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In Review

Seligman Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
inbriefJoel Seligman (Photo: Adam Fenster)

University President and CEO Joel Seligman has been elected to membership in one of the country’s oldest and most highly regarded honorary learned societies, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Seligman, a noted expert on U.S. securities law who also holds the title of G. Robert Witmer, Jr. University Professor, joins a roster that includes winners of the Pulitzer Prize and the Wolf Prize, MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, the Grammy Award, and the National Book Award. Members of the academy’s 236th class will be formally inducted at an October ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Seligman joins several University community members who are part of the academy, including the late Nobel Prize laureate Arthur Kornberg ’41M (MD), operatic soprano and Grammy Award winner Renée Fleming ’83E (MM), and Donald Henderson ’54M (MD), an epidemiologist who led the worldwide effort to eradicate smallpox.

Seligman is one of several Rochester faculty and students who received national honors this year. For a full list, visit Rochester.edu/news/honors.

inbriefCONCERTED EFFORT: The Eastman School and the Gateways Music Festival have forged a new alliance dedicated to increasing opportunities and visibility for classical musicians of African descent.(Photo: Kevin Leysath)

Gateway to Diversity in Classical Music

The Eastman School of Music and the Gateways Music Festival, which have partnered since 1995, have announced a new alliance intended to strengthen their efforts in promoting and increasing diversity in classical music. The six-day biennial summer festival is now called the Gateways Music Festival in association with the Eastman School of Music. Lee Koonce ’96E (MM) has been appointed the inaugural president and artistic director of Gateways, which will remain an independent non-profit organization.

The festival attracts professional classical musicians of African descent from the nation’s top orchestras, chamber music ensembles, and educational institutions and has been awarded two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Through the new partnership, Eastman will help support the administrative and leadership growth of the festival, which will next be held in August 2017.

Best Translated Book Award Winners Announced

A Mexican novel and a Brazilian book of poetry took the honors at the ninth annual Best Translated Book Awards.

Yuri Herrera’s Signs Preceding the End of the World (And Other Stories, 2015), a novel about the U.S.-Mexico border, was translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman. Herrera is the first Spanish-language author to win the prize for fiction.

Angélica Freitas’s Rilke Shake (Phoneme Media, 2015), a book of humorous and linguistically inventive poems, was translated from the Portuguese by Hilary Kaplan.

Three Percent, a website that is part of the literary translation program and Open Letter, the University’s translation press, launched the awards in 2007. Each winner and translator receives a $5,000 prize, thanks to funding from the Amazon Literary Partnership program.

inbriefTOP TEACHERS: Winners of this year’s Singer Family Prize, endowed by Paul Singer ’66, are (left to right) Mary Bohning, with Pablo Arroyo ’16; Chris Hartman ’09W (MS), with Ulrik Soderstrom ’16; Randall Harper, with Angela Remus ’16; and William Kibler, with Jessica He ’16. (Photo: Brandon Vick)

Singer Family Prizes Awarded to Teachers

Each year, seniors in the College are invited to nominate a high school teacher or staff member for consideration for the Singer Family Prize. Winners receive a plaque and $3,000, as well as $2,500 for their school. They’re also invited to attend commencement to watch their students graduate.

This year, four teachers were honored for the influence they had on four of Rochester’s most recent graduates. Mary Bohning, an AP environmental science and ecology teacher from Kenosha, Wisconsin, was nominated by Pablo Arroyo ’16, who graduated with a degree in environmental science. Chris Hartman ’09W (MS), who teaches sustainability at the Harley School in Rochester, was nominated by Ulrik Soderstrom ’16, who earned a dual bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and data science. Randall Harper, a history teacher from Des Plaines, Illinois, was nominated by Angela Remus ’16, who majored in international relations; and William Kibler, an Academic Decathalon teacher in Laveen Village, Arizona, was nominated by Jessica He, who earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering.

New Residence Hall Will Overlook Prince Athletic Complex

inbriefONE-STOP LIVING: A new residence hall will bring academics, athletics, and student life in a building beside the athletic complex. (Photo: SWBR Architects)

Construction begins this summer on a new residence hall on the River Campus, overlooking the Brian F. Prince Athletic Complex. Planned to house 151 first-year students, its design integrates academics, athletics, and student life into the residential experience. It’s scheduled to open in fall 2017 and will target LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) designation for sustainable construction, operations, and landscaping.

The top four floors will feature residential space and lounges. The main level will be dedicated to academic and student life services, and the field-level of the building will contain new varsity athletics locker rooms for men’s and women’s teams, as well as sports medicine and team equipment rooms. The Prince Athletic Complex, named for University Trustee Brian Prince ’86, includes Fauver Stadium, North Field, Lyman Outdoor Tennis Center, and Towers Field.

Ayers Saint Gross, Architects and Planners—who designed O’Brien Hall, which opened in 2012—created the project concept. The Pike Company, in association with SWBR Architects, will handle design and construction.