Sara Miller

The Manufacturing Universities Act of 2015 would establish a program within the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) charged with designating 25 schools as “Manufacturing Universities.”

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

Joe Testani succeeds Burt Nadler, current director of the Greene Center, who announced his intent to retire last year after 16 years in the position. Testani will join the University in June 2015.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Students’ Association members will be on hand in Wilson Commons to launch the University’s "It’s On Us" campaign, a national effort to raise awareness about sexual violence in all of its forms.

“We view being part of the formative stages of the Institute for Data Science as a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Tim Wentworth, a member of the University’s Board of Trustees since 2013.

Deborah Bial, founder and president of The Posse Foundation, one of the most comprehensive and renowned college access and readiness programs for urban high school students in the United States, will deliver the 165th College commencement address.

The WasteWise program helps organizations and businesses apply sustainable materials management practices to reduce municipal and industrial wastes. WasteWise participants reported preventing and diverting a total of nearly 7.6 million tons of waste from being disposed in landfills or incinerators in 2013.

Tony Kinslow will join the University in March and succeeds Chuck Murphy, who retired on Feb. 2 after 17 years at the University. Kinslow’s duties will encompass human resources programs and services for every division of the University.

A consortium that includes the University as a key participant has been named one of three finalists to make New York the home for a new Integrated Photonics Institute for Manufacturing Innovation.

MSCHE’s conclusion to reaccredit the University was drawn from a review of an extensive institutional self-study, as well as interviews with Board of Trustees members, University leadership, faculty, staff, and students.

Bill Murphy, vice president for University Communications, is retiring in June 2015, President Joel Seligman announced today. A national search is underway to identify his successor.

President Seligman issued a statement in response to the fiscal year 2015 Omnibus Appropriations bill released by the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee on Dec. 9. The House of Representatives is planning to vote as early as Thursday on the measure, which would then go to the Senate. Current government funding runs out on Dec. 11.