Former president Muriel A. Howard is one of six new members who will be inducted into the Buffalo State College Athletics Hall of Fame on Saturday, September 26, following the Bengals’ Homecoming football game against Western Connecticut State. The ceremony will take place at 5:30 p.m. in the Hall of Fame lobby in the Sports Arena. Hors d’oeuvres and cash bar begin at 4:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 and must be purchased in advance through Tom Koller, associate director, Intercollegiate Athletics: 878-6514.

Josh Becker, ’04, led the Bengals basketball team to a SUNYAC championship and an NCAA playoff appearance as a junior when he was named second-team All-Region, first-team All-SUNYAC, and MVP of the SUNYAC tournament. Becker ranks 10th on the school’s all-time scoring list. He was recognized as the school’s male athlete of the year in 2003 and won the Hube Coyer Award for career accomplishments the following year.

Mike Grabowski, ’76, was a four-time All-American as a swimmer at Buffalo State. He swam a leg in the 400-meter medley relay that captured a SUNYAC championship in 1975 and set a school record with a time of 3:39.50, a mark that still stands. Grabowski also helped the Bengals capture a SUNYAC team championship in 1975.

Muriel A. Howard, Buffalo State College’s seventh president, will be inducted into the Hall of Fame as an honorary member, in recognition of her support for Intercollegiate Athletics.

Cheryl Isbrandt, ’95, played shortstop for the Bengals softball team from 1992 to 1995, accumulating a .400 career batting average, the third best in the program’s history. A third-team All-American as a senior, she helped the Bengals to three NCAA regional berths and two New York State women’s championships. The school’s all-time leader in stolen bases (84), Isbrandt was recognized as the school’s female athlete of the year as a senior.

Valerie Krell-Capriotti, ’88, becomes the first women’s soccer player to gain induction into the Hall of Fame. A four-year standout from 1983 to 1986, she was recognized as All-SUNYAC in 1984. Krell-Capriotti led the team in scoring three times and still ranks second on the school’s all-time scoring list. Buffalo State won 40 games in her four seasons, the best four-year run in the history of the program.

Dan Lauta, ’99, anchored the Bengals’ offensive line in the late 1990s and helped lead the football team to four appearances in the NCAA playoffs. Following graduation, Lauta became the only Bengal to sign with an NFL team, securing a free-agent contract with the New York Giants. He went on to play in the Arena Football League with the Buffalo Destroyers.

By Mary A. Durlak

All faculty and staff members are invited to attend one of the most exciting campus events of the semester—the Science and Mathematics Complex Groundbreaking ceremony—on Friday, September 25, at 3:00 p.m. in the John Urban Auditorium, Science Building 213.

Speakers and guests who will attend include members of the College Council, state and local officials, and supporters of the college. A reception will follow the ceremony. Reservations are requested; please call 878-5115.

The new science and mathematics complex—a 224,000-square-foot facility over three levels—will be home to the Chemistry, Biology, Earth Sciences and Science Education, Mathematics, and Physics departments, the Great Lakes Center, and a state-of-the-art planetarium. The project is estimated to cost $110 million.

“This is an important step that will demonstrate Buffalo State’s commitment to preparing the scientists, mathematicians, and the science and math teachers who are so essential in an increasingly complex global culture,” said Mark Severson, dean of the School of Natural and Social Sciences.

Kim Bagley, professor of chemistry, serves as the faculty liaison for the project. “The Science Building Advocacy Committee began working on our view of what we wanted in the building in fall 2004,” she said. “I’m very grateful to all the faculty members who have put so much time and effort into providing the information and feedback necessary to build a facility that meets our needs.”

Phase I of the project, scheduled for completion in summer 2012, includes a 96,000-square-foot addition along the west side of the existing Science Building that will house new teaching and research labs, faculty offices, and instrumentation rooms.

Phase II, to be completed in 2015, will include demolition of the Science Building’s south wing, a full renovation of the north wing, and construction of a second addition along the south side of the building, which will house a greenhouse for the Biology Department.

The new planetarium, designed to appear as a large, glowing sphere housed in a transparent framework, will define the complex’s main entrance. A walkway from the Student Union Quad will lead directly to it. Inside the building, the walkway will lead visitors to an impressive three-story sky-lighted atrium that will be the main route through the complex. Upper-level balconies and bridges will open to the atrium, offering spaces for conversations and collaboration as well as quiet study. The design will create an environment that cultivates interdisciplinary research activities among both students and faculty.

The complex will be built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards and will incorporate many environmentally friendly features, including storm-water collection and treatment, use of recycled materials, water-conserving fixtures, and energy-efficient heating and cooling systems. The project is expected to qualify for Gold Certification, which affirms the design and operation of the facility to be energy-efficient and environmentally responsible. The LEED rating system is a national benchmark for high-performance green buildings.

By Phyllis Camesano

Deborah Oppenheimer, producer of the Academy Award–winning documentary Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, will take part in a special presentation and screening to benefit the television and film arts program on Saturday, October 3, in the Burchfield Penney Art Center at Buffalo State College. A reception at 6:00 p.m. will precede the 7:00 p.m. screening, followed by questions from the audience at 9:00 p.m.

Oppenheimer won an Oscar in 2000 for her documentary about the Kindertransport that rescued 10,000 children from Nazi-occupied territories by relocating them to foster homes and hostels in Britain. Oppenheimer’s mother was among them. In a quest to find out more about her mother’s childhood, Oppenheimer researched and produced the story.

Oppenheimer graduated magna cum laude from Buffalo State College with a bachelor’s degree in English secondary education. She worked as a development and production executive at Lorimar Productions, creating programming for HBO, Showtime, and PBS television networks. She became vice president of production at Lorimar, where she oversaw features, made-for-television movies, miniseries, and episodic television programs (The Hogan Family, Full House, and Dallas). Oppenheimer is president of Mohawk Productions at Warner Bros. (The Drew Carey Show, George Lopez).

She was awarded an honorary doctor of fine arts from the State University of New York in 2005, and received the Buffalo State College Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2001.

Tickets for the event are $100 and are available through the Arts and Humanities Dean’s Office, 878-6326.

By Tony Astran

Buffalo State has been awarded a four-year, $194,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to manage a four-college consortium and student exchange for the study of transatlantic public administration. The program, called the European Union–United States Atlantis Program, is funded by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE).

Buffalo State received $51,500 for the first year to oversee the U.S. side of the program with SUNY Cortland. EU partners are Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom and Babeş-Bolyai University in Romania. They are funded separately by the European Commission for an equivalent amount.

The funding allows three Buffalo State and three SUNY Cortland students to study overseas during upcoming semesters. In the spring, three British students will study at Buffalo State and three Romanian students will study at SUNY Cortland. Three Romanian students will study here in fall 2010. The funding also allows faculty from the four colleges to travel and lecture abroad.

“The Atlantis Program brings Europeans and Americans together at the ground level for a transatlantic network to learn about what is involved in public policy,” said Laurie Buonanno, professor and chair of political science, who applied for the grant.

Buffalo State’s Political Science Department, which houses the program, is currently seeking three students to study in Manchester in the spring. The deadline to apply is Sunday, September 20. Interested students must be juniors or seniors with a minimum GPA of 2.5 who are majoring or minoring in political science, public administration, international relations, or legal studies. Each will receive $5,000 to defray travel and living expenses.

Students will take courses in politics, ethnic studies, public policy, and foreign language. They will also participate in a public policy internship at a local or regional level, or at an international level with organizations such as the European Commission or the United Nations.

“The students will establish a transatlantic network of lifelong friends and colleagues that will help them become more effective public administrators,” Buonanno said. “The networking that students will experience is so valuable; you never know when you might need to work through transatlantic issues with your counterparts in other countries, especially issues involving regulatory policy and good governance. In the future, they might work together on competition policies, international trade negotiations, or food safety regulations. We need public administrators who are conversant with European and American institutions and policies, and speak the same regulatory language. Globalization no longer permits insulated regulatory regimes among the world’s two largest trading partners.”

Buonanno said transatlantic public administration is an emerging field. She will work with the consortium to produce at least one edited scholarly volume on the subject and create a shared minor by the end of the four years.

Buonanno hopes the exchanges continue long after the grant’s end.

“This program helps us globalize our curriculum,” she said. “It will also strengthen teaching and research for faculty.”

The Buffalo State community is invited to officially commence the 2009–2010 academic year during the 22nd annual Academic Convocation ceremony at 12:15 p.m. Thursday, September 17, in Rockwell Hall Auditorium. Convocation is an important tradition on our campus, a time when we celebrate learning and excellence. Please join us in recognizing the accomplishments of our faculty and staff colleagues.

This year’s Bonnie and Vern L. Bullough Academic Convocation speaker will be Gene R. Nichol, professor of law and director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Nichol served as president of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, from 2005 to 2008; as dean of the University of North Carolina School of Law from 1999 to 2005; and as dean of the University of Colorado Law School from 1988 to 1995.

Nichol has received many awards, including the American Bar Association’s Edward R. Finch Award (2003), UNC’s Pro Bono Professor of the Year (2004), the National Employment Lawyers Association’s Courage to Do Justice Award (2008), and the Thomas Jefferson Award from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (2008).

He has published articles and essays in such prominent law reviews as the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, and the University of Chicago Law Review. From 1998 to 1999, he was a political columnist for the Rocky Mountain News and the Colorado Daily. He has also written for the Washington Post, the Nation, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

President’s Awards for Excellence
President’s Awards for Excellence will be presented at Convocation to the following faculty and staff members for their outstanding contributions to Buffalo State.

EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH, SCHOLARSHIP, AND CREATIVITY

Valentin E. Brimkov
Professor, Mathematics
Valentin Brimkov is regarded internationally as one of the best known and most respected scientists in the areas of his research, which include discrete geometry and combinatorial image analysis. He has also made significant contributions to many other areas of applied mathematics including optimization, theory of computation and complexity, graph theory, and combinatorics. In 2006, he received the Wilkes Award of the British Computer Society for the best paper published in the Computer Journal, published by Oxford Press. His publication record is extensive, approaching a total of 150 published works to date.

Michael J. De Marco
Professor and Chair, Physics
Michael De Marco has been the principal investigator on three grants from the United States Department of Energy totaling more than $1 million. De Marco’s research centers on the use of the Mössbauer effect to probe the electronic and magnetic properties of a large class of materials, the ruthenates, which have magnetic and superconducting phases. He is the only investigator currently working with this important technique in the United States, and his work is known internationally. Results he has published with collaborators in leading peer-reviewed journals challenge current understanding of the mechanisms for superconductivity and contribute significantly to greater understanding within the field.

EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING

James Mayrose
Assistant Professor, Technology
James Mayrose has distinguished himself in the classroom through his dedication to creating learning experiences that require full student engagement. Mayrose is an aerospace and mechanical engineer with significant publications and awards, including the 2004 Inventor of the Year award from the Niagara Frontier Intellectual Property Law Association. He uses practical, interactive teaching methods to explain engineering’s difficult concepts in ways that make them understandable to students. His dedication and willingness to make himself available for individualized instruction, advisement, and mentoring has earned him outstanding student evaluations.

EXCELLENCE IN THE ADVANCEMENT OF EQUITY AND CAMPUS DIVERSITY

Gail V. Wells
Director, Student Life
Gail Wells has been affiliated with the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) since 1995, and has served as team leader for NCBI on campus. In this role, she has been instrumental in expanding the campus NCBI Coalition Building Team, which now has 28 members. Each member of the team has experienced a training workshop led in part by Wells. The team’s goal is to create a nurturing environment for a diverse campus community. Wells has served on the national board for NCBI and is on the leadership committee for the Black African Heritage Caucus of NCBI. Wells has modeled the importance of celebrating diversity, and her exceptional skills as a facilitator have been a critical part of the successful NCBI training on campus.

EXCELLENCE IN SERVICE

Marcia D. Burns
Secretary 1, Modern and Classical Languages
Marcia Burns is known for her superb human relations skills as well as her organization, administrative competence, and drive. Burns joined Buffalo State in 2005 in the Purchasing Department, where she demonstrated impressive problem-solving skills. In her current position, she served as liaison between the department and Campus Services during the construction of a new seminar room for Modern and Classical Languages, and solicited input from faculty members as well bringing suggestions to them. The dean’s office also appreciates Burns’s attention to both detail and deadlines.

Heather D. Maldonado
Assistant to the Dean, University College
Heather Maldonado works to eliminate barriers that needlessly stand between students and graduation while upholding academic standards. Her supervision of probationary undeclared students in University College has led to an 11 percent reduction in the number of such students, and improved by 13 percent the number of undeclared students who remove themselves from probation in the first term. Her efforts to improve students’ first-year experience include creating the First-Year Convocation as well as engaging directly with students by volunteering to serve as adviser for a full load of freshmen advisees.

Kathleen M. O’Brien
Director, Campus House
Lecturer, Hospitality and Tourism
Kathleen O’Brien was instrumental in securing a $1 million capital investment to renovate Campus House and establish it as an applied-learning center for students in hospitality administration. Under O’Brien, membership in Campus House has more than quadrupled since fall 2002, and revenues have grown from $65,000 to $100,000. O’Brien also teaches several courses within the department and serves as co-director of the Buffalo State College Restaurant Institute, which was established in collaboration with the Small Business Development Center.

Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence
The Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Librarianship will be awarded to Maureen Lindstrom, associate director for information commons in E. H. Butler Library. The Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Classified Service will be presented to William Smith, a janitor in the Custodial Services Department.

Distinguished Teaching Professorship
Andrea Guiati will be formally recognized as a newly appointed SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor.

A reception on the front lawn of Rockwell Hall will immediately follow the Convocation ceremony. For more information, please contact Carolyn Martino in the Academic and Student Affairs Office at 878-5903.

By Mary A. Durlak

A special exhibition, Dear America! The Italian Immigrant Experience in Buffalo and the Thomas Sgovio Story, is now on display in E. H. Butler Library’s lower lobby as the result of an agreement between the History and Social Studies Education Department and Biblioteca del Mediterraneo, the regional public library system of Apulia, Italy. The agreement, facilitated by Lucia Caracci Cullens, honorary vice consul in Buffalo for the Consulate General of Italy in New York, established a collaborative research venture encouraging scholars to study emigration from the Apulian region—the heel of Italy’s boot—to the United States. The exhibit is also showing in Bari, Italy, where it opened in June.

“Cullens was familiar with the department’s longstanding strong interest in local history,” said Martin Ederer, assistant professor in the History and Social Studies Education Department. “She also knows Buffalo State’s reputation for collaborative projects with the Buffalo community—and she knew Thomas Sgovio’s story.”

That story is a case study of the complexity of immigration to the United States. “Only about half the Italians who came into the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s stayed here,” said Ederer. “Many returned home, or went on to other countries, such as Brazil, Argentina, and Australia.”

Some immigrants—those who joined the communist party after being involved in labor activities and the socialist movement—were deported. Sgovio’s father, who came from the region of Apulia, was among them. However, he could not return to Italy because communists were under attack there by Mussolini’s government. So he went to the “workers’ paradise,” the Soviet Union, later sending for his family, including his teenage son Thomas.

The story that followed was one of disillusion, separation, and imprisonment. The younger Sgovio spent 16 years of imprisonment in the Gulag in Siberia for the crime of attempting to return to Buffalo. Twenty-four panels depicting the story, using Sgovio’s drawings as well as contextual material, are on display in E. H. Butler Library during September. St. Anthony of Padua Church in Buffalo covered the costs of the exhibit’s production.

Sgovio’s art also adorns offices at the GM Powertrain plant in Tonawanda, where he worked after his return to Buffalo in 1963. He self-published a book in 1979, Dear America! which described his ordeals in the Soviet Gulag.

The exhibition opened in June 2009 at an annual conference in Bari, Italy, which attracted librarians, archivists, and historians from almost a dozen countries, including Russia. Ederer and David Carson, professor and chair of history and social studies education, presented at the conference.

The next scholarly activity of the collaboration is a conference at Buffalo State. Dear America! The Italian Immigrant Experience in Buffalo and the Thomas Sgovio Story will take place on campus on Saturday, September 26, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Classroom Building C122. An opening reception will be held on September 25 from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m. in E. H. Butler Library. The event is free and open to the public.

By Phyllis Camesano

More than 100 works by 50 accomplished and up-and-coming Western New York artists, many of them Buffalo State College faculty members, alumni, or students, will be showcased at the 11th biennial exhibition Art in Craft Media 2009 (formerly Craft Art Western New York), on view from September 12 through January 3.

The juried and invitational exhibition is presented by the Burchfield Penney Art Center at Buffalo State College and supported by the Sylvia L. Rosen Endowment. An opening reception takes place on September 12 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Art in Craft Media is the only regional craft art showcase in Western New York, attracting work by the region’s leading artists in clay, wood, fiber, metal, and glass. The region is defined as the nine counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Monroe, Niagara, Orleans, and Wyoming.

About 115 Western New York artists submitted recent works for consideration for the much-anticipated 2009 show. Juror Margaret Carney, Ph.D., made the final selection from about 400 submissions (each artist could submit up to four works). The event includes artists whose work has appeared in more than four previous Craft Art Western New York exhibitions. Most of the artists in this preeminent group of 18 have some affiliation with Buffalo State College, including five faculty members: Nancy Belfer, Stephen Saracino, Carol Townsend, Robert L. Wood, and Barry Yavener.

“The scope and scale of work speaks to the artistic potential and growing legacy of craft art in this region and across the country,” said Carney, who is a renowned ceramics historian and curator of the Blair Museum of Lithophanes in Toledo, Ohio. “The category has come into its own thanks to the talent and perseverance of artists and the enlightened support of people like Sylvia Rosen and institutions like Buffalo State College and the Burchfield Penney Art Center.”

Artists selected for the exhibition are Jozef Bajus, Lily Booth, Missy Crowell, Patrick Del Monte, Kate Doody, Alicia Eggert, Jihea Eum, Irwin Franco, Suzanne Hofmeister, Kevin Kegler, Bethany Krull, Temi Kucinski, Andrea Marquis, Dennis Nahabetian, Tara Nahabetian, Jane Notides-Benzing, Vincent Pontillo, Diane Pierce, Mattine Rattonsey, Davina Romansky, Taeyoul Ryu, Leslie Schug, Kala Stein, James Vasi, Alan Walke, and Kristin Wiepert. The project director for the exhibition is Scott Propeack, collections manager at the Burchfield Penney.

Sylvia L. Rosen, the patron of the exhibition, is a noted ceramicist whose work is in the Burchfield Penney and in the permanent collections of the Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art at Alfred University. Her generous sponsorship of craft art and artists in New York State, Florida, and Ohio is highly respected. She is an alumna of Buffalo State College and has taught at the college, the University at Buffalo, and Amherst Senior High School.

“We are delighted to have this year’s exhibition in the new Burchfield Penney Art Center,” Rosen said. “This remarkable space provides a perfect backdrop for celebrating these artists and their remarkable work.”

The Sylvia L. Rosen Endowment for the Fine Arts in the Craft Media, established by Sylvia and her husband, Nathan, in 1987, supports juried biennial craft art exhibitions with illustrated catalogs and purchase awards, alternating with biennial craft art lectures by specialists.

By Tony Astran

Buffalo State will offer an incentive for Buffalo Public Schools students with the Buffalo State College Challenge, a new program that provides admission and a scholarship for those who meet specific academic benchmarks by the time they graduate.

The Buffalo State College Challenge will begin this year as a pilot program in McKinley High School. To participate, students must take classes geared toward college preparation, earn a score of 1,000 or better on the critical reading and math sections of the SAT, and maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 85. Those who meet the requirements will be granted admission and a scholarship to Buffalo State.

The program is modeled after the Syracuse Challenge, a partnership between Syracuse University and the Syracuse City School District that began in 1993. Dean Reinhart, associate director of admissions, previously worked in admissions at Syracuse University and thought the idea would benefit the Buffalo School District.

“This is not so much a recruitment program as it is a community service program—an opportunity for admissions professionals to go into high schools and work with students to get to college,” he said. “The primary objective is to make sure students understand the opportunities and realities that going to college will pay off big for them. Anything we can do to improve the retention rate within the Buffalo Public Schools is something that we genuinely want to do because it helps the community.”

Hal Payne, vice president for student affairs, and Mark Petrie, associate vice president for enrollment management, secured approval for the Buffalo State College Challenge through Buffalo Public Schools Superintendent James Williams earlier this summer. The Admissions Office has designated Kenneth Robinson, admissions assistant, as a coordinator for the program. Robinson will spend a minimum of three days each month at McKinley High School to meet with students and monitor program progress with teachers, counselors, and principals. He said the program will also have tie-ins to Buffalo State’s precollegiate programs.

“With the Buffalo State College Challenge, students will work more closely with us, stay focused on doing what it takes to get into college, and be accountable for their academic performance,” Robinson said. “We want to help—and challenge—these capable students, many of whom are at-risk.”

Robinson believes the program comes at a crucial time for Buffalo. He said roughly half of students in public urban high schools in the 50 largest U.S. cities currently do not graduate. Graduation rates are especially low in high-need districts like Buffalo, one of the nation’s poorest cities.

Robinson hopes faculty and staff will get involved with the program to provide guidance to students about career paths. He also hopes to recognize ongoing student progress and program alumni in future years with an annual ceremony.

“The success of the Buffalo State College Challenge would underscore our commitment to the community,” Robinson said. “This is an opportunity for us to demonstrate that when you partner for progress, you can change lives.”

By Mary A. Durlak

William C. Smith, a janitor in the Custodial Services Department, has been awarded the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Classified Service. Smith has received many unsolicited commendations from grateful members of the Buffalo State community since he joined the college in 1979 as a cleaner. He has consistently exceeded the requirements of his job, voluntarily taken on additional tasks, and put in extra time when necessary, all the while delivering outstanding results.

Smith is known as a flexible, effective, and dependable leader who has demonstrated superior specialized floor and surface cleaning and finishing throughout the campus. Faculty and staff in academic departments, administrative offices, E. H. Butler Library, and the Burchfield Penney Art Center have praised his work. He also has been commended for improving the appearance of upholstered furniture, especially in highly visible areas.

In addition to his outstanding results, his work ethic and dedication have been greatly respected throughout his years of service. He has willingly put forth special efforts to fulfill requests, often exceeding expectations, and he is known for being a “can-do” person who is very reliable. His good cheer and service-oriented attitude have added to the widespread appreciation for his work.

The award will be formally presented to Smith during the college’s 22nd annual Academic Convocation ceremony on September 17 in Rockwell Hall Auditorium.

By Mary A. Durlak

Students are admitted to law schools from virtually all majors, according to the American Bar Association. Buffalo State’s new legal studies minor, which is offered for the first time this semester, is designed to ensure that students interested in attending law school are exposed to a variety of subjects and achieve a balance of educational experiences.

The 18-credit-hour minor is housed in the Political Science Department, but, said chair Laurie Buonanno, “the minor is administered by an interdisciplinary faculty.” It was devised by the pre-law advisement committee, chaired by Virginia Grabiner, associate professor of sociology. Jon Lines, lecturer in political science, serves as the minor’s coordinator and as coach for the Buffalo State Mock Trial team.

Two courses are required to complete the minor: Introduction to Law and Introduction to Philosophy. The capstone project is Moot Court, a 400-level course cross-listed with psychology, criminal justice, and sociology, which is taught by a judge and is based on a murder trial. This year, Town of Tonawanda Town Justice John J. Flynn will teach the course. Students may take Contemporary Constitutional Issues instead.

Students can choose from a list of 21 courses to complete the minor’s requirements, but no more than two may be from the same department. The list reflects a wide range of law-related topics including rhetorical criticism, economic analysis of law, and English legal history.

Buonanno noted that Kelly Boos, assistant to the dean of natural and social sciences, will continue to serve as pre-law adviser for students interested in attending law school. The pre-law handbook provides valuable information, including a timeline indicating when students should acquire the necessary academic skills.