Input sought on campus scenarios

Forum to focus on concepts

UB establishes Jewish institute

Outlook for jobsIn this week’s Q&A, Dan Ryan talks about the effect of the impending re-cession on the job outlook for this spring’s UB graduates.

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INSIDE…

Behind Attica’s walls“Encountering Attica,” a doc-umentary fi lm that chronicles meetings between UB law students and inmates from Attica Correctional Facility, is upsetting stereotypes and changing perspectives.

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Mediated identitiesA UB study has found a relation-ship between re-ality television viewing and “promiscuous friending” on popular social networking sites like Facebook.

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UB faculty, staff and students, as well as members of the com-munity, will have an

opportunity to provide feedback on specific concepts for future development of the university’s North, South and Downtown campuses at a day-long forum to be held on Tuesday. The public forum in the Center for the Arts on the North Campus will be the second in a series of four being conducted in conjunction with ongoing creation of the com-prehensive physical plan being de-veloped as part of the university’s plans to grow by 40 percent by the year 2020. The plan is scheduled to be completed a year from now. James A. “Beau” Willis, executive vice president for university sup-port services, said the university is committed to engaging and lis-tening to members of its internal and external communities as it continues to build a truly dynamic comprehensive physical plan. The goal is to create a lead-ing 21st-century public research university with three distinctive campus environments tailored to their respective suburban, urban and downtown settings, better connecting them with one another and integrating them with their surrounding neighborhoods.

At Tuesday’s forum, Willis noted, the Building UB team will pres-ent major concepts and scenarios being considered for each of UB’s three campuses, with the goal of engaging participants in discus-sion and obtaining their feedback. Transportation and environment considerations also will be included in each of fi ve workshops designed for specifi c constituent groups. The workshop schedule is: 8-9:30 a.m. for place-making profession-als, such as planners, architects, engineers and related professionals; 10-11:30 a.m. for UB staff members; noon to 1:30 p.m. for UB students; 2-3:30 p.m. for UB faculty; and 4-5:30 p.m. for the community-at-large, including alumni, UB neighbors and the general public. Participants are requested to attend the specifi c workshop for the group in which they are a member. A “capstone session” from 6-7 p.m. will include a welcome from UB President John B. Simpson and a presentation summarizing input received at the day’s workshops that will include questions from the audience. The session will be led by Robert G. Shibley, profes-sor and director of the Urban Design Project in the School of Architecture and Planning who, as senior advisor to Simpson, is overseeing UB’s ongoing master-planning process, and Frederick A. Bland, managing partner with

Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, the internationally known team chosen to work with the Building UB team and lead development of the plan. The capstone session will be fol-lowed by a reception to celebrate the progress on, and potential of, UB’s comprehensive physical plan. To attend a workshop and the cap-stone session and celebration, RSVP at 645-3705, ext. 223, or at http://www.buffalo.edu/yourub. The creation of UB’s compre-hensive physical plan is a long-

term process that began about a year ago and will be completed a year from now. Some 600 individuals attended the fi rst public forum on the de-velopment of UB’s comprehensive physical plan held in December in the UB Downtown Gateway, the former M. Wile Building. A third forum—at which a draft plan will be presented—will be held on Nov. 19 on the South Campus. The fi nal forum, focusing on specifi cs of the fi nal plan and its implementation, is scheduled for April 22, 2009.

By ARTHUR PAGEAssistant Vice President

Flex TestExercise science major Kristy Arndt, left, tests the fl exibility of Leslie Russo, assistant dean in the School of Management, during Wellness Awareness Day.

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THE university has es-tablished the Institute for Jewish Thought, Heritage and Culture,

a multidisciplinary research and academic degree-granting center that will focus scholarship on the critical role that Judaism has played in the development and communi-cation of Western thought. The institute already is attracting major philanthropic support with a $1 million gift from prominent Buffalo attorney Gordon R. Gross, LLB ’55, and his wife, Gretchen, to establish the institute’s first endowed professorship. Creation of the institute and the gift from the Grosses were announced yesterday by President John B. Simpson at a press confer-ence in Capen Hall. The institute has been created in the College of Arts and Sciences in conjunction with the strategic strength in Cultures and Texts identifi ed as part of the UB 2020 strategic plan. That plan is designed

to transform UB into a model 21st-century public university that will rise among the ranks of the nation’s public research universities. The institute will establish UB as a leader in Jewish studies; the university will be the fi rst campus within SUNY to establish master’s and doctoral degree programs in the fi eld. “The interdisciplinary mission of the institute, a center of excellence that is aligned closely with our stra-tegic strength in Cultures and Texts, is very much in harmony with UB’s guiding vision as a public research university—to foster knowledge, inquiry and scholarly excellence with a meaningful impact on the world around us,” Simpson said. Praising the Grosses for their gen-erosity and foresight, Simpson add-ed: “Gretchen and Gordon Gross have long supported programs that increase cultural diversity and understanding, and we are grateful for their generosity in supporting this new academic position.” Gordon Gross, a member of the SUNY Board of Trustees, explained

that “tzedakah, or righteous char-ity, is a fundamental tenet of Juda-ism that teaches us to share our gifts with others.” Noting that he and his wife are “passionate about the Institute for Jewish Thought, Heritage and Cul-ture,” he added, “We believe it will invigorate the Jewish community in Western New York, as well as allow UB to create a world-renowned Jewish studies program. “The institute will support UB’s plan for growth by attracting top students and scholars, and will benefit the local community by sparking intellectual discussion and providing access to notable speakers and visiting lecturers.” SUNY Distinguished Professor Bruce D. McCombe, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said the institute “will be a world-class endeavor marked by its strong em-phasis on scholarship and research, particularly at the graduate level, with a director who is a scholar of the fi rst rank, a dedicated faculty and a highly focused identity and coherence.” He noted that a national

search has been completed and that the announcement of the institute’s director is expected soon. McCombe said the institute is expected to become a degree-granting program by fall 2009 with the offering of an independent bachelor’s degree in Jewish studies and expects, at the same time, to of-fer an advanced certifi cate program for graduate students in history, philosophy, classics and English, as well as other departments. He said it’s anticipated that by fall 2010, the institute will have five dedicated faculty members and a range of graduate offerings, including both master’s and doc-toral degrees. McCombe described the lead-ership gift from the Grosses as “a generous gift providing tan-gible evidence of support of this important mission and an abso-lutely crucial step in launching the institute.” To underscore the importance of the institute and its mission, the university will match the Gross professorship and a sec-

By PATRICIA DONOVANContributing Editor

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Vol. 39, No. 29 April 17, 2008

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2 April 17, 2008/Vol. 39, No. 29Reporter

Newsmakers QAuestions

nswers&Dan Ryan is director of the Office of Career Services.

How does the impending re-cession affect the job market for the UB Class of 2008? What industries/professions could be affected most? Which ones are likely to still be hiring?

If I didn’t read the newspaper or watch network news, I would have no idea what you are talking about. Over the past year, we have witnessed a significant increase in employer activity. If you take into account the attendance at UB job fairs, the number of compa-nies recruiting on campus or the number of jobs posted on our BullsEye system, the economy remains strong in many sectors. Some of that employer activity on campus may be attributed to our ramped-up employer development activities, and some may be a result of a general national labor shortage in a number of areas. But, clearly, our students have had a lot of opportunities presented to them. The demand is particularly high in areas like science, technology, engineering and math. Our nurs-ing, public health, engineering and computer science students are of such high quality that they attract a lot of attention.

You’ve been heavily involved in the campaign to keep lo-cal college graduates in town after graduation and to bring back Buffalo natives who at-tend college elsewhere. Has the “brain drain” slowed?

The brain drain hasn’t stopped, but I would like to think that it has slowed. This is the most mobile generation in our nation’s history. The exodus of population from the region over the past decade or more has made it easier for others to follow. In addition to that, the

far reach of the Internet has result-ed in the labor market becoming a more efficient market, wherein both buyers and sellers are well in-formed. The positive result is that local companies that for years have relied on the “Buffalo discount” in wages are now re-examining their compensation packages. Unfor-tunately for the region, the same people who are most desperately needed here are also the ones in highest demand elsewhere. Still, with efforts like Jobsapalooza—a regional job fair that celebrated its 10th year in January—we are doing a much better job of expos-ing local students and downstaters who would like to stay here to the opportunities that exist locally.

I hear that Career Services has increased its employer devel-opment efforts, both locally and nationally. Can you tell me about that?

Our goal 10 years ago was to re-establish the University at Buffalo as the premier source of talented young men and women for the Buffalo Niagara region, to estab-lish ourselves as one of the top five sources in New York state and to establish ourselves in the top 25 with employers nationally. We have been successful on the first and are close on the second. To achieve the third, we have stepped up our efforts to market our ser-vices nationally. For the past five years, we have sent representatives to the National Society for Human Resource Managers conferences for recruiters. We get a table in their exhibit hall, and because we are typically the only university there, we get a lot of attention. As a result, employers from New York City, the Carolinas, Texas and as far

away as San Diego are listing their positions with us, attending our job fairs and in some cases even recruiting on campus.

These days, parents seem to be more involved in the lives of their adult children than parents of past generations. Does that “involvement” ex-tend to their children’s job searches and career choices?

This is a real phenomenon. It is a little bit amusing that the genera-tion that fought so hard for privacy and for things like FERPA (the fed-eral Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, also known as the Buckley Amendment) now are the very people who want access to every aspect of their kids’ lives! My favorite story was told to me by a re-cruiter who went to the waiting area to greet a student (non-UB) and his father asked if he could come into the interview as well. The recruiter said that it wasn’t possible, and the father responded, “It’s just that he might not know all the answers.” After the interview, it took all of the recruiter’s self-control to refrain from informing the father that his concerns were well founded.

How can faculty and staff partner with Career Services?

Over the past few years, Career Services has tried to more actively market our services to faculty and staff. Our collaborations are adaptable to what a faculty or staff member would like to see. We have career counselors who have gone to speak to dozens of class sessions on any variety of topics tailored to the subject area of the course, and we provide a newsletter that faculty can use to pass relevant information along to the students

they work with. We also offer to deliver presentations on days when faculty need to be out of town to present their research.

What question do you wish I had asked, and how would you have answered it?

If the university could do one thing to improve the career development and lifelong sat-isfaction of its alumni, what would it be? Anything we can do to have more students par-ticipate in experiential educa-tion—that is, local internships, faculty-guided research, co-op, service learning or intern-ships abroad—would be great. The vision for UB that Presi-dent Simpson has articulated, particularly when he draws a parallel to the impact of the University of Washington on the Seattle area, assumes a deep relationship between the pub-lic, private and not-for-profit organizations and our students. I believe we need to build an infrastructure and system that can facilitate the connection be-tween these groups. Our faculty need to maintain control over the determination of which experiences are worthy of aca-demic credit, but anything we can do to help students experi-ence the application of their knowledge outside of the class-room will not only reinforce their classroom education, but will also help to strengthen the communities in which they have those experiences. And the easier we can make it for the community to access our students, the more likely they are to engage them.

Because of their expertise and reputations, members of the UB faculty and staff are sought out by reporters who quote them in print, broadcast and online publications around the world. Here is a sampling of recent media coverage in which UB is mentioned prominently.

“One of the biggest mistakes during this was the immediate dismissal of the Iraqi military forces and the entire administra-tion affiliated with the Baath political party.”

Claude Welch, SUNY Distin-guished Service Professor in the Department of Political Sci-ence, in an article on the war in Iraq in the Russian newspa-per Pravda.

“The Yankees have given lie to their statement by going to the effort and expense of drilling that thing out. But whatever it cost them, anybody will tell you it was far less than the cost of the psychological toll on the Yankees if they had left it in there once its existence was known. They could not leave it there. That would be unthinkable…Athletes are super-stitious in general. And there are more superstitions, and impor-tance attached to superstitions, by baseball players than by other athletes.”

Phillips Stevens Jr., associate professor of anthropology, in an article in the Chicago Sun-Times about a Boston Red Sox jersey buried in—and unearthed from—the foundation of the new Yankees Stadium and the role that superstition plays in baseball.

“The survey demonstrated that graduating high school seniors continue to struggle with finan-cial literacy basics.”

Lewis Mandell, professor of finance and managerial eco-nomics, in an article distributed by the Associated Press that reports that according to a nationwide survey released by the Federal Reserve, high school seniors’ financial knowl-edge has gotten worse, with students on average answering correctly only 48.3 percent of question. The article appears in hundreds of news outlets, including USA Today.

reporter

The Reporter is a campus community newspaper

published by the Office of University Communications in the Division of External Affairs, University at Buffalo. Editorial

offices are located at 330 Crofts Hall,

Buffalo, (716) 645-2626. ub-reporter@buffalo.edu

Associate Vice President for University Communications

Joseph A. Brennan

Assistant Vice President for News Services and Periodicals

Arthur Page

Reporter Editor and Associate Director for

Internal CommunicationsSue Wuetcher

Reporter Staff WriterKevin Fryling

DesignerKristen Kowalski

Contributing EditorsCharles Anzalone

Lois BakerJohn DellaContradaPatricia DonovanEllen Goldbaum

S. A. UngerChristine Vidal

Ann Whitcher-Gentzke

Towering SignalWBFO-FM 88.7 on Friday began installing a new tower and antenna that will significantly improve the quality and expand the station’s signal. The new tower is being erected next to the station’s current tower in a wooded area near North Forest and Heim roads. From left, Chris Schuck and Russell Smith of World Tower Company Inc. assist in the installation.

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3April 17, 2008/Vol. 39, No. 29 Reporter

Film goes behind Attica’s wallsDocumentary by UB Law School students changes perspectives

Four receive SUNY research awards M

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TereSA Miller, a UB Law School professor special-izing in criminal punish-ment, knows all too well

the stereotypes of law students vis-iting prisons. People naturally as-sume the students are the unselfish ones, and the inmates—who have little to lose and time to waste—get all of the benefits. “encountering Attica,” a docu-mentary film that chronicles a year of meetings between a group of first-year UB law students and inmates from the Attica Correctional Facility, stands that stereotype on its head. The students are the ones with the most to gain, Miller says. They’re seeing how the effects of the laws they’re studying in class play out in the lives of real people with real stories. In this case, the men are serving long sentences, many for murder. Legal studies become flesh and blood. And the inmates, who most people assume would welcome the chance to occupy their ample time explaining their plight with eager young law students, are the ones willing to help, at their own peril. “One of the things we’re trying to do in this documentary is to show that the law students are learning a great deal from the encounter, and for the inmates, it’s risky for them to participate,” says Miller. “Other inmates hear they’re participating

in something like this, and they as-sume they’re doing something with the administration, assume they’re snitches or moles, and that is a dan-gerous label to carry in prison.” And word travels fast in Attica,

Miller says. So if one inmate wants to send a violent message to anoth-er for something like participating in a prison documentary, the at-tacker often can get to his victim. That’s the dramatic setting of “encountering Attica,” which shows how inmates convicted of the same crime often are treated differently and receive different sentences. The documentary is part of the work of the law school’s Projecting Law Project to show how new media can be used in the study of law. “It’s easy to make a judgment

when you’re reading about a case in a textbook or a news story,” says Si-ana McLean, a first-year law student from Toronto and one of three UB law students actually going behind bars into Attica. “When you actually

hear a person telling his story, it can change your perspective. “This is not to take away blame,” says McLean, “but to actually see the effects of circumstances like grow-ing up in poverty and preconceived notions that go along with race. As a person of color, I look at it as more of a reason to be in law school.” Spreading the word has always been a big part of Miller’s work, and “encountering Attica” is a prime example. She hopes to obtain permission for another digital video project next year that would look

behind the walls of Albion Correc-tional Facility, a prison in Orleans County that houses only women. The crew making “encountering Attica” showed early takes to other law school students last semester. And Miller took part in an assem-bly last fall at Bennett High School during which she showed parts of the documentary-in-progress to students in the law magnet pro-gram. The students, Miller says, “were not completely unfamiliar with the prison system.” Which, for Miller, is exactly the point of doing the project. “The more people are put away for long, long periods of time with no thought to what they are going to be like when they get out, the more we harm the society they’re released to,” says Miller. “One of the reasons it’s so important to do this project and study what is going on in prison is because prisons have an increas-ingly profound effect on every layer of society as we rely more heavily on them; we put so many people away.” Miller expects to have the documentary completed by this summer. The latest version will be screened at 4 p.m. May 1 in O’Brian Hall, North Campus. To view excerpts of the documen-tary, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsV8yWdvuEs and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwWegWyhrv0.

By CHARLES ANZALONEContributing Editor

FOUr UB faculty members were among 20 of their col-leagues from SUNY cam-puses across the state who

were honored for their research and scholarship at the SUNY research Foundation’s annual awards dinner held on Monday in Albany. The UB honorees are robert J. Genco, SUNY Distinguished Pro-fessor in the departments of Oral Biology, School of Dental Medi-cine, and Microbiology, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences; Andre Filiatrault, professor in the Department of Civil, Structural and environmental engineering, and director of the Structural earth-quake engineering Simulation Laboratory, School of engineering and Applied Sciences; Gilberto Mosqueda, assistant professor, De-partment of Civil, Structural and environmental engineering; and Doreen Wackeroth, associate pro-fessor in the Department of Physics, College of Arts and Sciences. Genco, who also serves as vice provost and director of UB’s Office of Science, Technology Transfer and economic Outreach (STOr), received a Lifetime Achievement Award, given to faculty members who have served SUNY students for at least 25 years, are greatly respected by students for their ef-forts in and out of the classroom, and are respected by their peers for extraordinary achievement and leadership in their fields.

Genco has enjoyed a world-renowned career as a researcher and teacher. He served as chair of the Department of Oral Biology for 25 years and under his tutelage the department achieved a reputation as one of the world’s most respected programs in oral biology, attracting the most talented students, post-doctoral fellows and faculty. Widely recognized as a world leader in his field—he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science in 1988—Genco has made important contributions in a number of areas, notably the integration of basic and clinical periodontal research, the immunology of periodontal diseases and the association be-tween periodontal disease and systemic diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. A leading expert on shake-table testing of structural and non-structural building components, Filiatrault received an Outstand-ing researcher/Scholar Award in recognition of the contributions he has made to his field, including inventions and significant honors he has received from his peers. He has contributed significantly to UB’s outstanding reputation in the field of earthquake engineering research through his work on the design of seismic-resistant steel and wood structures, the development of novel methods for energy dissi-pation and self-centering of struc-tures, and, most recently, for his advanced mechanistic understand-

ing of nonstructural component failure. He has served in leadership positions on two key projects aimed at making wood-frame structures safer in earthquakes: the CU-ree/Caltech FeMA-funded Wood Frame Project and, more recently, the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded NeeSWood project, conducted at UB in 2006. Mosqueda, another UB earth-quake engineer, received a rising Star Award from the research Foundation. The award is present-ed to newer faculty members for the promise they show at having published their work or received external funding or a patent or license for the first time. Mosqueda’s research focuses on minimizing the loss of life and prop-erty damage after earthquakes. He is making significant contributions in three important areas: develop-ing hybrid simulation methods for evaluating the performance of structures under extreme loads, developing new testing capabilities and procedures for evaluating the experimental seismic fragility of nonstructural building components

and contents, and experimentally evaluating the progressive collapse in steel-frame buildings. He has won a CAreer (Faculty early Career Development) Award and an NSF-NeeS (Network for earthquake engineering Simulation) Award, both highly competitive research grants funded by the NSF. A theoretical particle physicist, Wackeroth also receoved a rising Star award. Her research aims to confront and challenge our understanding of the fundamental forces of na-ture and the mechanism of mass generation at the quantum level through precision experiments at high-energy particle accelerators. These accelerators provide Wac-keroth and other high-energy physicists with their best chance yet to answer some of the most basic questions in science, such as what are the very smallest building blocks of matter and how do they shape the physical world? The recipient of a NSF CAreer Award, she has been a reviewer for NSF grant proposals in theoretical high-energy physics.

By SUE WUETCHERReporter Editor

Briefly

Pro bono work to be topic of conferenceNational and local experts on providing legal services to those unable to afford high lawyer bills will convene in Buffalo this month for a three-day pro bono conference sponsored by the UB Law School, the Department of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences and local judi-cial organizations. The conference, which will begin at 5 p.m. April 24 in the Main-Seneca Building, 327 Main St., will investigate new developments and research in pro bono legal help, explore the relationship between pro bono ideals and pro bono in practice, and examine the op-portunities and limitations of pro bono in expanding access to justice. Entitled “Private Lawyers and the Public Interest: The Evolving Role of Pro Bono in the Legal Profession,” the conference will feature two keynote addresses. Deborah Rhode, a law pro-fessor at Stanford University and one of the nation’s leading scholars in the fields of legal ethics and professional respon-sibility, will speak at 6 p.m. April 24. She will explore ways to make the best use of private lawyers’ pro bono efforts in col-laboration with public interest organizations. The conference will con-tinue on April 25 in the UB Law School with five panel presenta-tions by scholars from across the country, and a second keynote address to be given at 1 p.m. by Karen Mathis. Mathis is im-mediate past-president of the American Bar Association and a partner with McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney and Carpenter LLP in Denver. Her presentation, “A Second Season of Service,” will explore ways in which senior attorneys can contribute their expertise pro bono. The conference will conclude on April 26 with a morning training session on matrimonial law for local practitioners. Free and open to the public, the conference is organized by Robert Granfield, professor and chair of the Department of So-ciology; Lynn Mather, professor and director of the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy in the UB Law School; Anthony Szc-zgiel, UB law professor; Robert Elardo, managing attorney with the Volunteer Lawyers Project of the Bar Association of Erie County; and Amanda Warner, Eighth Judicial District pro bono coordinator with the Volunteer Lawyers Project. The full program and reg-istration details are available at http://law.buffalo.edu/baldycenter/probono.htm. The conference is part of UB 2020’s commitment to civic engagement and public policy.

WBFO to hold wine tastingWBFO-FM 88.7, UB’s National Public Radio affiliate, will hold its second annual wine tasting from 6:30-8:30 p.m. May 9 in the Jacobs Executive Develop-ment Center, 672 Delaware Ave., Buffalo. Carl Kasell, veteran NPR broadcaster and co-host of the popular “Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me” weekly quiz show, will appear at the event, which is sponsored by Towne BMW. Tickets are $30 for WBFO members and $45 for nonmem-bers. For tickets, go to http://www.wbfo.org. All proceeds will benefit WBFO.

Teresa Miller is overseeing “Encountering Attica,” a documentary film that chronicles meetings between UB law students and inmates from Attica Correctional Facility.

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Kudos

Playing a role in state budget negotiationsUB economists contract with comptroller to provide revenue forecasts

The mysteries of accruals accounting Faculty member William Kross studies link between accounting earnings and stock prices

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In the grand scheme of things, William Kross says injuring his back right out of college might have been the best

thing to ever happen to his career. An enthusiastic intramural base-ball player, Kross, who joined the UB faculty last fall as a professor in the Department of Accounting and Law, School of Management, says it was not long after his graduation in the late 1960s that he was sidelined from his first job by the flare-up of a serious sports injury. “While I was in the hospital, I decided I really wanted to go to graduate school,” says Kross, who took a month off from his job as an accountant at AT&T to undergo back surgery. “I don’t know that I would have left that quickly had I not had that time to reflect. Maybe I would still be working at AT&T if I hadn’t had that problem with my back.” The ensuing 30 years in academia have provided him the freedom to take a long, hard look into some of the tough questions facing the field of accountancy, he says, including trying to figure out the reason ac-counting numbers are no longer as strong an indicator of corporate stock prices as they were 20 or 30 years ago. He says that for him, this has meant turning a critical eye toward accruals accounting, in which the calculation of a corpo-ration’s annual cash flow includes funds from earnings on credit—in which cash doesn’t arrive until years in the future—or cash advances—in which earnings are contingent upon living up to financial obliga-tions that come due at a later date. Is it appropriate to consider cash that’s not yet in hand when summing up a business’ financial situation for that particular year?

Or, essentially, should corpora-tions count their chickens before they’re hatched? “The cash might occur before-hand or the cash might occur afterward, but the year in which the service is provided is the year in which the profession decides how much better off you are,” he explains. “Even though for 400 years the account-ing profession has assumed that earnings, including ac-cruals, are the best indicator of future cash flow, there’s s t i l l s o m e c o n j e c t u r e about wheth-er it would be easier to strip away the ac-c r u a l s a n d just look at the cash flows themselves.” One of the most troublesome facets of the current system is the fact that corporations can use accruals accounting to “cook the books” and inflate stock prices by making it appear significant cash flow exists when there is actu-ally only an expectation of future wealth, he says, adding that the most infamous example of this probably is the Enron scandal. “Their cash flows were really quite low but their accruals were really quite high,” Kross explains. “Enron was a situation in which ac-countants—or at least some of their accountants—obfuscated, rather than facilitated, an understanding of what was really going on.”

He also notes that even honest attempts to calculate earnings using information from accruals, especially concerning future cash flows, are inherently tricky and risky. “Just because someone owes you money doesn’t mean they’ll pay it,” he says.

Speculation about the growing gap in the statistical relationship between earnings numbers and stock prices often settles on an assumption that accountants are simply not as skillful at calculating future earnings as they were in the past, he says. But Kross points out that his own research, including a paper published in the Journal of Accounting Research in 2005, fails to confirm this conclusion. In fact, based on a comprehensive examination of economic data from numerous companies between 1973 and 2002, he says evidence exists that modern accounting techniques are growing stronger, rather than weaker, at predicting future cash flows based on earnings.

“We’re really not yet sure why it is that accounting earnings don’t map into stock prices as well as they did 30 years ago,” says Kross, noting the importance of further research on the subject. “Maybe the market is looking more to other things, not accounting earnings, to map stock prices.” The recipient of a doctorate in accounting from the University of Iowa, Kross was a faculty member at Purdue University for 29 years before joining UB. The prospect of joining a department with a rich accounting-research tradition was a powerful magnet in terms of bring-ing him to the university, he says. “There were some retirements of established people and they want-ed to get an established researcher here,” he says. “It’s certainly later in my career, but trying to help the faculty here rebuild a strong research group—given the tradi-tion of excellence that they’ve had historically—was very attractive.” Director of UB’s doctoral pro-gram in accounting—a position he also held at his former institution—Kross says frequently collaborates with many of his former students, including a current project with Myung-Sun Kim, who is not only a former student, but also an assistant professor at UB. The father of four adult children, Kross says he also felt the time was right for a move to Buffalo from Lafayette, Indiana, because his youngest son, nathan, recently had left home to study music and mathematics at DePaul University. A native of Chicago, Kross resides in Williamsville with his wife, Ther-ese, a preschool and kindergarten teacher who’s completing a doctor-ate in education from Purdue. The couple’s three other children—Darcy, Douglas and Matthew—live in Chicago or Lafayette.

By KEVIN FRYLINGReporter Staff Writer

TAx revenue forecasts by UB economist Isaac Eh-rlich and researchers in the Center of Excellence

on Human Capital, Technology Transfer, and Economic Growth and Development may play a major role in future budget nego-tiations in determining how much new York state has to spend. State Comptroller Thomas P. Dinapoli in December contracted with the UB center to develop a tax revenue-forecasting model to be used by the comptroller’s of-fice as part of the comptroller’s expanded role in the revenue estimating process. Ehrlich will direct the project, and Yong Yin and Alejandro Rodriguez, both assistant professors of economics, will work with Ehrlich. The contract covers development and updating of the forecast model to take into account changes in state tax law and the state economy. “We are pleased to have been selected to produce an independent

forecast that could, in principle, play an important role in passage of a state budget each year,” said Ehrlich, a SUnY and UB Distinguished Pro-fessor of economics and chair of the Department of Economics, College of Arts and Sciences. “Developing this forecast is aligned with the mission of our center, which was created in part to conduct applied research addressing regional economic development is-sues and challenges facing the new York state economy,” added Ehrlich, who also is the Melvin H. Baker Professor of American Enterprise in the School of Management. State finance law requires that the executive and legislative branches of government convene a consensus economic and revenue-forecasting conference and issue a consensus report on tax, lottery and miscellaneous receipts on or before March 1 each year. If the parties fail to reach consensus, the comptroller is required to issue a revenue forecast by March 5. “We have been impressed with the work and expertise of the econo-

mists at the University at Buffalo,” Dinapoli said. “They are providing a valuable service to new York state.” Ehrlich and his colleague, Zhiq-iang Liu, associate professor of economics, also are developing a forecasting model for the Western new York economy, in partner-ship with the U.S. Census Bureau. According to Ehrlich, the model will help researchers and decision-makers better understand the regional economy. “It will identify obstacles and constraints affecting the Western new York economy, as well as the assets that can improve the economy,” he said. The center is surveying business owners and executives through-out Western new York to obtain information for the center’s first regional economic report, which is anticipated to be released in 2009. Ehrlich’s work in the center is funded by the new York State Of-fice of Science, Technology and Academic Research. The center focuses on the dynamic role of hu-man capital in improving market efficiency and achieving persistent,

long-term productivity growth at the firm, industry, regional and economy-wide levels. The center also is researching issues and chal-lenges facing corporations in the Western and upstate new York economies. For more information about the center, go to http://www.head.buffalo.edu. Members of the center’s advi-sory board are Ravi Bansal, CEO, AirSep; Milton Ezrati, partner and senior economic and market strategist, Lord, Abbett & Co; George Gellman, co-chair and CEO, Benchmark Group; Pat Ken-nedy, chairman and CEO, Cellport Systems; and Robert Morris, re-cently retired as chief investment officer, Lord, Abbett & Co. The center publishes the Jour-nal of Human Capital, the first academic journal devoted to the study of the economic effects of people’s knowledge, skills, health and values—attributes that make up human capital. Published quar-terly, the journal debuted last year from the University of Chicago Press and is edited by Ehrlich.

By JOHN DELLACONTRADAContributing Editor

William Regan, director of the Office of Special Events, has received the Outstand-ing Individual Achievement Award from the Association of Collegiate Conference and Events Directors—International (ACCED-I). Regan was recog-nized for his work on UB’s Dis-tinguished Speakers Series and the three-day visit of His Holi-ness the 14th Dalai Lama to UB in September 2006. ACCED-I has a membership of more than 1,400 collegiate conference and events colleagues.

Christopher R. Gallant, adjunct professor in the UB Law School and director of photography for special proj-ects at WGRZ-TV Channel 2, received an Emmy Award last week at the 51st Annual New York Emmy Awards ceremony held in New York City. Gallant and Channel 2 colleagues Scott Brown and Andy DeSantis won for the news documentary “They Made a Mistake: The Anthony Capozzi Story” that originally aired on July 7, 2007. Gallant, who directed the docu-mentary, received an MFA from UB in 2007.

The Center for the Arts has received five Telly Awards in recognition of the television productions “Music Is Art Live @ The Center,” “Bullseye” and “The Mystical Arts of Tibet.” Telly Awards honor outstand-ing local, regional and cable TV commercials and programs, as well as video and film produc-tions. The CFA won three Tellys for entertainment, editing and lighting for “Music Is Art Live @ The Center,” a series high-lighting the live musical per-formances and visual arts dem-onstrations presented weekly during the academic year in the CFA; one Telly Award for cultural programming for “The Mystical Arts of Tibet,” in which actor Richard Gere and other Tibetan experts share their insights on the ritual ceremo-nies and culture of Tibet as seen during a visit by the Dalai Lama’s visit to UB in 2006; and a Telly for sports documentary for “Bullseye,” a look at UB Bulls football, basketball and other team sports.

Sending Letters to the ReporterThe Reporter welcomes letters from members of the university community commenting on its stories and content. Let-ters should be limited to 800 words and may be edited for style and length. They must be received by 9 a.m. Monday to be considered for publication in that week’s issue. The Reporter prefers that letters be received electronically at ub-reporter@buffalo.edu. For the Reporter’s policy regarding letters to the editor, go to http://www.buffalo,edu/reporter/let-terspolicy.html.

Letters to the editor

UB job listings accessible via WebJob listings for professional, research, faculty and civil service—both competitive and noncompetitive—positions can be accessed at http://www.ubjobs.buffalo.edu.

Job Listings

William Kross says the Enron scandal is an instance where a corporation used accounting accruals to “cook the books” and inflate stock prices by making it appear significant cash flow existed when, in fact, there was only an expectation of future wealth.

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5April 17, 2008/Vol. 39, No. 29 Reporter

New humanities fellows 12 CAS faculty members receive funding for research

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A guide to the undergroundBeneath the streets in many of the world’s biggest cities, subways move millions of people through huge tunnels to their destinations. Subway systems are known by a variety of names, including “the Metro,” “the Underground,” “U-Bahn” and of course “the Subway.” UrbanRail (http://www.urbanrail.net/index.html) houses maps of subways and light-rail systems from around the world. In some cases, histories and lengths of specific subway lines are mentioned. Several transit systems have pages that list facts and figures regarding their sub-way lines. For example, the New York City Transit page (http://www.mta.info/nyct/facts/ffsubway.htm) lists the track gauge, the longest trip on its system and the world’s 10 most-used subway systems. Metro Rail Facts (http://www.nfta.com/metro/rail_facts.asp) describes the route, stations and cars used in our local subway system. For history buffs, George Mason University supports an online exhibit, “Building the Washington Metro: An Online Exhibit” (http://chnm.gmu.edu/metro/index.html), that describes the planning, engineering, architecture, construction and operation of the Metro system in Washington, D.C. Transport for London, the London Underground’s official site (http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/modesoftransport/londonunderground/1604.aspx), documents its underground rail system from its inception in 1863. Don’t know the difference between switching and an absolute block? The Subway Terminology Glossary (http://www.nycsubway.org/faq/glossary.html) lists the jargon used to describe the New York City subway system and its operations. Do you know subway etiquette? The most-ridden subway system, the Tokyo Metro, provides a page entitled “Subway Manners” (http://www.tokyometro.jp/global/en/service/notice.html), and New York Magazine published an ar-ticle that describes a variety of discourteous subway users (http://nymag.com/guides/etiquette/17332/index6.html). The UB Libraries own several subscription databases that cover a variety of aspects of subways. The engineering database, Ei Village (http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/EiVillage.html), houses thousands of articles on the technology used to create and operate underground urban-transit systems. For the hidden architect in all of us, the Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals (http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/avery.html) provides access to international and domestic articles on the design of subway systems and their effect on urban planning. For a historical perspective on subways, try searching Historical Abstracts (http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/histabst.html). Finally, several subway-based videos on YouTube can inform you (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DLAHehn4Ag), entertain you (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Tv-qqQ1l-M) and make you get up and dance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhbSuONEBAU). Don’t jump the turnstile—and mind the gap.

—Dean Hendrix, University Libraries

UB kicks off bicycling season todayUB will kick off the spring bicycling season today with an event designed to encourage this healthy and environmentally friendly transportation alternative. “Last year was UB’s first official bike-friendly fall, as we rolled out the Bicycling at UB initiative,” says Maria Wallace, director of park-ing and transportation services. “This year, we hope to expand the bicycling community by registering more bikes and reminding the campus about Buffalo Blue Bicycle, bike racks on UB Stampede buses and other services that make biking fun and safe.” Information on the Buffalo Blue Bicycle program, health and wellness programs and UB Green, as well as bicycle registration, workshops and free bike tune-ups, will be available from 10:30 a.m. to noon at Lee Loop in front of the Student Union, North Campus. The event is free and open to the entire UB community. Bicycling at UB is supported by Parking and Transportation Ser-vices, University Facilities and UB Green. UB Green is asking members of the university community to join thousands of Western New Yorkers who will be carpooling, biking, walking and taking public transportation on Earth Day on Tuesday in an effort to create positive environmental change in the community as part of the Buffalo Niagara Earth Day Initiative. Faculty, staff and students are urged to take a pledge to “go green” on Earth Day and take alternative forms of transportation. The pledge can be accessed at http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pGGFHEGa1Sh3MnIcdavPOTA. UB Green will calculate and publish the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that were not emitted that day as a result of the UB community’s efforts. Those with questions about the Buffalo Niagara Earth Day Ini-tiative can contact UB Green at 829-3535 or ubgreen@facilities.buffalo.edu. For additional details on the event, go to http://www.goodgoingwny.com/.

TWELVE faculty mem-bers in the College of Arts and Sciences have been named Humanities

Institute research fellows for the 2008-09 academic year. The research fellowships are of-fered to tenured and tenure-track faculty members engaged in hu-manistic research. The fellowships provide the fellows’ departments with course replacement funds to free fellows from teaching obliga-tions for a semester so they can fo-cus on a major research project and participate in Humanities Institute programs, including lecture series, research projects and conferences organized by the institute. Fellows are expected to share their research through a pre-sentation—either via a lecture, exhibition or performance—that is open to the UB community and the general public. The Humanities Institute re-ceived a record number of appli-cations for fellowships this year, notes Tim Dean, professor in the Department of English and direc-tor of the Humanities Institute. “The quality of applications was superb, showing that humanities research at UB is thriving and vital,” Dean says. “We were ex-tremely pleased to receive so many excellent applications from such a range of disciplines, and we tried to make awards across the full range of research areas. I personally am very excited to get to know these researchers next year and to build an interdisciplinary community

of humanities research around the Humanities Institute.” Dean says that as the new direc-tor of the institute—he assumed the post in January, succeeding the institute’s founding director, Ewa Plonowska Ziarek, Julian Park Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature—part of his mission involves reinvigorat-ing the culture of research in the humanities at UB. “The fellowship program is vital to that enterprise, and we were hap-py to award a record number of fel-lowships to outstanding researchers this year,” he says, adding that CAS Dean Bruce McCombe has been very generous in providing funding for the Humanities Institute. The 2008-09 Humanities Insti-tute research fellows, their depart-ments and research projects are: n Ana Mariella Bacigalupo, associate professor, Department of Anthropology, “Living History Through Spirits: Memory, For-getting and Shamanic Historical Consciousness in a Mapuche Community in Chile.” n Sarah Bay-Cheng, assistant professor, departments of The-atre and Dance and Media Study, “From the Avant-Garde to the Avatar: The Performing Body in the 20th Century.” n David Castillo, associate pro-fessor, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, “Gal-lery of Baroque Horrors: Origins of the Fantastic in the Age of Curiosities.” n Neil Coffee, assistant profes-sor, Department of Classics, “The Rhetoric of Economics in Classical

Rome.” n Anthony Conrad, professor, Department of Media Study, “Re-aligning Alberti: Projection and Perspective.” n Joan Copjec, UB Distin-guished Professor, Department of English, “The Imaginal World: Islam, Psychoanalysis and the Cin-ema of Abbas Kiaostami.” n Carole Emberton, assistant professor, Department of History, “Between the Law and the Lash: Race, Violence and American Citizenship in the Age of Slave Emancipation.” n Jeffrey Good, assistant pro-fessor, Department of Linguistics, “Towards an Areal Grammar of Lower Fungom.” n Elizabeth Otto, assistant professor, Department of Visual Studies, “Modernist Masculinities: Art & Photomontage in Interwar Germany.” n Theresa Runstedtler, assistant professor, Department of Ameri-can Studies, “Journeymen: Boxing, Race and the Transnational World of Jack Johnson.” n Erik Seeman, associate profes-sor, Department of History, “Death in the New World: Cross-Cultural Encounters, 1492-1800.” n Kari Winter, professor, De-partment of American Studies, “From Vermont Abolitionist to Virginia Slaveholder? Benjamin Franklin Prentiss and Antebellum Family Values.” For detailed abstracts of the fellows’ research projects, go to http://humanitiesinstitute.buf-falo.edu/fellowshipsresearch/fellows0809.shtml.

By SUE WUETCHERReporter Editor

ElectronicHighways

You Want Fries With That?Engineering students Tom Fernekes and Martha Spokane demonstrate their hamburger-making machine, which won third place in the national Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. The contest finds the most convoluted ways to perform a simple task: in this case, building a hamburger. Other team members are Jimmy Jin, Sharon Greenfield, Larry Calabrese, Abraham Ramos and Doug Thomas.

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6 April 17, 2008/Vol. 39, No. 29Reporter

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Reality TV, Web 2.0 and mediated identitiesUB study finds erosion between everyday world and the celebrity world

Medcotek licenses UB technology Development of teleradiology will advance company’s entry into lucrative market

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LocaL company Med-cotek Inc. has signed a licensing agreement with UB for use of a new

technology that will advance the company’s entry into the lucrative teleradiology market. Developed by Vipin chaudhary, associate professor of computer science and engineering, the new 3D viewer and data-transmission system is designed to improve the transmission and diagnosis of X-rays and other radiological images sent over the Internet, a process known as teleradiology. a shortage of radiologists na-tionwide has created demand for teleradiology technologies, particularly in remote areas where the shortage is acute, according to Medcotek cEo Frederic Zeigler. Medcotek relocated from North carolina to Buffalo last year to work with chaudhary and benefit from UB’s supercomputing and biomedical expertise. The com-pany currently is located in UB’s New York State center of Excel-lence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences on the Buffalo Niagara Medical campus. The company has begun market-ing a prototype of the new technol-ogy, which has capabilities that far exceed those of teleradiology products currently on the market, Zeigler said.

“This new technology will en-able better and timelier diagnosis and treatment of patients,” Zeigler explained. “Unlike other radiology solutions, this technology allows multiple radiologists to collaborate on a case seamlessly from different or remote locations.” Users will be able to view and ma-nipulate medical images sent to or from a remote location. The technol-ogy provides enhanced diagnostic imaging features and communica-tions that will improve the transmis-sion of patient cases in radiology us-ing any available communication network or equipment. The licensing agreement between UB and Medcotek covers the field of radiology data transmission and collaboration and communication between two or more sites, according to Jeff Dunbar, director of UB’s of-fice of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic outreach (SToR), which assists the funding and com-mercialization of UB research. The technology licensed to Medcotek has the potential to revolutionize teleradiology and telemedicine practices, according to chaudhary, who previously launched his own businesses and was on the teams of several suc-cessful businesses. “our technology provides sophis-ticated image-analysis features, en-abling collaboration across remote locations without any proprietary hardware and software,” chaudhary

said. “By adding workflow and providing this solution as an appli-cation service, it is a compelling so-lution for radiology groups.” an expert on medical imaging, chaudhary was recruited to UB in 2007 as part of the UB 2020 plan to hire outstanding faculty scientists who can help advance UB’s strategic focus on health and wellness and computing technology. UB’s work in biotechnology is focused on im-proving health care and spinoff of new products, businesses and jobs within Buffalo Niagara’s emerging biotechnology industry. The teleradiology, picture and communications-systems market is estimated to reach nearly $1.1

billion annually, according to Medcotek President James John-ston. The market is projected to grow 14 percent annually as more regions are impacted by a shortage of radiologists. “With our intellectual property secured, Medcotek is actively seek-ing investors and strategic busi-ness partners to advance product development in anticipation of a 2008 launch,” said Robert States, Medcotek senior vice president. after the launch, States anticipates the company will begin adding employees and will look to relocate to a new facility near or on the Buf-falo Niagara Medical campus. Medcotek is one of 10 companies located in the center for Excellence that are either collaborating with UB researchers or were founded by UB researchers. Twenty-eight companies are located in UB’s incubator on Sweet Home Road adjacent to the North campus. a U.S. patent application on the technology is pending. The primary inventor is chaudhary. co-inventors are Mohammed alam, UB visiting researcher and research assistant at Wayne State University; christopher Gammage of BioImagene Inc.; Suryaprakash Kompalli, visiting UB researcher and research associate at Wayne State University; and Mohammed Yaqub, a researcher in the UB Department of computer Science and Engineering.

By JOHN DELLACONTRADAContributing Editor

a new study of television viewing and communi-cation patterns among young adults by UB re-

searchers has found a relationship between reality television viewing and “promiscuous friending” on popular social networking sites such as Facebook. The researchers link this behav-ior to ordinary people modeling the behavior of reality TV celeb-rities. Such people are creating “mediated social selves” that the researchers describe as identi-ties crafted for, presented on and “known” through media. according to the study, heavy reality television (RTV) viewers not only spend more time on sites like Facebook, they also have larger social networks, share more photos and are more likely to en-gage in “friendships” with people with whom they have no off-line relationship, a practice known as promiscuous friending. The study, “We’re all Stars Now: Reality Television, Web 2.0 and Mediated Identities,” indicates an erosion of the distinction between the everyday world and the celebrity world in which common people claim intimacy with the completely mediated identities of such celebri-ties as Britney Spears or Brad Pitt. It was conducted by Michael a. Stefanone, assistant professor in the Department of communica-

tion, college of arts and Sciences; Derek Lackaff, a doctoral can-didate in that department; and Devan Rosen, assistant professor at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. The study is online at http://www.communication.buffalo.edu/people/faculty/stefanone/index.shtml and will be published in June in the proceedings of the 2008 association for computing Machinery (acM) conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia. These heavy RTV viewers also produced a significantly larger number of mediated selves and had a greater intimacy toward, and urge to interact with, the mediated social images of others. all of these, say the researchers, are commonly considered celeb-rity behaviors. “We found robust, systematic and statistically significant dif-ferences between viewers and nonviewers of RTV in terms of the behavior indices used here,” Stefanone says, noting that other categories of television viewing, like news, fiction and educational programming, were not related to users’ online behavior. “This study adds a unique per-spective and several valuable in-sights to our understanding of people’s motivation to participate in the social Web,” he says. “our research is founded on the premise that the confluence of the rising popularity of both RTV and Web 2.0 applications has resulted

in a fundamental shift in people’s roles as media content consumers and producers,” Stefanone says. The study used social cognitive theory as the theoretical foundation for a survey of 456 young adults, hypothesizing that they would find the positive relationship between RTV consumption and behaviors believed to reflect the systemic pro-cessing of messages and behavior modeled within the RTV genre. The researchers analyzed the amount of time subjects said they spent every day watching RTV, news, fiction and educational programming; the amount of time they were logged in daily; the size of their online networks; the percentage of their friends not met face-to-face; and the number of photos they shared online. Stefanone explains that while many users have articulated social network systems (SNS) that reflect their external social network, other users have SNS friend networks that contain many people who they have not actually met or with whom they have no external relationship. “Promiscuous frienders may be reproducing the fame-seeking be-havior that is modeled by reality TV characters,” Stefanone says, adding that these behaviors are believed to reflect the systematic processing of messages and behaviors modeled within the RTV genre. In fact, as Stefanone points out, many people already see images of celebrities far more often than they

see those of friends and family. “People also use communication technologies to ‘interact’ with their idols in many new ways—such as ‘sighting’ them (even stalking them) and posting their real time where-abouts on online maps,” he says. Stefanone says that this study shows that motivations for using social-networking sites can be ex-plained in part by traditional mass media consumption. He notes that many questions remain, however, and that future research should address how the contemporary definition of “friend” is changing. “Having a large social network on an SNS site can be construed as a sign of popularity and, conversely, as a sign of superficiality (e.g., “Fa-cebook whore” is a term for blatant SNS status-seekers). In either case, a large friends list implies a large number of social connections, even if many of those connections have little social value in the traditional sense of friend-ship. In this scenario, users are actively competing for attention via expansive social networks. “as the debate about whether Internet-based communication tools are enhancing our social lives or restricting them continues,” he says, “additional research is needed to explore people’s motivations to con-nect and ultimately whether these contacts have instrumental utility for users. Perhaps these tools are simply the latest platforms on which people compete for attention.”

By PATRICIA DONOVANContributing Editor

Collage exhibitions set for Anderson GalleryTwo exhibitions by local artist, curator and collector Gerald Mead will open in the UB An-derson Gallery with a public re-ception from 7-9 p.m. April 25 in the gallery on Martha Jackson Place near Englewood and Ken-more avenues in Buffalo. “Continuum: The MacKrell Collage Archive Project by Gerald Mead” focuses on the presenta-tion, authentication, classification and documentation of the late Western New York artist Marie MacKrell’s idiosyncratic collage archive and an installation that illustrates the depth and range of the material it contains. Mead, who teaches in the Art Program in the UB Depart-ment of Visual Studies, also will guest curate “A Collage Survey: Collected Works.” Organized as a companion exhibition for “Continuum,” it surveys various techniques and approaches that artists working in this media have used from the 1960s to the present—the period from which the MacKrell Collage Archive was assembled. Mead also will present sev-eral education programs in con-junction with the exhibitions. “An Insider’s View of ‘The MacKrell Collage Archive Project by Gerald Mead,’” a “tour” of the project and lecture by Mead, will take place at 7 p.m. May 1 in the Anderson Gallery. It will be free and open to the public. On May 17, Mead will lead a hands-on workshop on col-lage from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The fee for the workshop, which is offered to adults aged 18 and older, is $15. The final education program, “Collage History and Techniques for Teachers: Educators Work-shop,” will be held from 6-9 p.m. May 21. The fee is $10. Space is limited; workshops will be filled on a first-come-first-served basis. To preregister, contact Ginny Lohr at 829-3754 or ginny@andersongallery.org.

‘(In)visible Cities’ to open today“(In)visible Cities,” an exhibi-tion of projects by five students from the School of Architecture and Planning, will open with a reception from 5-7 p.m. today in the UB Art Gallery in the Center for the Arts, North Campus. The exhibition, being held in conjunction with the Cele-bration of Academic Excellence, will feature short presentations by the student architects. It is free and open to the public. “Italo Calvino’s novel, ‘The Invisible Cities,’ was a vehicle to generate diverse readings of con-temporary cities and ideas about the multifaceted aspects of future cities,” explains Shadi Nazarian, clinical associate professor of architecture and the students’ instructor. “We began examining present-day urban conditions that result in new forms of in-terconnected public spaces and systems, generated by people in their everyday use of networked media and other activities, as well as in the realms of public art, ar-chitecture and urban form. Each project develops strategies and unique ways in which structures and infrastructures of the urban fabric may interweave.” “(In)visible Cities” features the work of graduate students Steven Beasor, Gabriella Dan-gelo, Kirk Miller and Charles O’Geen, and undergraduate student Jackie Lin. It will be on view through May 17.

Technology developed by UB researcher Vipin Chaudhary has been licensed by Medcotek Inc. for its entry into the teleradiol-ogy market.

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7April 17, 2008/Vol. 39, No. 29 Reporter

Finding cause of halitosis Specific bacterium found in all patients with bad breath

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SportsRecap M

BaseballUB 10, Niagara 6Western Michigan 12, UB 5Western Michigan 4, UB 0Western Michigan 3, UB 0Making its first appearance of the season at Amherst Audubon Field, UB defeated local rival Niagara, 10-6, on April 9. Jacob Rosenbeck had three hits for the Bulls and Adam Skonieczki hit his second home run of the season. The Bulls dropped the first game of their three-game Mid-American Conference series at Western Michigan, 12-5, on Friday. Western Michigan scored first in the second inning, but UB answered with two runs in the third to take the lead. The Broncos regained the lead in the bottom of the third on a solo home run and a run-scoring double. Western Michigan took a 4-2 lead in the fourth and added to its lead in the fifth with four runs and a pair of runs in each of the sixth and seventh innings. The Bulls didn’t quit, scoring three runs in the ninth. After Saturday’s game was rained out, the teams played a doubleheader on a cold, windy Sunday afternoon. The Broncos took game one, 4-0, and game two, 3-0. UB now stands at 8-23 on the season and 2-9 in the MAC. Western Michigan opened the scoring in game one with an unearned run in the first inning, then scored three in the bottom of the fifth to make the final score 4-0. In game two, Western Michigan took the lead in the third on a two-out, two-run single up the middle, and scored another run in the eighth. UB threatened in both the seventh and eighth innings, but was unable to get any runs.

SoftballNorthern Illinois 5, UB 3; Northern Illinois 3, UB 2; Western Michigan 7, UB 2; Western Michigan 7, UB 1UB continued MAC play on Friday, facing off against the Northern Illinois Huskies on the road in DeKalb. The Bulls suffered a 5-3 setback in game one and fell, 3-2, in the nightcap. After a scoreless first inning in the day’s opening game, NIU tacked three runs on the board in the bottom of the second and added single runs in both the fifth and the sixth innings to take a 5-0 advantage into the top of the seventh. The Bulls mounted a seventh-inning rally to keep the game within reach, scoring three runs to make the final score 5-3. In game two, the Bulls jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning and maintained the lead until the Huskies scored one in the fourth and later tied the game, 2-2, in the fifth. After a scoreless sixth for both teams, NIU took the game in the bottom of the seventh, scoring the winning run on two hits. On Sunday, the Bulls faced the Broncos in a doubleheader, scheduled as a result of a rainout on Saturday. The Bulls fell to WMU, 7-2, in the day’s first game and 7-1 in the second game. In the first game of the day, the Broncos scored five quick runs in the first two innings and added two more in the bottom of the fourth to take a 7-0 lead. UB, however, appeared poised for a comeback, plating a pair of runs in the sixth. The Bulls were able to hold WMU scoreless in the bottom half of the inning, but could not score any runs in the seventh. In the day’s second game, the Bulls held on to a 1-0 lead through the first three and a half innings. But Western Michigan came back in the fourth, scoring one run that inning and following with six more over the next two innings to take a 7-1 lead into the seventh. The Bulls were unable to score in the top of the inning, handing the Broncos the win.

TennisMen’sBall State 6, UB 1UB fell to Ball State, 6-1, Sunday afternoon in its final MAC match of the regular season. With the loss, the Bulls stand 5-16 overall and 0-5 in league play. Kirill Kolomyts scored singles and doubles victories for the Bulls.

WoMen’sUB 7, Akron 0UB snapped a three-match losing skid with a convincing 7-0 win against Akron on Friday afternoon. The Bulls won all three doubles matches and every contest in singles play to improve their record to 8-7 on the year and 3-3 in the MAC.

Track and FieldMen finish second, women third at Miami InvitationalUB turned in strong performances on Saturday at the Miami Invitational. The men finished second to the host RedHawks, while the women were third behind the RedHawks and MAC member Bowling Green. The UB men collected five first-place finishes on the day, while the women scored two first-place finishes.

CrewBulls complete stellar performance at Knecht CupUB completed one of its finest weekends in the program’s history, sending six boats into the grand finals at the Knecht Cup. Two boats received medals: the varsity eight boat placed second—UB’s best finish ever at the event—while the lightweight four boat placed third.

FootballBlue 73, White 59UB held its annual Blue-White Scrimmage on Saturday in UB Stadium. Using a scoring system that allowed both the offense and defense to score points, the offense (Blue) defeated the defense (White), 73-59, in front of over 500 fans.

AthleteS of the Week

Oral biologists at UB have confirmed that a bacterium known as Solobacterium moorei

is directly associated with chronic bad breath, or halitosis. Halitosis is a long-lasting and often emotionally devastating condition caused primarily by bacteria living in the mouth. re-searchers in the School of Dental Medicine have been in the fore-front in identifying the bacteria that cause bad breath. In this most recent investigation, UB researchers found that in a case-control study involving 21 persons diagnosed with halitosis (cases) and 36 who did not have halitosis (controls), S. moorei was present in the mouths of all 21 case subjects. Four people in the control group also were infected with S. moorei, but those subjects all had perio-dontitis, an infection of the gums, rather than halitosis. results of the research were

presented recently at the american association of Dental research meeting in Dallas. Betsey Clark, a UB dental school student, is first author on the study. “Bacteria on the top (dorsal) surface of the tongue are the pri-mary source of oral halitosis,” said Clark. “Tongue bacteria produce malodorous compounds and fatty acids, and account for 80-90 percent of all cases of bad breath.” Some cases of halitosis originate in the lungs or sinuses. “Our previous studies suggest a close association between S. moorei and halitosis. In those studies, we found the bacteria in all eight subjects with halitosis compared to none of the five control subjects. In the present study, we examined the prevalence of S. moorei in a larger subject group.” all subjects in the research un-derwent specific tests to detect the presence and amount of sulfur-containing compounds associated with halitosis. all control subjects showed negative results. These tests

were followed by tongue scrapings, which were analyzed by a laboratory procedure called a dot blot test to identify specific types of bacteria. “S. moorei was found in 100 per-cent of participants with halitosis and 14 percent of those without halitosis,” said Clark. “as we identify and find out more about the bac-teria that cause bad breath, we can develop treatments to reduce their numbers in the mouth and eliminate bad breath. Currently, we are study-ing the effect of different antibiotics and antiseptics to see which are most effective against S. moorei.” also contributing to the research from UB were Peter Moses, a dental student; Violet I. Haraszthy, associate professor of restorative dentistry; and Joseph J. Zambon, professor of periodontology and oral biology and associate dean for academic affairs in the UB dental school. P.K. Sreenivasan from the Colgate Pal-molive Global Technology Center also contributed to the study. The study was supported by Colgate Palmolive.

By LoIs BAKeRContributing Editor

ond endowed professorship with two additional faculty lines. McCombe praised a group of local supporters, including Gross, who have worked with UB in creating the institute. Other mem-bers of the steering committee are Michael E. Cohen; Peter and Ilene Fleischmann; Michael anbar, professor emeritus of physiol-ogy and biophysics; and Kenneth Dauber, professor of English. Peter Fleischmann is director and CEO of the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies. Ilene Fleischmann is vice dean in the UB law School and executive director of the UB law alumni association. Cohen, professor of neurology and pediatrics in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, noted the long history of interest in Judaic studies at UB and the insistence by all involved that the leadership, scholarship and pro-gramming of the institute be of the highest quality. “I am delighted that we have come this far,” Cohen added. “Gordy Gross has been very in-fluential in moving things along and the Jewish community has watched these efforts with a great deal of interest and considerable enthusiasm. I hope that this is the beginning of a major community philanthropic effort to support and develop the institute.” Cohen also cited the contri-butions of UB faculty members, including Samuel Paley, professor of classics, and the late Selig adler, Samuel P. Capen Professor of His-tory, in keeping the hope for this program alive over several decades. McCombe explained that in-terdisciplinary courses will be cross-listed with departments in the College of arts and Sciences and other academic units across campus, addressing issues as di-verse as literature, law, philosophy, the arts, government, history, eth-

ics, medicine and economics. The institute’s researchers, faculty and academic programs will address the role of Jewish heritage, culture and thought as it relates to issues current in the academic world. Its programs will be integrated into the UB curriculum, giving it a high academic profile, and will focus on excellence in scholarship and research with the goal of be-coming one of the leading hubs of scholarly activity in these areas. McCombe said graduate courses will follow the research interests of the institute’s faculty, but will include such subjects as Jewish ethics, Jew-ish law, textural criticism, literature, history, sociology and philosophy. He noted the existence at UB of the David Blitzer Memorial lecture Fund (endowed by Wolf Blitzer) and the Michael and ada anbar lecture Series in Jewish His-tory. McCombe said the institute will sponsor additional lectures to produce a series that will bring additional internationally known scholars to the region. The institute will establish and maintain an online journal and will encourage publication of papers in recognized journals in this field. By fall 2008, the institute will initiate community-wide educa-tion programs and actively support established cultural activities in the community and at UB. Special Collections in the Uni-versity libraries has been selected to house the Jewish archives of Greater Buffalo, containing syna-gogue records, local community records and the personal papers of notable leaders of the Buffalo Jewish community. already in the UB libraries are several collections, including the records and archives used by Selig adler and Thomas E. Connolly, UB professor of English, when they were writing “From ararat to Suburbia” (1960), a comprehensive

history of the Buffalo Jewish com-munity, and the papers of Buffalo rabbi Isaac Klein, former president (1958-60) of the rabbinical as-sembly, the official international body of conservative rabbis. The UB libraries also house several Jewish book collections of note, among them the 1,800-item Holocaust collection assembled by Jane Vogel Fischman (UB Ph.D.) and Stuart Fischman (professor emeritus, Department of Oral Di-agnostic Sciences, School of Dental Medicine). The Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Buffalo also has given the UB libraries books and other material from the Fred Sales Music library and the Milton Plesur Memorial Community library. “Because of its comprehensive curriculum and the other resourc-es at our disposal,” McCombe said, “we expect the institute to become a regional center for Jewish studies and research.” Gordon Gross attended Oberlin College and UB, and received an ll.B. from the UB law School in 1955. He has been a senior partner of Gross, Shuman, Brizdle & Gil-fillan P.C. since 1959, and served in the U.S. army from 1955-57, primarily with the army Judge advocate General’s Corps, but also with the air Force JaG Corps. active in the community, he is chairman of the Park School of Buffalo Foundation and of the Foundation for Deaf Education, and serves on the boards of the Foundation for Jewish Philan-thropies, Jewish Center of Greater Buffalo and the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo, each of which he has served as president. He also is a former director of roswell Park Cancer Institute Corpora-tion, past chairman of the board of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo Inc., and has served as officer and trustee of the Buffalo Philharmonic Society.

ezekiel Porter of the men’s track-and-field team won two individual events and was part of a winning relay team at the Miami Invitational. Diana Popescu of the women’s tennis team swept her singles and doubles matches as the Bulls defeated Akron, 7-0.

8 April 17, 2008/Vol. 39, No. 29Reporter

The Reporter publishes

listings for events taking

place on campus, or for

off-campus events where

UB groups are principal

sponsors. Listings are due

no later than noon on

the Thursday preceding

publication. Listings are

only accepted through

the electronic submission

form for the online UB

Calendar of Events at

http://www.buffalo.edu/

calendar/login. Because

of space limitations, not

all events in the electronic

calendar will be included

in the Reporter.

Thursday, April

17Television Production PresentationSecond Annual Working Directors Seminar. Bryan Barber, keynote speaker. Student Union. 10 a.m. $35, general; free for students. Registration required. For more information, workingdirectors@gmail.com.

SBI Health EducationWalk a Mile in Her Shoes. Student Union Flag Room. 11 a.m. Free.

Computer Science and Engineering LectureTowards Universal Semantic Communication. Madhu Sudan, MIT. 330 Student Union. 3:30-4:30 p.m. Free. For more information, 645-3180, ext. 119.

Physics ColloquiumControlling Light With Spin Coherences in Semiconductors. Hailin Wang, Univ. of Oregon. 220 Natural Sciences. 3:30 p.m. Free.

Pharmaceutical Sciences SeminarDebra Hanna, Pfi zer Global Research and Development. 201 Natural Sciences. 4 p.m. Free.

Biological Sciences SeminarCrocodilians and Blind Cavefi sh: A Tale of Sensory Evolution. Daphne Soares, Univ. of Maryland. 215 Natural Sciences. 4 p.m. Free. For more infor-mation, 645-2363, ext. 234.

ReceptionDo Ask, Do Tell: Suicide Prevention. Center for the Arts atrium. 5 p.m. Free. For more information, 645-6720.

Just Theory Lecture SeriesTranslating Derrida. Hans-Jorg Rheinberger, Max Planck Institute for the History of the Sciences. 640 Clemens. 5:30 p.m. Free. For more infor-mation, 645-6000, ext. 1093.

China Town Hall WebcastThe China Issue in the 2008 Presidential and Congressional Campaigns. Norman J. Ornstein, American Enterprise Institute. 215 Natural Sciences. 7 p.m. Free.

Theater Performance“Pride and Prejudice.” Drama Theatre, Center for the Arts. 8 p.m. $16, general; $8, students/seniors.

Friday

18Baldy Center Seminar Series: The Immigration CrucibleDying to Be Citizens: Immigrants in the U.S. Military. Matteo Taussig-

Rubbo, UB Law. 509 O’Brian. Noon-2 p.m. Free. For more information, 645-2102.

SoftballUB vs. Miami (OH) (DH). Nan Harvey Field. 1 p.m. Free.

Women’s TennisUB vs. Toledo. Ellicott Tennis Courts. 1 p.m. Free.

Teaching and Learning Center WorkshopTips for Teaching Large Classes: Teaching Strategies. 120 Clemens. 2-4 p.m. Free; registration open to faculty, staff and graduate students. For more information, 645-7700, ext. 0.

BaseballUB vs. Miami (OH). Amherst Audubon Field. 3 p.m. Free.

Foster Chemistry ColloquiumDesigning, Measuring and Controlling Molecular- and Supramolecular-Scale Properties for Molecular Devices. Paul S. Weiss, Penn State. 210 Natural Sciences. 4 p.m. Free.

Evolution, Ecology and Behavior SeminarChemical Control as a Management Strategy for the Invasive Fish, the Round Goby. Lynda Corkum, Univ. of Windsor. 115 Talbert. 4 p.m. Free. For more information, hlasker@buffalo.edu.

Theater Performance“Pride and Prejudice.” Drama Theatre, Center for the Arts. 8 p.m. $16, general; $8, students/seniors.

Drama“Spring Awakening.” Black Box Theatre, Center for the Arts. 8 p.m. $8.

Organ RecitalWomen in Music. Barbara Harbach and members of the American Guild of Organists. Lippes Concert Hall, Slee. 8 p.m. $10, general; $5, students.

Saturday

19Community Engagement EventNeighbor to Neighbor: UB Paints. Parking lot at Main St. and Englewood Ave., near the South Campus. 8:15 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. For more information, 829-3099.

BaseballUB vs. Miami (OH). Amherst Audubon Field. 1 p.m. Free.

Women’s TennisUB vs. Eastern Michigan. Ellicott Tennis Courts. 1 p.m. Free.

Senior Thesis Exhibition4 cm Dilated: The Exit Show. Central Terminal, 495 Paderewski Dr., Buffalo. 1-5 p.m. Free. For more infor-mation, 645-6878, ext. 1364.

SoftballUB vs. Ball State. Nan Harvey Field. 2 p.m. Free.

Drama“Spring Awakening.” Black Box Theatre, Center for the Arts. 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. $8.

Theater Performance“Pride and Prejudice.” Drama Theatre, Center for the Arts. 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. $16, general; $8, students/seniors.

Sunday

20Senior Thesis Exhibition4 cm Dilated: The Exit Show. Central Terminal, 495 Paderewski Dr., Buffalo. 1-5 p.m. Free.

SoftballUB vs. Ball State. Nan Harvey Field. 1 p.m. Free.

BaseballUB vs. Miami (OH). Amherst Audubon Field. 1 p.m. Free.

Theater Performance“Pride and Prejudice.” Drama Theatre, Center for the Arts. 2 p.m. $16, general; $8, students/seniors.

Drama“Spring Awakening.” Black Box Theatre, Center for the Arts. 5 p.m. $8.

Monday

21Oral Biology SeminarIntergeneric Communication Between P. Gingivalis and S. Cristatus. Hua Xie, Meharry Medical College. 215 Foster. Noon. Free. For more information, 829-2844.

Tuesday

222008 Science Decade Lecture SeriesThe Kiss of Death for Proteins: The Story of Ubiquitin. Jennifer Black, Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Gaylord-

Cary Meeting Room, Research Studies Center, RPCI. Noon-1 p.m. Free. For more information, 845-3063.

BaseballUB vs. St. Bonaventure (DH). Amherst Audubon Field. 3 p.m. Free.

Public ForumBuilding UB, Growing Community: Help Us Shape UB’s Campus Plan. Center for the Arts. 6-9 p.m. Free; RSVP at http://www.buffalo.edu/ub2020/plan/forum_event.html.

Buffalo Film Seminar“The Seventh Seal.” Market Arcade Film and Arts Centre,

639 Main St., Buffalo. 7 p.m. $8.50, general; $6.50, students; $6, seniors.

WBFO’s Meet the AuthorScott Casper. Allen Hall Theater, 106 Allen. 7-8:30 p.m. Free. For more infor-mation, 829-6000, ext. 538.

Wednesday

23Graduating Student EventCountdown to Commencement: Senior Brunch. Center for the Arts atrium. 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Free to graduating students. For more information, 645-2055.

SoftballUB vs. Niagara (DH). Nan Harvey Field. 3 p.m. Free.

International Student and Scholar Services WorkshopH-1B Visas: An Information Session. 31 Capen. 3:30-4:45 p.m. For more information, 645-2258.

Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology Seminar SeriesDirected Molecular Association, Folding and Macrocyclization: Bioinspired Systems. Bing Gong, Dept. of Chemistry. 220 Natural Sciences. 4 p.m. Free.

Biochemistry Distinguished Scientist SeminarMethionine Metabolism, Insulin Resistance and Fatty Liver Disease. Satish Kalhan, Case Western Reserve Univ. G26 Farber Hall. 4 p.m. Free.

Humanities Institute Faculty Fellow LectureMetaphysics of the Soul and the Development of Greek and Chinese Ethics. Jiyuan Yu, Dept. of Philosophy. 280 Park. 4 p.m. Free. For more information, 645-2711.

Film and Video ScreeningBoxing the Compass. Christopher Ernst, Dept. of Media Study. Hallwalls Cinema, 341 Delaware Ave., Buffalo. 7 p.m. Free.

Live in Allen HallCreek Bend Bluegrass Band. Allen Hall Theater, 106 Allen. 8-9 p.m. Free. For more information, 829-6000, ext. 538.

Thursday

24Baldy Center ConferencePrivate Lawyers and the Public Interest: The Evolving Role of Pro Bono in the Legal Profession. 509 O’Brian. 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Free; RSVP required. For more information, 645-2102.

General Membership MeetingProfessional Staff Senate. Speaker: UB President John B. Simpson. Center for Tomorrow. 3-5 p.m. Free. For more information, 645-2003.

Computer Science and Engineering LectureThe Next Generation of Web Data Management. Raghu Ramakrishnan, Yahoo! Research. 330 Student Union. 3:30 p.m. Free. For more information, 645-3180, ext. 119.

Physics ColloquiumMark Trodden, Syracuse Univ. 220 Natural Sciences. 3:30 p.m. Free.

Diversity AdvocatesPoster Unveiling. 240 Student Union. 3:30 p.m. Free.

Biological Sciences SeminarProlyl Isomerase Control of RNA Pol II Transcription. Steven Hanes, Wadsworth Center for Medical Science, Albany. 215 Natural Sciences. 4 p.m. Free. For more infor-mation, 645-2363, ext. 200.

Baldy Center Keynote AddressPrivate Lawyers in the Public Interest. Deborah Rhode, Stanford Law School. 509 O’Brian Hall. 6:30 p.m. Free. For more information, 645-2102.

Editor’s PickCelebrating Excellence The fourth annual Celebration of Aca-demic Excellence will take place at 3:30 p.m. today in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.

Saturday, April 19, 11 a.m.BLUES, with Jim SantellaFeatured guest: Elmore James

Sunday, April 20, 8 p.m.BEBOP & BEYOND, with Dick JudelsohnThis week’s featured jazz great: Russell Malone

Wednesday, April 23, 8 p.m.LIVE IN ALLEN HALL, with Bert GambiniLive broadcast of a concert featuring local musicians. This week’s featured band is Creek Bend Bluegrass Band. The concert in the Allen Hall Theater is free and open to the public. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.

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