Cokie Roberts cancels lecture
The Distinguished Speaker Series lecture featuring Cokie Roberts scheduled for Wednesday has been canceled. Roberts became unavailable for the scheduled lecture at the request of her employer, ABC-TV, and attempts to reschedule her for next fall were unsuccessful.

Ticket holders can receive a full refund through March 24, 2000 by returning tickets to the original point of purchase. Refund requests only will be honored when tickets are presented for exchange.

Refunds on tickets purchased through the Center for the Arts Box Office on the North Campus may be returned during normal business hours, from noon to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Friday.

In the case of tickets purchased by mail, including through the Distinguished Speaker Series subscription, tickets-along with the purchaser's name, address and daytime telephone number-should be mailed to: Cokie Refund, University at Buffalo, c/o Office of Special Events, 352 Fargo Building #4, Box 610007, Buffalo, NY 14261-0007.

Schapiro named outstanding advocate
Susan R. Schapiro, director of the Methods of Inquiry Program, has been named an Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate by the Resource Center for The Freshman Year Experience at the University of South Carolina. The national award is presented to individuals who develop programs that help freshmen overcome obstacles that often cause first-year students to drop out of college.

Schapiro, a clinical associate professor in the Graduate School of Education, was nominated for the award by SUNY Chancellor John W. Ryan.

UB's Methods of Inquiry program helps 600 students each year through a three-credit elective course that teaches them about critical-thinking strategies and helps them achieve their academic goals by developing strong study and research skills.

Rath, Hoyt to hold campus office hours
Faculty, staff and students will get their chance to lobby UB's state representatives today. Assemblyman Sam Hoyt and Sen. Mary Lou Rath will be available to talk informally with members of the university community from 12:30-2:30 p.m. in Room 210 of the Student Union on the North Campus.

No appointment is necessary. For information, call 645-2950.

"Faculty Jam" to benefit fellowships
The School of Law will present a "Faculty Jam," a concert by "Class Action," a jazz band made up of professors and law and music students, to benefit summer fellowships for students who work in the public interest.

The concert will be held at 8 p.m. today in the Calumet Arts Cafe, 56 W. Chippewa St., Buffalo. There will be a $5 cover charge at the door. The band will perform on bass, piano, drums, trumpet, alto and tenor sax, trombone and flute, as well as offer vocals.

"Mind Over Myth" to discuss hate crimes
The disturbing rise in hate crimes in America will be the subject of "Mind Over Myth," a public-affairs television show produced and moderated by Ilene R. Fleischmann, assistant dean in the Law School.

The show will air at noon on Saturday on WKBW-Channel 7. Guests will include Charles Patrick Ewing, professor of law and adjunct professor of psychology; Denise E. O'Donnell, U.S. attorney for the Western District of New York; Bernard Tolbert, special agent in charge of the Buffalo Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Kevin J. Comerford, chief of staff of the Buffalo Police Department.

Photographer Hoone to give slide lecture
Photographer Jeffrey Hoone, director of Light Work/Community Darkrooms in Syracuse, will give a lecture and slide presentation on his photography series, "Hook Line & Sinker," at 4 p.m. March 25 in the Screening Room, Room 112, in the Center for the Arts on the North Campus.

"Hook Line & Sinker," Hoone notes, "is a series of photographs of objects that are named for, and described by, their form, function or use. The title of the series, like the saying, plays off the idea of being taken in, or surprised." The lecture is sponsored by the Department of Art in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Students meet in videoconference
In conjunction with last Friday's historic ceremony that admitted Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, students from UB and Poland's Jagiellonian University met in a live videoconference to discuss the event.

The distance-learning discussion, titled "When Enemies Become Allies: The European Security System in Transition," was sponsored by the Polish Academic Information Center in the College of Arts and Sciences. It was organized and moderated on the U.S. side by Teresa Sasinska-Klas, director of the Polish Academic Information Center.

"This event (signing of the accession document) will be remembered as one of the most significant moments in 1999," said Kerry Grant, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "This videoconference allows us the opportunity to bring together students who are 5,000 miles apart, thanks to today's technology."

Student graduation speaker sought
The University Commencement Committee is seeking a student representative to address graduates at the 153rd University Commencement May 16 in Alumni Arena. The competition for a student speaker is open to all graduating seniors in the College of Arts and Sciences, including special and individualized majors.

Speeches should be no longer than three minutes. Selection will be based on relevancy, appropriateness of content and delivery. Entries must be submitted by March 25 to the Student Speaker Selection Committee, in care of Nicolas Goodman, vice provost for undergraduate education, at 255 Capen Hall, North Campus. For more information, call 645-2991.

Lightning to be topic of Ebert lecture
Somewhere in the world, 2,000 thunderstorms are in progress at all times, with lightning striking at an average rate of 100 per second.

Charles H.V. Ebert, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Geography in the College of Arts and Sciences, will lecture on "Fire from the Sky: The Nature and Effects of Lightning" for the College of Arts and Sciences Alumni Lecture Series, to be held at 7:30 p.m. March 29 in the Center for the Arts Screening Room.

Ebert's talk will focus on how understanding the nature and variable behavior of lightning phenomena can reduce physical damage and human casualties.

The lecture is free and open to the public

Polish film festival to open today in CFA
Ways of Seeing, the first film festival in North America devoted solely to Polish documentary film, will open today at 7 p.m. in the Center for the Arts Screening Room on the North Campus with a reception and screening of several films by festival curator, filmmaker and Polish TV producer Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz.

Zmarz-Koczanowicz, who also is 1998-99 Kosciuszko Fellow in the Polish Studies Program at UB, will be present to introduce her films.

The festival marks the fourth edition of the successful Kino Polskie film festival, which was last presented in 1995.

More than 50 short and feature-length documentary films will be screened at three different venues-Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, 2495 Main St., and the Adam Mickiewicz Library & Dramatic Circle, 612 Fillmore Ave., as well as the Center for the Arts Screening Room-during the course of the seven-week festival.

Among the numerous sponsors of the festival are several groups at UB, including the Department of Media Study in the College of Arts and Sciences, the American Studies Graduate Group, the Graduate Student Association, the Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender, the Office of International Studies, the Polish Studies Program and the Polish Student Association.

Andrzej Fidyk, documentary filmmaker and head of the Documentary Division of Polish TV, will make two appearances-at 8 p.m. Saturday in Hallwalls and at 7 p.m. Monday in the Center for the Arts, to present his work.

Other highlights of the festival will include screenings of work by noted directors Krzysztof Kieslowski, Oscar-nominee Marcel Lozinski and Oscar-winner Zbigniew Rybczynski.

The festival is open to the public at a charge of $5 per program; $4 for members of Hallwalls, the Mickiewicz Library, other co-sponsoring organizations and students. All screenings in the Center for the Arts are free to UB students. For a full schedule of films, contact Hallwalls at 835-7362.