An instrument drive sponsored by the Buffalo State College Music Department and Music is Art, a nonprofit initiative led by Robby Takac of the Goo Goo Dolls, is being held through May 12. New and used instruments will be donated to area schools, in particular Buffalo State’s after-school music program with Campus West. Music is Art donates time and funds to make necessary repairs to instruments. Takac has held previous instrument drives throughout Western New York, giving students the chance to find something magical and musical in their lives.

Donation bins are located at the Burchfield Penney Art Center; Campus House; the Music Department, Rockwell Hall 203; and Campus West. Instruments can be donated during regular business or school hours.

From the Chair of the College Senate and the Chair of the Bylaws and Elections Committee
Three at-large Senate positions will become vacant on August 25. A call for nominations and information about candidates’ statements can be found on the College Senate Web site. The call for nominations began on Monday, March 16 (announced in the Daily), and continues through Monday, March 30. Elections begin Thursday, April 2, and continue through Thursday, April 16.

Faculty members, faculty librarians, and professional and support staff who are eligible to vote in college elections and whose total service in the College Senate would not exceed six consecutive years by the end of this term (September 2009–August 2012) are eligible to run for office. Nominees are asked to provide a short statement about their interest to be posted on the Senate electronic voting site.

Individuals running for a senator position in another election may not also run for an at-large senator or university senator position while the other election is being conducted. If the other election concludes during the period when nominations for at-large or university senator are still being accepted, eligible individuals may self-nominate for either position.

If you are interested in being a candidate, please contactVince Masci, 878-5139. We look forward to your participation in the vital process of campus governance.

From the Vice President for Finance and Management
Requisitions for supplies, materials, services, and equipment from fiscal year 2008–2009 funds must be received in the Purchasing Office by the close of business on the following dates:

$20,000 or more (noncontract)
Friday, May 1

$20,000 or more (contract)
Monday, June 1

Less than $20,000
Friday, June 12

Purchase requisitions for computer equipment and equipment replacement requirements, as well as purchases through OfficeMax for office supplies, also must adhere to these deadlines.

Important note: It is the responsibility of departments to ensure that all requisitions for fiscal year 2008–2009 are received in the Purchasing Office by the above deadlines. Late requisitions will not be processed. Requests received through campus mail after the deadlines will be returned.

Call Terri Locher in the Purchasing Office at 878-4113 with questions.

From the Vice President for Finance and Management
The Emergency Response Planning Group and University Police will conduct a test of the college’s new emergency alert horn at 1:00 p.m. Thursday, April 2. Most people on campus will hear a series of six very loud 10-second horn blasts over a two-minute period, emanating from the central heating plant. Thirty minutes before the horn blasts, at 12:30 p.m., the college will issue a campuswide test of the NY-Alert emergency communication system. At this time, all students, faculty, and staff who have registered with the service will receive a test alert via text message, automated phone message, e-mail, or fax.

Assistance from the campus community is critical in evaluating the horn’s effectiveness. After the test, please e-mail ERPG@buffalostate.edu (preferred) or leave voice mail at 878-3700 to report where you were (building and room if indoors; campus location if outdoors) when the horn sounded, and rate the sound on a scale of zero (undetectable) to 5 (deafening).

In a real emergency, the horn will sound three times in full one-minute blasts, separated by 15-second silent intervals. In such an emergency, immediately seek shelter and wait for further instructions communicated via NY-Alert, e-mail, www.buffalostate.edu, or verbal instructions from a university police officer.

Faculty and staff may register for NY-Alert through theSUNY employee portal. Students can register throughBANNER.

Thank you for your assistance with this critical emergency notification system.

By Mary A. Durlak

Michael Ruse—noted speaker, author, and philosopher—will present a lecture on the impact of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution on Thursday, April 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center at Rockwell Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

Ruse, author ofDarwinism and Its Discontents, will explore the social impact of the theory of natural selection that Darwin presented in On the Origin of Species, which was published 150 years ago. Ruse will also discuss how thinking has changed since then, and how Darwin’s theories have been further developed by scientists and considered by philosophers over time.

His lecture will be followed by a question-and-answer session and a book signing, with copies of his books available for purchase. The event is presented by Buffalo State and is part of the Buffalo Museum of Science’s Hayes Lecture Series.

A popular and often controversial speaker, Ruse is a philosopher of science whose specialty is the philosophy of biology. He is an expert on Darwin and has spoken all over the world on Darwin and evolution. He is the Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University. Previously, he taught at the University of Guelph, in Ontario, for 35 years.

Although an ardent evolutionist, Ruse is also a bold critic of fellow evolutionists who challenge the validity of religious beliefs, likening the challengers to intemperate religious figures.

“Dr. Ruse believes that religion and science can coexist,” said Amy McMillan, associate professor of biology and an evolutionary biologist. McMillan has been active in the discussion of how science is presented to the general public. In 2006, she was instrumental in bringing to campus the movie Flock of Dodos, in which writer-director Randy Olson portrays scientists as their own worst advocates. She is also a scientific consultant to theClergy Letter Project, which attempts to demonstrate that religion and science can be compatible. It also provides information to religious leaders who want to encourage scientific literacy among faith communities.

Ruse earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Bristol; his master’s degree at McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario; and his doctoral degree at the University of Bristol. In 1986, he was elected a fellow of both the Royal Society of Canada and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Bergen in Norway and McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.

Ruse helped to build Florida State’s history and philosophy of science programs and started the journalBiology and Philosophy. He has coauthored and edited many books including Evolution: The First Four Billion Years. Other books by Ruse include The Evolution-Creation Struggle and Can a Darwinian Be a Christian?

Although Ruse is known for fighting against creationism in the science classroom, even appearing on Nightline to debate the subject, his Buffalo State lecture will focus on the impact of Darwin’s theories in modern thought.

“This year is the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth,” said McMillan, “so we wanted to pay attention to him because he developed one of the most influential theories of our time.”

By Mark Norris

Anselm Berrigan, author of multiple chapbooks, poetry collections, and a spoken-word CD, will present a reading at Buffalo State College on Friday, March 20, at 11:00 a.m. in the Campbell Student Union Assembly Hall. The event, which is free and open to the public, was rescheduled from February.

Berrigan is a poet and educator with a strong connection to the Western New York literary community. He received his bachelor of arts in English from the University at Buffalo in 1994. While at UB, he served as editor of the student newspaper, theSpectrum, and the paper’s entertainment supplement, the Prodigal Sun. Since graduating, Berrigan has made frequent return visits to Buffalo for reading engagements and has been a guest instructor at Just Buffalo Literary Center.

Berrigan’s personal history is steeped in poetics. He is the son of poets Alice Notley and the late Ted Berrigan, stepson of the late English poet and prose writer Douglas Oliver, brother of poet Edmund Berrigan, and husband of poet Karen Weiser.

Born in Chicago, Berrigan was raised in the East Village of New York City, where he lives now. He served as director for the famed Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church from 2003 to 2007. He has taught writing at Brooklyn College, Rutgers University, Pratt Institute, and Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. He is currently co-chair of the summer M.F.A. program in the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College and a visiting writer in the English Department at Wesleyan University. He holds a master of fine arts from Brooklyn College. His new book, Free Cell, will be published later this year by City Lights Books.

This event is sponsored by the Buffalo State English Department and Just Buffalo Literary Center, and is supported by the Auxiliary Services Grant Allocation Committee.

The following grants were awarded through the Research Foundation at Buffalo State College in January. For more information, contact the principal investigator or theResearch Foundation at Buffalo State College.

January 2009

Karen Bailey-Jones, Clinic Director, Speech-Language Pathology
$99,470 (Continuation)
Aspire
“Cooperative Arrangement 2009–2011” 

Lyubov Burlakova, Research Associate, Great Lakes Center
$68,077 (Continuation)
Texas Parks and Wildlife
“Statewide Assessment of Unionid Diversity in Texas 2008–2009”

Elizabeth Peña, Director, Art Conservation
$200,000
National Endowment for the Humanities
“Art Conservation Facilities Improvement and Conservation Science Endowment”

John Siskar, Associate Professor, Art Education
$9,980
Buffalo Board of Education
“Teacher Mentor Training”

By Mary A. Durlak

Charles Darwin, author of On the Origin of Species, the book that made the foundational case for evolution, was born on February 12, 1809. In honor of his 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of the book’s publication, a birthday party complete with cake will be held in Science Building 250 on Thursday, February 12, during Bengal Pause (12:15 to 1:30 p.m.).

Join Buffalo State’s community of science scholars in singing “Happy Birthday” to one of the world’s most influential people, a man whose work continues to inspire scientists and philosophers alike.

By Mary A. Durlak

Technology fascinates archaeologist Lisa Marie Anselmi, assistant professor of anthropology. In her book,Native Peoples Use of Copper-Based Metals in NE North America: Contact Period Interactions, she explores the different ways Native people used the metals they acquired through trading with Europeans.

The Barnes & Noble at Buffalo State Bookstore will host a book launching for Anselmi on Tuesday, February 10, during Bengal Pause. “With this book,” she said, “I hope to help people appreciate the metalworking industries of the First Nations. People used to think that Native people like the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat in Ontario learned how to work metal from Europeans. But they adapted their existing technological practices for native copper and bone to the new metals they acquired.”

Native Peoples Use of Copper-Based Metals, published in fall 2008, is the first stage of work that will probably take Anselmi the rest of her life. She received a 2007–2008 Provost’s Incentive Grant, which she used to investigate differing technological styles among the Native peoples of the Pacific Northwest. She is interested in comparing the metalworking technologies of Native peoples across all of North America, and she hopes that understanding the diverse technologies will add to the knowledge of precontact cultures as well as to later periods.

In the Northeast, Native Americans traded their goods for copper and brass kettles from the Europeans. Then they broke the kettles down with hand tools and hammer stones so that they could use the metals as raw materials to create objects they wanted. “Native people were not passive consumers of European goods,” said Anselmi. “They incorporated the new materials into their own cultures on their own terms.”

The technologies employed varied across time, from the earliest contact with European metal goods in the 1560s through the seventeenth century. Different groups used different technology and created differing objects, depending on their respective cultures. These multiple variations corroborate the idea that Native peoples’ metalworking technology was adapted within the context of individual cultural groups rather than copied from European practices.

Many ornamental objects such as bracelets were created; other objects were tools. “We describe objects along a scale ranging from utilitarian to ornamental,” said Anselmi. “It’s a valid way to describe things, but it’s important to remember that the distinctions we make are not necessarily the same distinctions the creators themselves would make.” For example, a pipe bowl lined with bright reddish copper may have had religious significance, suggesting the life-force of blood and renewal symbolized by the color red, and signifying more than mere decoration.

“We need to reevaluate the way we categorize and interpret the artifacts we find,” Anselmi said. “Many of the artifacts that have been defined as scrap were actually tools.”

Anselmi is not as interested in the artifacts as she is in the processes in which they were used and by which they were created. “Archaeology is the study of past cultures by looking at the materials they left behind,” she explained. “I believe that if you look at how they created and used the materials, you get closer to the people themselves.”

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Read previous Faculty Author stories:

Allen Shelton 
Lisa Forrest
Joëlle Leclaire
Peter Ramos

From the Chair of the College Senate
The Academic Plan Committee of the College Senate will hold the second of two open forums to facilitate discussion of the Strategic Plan and Academic Plan (2009–2013) on Friday, February 6, from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. in E. H. Butler Library 210. Light refreshments will be served. Your participation is highly valued, as it enables the College Senate to advance campus concerns about the Strategic and Academic plans via elected governance members.