Posted on Jan 19, 1996

Donald Rodbell, assistant professor of geology, spoke recently at the Syracuse
University Department of Earth Sciences on “The Timing of the Last Deglaciation in
the Andes Mountains of Peru and Ecuador.” He also chaired a session at the annual
meeting of the Geological Society of America on quaternary geology and geomorphology
titled “Glaciation and Quaternary Climatic Change at Middle Latitudes.” Also at
the meeting, he presented a paper, “Loess and paleosol stratigraphy and
thermoluminescence age estimates of Mississippi Valley Loess in western Tennessee.”
He also published a paper, with Barbara Hansen of the University of Minnesota, in the
journal Quaternary Research titled “A late-glacial/Holocene pollen record from
the eastern Andes of northern Peru.”

Edgar Letriz, assistant dean of students, conducted a session at the African,
Latino, Asian and Native-American (ALANA) Student Leadership retreat recently. The
workshop, titled “Multiculturalism: An Intercultural Approach,” explored how
culture affects communication, behavior, assumptions and values.

Barbara Jones, director of Schaffer Library, earned her Ph.D. from the
Department of History at the University of Minnesota/Twin Cities. Her dissertation is
titled “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: An Historical Perspective from World War I
through the Vietnam Conflict.”

Hilary Tann, professor of music, had an area premiere of her piano duet
composition, “The Water's Edge” at a young artist recital by Wei-jen Yuan and
Dawn Kim, local pianists who won state titles in junior and senior high school
competitions. The two are students of Feroza LaBonne, adjunct piano instructor.
Tann's piece was dedicated to LaBonne and her mother, veteran piano teacher Farida Dubash
of Bombay, India.

Donna Burton, reference librarian, has published two book reviews in the Journal
of Government Information.
They are “American Cost of Living Survey: A
Compilation of Price Data for Nearly 600 Goods and Services in 443 U.S. Cities From More
Than 70 Sources” and “Gale City & Metro Rankings Reporter.” She also
gave two presentations, a session on “Electronic Government Document Resources”
on CD-ROM and WWW to Skidmore College faculty, and “Sources of Federal Government
Information on the Internet” to participants in the Statewide Conference of Federal
Depository Libraries at the New York State Cultural Education Center.

The Rev. Kathleen Buckley, protestant chaplain, authored a chapter titled
“One Step at a Time” in Called Out: The Voices of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgendered Presbyterians.
The book chronicles the experiences of Presbyterian
church leaders who are trying to reconcile their sexuality with their religious faith.

Ernest Conti, director of administrative services, was re-elected chairman of
the Upstate New York College and University Risk Management Group, a consortium of 17
institutions that self-fund workers compensation. He also serves as board president of
Family and Child Services of Schenectady, chairman of the Administrative Affairs Committee
of the Hudson Mohawk Association of Colleges and Universities, and board member of the
Oasis Child Development Center.

Peter Heinegg, professor of English, has published his translation of Willigis
Jäger's Search for the Meaning of Life: Essays and Reflections on the Mystical
Experience
(Suche nach dem Sinn det Lebens) with Triumph Books.

James Schaefer, research professor of anthropology, has been named field
research supervisor for a five-year study by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism titled “Comparing Two Legislative Approaches to Server Education.”
The study will examine the effectiveness of legislation encouraging server education as a
means to curb DWI in Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama and South Carolina. He
will train teams of actors to assist in gathering data in a sample 300 bars in the target
states. He also has been appointed to the Mohawk Valley Heritage Corridor Planning
Commission to promote the natural, cultural and historic strengths of the corridor. Also,
he has published two articles in the Journal of Gambling Studies, “Legalized
Gambling and Its Impacts in a Central Minnesota Vacation Community: A Case Study” and
“Minnesota Slots: An Observational Study of Pull Tab Gambling.”

James Adrian Jr., assistant professor of chemistry, has published a paper titled
“DNA Bending and Binding in Metallo-Zipper Models of bZIP Proteins” in the Journal
of the American Chemical Society.
Co-authors are C. Rodgers Palmer, Leslie Sloan,
Bernard Paolella and Alanna Schepartz, all of Yale University. The paper describes the
effects of model peptides which bind the AP-1 and CRE promoter sites of DNA, and the
results demonstrate that surprisingly small molecules can bind DNA with high-sequence
specificity as well as high affinity.

Thomas McGovern, visiting assistant professor of photography, had an exhibit of
photographs focusing on people living with AIDS and HIV at the Cafe Lulu in Albany. The
exhibit, sponsored by the AIDS Council of Northeastern New York, was part of the Day
Without Art, a commemoration of artists who have died from the disease.

George Gmelch, professor of anthropology, and Sharon Gmelch, director of
Women's Studies, had an article, “Gender and Migration,” published in Human
Organization.
The article looks at gender differences in the experience of returnees
in Barbados, Ireland and Newfoundland. Also, George Gmelch presented a paper,
“Ethnographic Field Schools: What Students Do and Learn,” at the annual meeting
of the American Anthropological Association in November.

David Cossey, director of Computer Services, and Barbara Jones, director
of Schaffer Library, prepared a presentation titled “Computing Issues for Small
Colleges,” which was delivered by Cossey and Diane Keller, director of
academic computing, at a Consortium of Liberal Arts College's session at EDUCOM '95, held
in Portland. Oregon. Cossey also made the presentation to a group of Portland-area alumni.

Kristin Fox, assistant professor of chemistry, published a paper titled
“Structure-function relations for old yellow enzyme” in The FASEB Journal (Vol
9). Co-authors include P. Andrew Karplus of Cornell University, and Vincent Massey of the
University of Michigan. The paper reviews the current state of knowledge about the protein
old yellow enzyme, and details what is known from both the structural and mechanistic
perspectives.