Rochester Review

September–October 2013, Volume 76, No. 1

Editor

Scott Hauser

Associate Editors

Karen McCally ’02 (PhD)

Kathleen McGarvey

Contributors

Valerie Alhart, Adam Fenster, Melissa Greco Lopes, Susan Hagen, Peter Iglinski, Caitlin Mack, Mark Michaud, Leslie Orr, Jennifer Roach, Leonor Sierra, and Brandon Vick

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ISSN: 0035-7421

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Contents

The New Kodak

Letters

Lake Levels

Prehistoric Picture

Marvels of Madagascar

Cool Carats

Checking in on the Digital World

Biologists Find Chemical Behind Cancer Resistance

Having Phthalates for Lunch?

Cracking Suffrage History

How Can You ‘Hide’ Your Brother?

Refurbishing the Fraternity Quad

Yellowjacket Scouting Report

Taking Care

Accounting for Asteroids

Electrophotography, Xerography, and Us

Sculpted Spaces

Brooklyn’s Library Rebound

Want to Conquer Your Favorite City?

Havoc on the River Campus?

Presidential Mettle

Record-Breaker

Books & Recordings

‘How Wonderful a Sound’

Giving Pianos a Chance

The New Kodak

By Joel Seligman

(Photo: Adam Fenster)

Eastman Kodak this month will emerge from bankruptcy reorganization, a shadow of the company it once was. For over a century, Kodak was Rochester; Rochester was Kodak. Rarely has a company had such an indelible impact.

George Eastman was the Steve Jobs of his day. He popularized photography in 1900 by creating the “Brownie” camera, which made photography available to anyone who had a dollar and 15 cents for film, effectively taking photography out of the exclusive hands of professional studios and putting it into the hands of millions of “amateurs.” Kodak’s yellow film boxes and distinctive graphic image were as ubiquitous as the branded images of Coca-Cola or Apple continue to be today.

Eastman was an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur. He cared about every aspect of Eastman Kodak: from the name Kodak (“The letter ‘K’ has been a favorite with me—it seems a strong, incisive sort of letter”); to commercial advertising—we have all had “Kodak Moments”; development of Eastman Business Park—which may be the largest industrial park in the country; to innovation—Kodak held almost 11,000 patents in early 2013. Kodak long dominated motion picture production. A recent article recounts: “Between 1928 and 2008, every single film to win the Oscar for best film was shot on Kodak stock.”

The last decades have been difficult ones. Kodak, a firm that in the early 1980s had 60,000 employees in Rochester, declined to approximately 3,500 employees earlier this year.

From 2009 to 2013, I served on the Kodak Board of Directors. No one associated with Kodak during that period could help but feel the tragedy of so many good employees and former employees harmed by a process that by then seemed inevitable. I am glad that Kodak survived in any form. Endless books and studies will explain why Kodak declined. They will address the seeming failure to convert to digital technology, even though Kodak’s Steven Sasson in 1975 invented the digital camera, as well as legacy costs, inept diversification, and the “smugness of Kodak.” Business historians will describe “creative destruction” or “disruptive technology.”

What should not be lost is how extraordinary Eastman and Kodak’s contributions were for well over 100 years. The community became Eastman’s extended family. In Rochester, Eastman was responsible for starting the Community Chest, the precursor to today’s United Way, creating elaborate music instruction programs for the community at large, working to improve the dental health of children in Rochester as well as elsewhere in the United States and abroad, and pioneering the first employee profit-sharing program in America.

Eastman and Kodak touched nearly every corner of our University, funding the buildings early in the 20th century that allowed us to double our enrollment and first award engineering degrees; creating the Eastman School of Music in 1921 along with Eastman Theatre; endowing the Eastman Dental Center in 1919 and then a few years later, along with the Rockefeller General Education Board and the Strong family, helping create the School of Medicine and Dentistry and Strong Memorial Hospital. Eastman memorably led our 1924 Capital Campaign that enabled the University to establish and to expand many of our programs on our current River and Medical Center campuses. At Eastman’s death in 1932, he had given more money to the University of Rochester than had been received by any university in history.

This is all the more remarkable for a man who dropped out of high school at age 14.

I am proud that during my time here we belatedly installed a statue of Eastman on the Eastman Quadrangle and named the main performance hall in Eastman Theatre as Kodak Hall.

George Eastman’s ultimate legacy in part will be higher education. He came to believe: “The progress of the world depends almost entirely upon education.” On one day in 1924, Eastman pledged $30 million to the University of Rochester, MIT, Hampton, and Tuskegee universities. “Now I feel better,” he said. Earlier Eastman began to provide support to the Rochester Institute of Technology. He also supported Howard University and Meharry Medical College.

George Eastman was committed to higher education. He was committed to access, particularly for African Americans.

Eastman no doubt was most proud of the corporation he formed, Eastman Kodak. He was an unassuming man with a “success complex,” who achieved nearly every corporate, civic, and educational goal he sought. Eastman Kodak will be remembered for its remarkable 132-year history—extraordinarily long for a top-flight business corporation—as well as the company’s remarkable loyalty to its hometown.

Let me bid farewell to the original Eastman Kodak. Long live the new Kodak.

Letters

ROCHESTER REVIEWER: Anthony Boccaccio ’71 photographed an information table set up by the Gay Liberation Front on the Eastman Quadrangle in 1970 while taking campus photos. (Photo: Courtesy of anthony Boccaccio ’71)

Adding to ‘Forty’

I was pleased to read your article “Forty Years Out” (July-August 2013), but I must be honest and say that it brought me feelings of nostalgia and sadness. Let me tell my story:

I was a senior at the U of R in 1970–71. I had spent the previous year in Rome, Italy, during my junior year abroad where I had my first real gay relationship—far from disapproving family, friends, and country. When I returned to the U of R in 1970, I was confused and alone, and had no one to talk to about my struggles. One day, while making photographs for an article I was to publish in Rochester Review (“The Changing Campus of Tony Boccaccio”; Winter 1970–71), I made a photo of the first public advertising on the Quad of the [Gay Liberation Front’s] first meeting. I remember standing afar for the longest time after taking the photograph, trying to find the courage to walk over and pick up any and all information they had on “being gay.” But I lost courage and didn’t go over to the table. I was afraid my fraternity brothers would see me and find out I was gay. (I was in Theta Delta Chi—aka The Animal House).

Perhaps if I had gone over and joined the GLF, or even just got to know others who were “like me,” I would have found out that I was not alone, and that there were others like me who would have given me support and courage to accept who I was and come out—if not to the world, at least to myself. Had I done so, I might not have spent the next 20 years in the closet.

Coming out was more difficult in those days; today it’s much easier for young people to talk about their sexuality and their struggles to come to terms with themselves and the world around them. The best I could do at that time was to make photographs that expressed my struggles and confusion. This led to a photo story idea for Review that John Braund ’53, ’61W (Mas) of the alumni office and Mim Rock (may she rest in peace!) of academic advising encouraged me to do and fully supported.

The photo of the first GLF public exposure is a moment frozen in time; a moment that remained frozen for me for 20 years. I do not know who the people are in the photo; perhaps you do.

I also want to share a short video I made recently that tells the story of my senior photography project, and how 40 years later, I discovered that these photographs foretold the consequences of not going to the first meeting of the GLF, and my subsequent 20 years in the closet. You can see the video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=_16ZLM0G1JA.

Thank you for publishing this article; it brings me sad memories but also offers a deeper knowledge that what was started at the U of R by two very courageous young men has had its impact on generations.

Anthony Boccaccio ’71

Spokane, Wash.

Civil War Visit

I really enjoyed the May-June issue. Lots of good, substantive material, but I especially enjoyed reading the two Civil War articles. The two-page graphic on Gettysburg was top-notch—brought me back to my visit to the battlefield some years ago; amazing so many alums were present at crucial points in the battle.

And Steven Hahn’s “The Forge of a New Nation” was as good as anything I have read on the subject, including the New York Times’ wonderful Disunion blog.

Keep up the good aspirational work—it’s appreciated.

Randy Whitestone ’83

New York City

Questions on College Town

My initial reaction to your story in the March–April edition about the soon-to-be-built College Town was “about time!” I’m glad to see the leadership of UR finally recognizing the need for the campus to be more connected to the larger community. Unfortunately, I was disappointed when I saw the actual design: it is essentially a suburban shopping development, not a true college town.

Given the attention that livability and sustainability of urban areas have been receiving in the last decade, how can an institution such as UR not show better leadership on these issues? Why is this project built around the car rather than walking and bicycling (after all, how many students actually have cars at UR)? And 1,560 car parking spaces? There is little else that drives unsustainable, autocentric development as much as cheap (if not free) parking, so this type of design is just exacerbating anachronistic urban development.

Where is the bicycle parking? And bike lanes? Instead of an ugly car parking lot in the middle of the complex (isn’t a huge car parking garage enough?), why not some lush greenery scattered with tables and benches for students and others in the community to sit, relax, and study? I think UR can do much better than just another car-centric, suburban development, and so I found myself again disappointed to realize how behind the times the UR seems when it comes to sustainability. When will my alma mater realize that one of the most defining issues of the current, and certainly future, generations is sustainability and “get with the program”?

Jonathan Dirrenberger ’97, ’98 (MS)

San Francisco

Department of Corrections

The caption for the photo (“Ferris Wheelers’ Day Off”) on the back cover of the July-August issue should have attributed the planning and programming for Dandelion Day to the Campus Activities Board along with the student group UR Concerts and University staff. While the Students’ Association provides some funding for the day, the organization is not responsible for the day’s programming.

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.

SCIENCE CAMP

Lake Levels

(Photo: Adam Fenster)

Field Trip: Teresa Long, a graduate student at the Warner School of Education (left), and Claire Winchester ’13, a physics major from Austin, Texas, who’s also a preservice teacher at Warner (right), work with 12-year-olds Katelyn Doucet of Rochester’s School No. 42 and Isaiah Hepburn of Rochester’s School of the Arts to collect water samples from Lake Ontario as part of Warner’s Get Real! Science summer camp. Created by April Luehmann, associate professor of teaching and curriculum, Get Real! is designed to improve science teaching by engaging schoolchildren in an inquiry-based approach to problem solving. Each summer, area schoolchildren take part in the program’s camp, exploring scientific ideas and concepts through a series of experiments and other activities.

CLIMATE SCIENCE

Prehistoric Picture

(Photo: Adam Fenster)

Tiny Bubbles: Vasilii Petrenko holds a 50,000-year-old sample of ice from Taylor glacier in Antarctica as he gets ready to analyze it in his lab in Hutchison Hall. As he melts the ice in a special device, the assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences captures the air escaping from the ice’s bubbles. Petrenko studies the gases trapped inside the samples to analyze the ancient climate of Earth. See a video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=teoxnHkcULA.

EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY

Marvels of Madagascar

(Photo: Adam Fenster)

Species argument: Leaf-tailed geckos native to Madagascar are among the species of reptiles and amphibians whose slowing rates of evolution may indicate the end of an evolutionary heyday for the African island. A new study by Daniel Scantlebury, a PhD student in biology, offers further proof of Darwin’s theory that adaptive processes slow as the evolutionary niches available to species are filled in. (Clockwise from top left: mossy leaf-tailed gecko, Uroplatus sikorae; Henkel’s leaf-tailed gecko, Uroplatus henkeli; mossy leaf-tailed gecko, Uroplatus sikorae; and cork-bark leaf-tailed gecko, Uroplatus pietschmanni.)

OPTICS

Cool Carats

(Photo: Adam Fenster)

Glowing Report: A diamond with a diameter roughly a thousandth the size of a human hair floats in free space, trapped by a laser in a Wilmot Hall lab. Part of a series of experiments led by Nick Vamivakas, assistant professor of optics, and Levi Neukich, a PhD student in physics, the work resulted in the first measurement of photoluminescence in a specially selected kind of nano-sized diamond often used in such experiments. The research may represent a new optical approach to measuring friction in materials at the scale of microns, work that may have implications for developments in computing and communications technologies. See a video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPHJyaUDiVI.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

Checking in on the Digital World

Scholars and practitioners gather to consider media, culture, and a digital future.

Interview by Kathleen McGarvey

BRICKS AND CLICKS: As construction nears completion for Rettner Hall for Media Arts and Innovation, the time is right “to understand what the digital is doing,” says Thomas DiPiero, dean for humanities and interdisciplinary studies. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

What does digital technology make possible—and what responsibilities come along with those new freedoms? A conference, open to the public, called “Decoding the Digital: Technology, New Media, and a Culture Consumed?” will take up those questions September 12 to 14, with speakers from organizations such as Warner Brothers Digital Distribution, the Modern Language Association, the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, and universities in the U.S. and abroad. They’ll address issues such as what constitutes intellectual property, preservation and archival problems, and the invention of new forms, such as “born-digital” books.

As Rochester prepares to formally open the new Ronald Rettner Hall for Media Arts and Innovation this fall, the time is right “to understand what the digital is doing,” says Thomas DiPiero, dean for humanities and interdisciplinary studies.

What does the new digital realm let us do that we couldn’t do before?

Obviously you can do things much more efficiently and rapidly with digital technology, things you never could do before. A literature search for any field, which used to take days, weeks, or even months, can now be done in a matter of minutes or even seconds. With digital technology you can search images not just faster but in entirely new ways, with innovations like machine vision and image-based searching, where you can teach the machine to recognize visual patterns. You can do scientific simulations that involve distances that are too great for us to traverse or that involve things that are too small or too big for us to work with directly.

Is the digital realm a freer place than the nondigital world?

The digital provides a paradoxical release from control and then exerts its own kind of control as well, as recent stories about NSA surveillance have shown. The more each of us knows about technology, the freer we are to take advantage of its benefits, but none of us has the kind of control that a corporation or a government has over digital material, which means that we are both controllers and subject to greater control.

At a more prosaic level, digital communities develop to have their own sense of politics and etiquette as well, and there are ways of speaking in those groups, the way there are in any other kind of community. And you have to abide them or else you’ll become either censured or banned.

What kinds of new responsibilities does digital technology create?

In the area of personal identity, it’s a really complicated question: who are you online, and is it the same as the person—well, right away, we have a problem. You’re not a person online; you’re a representation. Arguably you’re a representation in real life as well, but think of the concept we call “identity theft.” It’s a strange, crazy term, because if someone steals my Social Security number and my credit card information, that’s a far cry from my identity. I hope it is—I think I’m a little more complex than that.

On Facebook, just to take a simple example, you put a “face” in your book that you want your friends and associates to know you as. The ways others perceive me in real life means that they’re going to assume certain things about my identity that I can’t control. I can control that more when I’m creating an online identity. But certain things aren’t always visible the way they are in real life. We’ve all heard situations where people represent themselves as something completely other than what they are in real life. That can be both a good and a very bad, dangerous thing.

You say online identity can actually be more restrictive. How?

In social media, to take just the easiest example, there are things that someone comes across as in real life that are much more difficult to represent when you do that through textual or image-based representation. Many people represent their gender online, but—either because they don’t think of it or choose not to—don’t represent their race. Then there are things that are much more subtle, and by that I mean not easily perceptible through a quick visual presentation, like sexuality, ethnic identity, class identity—the kinds of things that you learn how to read through interactions with people in real life that they won’t necessarily represent in their online identities.

You’ve also described digital technology as a tool of the imagination.

There are things the digital can help us imagine that we really can’t imagine through any other media—to me, that’s one of the most interesting things about it. The aesthetic can suggest things through inference, through connotation, through circumlocution, and through metaphors that discursive speech can’t do. New digital media can bring the conjunction of sound and image in ways we haven’t had before—add to that interactivity, and the way we can imagine worlds is dramatically more involved than anything we’ve had previously. Suddenly a whole new aesthetic is available to us. The introduction of new forms of technology exponentially increases what we can do aesthetically.

Biologists Find Chemical Behind Cancer Resistance

CANCER-PROOF: Naked mole rats have never been known to get cancer, despite a 30-year lifespan. (Photo: Brandon Vick)

What makes naked mole rats cancer-proof? Two Rochester biologists may have the answer, and their discovery could lead to new ways of treating cancer.

The exotic subterranean rodents have never been known to get cancer, despite a 30-year lifespan. A research group—led by Vera Gorbunova, professor of biology, and Andrei Seluanov, assistant professor of biology—has discovered that the tissues of the animals are rich with a chemical called high molecular weight hyaluronan, or HMW-HA, a form of a chemical that’s known to make tissues supple and aid in the healing process. The study was published in the journal Nature.

In 2009, the team discovered that mole rats’ cells stop proliferating when too many of them crowd together, cutting off runaway growth before it can start. That’s due to the cells’ expression of a gene called P16. Now the scientists have identified HMW-HA as the chemical that activates the anticancer response of the P16 gene. The biologists speculate that the rodents developed higher levels of the chemical in their skin to adapt to life in underground tunnels.

Gorbunova and Seluanov also identified the gene—called Has2—responsible for making HMW-HA in the naked mole rat. Surprisingly, the gene was different from the same gene in all other animals. Naked mole rats are also very slow at recycling HMW-HA, which contributes to the accumulation of the chemical in the mole rats’ tissues.

If further tests go well, the team hopes to try the chemical on human cells. HMW-HA is already used in antiwrinkle treatments and injections to ease arthritis pain in knee joints, without adverse effects. “Our hope is that it can also induce an anticancer response,” says Seluanov.

—Peter Iglinski

Scientists Coax Brain to Regenerate Cells Lost in Huntington’s Disease

Replenishing a type of neuron lost in Huntington’s disease may be possible using the brain’s native stem cells.

That’s according to a study published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, in which Medical Center scientists both triggered the production of new neurons in mice with the disease and showed that the new cells successfully integrated into the brain’s existing neural networks, dramatically extending the survival of the treated mice.

The study points to the feasibility of a new approach to treating Huntington’s disease, says Steven Goldman, professor of neurology and codirector of the University’s Center for Translational Neuromedicine.

Huntington’s is an inherited neurodegenerative disease characterized by the loss of a kind of cell called a medium spiny neuron, which is critical to motor control. The disease affects some 30,000 people in the United States and results in involuntary movements, coordination problems, and ultimately, cognitive decline and depression. Currently no treatment exists to slow or modify the fatal disease.

Shortly after birth, humans’ neural stem cells stop generating neurons and instead produce glia, a family of support cells that pervade the central nervous system. Some parts of the human brain—such as the hippocampus, where memories are formed and stored—produce neurons into adulthood. But in the striatum, the brain region devastated by Huntington’s disease, this capability is “switched off” in adulthood.

For the past decade, Goldman and his team have attempted to determine the precise chemical responsible for telling neural stem cells when to create neurons or glia cells. Through their research on brain plasticity in canaries, the team realized that by combining a protein with another molecule, they could switch the molecular machinery of stem cells from glial production and over to the production of neurons.

Researchers were able to extend significantly the survival of the treated mice, in some cases doubling their life expectancy.

—Mark Michaud

Socioeconomic Status Plays Major Role in Opioid Pain Control

Patients in moderate to severe pain in emergency rooms across the United States are less likely to receive opioid pain medications if they’re black, Hispanic, poor, or have less education, according to a new study co-authored by Michael Joynt ’12M (MD), now a pediatric cardiology fellow at the University of Michigan, and Meghan Train, a resident in the Department of Medicine.

Racial and ethnic disparities are well documented in the scientific literature, but the team believes the work is the first to investigate whether aspects of socioeconomic status—poverty, income, and education levels—also influence the prescription of opioid pain medications.

The results point to a need for a national discussion to increase awareness and to provide consistent, unbiased treatments, says corresponding author Robert Fortuna, assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics.

Investigators analyzed a cross-section of data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Care Survey of people 18 and older from 2006 to 2009. In more than 50,000 emergency room visits,

atients in the highest-income neighborhoods received prescriptions 49 percent of the time for moderate to severe pain, versus 39 percent of the time for patients from lower-income areas. Discrepancies also existed among various levels of poverty, with the poorest least likely to get opioids for pain. The study was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. —

Leslie Orr

Brain’s ‘Garbage Truck’ May Hold Key to Treating Alzheimer’s and Other Disorders

The brain’s system of waste removal, newly discovered by researchers, is a potentially powerful tool to treat neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, says Maiken Nedergaard, the Frank P. Smith Professor of Neurosurgery. In fact, scientists believe that some disorders may arise when the system isn’t doing its job properly.

“Essentially all neurodegenerative diseases are associated with the accumulation of cellular waste products,” Nedergaard, codirector of the Center for Translational Medicine, writes in the journal Science about how modulating the brain’s system for removing toxic waste could lead to new treatments.

The body defends the brain like a fortress and rings it with a system of gateways that control which molecules can enter and exit. Though this blood-brain barrier was first described in the late 19th century, scientists are only beginning to understand the dynamics of how it functions. The complex network of waste removal—which researchers have dubbed the glymphatic system—was first disclosed by Nedergaard and colleagues last August in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The key to discovering and understanding the system was the advent of a new imaging technology called two-photon microscopy, which allows scientists to peer deep within the living brain.

Understanding how the brain removes waste—both effectively and when the system breaks down—could have significant implications for treating neurological disorders. A hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease is the accumulation in the brain of the protein beta amyloid. Over time, the proteins amass with such density that they can be observed as plaques on scans of the brain.

“The idea that ‘dirty brain’ diseases like Alzheimer’s may result from a slowing down of the glymphatic system as we age is a completely new way to think about neurological disorders,” Nedergaard says. “It also presents us with a new set of targets to potentially increase the efficiency of glymphatic clearance and, ultimately, change the course of these conditions.”

—Mark Michaud

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

Having Phthalates for Lunch?

CAN-DO STEPS: Avoiding canned goods may help reduce exposure to environmental chemicals. (Photo: iStockphoto)

Biological anthropologist Emily Barrett studies the human reproductive system and how it responds to the environment. Lately, her focus has been on the chemical class of phthalates, which have been shown particularly to affect the development of baby boys.

What kinds of chemicals concern you?

Broadly the chemicals that I think about are endocrine disruptors—chemicals that interfere with the way hormones normally work in your body. The ones that we focus on the most are phthalates, and those are chemicals that are anti-androgens. They interfere with the male hormones in your body. Clearly the male reproductive system would be the most obvious candidate for being affected, but we’re learning that androgens are important for female reproduction as well. Androgens are also important for the brain, so it’s possible that phthalates have an effect on brain development. I think we’re only hitting the tip of the iceberg now on what we know about phthalates and how they may impact health in humans.

How do phthalates affect a fetus?

A lot of the mechanisms are unclear. During fetal development body systems are just developing and maturing, they’re growing, and cell division is very rapid, so we know that environmental insults during that period tend to be most harmful. We think the reproductive system develops in the late first trimester of pregnancy, weeks 8 to 12, so if you’re exposed to endocrine-disrupting chemicals like phthalates during that period, we think that may impact reproductive development. Phthalate exposure may affect the fetus’s reproductive development before the mom even knows that she’s pregnant.

Where are phthalates found?

Phthalates are a synthetic chemical found in plastics. They are a whole class of chemicals, and some are more potent than others. The most dangerous one, to our knowledge, is DEHP. We think that about 90 percent of our exposure to it comes through food. The research on this is still pretty young, but we think that as food is processed and packaged, it’s exposed to DEHP. Another main source is personal care products: shampoos, soaps, perfumes, and so on. Phthalates are really good at holding color and scent, so we think anything that’s scented, more or less, has phthalates. We think there may even be phthalates in water in some cases. They’re basically unavoidable—it’s just a matter of whether or not you can reduce your exposure.

What can you do to avoid them?

At this point we can’t definitively tell you how to lower your exposure. Since starting this line of research, I’ve been pregnant twice, and when people ask me what to do, I just tell them to choose a few things you think you can do, rather than trying to eliminate all possible sources. The easiest one is not to microwave foods in plastic, because we know that chemicals will leach out. And choosing fresher foods—not canned goods, not ones that are highly processed, not fast food.

And another reason to choose organic foods is that phthalates are often included as a non-active ingredient in pesticides. So by choosing organic chicken or organic vegetables, you may be reducing your exposure to phthalates, as well as pesticides.

But my organic chicken is probably going to come wrapped in plastic, isn’t it?

Not all plastics are bad. Plastics with recycling codes 1, 2, 4, and 5 are the ones that don’t have any known health risks and don’t contain phthalates. It’s virtually impossible to live without plastics these days, but you can strategically choose which ones you use.

You can also choose personal care products that say they’re phthalate-free—especially if you’re pregnant with a boy, since we know that male reproductive development in particular seems to be affected.

And beyond that, I tell people not to get stressed out about it, because we know that stress is also not good for the fetus. So it’s kind of a careful balance.

How long have phthalates been around—and been a matter for concern?

As industry increased after World War II, that probably brought the big boom. It’s been more than a decade now that we’ve been researching them. Most people know about BPA at this point, but phthalates are newer on the horizon.

I’m doing a study with a former anthropologist who’s in environmental medicine on phthalates in the nondeveloped world. Most research has been done in the developed world, but we’ll be working with a hunter-gatherer population with very limited exposure to the Western world to see if even they’ve been exposed.

—Kathleen McGarvey

PSYCHOLOGY

Taking ‘Ghosts’ Out of the Nursery

The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children gave its Outstanding Research Career Achievement Award to Sheree Toth in July. A professor of psychology and executive director of Mt. Hope Family Center, Toth has focused her career on preventing child maltreatment and developing approaches to help children who have been abused.

What issues have been the focus of your career?

I work on the effects of maltreatment on the development of children, looking at things such as how it affects their sense of self, their self-esteem, and their views of adults in their lives. Not surprisingly, maltreatment has a very negative effect on the security of children’s attachment to their caregiver—and that negative model spills over to other relationships in children’s lives, with peers, teachers, and others. They can have difficulty forming positive relationships, and it can continue into adulthood.

Children who’ve been maltreated often end up being revictimized as adults, entering into situations involving domestic violence. A big part of my work has focused on how we can break that negative developmental cascade, providing interventions for children in maltreating families. I think some of my most important work to date has looked at providing a relational form of intervention called child-parent psychotherapy where we work with children and their primary caregiver together, to stop the abuse and also to mend the negative effects that the child has experienced.

What does it involve?

Many of the parents with whom we work have themselves experienced significant adversity in their childhood, so when they come to us they may not even know how to play with their child because no one ever played with them. The model emanates from the work of social worker Selma Fraiburg, who wrote “Ghosts in the Nursery,” an article about the “ghosts” of a parent’s own early years, traumas that, left unresolved, can enter their relationship with their own children. Our therapy work isn’t

parent skills training. It’s meeting the parent and child where they are and gently helping them see what’s going on in their interactions. As you develop a more trusting relationship with the mom—most of the parents involved are mothers—you can start reflecting on her experiences when she was young. It’s a longer-term model of therapy—typically weekly meetings for 10 to 12 months.

Are the effects of maltreatment the same for all children?

No. Some children are able to function resiliently despite early adversity. And one thing we’re trying to look at is what helps children do well despite maltreatment, so that we can build that into the development of early-intervention strategies.

What role is there for the larger community in preventing child abuse?

If we don’t help maltreated children, we’re putting in place a lifelong cascade of negative outcomes that affect not only the children and the families they’re in, but also society more broadly. We’re spending about $124 billion a year on ancillary costs related to traumatized children. They’re at much greater risk of developing mental health problems. They’re at much greater risk of dropping out of school. They’re at much greater risk of committing crimes and ultimately being incarcerated. They require a high level of special education services. Maltreatment has also been linked to physical problems, such as increased risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

If I see someone growing frustrated with a child, what can I do as a bystander?

Dante Cicchetti, who was the director of the center for many years, had a great approach to that. We’ve all seen the grocery store scenario, where the child is crying and the mom is yanking him. Dante would go up to the mom and say, “Your little boy looks so much like you, and I can see what a special relationship the two of you have.” And it would just change the whole tenor of the interaction. The mom would smile, and it really would avert what could have turned into something ugly. If we see something in the community that is alarming in some way, trying to divert it in a positive way, walking up and handing someone a balloon or just doing something to divert them and diffuse it, can help. Because confronting a parent at that point could just make it worse.

—Kathleen McGarvey

Cracking Suffrage History

HISTORIC MOMENT? Catherine Cerulli, director of the Anthony Center, inspects a replica gavel, while Mary Singletary, the president of the National Council of Women of the United States (left), and Margo Adler of National Public Radio look on. (Photo: Shannon Taggart for Rochester Review)

The Susan B. Anthony Center for Women’s Leadership tried to pry open a little history this summer. The center joined the National Council of Women of the United States in the group’s New York City offices to open a “Woman Suffrage Party” safe. The safe had sat, locked and unopened, in the group’s offices near the headquarters of the United Nations for as long as anyone could remember. The Anthony Center hired a professional safecracker to break open the accidental time capsule.

Among the contents discovered: tax documents from 1931, a boxed Smithsonian replica of the gavel that was presented to Susan B. Anthony in 1888 at the first convention of the National Council of Women in Washington, D.C., and a box with six mounted replicas of murals from the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago of significant women in history. A lease from the 1990s also turned up, suggesting that someone knew the combination not too long ago.

New Center for Freeform Optics Established

It’s a new frontier in optics: freeform optics, a field that experts say could transform 21st-century optical science by allowing for a wider range of shapes for lenses and mirrors. A Rochester team, led by center director Jannick Rolland, the Brian J. Thompson Professor of Optical Engineering, pioneered the theoretical framework of freeform optics by exploring how such surfaces guide light in three dimensions.

A new research center at Rochester—the Center for Freeform Optics—brings together researchers from Rochester and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with industry partners to explore applied research. That’s work that isn’t yet ready to be turned into products but is essential to future technology in the field.

Supported with more than $4 million in federal, industry, and academic funding, the center will draw on expertise in areas that include mathematics, optics, materials science, and instrument design, and will include graduate students as an integral part of its work.

ART SCENE: Jackson Court will be the site of a new sculpture. (Photo: Steve Boerner for Rochester Review)

Campus Gateway Sculpture Proposals Sought

A new work of art may soon mark the northern entrance to the River Campus. The University in the summer put out a call for proposals for a permanent outdoor art installation reflecting the mission to “Learn, Discover, Heal, Create—And Make the World Ever Better.” The piece will serve as a focal point for the intersection of several walkways adjacent to Sage Art Center and the new Jackson Court outdoor gathering space.

The request for proposals is directed primarily at experienced artists who make site-specific art. The winning design will be selected through a process that, in its final stages, will include community input. Detailed plans from the three or four finalists will be exhibited during Meliora Weekend. The artwork is the last step in the completion of Jackson Court and O’Brien Hall, the University’s newest residential housing development.

Six Medical Center Programs Cited as Among Best

When US News & World Report’s 2014 Best Hospitals guidebook hit newsstands over the summer, a record number of six Medical Center specialties were ranked among the nation’s best. The rankings consider data on nearly 5,000 eligible hospitals.

The nationally ranked adult specialties include endocrinology, neurology and neurosurgery, gynecology, nephrology, urology, and gastroenterology and GI surgery. Earlier this year, US News ranked the pediatric orthopaedics program as 45th best in its Best Children’s Hospitals listing.

Alumni Gain Access to Library Databases

Looking for access to the University’s scholarly databases? The River Campus Libraries, in partnership with Alumni Relations, now offer alumni access to premium content on three scholarly databases: JSTOR, Proquest Alumni Edition, and Sage. The service is intended to support scholarship, lifelong learning, entrepreneurship, and business initiatives. Access is available through the Alumni Library Gateway (www.library.rochester.edu/alumni?alumauth=no).

JSTOR provides access to scholarly articles in a wide range of areas from the 19th century to the past five years. Proquest Alumni Edition offers articles on a variety of topics, with an emphasis on business. And Sage gives access to its journals in fields such as the humanities, medicine, social science, technology, science, and business.

(Photo: Adam Fenster)

Recent Graduates Are Selected for Chinese Scholarship

Matt Chin ’13 (left) receives a book of stamps celebrating Chinese history and culture from Guoxiang Sun, the ambassador of the People’s Republic of China, during a ceremony on the River Campus in August. Chin and recent graduates Duane Thomas Fields ’13E and Kirsten Leever ’13 were the first Rochester graduates selected to receive full-year scholarships to study at Chinese universities as part of a program sponsored by the China Scholarship Council and the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in New York.

HOME: New housing for students will be part of Brooks Landing, a project led by private developer Christenson Corporation. (Photo: Courtesy of Christenson Corporation)

New Student Housing Development Gets Under Way

Rochester students will soon have a new living option across the Genesee River from the River Campus. Developers began work this summer on a 12-story mixed-use project in Rochester’s 19th Ward. Known as The Flats at Brooks Crossing, the project features 10 floors of housing to accommodate 170 students in about 70 units. Other features include a 2,000-square-foot common area; a lower-level scull boat house; a 5,000-square-foot restaurant on the first floor; and a second, 4,000-square-foot, single-story building on Genesee Street. The $18.7 million project by private developer Christenson Corporation is scheduled to be completed by fall 2014

How Can You ‘Hide’ Your Brother?

(Photo: Adam Fenster)

Benjamin Howell and his younger brother, Isaac, demonstrate a simple cloaking device they built with their father, John Howell, professor of physics. In a do-it-yourself project, the Howell family demonstrated that inexpensive, off-the-shelf materials could be used to build devices that take advantage of the properties of light in ways that make large objects appear invisible to some viewers. Benjamin and his father described the project in a paper posted on the online science depository Arxiv.org. See a video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAmWs6zfTj8.

—Leonor Sierra

(Photo: Steve Boerner for Rochester Review)

GREEK LIFE

Refurbishing the Fraternity Quad

(Illustration: Steve Boerner for Rochester Review)

By Jennifer Roach

Six Fraternity Quad houses, many of which date back to the 1930s, received a facelift over the summer, thanks to a multimillion-dollar investment by the University. Upgrades were made to the Delta Kappa Epsilon, Sigma Alpha Mu, Sigma Chi, Psi Upsilon, Alpha Delta Phi, and Theta Chi houses to bring the houses up to Residential Life standards.

Workers addressed mechanical, electrical, and roofing problems in the houses, and completed cosmetic improvements. They also made the buildings compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Over the summer, the University assumed responsibility for operating and maintaining the houses—a move that will allow the students living there, and their alumni advisors, to focus on the academic, leadership, and philanthropic missions of the organizations. Moving the properties into the Residential Life system is in accordance with recommendations made by a special Fraternity Quad Task Force—a committee of trustees and student and alumni fraternity members—that met over 12 months seeking constructive solutions to the problem of deferred maintenance, while respecting the traditions and contributions to campus life inherent in the Fraternity Quad's organizations.

PREVIEW

Yellowjacket Scouting Report

What’s the outlook for Rochester teams this year?

By Dennis O’Donnell

STRONG START: The men’s cross country team returns a strong nucleus of runners for 2013 from last fall’s squad, a group that finished 21st at the NCAA national championship meet. (Photo: Athletics and Recreation)

With three straight NCAA championship appearances and a strong nucleus returning, the men’s cross country team is looking for another successful season this fall.

Seniors John Bernstein and Adam Pacheck plus junior Marc Rollfs earned all-Atlantic region honors a year ago. They all finished in the top 35 at the Atlantic regional championships last fall (hosted by Rochester). Senior Yuji Wakimoto will be another top five candidate on a week-in, week-out basis this fall.

Rochester was one of 16 at-large participants in the 32-team NCAA championship field last year, finishing in 21st-place as a team. Eight regions will conduct championships in mid-November with the top two teams from each region advancing to the national championship site. The remaining 16 teams will be selected by a committee on an at-large basis. No region received more than five invitations last year.

That may change for the 2013 race.

“The NCAA committee will select the best 16 at-large teams without regard to regional alignment,” says Sam Albert ’01, ’02W (MS), director of track and field. “It means a strong region might send as many as seven or eight teams to the championship site.”

What does that mean for Rochester’s men and women? “Depending on where we finish at the regional race, we may be fighting for an at-large berth among 50 teams instead of 24,” Albert says. Teams that finish in the top eight regionally may be strong candidates to run for one more week.

FALL FAVORITES: The women’s cross country team is looking to qualify for the NCAA championship meet this fall. (Photo: Athletics and Recreation)

The Yellowjacket women have good experience returning as well—including senior Danielle Bessette, juniors Caitlyn Garbarino, Victoria Stepanova, and Kathryn Woodworth plus sophomore Catherine Knox. Knox reaped all-Region and all–NY State honors a year ago. Bessette was an all-Region performer. Junior Jennifer Klemenz also had a very strong track season in the long-distance races last spring, and she looks to be a major contributor on the cross country course this fall.

Rochester will compete in three key races before running in the Atlantic regional championships in mid-November. The Yellowjackets will run at Letchworth State Park in the SUNY Geneseo pre- regional race on October 5, then compete in the Oberlin (Ohio) College Inter-Regional Rumble on October 19. The UAA championships will be held in Pittsburgh on November 2. Geneseo hosts the Atlantic regional championships at Letchworth on November 16 with the NCAA title race set for Hanover, Indiana, a week later.

“Those races are all important because they will put us against teams we may be competing with for an at-large bid at the end of the season,” says Albert. “The UAA race involves teams from six different regions. It could come down to how we do in an ‘us-against-them’ race.”

A Fall Preview

Field hockey: The Yellowjackets earned a first-ever NCAA playoff bid in 2012 and reached the quarterfinals of the championship tournament. The team will be led by senior All-Americans Madison Wagner in goal and Katie Flaschner at midfield. Sophomore Michelle Relin (19 goals, 9 assists, 47 points) was the Liberty League Rookie of the Year last season.

Football: Four all–Liberty League honorees return for the Yellowjackets along with record-setting senior quarterback Dean Kennedy. He has two strong targets in senior wide receiver Thomas Hayes (41 catches, 622 yards, 4 TDs) and senior tight end Ken Apostolakos (30 catches, 389 yards, 5 TDs). Kennedy threw for a single-season record 2,028 yards and 15 TDs. Defensively, the charge will be led by senior linebackers Tony Ortega and Zach Cicero who totaled 126 tackles between them.

Men’s soccer: With seven playoff invitations in the last eight years, Rochester remains one of the nation’s elite teams. The veterans include four all-UAA honorees: forward Alex Swanger, midfielder Max Fan, defender Andrew Sheridan, and forward Jack Thesing. Senior goalie Mike Moranz is back as well.

Women’s soccer: Junior Kailee Zornow is a returning starter with all–UAA honors on her playing resume. Nine players return with starting experience, including seniors Grace Van Der Ven, Alyssa Abel, Kathryn Rowe, and Lila Cantor.

Women’s volleyball: Junior middle blocker Savannah Benton is back on the floor after earning all–UAA honors in 2012. She had 265 kills and 102 blocks. Setter Xiaoyi Li averaged 9.33 assists per set. Jennie Ford had 3.47 assists per set. She will move to a hitter’s role. Senior Paige Idziur is a libero candidate after registering 163 digs last season.

Who’s No. 1? Rochester

The first preseason polls of 2013 were issued in mid-August and the Yellowjacket men’s and women’s soccer teams were already making names for themselves. Men’s Soccer is ranked No. 1 in Division III by BennettRank, a computer-driven service. The popular ranking website uses only mathematical algorithms to rank every team and conference in all three NCAA divisions. BennettRank uses wins, losses, goal differentials, and game location to determine rank, differentiating themselves from the more subjective process of voting used by most polls and improving upon the data- driven RPI by factoring in whether a match was played home or away. Five UAA teams were ranked in the top 10 heading into the 2013 season and six are in the top 12.

One year ago, BennettRank determined that the University Athletic Association was the toughest women’s soccer conference in Division III. That’s reflected in the organization’s preseason Division III women’s poll. UAA schools filled the top four spots. Rochester was ranked No. 38. Among all 431 Division III soccer programs, the Yellowjacket women’s team played the toughest strength of schedule in 2012.

Dennis O’Donnell is director of athletic communications for the Department of Athletics and Recreation.

Taking Care

College has long been a place for learning independence. But Rochester undergirds such lessons with a strong structure of support.

By Kathleen McGarvey

(Photo: John W. Tomac for Rochester Review)

In his junior year, a frenetic schedule began to overtake Eric Cohen ’13. He was trying to balance the demands of his major in engineering science with a consuming interest in drama that had him involved in the International Theatre Program, Drama House, student-run theater group The Opposite of People, and comedy improvisational troupe In Between the Lines. His health suffered from the erratic sleep schedule and eating patterns of on-campus life, due to his Type-1 diabetes. Taking insulin before a meal, as he must do, and adjusting the dosage based on what he’d be eating was difficult with dining hall buffets. And time was a problem, too. “It can be hard, finding the five minutes to take my insulin. Things just get so hectic—and grabbing some pizza doesn’t work.”

An overfull slate of extracurricular activities, academic pressures, difficulties sleeping properly and eating right—“it became too much,” says Cohen, of Cleveland, Ohio. “I was struggling to keep a grasp on all my responsibilities.” He was hospitalized twice for chest pains related to a heart condition.

And then one day, he received an email from Erin Halligan, assistant director for student support services. Someone—more than a year later, Cohen still doesn’t know who—alerted Halligan to the difficulties he was confronting.

“When I first heard from Erin, I was about to get kicked out—I wasn’t doing well,” Cohen says. “I’m pretty sure that in her message, Erin phrased it that ‘I’m here to help.’ And I was open to that.”

Halligan, who holds a master’s degree in mental health counseling and is completing a PhD in counseling education and supervision at the Warner School of Education, is the person at the core of a new—though long-evolving—student support system at Rochester dubbed the Care Network. The network has developed into a resource nationally recognized for its comprehensiveness, responsiveness, and accessibility. It serves undergraduate students and graduate students across the University.

The system is a manifestation of a new way of viewing and handling student life. For several generations at least, college has been a place for making the transition to adulthood in an environment that is, to some extent, protected. In the later 1960s, the idea of in loco parentis, the institution acting in place of the parent, fell on hard times, and students became increasingly responsible for making their own choices—and living with the consequences of poor ones.

But incidences of campus violence—perhaps most notoriously, mass shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and Northern Illinois University in 2008—along with heightened awareness of and response to sexual assault and other campus crimes have spurred colleges and universities across the country to assemble teams dedicated to addressing such problems.

Rochester’s efforts at enhancing student support began more than a decade ago. Matthew Burns, dean of students, says: “Colleges and universities are under an incredible amount of pressure to care for their students in new and different ways. But we were caring for our students the way people were being encouraged to after Virginia Tech long before Virginia Tech.”

The system focuses on helping students at the first sign of a personal or academic problem and on enlisting the entire campus community as a source of helping hands. Anyone—a faculty member who sees a reliable student suddenly failing exams, an undergraduate who sees a roommate reluctant to get out of bed, a facilities worker who finds persistent evidence of sickness—can use the system to let Halligan know that a student may be in trouble by filling out a simple online form known as a Care report.

“The reason the network is as successful as it is, is because it’s supported all over campus,” says Halligan. All reports are reviewed within 24 hours.

When the network was introduced two years ago, only faculty and staff could make reports, but last year it also became available to students and families—in fact, to anyone, on campus or off, who sees reason to be concerned about a student’s well-being. Several students have even reported themselves in an effort to find help efficiently. In 2011–12, the network received 525 reports, a marked increase over the 427 submitted the previous year. In 2012–13, after the system became accessible to all for reporting, Halligan received 927 reports, a 117 percent increase from the number just two years before—a rise she chalks up to greater accessibility and visibility for the system. Because of that growth, Halligan will soon be joined by a full-time coordinator who will aid her in assessing reports and reaching out to students.

Reports can be triggered by something as slight as a normally diligent student suddenly missing several class meetings, but the network also encompasses actions as serious as suicide threats. Because it can take relatively little to move the system to action, Burns calls the network “as close to proactive as it can be.”

It’s the “fruit of a long effort, and the end result is so thoughtful,” says David Bevevino, senior analyst at the Education Advisory Board, a Washington, D.C., based group that provides best-practice research and advice to higher education leaders. The board highlighted the network for its methods of identifying students of concern, its transparency, and its marketing efforts to promote its use in a 2012 study of how colleges and universities respond to students in need of help.

“It’s a resource. It’s not disciplinary,” Cohen says. He established a routine of weekly meetings with Halligan, who helped him to manage his time better and take better care of his health. He became such a believer in the program’s value that he has worked to spread the word, urging other students to take advantage of it. He led a discussion of the network after the performance of a play about gun violence in the spring semester in response to last December’s elementary school shootings in Newtown, Conn.

“I’m definitely an advocate, 100 percent,” he says.

The network evolved from a more typical form of student intervention: a weekly campus-conduct meeting that involved officials representing residential life, security, the office of the associate dean of students, and the University Counseling Center. The group evaluated security reports and decided how to handle issues of misconduct. But those involved realized that their efforts could be more effective if they could intervene with students before they reached the point of misconduct.

In the fall of 2002, Burns created the Student Support Network, a roundtable that brought together staff from all corners of campus—including the College Center for Advising Services, the Office of Minority Student Affairs, chaplains, the bursar’s office, and financial aid—to help students while their problems were more manageable. But the group’s large size was both a strength and a weakness, raising issues of confidentiality.

To address that dilemma, Burns streamlined the process, using the software package Advocate by Symplicity to track students headed for trouble, with the concerns initially fielded by a single source—Halligan, who began her position in fall 2011.

Richard Feldman, dean of the College, says: “We thought the thing to do was set a quite low threshold, that if you just were concerned about somebody, you could identify that person and there could be follow up. And it might turn out that there’s not much of a problem; it might turn out that there is.”

Melissa Kelley, a health educator in University Health Service and a frequent participant in the network, likens Halligan to a detective, receiving clues to students’ situations and investigating to find out what kind of help, if any, they might need.

“I proceed on a case-by-case basis,” says Halligan. “I talk with the student, assess what their needs are, and get them to where they need to be.” Some students need a counselor, whether academic or personal. Others, a psychotherapist. Some could use a mentor—and others just need an adult to talk with once in a while. “Almost everybody at the University has served in that capacity at one time or another, if they have something to do with students. Students who can’t find that person can find them through the Care Network, we hope,” says Burns.

The issues reported were predominantly academic ones when Halligan began the job—but once the system became open to all, she started to see more reports of emotional and mental health problems. And “problems that ostensibly come from the academic realm may actually have their origins in emotional issues,” she says.

Because anyone can file a report, the network gives “an ability to get a 360-degree picture of a student’s life,” says Eleanor Oi, academic advisor and director of orientation. That makes it easier for the University to intervene appropriately in cases where it might not otherwise recognize the need. And intervening when a problem is just beginning gives a student more options. Once a real crisis hits, the choices become more limited— typically, hospitalization, medical leave, or withdrawal, says Bevevino. Early intervention also saves students and the University time and effort. “We are trying to find students who are headed for trouble at the earliest possible moment so that the amount of resources it takes for both them and us to get them back on track is minimal,” says Burns.

At the same time, he and others are mindful that the network shouldn’t create an environment that is overly watchful, coddling students rather than supporting them. “There’s a balance to be struck, and it’s not crystal clear where the line is,” Burns says. “This is not a support system that should prevent failure altogether. If a healthy student makes the decision that they want to fail out of school, at some level do you have to say, you’re allowed to fail out if you want? You’re allowed to make bad decisions if you want. There are consequences, but we’re not going to prevent you from making the kinds of decisions that you have a right to make.”

The Education Advisory Board carried out research on current practices for what it calls behavioral intervention teams at more than 200 schools in the United States and Canada last year. Rochester’s system is a “mature effort” compared to what the researchers found at other schools, where intervention programs are mostly at earlier stages of development, says Liz Rothenberg, a practice manager at the board. In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, many schools established crisis teams, but didn’t advertise them broadly for fear of adding to anxiety, Rothenberg says, noting that Rochester has taken the opposite tack, making its services highly visible and widely accessible. Even the name “Care Network” reveals a different emphasis, she says. “In a lot of places, it’s called something like ‘Threat Assessment’ or ‘At-Risk Students.’ What Rochester has created is much friendlier. It’s easier to submit a ‘care report’ than an ‘incident report.’ ”

Kevin Allan ’14, a neuroscience major from Sharon, Mass., has seen the network from both sides, as someone who has submitted reports and as someone who’s had a report submitted on his behalf.

In 2012–13, Allan was a resident advisor in the Susan B. Anthony residence hall, where he oversaw 32 freshmen. As part of his training, he was taught how to use the network, and he referred students to it who were feeling homesick or experiencing other difficulties, such as having to miss exams because of a death in the family.

Like Cohen, he felt pressures mounting as the fall went on, from his responsibilities as an advisor, his own heavy course load, and his work as a teaching assistant in two classes. Someone, he doesn’t know whom, saw his stress level rising and submitted a report about him.

Initially, he was taken aback. “When you first see the email, you feel a little stigma: ‘Someone thinks I’m not OK,’” he says. But meeting with Halligan “made life feel manageable,” and he says he’s now thankful that someone alerted her to his anxiety. “It shows someone cares about you, and took the time to write.”

Oi says the cumulative effect of so many people being able to submit a report is a kind of safety net that could never exist otherwise. “If I meet with a student and I gather information, I may see one chunk of their life, where someone else sees another chunk, and someone else, another. If someone’s really in crisis, it can be that all of those little chunks moving together” reveal the scope of the problem.

And for people, such as faculty members, who may become aware of a student’s problems without having the expertise to guide the student, the network is an appreciated resource.

“The idea here was explicitly not to ask faculty members to solve the problem with the student, not to intervene in ways they might not be comfortable doing, but just to have a place to let someone know,” says Feldman. “The network makes it really easy. I think that’s important. It’s extending the network of people who might be able to get something like this started to faculty, and now to students and families and others.”

Heather Layton, a senior lecturer in art and art history, has filed reports for about half a dozen students. “It was a relief to get advice from colleagues on campus who had access to a broader range of information about the student. While the privacy of the student was entirely protected and the details of any situation were kept confidential, it helped tremendously to have validation of a situation and to understand whether or not I’m taking the right approach in teaching or advising,” she says. It alleviates her own anxiety “to know that there is a network of support on campus rather than it just resting on one person’s shoulders.”

The percentage of people seen at the University Counseling Center because of a report is small, says Brigid Cahill, associate director of the center. “Because people don’t know who we’re seeing, people sometimes file a report for someone who’s already in treatment here. People seem to get here on their own—but for people who don’t, and for whom there’s enough concern, I think that’s the valuable piece of Care: for students who are falling through the cracks, Care helps to catch them.”

When Bevevino looks at the network, he sees something distinctive. “It’s part of what you do as a student, or a faculty or staff member, at Rochester—you make a report and get students the support they need.”

Care App

This September a new Care Resource Center app debuts. It will help students connect with resources according to their concern, finding students’ locations using GPS in their phones and giving them directions to the office that can best provide help. “It’s a way to connect students to resources from their dorm room,” says Erin Halligan, assistant director for student support services, who oversaw the app’s development. Liz Rothenberg—a practice manager at the Education Advisory Board, a Washington, D.C., based group that analyzes best practices in academic affairs, student affairs, and other areas of higher education—calls the app “something that truly stands out. It’s really meeting students where they are.”

Accounting for Asteroids

A proposed space mission aims to add up asteroids with the potential to cause catastrophe on Earth.

By Scott Hauser

DANGEROUS NEIGHBORHOOD: A simulated view of the near-Earth asteroid population shows potentially hazardous asteroids in orange. Less-dangerous near-Earth asteroids are blue. Earth’s orbit is green. Some estimates put the number of potentially hazardous asteroids between 3,200 and 6,200. (Photo: NASA)

In the ongoing background noise of potential natural disasters vying for your attention—hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, lightning strikes—the idea that a random piece of rock from outer space will cross paths with our lonely blue planet is most likely a distant worry.

And if a project involving a team of Rochester scientists and researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California succeeds, you may eventually be able to rest even easier when it comes to the faint possibility that an asteroid will strike Earth with catastrophic consequences. Or at least put the possibility into the same category as earthquakes and hurricanes—a potential hazard, to be sure, but one that can be predicted and prepared for, if not averted.

“How do you respond to something that’s low in probability but potentially high in consequence?” asks Amy Mainzer, the principal investigator for two JPL missions designed to survey space for asteroids and comets. “You don’t ignore it, but you don’t panic either. You try to take the reasonable, measured response to the situation. In the case of the earthquakes, we certainly study earthquakes; we employ sensor networks to try to detect them.

“In the case of the asteroids, the first thing you want to do is go find the asteroids and see if there are any that are on a potentially hazardous course.”

For much of the past decade, Mainzer and colleagues at Rochester have been collaborating in an effort to improve the ability of space telescopes to map the course of asteroids. The long-term goal is to put in place a network of detection—involving both space-based and ground-based observatories—that will alert observers when asteroids or comets are on a collision course with Earth, allowing disaster professionals the time to prepare a course of action to avert as much of the danger as possible.

SPACE BOUND? A proposed space mission to look for asteroids near Earth would include a new version of an infrared detector developed and tested by Rochester researchers. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

This spring, the team of Craig McMurtry, a senior engineer, Judith Pipher, professor emerita, and Bill Forrest, professor emeritus, all in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, along with Mainzer, reported an important breakthrough in that effort. The Rochester team, which has been one of the leading centers of research on infrared detectors for space missions since the early 1980s, reported that a new generation of sensors appears ready to serve as the electronic eyes of a mission designed to hunt for “near-Earth objects.”

With initial funding from NASA, the group is proposing a new space-based telescope that would sit close to Earth’s orbit and use infrared sensors to scan the sky for asteroids whose orbits have taken the interstellar rocks out of the main belt between Mars and Jupiter and put them on a possible collision course with Earth. Named NEOCam, or “Near-Earth Object Camera,” the mission would be able to detect objects that have a diameter of about 30 to 50 meters—about the size of an office building.

While that won’t account for all the objects that have the potential to cause catastrophic damage, it would go a long way toward filling in a wide swath of missing information about asteroids, their orbits, and the materials that they are made of. When such near-Earth objects are relatively small—objects the size of basketballs are estimated to enter the atmosphere once or twice a week—they dissipate harmlessly in the atmosphere.

The larger they get, of course, the greater their potential for destruction. The world was reminded of that last winter when an asteroid estimated to be 17 to 20 meters in diameter entered the atmosphere over the Ural region of Russia and exploded about 30 miles from the city of Chelyabinsk. And in 1908, an asteroid or comet estimated to be at least 50 meters in diameter flattened more than 800 square miles of Siberian forest near Tugunska, Russia. And 65 million years ago, a collision with a near-Earth object believed to be about 5 to 10 kilometers in diameter resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs.

In 2011, Mainzer published the most detailed census yet of large and midsize asteroids, reporting that the majority of the objects with the most lethal potential—those larger than 1 kilometer in diameter—have been found and that many of the ones measuring between 300 meters and 1 kilometer had been spotted. Part of a project she led called the NEOWise survey, the results were based on data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, a NASA mission launched in 2009 that was designed to scan for luminous galaxies and stars with a cooler temperature signature.

ROCHESTER TEAM: The new array is the latest in a 20-year research effort led by Judith Pipher (left), Bill Forrest, and Craig McMurtry (right). They were joined by graduate student Meghan Dorn (third from left). (Photo: Adam Fenster)

Like the WISE mission, NEOCam is based on the asteroid-hunting technology of using infrared radiation as a way to spot dark, nonreflective objects. Although invisible to humans, infrared radiation can be used to measure the heat being emitted by an object, making it ideal for searching for objects like asteroids. Asteroids don’t emit their own light, but when warmed by the sun, emit enough infrared radiation to stand out against the ambient radiation of space.

But unlike WISE, the proposed NEOCam mission will be designed to scan specifically for asteroids and other near-Earth objects, and where the longest wavelength detections in WISE were based in silicon, the new sensors would be made of a newly developed combination of mercury, cadmium, and tellurium. The combination allows the sensors—akin to a megapixel camera chip—to collect infrared wavelengths up to about 10 microns, the range at which most asteroids emit infrared radiation.

In a paper published in the Journal of Optical Engineering, the Rochester team reported that the new sensors could operate comfortably at about 40 degrees above absolute zero, the temperature at which most space-based telescopes eventually live out their lives in space. The ability to operate at 40 degrees Kelvin means the NEOCam craft would not have to carry an artificial coolant such as liquid helium or solid hydrogen, a requirement for silicon-based arrays, which operate best at 10 degrees or less above absolute zero.

“It doesn’t sound like a big difference—they both sound really cold—but to an instrument astronomer working on space telescopes, it’s night and day,” says Mainzer. “With these new detectors we can get away with not using cryogen to keep them cold. The benefit is that they can enable the mission to have a very long life. And if you’re patrolling for asteroids, you want to be built to last.”

Pipher and Forrest started working on sensors with the new combination of materials nearly 20 years ago, when they saw the sensors’ potential for operating at higher temperatures.

“Our partners at Rochester have pioneered using and developing these kinds of long-wavelength detectors,” says Mainzer. “There is really no other group that has the experience with this type of array. The Rochester group is the only group that’s ever tested the long-wavelength version of the device, that I’m aware of, for astronomy purposes.”

STATIONED IN SPACE: The NEOCam telescope—shown here in an artist’s rendering—would be stationed at a position where it could efficiently observe the comings and goings of asteroids and other near-Earth objects. The spacecraft’s orbit, about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, is far enough away that the telescope can be in a stable, cold environment, but close enough that it can maintain high-speed data transmission with scientific teams. The space-based position also gives the satellite a view that’s unimpeded by cloud cover, sunlight, and other impediments faced by ground-based observatories. (Photo: Steve Boerner for Rochester Review)

The new work is part of long history for the Rochester team, which also developed a sensor to measure infrared radiation of a different wavelength that’s currently aboard NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, which was launched in 2003 and continues to operate, even though its cooling system has run out.

The Rochester team worked with the space instruments company Teledyne Imaging Sensors to develop and test the new sensors. If all goes as planned, the new detectors will be capable of capturing 16 megapixels of light and will be paired with a complement of sensors at a shorter wavelength to allow for more precise measurement of asteroids. While the mission has more NASA approvals to get through before a launch date can be set,

the team envisions that, over time and with further development, the ability to make such measurements eventually could add up to a more advanced system for keeping track of asteroids that’s analogous to

the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s efforts to track hurricanes and other storms. As science gets better at detecting asteroids and tracking their orbits, a warning system could be put in place that gives people more options for dealing with potential impacts. For larger impacts, trying to divert the objects might be possible. For smaller objects, a future system could provide enough warning for people to get out of harm’s way.

“That’s what science has done,” Pipher says. “We’ve invested in the NOAA to make this prediction and to track hurricanes, and they’re very good at it.”

Says McMurtry: “The same thing will be true one of these days for asteroids.”

Electrophotography, Xerography, and Us

When a persistent inventor and a thoughtful executive joined forces, they transformed American business and helped build the modern University of Rochester.

By Karen McCally ’02 (PhD)

DUPLICATION: In 1962, Carlson reenacted his historic 1938 experiment (above), a process he outlined in his 1939 patent application. (Photo: Courtesy of Xerox Corp.)

It was a cramped, second-story room at 32–05 37th Street in Astoria, Queens, in which Chester Carlson set his sights on testing the process he called electrophotography. A converted kitchen, it contained a sink with running water, a gas connection, and enough space for the tinkerer and his hired assistant to maneuver amidst their setup of jars, plates, and a small flood lamp.

Carlson was a serial inventor. He was a trained physicist about to earn a second degree, in the law. He’d kept notebooks since high school, chock full of drawings and notations recording his ideas for an array of devices. A rotating billboard. A machine to clean shoes. A raincoat with gutters.

Otto Kornei was an unemployed physicist who found a part-time job assisting Carlson his lone prospect in Depression-era New York.

What they accomplished on the morning of Oct. 22, 1938, would prove historic.

Carlson was ingenious conceptually, but Kornei was the first of many scientists who would play an important role in executing Carlson’s ideas through careful fine-tuning of materials and methods. Kornei pulled the shades closed, and in the darkened room, coated a zinc plate with sulfur. He rubbed the plate with a cotton handkerchief, giving the plate an electric charge. He took a glass slide on which he’d written “10–22–38 ASTORIA” in India ink, pressed it against the charged plate, and placed both the slide and plate under a lamp. After 10 seconds, he removed the plate and dusted it with a fine powder. When he blew on the powder, the image 10–22–38 ASTORIA shone on the plate.

It was the first known electrostatic image, a major technological milestone. It now sits in the Smithsonian, but might well have been discarded unceremoniously had it not been for Carlson’s persistence and the prescience of Joseph Wilson ’31, a young executive of a struggling business who saw the potential of electrophotography that so many others missed.

This October marks the 75th anniversary of Carlson’s Astoria experiment. On the River Campus, students and staff in the Chester F. Carlson Library of Science and Engineering have long observed the October anniversary, but this year’s celebration will feature a new exhibit that Melissa Mead, the John M. and Barbara Keil University Archivist and Rochester Collections Librarian, has titled “True Original: Chester Carlson’s Xerography at 75.”

The exhibit will place Carlson’s invention in historical context and showcase the complementary relationship between Carlson and Wilson in exploiting its possibilities.

ORIGINALS: Jars of substances that Carlson used to produce the first electrostatic image (below), are showcased in the University’s Carlson Library. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

(Photo: Courtesy of Xerox Corp.)

“I hope that exhibit viewers will have a better understanding of the duplication processes available prior to the 914, and the transformative vision of both Carlson and Wilson that led to xerography as a process and as a business,” says Mead, alluding to the Xerox 914 photocopier that transformed the American office when it was introduced in 1959.

The University is a fitting place for such a display, and not merely because it will grace the library dedicated to Carlson in 1972 by then President W. Allen Wallis. It will draw from the University’s substantial collections of artifacts, papers, and photographs of both Carlson and Wilson. And it will suggest the interdependence of research universities and the communities in which they operate.

Both Carlson and Wilson established charitable foundations that continue to contribute handsomely to the Rochester regional economy. Wilson in particular grasped the importance to business of having access to a first-tier research university, and in his roles as benefactor and as chairman of the board of trustees, presided over a transformation of the University in the 1960s from a respected regional institution to a top research university with a national reputation. Wilson, it’s fair to say, left as indelible a mark on the University as George Eastman.

The fortuitous encounter between Carlson and Wilson has made for a classic story in the annals of American business history. Carlson grew up in poverty, worked his way through Caltech, toiled for years on his ideas, only to have his breakthrough invention dismissed by virtually every company he approached.

Wilson was the one businessman who was intrigued—so intrigued that he staked the future of his small photographic paper manufacturer, Haloid, on Carlson’s invention. The investment created a corporation that revolutionized the white collar workplace, and whose new name, Xerox, became synonymous with photocopying itself.

When Wilson met Carlson in October 1946, “their meeting would mark the turning point for both,” wrote Wilson biographer Charles Ellis, a prolific author and businessman. In some respects, they could not have been more different. Carlson had moved three times by the time he was six, lost his mother when he was an adolescent, and worked to support himself and his father, who suffered from debilitating spinal arthritis. Having finished his schooling during the Great Depression, he hopped from job to job to piece together satisfactory and remunerative work.

Wilson was born in Rochester to a family whose roots extended to the city’s earliest settlements. His father, Joseph R. Wilson, Class of 1903, was an accomplished small businessman and civic leader, and when Wilson graduated from Rochester in the midst of the Depression, there was a job waiting for him at Haloid, the company cofounded by his grandfather.

But Carlson and Wilson shared a couple of key tendencies. They were, by many accounts, deep and thorough readers, and persistent and creative thinkers. In their respective fields of science and business, both Carlson and Wilson were keenly aware of the paths that were well tread, and the importance of avoiding them in favor of new ones.

Carlson, who would eventually have numerous patents to his name, took an early interest in patents, finding employment in the patent office of the electrical components manufacturer P. R. Mallory. Patents required many copies to be made, but making carbon copies proved difficult, as did another available method, using a photostat machine. Carlson envisioned an “office copier,” yet he knew not to go down the obvious route, which was conventional photography.

REPLICATION: Carlson (above) demonstrates the first xerographic machine. A replica of the 1944 machine is on display in the Carlson Library. (Photo: Courtesy of Xerox Corp.)

“I recognized quite early that if conventional photography would have worked for an office copier that it would have been done before by the big companies in the photographic field who certainly would have explored that possibility pretty thoroughly,” Carlson said in a 1965 interview. “So I deliberately turned away from the conventional photographic processes and started searching in the library for information about all the different ways in which light will affect matter.”

The principle Carlson would explore was photoconductivity, and it was well understood by the time he set out to explain in his 1939 patent application how it might be brought to bear upon electrophotography.

Photoconductive materials become better conductors of electricity when exposed to light. Carlson explained that if a thin layer of photoconductive material were to be applied to certain types of metal surfaces—zinc or aluminum, for example—the surface could be exposed to light to create an electrostatic image.

In the case of the Astoria experiment, sulfur was the photoconductive surface. Rubbed with a handkerchief in the dark, it obtained an electric charge. When Kornei pressed the glass slide against the charged surface, he ensured that whatever effect exposure to light would have on the charged surface would be transferred to the slide.

But the India ink he’d applied to the slide created a region that would literally be blacked out from the effect of the light. When the slide and the charged plate were illuminated, the sulfur surface retained its electric charge in areas blocked out by the ink. The rest of the plate constituted, Carlson explained, the “white part,” in which the electrical charge would essentially “drain off.” When Kornei applied a fine black powder to the plate, static electricity ensured that the powder would remain affixed in a layout identical to his original ink scrawl.

Carlson allowed great flexibility in materials and even in the process itself. He outlined procedures for copying from three distinct types of surfaces—glass, paper, and film. “While a preferred embodiment of the invention is described herein, it is contemplated that considerable variation may be made in the method of procedure and the construction of parts without departing from the spirit of the invention,” Carlson wrote.

ROLLOUT: Haloid’s John Dessauer, Carlson, and Wilson test an experimental xerography machine at the Battelle Institute in 1948. (Photo: Courtesy of Xerox Corp.)

As it turned out, that flexibility—which could too easily be interpreted as the lack of a fully fleshed-out idea—may have been the seed of his problems. He began writing to companies in the office equipment industry seeking their interest in developing the patent. He wrote to more than 20—IBM, RCA, General Electric, Remington Rand—all major players in the industry. He received, at best, perfunctory interest, with minimal follow up, and no firm commitments.

Carlson had found himself in a Catch-22. Prospective investors wanted to see more than the crude demonstration he’d performed with Kornei’s help. They needed to see a machine. But without investors, Carlson couldn’t easily produce a machine. He tried hiring small manufacturers to produce a machine cheaply, but those earliest manifestations were marred by mechanical and design problems—evidence, it seemed, that electrophotography wasn’t as promising as the persistent inventor insisted.

Timing also played a critical role in Carlson’s fortunes. It was World War II. Large companies were focused on war-related production and were confident that they’d continue to prosper after postwar reconversion to civilian industry.

Wilson, however, was just as confident that without a new business model, his small company would fail.

Carlson would later recall that Wilson was “a very brilliant young man,” who had struck him immediately as “an aggressive, young, imaginative person.” Wilson, then 36, had recently succeeded his father, Joseph R. Wilson, as president of Haloid, a company that had started in 1906 as a maker of photographic paper.

Wilson saw that the postwar period looked ominous. His hometown competitor, Eastman Kodak, was supplying its own paper, squeezing Haloid into a niche market of specialized paper for portrait photographers. To make matters worse, Haloid was purchasing raw materials for its paper from Kodak.

Haloid had been dogged by Kodak’s success even before the war. In 1935, it had purchased the Rectigraph Company, for whom it had been a key supplier. Rectigraph was the maker of the eponymous machine that’s considered among the first photocopying machines. But it was not an office copier in any real sense. It was a photostat machine, copying documents through a photographic process that relied on a camera and a chemically based development process. It was large, slow, messy, and expensive. Moreover, it was too large and expensive for most businesses to own themselves, limiting its market to shops that would offer the machine’s services as a primary line of business. While the purchase kept Haloid afloat through the Depression, Wilson knew that Kodak would quickly surpass any advantage of Haloid’s in photographic copying.

“There are those in financial circles who say that chance and luck brought the Xerox Corporation into existence,” the chemical engineer and Xerox executive John Dessauer wrote in his 1971 memoir, My Years with Xerox. “I prefer to think that it was a matter of diligence.”

Dessauer was among the scientists at Haloid who scoured technical journals in search of ideas for new applications that could lead to new products that could save the company. The first turning point for both Wilson and Carlson came in 1944. The nonprofit Battelle Memorial Institute committed to investing $10,000 in Carlson’s patent, with an entitlement to 60 percent of any future royalties. Scientists at Haloid tipped Wilson off to the technology and to Battelle’s interest.

Wilson was captivated. After some further research, he traveled to Battelle’s Columbus, Ohio, laboratory to see a demonstration of electrophotography for himself.

Committing Haloid to invest in the technology would be a huge risk. Nevertheless, at Wilson’s urging, Haloid, renamed Haloid-Xerox in 1958, and Xerox in 1961, would invest virtually all of its resources in the development of the technology it later coined “xerography.”

In hindsight, Wilson’s dogged pursuit of xerography seems easy to explain. The purchase of Rectigraph had signaled Haloid’s commitment to the nascent document copying business. Electrophotography was a potential means for document copying that wasn’t based on chemistry, which was Kodak’s strength. It was based instead on physics. For Wilson, electrophotography offered the promise that Haloid could compete in the copy business without competing directly with Kodak.

What’s more remarkable is that Wilson was able to carry this commitment through more than a decade of failed attempts and modest progress before the release of the blockbuster Xerox 914 photocopier in 1959.

Taking that risk made Wilson a modern business hero. “Wilson was, in retrospect, astonishingly able to develop and hold steadfastly onto an inspiring yet abstract vision and to advance repetitively toward fulfilling and realizing that vision in specific, pragmatic ways,” Ellis wrote.

Carlson, whom Wilson retained as a consultant in the development of xerography, summed up his legacy succinctly. Modest by all accounts, he insisted he didn’t invent anything truly new. “I certainly added no new scientific knowledge as did the transistor inventors, for example,” he said. But what he did acknowledge doing, is at the heart of much innovation: “I merely combined a set of facts in a new way.”

The Road to the 914

It took more than a decade for Haloid, renamed Xerox in 1961, to harness Carlson’s electrophotography to create the first successful photocopying machine, the Xerox 914.

- 1949 The XeroX Model A marked Haloid’s first attempt to produce a xerographic photo-copying machine. Requiring more than a dozen manual steps to operate, it was poorly received.

- 1956 The Copyflo, which was fully automated, was a major improvement over the Model A. However, at the size of a small truck, it was also prohibitively expensive for the mass business market.

- 1959 The Xerox 914, named for its ability to photocopy on 9” x 14” paper, was not without flaws. But a relatively small size, reasonable cost, and skillful marketing made it a hit. It graced the cover of Time magazine in September 1959.

Sculpted Spaces

The Memorial Art Gallery embarks on its next 100 years of cultural leadership with the opening of Centennial Sculpture Park.

FUN FAMILY: Memorial Art Gallery patron Joan Feinbloom sits with artist Wendell Castle among the pieces of Unicorn Family, Castle’s sculpture for Centennial Sculpture Park, during a celebration marking the park’s formal dedication. (Photo: Adam Fenster)

When the doors to the Memorial Art Gallery opened 100 years ago this fall, the museum’s chief benefactor, Emily Sibley Averell Watson, had one important stipulation: that the doors be open to all citizens of the community. Watson’s belief that a world-class museum enriches the cultural and civic life of the community is taking new shape this year with the opening of Centennial Sculpture Park, a 10-acre showcase of public art and landscaped urban space designed to celebrate the gallery’s cultural leadership as well as to build stronger ties to the gallery’s surrounding neighborhoods.

With installations by four internationally recognized sculptors anchoring the grounds around the gallery, the new park features sculptures from the gallery’s collections, interactive walkways, whimsical gathering places, and venues for public performances—all integrated with other arts and cultural initiatives such as ARTWalk, an effort to transform the Neighborhood of the Arts into an outdoor museum.

The gallery will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a public birthday party on the grounds of the museum on Sunday, Oct. 13.

Brooklyn’s Library Rebound

One of the nation’s largest public libraries rebuilds itself with the help of chief strategist Jeanette Moy ’02.

Interview by Karen McCally ’02 (PhD)

OPEN SPACE: In Brooklyn, space is a precious resource. Brooklyn Public Library’s new Info Commons, with collaborative and solo workspaces as well as conference rooms, “reflects our philosophy of the future of libraries,” says Moy. (Photo: Shannon Taggart for Rochester Review)

In 2010, Linda Johnson, a seasoned MUseum and foundation executive from Philadelphia, took the helm of the Brooklyn Public Library—an aging and financially strapped 60-branch behemoth ordered by the New York State Board of Regents to remake itself for a digital world.

As the nation’s fifth largest public library began a three-year, community-wide reassessment of its goals and operations, Johnson chose Jeanette Moy ’02 to help shape and carry out its retooled model of library service.

Moy, the library’s chief strategy officer and vice president for strategic planning, brings to the job no experience in libraries per se. Instead, she offers experience and a reputation as an energetic and forward- thinking advisor in the office of Mayor Michael Bloomberg who, as a senior policy advisor in the mayor’s office of operations, played a key role in helping the city harness digital tools to provide residents better access to information and services across agencies.

Now Moy is looking at the sprawling, Brooklyn Public Library system through a similar operational lens. Her assessment? “The thing I was most delighted to see when I first came to the library was the wide array of efforts taking place across the system.” But with a tight budget, she adds, “we need to find pathways for greater collaboration.”

Brooklyn is strikingly diverse, with more than a third of its 2.5 million residents born outside the United States and almost half speaking a language other than English at home. Nearly a quarter of Brooklyn residents live below the poverty line, while the borough has also become a magnet for highly educated professionals, many of whom are white, native English speakers, and newcomers to New York City.

“Much has been made in the media about the dichotomy between ‘old Brooklyn’ and ‘new Brooklyn,’ ” says Moy, using the labels with some hesitation. A native of Flushing, Queens, who lives in nearby Oakland Gardens with her husband and two daughters, Moy travels easily among diverse circles. Rooted in a predominantly immigrant community in the outer boroughs, she attended the storied public magnet school, Stuyvestant High School in Manhattan. She came to Rochester to study political science and public policy.

Has the basic mission of the Brooklyn Public Library changed?

The library has always been a physical place where local communities gather and access information, and each branch has been an independent library in and of itself. But increasingly, the library is relied upon for a range of educational and social services that extend far beyond providing access to books. Our patrons need more personal support from our staff than ever. Our librarians now have to serve as curators of a dizzying array of information, promoters of literacy at all levels, and referral points for social services, which are in much higher demand than we’ve ever seen before.

How are these pressures changing how you operate?

In the past, our branch professionals have spent an incredible amount of time behind the scenes managing collections—selecting, ordering, purchasing and processing materials—and also managing fine collection, cash boxes, and tracking lent materials.

We’ve helped by doing away with many of the time-consuming processes related to managing collections. Any patron can use a self-serve kiosk to check out materials, swipe a card to reserve a personal computer, and find most of our collection through a digital tool—online, on a mobile device, and in one of five languages. We’ve also implemented a floating collection. Patrons can return books at any of our 60 locations, and they will stay at that library. Over time, local community preferences start to shape the branch’s collection.

These changes have allowed our staff to spend more time with our patrons, and frankly freed up a ton of administrative space for public use.

Which services are in greatest demand?

In terms of the demand for social services, there are many individuals in our libraries who are unemployed or underemployed, lack a permanent residence, or may need to find mental health services. But usage varies tremendously by neighborhood. For instance, some of our branches that have the highest circulation—what the library has traditionally used as a metric of success—are in areas with large concentrations of immigrants. In other sites where you have low access to broadband, you have a lot of people coming in to use computers. In many communities with higher poverty levels, branches are community centers and safe spaces.

How is the library using space in new ways?

In January, we opened the Shelby White and Leon Levy Information Commons in the central library, in the space that formerly housed our popular collection. Not one book or magazine can be found in this space. Instead, we offer computers equipped with professional-grade software, conference rooms for public training, a media lab, and plenty of space for collaborative work and learning.

We’ve partnered with a local organization called BRIC [formerly Brooklyn Arts Media]. They’re providing digital media training to patrons on site, helping us build a bridge between the people who are at the cutting edge of technology and those who are learning the basics.

The Info Commons reflects our philosophy of the future of libraries: it’s not just a matter of accessing the books, but rather a focus on how people learn, as well as how people access, and even create, content. Throughout the rest of the library, there are many other places where a patron can access physical materials. This is a space dedicated for people to work, learn, and create, and to promulgate everything they’ve learned to the rest of the community.

We’re seeing what works within the Info Commons, and if it’s a model that we can bring to other sites.

Given Brooklyn’s wide disparities in wealth and education, how do you remain an essential resource for the entire community?

It’s true that we have many neighborhoods in Brooklyn that don’t have access to high-speed broadband, a basic requirement for access to information in our increasingly digital world, while these neighborhoods are often right across the street from the most expensive zip codes in the city.

In many parts of Brooklyn, there are simply amazing content creators, who are very in line with the concepts of open data and information for all—values that align nicely with a public library. So we should be asking ourselves, how could those individuals bring their skills back to other parts of Brooklyn? Our partnership with BRIC, which has recently expanded beyond the central library to other branches, is one answer.

At the same time, affluent and well-educated patrons continue to be big users of the library. In Park Slope, for example, which is a fairly affluent neighborhood, our Mommy and Me story times are probably one of the hottest tickets in the neighborhood.

Want to Conquer Your Favorite City?

Luke Costanza ’09 and Mac Stutzman ’09, creators of Havoc Boards, can help guide your attack.

By Karen McCally ’02 (PhD)

SO LONG, GENTLE WATERS: Rochester’s blissful riverside campus is carved into strategic territories on Costanza and Stutzman’s Risk-style University of Rochester gameboard. (Photo: Courtesy of Luke Costanza ’09 and Mac Stutzman ’09)

“Have you ever visited a new place and asked yourself: What is the best way to conquer this territory? What are the key defensive positions for moving armies? And what are the choke points?”

Luke Costanza ’09 posed just those questions last spring in a video uploaded onto Kickstarter.com.

The tongue-in-cheek video served an earnest purpose: He and Mac Stutzman ’09 were vying to raise $20,000 on the online funding resource to turn an idea into a business. At midnight last July 17, their 45-day campaign closed with $25,348, minus a small cut for Kickstarter, in the bank. That’s enough for the two to finance their new company, Bungled Board Games, and launch their first line of products, called Havoc Boards.

Brothers in the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity, Costanza, an optics major, and Stutzman, a history major, were big fans of the Hasbro board game Risk. After graduation, as roommates in Boston, they continued to play, and on a whim, drew up their own game board—a map of Boston—and invited friends over to play.

The Boston board was a hit. Soon the two had created on a home computer game-style maps of the United States, the United Kingdom, and New York City, and arranged for a board game manufacturer to create prototypes of the three boards.

“We can do any map,” says Costanza. In fact, they’ve created designs for 15 game boards so far, among them, boards featuring maps of Washington, D.C., Austin, Texas, Portland, Ore., the solar system, and even the River Campus.

But those with their eyes on Jupiter—or even Wilson Commons—may, at this point, want to consider a laser engraved wooden game board as opposed to standard cardboard.

“The whole idea for Havoc Boards kind of clicked when Luke had the idea of laser engraving,” says Stutzman. It solved a problem of economies of scale. Since each design would require a separate printing run, the only game boards it would make sense to print on cardboard were those Costanza and Stutzman were confident they could sell in large quantities. Laser engraving on wood provided a means to offer custom boards on demand.

With funds raised from their successful Kickstarter campaign, however, they’ve been able not only to embark on mass production of the original three prototypes, but also to produce a few additional boards as well.

Has Hasbro, the creator of Risk, had anything to say?

“We haven’t been contacted,” says Costanza. “I’m not sure if we expect to be contacted by them.”

Game play, he explains, can’t be owned. Only the name, artwork, or instructions, for example, can be covered by patents and trademarks. He cites the proliferation of Monopoly-style game boards as a precedent. “You can go to Barnes and Noble and find a [Monopoly-style] board for Rochester,” says Costanza. “That’s not made by Hasbro,” which created Monopoly as well as Risk.

But there’s a plus to Havoc Boards, Costanza contends. “In Monopoly, the game doesn’t really change.” With Havoc Boards, “every map is actually a completely different game, because some places have more territory, some have less, some have crazier ways to attack one thing from another.”

Havoc on the River Campus?

How would the two longtime friends and game enthusiasts capture the River Campus? In top-secret strategy sessions, we asked each separately how they would defeat the other.

Costanza

“If I were playing against Mac, just because I know how to get in his head, I’d pretend that I was going after the liberal arts, just because that’s his background and I know that I could really get under his skin by trying to go for Lattimore or Morey. “But I think my secret plan would be really to go after the engineering buildings. My major was optics, so I was over in that quadrant a lot. And it gives a good amount of bonus units for the small number of choke points it has. So in essence, if you can control Hutchison Hall, Hopeman, and Hoyt, then you can protect the rest of your engineering buildings just by blocking those three paths. “

And then I’d probably go for the Frederick Douglass building because I used to have many meals there. I’d have to feed my army. I’d have to have supply lines.”

Stutzman

“If I were going against Luke, he’s an engineer, so I think he’d go after the engineering buildings. I also know that he likes to start small and really build up. “So I think I would start big, and I would go after the residence halls. Specifically Sue B., because I would catch the freshmen unaware. They’d be tripped out from all that homestyle cooking at Danforth, so they’d be an easy target. Meanwhile, Luke would probably have extended out a bit from engineering. I think it would come to a big showdown in the quad.”

With the battle raging around him, would President Seligman have anything to worry about?

According to Costanza, maybe not.

“The administration is actually fairly difficult to hold on this map. Their buildings are so spread out. You actually have to hold a good amount of them.”

Presidential Mettle

(Photo: Corbis)

HIGHEST HONORS: President Obama presents Rochester alumni Srinivasan (top) and Fleming (bottom) with national medals. (Photo: Corbis)

Rochester showed its strengths in the sciences and the arts this year as two alumni were awarded national medals. National medals are presented by the President of the United States on behalf of the American people, and are among the highest honors in the nation for professional achievement.

During a White House ceremony in July, President Barack Obama presented opera soprano Renee Fleming ’83E (MM), ’11 (Honorary) with the National Medal of the Arts. Fleming, often called the “people’s diva,” has gained a global audience for her work across genres, from opera to jazz to pop.

In February, Rangaswamy Srinivasan ’61 (Flw) received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Obama, also in a White House ceremony. Srinivasan, a physical chemist, made key discoveries as a scientist at IBM Research Center that led directly to the development of laser corrective eye surgery.

TV Star Power

It’s a good year for Yellowjackets to tune into the Emmys. Three alumni are among the nominees for Primetime Emmy Awards, the awards for excellence in television given every fall by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The awards will be presented during a televised celebration in Los Angeles on September 22.

Comedy writer Doug Abeles ’81 was nominated for outstanding writing for a variety special. Abeles was a writer for Comedy Central’s “Night of Too Many Stars: America Comes Together for Autism Programs,” a benefit presentation that aired in October 2012 and featured appearances by Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Amy Poehler, and other celebrities. Abeles, a writer for Saturday Night Live, won an Emmy in 2002 for his work on the late night program.

Composer Jeff Beal ’85E, a winner of six previous Emmys, was nominated for outstanding music composition for a series, for the theme music of the Netflix political drama series House of Cards. Beal composed more than 100 minutes of music for the television drama, available on a 2-CD soundtrack.

Photo editor Susan Federman ’83E was nominated for outstanding multicamera picture editing on the CBS comedy series How I Met Your Mother. Federman, a winner of two previous Emmys, was the winner of the award in 2012.

Rocket Man

After weeding through more than 6,000 applications in an 18-month search, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration selected Josh Cassada ’00 (PhD) as one of a new class of eight astronaut trainees. The trainees have the possibility to join the first human mission to an asteroid and to Mars. Cassada and the seven other scientists began training in August at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. They join 49 other NASA astronauts.

Cassada, a physicist, is a former Navy test pilot and cofounder and chief technology officer for Quantum Opus, a photonics research firm.

Record-Breaker

(Photo: Ria Tafani for Rochester Review)

The eighth annual “Dinner with the Coach” in East Irondequoit, N.Y., last April drew an all-time high of 34 Yellowjacket football alumni to reconnect and honor coach Pat Stark. Pictured are (front row) Dave Cidale ’71, Roger Watts ’72, Phil Chrys ’75, Coach Stark, Erv Chambliss ’76, Mark McAnaney ’75, Brian Haegney ’78, Brian Pasley ’76; (second row, seated) Rick Basehore ’72, Frank Perillo ’73, Bill Hammond ’73, Dave McNelis ’74, Jim Juraska ’73; (second row, standing) Mike Roulan ’71, Bill Costello ’72, Rick Magere ’72, Jim Dunnigan ’73, Mike Flanigan ’71; (third row, standing) Tony Danielle ’71, Bob Kulpinski ’71, Ray Kampff ’74, Len Champion ’73, Steve Sloan ’78, Joe Novek ’73, Paul Caputo ’73, Ed Heffernan ’76, John Badowski ’77, Jim Mazur ’78, Kevin Maier ’78, Mike Garritano ’76, Dick Rasmussen ’72, Denny Hennigan ’75; (back row, standing) Gary Miller ’84, Rick Milham ’85, John Loiacono ’84.

Books & Recordings

Books

Cultural Considerations: Essays on Readers, Writers, and Musicians in Postwar America

By Joan Shelley Rubin

University of Massachusetts Press, 2013

Rubin, professor of history at Rochester, explores the processes of cultural mediation that take place as texts pass from creators to consumers. The essays examine the contest of authority between critics and readers, the efforts of scholars to broaden exposure to the humanities, and related issues.

Reading’s Non-Negotiables: Elements of Effective Reading Instruction

By Rachael Gabriel ’05

Rowman & Littlefield, 2013

Gabriel, assistant professor of reading education at Connecticut College, presents fundamental elements of reading instruction, along with an explanation for the research that supports them, and practical applications. Gabriel is also the coeditor of Perform- ances of Research: Critical Issues in K-12 Education (Peter Lang).

Chaucer, Gower, and the Vernacular Rising: Poetry and the Problem of the Populace after 1381

By Lynn Arner ’00 (PhD)

Penn State University Press, 2013

Arner, associate professor of English at Brock University in Ontario, Canada, explores the transmission of Greco-Roman and European literature into English in the late 14th and early 15th centuries.

Statesmanship, Character, and Leadership in America

By Terry Newell ’66

Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

Newell, a former Air Force officer and educator and trainer at the U.S. Department of Education, explores the ways in which key leaders in American history have acted at critical turning points. In seven case studies, Newell emphasizes the importance of “transcendent purpose, artful politics, and compelling persuasion” in effective leadership.

West Side Story: Cultural Perspectives on an American Musical

By Elizabeth Wells ’04E (PhD)

Scarecrow Press, 2012

Wells, the Pickard-Bell Chair in Music at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada, examines the iconic American musical from cultural, historical, and musical perspectives.

Horse Latitudes

By Morris Collins ’04

MP Publishing, 2013

Collins tells the story of a photographer’s quest to save a girl from slave traders in a Central American country on the brink of revolution.

Emerald City: The Birth and Evolution of an Indian Gemstone Industry

By Lawrence Babb ’69 (PhD)

SUNY Press, 2013

Babb, professor emeritus of anthropology and Asian studies at Amherst College, explores the ethnic, religious, and cultural dynamics within the gemstone industry of the northern Indian city of Jaipur.

Cognitive Bias in Fantasy Sports: Is Your Brain Sabotaging Your Team?

By Renee Miller ’97, ’05M (PhD)

Xlibris, 2013

Miller, a lecturer in Rochester’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, acquaints lay readers with concepts such as confirmation bias, omission bias, and the pseudocertainty effect, and demonstrates how these forms of biased thinking hinder our ability to make rational decisions in fantasy sports, as well as in other areas of our lives.

Queer Bergman: Sexuality, Gender, and the European Art Cinema

By Dan Humphrey ’06 (PhD)

University of Texas Press, 2013

Grounding his research in LGBT and queer historiography as well as filmmaker Ingmar Bergman’s own statements alluding to homosexuality, Humphrey, assistant professor of film studies and women’s and gender studies at Texas A&M University, argues that Bergman’s films offer a radical critique of heteronormative values.

The Haunted Martyr

By Ken Cameron ’53

Orion, 2013

Author Cameron presents a work of historical crime fiction, set in early 20th-century London and featuring the detective Denton. This year Cameron also published The Backward Boy and The Past Master. All three books are available in e-book format.

Alice

By William Hermance ’56, ’60M (MD)

Xlibris, 2013

Hermance tells a true story of Alice, a girl who suffers from severe developmental disabilities stemming from a difficult delivery.

Heart of the Matter: A Practical Guide to Attitude in Teaching

By Rachel Kramer Theodorou ’93 et al

Publishers Solutions, 2009

Theodorou, a public school teacher in Newton, Mass., and a faculty member at Brandeis University, offers a companion to her coauthors’ book Heart of the Matter: The Role of Attitude in Teaching (2007). The guide includes interactive exercises for educators to deepen connections to individuals and subject matter.

The Path to More Sustainable Energy Systems

By Ben Ebenhack and Daniel Martinez ’98, ’07 (PhD)

Momentum Press, 2013

Ebenhack, associate professor of petroleum engineering at Marietta College, and Martinez, assistant research professor of environmental science at the University of Southern Maine, offer an overview of the state of sustainable energy systems. The book explores the roles fossil and renewable energy resources will play in the 21st century in both the developed and developing worlds.

Thomas Harris and William Blake: Allusions in the Hannibal Lecter Novels

By Michelle Leigh Gompf ’93 (MA)

MacFarland, 2013

Gompf, associate professor of English at Concord University, examines explicit and implicit allusions to Blake throughout Harris’s four Hannibal Lecter novels, arguing that Blake’s work and philosophy regarding the nature of evil provide a philosophical foundation for the novels.

Barry Baskerville Solves a Case

By Richard Kellogg ’70W (EdD)

Airship, 2013

Kellogg, professor emeritus of psychology at Alfred State College, presents a picture book that introduces children to the aspiring young detective Barry Baskerville, and through him, to the methods of legendary detective Sherlock Holmes. Illustrations are by graphic artist Gary Kato.

The College Bound Organizer

By Anna Costaras and Gail Liss ’80

Sourcebooks, 2013

Liss, a member of the advisory board of Young Women’s Leadership Network, coauthors a step-by-step guide to the college application process. The book includes tips and worksheets, advice from admissions professionals, and a foreword by Edward B. Fiske of Fiske Guide to Colleges.

Threads of the Jade

By Dalia Woodliff ’62

Smashwords, 2013

Woodliff offers the second book in her Jade mystery trilogy. The series is inspired by J. R. R. Tolkein as well as her father’s memoir about the family’s exodus out of Lithuania.

The Brotherhood of Battle

By Jerald Marsh ’63

Xlibris, 2012

Marsh profiles more than 300 Civil War soldiers and their families, all from the Tioga County, N.Y., town of Newark Valley.

Just Us Chickens

By Kathy Gilbert ’69 and illustrated by Terre Reed ’69W

CreateSpace, 2013

Gilbert and Reed offer an illustrated poem, in book form, for children. The poem is by Gilbert and illustrations feature paintings by Reed.

Reinvented Lives

By Annie Weissman ’70

Scottsdale Press, 2013

In her first work of fiction, Weissman tells the story of 80-year-old Rae, who loses her memory in a car accident, leaving her care in her daughters’ hands.

Warrior Rogue

By Nancy Cohen ’70, ’70N

Wild Rose Press, 2013

In the second novel in her Drift Lords series, Cohen tells the story of fashion designer Jennifer Dyhr, who discovers new powers while fighting off a terrorist attack.

Handbook of Forensic Psychology (Volume Four)

Edited by Randy Otto ’81 and Irv Weiner

John Wiley & Sons, 2013

Otto, associate professor at the University of South Florida, coedits a revised and updated edition of a standard reference in forensic psychology. Among the topics explored are eyewitness identification, competence to stand trial, criminal responsibility and insanity, reliability of child witnesses, and validity of the polygraph.

The Soulkind Awakening

By Steve Davala ’95, ’96 (T5)

CreateSpace, 2013

Davala offers a work of fantasy fiction in which Soulkind monsters reawaken after a millennium of dormancy.

Recordings

Pacific Ridge

By Emma Lou Diemer ’49E (MM), ’60E (PhD)

Navona/Parma Records, 2013

The recording features three orchestral works by composer Diemer: Santa Barbara Overture, Concerto in One Movement for Marimba, and Concerto in One Movement for Piano.

Colossus

By Colossus

Colossus, 2013

The 17-piece jazz orchestra consisting of Eastman alumni and students presents its debut studio CD. The band includes Dave Chisholm ’13E (DMA), Mike Conrad ’13E (MM), Levi Saelua ’12E, Marc Abrate ’12E, Charlie Carr, Gabe Condon ’13E, Alistair Duncan ’13E, Jacob Dupre, Greg Hammond ’12E, Joe Kozlowski, Jeff Krol ’13E, Matt Krol ’13E, Brendan Lanighan ’15E, Reid Poole ’13E (MM), Erik Stabnau, Karl Stabnau ’11E, and Alexa Tarantino.

Graceful Degradation

By Christopher Wilke ’12E (DMA)

Audiation Media, 2013

Lutenist Wilke performs rare solo pieces from the early classical period, including works by Haydn and his contemporaries.

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.

‘How Wonderful a Sound’

Musicologist Elizabeth Wells ’04E (PhD) explores what makes an iconic musical and why we love West Side Story.

(Photo: David Cowles for Rochester Review)

When I came to Eastman to study musicology, I took a part-time job as production stage manager for Eastman Opera Theatre. Working day-to-day in opera, both backstage and onstage, gave me incredible insight into musical theater. It was a big turning point for me in that it made musical theater a living experience.

I’d planned to do a study of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, which combines opera and musical theater. In researching the literature, I discovered no musicologist had undertaken a major study of West Side Story. I loved the musical, so I was thrilled to write about it.

When I talk to classical musicians, they’ll often say “Oh, I don’t like musicals, but of course I like West Side Story.” The influence of classical music and ballet is very strong in West Side Story. And Bernstein was an incredibly facile composer. He was able to assimilate an incredible amount of all kinds of music, and it comes out in West Side Story in all sorts of interesting ways. It’s creative reworking of gestures that have become important and interesting in both classical music and the more popular musics as well.

In the 1950s, the West Side Story score was considered very difficult, cutting-edge music. Columbia Records declared the music unsingable. Now people go about singing it all the time. Bernstein was a great melodist and harmonist. The music is more complicated than in many musicals, and I think that appeals to people whether they understand that complexity or not.

The people involved in West Side Story didn’t expect it to be a hit at all. They were interested in creating something that would have lasting value. They worked on it for a very long time, unlike a lot of musicals that were put together very quickly.

One of the things that makes a musical iconic is the convergence of quality collaborators who all have the same kind of vision for what they want to do. The cultural moment is also key. West Side Story was very much in tune with what was going on in the news. Juvenile delinquency and Puerto Rican migration to New York City were important issues. And the whole civil rights movement is really prefigured in West Side Story.

I would say Oklahoma! is also an iconic musical. It was the first collaboration between Rodgers and Hammerstein, but it was also a war piece about America and American values at a time of struggle. So not only were the people involved interested in making it a real piece of art, but it also, again, resonated with the cultural moment. Interestingly, it became very big in postwar London, where people saw freshness and optimism that was so needed after the devastating wartime bombings of the city.

I also think the Stephen Sondheim musicals Follies and Company are masterworks of the genre. Sondheim hasn’t had the same kind of wide popular appeal as Rodgers and Hammerstein or Andrew Lloyd Webber. But these works are fantastic pieces of musical theater, because they stretch the genre, and because they deal with very human situations in a sensitive and profound way. And I think that’s what musical theater does at its best.r

Elizabeth Wells ’04E (PhD)

Home: New Brunswick, Canada

Pickard–Bell Chair in Music at Mount Allison University; author of West Side Story: Cultural Perspectives on an American Musical (Scarecrow Press), winner of the 2012 Music in American Culture Award from the American Musicological Society

First memory of West Side Story: “I actually don’t remember the first time I saw it performed. But the movie was on television when I was a kid. And we had the soundtrack, and my twin sister and I recreated all the dances in our living room.”

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Giving Pianos a Chance

(Photo: Adam Fenster)

PEACE PROJECT: Marissa Balonon-Rosen, a senior pursuing degrees at the Eastman School and in the College, paints a piano in Rochester’s Pulaski Park this summer. With Lauren Petrilli ’13, Balonon-Rosen is coordinating a two-month-long project called “Pianos for Peace,” in which the two placed pianos in public spaces as a way to encourage residents to play the pianos, take lessons with volunteer teachers, interact with students and other community members, and turn the pianos into works of art.