shared among leading technology-transfer company.” with University Intellectual Capital university researchers. As a favor, Gross, who holds a Ph.D. in (Battelle Press). These two books Gross developed a business plan which ergonomics and occupational biome- cover the developing field of tech- included his ideas about setting up a chanics from New York University, nology transfer. company that offered technology to its has 19 patents for ergonomic products Gross is a 1979 graduate of surrounding areas. Newkome took to his name, including a back belt, Empire State College. He earned his one look at the recommendation and self-adjusting chairs, ergonomic bachelor’s degree in cultural studies. told Gross, “Great idea, you should scissors and a computer keyboard He acknowledges that students at do it!” wrist pad to help reduce wrist stress. Empire State College need a great With Gross’ ingenious ideas, UTEK In the biomechanics area, Gross’s amount of discipline in order to Corporation was started in Plant City, expertise has been tapped by a number succeed, and this discipline is not only Florida, in 1997. In a recent phone of corporations, such as Black & useful in terms of school, but in the interview Gross explained, Decker and Knoll, where he has outside world as well. He believes “Companies need to tap universities helped to guide them as they imple- knowledge provides a huge advantage for their ideas.” As a technology ment ergonomic principles into their in life. Gross’ advice to current Empire transfer company, UTEK’s mission is designs and processes. He and his State College students with high goals to link emerging technologies from team helped Black & Decker develop is “to work hard and master an area universities and federal laboratories the DeWalt cordless drill, which close to your heart.” with companies that need them. At the became the leading selling cordless Gross explains that he has found core of the UTEK Corporation is its tool in Black & Decker’s history, won the best of both worlds with UTEK university-to-business (U2B) plan. This a gold medal from BusinessWeek for Corporation. The company seeks to model enables the transfer of new product development and was create value for its shareholders while marketable university-developed tech- featured in a Smithsonian Institution’s improving the quality of life through nology to the companies in need of exhibit on ergonomic design. His first the introduction of socially responsible them most. UTEK identifies the book, The Right Fit: The Power of technology. “Although it is a job, it university technology, evaluates Ergonomics as a Competitive Strategy also is at times thrilling. It is very whether or not it will be a good fit to (Productivity Press), is described as “a exciting to see university discoveries a specific organization, acquires the manifesto for corporate strategic introduced into the marketplace,” licenses to the technology from the decision makers to incorporate an Gross explains. ❏

EMPIRE 13 Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs, Department of Defense Daniel Stanley ’79 Northeast Center

hen Daniel Stanley, burned his office. However, now the acting assis- he counts himself among W tant secretary of the fortunate. The defense for legislative affairs, Pentagon had been under joined the Pentagon in 2001, he renovation, and the work was excited about the opportu- was running about 30 nity to be part of President days behind schedule. Bush’s and Defense Secretary Had he been in his new, Donald Rumsfeld’s stated renovated office, “the mission to transform the plane would have flown military from a post-Cold War through my window.” monolith, to a lighter, quicker Stanley’s job has force to be deployed against the changed again, albeit not changing threats of the 21st as dramatically. With the century. “That was my view,” exit of his former boss, he explains. “Resistance to Powell Moore, Stanley change squanders taxpayers’ now answers directly to money.” He was pleased that Secretary Rumsfeld and the the military’s restructuring had deputy secretary of defense been set “as a priority for the – who until his appoint- secretary and for the nation. I ment to the World Bank, was excited about the desire to was Paul Wolfowitz – make a change.” meeting with the two men However, within one week, each morning as they plot the abstract became alarmingly the priorities of the day as real when a plane hit the it relates to the secretary’s Pentagon, just yards from and deputy secretary’s Stanley’s E-ring office over- dealings with the White looking the Arlington Cemetery. House, cabinet members, members of Congress and Stanley’s job changed, he said thought that came to his mind was the Department of State. during a phone interview from his office Bin Laden. Stanley’s day begins before 7 a.m., at the Pentagon, “quite dramatically.” His job changed in one instant. when he gets into the office and goes Stanley, a career Navy officer and “Instead of the learned, thoughtful over press clips from the previous day to former staffer for former U.S. Senator restructuring of the armed forces” he had see how members of Congress have been Bob Dole, had just finished watching a been prepared for – “we were at war.” quoted on the various military issues. plane hit the first trade center tower on He began to pace the office to plan what Each issue is tracked and evaluated to CNN. Not knowing exactly what had to do next, when he felt the building prepare the secretary to address them as happened, but knowing that the military, shake. “I stepped out of my office and they arise. as the executive agency for civil support, felt a pressure change,” he relates, and At 7:30 a.m., it’s on to a meeting with would need to quickly respond, he got a the next thing he knew, he was blown senior staff leadership, to go over the hold of the Army Operations unit several back into his office by the force of the secretary’s and deputy secretary’s floors below. Then, the second trade explosion. A third plane had hit the center tower was hit. This time, the first Pentagon, and the ensuing fire eventually (continued on page 17)

14 EMPIRE Assemblyman Mark J. Schroeder ’82 Niagara Frontier Center

In November, Schroeder was elected to a seat in the state Legislature. He represents the 145th Assembly District, encompassing 10 distinct neighborhoods, seven of which he calls the “old neighborhoods of South Buffalo,” largely blue- collar enclaves, which thrived during the heyday of Bethlehem Steel, but are struggling with the loss of their manufacturing base. He sees his current job as a continuation of the work begun at the county level, but with the ability to do even more for his constituents with state funding. Among his accomplishments, he counts the opening of the Greater South Buffalo Chamber of Commerce three years ago. “It now has over 150 paying members,” said Schroeder proudly, 49 days after his swearing in as assemblyman. The South Buffalo Education Center, which offers free G.E.D. classes, was the answer for another problem: the small bands of teenagers hanging out on street corners during the day “loitering, smoking, turning on.” The center now has the he first time New York State Assemblyman Mark J. highest graduation and retention rates of any similar program Schroeder ran for public office was for the Erie in Erie County, according to the Buffalo Board of Education. T County Legislature when he was 24 years old, having Schroeder easily credits the main teacher at the site – Stacey just graduated from Empire State College. He lost that race Watson. “She’s absolutely amazing,” he says. The other thing by 600 votes, and went into a career in sales for the next 20 Schroeder is excited about is a job placement and training years. When he ran for the legislature again, he won handily. center, which goes hand-in-hand with the G.E.D. center, that “When I ran for the first time, I was very green. I wanted is helping people in his to be a politician, wanted to assembly district with résumé be in government, but I don’t “How you are raised, writing and job training. “In know if I had it well thought- Erie County, there are 66,000 out,” Schroeder said during a where you come from, workforce-age people who do recent phone conversation. not have a high school What his life in the private influencesinfluences howhow youyou seesee thethe world.”world.” diploma or a G.E.D., so we’re sector taught him was that doing something about that.” one must work “by objectives Seniors can come in and – that’s the only way to become a success.” get acquainted with computers and learn e-mail to stay in By the time of his second run in 2001, Schroeder’s touch with their children and grandchildren. Younger objective was to brighten the bleak economic picture in his workers as well as older ones benefit from the retraining and own neighborhood. Schroeder spent three years in the county referrals offered. Schroeder pointed to one former factory legislature where he worked on business revitalization, and worker who came in at age 54, got a G.E.D., some computer educating and retraining workers. By his count there were training and was able to get a job in the private sector. 54 vacant storefronts on Seneca Street, and the South Park “We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel,” says Schroeder. business district, with 27 vacant storefronts, “had fallen “What we are doing is listening … ” to sleep.” Schroeder himself is a product of the neighborhoods he “We knew we could do better,” he said. serves, having grown up in South Buffalo in a strong tradi- Today, in part due to Schroeder’s efforts, the multi-million tional Irish Catholic family, attending local public and parish dollar Seneca Street Redevelopment Project aims to remake schools before graduating from Empire State College’s that sagging business strip. Niagara Frontier Center. “How you are raised, where you come from, influences how you see the world,” he says. ❏

EMPIRE 15 graduating class, Ullrich recalls with some satisfaction. “I knew I was going to Reggie Witherspoon law school when I began Empire State (continued from page 8) College,” says Ullrich, who is now a partner in the law firm Thornton, An article on the Sports Illustrated web Bergstein & Ullrich LLP. She has made a site calls Witherspoon a tireless recruiter and promoter for his team. However, reputation for being a tough constitu- RECORD Witherspoon gave credit to the “char- - tional lawyer, taking on civil rights acter” of the young athletes as well as lawsuits in such areas as sexual discrimi- their success for generating a sense of nation and harassment, employment excitement on the campus. When asked discrimination, freedom of speech and about the key to his own success, he THE TIMES HERALD religious freedom. Several cases have , talked humbly about his ability to work involved public officials who overreached well with people. by retaliating against employees. Witherspoon was first appointed as Civil Rights The case that put Ullrich, who was interim coach during the 1999-2000 then practicing solo, on the map, season after the previous coach was fired

Attorney PHOTO BY TOM BUSHEY involved two nursing administrators who due to NCAA violations. According to worked for a medical contractor ESPN, when Witherspoon took over, for the Orange County Jail. The there wasn’t much buzz about the team, nurses complained to the county especially compared to those of other executive about the conditions colleges in the state. In fact, the position Helen Ullrich ’93 in the jail regarding inmates was considered “an impossible job.” suffering from mental illness. That season, Witherspoon tripled the Hudson Valley Center “These inmates were subject to team’s wins over the previous season. inadequate care. For example, During the 2002-03 season, he faced the they were often overmedicated, challenge of guiding a team consisting of there was a lack of adequate players who were mostly freshman and here were a few gainsayers when emergency services, and so on,” Ullrich sophomores. Despite an early losing Helen Ullrich decided, at age 48, explains. In 1998, the nurses’ supervisor, season, he is becoming known as the T to enroll in New York Law fearing he would lose his county contract coach who is turning things around. School. An occasional young – usually because of their actions, fired them. After Honors include being named the male – student would question why a two years, the case went to trial, with the Mid-American Conference Coach of the middle-aged woman was taking space help of Scott Thornton, a friend who had Year and collegeinsider.com Mid-Major from a younger student with a poten- extensive trial experience, and with Coach of the Year after the 2003-2004 tially longer law career. Ullrich had whom she is now in partnership. The season. That year, Buffalo won 12 of its worked in administrative posts in the jury awarded the nurses $2.2 million final 15 games of the season. A UB news healthcare industry for much of her (later reduced to about $1.2 million, article notes, “The 12-win improvement career. She later began selling real estate which Ullrich deems “just about right”). from the previous season was the to spend more time with her then- Other recent cases have been brought second-best turnaround in the nation in teenage children, whom she was raising by a volunteer ambulance company, a 2003-2004.” as a single mother following a divorce. small local newspaper, and a member of With nearly two decades of coaching She wasn’t about to let a little criticism the Republican committee fired for not experience on the high school and colle- derail her long-held dream. revealing a vote against a town super- giate level, including a stint with Erie “I didn’t necessarily have a lifetime visor whom she says “governs through Community College, Witherspoon is ahead in terms of a career,” explains fear and intimidation.” What all three active in the community as well; serving Ullrich. “I was going to do what I lawsuits have in common is that they as director of the Amateur Athletic wanted to do – and not be drawn into all involve constitutional violations, Events for the Big 4 from 1996-98, and the ‘new hot area,’ or sit in a back office according to Ullrich. as one of the founders of Buffalo Team practicing tax law. I was a big girl and Recalling the case of the nursing ACE (Athletes Committed to life was too short.” administrators, Ullrich remarks, “The Excellence), a youth development Ullrich graduated magna cum laude in jury was furious. They awarded $1 program. A college basketball player 1996, after a stellar law school career million in punitive damages against the who, at Wheeling Jesuit College, played that included being Law Review notes county executive, which I think was a under Philadelphia 76ers head coach Jim and comments editor, Moot Court good lesson for county officials.” Such O’Brien, Witherspoon earned an asso- member and a research assistant to two outcomes, she says, “put public officials ciate degree from Erie Community of her professors. Ironically, the older in Orange County on notice that they College and his bachelor’s degree in students were disproportionately repre- cannot ignore the U.S. Constitution.” ❏ interdisciplinary studies from Empire sented in the top quarter of the State College in 2000. ❏

16 EMPIRE U.S. Representative Ginny Brown-Waite ’76 Northeast Center

ongresswoman Ginny Brown- According to her web site, “I will Waite, now in her second term in never support any effort to cut C the U.S. House of Social Security benefits for today’s Representatives, puts the needs of her retirees or near retirees, nor will I constituents in Florida’s Fifth District support any effort to privatize the first, sometimes even before supporting Social Security program.” the plans of her Republican Party. One Rep. Brown-Waite, an Albany example of her independence and native who served as a Florida state commitment to her constituents stems senator, Senate Majority Whip and from the makeup of her Fifth as the Senate President Pro Congressional District, which is home to Tempore, began her political career the highest concentration of Social as a legislative director in the New Security beneficiaries in the nation. York State Legislature. She has always Florida’s Gulf Coast Fifth District also Because she puts the needs of her prided herself on her political indepen- is home to the highest concentration of constituents first, Rep. Brown-Waite has dence, telling Empire State College veterans of any congressional district in sponsored a bill to ensure that Social Alumni and Student News, “I ask so the nation. Rep. Brown-Waite is proud to Security cannot be cut for those many questions, I know I drive people have authored legislation designed to Americans currently receiving benefits. crazy. I am no-nonsense and have always reduce the long waits that veterans face been upfront. I stick to my word.” when seeking medical care at Veterans Affairs facilities. Specifically, the bill mandates that veterans must receive care Daniel Stanley within 30 days of their initial request. (continued from page 14) She has continued her service to the calendars. That is followed by a roundtable with Rumsfeld and his deputy to bring veterans’ community as an outspoken before them the issues being debated in Congress. This could be anything from member of the House Veterans Affairs Iraqi security, to troop rotations, to up-armoring Humvees, to increasing the death Committee in the 109th Congress. benefits paid to the families of soldiers killed in combat. The rest of the day is filled One of the biggest issues of Rep. with attending Congressional hearings, or, three or four times a week, meetings Brown-Waite’s first term was the war in with various members of Congress or other government officials in person or Iraq. She took part in a Congressional by phone. delegation trip in 2003 that traveled to Stanley, a native Kansan, began his career as a Navy enlisted man. During a Iraq to see firsthand the conditions on tour of duty at the Knolls Atomic Power Lab, he enrolled in Empire State College’s the ground. She came back convinced Northeast Center, because the flexibility allowed him “to pursue my college educa- that the media were not reporting the tion and my rotational shift work.” He earned a degree in math, science and whole story and that conditions there technology with a concentration in nuclear technology. He later served as secretary were better than were reported back in of administration of the state of Kansas; and as an administrative assistant, legisla- the United States. She notes on her web tive director and defense policy advisor for Senator Dole. As a member of the Arms site that all of the Florida soldiers she Control Observer Group staff, Stanley attended the first congressional delegation spoke to in Iraq said they valued their to Berlin after the fall of the wall, monitored START (Strategic Arms Reduction mission and would do it again. Treaty) and Defense and Space Talks negotiations, as well as the Chemical/ Besides fighting to preserve and Biological Treaty negotiations. In the private sector, between 1985 and 1987, strengthen Social Security, enhance Stanley served as director of strategic planning for the McDonnell Douglas Medicare benefits and fight for Veterans’ Corporation responsible for the corporation’s 10-year defense forecast and other issues, Rep. Brown-Waite will continue strategic planning initiatives, according to his official bio. Stanley has assumed a to focus on increasing access to health- number of roles since joining the Department of Defense. Most recently, he has care and prescription drugs, better served as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs. He funding for public schools, and compre- also served concurrently as the principal deputy assistant secretary of the army hensive tax reform. She strongly supports (manpower and reserve affairs), and the deputy assistant secretary of the army strengthening homeland security, and is (for training, readiness and mobilization). interested in water, energy and environ- In all of his many roles, and as he has ascended to the top of the Pentagon hier- mental issues. ❏ archy in an especially crucial and difficult time, Stanley keeps his guiding motto emblazoned on a rock on his desk: “Never, never, never quit.” ❏

EMPIRE 17 Christopher Calisi (continued from page 11) He also is an Assemblyman extremely active front.” He went on to take positions as member of his technology marketing manager at Unify Gary Finch ’90 community and Corp., before moving on to Symantec has been recog- Corp., another software development nized with a Central New York Center firm that specialized in creating variety of software security products. He rose awards for this ary D. Finch was elected through the ranks at Symantec to commitment. to the New York State director of development, general He has chaired Assembly in 1999, manager, vice president and finally G the Board of representing the 126th Assembly executive vice president, reporting to Trustees of Cayuga Community District, which includes all of Cayuga the CEO. Under his leadership, his College, and, as a member of the County and parts of Cortland and division climbed from revenues of just Assembly’s Education Committee, is a Chenango counties. under $10 million to $300 million strong and knowledgeable advocate for Assemblyman Finch first threw his annually. Calisi “had such a wonderful education. Most recently he was hat into the ring in 1979, running as a time, I got the itch to take a CEO named Assemblyman of the Year by village trustee in Aurora. In 1982, he position.” The Long Island born and the New York State Association of Big was elected mayor, serving for eight bred Calisi was soon recruited by eHelp Brothers and Big Sisters. years, during which he undertook a Corp., in the process moving his family He resides in Springport with his number of initiatives to improve the to San Diego. When Calisi was wife, Marcia Herrling Finch, and also village’s finances. appointed CEO of eHelp, it was a small has raised two children, Amy and A successful small business owner, desktop software maker. Under his Gregory. He graduated from Empire Assemblyman Finch operates Brew- leadership, eHelp became, according to State College in April of 1990 with a Finch Funeral Homes, which have a company statement, “an acknowl- major in interdisciplinary studies. ❏ edged leader in the Internet locations in northern, central and development tools market.” southern New York. Recruited by Overland in 2001, at a time when the company was expanding into new markets and developing new products, Calisi said it was a challenge moving from a privately held company Member of House of Commons, Canada to steering a large publicly traded company with a quarter of a billion in Walt Lastewka ’03 revenue in the post-Enron age. “CEOs,” he noted, “are guilty until FORUM Management Education Program proven innocent.” He regularly fields numerous phone calls from the alt Lastewka, an industrial engineer by training, has, company’s shareholders. since 1993, served in Canada’s House of Commons, The company’s products are W representing St. Catharine’s, Ontario Electoral distributed through such leading firms District. Lastewka spent 30 years as an industrial engineer and as as HP and IBM, and its clients include a senior executive at General Motors in the U.S., Canada, and corporations like Daimler Chrysler, Mexico. Under the banner of the Liberal Caucus, he was re- Merck and Pfizer. elected in 1997, 2000 and 2004, serving as chair or vice chair of “One thing that has guided my numerous standing committees and subcommittees, including the career is focusing on results,” said the Standing Committee on Science and Technology, the International Trade Committee, self-described “Type A” personality, the Environment Committee, and the joint House/Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. husband to fellow Empire State College He was chair of the Task Force on Commercializing Government Science Research alumna Christine Calisi ’97 and proud and the Federal Caucus Advocate for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. father of two. “It doesn’t matter how Since December 2003, Lastewka also has served as parliamentary secretary of hard you work at the end of the day, public works and government services, with an emphasis on procurement review. His but how many beans you’ve put in parliamentary secretary task force report on government-wide procurement has been the bank.” ❏ approved by the government and is being implemented at a cost of $90 million and overall savings of $2.6 billion over five years. Lastewka has been active in the community as well – he has been involved in St. Catharines’ Museum, the United Way, Brock University, and he served as a Jaycees/Junior Chamber International vice president (JCI), 1976. ❏

18 EMPIRE Assemblyman Luis M. Diaz ’87, ’88 Long Island Center

ssemblyman Luis M. Diaz, who (NETS, Inc.), a not-for-profit community represents the 86th District of based group in the Bronx. Through A the Bronx, has always held the NETS, he worked to improve the social needs of the community close to his heart services delivery system. Under his lead- and high on his agenda. When he was a ership, and through his tenacity and member of the board of the Hispanic perseverance, the organization’s mission Voter Registration Drive, Diaz partici- was expanded to include education, pated in local and national voter economic development and computer registration drives resulting in 10,000 technology. As a result, according to his newly registered Hispanic voters. Spurred official bio, the organization grew from on by this success, he joined the an agency providing services to senior Community Planning Board #5, to citizens, to a “stable, multifaceted nately lower- to lower-middle class neigh- further organize at the grassroots level. organization that serves the young and borhoods that comprise the district. Prior to his run for the Assembly, he was elderly alike.” Diaz describes himself as a doer. “Too the male district leader for the 76th Diaz’s priorities for his district, which many people spend a lot of time thinking Assembly District. In 1993, he became was newly created just prior to his of what they could do and nothing ever the executive director of Neighborhood election, are health care, education and gets done. Everything is possible if we are Enhancement and Training Services economic revitalization for the predomi- willing to just take that first step.” ❏ Director, New York State Emergency Management Office James W. Tuffey ’04

Northeast Center ames W. Tuffey was becoming Public Safety Commissioner for the City of Cohoes. named director of the In 1998, he joined the Department of Environmental J New York State Conservation (DEC), first as labor relations director and then as Emergency assistant commissioner for the Office of Public Protection over- Management Office seeing the Divisions of Law Enforcement and Forest Rangers. (SEMO) by Gov. George He also served as liaison to SEMO where he was instrumental Pataki last July. In this in developing the state’s Y2K preparedness plans. In addition, pivotal position, Tuffey is according to his SEMO bio, he has served on the Weapons of responsible for coordinating Mass Destruction Task Force since 2000 and was executive lead the activities of all state for more than 500 DEC members involved in the response to agencies in the case of an the terrorist attacks of September 11. In naming the former emergency, whether man- Albany police officer and detective, the governor wrote, “Jim made or natural disaster. Tuffey has had an outstanding career in law enforcement and “Our challenge is to make emergency management. I am confident that under Jim’s leader- sure that we’re prepared to ship SEMO will continue to be the nation’s premier emergency support local and state management organization … ” agencies with the best tech- As evidenced by his own ability to take on new and complex nology and the best methodology to prepare for all hazards,” jobs after retiring from his first career in law enforcement, Tuffey said during an interview from his office. Tuffey said his guiding principle has been “to never stop Tuffey retired at the rank of detective after 20 years with the learning. No matter where you are, you can learn from Albany Police Department. He went on to become a confiden- someone. You need to take on every challenge that you face – tial investigator in New York State Department of Labor before and don’t ever be afraid to ask someone for advice.” ❏

EMPIRE 19 Infant Development Expert, Philanthropist Susan Turben ’72

Northeast Center

usan H. Turben, helping parents, teachers and medical talents. Sharing the knowledge is so Ph.D., infant devel- professionals recognize and appreciate important in light of current worldwide S opment expert, early human development, and, as she events, which prove how vulnerable community advocate, likes to say, “How smart and competent children are and how small and inter- philanthropist, and one babies are. What I do in St. Petersburg, is woven the world has become,” she said. of the earliest graduates to teach preschool and toddler caregivers Not only is Turben bringing her of Empire State College, and parents about the many abilities knowledge to St. Petersburg, where there has recently embarked on infants have in utero through birth, and are 28 child care centers in just one small one of the most ambi- then demonstrate how all children learn area of the city and up to 83,000 tious projects of her long so that adults can guide their children’s children living full time in orphanages, career. In partnership development knowing the very important but she is learning individual family with the Jewish cultures and language, as well. She’s been Community Federation studying Russian with a coach and tutor of Cleveland, she is working as a volun- for nine months, taking classes two times teer professional, four times a year, in St. a week, and says, “I am doing okay with Petersburg, Russia where she is sharing reading; but there’s always that barrier the fruits of her education (a Bachelor of among us English speakers – we fear Science degree from Empire State College using the wrong words, when really any and a dual doctorate in infancy and early words at all are greeted with so much childhood education) and her more than warmth just because I’m trying!” 35 years of experience working with The people in St. Petersburg under- babies and youths. stand that it’s a two-way learning street. Turben is a pioneer in the early inter- They asked Turben to speak to them vention field, receiving her first grant for in their native language, and she does, the Handicapped Children Early using an interpreter to fill in the more Education Program (HCEEP) in 1974. complex subject matter. Using pictures, She started the first infant stimulation dolls and working with children them- program in the Capital District, and she selves, Turben hopes to open up a door now is the principal in Turben of promise to young special-needs Developmental Services, based in Russian children. Beachwood, Ohio. Turben and her And when she’s finished her work in husband, Jack, are active in a number of capacities children have since birth. that center? “I’ll ask them to take me to community activities and Turben serves Because these teachers are used to meet the director of another school down on many boards, including the Empire working with older kids, they are always the street,” she jokes. State College Foundation board. stunned to see how much babies are able Turben also has been busy on her Through the Turben Family Foundation, to learn.” home turf, in partnership with the Lake Susan and Jack are also regular Turben believes that it is incumbent County NAACP, to help prison inmates supporters of National Public Radio and upon countries like the United States, connect with their children. In her work other organizations, which focus on who have a wealth of infant research with family intervention, she realized that strengthening families through education, available, to take it to other parts of the many of the families she visited were not and providing access to services that globe, which have not been able to intact; in fact a significant number of promote healthy lifestyles. accrue such knowledge. “All children can these parents were incarcerated in jails in In Russia, she is working with special learn,” she states firmly; adding, “From places like Cincinnati and Columbus, needs children up to the ages of 12 to 13, the age of three months, it is possible to (continued next page) observe that all children have skills and

20 EMPIRE Susan Turban givers and kids. The mission is to Fund Prison Ministry project is (continued from page 20) foster healthy relationships in families. meeting that need.” Turben points out that in situations Turben, who herself started out as miles away from their kids. Not only where families cannot see their incar- a Head Start mom, knows whereof she that, due to the vagaries of finding cerated family member, teleconferencing speaks. She juggled school, and someone to look after children – who and distance education will be offered. responsibility for her husband who were often placed in relatives’ homes “We believe in the innate ability of had multiple sclerosis, while at the and in various day care arrangements every parent to be proud of their same time, trying to raise three kids. – Turben realized that parents did not Her strong faith prompts her toward know where their own children were “All parents need to physically the responsibility “to do all I can, for from day to day. Turben made a call see their children to believe as many people as I can, in all the to the local NAACP, of which she is a how smart and talented places that I can, and for as long as member, and together, they are they are becoming.” I can. My faith guides me to be a funding a program that transports servant witness to the community, and children and caregivers to physically children, and to be competent and when the right thing seems to come to connect incarcerated parents with nurture their children. Essentially, no me that way, I put my time, money children. By “coincidence” the group matter how terrible the situation, this and energy into it. Beyond that, I feel was already looking for ways to program proves to parents in prison our own five children, now grown purchase a van and raise funds for that others embrace their family and with their own children to raise, food and clothing to begin trans- respect and share pride in these special deserve to see their parents as porting kids to prisons. The John and children.” As Turben puts it, “all examples of community advocacy. Susan Turben Family Foundation parents need to physically see their Families can be helped to grow better offered help two years ago, and now children to believe how smart and and stronger – if we all work together. ❏ the program serves over 1,500 care- talented they are becoming. Freedom It’s not all about me.”

zation that deals with all issues that Activist Marcia Pappas ’93 affect women, it can sometimes feel like a daunting task,” she said. Northeast Center “There are times that I may feel a particular issue should take priority, arcia Pappas ran success- that led to her interest in NOW. In but as president, it is my job to fully for the presidency of addition, as the granddaughter of a represent the membership and their M the New York state Panamanian immigrant, she had wishes.” chapter of the National Organization grown up hearing how her family The New York state NOW web for Women (NOW), taking the helm faced discrimination during their first site says that it advocates for women of the 13,000-member organization years in this country, and early on who have been victims of domestic representing 24 local chapters across recognized the vital importance of violence; for pay equity in the the state in December. As the propri- advocacy. Her interests eventually marketplace; for working women etor of a small business in the brought her into a leadership juggling the “triple burden” of Capital District for 30 years, it was position as president of the 325- career, household and childrearing; the stories she heard from her clients member Albany chapter of NOW. against sexual harassment and At the end of 2004, she challenged discrimination; and what NOW is incumbent Kathryn Lake Mazierski perhaps best known for – its to the statewide presidency and won, advocacy of legal abortion. making her, in the words of a news- Pappas says her job requires that paper account, “one of the most she be highly organized and able to visible activists in the state.” stay on task. But she also knows Pappas ran for the presidency when to loosen the reins. because, after 15 years as a volun- “Sometimes in leadership you teer, she loved the work so much that may want to steer the group one she wanted to deepen her involve- way, but the membership has other ment. Under her leadership, she thoughts. That’s democracy at its hopes to include the grassroots core – sometimes it hurts, and you membership in more of the orga- flinch because democracy is really nization’s decision making. difficult at its core, but it’s really the “Because NOW is an organi- best way.” ❏

EMPIRE 21 Assemblyman and Labor Leader Brian M. McLaughlin ’81, ’83 The Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for Labor Studies

rian M. McLaughlin, president of the New York City Central Labor B Council/AFL-CIO and New York State Assemblyman for the 25th Assembly District covering Flushing and Whitestone, Queens, (“one of the most culturally diverse communities on earth,” he has said), is known as a consummate labor organizer and mobilizer. The native New Yorker and grandson of Irish immi- grants has been active in the labor movement for more than 20 years – ever since his days as a journeyman electri- cian in IBEW, Local No. 3, who received his tutelage from esteemed late labor leader Harry Van Arsdale, Jr. As if his plate wasn’t already full, McLaughlin, who also is active in a number of community groups, has had his name bandied about as a potential New York City mayoral candidate. McLaughlin is credited with revital- izing the labor movement at the COMMUNITY SERVICE grassroots level through organizing, public education, social justice and polit- Community Activist, City Council ical action. The New York City Central Member Gladys Santiago ’96 Labor Council, a chartered body of the AFL-CIO, is a grassroots advocacy Genesee Valley Center group representing more than one million workers in 400 unions, including ladys Santiago, the senior vice president of teachers, truck drivers, sewing machine Ibero – American Action League, Inc. in operators, train operators, dock workers, G Rochester, New York, oversees the develop- doctors, nurses, orderlies, construction ment of all programs and fund-raising activities for workers, cooks, janitors, and jazz musi- the organization, handling a $6 million budget. cians. The Central Labor Council sees its This unique program is designed to foster growth mission as helping working families and development in the Hispanic community. The achieve civil rights, fair wages, safe organization has a wide variety of programs for working conditions, a political voice, children, youths, seniors, the developmentally and the respect and dignity that their disabled and more. labor should afford them, according to Santiago also is the vice president of the Rochester City Council where she its web site. The labor council has joined represents the city at public events. In her years as a council member at large, with The Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center she has sponsored legislation to reduce gun violence (Project Exile) expand the for Labor Studies to establish an Homework Hotline Program, and provide additional funds for the purchase of Organizing Institute, which will train Spanish language materials for the library system. rank and file union workers to be After attending the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and Monroe “highly skilled organizers.” Community College, Santiago graduated from Empire State College with a Recently, under McLaughlin’s leader- degree in Human Service Management and Business Administration. In 2004, ship, the labor council has taken on the Santiago accepted an appointment as RIT’s Frederick H. Minett Professor for behemoth, Wal-Mart, criticizing it for its 2003-2004. ❏ nonunionized workforce. (continued on next page)

22 EMPIRE Lifelong Learners. “As global competition becomes even fiercer, President, Communications workers are going to be required to continue to upgrade their skills – and not only their technical skills – because it’s so diffi- Workers of America cult to predict five to six years from now what will still be needed,” he said in a recent interview from CWA’s Washington, DC headquarters. Bahr maintained that young people preparing Morton Bahr ’83 for college must have a broad-based education, including in the liberal arts. They should hone the ability to communicate The Harry Van Arsdale Jr. clearly in both the written and spoken word, and they must be Center for Labor Studies able to work with people, in order to fit into the “high perfor- mance workplace.” Bahr recalled a commencement speech on a SUNY campus, in which he stressed the importance of lifelong learning. Two recent graduates approached him afterwards, saying ruefully, “but we thought we were finished!” Bahr, however, took the same advice that he gives, completing his degree at The Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for Labor Studies in 1983. Bahr has been tireless in implementing his vision. As a vice president of the AFL-CIO, he chaired the federation’s Workers Education Committee, and has been unyielding in the push to create a highly educated union membership. In 2001, Empire State College established the Morton Bahr Scholarship program in his honor. This program has so far enabled 21 union workers or their family members to pursue a college degree through the college’s Center for Distance Learning. Under his guidance, CWA has also pioneered a number of other innovative programs in the area of worker education. These include nationally recognized education programs with major employers; a partnership with Cisco Systems to provide certification and skill training for workers in Internet tech- nology; and a partnership with telecom employers and Pace ecause of the fluidity of today’s workplace, American University that has produced the first online degree program frontline workers don’t know what their jobs will look in telecommunications. B like, or even what relevant skills they will need, several He stresses the importance of investing in training rank and years down the road. This is the assessment of Morton Bahr, file workers as well as managers. Traditionally, he said, only president of the powerful Communications Workers of America two percent of an organization’s resources is put aside for (CWA), the 700,000-member union that represents workers in training and educating the frontline worker; but the company the telecommunications, media, information technology, that will gain and keep its technological advantage will be the printing, manufacturing, airline and electronics industries. company that “recognizes the value of frontline workers when Therefore, workers need higher and continuing education more spending resources.” than ever, and Bahr has made this a guiding principle in his Although joking that he got to where he is because, “I was leadership of the CWA. in the right place at the right time,” Bahr in fact progressed up Bahr, who celebrated his 51st anniversary with the union in the ranks one step at a time, his horizons broadening from each April, is recognized as a leading voice of the labor movement, new venue. He took the helm of the CWA in 1985, after both in the United States and internationally. He said he has serving 16 years as CWA vice president for District 1, covering been interested in lifelong learning for 20 years, but the issue New York, New Jersey and New England. Under Bahr’s leader- really came into focus for him six years ago, when he was ship, CWA is demonstrating that it continues to be a highly tapped to chair the President’s Commission for a Nation of effective and vital union for the information age. ❏

Brian McLaughlin a state legislator, a district leader and the president of an orga- (continued from page 22) nization representing more than 1.3 million union workers. Asked what advice he’d have for a current Empire State From one who sat in the same classrooms, walked in the same College student, the labor leader and Queens assemblyman buildings and experienced the same type of educational chal- replied, “As I look back over my professional life, one thing lenges, albeit some years ago, my advice is simple: Take it all in. that stands out is that you can never be 100 percent certain Squeeze the most out of every hour. Go down every road of where your career path will lead you. An electrician by trade, opportunity. One day you may be repairing a street light, the ❏ with a love for community involvement, 20 years later, I’m now next day you may be lighting a nation with your ideas.”

EMPIRE 23 President of the New York State AFL-CIO Denis Hughes ’93, ’99 The Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for Labor Studies

January, when it saw an increase to helping working men and women achieve $5.65. By January 2007, the minimum the dignity they deserve. There are still a wage will be $7.15 per hour. Although lot of workers here (in the U.S.) that most minimum wage workers do not don’t have the benefit of collective belong to labor unions, Hughes is quoted bargaining and there remains a lot we as telling The Times that, by creating a can do.” “wage floor,” it benefits all workers. Hughes, a former journeyman electri- Besides the fight to increase the minimum cian who enjoys motorcycling in his free wage, under Hughes’ leadership, farm time, joined the state AFL-CIO, an workers now earn the same minimum umbrella organization that encompasses wage as other workers in the state. 3,000 unions in New York, as a political Another victory has been legislation that director and assistant to the president in prevents the state from using funds to 1985. In 1990, he was promoted to the deter union organizing. position of executive assistant to the enis Hughes, president of the Hughes maintains that there is still a president before assuming the presidency 2.5 million-member New York lot of work ahead for unions, despite the in 1999. As his official bio explains, he State AFL-CIO, does not D trend among many companies toward has “made creating a more mobile, active hesitate to take on the powerful in outsourcing or manufacturing overseas. and aggressive statewide labor movement pursuit of his aim to further the cause of Another challenge is from large compa- a top priority … [and has] set the tone working families in New York state. Last nies unfriendly to union activity. For for organizing new members into the December, The New York Times detailed example, the AFL-CIO is undertaking a movement and has led the way in devel- how Hughes wouldn’t back down when huge public education campaign oping proactive legislative and political Gov. George E. Pataki vetoed a bill that targeting Wal-Mart’s employment prac- statewide strategy.” Reflecting his clout, would raise the minimum wage for tices. Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the in 2003, Hughes was elected to a three- workers across the state. He lobbied the U.S., is currently nonunionized. “What year term on the board of directors of state Senate and the Assembly for an we have to do is bring more and more the Federal Reserve Bank. override of the governor’s veto, and people into the labor movement,” Hughes says that the key to success is succeeded in spurring the passage of a Hughes said during a recent interview. doing something that you love. “Do bill that would raise the minimum wage “The mission and role of labor hasn’t something you would do whether you for three consecutive years, beginning last changed. We are still a mechanism for were paid for it or not.” ❏

Laurel Massé In 2001, Massé released Feather & Bone (Premonition), a CD that experiments with a number of musical vocabu- (continued from page 4) laries, from the ancient Hymn to the Muse and a sung where she interviewed and played with such jazz luminaries arrangement of Bach’s Suite #1 for Unaccompanied Cello, as pianist Lee Shaw, Latin-jazz ensemble Mambo Kikongo, to folk songs with a Celtic inflection, to sacred music and Peter Eldridge of the New York Voices, Matt Glaser of spirituals. In 2004, she received the MAC (Manhattan Wayfaring Strangers, and cornetist Peter Ecklund. Association of Clubs and Cabarets) Lifetime Achievement Although often described either as a jazz singer or a Award. Massé also is the recipient of a Richard Porter cabaret singer, Massé doesn’t see herself fitting neatly into Leach Fellowship in the Arts and a SUNY Chancellor’s categories. “I just call myself a singer,” she says simply. Award for Student Excellence. She hopes to “continue to “What comes from jazz is the willingness to hear a piece of grow and develop my personal voice in my art … I [also] music in a different way, and that could be anything from a want to be able to bring the same experience that I carry Cole Porter tune to a Bach suite.” with me onto the stage into the classroom so that I can be part of passing along the vocal tradition.” ❏

24 EMPIRE Our trip includes: Travel Abroad Program • six nights accommodation in first-class hotels (based on twin bedded rooms with private facilities) with daily breakfasts A Tale of Two Cities • porterage in and out of the hotels (one piece of luggage per person) • English speaking tour escorts and • deluxe motor coach according to the itinerary Vienna Prague • welcome dinner in Vienna await you! • farewell dinner in Prague • reception in Prague on our final evening with our October 14 - 21, 2005 Prague alumni and students • half-day local guide for city tour of Vienna and Prague

All this for $1,890 (not included are tips,extra fees,meals,exhibit Please join us as we tour two of the most beautiful admissions, single traveler supplement and air departure tax of approximately $175 per person). Pricing based on 30 participants, cities in Europe,Vienna and Prague, and visit with subject to cost increase below 30 passengers. some of our international alumni. You’ll come to For more information or to reserve your spot, please find that Empire State College alumni and students contact Celtic Tours at 800 833-4373 or Ellen Ascone at [email protected]. To see the itinerary, visit us at are everywhere! www.esc.edu/alumni.

Come join us for our annual Registration begins at 10:30 a.m., at which time you will pick up your pass, program Empire State College and lunch. We will be serving coffee and pastries during that time. The handicapping DDaayy aatt tthhee RRaacceess seminar will begin around 11:00 a.m. Post time for the first race is 1:00 p.m. Seating is Saratoga Springs Friday, August 12, 2005 limited and on a first-come, first-served basis. “Empire State College Track Pack” for $30 includes: We will reserve your seat when we receive your check made out to Empire State College • Grandstand admission • Box lunch • Grandstand seat • Handicapping seminar Foundation. Simply use the order form below. • Program • President Moore’s “winning” You may make a copy of the order form for • Coffee and pastries at the college selections your guest(s). ------Please complete and return to:

Maureen Winney Name ______Graduation Year Empire State College Address ______

One Union Avenue Day phone______

Saratoga Springs, NY 12866-4391 E-mail ______

Make your check payable to: Empire State College Foundation. The box lunch will include a sandwich, side salad, dessert, fruit and chips. Drinks are on your own. Please check one sandwich and side salad ❏ Turkey ❏ Roast beef ❏ Chicken salad ❏ Baked ham ❏ Vegetarian Side salad ❏ Penne pasta with turkey and bacon ❏ Tomato provolone with basil ❏ Red potato ❏ Cole slaw Please circle a bread and condiment choice ❏ White ❏ Wheat ❏ Rye ❏ Sourdough ❏ Sundried tomato wrap Condiments ❏ Mayonnaise ❏ Brown mustard ❏ Russian dressing ❏ Honey dijon mustard Please circle any others: • Cheese (Swiss or American) • Lettuce • Tomato YOU ARE IMPORTANT TO US! Send news of your accomplishments and activities so that we can feature them in future issues of Empire State College Alumni and Student News. If possible include a recent photograph (with your name on the back). Please spell out all organization abbreviations. Name ______Address______Job title______Business name/address ______Center/Unit attended ______Year graduated/degrees ______Current student? ______Area of study ______Phone number: Work ______Home ______E-mail address ______Honors and other accomplishments ______Volunteer/professional organizations ______Send to: Empire State College Alumni and Student News, Office of College Relations, Empire State College, One Union Avenue, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866-4391.

Nonprofit Org. One Union Avenue U.S. Postage Saratoga Springs, NY 12866-4391 PAID Permit No. 19

Saratoga Springs, NY 12866-4391