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ABA to Go to the NAIBAhood
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On Thursday, April 20, American Booksellers Association staff will be at the Holiday Inn Carrier Circle in Syracuse, New York, for a Booksellers Forum and Education Program in conjunction with the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association's NAIBAhood Gathering. The forum and education program includes lunch and is free to all ABA and NAIBA members -- bookstore owners and staff.
The event, to run from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., begins with a presentation of ABA's popular "The 2% Solution" seminar, which focuses on the drivers of bookstore profitability and how they can be used to move a business to greater profitability. Specific suggestions and ideas about how a bookseller can work on sales, gross margin, total compensation, and occupancy expenses will be provided.
Rob Stahl, the general book manager for the Colgate Bookstore in Hamilton, new York, who is hosting the event on behalf of NAIBA, told BTW, "We're very appreciative of ABA for offering educational programming [and] we think 'The 2% Solution' will appeal to most of our members across the board.... We're looking forward to a good turnout."
At the ABA Booksellers Forum, beginning at 12:15 p.m., attendees will receive an update on association programs and initiatives, and they will have the opportunity to ask questions of ABA staff and to share ideas and suggestions. The format of the forum encourages the discussion of regional as well as national issues affecting independent booksellers. Over the years, these forums have provided ABA with very constructive member input that has been indispensable in shaping future programs and initiatives.
To help ABA make arrangements for the forum program, booksellers who are planning to attend are asked to contact Margaret Petrie at margaret@bookweb.org or (800) 637-0037, ext. 6614.
Earlier in the month, on Sunday, April 9, NAIBA will hold a NAIBAhood Gathering focusing on "Emerging Leaders," from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Bridge Street Bookshop in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, which opened on July 1, 2005. The event will be hosted by Suzanne Kelly, owner of Bridge Street Bookshop, and is aimed at booksellers who have opened or taken over a bookstore in the past five years, as well as the professional staff from any store who see their future in bookselling."
At the event, which is free of charge, NAIBA encourages booksellers "to share and learn from each others' accomplishments, missteps, and vision, and help shape the future of bookselling."
NAIBA is raffling off a complimentary hotel room for its 2006 tradeshow (September 16 and 17 at the Valley Forge Convention Center) at each NAIBAhood gathering.
Booksellers interested in attending the Phoenixville program should RSVP to NAIBA at (877) 866-2422 or info@naiba.com. |
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Colgate pair masters of the books, ice
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Gray, Buzz
Times Union
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ALBANY -- No freshman hockey player shows up on the campus of an ECAC school without impressive credentials. This is one league which takes the concept of a student athlete seriously.
Yet it's doubtful many Division I programs have greeted the likes of Mark Anderson and Jason Fredricks. When this gifted twosome showed up for the first day of practice at Colgate University this past fall, coach Don Vaughan was looking at two individuals who would not only help his hockey team but make the admissions board beam with pride.
The first-year defensemen not only possess elite skills on the ice, they know their way around a textbook, too. It's coincidental enough that both graduated from Shattuck St. Mary's in Minnesota. But they weren't just any graduates at the 360-member high school. Anderson was the class valedictorian, Fredricks the salutatorian.
That's No. 1 and No. 2 among a class that featured international scholars from as far away as China and India.
"I knew my parents wouldn't just let me go away and play hockey," said the 5-foot-11, 180-pound Anderson of Hastings, Neb. "I had to show them that I was serious about school, too."
Fredricks, from Eagle River, Wis., knew his parents weren't thrilled either about letting him move five and a half hours away while only 14 years old to attend high school.
"I never had any doubts," said the 6-2, 200-pound blueliner who plans to major in either geology or astrophysics at Colgate. "This is what I wanted to do."
Tonight the two will be in uniform at the Pepsi Arena when the Raiders meet Cornell in one of the semifinal games of the ECACHL Championships. Neither is expected to play major roles on the veteran Colgate squad just yet, but both have had solid freshmen seasons.
"We've been teammates and friends for four years before we even got here," said Anderson, a biology major who is looking at medical school down the road. "So we've had a similar lifestyle."
Shattuck St. Mary's won the USA Hockey Tier 1 U-18 national championship in 2005. The school slogs through a 70-game schedule during its demanding season.
"Sometimes we'd play five to seven games on a weekend," said Fredricks, who first fell in love with hockey when he was seven and attended a NHL home game of the Stars when his family lived in Dallas.
"In college, it's just flipped flopped," said Anderson, forced to learn the game on rollerblades because Hastings didn't have an ice rink. "Here we practice more than we play."
Both student athletes have found it a big step from St. Mary's to Colgate. In the classroom as well as on the ice.
"All your peers are brilliant," Anderson said. "Everyone in class is smart."
Neither Anderson nor Fredricks knew their class standing at Shattuck St. Mary's until graduation day.
"I had a feeling Mark might be up there," Fredricks said. "I didn't think I'd be No. 2, though."
Now the stakes have been raised again. They're no longer young boys leaving home for the first time. They're young men going up against the cream of the student-athlete crop.
"It took awhile for me to get adjusted to this level," Anderson said
Who wants to bet they won't be up to it? |
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Student to aid villages' project
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Alvarado, Nadia
Post-Standard, The
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A Colgate University student will be helping Canastota and Chittenango officials figure out the lay of the land this year.
Village officials are partnering with a geography student to help them comply with a federal mandate, an arrangement that will save the villages thousands of dollars. GASB 34, an order from the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, requires state and local governments to report on the value of their infrastructure.
"The point of GASB 34 is to get governments to really know what their assets are, especially the ones you don't usually see," said Canastota Mayor Todd Rouse.
Computerized data and blueprints will give village leaders a better idea of what they have to work with and "will give us up-to-date, real-time scenarios," he said. Using advanced mapping technology, such as Geographic Information Systems and Global Positioning Systems, the student will document things such as the location of manholes, the size of sewer and water pipes and when they were installed.
The Colgate student, who has not yet been named, will earn $400 a week for about eight weeks, a salary that will be paid for by Colgate's Upstate Institute. The institute, a research group that creates collaborations between students and communities, accepted the joint project March 6.
"The institute pairs faculty expertise and knowledge with student research and talent to solve community-based problems," said Marnie Terhune, who sits on the advisory board for the institute.
Peter Scull, an assistant professor in the geography department and an Upstate Institute fellow, will oversee the student's work in both villages, which is expected to begin this summer.
"This is an opportunity to get students involved in a real-world project," Scull said. "Using GPS technology, the student will determine the precise location of storm drains and water infrastructure and build a network."
Former Canastota Village Administrator Bryan Gazda approached Scull about the partnership after the village got a price quote "in the thousands to tens of thousands" from a consulting firm, Scull said.
The village side of the project in Canastota will be overseen by Mike Adsit, the village's code enforcement officer. |
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The rising cost of college
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Colletti, Roseanne
WNBC-TV
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| Colgate President Rebecca S. Chopp was interviewed at length for parts 1 and 3 of this highly visible, week-long series that ran on the New York City-area NBC television affiliate. To listen, click here: http://www.wnbc.com/rcstories/index.html. |
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Indigenous art returns home
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The Carrolup art style originated from young "stolen generation" Aborigines, who were housed at the Carrolup Settlement near Katanning, Western Australia in the late 1940's and early 1950's.
Children on the mission were encouraged by the arrival of teacher Noel White, who brought with him an open mind and willpower to give his students a more meaningful existence.
Mr White introduced sketching sessions for the children and they began making drawings, varying from landscapes and images depicting the life cycle of animals.
A large collection of the art was sold in the 1960's and for many years the art remained sealed away in boxes, their whereabouts unknown to the artists and their families.
Ezzard Flowers of Tambellup Western Australia was a child on the mission between 1968 and 1972.
According to Mr Flowers, "I think you have to see the artwork yourself to understand the significance and cultural connection in regards to the paintings. We as Aboriginal people don't see the artwork coming back as art, it's the wandering spirits of the child artist that we focus and reflect on."
Angus Wallum spent time on the mission as a 12-year-old boy, the fighting fit 80-year-old elder know lives in Wagin, Western Australia.
Describing life on the mission, Angus reflected, "I had nobody to play with when I first got here, it looked a bit rough in the beginning when things first kicked off here for us. After a while we stopped here for some time and more children started to come in. Kids from all over the place, it got a lot happier for us."
"We were like brothers and sisters all working together, it was so peaceful and if anybody had a bit of trouble or was worried, the other boys would put their arms around and say don't worry about your mum and dad were here to look after you too."
Angus Wallum, who watched the child artist create the Carrolup style of art had this to say about the art,
All my people, they're so happy to see the art back here again.
Travelling with the exhibition from the United States of America, Elizabeth Barker director of the Picker Art Gallery at Colgate University was thrilled to be in Australia for the first time.
Barker said, "We're delighted to be able to bring these drawings home on the first of what we hope will be many visits to the Great Southern."
The rediscovery of the art is a fascinating story of hard work and luck.
Elizabeth describes the travelling history of the art, "All of the drawings in the collection at Colgate University, (there are more than 100) were discovered just a year and a half ago when Howard Morphy, a visiting professor came to campus to give a lecture."
"Mr Morphy decided he would spend an afternoon in the museum, where the curator showed him a wonderful collection of 7 boxes of drawings, which we never understood in terms of their history before. When he opened the first box he almost sunk to his knees with excitement."
"Morphy recognised immediately that these were a well know group of drawings that had been lost to Australian researches for many years."
"The Carrolup works travelled to London, exhibited and sold for the benefit of the child artist to help pay for painting supplies, they then went to a New York city art dealer who later in life gave them to the museum."
To the future of the art works, according to Elizabeth, "We're just in the early stages of talking about plans for links between Colgate University and this part of Western Australia, we hope there will be many collaborations." |
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Immigrants eased region's population drop
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Kline, Allisa
Observer-Dispatch, The
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Oneida County newcomer Abdelshakour Khamis didn't have a choice when he resettled eight months ago in Utica.
He couldn't return to his native Sudan and he couldn't stay in Egypt under political asylum.
So he and his wife moved to the United States. Now, the father of one said he plans to stay for good.
"I don't think that now I'm thinking of going back," Khamis, 33, said Wednesday. "I'm here to do all my best and be part of the Utica population and do whatever I can to improve the Utica community."
Khamis is part of an influx of refugees and immigrants who, over the past five years, have helped Oneida County avoid a steeper drop in population, according to U.S. census estimates. While about 5,000 people have moved out of the county since 2001, about 4,100 refugees and immigrants have moved in, census estimates show.
The impact of the refugee and immigrant population is particularly significant to Utica, which lost about 12 percent of its population between 1990 and 2000, said Colgate University geography Professor Ellen Kraly, who studies international migration and refugees.
"Even though the city lost just under 12 percent in population, it would have been a much larger deficit without refugee resettlement, and I think one could speculate that that could characterize the last five years," Kraly said.
Had refugees and immigrants not come to Utica between 1990 and 2000, Kraly estimates, total population loss for Utica would have been as high as 20 percent.
In addition to adding sheer numbers to the population base, the refugee and immigrant population also has affected the local economy, said Peter Vogelaar, executive director of the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees.
"You can drive through East Utica and parts of Cornhill and you see where homes have been purchased, renovated and cleaned up," Vogelaar said. "There have been entire neighborhoods that have been reclaimed through former refugees taking homes."
Vogelaar also notices a growing connection between the refugee and immigrant population and longtime residents.
"I see the local community and emerging Bosnian community where businesses owned by Bosnians are beginning to cater to the local community," he said. "That's indicative of a combined ownership in the future of the community." |
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Colgate Professor Also Church Pastor
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Sims, Kathy Coffta
Post-Standard, The
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Staff writer Kathy Coffta Sims interviewed the Rev. Dr. Harvey Sindima, who was named supply pastor at the Clay Presbyterian Church in October.
Sindima will serve for a period of one year. During that time, the church will continue looking for a more permanent pastor, according to Sue Doran, mission coordinator for the Presbytery of Cayuga/Syracuse.
Sindima has served as moderator of the Presbytery of Cayuga/Syracuse and is head of the Presbytery's International Partnership Work Group. He has served as an interim pastor at churches in Auburn and Morrisville.
Sindima and his family support and run a charity in Malawi, Africa, called the Blantyre North Relief Project. The group is working to build an orphanage and school to help educate 2,500 children. The region has been ravaged by HIV/AIDS and many of the children the Sindimas help are AIDS orphans.
He also has authored four books: "Drums of Redemption: An Introduction to African Christianity," 1994, "Africa's Agenda," 1995, "Religious and Political Ethics in Africa: A Moral Inquiry," 1998, all published by Greenwood Press; "Malawi's First Republic: An Economic and Political Analysis," 2002, University Press of America.
Name: The Rev. Dr. Harvey J. Sindima
Address: 101 Eaton St., Hamilton
Occupation: Supply pastor for the Clay Presbyterian Church; professor of religion and philosophy at Colgate University in Hamilton
Education: Undergraduate degree from the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian Theological College in Malawi, Africa; master of divinity from the Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta; master's in philosophy from the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland; doctorate in religion and society from Princeton Theological Seminary
My family: Wife Gertrude, a nurse/midwife for Hamilton and Norwich hospitals; children, Catherine, Mable, Felix and Harrision; five grandchildren
I'm originally from: Malawi, Africa
I've lived here for: In the United States for 30 years, in Central New York for 19 years.
The reason I live in Central New York: I was invited to come to Colgate when I was at Princeton. When I visited I felt there was a mission for me at the school. They were underrepresented in terms of racial balance. Also, my wife felt, more than I did, that it was the right move to make if I wanted to be of service.
If I could pick one other place to live, it would be: Malawi, Africa. Someday, my wife, myself and my family will return there to stay permanently. I am not a U.S. citizen and my children received their secondary school educations in Malawi. They went to college in the United States.
When I'm not working I like to: I'm working on a book on the Underground Railroad. The book came about because I would go places in Central New York and find pockets of African-Americans. I was curious and through that I started going back doing research on local communities 100 years back.
A group of students and I traveled from Clinton west to Buffalo, and from Clinton north to Canada. On each trip, along the way we found that a lot of the local communities had houses that they knew were part of the Underground Railroad. Those houses are still there and we even found artifacts, related to the Underground Railroad, in the basements and attics of these houses.
What is the title of the book: "North Star: The Underground Railroad in Central New York." |
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Colgate University Assists Afghani Higher Education
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Hollis, David
WRVO-FM
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| The Oswego-based NPR affiliate, WRVO, ran an almost five-minute piece Colgate's conference on higher education in developing countries. To hear it in its entirety, click here: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wrvo/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=889391. |
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Colgate morphs into a winner
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Rahme, Dave
Post-Standard, The
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The transformation is complete.
The Colgate University men's hockey team began the weekend with a 30 loss to Quinnipiac in the ECAC Hockey League quarterfinals at Starr Rink. In the process its power play fizzled, its shooters fired blanks and its defense committed a game-changing gaffe, allowing a goal off a faceoff in the final 10 seconds of the opening period.
Two nights later, the Raiders (20-11-6) are headed to the conference semifinals at 8 p.m. Friday in Albany's Pepsi Arena against archrival Cornell, courtesy of a 4-0 victory over the Bobcats.
The top line of Tyler Burton, Jesse Winchester and Jon Smyth converted two breakout rushes into picture-perfect goals in the opening two periods, the defense shut down Quinnipiac's potent power play and sophomore goaltender Mark Dekanich turned aside all 30 shots the Bobcats threw at him.
The result is a third consecutive trip to Albany for the first time in school history and a third consecutive season with at least 20 victories, the first time that has occurred since Colgate began skating in 1915.
That the Raiders are packing their bags for Albany rather than packing it in for the season is remarkable, considering the way they played in Friday's best-of-three opener, a shutout loss.
"It was gut-check time," said Smyth, a senior captain who has been on three Raider teams that rebounded from 0-1 quarterfinal holes to advance to Albany. "We had to look inside ourselves. We knew it was up to us to play like the second-seeded team."
Smyth led by example Sunday, converting a furious rush up ice with Winchester into a goal that put the Raiders up for keeps with 27 seconds left in the opening period. The play looked innocent enough when they broke out of their own end, but suddenly Winchester was free on the right side while Smyth skated all-out for the net from the left.
At the last instant Winchester slid a pass through a defender, and Smyth jammed it past Bobcat goalie Bud Fisher.
"Jesse is just so strong," Smyth said. "He was able to swing wide and maintain possession, and the defense has to respect his strength. I was surprised to see the pass get through, and then I just got enough stick on it to get it in."
"That was textbook in terms of the way we practice it," Colgate coach Don Vaughan said. "We made a conscious effort to rush the puck down the ice tonight and go hard to the cage, and it paid off a couple of times. Jesse did a great job hanging onto the puck, and Jon did a great job of going hard to the net."
Smyth said the goal was huge, because he sensed late in Saturday night's series-tying 5-3 victory that the Bobcats were growing tired mentally and physically.
"I really feel that goal took a lot out of them," Smyth said. "For it to come late in the period like that gave them something to think about, and then when we got the second one it really backed them up."
While Colgate's offense backed up the Bobcats, Dekanich knocked them out with a superb save on Ben Nelson in the first period when the game was scoreless, and again on an acrobatic rejection of a point-blank Jamie Bates shot in the second with Colgate ahead 2-0.
"Ben Nelson is in all alone, and the kid (Dekanich) is kind of down and out," Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said. "And he makes the save with his face. That's a big-time goalie."
With Dekanich at the top of his game and assistant coach Andrew Dickson making a critical adjustment on the man-down unit the Bobcats were 0-for-7 Sunday with the man advantage after scoring three power-play goals Saturday Smyth's goal was enough to send the team to Albany. Goals by Tyler Burton in the second and Peter Bogdanich and senior Kyle Wilson in the third iced the cake.
"If you're going to win this kind of series, your top five or six guys have to play like your top five or six guys," Vaughan said. "I think our top five or six did that. They just competed much harder after Friday."
"We realized that playing the way we did Friday was not going to get the job done," Dekanich said. "We got better and better as a team as the series wore on."
By the time it ended, the transformation was complete. |
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College Students Help Others, Find Personal Rewards
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College students from around the nation are turning away from more familiar notions of Spring Break - partying, home cooking and sleeping late - in favor of lending a hand in the Gulf Coast region devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
A recent informal query to a listserv of liberal arts colleges turned up preliminary totals of around 1,000 college students at some 20 schools who were planning to take part in this wave of support.
"It's so easy to spend some money and go do something with your friends, but when you get involved with a bigger experience, everything feels so much larger when you get back, and you feel healthier," said Mary Kathryn Wyle, a senior English major at Davidson College, N.C., who spent a week of her winter break working in Biloxi, Miss., including New Year's Eve.
"The stories you take home aren't about some crazy night, they're about this insane day of work you did. In a crazy way it's also kind of selfish, because it's so rewarding to be a part of something that helps people who need it." At least 50 Davidson students are planning spring breaks of service on the Gulf Coast Feb. 25 March 5, representing the Davidson Community Service Office, the student-led Campus Outreach group and local religious congregations.
At Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, response from students was so strong that a waiting list was created for the trip and the College's Center for Public Service (CPS) is exploring opportunities for future trips. The CPS is sending more than 50 members from the campus community to New Orleans March 13 to 17 to help gut homes and clear the way for reconstruction.
"I was involved with CPS as an undergraduate student and I am still involved now that I am an employee," said Jackie Wilson, a research analyst and a 2004 graduate of Gettysburg. "I think it is important for our campus community to reach out to other communities that need help. Everyone was affected by Hurricane Katrina, but seeing the images and hearing the stories of the people that suffered makes you want to take action."
And Hundreds of Other Students Reach Out This Spring:
Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Ga., reported at least 76 students signed up for an Alternative Spring Break trip to New Orleans on March 18-26 to provide relief to the victims of hurricane Katrina.
St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., is sending about 150 students to Biloxi, Miss., in the last week in March.
Colgate University in Hamilton, NY, is sending a group of 16 students, 2 staff and one parent to Algiers, La., during the March spring break. This is in addition to three other groups from Colgate totaling 37 students, 9 staff and one partner that were sent to New Iberia, La., in October and November of 2005 and January 2006.
A busload of enthusiastic students from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Ga., will leave campus in the pre-dawn hours Sunday, March 12 to clean up homes in hurricane-damaged Louisiana. The bus will pass through New Orleans and nearly cross the state, stopping in the city of Lake Charles in the heart of Cajun Country.
Twenty-two students from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Penn., are traveling to Pascagoula, Miss., to perform relief work from March 11-18 with the college's office of Religious Life & Community Services. In January, all 45 members and coaches of the Dickinson College men's lacrosse team have chosen to forgo a planned trip to England over the winter break to combined forces with Kirk Wilson, mayor of Carlisle, Pa., in his initiative to adopt the town of Carlisle, La. Another 25 Dickinson College students, along with faculty and staff traveled by van to Pascagoula to perform relief work in January.
Nearly 100 students and staff at Alma College in Alma, Mich., made plans to travel by bus, van, train and plane to engage in service projects in Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida, as well as in Kentucky and Chicago.
At Spelman College in Atlanta, Ga., students involved in SIS (Spelman Independent Scholars) will travel to New Orleans on Friday, March l7th. There will be 15 students in the research group. While in the city, the students will participate in two clean-up campaigns; take an environmental tour of areas devastated by the Katrina flood; and conduct interviews with adult women who want to share their stories about evacuating and then returning to the city, or making efforts to do so. These interviews will become part of a collective project of oral narratives the students record and publish through various channels.
Colorado College in Fort Collins, Colo., has 22 students going to the Hurricane Katrina-affected area during spring break, through our alternate spring break program, BreakOut. Over winter break 27 Colorado College students volunteered in the Biloxi, Mississippi, area.
Around 15 students from Whittier College in Whittier, Calif., have committed to do relief work in New Orleans during spring break. Immediately after Hurricane Katrina hit the area last year, faculty member, recent alumna, and senior students obtained press credentials from a local Los Angeles radio station (Pacifica Radio, KPFK) and traveled to New Orleans to give on-the-ground broadcast reports. They documented their trip in video, and have subsequently shared their experiences in campus lectures and through an airing of their video to the campus and alumni communities.
Trinity College in Hartford Conn., has about 30 students going down to New Orleans during the spring break and working on rebuilding projects through the Habitat for Humanity.
Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is sending a group of 60 people - including 41 Coe students - to the Gulf Coast for an alternative Spring Break service trip March 4-11. The group will be staying at a work camp organized by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance at Orange Grove Presbyterian Church in Gulfport, Miss. At least 15 students from Occidental College in Los Angeles signed up to travel to the Mississippi Gulf coast to work on relief efforts as an alternative spring break.
Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, has one formal "alternate break" trip headed to New Orleans to work with the Episcopal Church and Common Ground, as well as some students planning on taking trips on their own.
Trinity College in San Antonio, Texas, has 12 students and 2 staff members going to Long Beach, Miss., March 11-18 to do volunteer work through the Episcopal/Lutheran Relief Effort. The service opportunity was presented to the university chaplain (who coordinates all spring break service trips) by an alum who had been volunteering in the area. A small group of Trinity students have also received a $2,000 grant from the university to do a documentary on New Orleans' recovery from Katrina.
A group of 10 students form Manhattan College in Bronx, NY, are working on Katrina clean up during spring break, having raised about $7000 in funds for the effort as well through campus activities. Another group of 10 worked in the area over the winter break.
Other liberal arts colleges with Gulf Coast service trips in the works for spring break include Amherst, Augustana, Bates, Connecticut, Gettysburg, Hamilton, Macalester, Oglethorpe, St. Lawrence, St. Olaf, Wellesley, and University of Puget Sound.
As some of the above entries suggest, student relief efforts have not been limited to spring break period. For example:
Students from William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo., used the first-hand experience they gained during a fall break relief trip to produce a "how-to" guide intended to assist others in organizing relief efforts Responding to the Need: A Hurricane Relief Manual is the result of several months of reflection and planning and was produced by the American Humanics Student Association at William Jewell.
Bard College in Annandale-On-Hudson, had more than 130 students working in New Orleans over winter break, and expects to have more than 150 students going back in May, when organizers felt they make an extended and coordinated return. Fourteen students from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY, traveled with Ave Bauder, Director of Public Service at the Colleges, over winter break to work in St. Bernard's Parish near New Orleans. The students traveled 22 hours to St. Bernard's Parish in two vans.
Willamette University in Salem, Ore., took 29 students in three separate groups to the Gulf States during the January winter break to assist with Katrina relief.
From Jan 12-21, 21 students and 7 staff members from Macalester College traveled to Gulfport, Miss., to assist with hurricane relief efforts. The group worked with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA), doing everything from removing asbestos, cleaning out houses and yards and rebuilding homes from the inside-out. |
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A question of trust
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Cooper, Elizabeth
Observer-Dispatch, The
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VERONA — Few political issues have generated as much fervor as the Oneida Indian Nation's land-into-trust application, and few have been as difficult to understand.
The application builds on decades of disputes about how best to balance the Nation's needs with that of longtime local residents and town, county and state governments. It reflects the failure of previous efforts at resolution ranging from year-long mediation sessions to two U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
And it has the potential to affect everything from how much taxes residents will pay to how kitchens at Oneida Indian Nation restaurants will be inspected, from how successful Turning Stone Resort and Casino will be to which police agencies will patrol roads in towns such as Verona.
The land-into-trust subject is controversial, yet it's something people need to strive to understand, experts say.
"How do you provide justice to an Indian nation whose land was taken illegally?" said Christopher Vecsey, Colgate University's director of Native American studies. "How do you provide justice to them without providing injustice for other people?
"It is a knotty problem, and it's for people of goodwill to try and figure out how to solve it," he said.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, says it might decide the issue by year's end. If the agency approves the Oneidas' plan, Nation land and any businesses on it would be exempt from property taxes and local regulations. But just how that would play out is in dispute.
The issue has generated attention and emotion. The past two months have seen crammed meeting halls, angry rhetoric and wildly varying interpretations of what approval of the land-into-trust application might mean.
The Nation gives one version of what might occur; Oneida County and New York state give another. Residents are struggling to make sense of what's best for the region.
"It's a very difficult situation," said Dale Aikens, owner of The Pet Factory in Vernon. "I have a very small part of Indian blood in me, and you can go back in history and see what we have done to various races and ethnic groups. Still, he added, that doesn't mean their property should be tax exempt.
"If we start making everyone tax free because of what we've done in the past, nobody's going to be paying taxes," Aikens said.
But Tom Rees, who was smoking a cigarette outside Joel's Steak House in Verona, said maybe the Indians should get a break, especially given the jobs they've created at the Turning Stone resort and Casino.
"As much as I think it's unfair for small business people that have to make a living and have to pay taxes, there's got to be an arrangement made," he said. "They've got to get together and get an agreement and that'll be the end of it."
The issue has become so divisive that some business owners in western Oneida County say they don't want to talk about it publicly.
One barber shop owner said it's one of the subjects he likes to keep off-limits while people are getting their hair cut. He just doesn't want to get into it, he said.
"I take a neutral stand because of the customers," Dick Roberts, proprietor of Dick's Barber Shop in Vernon said. "I don't allow anyone to talk anything about politics or religion."
Both Oneida County Executive Joseph A. Griffo and Oneida Nation Representative Ray Halbritter profess to wanting an agreement that would allow the Nation to live side by side with the rest of the community without controversy. But any agreement ends there.
Coming just months after last year's U.S. Supreme Court decision that paved the way for taxation and regulation of the Oneidas' land and enterprises, the land-into-trust application has generated fierce opposition from New York state and Oneida and Madison counties.
The Nation, however, describes a vision of a self-sufficient Oneida community living peacefully with its neighbors even as it maintains roads and polices its own territory.
Griffo warns of an "angry scar" gouged in the county if the land-into-trust application is approved. Halbritter complains the counties and state are acting in bad faith and are continuing a 200-year-old pattern of mistreating the Nation.
Griffo says he's beginning to doubt the effectiveness of court rulings.
"Here's the Supreme Court itself and it's being challenged," he said. "This is the law of the land, yet it's being challenged and interpreted."
Halbritter, meanwhile, says a settlement could be reached "in half an hour on the back of an envelope," if all the parties were committed. |
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Her Turn at Turin
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Kollali, Sapna
Post-Standard - Madison County Bureau, The
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Colgate University senior Susan Tahsler never paid much attention to the Olympics when she was growing up. She would sometimes sit down with her family to watch a handful of events - more often in the summer than the winter - but thought about them little more than that.
This year's Winter Games, however, were a complete 180 for the Pennsylvania native.
Tahsler, 21, worked as a paid intern for NBC's "Today" for six weeks in Turin, Italy, during the Olympics.
Tahsler, an English major, has a call-in talk show, "Chick Chat," on Colgate's campus TV station, and she interned last summer for NBC's "Dateline." Her experiences last month have helped solidify her plans to become a broadcast journalist.
The Post-Standard talked with Tahsler about her trip and her future.
What was your job in Turin?
I got there a few weeks before the Olympics started, so I really had to get to know the area as well as I could - where all the dry cleaners were, all the restaurants - so that
when the producers got there, I could tell them where things were. . . .
Once the show started, I had to coordinate guest visits. I'd be on the walkie-talkie with drivers and have to tell the producers when the guests were five minutes out.
What were the people like in Italy?
Everyone was really friendly, really approachable. The staff of the "Today" show was great. The first thing everyone has been asking me is "How was Katie Couric?" At the end, Matt (Lauer) shook all of our hands and thanked us for all of our help and hard work. Al Roker called us all "kids" all the time.
How did you enjoy Turin in your free time?
I really didn't have a lot of free time. We worked every day we were there except for one Saturdays, Sundays, we worked 12-hour days. But I lived with two people I worked with and another person lived in our building, so we really tried to make the most of it. I slept a lot in my free time, but when we were all up for it, we would go out to dinner or just walk around.
Did you learn to speak Italian before you went?
When I was getting ready to go, I bought nine CDs to learn and I was really obsessed with them. I would be so excited every time I learned a new word. But when I was over there, my Italian really improved. A lot of the drivers I was working with spoke only Italian. I never had any formal classes, but I learned through immersion.
What did your parents think about you being away for so long in the middle of the semester?
They were really excited, even though I was missing school. I think they were really happy for me and kind of wished they could have been there. . . .
Their one requirement was that I keep up my grades and graduate on time, with my class. So I worked with Dean (Raj) Bellani to figure out how I could do that. I didn't have any time for work over there, so now I'm taking six credits, two independent studies, and I'm basically doing a whole semester's worth of work in a little more than half a semester.
What do you want to do in the broadcast field?
I think I really want to be a producer. I would love to work for the "Today" show, but I know I probably won't start at the top. I definitely want to go to New York. I need to start looking for jobs. |
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