Reporter Volume 26, No.21 March 23, 1995 Nine from UB are Buffalo Ambassadors UB faculty, staff and students were honored recently by the Buffalo Convention and Visitors Bureau as Buffalo Ambassadors, for their efforts to bring meetings and conventions to Buffalo. Among those honored Feb. 4 at the Ambassadors Ball at the Buffalo Convention Center were: Jennifer DeCory for The Society of Women Engineers; Nancy Druar for the UB medical alumni reunion; Daniel Green for Fourth International Conference on Survivors of Childhood Cancer; Carl V. Granger for Managed Care in Medical Rehabilitation; Laszlo Mechtler for First Annual Roswell Park Cancer Institute Neurology-Oncology Conference; Maryanne Neary for the Native American Nurses Conference; Catherine Norgren for the Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival; Mattie Rhodes for Delta Sigma Theta; and Edward Simmons for the Orthopedic Symposium on Spinal Deformities. Joins Physical Therapy & Exercise Science Gaspar Farkas, who comes to UB from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., has joined the Department of Physical Therapy and Exercise Science as an associate professor. Farkas received his B.Sc. degree from Concordia University, Montreal, the M.Sc. degree from Universite de Montreal and his Ph.D. in experimental medicine from McGill University. Farkas' research area is the function of respiratory muscles. His focus is on the role of obesity and emphysema in altering the muscles of the breathing apparatus and the effect of these conditions on respiration as we age. He will teach neuroscience in the Department of Physical Therapy and Exercise Science as well as lecture in other courses. Geriatric psychiatry conference to be held The eighth annual "Current Issues in Geriatric Psychiatry" regional conference will be held from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, April 7, in the Radisson Hotel and Suites Buffalo, 4243 Genesee St., Cheektowaga. The conference is designed to inform health-care professionals of state-of-the-art mental-health assessments and treatments, update them on methods of overcoming barriers to mental health care in later life, and strengthen their confidence in addressing older adults' and their families' concerns about such conditions as depression and Alzheimer's disease. It will be sponsored by the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and the UB Department of Psychiatry. The registration fee is $90, with a deadline of March 31. For more information call 829-2917. Musicology Has Electronic Info Gotta know who turned Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu into one of Broadway's most saccharine emetics? Looking for the title of a grisly Czech opera? UB's musicology program has established a Home Page on the World Wide Web. It offers information on the UB program and provides electronic links to academic research sources around the world. For information, or to offer suggestions, contact Associate Professor Michael Long (mlong@ascu.buffalo.edu). To visit the Musicology Home Page, use your WWW browser (Lynx, Mosaic, etc.) to go to the URL http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/- mlong. Music faculty earn distinction Several members of the UB Department of Music faculty have distinguished themselves in their respective fields recently. Musicologist Christopher Gibbs, assistant professor of music, has been named director of the 1995 Schubertiade, the eighth of 10 programs in a highly acclaimed, decade-long Schubertiade Festival sponsored by the Tisch Center, the performing arts center of New York City's 92nd Street Y. This year's Schubertiade will run from April 1-8. Gibbs will present a pre-concert talk on April 1, "Schubert in his Own Time." Composer Cort Lippe, assistant professor of music, has been selected as one of five finalists in the composition competition to be held during Mexico's 1995 Festival Callejon de Ruido in August. Lippe's "Music for Guitar and Tape" received a performance in Paris in January and earlier, a concert of his live computer music was presented in Grenoble, France. The premiere of composer Jeffrey Stadelman's Fromm commission, "Marxville Songbook," was performed by members of Boston Musica Viva at Boston's Tsai Performance Center in January. Conducted by Richard Pittman, it featured a pre-concert talk by Stadelman to BVM subscribers. Stadelman is an assistant professor of music. Conference to address Africa's past, future The economic and political past, present and future of Africa will be the focus of the second annual Pan-African Conference, to be held on March 24-26 on the UB North Campus. Some 500 students from across the country are expected to attend the event, which will feature workshops and guest speakers on Africa's role in the world. Since 1900, many African countries have become independent, but some will not achieve their potential in a global economy and society unless factions within and outside their borders cooperate toward positive goals for all, says Peter Ekeh, chair of the UB Department of African American Studies and a speaker at the conference. "It's important that the young people who are African American or are interested in Africa's future understand that they can play a role in a more positive outcome as these newer nations take their place in the world," he says. Registration for the conference is slated for 6-10 p.m. March 24, and 8-9:45 a.m. March 25, in the Student Union Lobby. Workshops will be held from 10 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on March 25 in Knox Hall. A panel discussion will be held from 2-4 p.m. in 20 Knox. The African Dance Troupe will perform at a dinner from 5:30-8 p.m. in Pistachio's in the Student Union. Participants will tour Niagara Falls beginning at 9 a.m. March 26. In addition to Ekeh, speakers at the conference will include Samba Diop, UB assistant professor of modern languages; Samuel Nyambey of the United Nations Development Program; Benny Igwabey of the Organization of African Unity; Paul Washington of the Institute of International Relations, and Taharka Odinga of the All African People's Revolutionist Party. Guy Kayembe, a UB economics student from Zaire, is chair of the event, which is sponsored by the UB African Student Association. O'Neil to speak at seminar on higher education Robert M. O'Neil, founding director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression and former president of the University of Virginia, will speak at 8 a.m. April 7 in Moot Hall at Buffalo State College as part of the Breakfast Seminars for Western New York's Higher Educators. The lecture series is sponsored by the Department of Educational Organization, Administration and Policy in the UB Graduate School of Education. In addition to writing numerous articles for law reviews and other journals, O'Neil is the author of several books, including "Free Speech: Responsible Communication Under Law," "The Rights of Public Employees" and "Classrooms in the Crossfire." He served as a law clerk to former Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr., before beginning his teaching career in 1963 at the University of California Law School at Berkeley. He went on to become provost of the University of Cincinnati, vice president of Indiana University at Bloomington, president of the University of Wisconsin, and president of the University of Virginia. He founded the Thomas Jefferson Center, and continues as a member of the University of Virginia law faculty. He has chaired the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, and served on the Executive Committee of the Association of American Universities. He is a trustee and director of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the Educational Testing Service, the Commonwealth Fund, the Johnson Foundation, the James River Corporation, and TIAA. Tickets are $5. For more information, call William Barba, 645-2471. Perry to offer vision of "new American city" at Sunrise Series David C. Perry, professor of urban planning in the UB School of Architecture and Planning, will offer a vision of the "new American city" as part of the UB at Sunrise breakfast seminar series, to be held 7:30-9 a.m. April 5, in the Center for Tomorrow. The series is presented by the UB Alumni Association and the UB Office of Conferences and Special Events, in conjunction with the Bee Group Newspapers, UB News Bureau, UB Office of Publications, UB Office of University Development and the UB Vice President for Public Service and Urban Affairs. Perry is a political economist widely recognized in the fields of urban political economy, public administration and politics, and urban redevelopment. Director of UB's Center for Regional Studies, he also holds permanent posts as the Albert A. Levin Urban Scholar at Cleveland University's College of Urban Affairs and as a senior faculty fellow at the Rockefeller Institute in New York City. His most recent books include "Managing Local Government," "Building the Public City," "The Cleveland Metropolitan Reader" and "Spatial Practices," a volume on urban theory. The price of the program, which will include a full breakfast, is $8 for UB Alumni Association members and $9 for all others. For more information, call 829-2608. Woman Power conference to be held at UB The Woman Power in the 21st Century Act II conference will be held at UB on Friday, March 31, and Saturday, April 1. The conference is sponsored by Project WIN (Women's Issues Network), a forum for African-American women in WNY to discuss issues that affect them. The conference begins Friday with registration at 6:45 p.m. in Slee Hall on the North Campus. Sarah Norat-Phillips, program and public service director at WKBW-TV, will give a dramatic presentation at 8 p.m. A reception will follow at 9:30 p.m. Rose H. Sconiers, state Supreme Court judge and WIN project director, will give the welcome at 8:30 a.m. April 1 in Knox Hall, North Campus. Two workshop sessions will follow. Jean Hill, television news anchor, will lead luncheon ceremonies from 12:45 to 2 p.m. in the Center for the Arts. For more information, call 645-3705. Gaming convention to be held at UB Starfleet Battles," "CarWars," "Call of Cthulhu," "Civil War" and "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" will be among the battles "fought" by some 500 gaming aficionados at the sixth annual gaming convention, "UBCon '95 -- A Twist in Time," to be held March 31-April 2 in the Student Union on the North Campus. More than 160 role-playing, board-game and miniatures competitions at all skill levels will be held during the weekend, which is sponsored by the Strategist and Role-Players Association (SARPA). Guest of honor for the weekend will be Sam Chupp, co-author of Werewolf, The Apocalypse and several other WhiteWolf Publications. Derek Pearcy, print buyer, graphic designer, editor and writer for Steve Jackson Games, will be guest speaker, and Robert Aradio, local comic-book artist and president of Targiin Studios, will be a special guest. Highlights of the weekend will include medieval-combat demonstrations, an area for gaming dealers and Japanese anime films. Hours for the popular event, which draws competitors from Western New York, Northeastern Pennsylvania and Ontario, will be 8 p.m.-midnight on March 31; 10 a.m.-midnight on April 1, and 10 a.m.-7 p.m. on April 2. For more information, contact Jennifer DeMarie at 645-4106 or Todd Minnella at 645-4884.