Posted on Mar 14, 2006

Harold Holzer, a leading authority on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War era, will speak Tuesday, April 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.

The topic is “Lincoln in New York,” as part of the Perspectives at the Nott lecture series. The talk is free and open to the public.

Holzer has written dozens of magazine articles and books about Lincoln. His latest book is “Lincoln in the Times: The Life of Abraham Lincoln as Originally Reported in the New York Times,'' co-edited with Pulitzer-Prize winning biographer David Herbert Donald.

His 2004 book, “Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President,” won the prestigious Lincoln Prize in 2005.

Holzer is the senior vice president for external affairs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He appears frequently on network news programs, including The Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning and The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. He has also made numerous appearances on C-SPAN.

A former press secretary for Gov. Mario Cuomo, Holzer is the founding vice chairman and regular lecturer at the Lincoln Forum, which hosts an annual symposium each year in Gettysburg. Holzer is also a former member of the New York State Council on the Humanities.

Holzer lives in Rye, N.Y. with his wife Edith, director of public affairs for the New York State Council of Child Caring Agencies.

Posted on Mar 14, 2006

Jose Molina, an elementary school student, could see the characters in the photo were wearing grass skirts and figured they were in Hawaii.

What he couldn't tell about the scene in the photo was described by Charles Steckler, a professor of theater and designer in residence at Union College.

Steckler, who has designed costumes and sets for more than 100 shows during his 35-year tenure, helped lead Molina and about 15 other third- and fourth-graders through an exhibit of his work in the college's Mandeville Gallery in the Nott Memorial. “Charles Steckler: Stage Design'' is a retrospective of Steckler's work, which has ranged from “Waiting for Godot'' to “Tartuffe.''

The grass skirts were used in a production of  “A Midsummer Night's Dream'' set on a Hawaiian island. Steckler's stage design included a volcano that was attached to a rope; the volcano started out low on the stage and rose slowly throughout the play. Lights were used to provide an appearance of lava. A large, glowing moon was constructed of hundreds of pieces of popcorn.

Molina and the other students are part of SAIL, Studying Arithmetic in Literature, an after-school program supported by Union, which provides tutors and arranges field trips. Molina's group was from Elmer Avenue School, but the program also runs at other city elementary schools.

“They were very animated and asked a lot of questions,'' Steckler said of the students.

Tom West, an Elmer teacher, said many of the SAIL kids otherwise never get to see a museum.

“The goal is to get them out and seeing things,'' he said.

After the tour of Steckler's selected pieces, the kids made dioramas out of shoe boxes, tissue paper, straws, pipe cleaners, fabric, stickers, markers and other items.

Keilmani Griffin, 8, made a diorama of her mother in the kitchen. Griffin chose a paper queen to portray her. “My mom does so much for me,'' she said. “Sometimes she's strict.''

Amber Jablonski designed a stage with a pink background and a black rhinestone sparkling curtain. She wants to be a ballerina when she grows up. “I have a pink ballerina dress and I practice in my room,'' she said.

The workshop was sponsored by Time Warner Cable. Steckler's work will be featured until April 30.

Posted on Mar 13, 2006

Scanning errors on 4,000 SAT exams have put college admissions officials to the test.
   Schools received word of the miscalculation last week. The brief letter sent by the College Board informed colleges of the number of erroneous scores they received, leaving schools to determine if the misreportings changed the outcome for affected applicants. Unfortunately in those cases,
   Most of the mistakes on the the burden falls on the applicants 2,400-point college entrance test to contact the school directly if were between 10 and 40 points, they feel the incorrect scores and only 16 changed by 200 points jeopardized their chances of gainor more, the College Board said. ing acceptance, he said.
   The scoring changes appear to “There will be ‘X' amount, and have made little or no difference we have no way of knowing who in an applicant's acceptance or re- those students are,” Andrea said. jection status in Capital Region colleges, with many institutions just weeks shy of making final decisions.
   “In looking at the early signs, it doesn't look as though [the scores] affect admissions or scholarships,” said Robert Andrea, director of undergraduate admissions at University at Albany. The school received 18,000 applications for the upcoming semester, he said.
   About 150 scores from the October SAT exam were sent to the
   Siena College received 48 wrong scores and The College of Saint Rose received three. Skidmore College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute were not notified of any scoring changes, spokeswomen for both colleges said.
   Of Union College's 4,400 total applicants, only 40 received scores requiring adjustment, school officials said. None of the adjusted scores changed the applicant's original status.
   “We pulled every file, and in no case did the difference make a difference,” said Dan Lundquist, the college's dean of admissions and financial aid.
   Union places less emphasis on SAT scores than it does on overall high school performance, said Lundquist, who cited the recent scoring snafu as one pitfall of the tests.
   “Very clearly, the lesson here is that if you're going to place a lot of reliance on technology that is not 100 percent, then you have to place less emphasis on the results,” he said.
   Most of the errors involved tests taken in New York, New Jersey and California. Pearson Educational Management, the Austinbased company that scanned the tests, said the 4,000 exams may have been damaged when wet weather caused the paper to grow, forcing the oval answer indicators to move out of registration for the scanning head, according to Associated Press reports.
   College Board officials said the 4,000 tests translate to eighttenths of 1 percent of the 495,000 students who took the exam in October.
   The SAT is a three-section test with a maximum score of 2,400.

Posted on Mar 10, 2006

When Bobby Syed graduated from Union College in 2003, the Plano, Texas native knew he would end up back in the area. First, he returned for his MBA, which he completed last November.

After a short stint back in Texas, Syed came east again, this time to jumpstart his career. The 25-year-old Syed recently joined BullEx Digital Safety as chief marketing and sales officer.

The year-old North Greenbush company is one of the up-and-coming businesses in the region. BullEx markets a computer-controlled propane burner that is used to train people on how to use a fire extinguisher correctly.

Sales have been brisk for the unit, with hospitals, colleges and Department of Defense agencies all investing in the technology.

Syed helped demonstrate the product recently for members of the College's campus safety department outside of College Park Hall.

Syed said coming back to start his career with a start-up company was an easy decision.

“It's slowly and slowly been growing,'' he said of Tech Valley. “I think it's really ready to take off, and now is the time to get in.''

While at Union, Syed founded the College's Entrepreneurship Club. He and several other students created a company, Impermeable Molding, which advanced to the finals of the prestigious Tech Valley Collegiate Plan competition in 2004. The group did win the elevator pitch portion of the contest, giving a two-minute presentation to potential venture capitalists.

Coincidentally, Syed's group lost out in the overall competition to TekAlert, a company co-formed by Ryan O'Donnell, who now heads BullEx. BullEx won the $50,000 top award in last year's competition.

“We're thrilled to have Bobby join the BullEx team,” O'Donnell said. “He is an extremely hard-working, motivated, intelligent manager.''

Syed majored in economics and computer science at Union. He said the school, and particularly professors like Hal Fried, provided him with a solid education that will help his career.

“I loved it here at Union,'' he said while standing in the parking lot of College Park Hall. “After being here for so long, I feel comfortable here. I knew I would come back.”

Posted on Mar 10, 2006

When Bobby Syed graduated from Union College in 2003, the Plano, Texas native knew he would end up back in the area. First, he returned for his MBA, which he completed last November.

After a short stint back in Texas, Syed came east again, this time to jumpstart his career. The 25-year-old Syed recently joined BullEx Digital Safety as chief marketing and sales officer.

The year-old North Greenbush company is one of the up-and-coming businesses in the region. BullEx markets a computer-controlled propane burner that is used to train people on how to use a fire extinguisher correctly.

Sales have been brisk for the unit, with hospitals, colleges and Department of Defense agencies all investing in the technology.

Syed helped demonstrate the product recently for members of the college's campus safety department outside of College Park Hall.

Syed said coming back to start his career with a start-up company was an easy decision.

“It's slowly and slowly been growing,'' he said of Tech Valley.  “I think it's really ready to take off, and now is the time to get in.''

While at Union, Syed founded the College's Entrepreneurship Club. He and several other students created a company, Impermeable Molding, which advanced to the finals of the prestigious Tech Valley Collegiate Plan competition in 2004. The group did win the elevator pitch portion of the contest, giving a two-minute presentation to potential venture capitalists.

Coincidentally, Syed's group lost out in the overall competition to TekAlert., a company co-formed by Ryan O'Donnell, who now heads BullEx. BullEx won the $50,000 top award in last year's competition.

“We're thrilled to have Bobby join the BullEx team, O'Donnell said. “He is an extremely hard-working, motivated intelligent manager.''

Syed majored in economics and computer science at Union College. He said the school, and particularly professors like Hal Fried, provided him with a solid education that will help his career.

“I loved it here at Union,'' he said while standing in the parking lot of College Park Hall. “After being here for so long, I feel comfortable here. I knew I would come back.”