This year's senior class has announced a green gift to Colgate University.

The class has raised about $23,000 to launch a fund that will help the college reduce energy use. About 92 percent of the senior class has made donations, said college spokesman Anthony Adornato.

The Environmental Sustainability Fund will be used for, among other things, summer internships, guest speakers and improvements to forests owned by Colgate.

Colgate's board of trustees will contribute $23,000 to the fund, Adornato said.

The fund will be overseen by a committee that will include a member of the senior class.

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SOUTHPORT -- When Marietta Cheng raised her baton Sunday afternoon, the music flowed.

Two hours later, after the final note died away, that's when the tears flowed.

Cheng, the longtime conductor and music director of the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, bid an emotional farewell to musicians and orchestra patrons after conducting her final concert Sunday in the auditorium at Notre Dame High School.

Cheng was conductor and music director of the Corning Philharmonic for nine years before it merged with the Elmira Symphony in 1994 to create the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes.

She announced in December that she would leave the organization at the end of its 2007-08 season to devote more time to her duties as professor of music at Colgate University in Hamilton, where she founded and conducts the Colgate University Orchestra.

Orchestra officials are already looking to next season. Five conductors will be chosen from a pool of applicants to lead concerts in the 2008-09 season. After each concert, audiences and the orchestra musicians will be polled for their opinions of the guest conductors. The orchestra's search committee will consider the poll results when choosing a new conductor and music director, who will take over for the 2009-10 season.

Cheng walks away after 22 years with a deep sense of pride in what she and members of the orchestra have achieved.

"I'm so proud that I accomplished what I set out to do, with high artistic growth and very high-quality concerts, bringing the audience into the emotional world," Cheng said. "Those are all important things to me. The orchestra has just bloomed, and I'm very proud.

"I am ready for new challenges and new roads," she said. "I'm grateful to the orchestra for its very brilliant people."

Cheng, who said she will not miss the commute to the Southern Tier, will continue to teach and conduct the orchestra at Colgate, and will also become involved with the New York State Council on the Arts as a member of a committee that screens grant applications for arts programs.

Cheng not only has enormous respect for the musicians who have served under her guidance, but the reverse is also true.

"It's been lots of fun playing under her. She has a lot of insight," said cellist Eric Johnson. "I like the way she explains music to the audience. If you don't understand the background, you don't really get the music. She emphasizes the emotional content of the music. It's exciting for the orchestra and exciting for the audience."

Regular patrons of the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes also had high praise for its outgoing conductor and how the organization has matured under her watch.

"I've enjoyed them thoroughly. I remember when Corning and Elmira had separate orchestras," said Tom Burr of Corning. "I like the orchestra that Marietta Cheng has. It sounds completely professional. I've always enjoyed orchestra music, and this is right up my alley."

Sally Pinkston of Corning has followed the orchestra for two decades and said it's only gotten better over the years.

"It's been great, just great," Pinkston said. "The orchestra is good, and she's good. I've been coming for 20 years. It's much better (than before)."

Despite the fact that she lives more than two hours away, Cheng said she always felt at home in the Elmira-Corning area, and gives a lot of credit to the organization, and to the audiences that have been loyal through the years.

After more than two decades as an adopted daughter of the Southern Tier, she's glad she was able to leave something behind.

"I certainly feel I will miss all the people, not only the people in the orchestra and chorus but the people who have been smiling and applauding. We've almost always had standing ovations," Cheng said.

"The most important thing is you've touched somebody's life, given them a transcendent moment, taken them outside the everyday world," she said. "And that's what art is for, and classical music is unique in the ability to do that, to provide an epiphany."

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Stereotypical images of American Indians often include images of teepees, when in fact Haudenosaunee villages were made up of several longhouses surrounded by palisades. Archeological studies tell a great deal about what life was like in those villages.

Oneida Nation's Senior Media Relations Associate Jerry Reed talked recently with Jordan Kerber, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Native American Studies at Colgate University, and Monte Bennett, member of the Chenango Valley Chapter of the New York Archaeological Association about early life on the Oneida Nation Homelands.

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Colgate University lacrosse coach Jim Nagle wasn't about to claim a rivalry with Syracuse University's traditionally powerful program.

Not after last year's 12-5 victory over an uncharacteristically mediocre 5-8 Orange squad, anyway. He needed a win over a strong, highly-ranked SU team to say that.

Now he has it.

“I think we can call it a rivalry now,” Nagle said after the Raiders defeated the second-ranked Orange 12-11 in a wild and dramatic game before 4,572 fans – more than half wearing orange, it seemed – at Andy Kerr Stadium.

“I would have to argue that it's probably the biggest win in our history,” said Colgate goalie Tim Harrington, who made 16 saves, including two sensational stops in the last eight seconds as the Orange desperately tried to fight back from a 10-6 fourth quarter deficit.

Colgate, 11-5 and ranked 15th, had never beaten a team ranked higher than fourth, and hadn't beaten SU twice in a row in 21 games, going back to 1964. The Patriot League champion Raiders, who started the season getting pounded by Denver (15-5) and Ohio State (13-6), have won seven in a row. SU, which had won 10 consecutive games, finished the regular season 12-2. SU has a wide 42-11-1 lead in the series, which began in 1921.

Both teams are headed to the NCAA tournament. Seedings will be announced tonight.

“We really got the wheels rolling since six or seven games ago,” said senior attackman Matt Lalli, who scored three goals and added four assists, setting a Colgate all-time assist record (94) along the way and establishing a personal best for points in a game. “This gives us momentum and confidence. It's great to go into the tourney with this. We're still on the rise.”

Zack Craumer added three goals for the Raiders, Nick Monastero had two goals and an assist, Brandon Corp, the Patriot League player of the year who was hounded throughout the game by SU's Kyle Guadagnolo, had two goals. Nagle also credited Ian Murphy with helping to defuse SU's transition a half-dozen times. Mike Leveille, one of the top scorers in the nation, led SU with two goals and an assist, and Greg Niewieroski, Matt Abbott and Dan Hardy added two goals apiece.

“We knew they'd be carrying a lot of emotion and momentum after winning the Patriot League,” Leveille said. “We had only one good quarter, the fourth. I think it's a good wakeup call before the playoffs.”

SU was hampered because Dan Brennan, the nation's top faceoff man (.671) was held out with a leg injury, and Colgate's Dan Eck, 62 percent himself, ruled the X, winning 17 of 25 faceoffs, including a clean win that led to his goal and a 2-0 lead. The Raiders looked hungrier throughout, in any case, though, picking up 34 ground balls to SU's 24 and holding the Orange scoreless on four man-ups.

The Orange didn't score until collecting one of the most astounding goals you'll ever see. Colgate's Chris Mulholland grabbed the ball after an SU turnover with just seconds left, and attempted a long clear. SU defenseman Sid Smith picked off the ball deep in his zone, then turned and fired a 50-yard rocket to Kenny Nims, who lasered a shot home with just .1 second remaining in the first quarter, making it 2-1.

The teams were tied 4-4 at the half, but Lalli had a hand in four of five goals as Colgate took a 9-6 lead into the final 15 minutes. SU later ran off a string of three goals to make it 10-9, and the teams twice traded goals, with SU's Greg Niewieroski scoring with 29 seconds left to make it 12-11.

Harrington then made two incredible saves to win it, first denying Matt Abbott on a blast in front and somehow stopping Nims, who might have been in the crease, as he tried to stuff a shot into the upper left corner as time expired.

“All I do is react,” Harrington said. “(On Abbott's shot) I felt something hit my helmet. It was the ball. (On Nims' attempt) I felt something hit my stick. Luckily, it was the ball.”

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