Rochester Review

May-June 2015, Volume 77, No. 5

Editor

Scott Hauser

Associate Editors

Karen McCally ’02 (PhD)

Kathleen McGarvey

Contributors

Valerie Alhart, Adam Fenster, Peter Iglinski, Charla Kucko, Bob Marcotte, Melissa Mead, Mark Michaud, Sara Miller, Dennis O’Donnell, Leslie Orr, Monique Patenaude, Scott Sabocheck, Leonor Sierra, Helene Snihur, and Brandon Vick

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Published six times a year for alumni, students, their parents, and other friends of the University, Rochester Review is produced by University Communications.

Opinions expressed are those of the authors, the editors, or their subjects and do not necessarily represent official positions of the University of Rochester.

ISSN: 0035-7421

Copyright © 2015 University of Rochester

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Alumni photographs, courtesy of the subjects. Unless otherwise credited, all others are Rochester Review photos.﻿﻿﻿

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Rochester Review:

The Next Level

By Joel Seligman

Throughout all of our years together, we have sought to be a University whose quality placed it among the leading research universities in this country, consistent with our core values of academic excellence, academic freedom, diversity and commitment to our community.

In the past 10 years, we have become a stronger University with the successful initiation and financing of major new projects in the Medical Center and each school.

We are now ready to ascend to the Next Level.

In March of this year, nearly 300 members of the Rochester family, including board members and volunteer leaders, gathered with senior University leaders and faculty speakers to celebrate reaching the initial $1.2 billion goal of The Meliora Challenge campaign and plan how we would race to the finish during the last 15 months of this Campaign. We aim to exceed the initial goal by 10 to 20 percent as the most successful campaigns frequently do.

Our major focus, however, was going beyond the ambitious goals of the 2013–2018 University and school strategic plans, whose implementation remains in full force, to articulate the key initiatives that we believe will be most effective in accelerating our progress during the 2016–2020 period, likely before we initiate our next capital campaign.

We view these key University initiatives as having three characteristics: (1) an ennobling social purpose; (2) where the University of Rochester can make a material difference; (3) necessarily at sufficient scale.

Rigorously applying these criteria, we commended four new or enhanced major initiatives:

(1) Data Science: Once we raise the additional $50 million sought in our October 2013 strategic plan, we still will have a long way to go to fully be one of the nation’s leading data science programs. A major effort here is essential. Information technology is redefining the way we think, analyze information, and make decisions. Data science is ubiquitous. We focused on specific areas in which we are most likely to achieve best in class or near best in class programs: (A) Predictive Health Analytics, (B) Cognitive Systems and Artificial Intelligence, and (C) Analytics on Demand.

(2) Neuroscience and Neuromedicine: The brain has a unique ability to “rewire” and heal itself in response to injury, disease, and normal aging—a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity. Our University has outstanding neuromedicine clinical programs, a world-class brain and cognitive sciences infrastructure, as well as basic and translational neuroscience research programs which address learning and memory, brain development and fundamental wet-bench research into neural structure and function. Here we proposed to focus on (A) Stroke and Neurorestoration, (B) an Institute for Developmental Disabilities, and (C) Neurodegenerative and Neuromuscular Diseases.

(3) Humanities and the Performing Arts. Through our classroom experience, scholarship and creative works, the humanities and the performing arts are essential to the success of virtually every major research university. Our University long has had world-class programs in performing arts through the Eastman School of Music and increasingly has established prowess in Arts, Sciences & Engineering through our music, theater, and dance programs. Our humanities departments long were among the most notable at the University, but particularly in the post–2008 recessionary world, we have seen a decline in student enrollments in the humanities as students have focused more on the career relevance of their studies. We recommended: (A) Creation of an Institute for the Performing Arts, (B) Creation of a Humanities Center, and (C) Strengthening programs that involve Arts, Sciences & Engineering and the Eastman School of Music as well as the Memorial Art Gallery.

(4) The Revitalization of Our Community: Progress for our University is bounded by the progress of the Greater Rochester community. The stronger our community is, the stronger the University will be. While Rochester’s suburbs today generally are doing well, the City of Rochester is struggling with the highest rate of extreme poverty of any comparably sized city in the United States. The Rochester City School District perennially has graduation rates below 50 percent. We will focus on three core areas which can contribute to strengthening the greater Rochester community: (A) Community Engagement, (B) K-12 Education, and (C) Entrepreneurship and Economic Development.

We have made progress in the past 10 years because of the increasingly unified commitment of our board, volunteer leaders, alumni, friends, faculty, students, and staff. The success of The Meliora Challenge campaign is a testament to the loyalty, generosity, and hard work of all in the Rochester family.

I have posted the full Next Level discussion document on my home page, www.rochester.edu/president. I welcome your comments.

Letters

lettersCLASS NOTES: Several alumni recognized themselves and their classmates in a photo of a 1968 freshman preceptorial. (Photo: University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation)

‘Think for Yourself’ Seminar

Several alumni identified classmates in a photo of a 1968 freshman preceptorial that was featured as the opening photo of Class Notes in the March-April issue. Taught by professors Michael Cherniavsky of history and Robert Marshak of physics, the course, Science and World Affairs, capped enrollment at 20 freshmen.

“I was lucky enough to be in that class—it was fall semester of 1968 in Dr. Marshak’s office in Bausch & Lomb,” wrote Tom Dragosavac ’72. “It was certainly the right thing at the right time for me. I learned it’s a good idea to listen and think a bit before I speak. I also learned that applying my mind and heart to the problems of the world was a good use of my time. It was definitely a “think for yourself” seminar. It no doubt contributed to my changing my major from physics to sociology a year or so later.

“Dr. Marshak carried the torch for idealism, while Dr. Cherniavsky offered a polarity of world-weary cynicism. So no matter what we said, one of them would ‘get’ us. It was great team teaching.”

Dragosavac, Scott Smith ’72, Jerry Toporek ’72, ’75 (MA), and Joe Smith ’72 identified their fellow students as Scott Sugarman ’72 (at the desk), Marshak, Toporek, Ray Singer ’72, Barb Thorne Benkwitt ’72, Donna Schubert ’72, Burns Fisher ’72, ’79 (MS), Vickie Sidou ’72, Cherniavsky (in a jacket with his back to the camera), and Don Strebel ’72. The two note that the online version of the photo (above) also shows the left shoulder of Michael Saul ’72 to the left of Sugarman and Dragosavac’s hand at the bottom of the frame.

A full account of the class can be found in “A Tale of Two Superprofs—and a Freshman Preceptorial,” published in the Spring 1969 issue of Rochester Review and available online at http://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?page=3483&y=1969&v=31&i=3&p=20.

—Scott Hauser

Think You Had Snow Days?

I noticed that the item in Rochester Review regarding classes being called off on a couple of winter days because of a deep snowfall (“Ask the Archivist,” March-April) didn’t include a reference to an event which occurred in the winter of either 1957 or 1958.

We had a fairly good snowfall during the night and, after clearing the walks around our fraternity house, a couple of us wandered up onto the Eastman Quadrangle to look around. We thought it would be a fine prank if we piled some snow up against the doors of Morey Hall and then we returned to breakfast. Imagine our surprise when we learned a few minutes later that classes had been called off for the day due to the snowfall!

Whether our prank had anything to do with the decision, I’ll never know—and I’m pretty sure the statute of limitations has expired on that one.

John Rathbone ’58

Hamilton, New York

Think about Dean Merrill

I very much appreciated the article on Dean Ruth Merrill, whose quiet strength and sensitivity enriched many of us individually and campus culture collectively (“Bringing University History to Life,” March-April).

We in the Class of 1960 who were privileged to have her as our dean are indebted to her for her wise counsel. We benefitted from her expression of confidence in our ability to learn and to lead. For many of us her quiet and unexpected support opened doors. Dean Merrill inspired us to add value to our lives and our society.

In preparation for our 50th reunion, our class, called “City Girls,” initiated the Dean Ruth A. Merrill Award. This award recognizes a Rochester-area undergraduate woman whose endeavors enrich the lives of others.

If you have an anecdote to share about Dean Merrill’s influence on your college years or would like more information on the Dean Merrill Award, contact me at anndwein@frontiernet.net.

Ann Weintraub ’60

Rochester

Review welcomes letters and will print them as space permits. Letters may be edited for brevity and clarity. Unsigned letters cannot be used. Send letters to Rochester Review, 22 Wallis Hall, P.O. Box 270044, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627-0044; rochrev@rochester.edu.

PUBLIC ART

Tunnel Visionary

tunnel (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Historic View: Artist Sarah Rutherford completed work this spring on a mural featuring women’s rights pioneer and Rochester icon Susan B. Anthony on the walls of the tunnels near Dewey Hall. The project is part of an initiative to bring more public art to the River Campus.

OPTICAL ENGINEERING

Hooray for Hubble!

hubble (Photo: Courtesy of NASA)

ROCHESTER RESCUE: NASA released an image showing a cluster of about 3,000 stars in a “stellar breeding ground” roughly 20,000 light-years from Earth this spring to mark the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s launch. While the Hubble has been sending such iconic images for a quarter century, the telescope was initially in danger of becoming a billion-dollar failure when scientists in 1990, just weeks after the launch, discovered that one of its mirrors was flawed. Enter Duncan Moore, the Rudolf and Hilda Kingslake Professor of Optical Engineering, who chaired a national panel to figure out how to give the mirror the right prescription to correct what was, in effect, the telescope’s nearsightedness. Professor Jim Fienup, the Robert E. Hopkins Professor of Optics who was then at the University of Michigan, also served as an advisor to the national panel.

MELIORA CHALLENGE

‘A Race to the Finish’

With 15 months to go, a $1.2 billion fundraising initiative surpasses its initial goal.

By Sara Miller

melioraJOB WELL-DONE: President Joel Seligman (second from right) celebrates the campaign milestone with (from left) former Board of Trustees chair Bob Witmer ’59, current chair Ed Hajim ’58, and former chair Bob Goergen ’60. The campaign was launched in 2011. (Photo: University Advancement)

The Meliora Challenge, the University’s comprehensive fundraising campaign, has surpassed its initial $1.2 billion goal.

An $11 million commitment from University Trustee Robert Goergen ’60 and his wife, Pamela, to the Institute for Data Science put the Campaign over its primary goal 15 months ahead of schedule.

In recognition of the Goergens’ commitment, the institute will be named the Goergen Institute for Data Science.

“Bob and Pam have again provided us with a transformational gift that demonstrates their remarkable commitment to the future of our University,” says President Joel Seligman. “I am deeply grateful to them for helping the institute to become a generative hub for education, research, and innovation in data science. The Goergen Institute will forever honor all they have done to make our University, and help make the world, ever better.”

In 2013, Seligman announced the University was committing $100 million to greatly expand the University’s research in data science. The initiative included plans to recruit top faculty members in the field and build a new facility to serve as a hub for collaboration among programs in medicine, science and engineering, the humanities, education, business, and other disciplines.

“Data science is introducing exciting new research possibilities and discoveries at the University, as well as new degree programs and robust academic opportunities for students involved in a variety of studies,” says Bob Goergen. “Science, engineering, and mathematics are the University’s sweet spots, so being at the forefront of data science and maximizing our capabilities in highperformance computing and calculating is very exciting. We are in a great position to help students become well-trained, highly skilled data scientists and meet the national demand for this kind of expertise.”

“This is an important time for the University and we are happy to support this growth,” says Pam Goergen. “Making a difference is really why we give the way we give, and we hope our gift inspires others to contribute and make the University of Rochester an even better place for education and research.”

The Goergens join Robin and University Trustee Tim Wentworth and the Wegman Family Charitable Foundation among lead donors to the institute. In February, the University announced the Wentworths’ $3 million commitment to endow the institute’s directorship. In April 2014, the Wegman Family Charitable Foundation committed $10 million to the institute, and the University announced that the new data science building will bear the Wegman name.

Bob Goergen has been a University trustee since 1982 and served as chairman from 1991 to 2003, and he is an honorary chair for the Campaign. The Goergens have a distinguished history as philanthropists and University supporters. Their $10 million gift in 2007 led to the construction of the Robert B. Goergen Hall for Biomedical Engineering and Optics as a new home for the Institute for Optics and biomedical engineering programs. In 2000, the Goergens provided $5 million for renovations to the River Campus athletic and fitness facility, which today is the Robert B. Goergen Athletic Center. And in 1997, the couple established the Goergen Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, presented annually to outstanding faculty members at the College Convocation.

Launched in 2011, The Meliora Challenge is the largest campaign in the University’s history. Fundraising efforts will continue to build on the $1.2 billion mark until the Campaign’s conclusion in June 2016.

Just over one half of the Campaign’s goal—$650 million—is to benefit research, education, and care at the Medical Center, an effort that surpassed the $600 million threshold this spring. The new Golisano Children’s Hospital, a funding priority, is set to open this summer (see sidebar).

“When we publicly launched The Meliora Challenge campaign, I said that together we would make history. Now, fewer than four years later, I am delighted that we have achieved our initial goal,” Seligman says. “We still have far to go. Great university campaigns typically exceed their initial goals by 10 to 20 percent. Over the next 15 months, we have the opportunity to build on our momentum and take our University to the next level. Let me reflect my great gratitude to our devoted alumni, friends, parents, faculty, staff, and students. Together we are the Rochester family. Together we have demonstrated there is so much that we can achieve.”

Thomas Farrell ’88, ’90W (MS), senior vice president and chief advancement officer, praised the efforts of the University community, but emphasized the importance of sustaining the campaign’s momentum until its finish date. “The campaign has demonstrated remarkable performance to this point, but we have aspirations that go well beyond The Meliora Challenge,” says Farrell. “It is with these goals in mind that we need to stay focused and close out the campaign strong. It’s a race to the finish!”

“Our campaign’s performance is a reflection of President Seligman’s inspirational vision,” says Board of Trustees Chairman Ed Hajim ’58, noting the leadership roles of Campaign cochairs Richard Handler ’83 and Cathy Minehan ’68.

Hajim and his wife, Barbara, committed $30 million in 2008 to fund student scholarships and to support the endowment in the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, putting the couple among the Campaign’s leading supporters.

Meliora Milestones

meliora_sideCAPITAL HISTORY: The new Golisano Children’s Hospital, the largest capital project in University history, will open this summer. (Photo: Ballinger Architects)

Two projects supported by The Meliora Challenge will mark historic milestones this spring.

At a ceremony in late May, the new, 245,000-square-foot Golisano Children’s Hospital will be formally dedicated. The hospital, named for the lead support of Paychex founder B. Thomas Golisano, is the largest capital project in the University’s history and is a major component of the Medical Center’s campaign. The hospital is scheduled to begin receiving patients in July.

Also this spring, the University is scheduled to hold a ceremony to highlight plans for a new building for data science, which will be named in recognition of support from the Wegman Family Charitable Foundation. The building will be home to the Goergen Institute for Data Science (see page 10) as well as serve as a hub for programs in medicine, science and engineering, the humanities, education, business, and other disciplines that analyze massive quantities of data.

meliora_sideDATA DATE: A spring ceremony will mark Rochester’s plans for a data science building. (Photo: Courtesy of Ayers Saint Gross Architects)

The new buildings are among several that have been made possible since the Campaign got under way. Among the most recent are the Ronald Rettner Hall for Media Arts and Innovation and Raymond F. LeChase Hall—home to the Warner School—both of which opened in 2013.

As of April, other highlights include:

Initial goals for faculty support ($350 million) and the Annual Fund ($130 million) have been met.

A total of 93 new endowed professorships have been supported, exceeding the original goal of 80.

325 endowed scholarships and fellowships have been established.

Membership in the George Eastman Circle, the University’s leadership annual giving society, has allowed the University to nearly triple the amount of available unrestricted funds since the start of the Campaign.

About 42 percent of employees have supported OneRochester, the faculty and staff initiative of the Campaign.

STUDENT LIFE

Dremel Dreams

A new student group gets undergraduates busy with building.

Interview by Kathleen McGarvey

makersHANDS-ON: Sarah Harari ’16 (left) and Carolyn John ’17 work on a sign in the fabrication studio in Rettner Hall; Chris Smith ’18 repairs a 3-D printer (below). The three lead a new student group, UR Makers, that helps students develop skills in design and construction. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

A new group—UR Makers—is taking advantage of the resources of the fabrication studio in the Ronald Rettner Hall for Media Arts and Innovation, where high-tech 3-D printers are available alongside an array of old-school machinery, such as drills and lathes. The group’s leaders—Sarah Harari ’16, a computer science and digital media studies major from Potomac, Maryland; Carolyn John ’17, a mechanical engineering major from Maplewood, New Jersey; and Christopher Smith ’18, a Scituate, Massachusetts, resident who hasn’t yet chosen a major—aim to draw students from all areas of interest to learn about fabrication and design through hands-on practice.

What is UR Makers?

Sarah: It’s a collaborative and interdisciplinary group that brings together engineering and the arts. We design, budget, and carry out student-run projects from start to finish in the fabrication studio of Rettner Hall, home to our “makerspace.” We assist with educating our peers about the proper use of the 3-D printers and other technical equipment. We’ve also carried out events and brought in faculty who support our vision for interdisciplinary work in an extracurricular setting.

When did you establish the group?

Sarah: The idea for UR Makers evolved throughout this school year. We had a revolving door of ideas and leadership, but one common goal: to facilitate a space where students of different disciplines can work together on projects of varying magnitude.

makers (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Who’s involved?

Sarah: We welcome students from all majors. Bringing together a group of students with diverse skill sets helps us to learn from each other and to improve our understanding of the intricacies of the tasks we take on.

What are some projects the group has done to date?

Carolyn: We finished building an LED cabinet this spring. The top half is a Plexiglas LED sign with our logo etched into it, and the bottom half has cabinet space for storage. We designed it ourselves, and during our weekly meetings we divided the work that had to be done between the people who showed up. No experience was required, so our members learned how to use a variety of tools such as jigsaws and Dremels. Currently we are sketching plans and writing a proposal for an old-fashioned arcade cabinet.

What do you gain from hands-on experience?

Sarah: It complements our academic experiences. Working with our peers who are pursuing different degrees and sharing ideas gives us the opportunity to gain a new perspective on project-based work and to broaden our horizons outside of the curriculum.

Chris: We’re promoting an environment where you don’t have to be an engineer to build something, a programmer to code, or an artist to design. It’s an environment where we hope that students can broaden their skills, make friends, learn to look at problems and projects from different angles, and ultimately create something that they are proud of.

Are members working on individual projects or do you all work as a group?

Sarah: Our meetings and projects are collaborative and group-oriented from start to finish. The collaborative nature of the group is representative of real-world experiences that many of us will meet in our coursework and future careers.

Can you describe the fab studio? What do you like best about it?

Chris: The fab studio is a great place simply because it is so multi-purpose. You can 3-D print something, solder, code, 3-D model, design, or work on a project with friends. It’s also a great place for the community. It’s not dominated by one group: you’ll see computer science majors and mechanical engineering majors working on class projects, Baja members painting this year’s newest buggie, librarians making portable 3-D scanners—the list goes on and on. The best part of this community that we have congregating in the room is their help. Even if you’re working alone there is usually someone around who is willing to help or teach you how to complete the project you’re working on. Another great resource in the room is Jim Alkins, who runs the fabrication shop attached to the studio. He’s there during the week and is a great resource to learn about the tools in the shop and machining parts.

How do you hope to see the group evolve after its first year?

Carolyn: Currently, the bulk of our members are from engineering or natural science backgrounds. As the club expands, we hope to include students from all majors so that we can get different perspectives on projects.

Setting Forth

The drive to explore, to set out on journeys to distant lands and across horizon-less oceans, may be inseparable from human nature itself, says Stewart Weaver, professor of history. Whether crossing a land bridge over the Bering Strait 12,000 years ago, diving to the depths of the seas, or launching probes to the edge of the solar system, humans seem to have a compulsion to discover what’s “out there.”

“For all the different forms it takes in different historical periods, for all the worthy and unworthy motives that lie behind it, exploration—travel for the sake of discovery and adventure—is, it seems, a human compulsion, a human obsession even (as the paleontologist Maeve Leakey says); it is a defining element of a distinctly human identity, and it will never rest at any frontier, whether terrestrial or extraterrestrial,” says Weaver, the author of a new book, Exploration: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2015).

In the short primer on human exploration, Weaver offers brief accounts and assessments of explorers well- and little-known and places them in the context of natural history.

“A true explorer,” he writes, “is a traveler who seeks a discovery.”

Here’s a quick tour of those travels.

explore (Illustration: Steve Boerner)

Pytheas of Massalia: 315 BCE

The Greek geographer was the first-known reporter of the arctic and the midnight sun. Conservative estimates credit him with about 7,500 miles of ocean travel, taking him from the Bay of Biscay to circumnavigate the British Isles.

explore (Illustration: Steve Boerner)

Zheng He: 1405–1433

The “Grand Eunuch” and court favorite of the Yongle Emperor of China led seven expeditions through the Indian Ocean. The first voyage included 62 ocean-going junks—each one perhaps 10 times the size of anything then afloat in Europe—along with 225 smaller support vessels and 27,780 men. With Zheng He’s death at sea in 1433, the fleet was broken up, travel forbidden, and his name expunged. In 1420, Chinese sailors had no equal in the world. Eighty years later, scarcely a deep-sea-worthy ship remained in China.

explore (Illustration: Steve Boerner)

Bartolomeu Dias: 1488

The Portuguese commander was the first European to round the Cape of Good Hope. Dias was trying to find an ocean passage to India when he rounded the southern tip of Africa without realizing it.

explore (Illustration: Steve Boerner)

Christopher Columbus: 1492

Columbus was searching for a westward route to China when northeast trade winds swept his flotilla across the Atlantic in just 33 days. The routes he pioneered and the voyages he publicized altered European conceptions of geography and led almost immediately to European colonial occupation of the Americas, permanently joining together formerly distinct people, cultures, and ecosystems.

—Monique Patenaude

A Legacy That’s Not Quite Quixotic

quixoteCLASSIC VIEWS: The illustrations of Cervantes (left) and Quixote (right) are from the first deluxe edition of the novel, published in London by Jacob Tonson in 1738. It is the earliest copy of Don Quixote owned by the University and features 69 copperplate engravings. (Photo: University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation)

What should we know about Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote—called by many the first modern novel? Ryan Prendergast, associate professor of Spanish, and his students have a few ideas. He’s the author of Reading, Writing, and Errant Subjects in Inquisitorial Spain (Ashgate, 2011) and teaches the course Don Quixote: The Book, the Myth, the Image. This year marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of Don Quixote’s second volume.

It’s about more than windmills.

While the idea of “tilting at windmills” comes from Don Quixote, Prendergast points out that the memorable account of the character battling windmills in the belief that they’re giants is just one episode early in the massive work. And while windmills have become for most the icon of the novel, they don’t capture its thematic and stylistic complexity.

It was published in two parts, 10 years apart—in 1605 and 1615.

In the intervening decade, someone using the pen name Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda published a “false” sequel to Don Quixote. Cervantes responds to the sequel in Part II and addresses critiques people made about Part I, even incorporating characters who have read the first volume. And while Part I has a good deal of slapstick humor, Part II is more introspective, emotional, and psychologically dark, Prendergast says.

It’s narratively complex.

Prendergast contends that Don Quixote is above all a book about the acts of reading and writing, examining what storytelling is all about. Cervantes even incorporates into Part II a character from the spurious sequel, and makes him swear that the Don Quixote of Cervantes’s Parts I and II is the “real” Don Quixote. The novel “speaks to the writing process and what narrative allows you to do,” Prendergast says.

It’s more than a funny book, treating important social and political issues, too.

While many love the novel for its humorous adventure stories, Don Quixote also takes on such weighty subjects as relations between Catholics and Muslims in 17th-century Spain and Inquisitorial practices.

Sancho Panza is not just a sidekick: comic at times, he’s also the source of profound insights.

Typically treated as Don Quixote’s physical and psychological foil, Sancho is revealed at certain points to be a wiser character.

In 2002, it was voted the best work of fiction of all time.

One hundred authors—including Seamus Heaney, Nadine Gordimer, Carlos Fuentes, Doris Lessing, and Norman Mailer—from 54 countries chose Don Quixote as the top choice among the “best and most central books in world literature” in a survey organized by the Norwegian Nobel Institute and Norwegian Book Clubs. It earned 50 percent more votes from the writers than any other book.

—Kathleen McGarvey

A Close Call of 0.8 Light-Years

discoverDROPPING BY: An artist’s conception of Scholz’s star and its brown dwarf companion during its flyby of the solar system 70,000 years ago. (Photo: Michael Osadciw)

Scientists have identified the closest known flyby of a star to our solar system: a dim star that passed through the solar system’s distant cloud of comets 70,000 years ago.

Lead author Eric Mamajek, associate professor of physics and astronomy, and his collaborators analyzed the velocity and trajectory of a low-mass star system nicknamed “Scholz’s star” in a paper published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The star’s trajectory suggests that it passed roughly 0.8 light-years, or five trillion miles, away from the solar system. That may not sound like a close call, but astronomically, it is. Our closest neighbor star, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 light-years away.

To work out the trajectory of Scholz’s star, astronomers from the United States, Europe, Chile, and South Africa used measurements taken with large telescopes in South Africa and Chile. From the information they pieced together, they figured out that the star was moving away from the solar system and traced it back in time to its position 70,000 years ago, when their models indicated it came closest to our sun.

The star is now a small, dim red dwarf in the constellation of Monoceros, about 20 light-years away. —Leonor Sierra

Water Cooler Trumps Tweets

Watching a television program isn’t what it used to be. In the era of social media and streaming, viewers don’t gather around the water cooler at the office to discuss plot twists and turns in a favorite program broadcast the night before.

Or do they?

New research from the Simon Business School suggests that social media don’t rule the tube and word-of-mouth still holds more influence over viewers.

While social media—especially Twitter—can benefit a show in real time, word-of-mouth has greater power to influence a person to watch a new program.

The study—by Mitchell Lovett, associate professor of marketing, and colleague Renana Peres at Hebrew University of Jerusalem—comes out of a collaboration between the pair and the Keller Fay Group, a marketing research company, and the Council for Research Excellence.

They found that for both regular and infrequent viewers of a program, offline word-of-mouth communication most strongly influences viewing.

For those who watch infrequently, social media communications are more influential than promotions, but for repeat viewers, the opposite is true.

—Charla Kucko

Dangers Found in E-Cigarettes

While a debate goes on about whether electronic cigarettes help people quit smoking, new research suggests that e-cigarettes are likely a toxic replacement for tobacco.

According to the study led by Irfan Rahman, professor of environmental medicine, and published in the journal PLOS One, emissions from e-cigarette aerosols and flavorings damage lung cells by creating harmful free radicals and inflammation in lung tissue. The investigation suggests that harm begins when the e-cigarette’s heating element is activated, turning a liquid solution into an aerosol that mimics cigarette smoke. The inhaled vapors contain heavy metals and other possible carcinogens in the form of nanoparticles.

“Several leading medical groups, organizations, and scientists are concerned about the lack of restrictions and regulations for e-cigarettes,” says Rahman, adding that his group’s research affirms that e-cigarettes pose significant health risks and should be investigated further.

The biggest concern is for users under age 18. E-liquid flavorings marketed to kids and teens include fruit, dessert, and candy, and are widely available in convenience stores, gas stations, and online. Sales in the United States are estimated to exceed $1 billion. —Leslie Orr

Inventors Make a Protean Production

Although most materials slightly expand when heated, a new class of rubber-like material not only self-stretches upon cooling, but also reverts back to its original shape when heated—all without any physical manipulation.

Mitchell Anthamatten, associate professor of chemical engineering, led development of the material, which can be switched between two different shapes—and is distinctive because the shape changes occur without altering any external factors besides heat.

The research was published in the journal ACS Macro Letters.

Anthamatten and his team built on the success of a recently developed polymer that can also stretch when cooled.

The other polymers rely on small weights to direct them in taking new shapes. That’s not the case with the Rochester polymer because the team built a network of molecules in the polymer to create permanent stress inside the material, which “tricked” the polymer into acting as if weights were attached.

The stress enables the material to “remember” the shape it will assume when it’s later cooled.

Anthamatten envisions the material being applied to areas in which reversible shape-changes are needed, such as biotechnology, artificial muscles, and robotics.

—Peter Iglinski

ASK THE ARCHIVIST

What’s the Fate of the Carnegie Building?

A question for Melissa Mead, the John M. and Barbara Keil University Archivist and Rochester Collections Librarian.

ataCARNEGIE ON CAMPUS: Opened in 1911 on the Prince Street Campus as the first home of Rochester’s engineering programs, the Carnegie Building (above) eventually became a residence hall for students in the College for Women (below). After a fire this winter, the building, owned by private developers, was torn down. (Photo: University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation)

On January 27, 2015, an early morning fire gutted the Carnegie Building on the University’s original Prince Street Campus. Although the building had not been University property for almost 60 years, the event was widely noted by alumni, staff, and Rochesterians for whom it had long been a familiar sight on Goodman Street between University and Prince streets. A note from Deanne Molinari ’58 captures the concern: “Carnegie was the dorm and first exposure to the University for many women students. For the Class of 1958, it has resonance because we were the last class of women to enter on the Prince Street Campus before the merger with the College for Men. I believe classmates and others would be interested in the building’s fate.”

In 1905, Andrew Carnegie promised the University $100,000 toward the construction and furnishing of an engineering building—the seventh building on the Prince Street Campus—if the University could raise the same amount to be added to its endowment to support a Department of Applied Sciences.

ata (Photo: University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation)

According to Arthur May’s A History of the University of Rochester, President Rush Rhees was interested in expanding the sciences at the University. The Eastman Building, with facilities for physics and biology, was nearing completion, which meant that George Eastman was unlikely to contribute; another major donor at the time, Hiram W. Sibley, had already committed to renovate the library in Sibley Hall, which had been initially funded by his father.

Sibley suggested that Rhees contact John D. Rockefeller Sr. Previous direct appeals to Rockefeller had not borne fruit, but working with alumnus Frederick Taylor Gates, Class of 1877, who headed the Rockefeller-funded General Education Board, Rhees and others secured a portion of the necessary matching funds—and perhaps equally important, the foundation was laid for the relationship that would culminate in a far larger grant to fund the School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1920.

Almost four years would pass before the money was in hand and plans could move forward. A front page article in the September 30, 1909, Campus proclaimed that Millard Ernsberger, Class of 1888, had been hired to lead the new program of study. Course offerings included statics and kinetics, drawing, hydraulics, thermodynamics, and materials science, but would not be all technical: Ernsberger, the Campus reported, “is an earnest believer in the value of a broad cultural education as a foundation for special work.”

ataFAIR PLACE: The last professor hired by President Martin Brewer Anderson in 1888, geolo-gist Herman Fairchild was a fixture in the Carnegie Building even after retiring in 1920. (Photo: University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation)

The building was described in the 1911–12 Undergraduate Bulletin as having a footprint of 63 feet by 123 feet: “[a]ll steam and water piping, and all electric conduits throughout the building are exposed, thus forming a valuable adjunct to instruction.” The basement housed engineering laboratories, including steam engines, while the first floor had lecture and recitation rooms, a computing room, and a cement-testing lab. Three large drafting rooms with “multi-part-desks” for technical drawing, recitation rooms, and a blueprint room occupied the second floor. The first students to receive degrees with a major in mechanical engineering graduated in 1914.

The River Campus opened in 1930, and included a new engineering building (named in 1949 for Joseph Gavett Jr.). Carnegie was renovated to provide spaces suitable for instruction in psychology, sociology, and geology. Steam pipes were replaced with radiators, plumbing and electricity were upgraded, and fire escapes were added.

More changes occurred during World War II. For the first three decades of its existence, the College for Women was largely a commuter school. Then between 1930 and 1944, there was a 700 percent increase in resident students. A total of 288 women—more than one half of the enrollment—sought a residential college experience. To help accommodate the growing enrollment, the upper floor of Carnegie was converted to house 60 women, at a very modest 80 square feet (or less) per student, including bed and nightstand.

With the merger of the colleges in 1955, most of the University’s properties on the Prince Street Campus were sold and a variety of businesses and their staffs have occupied the spaces. Andrew Carnegie’s name continues at the University as a professorship in physics, established in 1965 and currently held by Professor Joseph Eberly.

The building was razed after the remaining shell was declared an imminent danger to the public at a City of Rochester hearing in March. If the developer doesn’t repurpose the lintel, inscribed with the word “Carnegie,” it may be “returned” to the University.

IN MEMORIAM

Life of Robert Sproull Celebrated

The University’s seventh president recognized as giant in Rochester’s history.

sproull‘UNCOMMON WISDOM’: The University’s seventh president, Robert Sproull, completed “the evolution of the University to a modern research university,” President Joel Seligman said. (Photo: University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation)

A president whose connections to the University spanned nearly five decades and touched nearly every aspect of today's institution was commemorated this spring as a treasure and a giant in Rochester’s history.

The life of Robert Sproull, the University’s seventh president, was celebrated during a memorial service at the Memorial Art Gallery in April.

President Joel Seligman remembered Sproull as a nationally recognized physicist and educational leader who committed much of his life to the success of Rochester after joining the administration as provost and vice president in 1968.

“For me, he was a man of uncommon wisdom, unending interest in the University, with a wonderful ability to bring to life stories from his time at the helm,” Seligman said.

Sproull, who died last October at the age of 96 (“Remembering Robert Sproull,” November-December 2014), was inaugurated as chief executive in 1975 and served until his retirement in 1984.

His presidency was distinguished by strong support for the humanities and the sciences, especially within undergraduate education, as well as a commitment to maintain the University’s affordability, resisting steep tuition increases. He led a capital campaign that ended in 1980 and exceeded the $102 million goal set in 1975.

Sproull championed the creation of the Laboratory for Laser Energetics in 1970. In 2005, the Center for Ultra High Intensity Laser Research there was named in his honor. During his tenure, he was credited with managing campus unrest resulting from the Vietnam War in ways that prevented tensions from escalating and with piloting the University through a period of double-digit inflation.

Seligman noted that Sproull recognized the complicating nature of the social and economic circumstances of his time as president, but he didn’t waver in moving the University forward.

“These external realities make all the more impressive Bob’s success in completing the evolution of the University to a modern research university,” Seligman said.

Sproull and his wife, Mary, were married for 70 years before she died in 2012 at age 93. She was a talented painter, and the couple supported arts and education, including the Memorial Art Gallery. In 1999 they endowed the position of dean of the faculty of Arts, Sciences & Engineering, now held by Provost Peter Lennie.

—Scott Hauser

ADMINISTRATION

A Not-So-Hidden Passion

The Memorial Art Gallery’s new director looks to expand a cultural and creative footprint.

Interview by Kathleen McGarvey

binstockCONNECTIONS: Jonathan Binstock, new director of the MAG, says that forging relationships with community members who aren’t regular gallery-goers is part of his plan for the institution—as is learning from them what they want from the MAG. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Jonathan Binstock, the new Mary W. and Donald R. Clark Director of the Memorial Art Gallery, says that expanding the ranks of gallery-goers and drawing on the creative lives of Rochesterians are among his top goals. Binstock succeeds Grant Holcomb, who led the gallery for almost 29 years. Before his arrival in Rochester as the seventh director in the more than 100-year history of the gallery, Binstock was a senior vice president and senior advisor in modern and contemporary art for Citi Private Bank’s Art Advisory & Finance group. He also has more than a decade of curatorial work in major American museums, including the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He holds a doctorate in art history from the University of Michigan.

How do you see your role as director of the gallery?

Essentially what we have here is a very solid museum, with a strong following, that enjoys a tremendous amount of love and goodwill from a very supportive community. My role? Imagine a satellite circling the earth—my role is to turn on the turbo boosters and elevate the satellite to a new level, so that there’s a bigger audience, a bigger budget, and a bigger profile for a museum that enjoys even more love and support.

All is well and good at the MAG. The question is, what’s it going to be in five to 10 years? That’s my job: to move the museum to a new level.

What is that new level?

Five to 10 years from now, I want to see MAG at the center of the conversation for creativity in the region. And I want to see MAG as a national model for how a regional museum can expand the cultural footprint of a city.

We’ve launched a new program called “Hidden Passions: Inspiring Conversations about Hyphenated Lives.” It began in March, and we bring in people from the community who are passionately creative and innovative and give them a forum in which to share that passion and creativity. There are a lot of people who do one thing during the day, and something entirely different in the evenings and on weekends. That’s what the program is about. We have a private investigator who’s also a cuatro guitar maker, for example, and an industrial designer who’s also a bonsai tree sculptor. This is an opportunity for the public to share their visions for a creative world with us and with each other.

What are some of the opportunities and the challenges MAG faces?

The opportunities are there for a regional museum to be integral to the cultural life of a community, and to be relevant to that community—and when I say community, I mean everyone who lives there. Rochester is a great place to live for a variety of reasons. The MAG is one of those reasons. So how do we expand that?

One of our great challenges is one that almost every museum faces: getting people’s attention in a world that’s full of distractions. Part of this challenge involves how to think about the gap between technologically mediated experience and the authentic experience of time, space, and the material world as an opportunity rather than a limitation.

How does new technology figure in your current and future plans?

Artists are making art that often involves new technology and new media. Those artworks can live on the web, and also in the space of a gallery. Museums that want to show contemporary art are obligated to evolve their exhibition capabilities—their ability to manage and display works of art made up of new media.

On another front there are many museums that use new media and technology in the galleries as educational tools and exhibition interfaces. The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City just reopened with an incredibly complex, exciting, and cutting-edge new media educational interface. All of these possibilities are rich with potential, but there is yet another way to approach technology in the museum context. I think people are looking for reasons to put down their smartphones and tablets. They’re hungry for experiences that illuminated screens can’t provide. I love the idea of people sharing their visits to our museum through social media—I myself am a big Instagrammer—but I don’t think we should assume that they need or want to experience the museum primarily through the lens of a digital display.

We’re creating a new committee dedicated to imagining the future and enhancing the museum’s relevance to broader audiences. There are lots of things for people to do on the weekends—watch football, go to the movies, go to another museum, see a performance, go shopping. The question is, how do we help people see the pleasure and value of what we have and do here at the museum? We started with a roundtable discussion to reach out to members of the millennial generation, and we’re going to have another. The new committee will be a forum for debating the relevance of a new program idea, a new event idea, a new exhibition idea, and so on—and imagine new ways of connecting people to what’s going on at the museum.

You’ve talked about reaching broad audiences. How effectively are you doing that?

We’re not reaching a broad swath of the community as well as we would like. That’s what we’re working on. We have a great population of supporters and audience members. We bring in over 9,000 public and private school students a year. We have over 900 volunteers who donate almost 39,000 hours of their time a year—it’s one of the highest rates of volunteer participation in the country.

We have a membership of more than 4,600 individual and corporate supporters, which is also one of the highest per capita memberships in the country. We have the M&T Bank Clothesline Festival, which brings in 25,000 people over a weekend. The list goes on. But we also realize that our audience is primarily an aging demographic, and we have to think about who our audience will be in 10, 20, or 30 years’ time. So we’re reaching out to the University, and to young professionals and millennials, and inviting them to add their voices here on the inside rather than just creating programs for them that we think they will appreciate. The truth is, we really don’t know what the right program is, and we want their help. That’s what “Hidden Passions” is about. It’s about bringing people onto the stage who are part of the community but with whom we don’t connect as well as we would like to—and giving them an opportunity to share with us what is really important to them.

How does this new job relate to those you’ve previously held?

A classic trajectory for a museum director is to come up through the curatorial ranks, and I certainly have that background. I think about exhibitions, arts education, and building our permanent collection. My work at Citibank gave me exposure to the world of private collectors, and to how massive corporations work, how they drive performance, and how they measure success. As a museum director and CEO, I also am obligated to make sure the museum is functioning well in all of its business functions, including fundraising, marketing, and revenue, and in the culture of the place.

What I have always enjoyed but didn’t get to do as much at Citibank—but did a lot of in my curatorial jobs—is building community and playing a public role in the cultural conversation. Rochester is a fantastic opportunity for me to really have an impact and to do something that potentially changes how art is viewed in this town.

And how is it viewed?

It’s a very strong place for culture. There’s a lot of sympathy for the arts here, from theater to music to dance to visual arts. It’s very rich in that regard.

What has most surprised you at the gallery since you arrived?

I’m less surprised than impressed—impressed by how dedicated people are to this museum and its success. We just celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Gallery Council, which is an incredible network of people loyal and giving of their time and money to the institution. We have a staff that works mightily out of love to advance the mission of this place, and we have patrons who give generously and professionals who give in-kind support. I’ve been very moved by this outpouring of goodwill.

What do you love about art and art museums?

I love the fact that what I do for work and what I do for pleasure are exactly the same things. I’m all about art. When I travel or go on vacation to a city, that’s what I look for. I’m very fortunate to be able to spend my workdays thinking about art and how to move an art museum forward. I guess it’s for this reason that I don’t have a hidden passion. My work is my passion.

Breast Cancer Imaging System Earns FDA Approval

cancerDIAGNOSTIC DEVICE: Ruola Ning (right) worked with Avice O’Connell of UR Medicine and other investigators to develop a new system for imaging breast cancer. The system was given FDA approval to begin commercialization. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

A breast-cancer imaging system invented by a Medical Center professor and designed to diagnose complex cancers is moving into commercial production.

The system, designed by Ruola Ning, a professor in the Department of Imaging Sciences, received premarket approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this winter.

The stringent approval process required extensive clinical study.

Ning, the president and founder of the Medical Center start-up Koning Corporation, began working on the system, called the Koning Breast CT, in a small lab at the Medical Center more than a decade ago.

Using cone beam CT technology—an imaging system that disperses x-rays in the shape of a large cone instead of in narrow beams—the new system can create 3-D images of the entire volume of a breast without compressing tissue the way traditional mammograms do.

A patient lies on her stomach on an ergonomic examination table as one breast at a time is suspended through an opening in the table. The cone-beam shaped radiation source is positioned beneath the table to avoid exposing the chest and torso to radiation.

The system creates clear,  high-contrast images that are capable of characterizing suspicious tissue and highlighting very small lesions, which are sometimes more treatable.

While not intended to be used for breast cancer screening, or to replace mammography, the new system is designed to diagnose cancer in women who have signs or symptoms of the disease, or who have abnormal findings after a standard screening mammogram.

During clinical studies, Koning partnered with Avice O’Connell, the director of Women’s Imaging at UR Medicine.

They were joined by investigators from Elizabeth Wende Breast Care in Rochester, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Emory University.

—Leslie Orr

New Dean Leads School of Arts & Sciences

inbriefNEW DEAN: Noted biologist Gloria Culver was named dean of the School of Arts & Sciences this spring. (Photo: Brandon Vick)

A former chair of the Department of Biology has been appointed dean of the School of Arts & Sciences. Gloria Culver ’94 (PhD), who joined the faculty in 2007, has served as interim dean since last July.

Her appointment followed a national search for a successor to former dean Joanna Olmsted, who spent two decades in University leadership roles and became dean in 2007.

William FitzPatrick, the Gideon Webster Burbank Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, chaired the search committee. He noted that Culver combined a strong profile as a researcher with an understanding of and appreciation for the school’s wide range of disciplines.

“It was important to the committee that the new dean have a broad and supportive vision for Arts & Sciences as a whole,” he said, “and Gloria embraces that inclusive perspective, with a commitment, for example, to finding ways to increase the profile of the humanities here in a time of decreasing enrollments nationwide.”

Before coming to Rochester, Culver was a faculty member in the Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology at Iowa State University. After a bachelor’s degree from Ithaca College, she earned her doctorate in biochemistry at Rochester.

Her research has contributed to understanding how infections might be controlled through inhibiting ribosomal assembly, which has implications for reducing harmful bacteria, including so-called “super-bugs.” Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, and the National Science Foundation.

University Establishes Center to Enhance the Study of the Humanities

A new center to enhance the study of the humanities at Rochester while strengthening ties to related disciplines has been established.

Gloria Culver, the newly appointed dean of the School of Arts & Sciences, announced the new Humanities Center this spring, noting that it would support multidisciplinary engagement around literature, history, the arts, and philosophies of culture, past and present.

Joan Shelley Rubin, the Dexter Perkins Professor in History and the history department’s director of graduate studies, will serve as the interim director of the center, which will organize research projects, seminars, and symposia around a first-year theme of “Humanities at the Crossroads: Charting Our Future.”

The center will also establish positions for junior faculty fellows, an initiative supported for its first three years by a gift from Jay ’51 and Deborah Last to strengthen the humanities.

The center is the latest in a series of efforts focusing on the humanities, all of which will work with the new center.

In 2006, President Joel Seligman established the Humanities Project to support multidisciplinary work in the humanities in the College.

That same year, the University, along with Syracuse and Cornell, formed the Central New York Humanities Corridor to support interdisciplinary collaboration.

And this spring, the Digital Humanities Center announced a new effort in digital scholarship (see page 23).

Institute Aims to Raise Profile of and Participation in Performing Arts

The River Campus will have a new center for performance programs to bring together the disciplines of music, theater, and dance in collaborative ventures, Dean of Arts & Sciences Gloria Culver announced this spring.

The Institute for Performing Arts is being established to inspire students with and without prior training or experience to explore a broad range of performing arts.

Culver says a majority of students who participate in the performing arts on the River Campus are nonmajors, and she intends the institute to make it easier for students to take part in creative performance and collaboration and to develop their artistic interests.

Housed in the renovated Todd Theater, the institute is also intended to foster faculty collaboration and entrepreneurship in the performing arts as well as to provide resources and space to pursue artistic initiatives.

Home of the International Theatre Program, Todd has undergone recent renovations and improvements, including the creation of new performance and rehearsal space.

The improvements were made possible by support from University Trustee Tom Sloan ’65, ’67 (MS) and his wife, Linda Fisher Sloan ’67.

New Collaborative Space Named for Trustee Evans Lam

A space in Rush Rhees Library will become a central location for library users to do research, collaborate on projects, explore new technology, and unwind, thanks to a $1 million commitment from University Trustee Evans Lam ’83, ’84S (MBA) and his wife, Susanna.

The area will be named Evans Lam Square and will house technology-enhanced spaces that facilitate in-depth research consultations with librarians.

The couple established the Evans and Susanna Lam Library Revitalization Fund, which will support the modernization of the patron services area in Rush Rhees Library.

Evans Lam Square will be located off the Roger B. Friedlander Lobby of the library.

Evans Lam is senior vice president of wealth management and senior portfolio manager at UBS Financial Services Inc. in Pasadena, California. Susanna Lam is a retired CPA, as well as an accomplished Chinese opera singer and performer.

University Launches Center for Renewable Energy

Scholars, researchers, and resources from more than 15 academic departments and multiple schools are coming together to create the Center for Energy and Environment, an effort to improve energy systems and to understand the impacts of energy technologies on the environment and human health.

Carmala Garzione, chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, will direct the center. Existing programs in advanced materials, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and the Goergen Institute for Data Science, as well as the Laboratory of Laser Energetics, will support the center in its mission.

Greene Career Center Has New Director

inbriefCAREER COUNSEL: College career services advisor Joe Testani is the new director of the Gwen M. Greene Career and Internship Center. (Photo: VCU)

A career services advisor with more than 15 years of experience working with college students will take over as director of the Gwen M. Greene Career and Internship Center in June.

Joe Testani, most recently the director of Virginia Commonwealth University’s career center, has earned a reputation for developing and using measures to monitor career patterns and outcomes for graduates.

At VCU, Testani also developed and led the Career Council, an institution-wide collaboration to coordinate career services and resources for a range of constituents. He also was selected last year to participate in a Fulbright International Education Administrators seminar in Germany.

Before heading the program at VCU, he held career services roles at the University of Richmond and at Yale. A graduate of Binghamton University, he received a master’s degree in higher education administration from Indiana University.

The Greene Center focuses on career coaching and counseling, internship and job search planning, and graduate and professional school advising for students and alumni. Testani succeeds Burt Nadler, who is retiring after 16 years as director.

Library Project to Boost Digital Scholarship

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded the River Campus Libraries a grant to fund a pilot program designed to strengthen librarians’ skills in digital scholarship.

The program, called “21st-Century Skills: Digital Humanities Institute for Mid-Career Librarians” will begin during the summer.

The pilot institute will provide a three-day residential immersion experience and a yearlong online component for 20 mid-career librarians who will be selected from across the United States and Canada.

Participants will develop proficiency in project management, copyright and fair use, and metadata literacy while also bolstering their technology skills and exploring areas of digital humanities scholarship.

The institute’s instructors will include Rochester faculty, River Campus Libraries staff, University Mellon fellows in digital humanities, and postdoctoral fellows in a program funded by the Council on Library and Information Resources. The full institute is expected to be launched in 2016.

The Digital Humanities Center in Rush Rhees Library has collaborated with faculty in Arts, Sciences & Engineering since 2010.

University Is a Tree Campus USA for Fifth Year

The Arbor Day Foundation has recognized the University with a Tree Campus USA designation for the fifth straight year. A national program created in 2008, Tree Campus USA honors colleges and universities committed to effective urban forest management and the engagement of staff and students in conservation goals.

The Horticulture and Grounds Department achieved the title again by meeting the program’s five standards, which include maintaining a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan, dedicated annual expenditures for trees, an Arbor Day observance, and student service-learning projects.

The University is home to more than 1,400 trees of 116 different species. To view a tree tour video, as well as additional information on the University’s arboretum, visit http://www.facilities.rochester.edu/arboretum/.

GLOBAL ROCHESTER

Japan

Koichi Tadenuma ’89 (PhD) leads a unique Japanese university.

globalPRESIDENTIAL PERFORMANCE: Tadenuma, an economist, is the new president of Hitotsubashi University, Japan’s leading university to specialize in the social sciences. (Photo: Hitotsubashi University)

As the new president at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, Koichi Tadenuma ’89 (PhD) is focusing on the global impact of the school, which specializes in the social sciences—the leading university in the country to do so—and has campuses in three areas of the Japanese capital city.

Elected last year, Tadenuma aims to “increase the number of research fields at our university that are ranked within the top 100 in world university rankings,” adding that it’s a goal held by university presidents across Japan. The school has about 6,400 students, of whom 700 are international students.

Established in 1875 as a commercial training school, the school became Tokyo University of Commerce in 1920. Just three years later, an earthquake destroyed all of its buildings except for the library. It moved to its present location, Kunitachi—about 15 miles west of central Tokyo—in 1930 and took the name Hitotsubashi in 1949, from an education district near the Imperial Palace where it was located in its early days. One of the first Japanese schools to adopt the American education system introduced after World War II, the school is made up of 12 main units: four faculties, seven graduate schools, and one institute, the Institute of Economic Research.

Tadenuma earned his doctorate in economics at Rochester, and says that his economics training serves him well in the presidency. “Economics seeks an optimal system or mechanism that achieves the best consequence under given budget constraints. I believe that this way of thinking that I learned in economics is also useful for managing a university.”

Tadenuma returned to Japan from Rochester, becoming an assistant professor at Hitotsubashi in 1990 and receiving promotion to full rank eleven years later. In 2011, he became dean of the Graduate School of Economics.

He credits his Rochester doctoral advisor, William Thompson, the Elmer B. Milliman Professor of Economics—with whom he is now a coauthor—with teaching him “all the ‘musts’ for researchers: being curious, finding a problem, building a model, thinking logically, and interpreting results. The wealth of invaluable advice and support he gave me is my treasure for life.”

While research is dear to Tadenuma’s heart, leading the university turns out to be something of a family tradition: his father, legal scholar Kenichi Tadenuma, was president from 1977 to 1980.

“I saw my father take on the job of president at the sacrifice of the research that he loved. I was put in the same position when I was nominated for president. Having seen my father’s situation, I needed some time to consider before deciding, but a sense of responsibility eventually made me accept the nomination.” —Kathleen McGarvey﻿﻿

Simon School Has New NYC Location

Site at New York Law School in Tribeca capitalizes on resources of both programs.

simon (Illustration: Steve Boerner)

The Simon Business School is on the move in New York City, changing its location this summer from a commercial office building in midtown Manhattan to the Tribeca campus of New York Law School, subject to approval by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

The agreement between the two institutions is a creative, multiyear arrangement that aims to optimize resources and capitalize on the different schedules and programs of the two institutions. Simon offers courses in the city for 13-month, part-time graduate programs designed for working professionals, with master’s programs in finance, management, and health care management. Simon students attend classes primarily on weekends, while students of the law school are in class largely during the week.

The move is intended to provide Simon students with a comprehensive learning environment, with direct access to Wall Street, the city’s civic center, and its technology corridor. The partnership will create the only co-located law school and business school under one roof in New York City. The schools will also work on developing opportunities for legal coursework for Simon students and business education for the law students.

—Charla Kucko

BY THE NUMBERS

First Day of Giving Finds Success

tagdayEVER GRATEFUL: Elizabeth Hecht ’16 (left, above), Alayna Hauke ’16 (left, below), Sarah Krulik ’17 (right), and University Dean Paul Burgett ’68E, ’76E (PhD) get into the sharing spirit at a photo station in Wilson Commons, one of several events where members of the University community celebrated Thank a Giver Day and the Day of Giving. (Photo: Jan Regan)

In late April, members of the University community—alumni, students, faculty, staff, parents, and friends —worked together in a 24-hour effort to encourge support for the University’s programs.

The first Day of Giving—taking place in conjunction with the first Thank A Giver Day—resulted in more than $750,000 in support. Here’s a look at the day’s numbers:

Day of Giving

More than 1,000 donors made gifts.

More than $739,000 was donated as of the end of the day.

More than $11,000 came from 151 donors contacted by student callers.

Thank A Giver (TAG) Day

More than 550 tags were placed throughout the River Campus to highlight facilities that were funded by donors.

100s of students participated in TAG Day activities.

For more about the day’s events, including photos, social media, and other information, visit www.rochester.edu/giving/dayofgiving.

Track Coach John Izzo Retires

izzo (Photo: Athletics and Recreation)

FINISH LINE: Longtime men’s track and cross country coach John Izzo will retire at the end of the spring 2015 track season. Izzo, who joined the Yellowjacket staff in 2000, coaches men’s cross country and both men’s and women’s track and field. The indoor track and field teams gave him early retirement presents when the men won the New York state championship and the women finished third at the ECAC championships.﻿﻿

SPRING SPORTS

Yellowjackets Look to Postseason

As April drew to a close, baseball was hopeful of joining softball and lacrosse in Liberty League playoffs, which start for all three sports in May.

Softball split a doubleheader with RIT (9–1, 0–1), then swept St. Lawrence (4–0, 4–3) to wrap up the No. 1 seed in the Liberty League playoffs. Rochester was ranked second in the Northeast Regional rankings done by the NCAA Division III Softball Championships Committee. Brittany Grage ’15 was among the Division III leaders in home runs (14) and RBIs (54). She was hitting .434. Also leading the Yellowjackets in batting average were Shelby Corning ’17 (.414), Sarah Wayson ’15 (.372), and Lauren Muni ’16 (.382).

Baseball rode a school record 17-game winning streak to a mark of 24–11. As late April approached, Rochester was 15–5 in the Liberty League. The team stood out defensively, turning 45 double plays and throwing out 17 base stealers. A solid pitching staff was led by Josh Schulman ’15 (5–3, 2.61 ERA, 3 shutouts) and Evan Janifer ’16 (5–1, 1.91 ERA, 2 shutouts, one save). Four were hitting .341 or higher: Jake Meyerson ’16 (.402), Tyler Schmidt ’18 (.365), Sam Slutsky (.357), and Brian Munoz ’15 (.341). The top run producers were Nolan Schultz ’16 (33 RBIs) and Brendan Garry ’15 (7 HRs, 27 RBIs).

Lacrosse scored a dramatic 10-9 victory over RIT in the last game of the regular season to secure a Liberty League playoff bid. Madeline Levy ’18 scored with 46 seconds left to snap a 9–9 tie. The offense came from Jamie Wallisch ’17 (37 goals, 17 assists, 54 points), Lauren Basil ’15 (29–8–37), Mara Karpp ’17 (12–21–33), Elisabeth Watson ’16 (20–5–25), and Madeline Levy ’18 (20–4–24). In goal, Maire Prosak ’16 made 78 saves and had an 8.86 goals-against average.

Men’s and women’s outdoor track and field were prepping for the New York state championships at St. Lawrence in early May. Boubacar Diallo ’16 posted the second-longest triple jump in Division III this season when he cleared 48 feet, 9.5 inches (14.87 meters). That’s also the second-longest jump in Rochester’s history. The longest belongs to Anthony Palumbo ’74, ’84 (PhD), who cleared 49 feet, 11 inches (15.21 meters) in 1974. He won the NCAA Division III national championship that year. The women’s team was hopeful of building on a third-place finish at the ECAC indoor championships. Through mid-April, Rochester hit more than 10 ECAC qualifying marks. Alexandra Goldman ’15 qualified in both the discus throw and the shot put. Emily VanDenburgh ’16 qualified in the long jump. The 4-by-400-meter relay also qualified.

Men’s and women’s tennis played in the UAA championships in Florida. The men were led by Ian Baranowski ’16 with 17 singles wins. Johnny Baker ’17 and Julian Danko ’15 had 15 singles victories. Baranowski was the top winner in doubles. He was 16–8 teamed with Aaron Mevorach ’18. Danko and Ben Shapiro ’16 were 14–7.

The women beat seven of nine regional opponents and stood at 8–8 after a first-round loss in the UAA championships. The individual winners were Molly Goodman ’16 (17 singles wins), Christine Ho ’16 (12), and Dorothy Tai ’17 (10). Alex Wolkoff ’18 and Lauren Zickar ’17 had 12 doubles wins. Tai and Goodman had 10.

In golf, Rochester won the UAA team title by five strokes over Carnegie Mellon. Dominic Schumacher ’16 finished second overall. Luis Arteaga ’18 and Jona Scott ’17 finished fifth. All three earned first team all–UAA honors. The Yellowjackets hosted the Liberty League championships in late April. Schumacher earned first team honors and Arteaga and G. W. VanderZwaag ’16 were named to the second team.

During the last weekend of April, Rochester’s rowing team was competing in the Liberty League championships with an NCAA berth going to the league champion. The Yellowjackets were ranked as highly as No. 11 in Division III in mid-spring.

—Dennis O’Donnell﻿﻿

The Next Level

A leadership white paper explores the University’s plans for the rest of the decade.

By Joel Seligman

Throughout our years together, we have sought to be a University whose quality places it among the leading research universities in this country, consistent with our core values of academic excellence, academic freedom, diversity, and commitment to our community.

In the past 10 years, we have become a stronger University with the successful initiation and financing of major new projects in the Medical Center and each school.

This year we are celebrating how far we have come.

We are ready for the Next Level.

During 2016–2020, before we are likely to initiate our next capital campaign, the senior leadership and I will work to articulate the key University initiatives that we believe will be most effective in accelerating our progress.

We view these key University initiatives as having three characteristics: (1) an ennobling social purpose; (2) where the University can make a material difference; (3) necessarily at sufficient scale.

Rigorously applying these criteria, we particularly commend four new or enhanced major initiatives:

next_levelDealing with Data: Physics doctoral student Jim Baker examines data sets from his research at the VISTA Collaboratory, a 1,000-square-foot visualization display that renders massive data sets in real time. The resource gives faculty and researchers the ability to visualize and analyze complex data instantaneously and collaboratively with colleagues and students. Baker is working with Benjamin Miller, associate director of the Health Sciences Center for Computational Innovation and professor of dermatology, biochemistry and biophysics, and biomedical engineering, to develop optical biosensors small enough and sensitive enough to detect individual viruses or virus particles that are only one ten-millionth of a meter in size. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Data Science

Once we raise the additional $50 million sought in our October 2013 strategic plan, we still will have a long way to go to fully be one of the nation’s leading data science programs. A major effort here is essential. Information technology is redefining the way we think, analyze information, and make decisions. Data science is ubiquitous. We would like to focus on specific areas in which we are most likely to achieve best in class or near best in class programs:

Predictive Health Analytics

Some of the biggest advances in health care will come from using data to predict individual health outcomes on the basis of treatments, genomics, as well as lifestyle and behavioral factors. We will build on programs at the Medical Center to utilize data science and biomedical informatics to improve health and health care delivery. The Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s Bioinformatics Group, for example, provides systems and support to enhance research and data acquisition from the Medical Center’s health records system. Professor Henry Kautz, the Robin and Tim Wentworth Director of the Institute for Data Science, is a nationally recognized leader in data mining social media to identify global disease outbreaks in their earliest stages.

Cognitive Systems and Artificial Intelligence

The University has long been home to internationally recognized research in cognitive science and artificial intelligence. Modeling and replicating human perception is an illustration of one of the most ambitious domains in data science. To illustrate, Rajeev Raizada, assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences, uses magnetic resonance imaging analysis to understand the way the brain encodes and processes information. This type of work in the next decades will provide the foundation for neuroscientists to use brain scans to diagnose the underlying causes of learning disabilities such as dyslexia and to detect impairments before children struggle or fail in school.

Analytics on Demand

The ultimate goal for large-scale data analysis is to relieve the end user from the need to understand details of a platform in order to have the computer system determine the optimal use of resources. Sandhya Dwarkadas, chair of the Department of Computer Science, for example, works at the interface of hardware and software. A focus of her research is scalable support for parallelism—that is, communication and coordination mechanisms that allow computational tasks to be executed simultaneously, easily and in a portable manner. Her research helps build the basic infrastructure needed to help end users, such as medical practitioners, extract scientific knowledge from data. Along with Professor Michael Scott, Dwarkadas helped pioneer a revolutionary new approach to parallel computing called “transactional memory.” In 2011, IBM’s BlueGeneQ became the world first computer to implement hardware transactional memory.

next_levelMaking Sense of Neurological Disorders: In a promising approach that tries to take advantage of a genetic flaw at the root of one form of muscular dystrophy, Charles Thornton, the Saunders Family Distinguished Professor in Neuromuscular Research—shown here with Kirti Bhatt, a technical associate in Thornton’s lab—is exploring ways to modify RNA that interferes with the ability of muscle cells to communicate properly. By targeting the problematic RNA, Medical Center researchers hope they can induce the cells to function properly, reversing the effects of myotonic muscular dystrophy. (Photo: Medical Center)

Neuroscience and Neuromedicine

The brain has a unique ability to “rewire” and heal itself in response to injury, disease, and normal aging—a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity. New technologies such as robotics, neural prosthetics, and stem cell biology, together with advances in functional brain imaging and the cognitive sciences, portend major advances early in the 21st century in neuroscience and neuromedicine. Our University has outstanding neuromedicine clinical programs, a world-class brain and cognitive sciences infrastructure, as well as basic and translational neuroscience research programs which address learning and memory, brain development, and fundamental wet-bench research into neural structure and function. These strengths will be further enhanced with the priority that the Medical Center has attached to the recruitment of an outstanding inaugural science director for the Del Monte Neuromedicine Institute and the recently announced Rochester Neurorestorative Institute.

We particularly will focus on three applications of neuroplasticity:

Stroke and Neurorestoration

Stroke is the leading cause of major disability in our country and the fourth leading cause of death.

The Medical Center’s Comprehensive Stroke Center offers world-class treatment and prevention of stroke, is the region’s only Comprehensive Stroke Center and has the area’s only dedicated Neuromedicine Intensive Care Unit. The vision of the Medical Center is that all those who suffer strokes will leave the hospital walking, talking, and comprehending. To achieve that, University and Medical Center faculty will collaborate across campus on (1) stroke rescue and secondary stroke prevention, (2) regulating neural regrowth and repair, and (3) ways to preserve and recover higher cognitive and language functions. Research programs in the Rochester Neurorestorative Institute will focus on neural pathways, neural prosthetics, and neuromodulatory devices (human-machine interfaces) and robotics, harnessing the resources of Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences and the School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Institute for Developmental Disabilities

Individuals with developmental disabilities require comprehensive lifelong support that ranges from health, to education and employment, to recreation. The Institute for Developmental Disabilities will provide for the full range of needs of adults and children, including those with autism spectrum disorders—which now affects around 1 in 68 American children. Existing programs at the Medical Center will conduct research into brain development and communication (including the acquisition of language and the processing of sound) as well as studies of neural connectivity and neuroplasticity, and the underlying genetic and cellular root causes of developmental disabilities. The long-range goal is to be at the forefront of efforts to develop new therapies that can better treat or prevent developmental disorders.

Neurodegenerative and Neuromuscular Diseases

Our University is one of the world’s leading research centers in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases and neuromuscular disorders. For Parkinson’s patients, our Deep Brain Stimulation program gives hope and shows promise for treating depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. With respect to Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases, computational models and wearable electronic devices are enabling doctors to develop more personalized therapies for those with movement disorders. Advanced telemedicine is dramatically increasing access to care. At the same time, fundamental research into neural-immune interactions is revealing how the brain becomes damaged as a consequence of chronic neuroinflammation and how neuroplasticity is regulated through the interplay between neurons and immune cells in the brain. Collectively, these combined strengths position our University to take a leadership role in this critically important area.

next_levelFocusing on Performing Arts: Rainya Heath ’14 (left) and Kasandra Reyes ’17 perform a movement exercise during a class taught by dance instructor Darren Stevenson (far right) during a class in the Linda E. Sloan Studio in Todd Union, a rehearsal and student gathering space that opened last year. The renovated space is named in recognition of support from Linda Fisher Sloan ’67 and her husband, University Trustee Tom Sloan ’65, ’67 (MS), and is part of an ongoing initiative to establish facilities for the performing arts on the River Campus. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Humanities and the Performing Arts

Through our classroom experience, scholarship, and creative works, the humanities and the performing arts are essential to the success of virtually every major research university. Our University long has had world-class programs in performing arts through the Eastman School and increasingly has established prowess in Arts, Sciences & Engineering through our music, theater, and dance programs. Our humanities departments long were among the most notable at the University, but particularly in the post-2008 recessionary world, we have seen a decline in student enrollments in the humanities as students have focused more on the career relevance of their studies. We will have stronger students in the professions of medicine, nursing, engineering, business, or law or among those who seek an advanced degree in science or in the humanities if we reaffirm our commitment to the liberal arts ideal of our undergraduate education through major new commitments to the humanities, including the humanities-oriented social sciences and the performing arts at Eastman, the Memorial Art Gallery, and in Arts, Sciences & Engineering. Specifically we recommend:

Creation of an Institute for the Performing Arts on the River Campus that includes music, dance, and theater. This institute will provide a vehicle to enhance our support for the performing arts by making them more visible and prominent both within the University and outside the University. Within Arts, Sciences & Engineering, the institute will strengthen the quality of student life and strengthen cocurricular activities. The institute also will strengthen collaborative bonds among Arts, Sciences & Engineering and the Eastman School and Memorial Art Gallery. Initially the institute will develop a strategic and operational plan. An important step will be to invest in infrastructure for the performing arts. Arts, Sciences & Engineering has developed a plan for a new theater on the River Campus, inspired by the philanthropy of Tom and Linda Sloan. Arts, Sciences & Engineering also is moving to create a new major in dance and is reviewing other curricular initiatives.

Creation of a Humanities Center in Arts, Sciences & Engineering, located in Rush Rhees Library, for students and faculty from all schools in the University. In the humanities and humanities-oriented social sciences, there is a rich history of successful multidisciplinary engagement. We have recognized this in the support we provide through our Humanities Project. Our challenge is to build on the success of our departments and create a Humanities Center that becomes a functional and physical hub of these aspects of multidisciplinary life in the University. This type of approach has been developed at several peer universities. A review of the 26 AAU private research universities, for example, found that 13 had established a Humanities Center to champion the humanities and often also the performing arts through public outreach, curricula, faculty and student support, conferences, workshops, or symposia, often organized around year-long themes, provided support for fellows (both internal and external) and to augment departmental contributions to the undergraduate humanities curriculum. A first step in developing the Humanities Center will be the appointment of a director for the Humanities Center who will work with faculty, students, and key board members on development of a strategic plan that will provide the basis for an enhanced commitment to the humanities and address prioritization of new or augmented programs.

Strengthening programs that involve Arts, Sciences & Engineering and the Eastman School as well as the Memorial Art Gallery. It is anticipated that the Eastman School will complete a new strategic plan and develop a request for proposals for development of Block F, the 1.6-acre undeveloped property near Eastman Theatre on Main Street. The Memorial Art Gallery also is anticipated to revise its strategic plan.

next_levelConnecting with Community: Warner School doctoral student Kristana Textor (center) works with East High School seniors Shanquise Albert (right) and Bejonta Patterson (left) as they work on a project in Science Stars!, a science education program led by April Luehmann, associate professor at the Warner School of Education. The program is one of several that Warner faculty and students undertake throughout the region to help improve education and teaching. Starting in July, the University begins its largest such initiative, when it becomes the administrative leader for East High, working with administrators, teachers, students, staff, and school district officials to improve educational outcomes for students in Greater Rochester’s largest school. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

The Revitalization of Our Community

Progress for our University is bounded by the progress of the Greater Rochester community. The stronger our community is, the stronger the University will be. While Rochester’s suburbs today generally are doing well, the City of Rochester is struggling with the highest rate of extreme poverty of any comparably sized city in the United States. The Rochester City School District perennially has graduation rates below 50 percent. We will focus on three core areas which can contribute to strengthening the Greater Rochester community:

Community Engagement

Virtually every school at the University has developed or is developing ways to strengthen community engagement. The College, for example, has more than 15 volunteer programs that involve placements for undergraduates in the community and in recent years has been notable for pioneering ways to integrate teaching and scholarship with the community. Among other examples, Arts, Sciences & Engineering students study criminal justice in a course taught by Rochester faculty and leaders in the criminal justice system and put their knowledge of biomedical engineering into practice by building adaptive technologies in partnership with faculty and local organizations. The College is currently establishing a Center for Community Engaged Education. The Medical Center continues to play a central role in community health improvement. Recently the Medical Center established the Rochester Center for Health Informatics, whose mission is to use data science to measure, study, and improve population health in our community and to serve as a model for other communities. The Medical Center also has developed STEP, an introductory component of the school’s pipeline programs that involves medical students, residents, and fellows in providing support for underrepresented and economically disadvantaged 7th through 12th graders, and the Center for Community Health, which has become a community leader in expanding and developing community-health partnerships. The frieze of the Eastman Theatre reads, “for the enrichment of community life,” and Eastman’s Community Music School and Eastman Pathways for K-12 students are widely admired. The Memorial Art Gallery hosts more than 9,000 K-12 students a year in its education programs.

K-12 Education

A paradox for Rochester and indeed many cities is that inadequate high school graduation rates often coexist with a growing need for new entrants to the workforce at levels beginning with high school graduation. The Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council has made workforce development a priority. Drawing on the University’s experience developing the detailed Educational Partnership Organization plan for East High School, which incorporates best practices from the most successful public, private, and charter schools, Warner can become a national leader in the development, assessment, and implementation of best practices for public—including charter—and private K-12 schools in our most challenged cities, potentially through the establishment of a Center for the Revitalization of Urban K-12 Schools or through specific new programs.

Entrepreneurship and Economic Development

Job creation and economic development are state and local priorities. The University long has been among the nation’s leaders in patent royalties, regularly placing among the top 15 in the country. We have built on our success as an initial recipient of support from the Kauffman Foundation for campuswide entrepreneurial activity. In recent years we have created the position of vice provost for entrepreneurship, the Technology Development Fund, the Technical Entrepreneurship and Management (TEAM) Program, the Center for Medical Technology Innovation, UR Ventures, Excell Partners, our Entrepreneurs Network, the Center for Business Engagement, and most recently, formally established the Mark Ain Center for Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship and economic development are integral to our success as a University. Late in 2014, with support from the state, our affiliate, High Tech Rochester (HTR), opened offices that will serve as the cornerstone of the city’s new innovation zone. HTR will be housed in 68,000 square feet of the historic Sibley Building in downtown Rochester with new offices that will consist of coworking space, traditional office space, dry and wet labs, conference rooms, and a 100-seat auditorium. The Mark Ain Center for Entrepreneurship will provide more opportunities for students by connecting them to the community through internships, partnerships with community organizations such as the Hillside Work-Scholarship Connection, and helping provide a framework for community organizations to develop entrepreneurial ideas for their own students or organizations. Our student incubator at HTR and the Rush Rhees Library’s proposed iZone further will foster student innovation.

Conclusion

We have progressed in the past 10 years because of the increasingly unified commitment of our board, volunteer leaders, alumni, friends, faculty, students, and staff. The success of The Meliora Challenge Campaign is a testament to the loyalty, generosity, and hard work of all in the Rochester family. As we enter the final 15 months of our Campaign, let us never forget that the human beings who support the University of Rochester are our most valuable resource. Let us always live in the spirit of Meliora and seek to be ever better.

PLANNING PROCESS

The ideas outlined in the Next Level document are grounded in a strategic planning process that began in 2008. Each planning process covered five-year periods:

THE 2008–13 STRATEGIC PLAN

We Have Only But Begun

In 2008 the University, the Medical Center, and each of our schools adopted ambitious strategic plans. We now have achieved virtually all of our 2008 goals:

When normalized for faculty size in 2013, the most recent year for which we have data, we rank 16th in federal research and development expenditures among the 176 topfunded research universities and were awarded $350 million in total sponsored research in 2014.

Our student body has grown from 8,329 total students in 2004 to 11,060 this past fall. Since 2005 we have received $195 million in commitments for scholarships, fellowships, and other support for students.

Undergraduate student quality and diversity have been strengthened. At the College we have seen increases of high school GPAs from 3.56 to 3.83 and the two-score equivalent SAT increase from 1304 to 1375 between 2005 and 2014. Simultaneously the percentage of our underrepresented minority and international students has increased.

Since 2005, applications to the medical school have increased by 39 percent. The medical school acceptance rate is now 5.5 percent, making the school one of the most selective medical schools in the country.

Tenured, tenure-track, medical, and other instructional staff have grown from 2,009 in 2004 to 2,542 in 2014. Since 2005 the University has created or received commitments to create 93 new endowed professorships, deanships, or directorships.

New programs have been developed, including the Health Sciences Center for Computational Innovation, the Clinical Research Institute, the Center for Integrated Research Computing, the Del Monte Neuromedicine Institute, and 17 new majors in Arts, Sciences & Engineering.

Twenty-nine new major facilities projects have been completed, initiated, or planned since 2005 with an aggregate budget of $850 million. Outside the Medical Center this includes Goergen Hall, Eastman Theatre Renovation and Expansion, LeChase Hall, Rettner Hall, and O’Brien Hall.

The Medical Center has been particularly active with several new projects, including the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center (opened in 2008, expanded in 2012), the Saunders Research Building, and the Golisano Children’s Hospital, substantial implementation of the Electronic Medical Records system, and new regional hospital affiliations, most notably F. F. Thompson.

The University facilitated the separately financed development of Brooks Crossing and College Town and worked with local, state, and federal governments to secure funding for the new Interstate 390 road network, which provides the basis for future growth at the University.

We have grown as of December 31, 2014, to be the Greater Rochester region’s largest employer with 26,673 total headcount, an increase of 905 during the past year. This makes the University the 8th largest private employer in New York State and the largest private employer in upstate New York, with an increasing role in the community as the provider of an estimated 50,300 direct and indirect jobs, more than $2.8 billion in direct and spillover wages, $70 million in uncompensated health care in 2011 and since 1996, 58 new start-up companies using University-licensed technology.

We have reduced our endowment payout rate from 6.9 percent in 2000 to 5.8 percent in this year’s budget.

We publicly launched The Meliora Challenge Campaign in October 2011, our first comprehensive capital campaign since 1924. Through December 31, 2014, we have raised $1.172 billion in cash and commitments, or 98 percent of the June 30, 2016, goal of $1.2 billion.

THE 2013–18 STRATEGIC PLAN

Aiming Higher

In 2013 the University, the Medical Center, and each school adopted new strategic plans that emphasize the greatest possible quality in our academic, clinical, and creative arts programs, consistent with cost efficiency. In the University plan:

Our fundamental objective is to strengthen our position as one of this nation’s leading research universities.

This means strength not only in research, but also as a University that is strong in the liberal arts, science and engineering undergraduate education, professional training in the schools of business, education, medicine, and nursing, outstanding clinical care throughout our health system, and commitment to the creative arts exemplified by the Eastman School of Music.

For the entire University, the recruitment, support, and retention of the most accomplished and diverse faculty, staff, and administrative leadership is a top priority.

A top University priority is the creation of the Institute for Data Science, the expansion of data science faculty and programs across the University, and the construction of a new data science facility.

We will implement a University Research Strategic Plan to strengthen the vitality of the research mission.

We will emphasize improvements to infrastructure and renovating classrooms, laboratories, and library space to provide our faculty, students, and staff with state-of-the art facilities.

A University That Emphasizes Quality Education

The College of Arts, Sciences & Engineering is building on its momentum in residential education to enhance its curriculum by adding new majors, including a new undergraduate business degree developed with the Simon Business School; teaching, learning, and research opportunities that employ digital technology; increasing student retention; affording opportunities for student research; and strengthening career preparation. By 2018, Arts, Sciences & Engineering will increase its faculty from 350 to 380; increase its two-score equivalent SATs for entering students from 1368 to at least 1400; increase applications from approximately 16,000 to 20,000; and increase six-year student graduation rates from 85.6 percent to 88 percent.

The School of Medicine and Dentistry and the School of Nursing are implementing the Institute for Innovative Education to provide education across the entire Medical Center and better employ information technology in medical education. The institute will oversee the development of an ambitious program in simulation education.

The Simon School is developing new programs in business analytics and pricing and leading efforts to develop a branch campus in New York City.

The Eastman School is developing new undergraduate and master’s programs in fields such as convergent media, music leadership, and online education.

Our schools generally, led by the School of Nursing and the Warner School, are expanding or implementing hybrid or other online education, especially in master’s programs.

A University Known for Improving Health Care

We will improve health care for our community through transformative approaches to clinical care that are nationally recognized:

The new Accountable Health Partners will become the region’s leading accountable care network, recruiting a substantial number of additional primary and specialist physicians into its network by 2018.

The University of Rochester Medical Faculty Group will become a model of an integrated University-based practice that includes centralized administration and a compensation plan based on performance, service, and quality.

The Medical Center will further its current recognition of specialty areas in the top 50 in the U.S. News Best Hospitals rankings, especially within its Centers of Excellence, including the Wilmot Cancer Institute and the Golisano Children’s Hospital.

We will open the new Golisano Children’s Hospital in 2015 and achieve recognition for our Pediatric Programs of Excellence.

The School of Nursing is expanding its UR Medicine Center for Employee Wellness, which began with University employees in 2013 to additional employers throughout the region.

The Eastman Institute for Oral Health is expanding its community services to underserved patients with special needs and strengthening its position as a leading institution in oral health research and specialty dental training.

A University Known for Service to the Community

We will strengthen our service to the community and society by:

Enhancing programs to support Rochester K-12 education, health care, and community programs.

Enhancing our position as the regional and national leader in economic development and technology commercialization.

Strengthening technology commercialization and new venture creation consistent with our academic mission through active engagement of the business community and expansion of the technology development fund.

Completing major projects, including the expansion of Brooks Crossing and College Town.

In the 18 months since the adoption of the October 2013 strategic plans, we have made significant progress implementing these and related plans. Notably:

The University adopted its first University Research Strategic Plan in October 2013. Among other key initiatives, the Institute for Data Science has been created. To date we have raised approximately $25 million in philanthropic commitments and $1.5 million in new state support toward the additional $50 million goal that we announced in October 2013 on top of the earlier $50 million raised in this area. These funds have allowed us to initiate planning for a new facility to house the institute and to endow the institute’s directorship. We will dedicate the Institute for Data Science Building and celebrate the naming of the Institute for Data Science in October 2016.

The Medical Center has taken a series of decisive steps toward a comprehensive Population Health Management strategy, including completion of a new regional affiliation with Strong West, substantial reorganization of the Medical Faculty Group, growth in membership of Accountable Health Partners to 1,700 Medical Center and other doctors, and refining its goals to include being the referral center of choice for the specialty care of the majority of patients in our region.

We dedicated College Town in October 2014 and will dedicate the Golisano Children’s Hospital in May 2015.

In 2015, the State Education Department approved the Educational Partnership Organization agreement that the University, led by the Warner School, has entered with the Rochester City School Board to serve as superintendent of East High School, the largest high school in Rochester. We assume responsibility for East High in July 2015.

The River Campus Libraries have proposed a new Strategic and Master Plan and begun implementation of designated aspects of these plans, including the iZone and a proposal for a Center for Student Driven Learning that is intended to create a hub of expertise for the University in aspects of student-directed learning from program design to classroom engagement.

We have begun work on improving infrastructure and renovating facilities, notably with key improvements to our dining facilities, Ronald Rettner’s gifts that have spurred renovation of Morey and Bausch & Lomb Halls, and upgrades to key aspects of our information technology.

The School of Medicine and Dentistry and the School of Nursing, through the aegis of the Institute for Innovative Education, have begun planning creation of state-of-the-art simulation centers, potentially housed in a new facility.

For our undergraduate and graduate students, we are enhancing efforts to strengthen career preparation and have continued to stress enhancements to quality of life at the University, including the Brian Prince Athletic Complex and plans for the renovation of Douglass Hall, which will include a new student activities space, language center, and the Paul J. Burgett Intercultural Center.

Our 2013–2018 University, Medical Center, and school strategic plans remain in full force. Full implementation will continue through June 2018. Our top priorities of the University for these years will include:

Significant further steps at the Medical Center to implement its Population Health Management strategy, including further potential regional affiliations.

Significant progress in improving the quality of life on the River Campus.

Continued emphasis on fundraising to support student scholarships, faculty, and key programs.

Development of new Advancement strategic and operational plans to provide a revised roadmap for our programs during the next five years.

Continuing the transformation of University libraries to be leaders in our increasingly digital campus and initial implementation of the River Campus Libraries Strategic Plan.

An unwavering commitment throughout the University to seek the greatest possible quality in our academic, clinical, and creative arts programs, consistent with cost efficiency.

Full Spectrum and Full Throttle

Enrollment is soaring at the Hajim School, as undergraduates embrace the chance to become multidimensional, “full spectrum” engineers.

By Karen McCally ’02 (PhD)

engineeringTOOLS TO BUILD ON: Wen Zhou ’18, an optics major from Beijing, China, operates a drill press in Basic Mechanical Fabrication, a course held in the Ronald Rettner Hall for Media Arts and Innovation, which opened in fall 2013. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Two years ago, when the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences introduced a new major in audio and music engineering, Mark Bocko, chair of the department of electrical and computer engineering, thought the department would probably have to accommodate about 16 students at a time in its sound design lab.

It turned out that he was well off the mark.

Twenty-five students declared the new major in its first year. “Just that number of students was more than we were anticipating,” Bocko says. “And we have more people from outside the major taking these courses than we have majors.”

He went from offering one section to offering four. And, he adds, “we still have a waiting list.”

Bocko’s experience is echoed across the Hajim School’s six departments. Faculty and staff have all been taking on an expanded work load. But as Bocko, Distinguished Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, says, when students are clamoring for what you’re offering, “it’s a good problem to have.”

The number of college students studying engineering has risen markedly across the country. According to data collected by the American Society for Engineering Education, American colleges and universities graduated 74,170 students at the bachelor’s level in 22 distinct categories of engineering in 2008. Five years later, in 2013, that number rose to 93,360, an increase of just over 25 percent.

Conventional wisdom is that the financial crisis of 2008 marked a turning point in higher education. Economic uncertainty led to diminished interest in the humanities, for example, and rising interest in STEM—science, technology, engineering, and math—disciplines.

National figures certainly suggest a correlation. A highly publicized study by researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Pennsylvania analyzed data on the intended majors of incoming freshmen at four-year institutions around the country. The most dramatic rise was in the number of freshmen studying an engineering discipline. That figure grew by 57 percent nationally from 2007 to 2011.

At the Hajim School, growth has been especially pronounced. During that same period, the number of freshmen rose by 42 percent, a remarkable rise to take place within any single institution. As of fall 2014, total undergraduate enrollment was double what it was in 2008. That growth was spread across departments. Enrollment in all six departments grew substantially, and most departments saw their number of majors double from 2008 to 2014.

engineeringLEADING EDGE: Clark (above, left) and Norwood led a planned expansion of the Hajim School, starting in 2008; Stacie Zwolski ’15 (below, foreground), a biomedical engineering major from Boston, works on a medical imaging project with Regine Choe (center), assistant professor, and technician Ashley Proctor, posing as a patient. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Hajim School leaders generally agree that the Great Recession of 2008 probably played a significant role in generating student interest. “Since the crash of 2008, and the realization that college is really expensive, they’re looking much more for a return on their investment,” says Richard Waugh, the chair of the biomedical engineering department, of students and parents. “Engineering is sort of the poster child for that.”

Matthew Yates, chair of the chemical engineering department, notes that interest in his field has tended to ebb and flow with the state of the oil and gas industries. But “a bad economy and job market,” he thinks, is “part of the reason” interest in engineering, including chemical engineering, has risen precipitously.

engineering (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Nationally, it’s likely that more than one factor has contributed to growing interest in engineering. At the Hajim School, that’s almost certainly the case. The same month that Lehman Brothers collapsed—the event often cited, rightly or wrongly, as the beginning of the Great Recession—Dean Robert Clark arrived in Rochester armed with a plan to enhance the engineering school’s visibility and enrollment. Clark was fresh from Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. When he took stock of Rochester, he saw strength among faculty and in research facilities, but too few undergraduates. At the time, there were just over 700 undergraduates who had either officially declared engineering majors or declared the intention to do so.

“For us to be at around 700 undergraduates for the kind of reputation Rochester enjoyed—that was just too small,” Clark says. There were drawbacks to the small size. For example, national recruiters make visits to schools based not only on the quality of graduates, but also on how many of them they are. “We didn’t have quite enough critical mass” to draw as many recruiters as the school should, Clark believed, based on its quality.

In addition, engineering schools are expensive to run, and Rochester’s was experiencing an unsustainable drain on its endowment. More students would mean more tuition revenue. As it turned out, the school received a tremendous boost in October 2008, when Edmund Hajim ’58, the chair of Rochester’s Board of Trustees and a graduate in chemical engineering, announced a landmark commitment of $30 million dollars to the school for scholarships and endowment support. “You cannot overemphasize the importance of Ed’s gift,” Clark says. In addition to providing much-needed financial support, “it conveyed to the students that they were part of something special. And we’ve just kept emphasizing that.”

It’s one thing to set a goal. Executing the goal has required the efforts of everyone from deans to the undergraduate coordinators, lab assistants, graduate teaching assistants and undergraduate mentors, and workshop leaders who make it possible for the growing school to maintain an approach to education that is team oriented and hands on. “Our students, faculty, and staff welcomed prospective students, made time to meet with parents, adapted programs, and took on massively increased advising roles,” Clark says. They even lent a hand to freshmen and their parents on a sweltering move-in day—and gave out ice cream.

It’s all part of what Waugh calls an “esprit de corps” that has developed at the school. The school lays out a long and durable welcoming mat, starting at the application process, where messaging has been chiefly in the hands of Assistant Dean Lisa Norwood ’86, ’95W (MS).

In 2008, Norwood, a Hajim School alumna with a degree in geomechanics, began working with the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid to highlight engineering in ways the University hadn’t before. For example, admissions began offering prospective students who indicated an interest in engineering a tour of the Hajim School facilities, in addition to the standard River Campus tour.

The school also produced a brochure titled “Take on the World: Be an Engineer.” It showcased students taking part in a wide range of extracurricular activities, participating in study abroad, and pursuing multidisciplinary majors, such as archaeology, technology, and historical structures, that combine engineering and other fields.

Norwood believes the initiatives were major factors in attracting more students. “We thought our ideal freshman class size would be about 350 students. And the very first year, we got 350 freshmen,” she says. “We unleashed the tide, and now that the word is out, it seems like there’s no stemming it.”

Given the expense of college and the uncertainty of the job market, it’s not surprising that more students would look at engineering. But some Hajim School students question how much impact the financial crisis has actually had. They grew up with a knack for math and science, an urge to tinker and to build, and strong encouragement in a society that’s embarked on both informal and formal campaigns to push STEM education.

They’ve also responded to the call for what Clark calls “full spectrum engineers”—engineers with multiple interests who pursue those interests with the same zeal they bring to their major.

Bill Green ’16, a mechanical engineering major from Long Island, says financial security had little to do with his decision to pursue engineering, or the decisions of many of his friends.

“It comes up as something that I don’t think I’ll need to worry much about,” Green says about job and financial security. “But I don’t think that financial security is an end goal for many of the students here. In talking to friends, they don’t have their minds on the end goal being the job; more on what their education allows them to do in a more general sense.”

Green says his interest in engineering was a natural outgrowth of the hobby of building computers that he pursued in high school. When he visited campus, he was captivated by a serendipitous encounter with students on the Baja team. Each year, the team designs and builds an off-road vehicle. Then, the team takes their vehicle and races it in an intercollegiate competition. Green was taken past the Baja shop as part of his tour of the engineering facilities.

“There were students in there at four o’clock on a Saturday afternoon welding, putting parts together, and still willing to take time out to explain what they were doing,” recalls Green, who went on to participate in Baja his first two years at Rochester.

engineeringTUBULAR! Senior chemical engineering majors (left to right) Stephan Tewksbury of Wyalusing, Pennsylvania; Garrett Meier of Caledonia, New York; Erik Laurin of Castleton, New York; and Sidney Royal of Dallas, work on their senior design project, a tubular reactor. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Nancy Vargas ’17, a first-generation college student from San Antonio, also says that the financial crisis played little role in her decision to study engineering. “I started taking classes at a college when I was 13,” she says. Gifted in math and science, Vargas relished her advanced classes in math, science, and programming. But the electrical and computer engineering major also says she was exposed to many opportunities to pursue her talents. “There’s more of a focus on math and science now,” she says, recalling her secondary schooling. “And there are so many opportunities for female Hispanic engineers.”

Green and Vargas have both taken advantage of another opportunity Rochester affords its engineers: the chance to explore other areas of interest to a greater degree than at many other institutions. The requirements to earn a bachelor of science degree in any engineering field are hefty, leaving engineering students less room to explore other fields than many of their counterparts in the School of Arts & Sciences. At Rochester, engineering students take clusters of courses in either the humanities or the social sciences. The cluster system gives students wide latitude. Green is pursuing a cluster in Roman history, and doing so through Rochester’s study abroad program in Arezzo, Italy. Vargas was drawn to anthropology, and has developed a substantial interest in Latin American immigration to the United States. “I’m probably going to do a minor in anthropology,” she says, reflecting the desire of many Hajim School students to go beyond the cluster requirement.

The Hajim School’s full spectrum engineers are also sticking with their rigorous programs in larger numbers than in the past.

“We have a lot more students who can do engineering than we did 20 years ago,” says Waugh, pointing to increasing strength of the overall undergraduate population at Rochester.

But there’s also a cultural shift at play.

A generation or two ago, it was customary for engineering professors to put the fear of God in their incoming students. “Look to your left, look to your right,” they would say—or so the story goes. “At least one of the people sitting next to you won’t be here come graduation.” Or come next year. Or by the end of the semester.

“There was a point in history where engineering schools took pride in flunking out half to two-thirds of their class,” says Waugh. “I think that era has gone by the board.”

Clark has turned the story on its head. “I’ve said that we need to say, ‘Look to your left, look to your right. If you see someone struggling, let’s see if we can help them out. Let’s work as a team to get through this together.’ ”

Clark has a personal stake in that approach. He grew up in rural Virginia, in a tiny town outside Roanoke. He was the first person in his family to go to college. During his first semester at Virginia Tech, he was behind. “There were kids who already knew what was going on in the introductory engineering courses,” he recalls. “I had no idea. I was playing catch up.”

Clark knows that although he ended up thriving, he might have benefitted from the inclusive, team-oriented approach the Hajim School is fostering now. He also notes that it’s a different scenario—and a harder one—for students who are not only first-generation college students, but also from underrepresented minority groups. While engineering is challenging for everyone, these students are especially vulnerable to feelings of self-doubt.

Norwood, who came to the Hajim School in the 1980s as an underrepresented minority herself, and who has been advising students in the school for more than 20 years, knows how pervasive these feelings can be.

“You can feel that sentiment just walking into a room. And if you feel it enough, you start second-guessing yourself. If you’re not from this environment, this is a very hard place to navigate.”

The Hajim School has boosted the retention of minority and low-income students through the STEM Gems program—a system of peer mentoring in which new students from underrepresented groups are guided, each step of the way, by a group peer who understands the unique challenges these students face and is an example of the success that perseverance can bring.

STEM Gems is part of a broader effort at the Hajim School to distinguish itself as a welcoming place for a diverse student body. The school has made two goals explicit: to increase the percentage of underrepresented minorities from 13 percent in 2014 to 20 percent by 2018; and to become one of the first engineering schools in the nation to reach gender parity. The school’s undergraduate student body is already nearly one-third female, well ahead of the national average of 18 percent as of 2014. And in many cases, diversity begets diversity. Vargas, for example, was accepted to multiple schools. But when she narrowed her decision, one factor stood out. At another school she visited, “the ratio of female to male was really off,” she says. “I liked the diversity here.”

But at liberal arts universities with growing engineering programs, the question is almost universally raised: what impact does their growth have on other disciplines? Both nationally and at Rochester, the percentage of students declaring majors in the humanities has declined markedly in recent years. And given the substantial requirements of engineering degrees—which leave students less room in their schedules for exploring various disciplines—how can colleges ensure robust programs across fields?

It’s an especially important question at Rochester, given that the Hajim School attracts students on the promise that they’ll be able to pursue multiple interests. And it’s a question that weighs on Clark. “If we grew significantly more than we currently are, it would change the campus culture as a whole,” he says. Having strong programs in the humanities and social sciences, he adds, is “an atmosphere that enhances the education of the engineering student. We don’t want to be a technical university.”

Undergraduate enrollment in engineering is estimated to exceed 1,700 in fall 2015—well over the goal of 1,200 that Clark set in September 2008. Nonetheless, Richard Feldman, professor of philosophy and dean of the College, says the College is far from becoming a technical school. “The issue is not so much what percentage is here and what percentage is there, but do we have strong programs in each of the different areas,” he says.

Enrollment in the College has been growing in general. Although the share of students majoring in the humanities has declined, in terms of pure numbers, students pursuing the humanities are well within the range of what they have long been. Just over 500 students were majoring in humanities disciplines in 2013–14, virtually smack in the middle of the high point (618 in 2008–09) and low point (353 in 1997–98) from 1996 onwards.

Citing new faculty appointments in the humanities, Feldman adds that “the goal is to keep those programs strong.”

Norwood emphasizes the Hajim School’s integration into the College, offering students latitude to move easily in and out of engineering majors. To be sure, she and other Hajim School leaders want to retain students, and even welcome nonmajors to explore courses in engineering. But, she says, “Our philosophy in the College is for students to follow their passions and their interests.

“We don’t want to lock students into a major. If they come in and say they want to study engineering, great. If they come in and think they’d like to study something else, or if they come in planning to study something else and want to move into engineering, we want them to have that flexibility.”

For the Love of Sicily

scolaROOTS AND MUSIC: Scola blends Sicilian and Italian folk, on traditional instruments, with American pop. (Photo: Shannon Taggart for Rochester Review)

Allison Scola ’94, ’95 (T5) was backpacking through Europe a year after graduation when her brother suggested she meet up with a second cousin who lived in Rome. She persuaded a stranger who spoke Italian to call the cousin, a pastry chef in his 70s, and arrange a get-together.

“He brought me all this cannoli, which I can completely relate to, and that was it,” she says. “The floodgates were open. I was in love with Italy.”

The musician, songwriter, singer, and travel guide has maintained a connection to the country since—the roundabout result of that cousin’s old-fashioned customs.

Scola had returned to Rome several months after her first trip to learn Italian, hoping her cousin would help her find a job. He had other plans for her, however. “He said, ‘Why are you here?,’ ” she recalls. “‘You should go home. You should get married.’”

Disheartened, Scola decided she’d return home to launch a career in advertising. But her cousin told her she should first go to Sicily to meet his two brothers. Knowing only some 150 words in Italian, she headed to Palermo. “I didn’t even know what these guys looked like, but as soon as I got off the train and onto the platform, I recognized them,” she says. “I saw my grandmother’s arms and my uncle’s cheekbones and immediately knew they were family.”

That three-week stay, despite the language barrier, changed the course of her life.

Almost two decades later, after years of working in advertising, the former music and theater arts major is, among other things, a performing artist creating eclectic acoustic songs heavily influenced by Sicilian folk culture.

Living in New York City, she and her husband, guitarist Joe Ravo, also make up the music ensemble Villa Palagonia, named after the Sicilian town near where Scola’s paternal grandmother grew up. Blending American pop with traditional Sicilian and Italian folk, they recently recorded Rhythms & Roots, their first album.

Scola has also launched a boutique travel organization, Experience Sicily, through which she leads small-group tours of the island that last up to 15 days. This June, she’ll lead “Soulful and Sunny Sicily,” combining theater, swimming in the Mediterranean, a cooking class, and a vineyard tour. Next year, among the tours she’ll lead is “Music and Revelry in Sicily.” She’s exhibited at the Philadelphia Travel & Adventure Show, drumming up business for her tours and playing four 15-minute concerts with her husband.

“She’s absolutely captivating because she dances so well, she sings so well, and she plays the tamburello—what we’d call a tambourine—the traditional way, which is hard to do,” says Barbara Shiller, board president of the folk music organization CT Folk in New Haven, Connecticut. Shiller has known Scola for years and accompanied her on a trip to Sicily last fall. “Most performers, certainly here in America, are not playing that kind of music, but [her] interpretation just makes it so accessible.”

“I have this vision,” Scola explains. “Music is my love, and it’s in my blood, and it’s another avenue to introduce people to Southern Italy.”

—Robin L. Flanigan﻿

A Different Kind of Group Therapy

jasonSOLVING SOCIAL PROBLEMS: The key to addressing social ills is community psychology, says Jason, a leading expert in the field. (Photo: Charles Cherney/AP Images for Rochester Review)

For the past 25 years, Leonard Jason ’75 (PhD) has been researching and empowering what is likely the most successful nationwide addiction-recovery program you’ve never heard of: the Oxford House.

This residential rehab model is soundly rooted in what’s called community psychology, a branch of psychology forged in the 1960s by, among others, Rochester’s Emory Cowen. Jason, a protégé of Cowen’s, is among the leading practitioners of community psychology today. “Psychology is very individually oriented, but the reality is, there’s a contextual piece to most mental health problems,” Jason says. Community psychologists understand mental health problems as social problems, experienced in the context of a community.

A professor of psychology at DePaul University and director of the university’s Center for Community Research, Jason first found out about Oxford Houses from a 60 Minutes special in 1991. He was intrigued. From a community psychology point of view, he wondered, why do they work?

In 1975 the first house opened outside Washington, D.C. An Oxford House is a house like any other, often in the suburbs, where a person can come to live for $100 per week and a commitment to abstinence from substance use. Essentially Oxford Houses are self-help recovery homes where six to 12 residents work to sustain a substance-free life together. Each house is democratically run by the residents, without professional staff. Today over 25,000 people reside in such houses every year.

In the early 1990s, Jason began a study of the model with 150 participants in Illinois. Helping Jason recruit participants was Leon Venable. Venable first met Jason in 1993 when he was a resident at an Oxford House. “The first time I met Dr. Jason I was terrified,” says Venable. “I had completed high school and six years of military, and I was also addicted to drugs.” But Venable’s initial apprehensions quickly dissipated. “He was a good listener, and that’s what I admire about him the most.” says Venable. “Going down and listening to him allowed me to gain a lot of self-confidence.”

In the process, Venable learned more about himself. His collaboration with Jason is a perfect example of the power of community psychology. “I was able to go out in the community and promote the Oxford Houses,” says Venable, “I was able to do better presentations of what Oxford Houses could do for an individual based on working with Dr. Jason.” Today, Venable is the president of Kalimba House Corporation, a nonprofit that oversees the Oxford Houses throughout Illinois.

The results of Jason’s study showed that the supportive community environment of Oxford Houses helped people remain abstinent, out of jail, and employed at much higher rates than if they went through standard rehab programs. But despite the data-backed success of the Oxford Houses, some communities still stigmatize them. Frightened by the idea of neighbors who are recovering from addictions, many formerly incarcerated, some towns have passed ordinances against the homes.

Jason’s work, however, has been instrumental in fighting such laws. He is regularly called in as an expert witness in court cases involving Oxford Houses. One case, which dragged out for months in a suburban community, was resolved in favor of the Oxford House the day that Jason presented his research findings. “In one day they basically solved the problem with data,” says Jason.

For Jason, combining outreach, research, and action is a way to democratize psychology and expand its usefulness to people outside the academy. “I can outline a problem, I can collect data on it, and I can add that to the effort to bring about change in a very systematic way,” he says.

To address social problems effectively, as he describes in his 2013 book Principles of Social Change, environments, not just individuals, must change. “A lot of our mental health and other interventions are limited by being so person-specific,” says Jason. It’s a challenge because “very powerful people control resources and the status quo.

“You have to have allies and citizens and community groups and people to work with you, to challenge those individuals that are controlling the power to get to more substantial change.”

—Maya Dukmasova ’12﻿

In the News

newsETCHED IN HISTORY: Hooker, who was the first African-American woman to serve in the U.S. Coast Guard, poses for a selfie with Petty Officer First Class Patricia Brown. (Photo: Petty Officer 2nd Class Patrick Kelley/U.S. Coast Guard)

A Trio of Landmarks for Olivia Hooker ’62 (PhD)

Olivia Hooker ’62 (PhD) reached a personal landmark in February, when she turned 100 years old. Two other landmarks, in brick and mortar, were named for her the following month.

As a college student at Ohio State University during World War II, Hooker participated in a campaign to guarantee African-American women the same opportunities in the U.S. military as white women. In early 1945, Hooker became the first African-American woman to enlist in the U.S. Coast Guard.

Seventy years later, almost to the day, Hooker appeared at a standing-room-only ceremony at the Coast Guard Sector New York, in Staten Island, to dedicate the Olivia J. Hooker Dining Facility. Shortly afterward, a training facility at the Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C., was named in her honor.

Hooker earned a doctorate in psychology at Rochester, and went on to become a professor of psychology at Fordham University. She has also achieved prominence as the oldest living survivor of the infamous Tulsa, Oklahoma, race riots of 1921, during which white rioters destroyed her father’s store and bombed her school. She has been part of a long-standing campaign for restitution among families of victims.

Canada Honors Chuck Daellenbach ’66E, ’71E (PhD)

Chuck Daellenbach ’66E, ’71E (PhD), cofounder of the Canadian Brass, has won Canada’s highest civilian honor, Member of the Order of Canada.

Daellenbach, who plays tuba, was a professor of music education at the University of Toronto when he cofounded the ensemble with trombonist Gene Watts in 1970. The quintet began touring in 1972 and soon achieved international fame. The Canadian Brass has recorded more than 130 albums, appeared on popular television programs in nations from China to the United States, and performs regularly for the Canadian government to welcome visiting heads of state.

Daellenbach is the only original member still performing with the group.

Carolyn Burr ’78N (MS) a Lifetime Achiever in AIDS Prevention

Carolyn Burr ’78N (MS) has received the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care. Over the past two decades, she has played a lead role in drastically reducing the rates of mother-to-child HIV transmission. Now the deputy director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center at the Rutgers School of Nursing, Burr spearheaded the development of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission. Since 1994, the rate of infant HIV infection has fallen 95 percent, to just 2 percent of births to HIV-infected women.

Leaders in Enterprise

Black Enterprise magazine named Kathy Waller ’80, ’83S (MBA) to its list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Corporate America.

Waller is chief financial officer and executive vice president of the Coca-Cola Co., as well as a University trustee. She began her career at Deloitte, and joined Coca-Cola in 1987 as a senior accountant.

Ursula Burns, a University life trustee and chairman and CEO of Xerox, was also named to the list.

Black Enterprise, published since 1970, compiles the list to celebrate executives who have broken significant racial and gender barriers.

newsA DYNAMIC PAIR: Tarantino (left) and Terefenko, an Eastman alumna-faculty jazz duo, are taking their act abroad. (Photo: Gerry Szymanski)

Jazz Musicians Team Up

A faculty-alumna jazz duo is taking music abroad.

Pianist Dariusz Terefenko ’04E (PhD), associate professor of jazz studies and contemporary media at the Eastman School of Music, and alto saxophonist Alexa Tarantino ’14E performed and taught at the Academy of Music in Kraków in Poland in March. They plan to be in Brazil for a week-long tour in June, during which they will perform with pianist Marcelo Pinto ’15E (DMA).

Tarantino took several classes from Terefenko at Eastman, and the pair teamed up as performers during her senior year. Their first recording, Crossing Paths, was released in January on Tarantino’s label, Infinite Records. They have performed in New York City, Dallas, Rochester, and Hartford, Connecticut.

CHANCE ENCOUNTERS

A Story of Music that Struck a Chord

chance_encountersOLD FRIENDS: Bell (left) and Happel, 1948 graduates from Eastman, reunited at a North Carolina retirement community. (Photo: Provided)

Last year, Ann Field Bell ’48E and Dorothy Merriam Happel ’48E came across the story “No Retirement from Music” (Rochester Review, May-June 2014). The story, shared by Alice Pillischer Kujala ’48E, told of her reunion with John Fuyuume ’48E, ’50E (MM) and Horace (Hap) Apgar ’49E at the Shannondell retirement community in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. It prompted Ann and Dorothy to get together to share their own, similar story. Dorothy writes:

“By happenstance, Ann Field Bell and I met at the Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community in Asheville, North Carolina. Ann and her husband, Mason, moved to Deerfield in 2002. I moved from New York to Deerfield in 2012. My husband, John, died in 2001. Ann and I had not seen each other since graduating from Eastman.

“Ann was a piano major. After graduation, she worked at the Carl Fisher Music Publishing Company in New York. She then taught piano and music appreciation at Greenbrier College for Women in Lewisburg, West Virginia. Ann and Mason were married in July 1951 and have lived in 10 states, all east of the Mississippi River. Wherever they lived, Ann volunteered with the local symphony orchestra. In Greenville, South Carolina, she volunteered with the Guild of the Greenville Symphony, a fundraising source for the orchestra. In Atlanta, she volunteered in the office of conductor Robert Shaw’s executive secretary, Nola Frink. She has enjoyed living these past 12 years in Asheville with its wonderful climate and artistic ambiance.

“I graduated from Eastman as a student of violinist Jacques Gordon and continued my study with Louis Persinger at Juilliard. In 1948, I was the winner of the Naftzger Award, administered by the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, given to the most outstanding young artist of Kansas. In New York, I won appearances through the Concert Artists Guild and the American Artists Series at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and gave the first performance of a plastic violin in recital at Weill Hall. “For 25 years, I was concertmaster of the Greenwich Symphony with David Gilbert ’57E, ’58E (MM), conductor, and with the Greenwich Symphony Chamber Players. I’ve been a soloist with more than a dozen symphony orchestras. Since leaving Eastman, I’ve had rewarding musical collaborations with more than 25 Eastman friends.

“Ann and I agree we’re very fortunate to be Eastman alumni.”

ALUMNI HONORS

Educator Dedicated to At-Risk School Children Honored

honorsElizabeth Puhn Bruno (Photo: Provided)

The president of an educational foundation devoted to helping children whose school success is imperiled by poverty was recognized for her support of the University this winter. Elizabeth Puhn Bruno ’89, the president of the Brady Education Foundation and a research associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, received the John N. Wilder Award at a ceremony hosted by Arts, Sciences & Engineering. An active Rochester alumna, Bruno has served on the Arts, Sciences & Engineering National Council and was a career services volunteer.

The president of the foundation since 2001, Bruno serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Marriage and Family and Early Childhood Research Quarterly, the Frank Porter Graham Executive Leadership Board, as well as a number of other nonprofit boards. She has published articles on early education environments, family circumstances, and child outcomes.

Since earning her PhD in developmental psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Bruno has been a scientist in the university’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, where her research focuses on early care and education environments and school readiness skills of at-risk children.

The mother of a student in the Class of 2018, she is a member of the George Eastman Circle, the University’s leadership annual giving society. In 2011, she established a support fund to help students in the University’s Early Connection Opportunity program, and a fellowship fund for master’s degree students who are alumni of that program.

Books & Recordings

Books

Exploration: A Very Short Introduction

By Stewart Weaver

Oxford University Press, 2015

Weaver, professor of history at Rochester, offers a short history of a long tradition in human history: the quest to explore the unknown. Through the lens of natural history as well as the history of human civilization, Weaver chronicles journeys from the prehistoric trek across the Bering Strait to the mid-20thcentury deep-sea explorations of Jacques Cousteau.

The Crisis of Classical Music in America: Lessons from a Life in the Education of Musicians

By Robert Freeman

Rowman & Littlefield, 2014

Freeman, director of the Eastman School from 1972 to 1996, offers a critique of contemporary musical training based on his experience directing Eastman, the New England Conservatory, and the University of Texas’s College of Fine Arts. The book outlines ways in which schools of music can play a leading role in building audiences for classical and other genres of music.

The Poitier Effect: Racial Melodrama and Fantasies of Reconciliation

By Sharon Willis

University of Minnesota Press, 2015

Willis explores actor Sidney Poitier’s role as an icon of the civil rights era. Against the backdrop of racial struggle, Poitier’s characters displayed dignity and restraint—a “Poitier effect” that was a function of white wishful thinking about race relations, Willis argues. Willis is a professor of art history and visual and cultural studies at Rochester.

The Materiality of Language: Gender, Politics, and the University

By David Bleich

Indiana University Press, 2013

Bleich, professor of English at Rochester, argues that language is key to the formation of social and political relations, and is material that speakers should change and make flexible. The book won a 2015 Outstanding Book Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication.

Moral Agents: Eight Twentieth-Century American Writers

By Edward Mendelson ’66

New York Review Books, 2015

Based on the premise that “any important writer writes in response to an idea of the good life that is inseparable from the life the writer lives,” Mendelson presents critical biographies of eight writers whom he argues transformed 20th-century American literature and reimagined what it means to be a writer. Mendelson is the Lionel Trilling Professor in the Humanities at Columbia.

The Patient Will See You Now: The Future of Medicine Is in Your Hands

By Eric Topol ’79M (MD)

Basic Books, 2015

Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute, lays out his vision of a health care system in which patients use algorithmic and smartphone technology to access test results, monitor vital signs, and receive common diagnoses.

Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World

By Bruce Schneier ’84

W. W. Norton & Co., 2015

Security expert Schneier argues that we live in a mass surveillance society of our own making, and offers tips on how to protect personal privacy and push back against government and corporate surveillance.

Dumped: Stories of Women Unfriending Women

Edited by Nina Gaby ’86N, ’90N (MS)

She Writes Press, 2015

Gaby edits and contributes to the anthology of essays in which women explore lost friendships. What happens when a friend suddenly, and without explanation, ends the relationship? Gaby is an author and a psychiatric nurse practitioner in Vermont.

Principles and Management of Pediatric Foot and Ankle Deformities and Malformations

By Vincent Mosca ’73, ’78M (MD)

Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2014

Mosca offers a guide to assessment and management of foot deformities and malformations in children and adolescents. Mosca is a professor of orthopaedics at the University of Washington and chief of Seattle Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Foot and Ankle Service.

Lenalia

By Brandon Plaster ’11

Brandon Plaster, 2015

In Plaster’s science fiction e-book, a small population of humans lives sealed in dome- covered cities floating above the surface of an uninhabitable Earth. Twelve-year-old Lena joins a revolution to liberate the populace from the tight control of a council and its masked leader.

Juicy Jack Adventures: Meet the Wild Pack

By Leigh Carrasco ’96W (MS)

Womeldorf Press, 2014

Carrasco presents the first book in a multicultural chapter book series for children. Jack, a pet guinea pig, travels to his abuela’s farm in Peru. Nothing goes as planned as Jack’s curiosity thrusts him into a wild pack of guinea pigs.

The Nurture Effect: How the Science of Human Behavior Can Improve Our Lives and Our World

By Anthony Biglan ’66

New Harbinger Publications, 2015

Offering evidence that nurturing environments promote health and well-being, Biglan offers a roadmap for families, schools, organizations, and communities to help create more nurturing environments. Biglan is a senior scientist at Oregon Research Institute, where he specializes in child and adolescent behavior.

Other People’s Kids

By David Ragusa ’68, ’76W (EdD)

BookBaby, 2015

Ragusa’s e-book tells the fictional story of a high school assistant principal confronting problems at home as well as at school, where he contends with the Common Core, debates within special education, zero tolerance policies, and other challenges. Ragusa bases the story on his 33 years as a teacher and school administrator.

Love Your Enemies, Part One: A Musical Story of the Life of Jesus

By Linda Day ’90E

Self-published, 2015

Day presents a nondenominational story of the life of Jesus and his philosophy. A “musical e-book” in CD format, Love Your Enemies, includes narrated stories and original songs. Day is a retired section violinist with the Austin Symphony Orchestra.

Ram-2050

By Joan Roughgarden ’68

Kauai Institute, 2015

Exploring the boundary between humans and animals, Roughgarden, professor emerita of biology at Stanford, offers a modernized retelling of the Hindu epic the Ramayana, featuring an Apple CEO, his kidnapped wife, and a team of humans and animals who attempt to rescue her.

Active Gods

By Michael Henry ’89

Conundrum Press, 2015

Henry’s third collection of poetry explores the subjects of parenting and middle age with “equal parts humor, gravity, and amazement.” Henry is cofounder and director of the Lighthouse Writers Workshop in downtown Denver and teaches poetry and nonfiction writing at the University of Denver.

To Serve with Honor: Doing the Right Thing in Government

By Terry Newell ’66

Loftlands Press, 2015

Newell provides a practical guide for governmental officials confronting ethical dilemmas. Newell is a retired Air Force officer and civil servant and director of the nonprofit Leadership for a Responsible Society.

Key Concepts in Writing and Rhetoric

By Jennifer Ailles ’07 (PhD) et al

Fountainhead Press, 2014

Ailles, a lecturer in writing and rhetoric and English literature at Columbia College Chicago, coauthors a textbook accompanying a newly redesigned first-year composition course at the college. The book introduces a curriculum based on 10 concepts to prepare students for the 21st-century world of multimodal writing.

We’re Gonna Play Today

By Deborah Imiolo ’90E

Heritage Music Press, 2014

Imiolo presents poems and songs for preschoolers through third graders using the Orff instrumentarium and mallet technique. Imiolo teaches music in Amherst, New York.

Recordings

The Hawthorn Tree

By Joyce Castle ’66E (MM)

Americus Records, 2014

Mezzo-soprano Castle performs work by William Bolcom to honor her 40th anniversary as a performing artist. Castle holds the title of University Distinguished Professor of Voice at the University of Kansas.

Furuya Sisters Live at Steinway Hall

By the Furuya Sisters Trio

Self-published, 2015

The trio including cellist Mimi Furuya ’01E, presents a DVD/CD of their November 2014 concert at Steinway Hall in New York. The concert was the final performance to take place in the historic building on West 57th Street.

Fluidity

By John Fedchock ’85E (MM)

Summit Records, 2015

Trombonist Fedchock presents a live recording from Havana Nights jazz club in Virginia Beach. Performers include drummer Dave Ratajczak ’80E, who died last October.

Books & Recordings is a compilation of recent work by University alumni, faculty, and staff. For inclusion in an upcoming issue, send the work’s title, publisher, author or performer, a brief description, and a high-resolution cover image, to Books & Recordings, Rochester Review, 22 Wallis Hall, P. O. Box 270044, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627-0044; or by e-mail to rochrev@rochester.edu.

The Break Up No One Talks About

Nina Gaby ’86N, ’90N (MS) explores what happens when a friendship— suddenly and without explanation—ends.

Interview by Karen McCally ’02 (PhD)

masterclass (Photo: David Cowles for Rochester Review)

In recent years, I experienced a lost friendship that was so powerfully derailing, in spite of all I know as a psychiatric nurse practitioner, that I had to stop and look at it. I’d had essays and short stories published. So I started to just pitch the idea of the universality of this phenomenon of women unfriending other women—despite everything that we know about how important these relationships are. I started talking not only with people in psychiatry and medicine, but also other creative writers. And everybody had a story.

So many of the women whose stories appear in my anthology didn’t follow through or confront the friend who’d dumped them. In spite of all these waves of feminism, I honestly don’t think that we yet possess the skills to feel comfortable with confrontation. Whether confrontation would help or hinder a friendship, I don’t know. But what is it that we’re afraid of learning about ourselves? We are so vulnerable in that situation. What if we’re forced to hear something about ourselves that we can’t handle?

Nina Gaby ’86N, ’90N (MS)

Psychiatric nurse practitioner, studio artist, and essayist; editor and contributor, Dumped: Stories of Women Unfriending Women (She Writes Press)

Home: Brookfield, Vermont

On her first lost friendship: “I was 13. I can go back to that moment in a split second, and I’m there. Linda and I did everything together, and overnight, she cut me out. I told myself I had to be tough. It was the age of girl groups, and we were almost trying to look like little hoodlums with our black clothes, eyeliner, and teased-up hair. So I just figured I was going to be tougher, and I wasn’t going to let it matter. And I moved on. But in a sense I didn’t, because here I am at 64 years old and I’m writing about it.”

I conduct women’s groups. And sometimes we’ll say, “Ok, you’re mad at something that happened to you. And you’re in this group and you’re yelling at us, and you’re mad at me. Have you talked to the person who upset you?” And they say, “Well, no.” And I back up and say, “Let’s talk about how you can talk to the person who upset you in the first place, so you don’t absorb all this negativity and project it out onto everyone else but the person who upset you in the first place.” Not confronting people is a very protective thing that women do for themselves, but it fails.

The more I talk to men in my line of work, the more I understand that they, too, question themselves when they lose a connection. I think many men process these losses differently, however. The husband of a friend of mine wrote this very funny blog post. He wrote, in effect, “If you’ve been good friends with Barry and you’re not friends anymore, and somebody says, ‘Hey, whatever happened to Barry?,’ you’ll say, ‘Oh, yeah, I haven’t seen Barry in a while. And how do you think the Knicks are going to do Saturday night?’ ” A male friend of mine said, “I hated that blog post. Because I don’t think it’s true. I don’t think that all men just jump into talking about sports.” But I think they can.

How many songs and poems are written about romance? But as I write in the book, there’s no Adele song for the breakup of a friendship. If there were a song? Maybe “Love is Everything,” by Jane Siberry. It’s clearly about a romantic relationship, but it distills things down to some very basic truths. “So take a lesson from the strangeness you feel / And know you'll never be the same / And find it in your heart to kneel down and say I gave my love, didn't I?” Maybe you have to say, it’s great that you did care deeply for someone, and that’s good enough. Because often there isn’t any resolution. You have to learn how to live with that pain.

STUDENT ACTIVISM

Mindful Moment

pinwheels (Photo: Adam Fenster)

POWER OF Pinwheels: Hayley Harnicher ’15, a psychology major from Houston, plants pinwheels on the lawn outside Wilson Commons as part of a traveling exhibition to raise awareness about suicide and the importance of suicide prevention programs. Harnicher and other members of the Rochester chapter of Active Minds, a national nonprofit that advocates for mental health awareness and education on college campuses, organized the display this spring. Photograph by Adam Fenster