INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION PROGRAM TO AWARD CERTIFICATES
Twenty-five senior-level executives from Samsung Corporation, named by Fortune magazine as one of the top 20 global firms, have been spending six weeks in the U.S. attending UB's Executive Information-Technology Education Program. They will receive certificates Nov. 8 in a ceremony at the Center for Tomorrow.

The program has included lectures by a UB faculty team, guest lectures by chief information officers (CIOs) and senior managers from industry, industry site visits and information technology expo visits. Management Science & Systems in the School of Management developed the program for Samsung's CIOs.

Samsung sent three directors as part of the team: Suk Koo Kim, H.Y. Lin and S.K. Baek. Other team members are from Samsung electronics, chemicals, heavy industry, engineering construction, aerospace, insurance data systems and research and development areas, among others.

Members of the School of Management faculty team are Carl Pegels, professor, Management Science & Systems, program director; Hejamadi Rao, associate professor, Management Science & Systems, academic director; Ron Krul, director of the Center for Management Development, administrative director.

Also part of the team: Stanley Zionts, professor; Ramaswamy Ramesh, associate professor; G. Lawrence Sanders, associate professor; Donald Frase, adjunct associate professor, all from Management Science & Systems; along with Kahkyung Cho, Distinguished Teaching Professor, philosophy, and Churyang Wie, professor, electrical and computer engineering.

Two doctoral students, Baik Yang and Wonseok Woo, as well as Bo Choi, project coordinator, made major contributions to the success of the program.

GRADUATE GAY/LESBIAN ALLIANCE TO HOLD CONFERENCE ON NOV. 9
The Graduate Gay and Lesbian Alliance of the University at Buffalo is organizing "Preaching to the Converted: an Interdisciplinary Queer Studies Graduate Conference" to be held on Saturday, Nov. 9 at Hall-walls Contemporary Arts Center on fourth floor of the Tri-Main Center, 2495 Main St. The daylong conference is free and open to the public.

Ron Ehmke, playwright, actor and author, will be keynote speaker and UB Women's Studies professor Elizabeth Kennedy will deliver closing remarks. Twenty graduate students from universities across New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ontario will present papers dealing with a variety of gay/lesbian/bisexual issues.

For more information call Gary Devore, 645- 2154.

COLLOQUIUM TO DISCUSS THE WAYS IN WHICH CULTURE SHAPES SOCIETY
A colloquium examining the complex relationship between culture and social practices will be held from 1:30-5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 15, in Room 112 in the Center for the Arts on the UB North Campus.

The colloquium, "Landscape, Culture and Society," is sponsored by the UB Department of History as a university sesquicentennial event. It is free of charge and open to the public.

In recent years, scholars in several fields have begun to recon-ceptualize the link between culture and society, says Jonathan Dewald, professor and chair of the UB Department of History. While art and literature once were seen as "reflections" of society and "products" of underlying social forces, a new group of literary critics and art historians has shown the numerous ways in which culture does, in fact, shape society, Dewald says. And, in the process, they have redrawn some of the boundaries between conventional and academic disciplines.

The colloquium will bring together three leading practitioners of this new form of cultural study. They are Norman Bryson, professor of art history at Harvard University and the country's leading specialist in the history of 18th-century French art who has begun a study of Japanese art and its impact on social change; Laura Meixner, associate professor of art history at Cornell University who has written on 19th-century American responses to French impressionist painting, and David Miller, associate professor of English at Allegheny College who writes on American understanding of nature.

For more information about the colloquium, call 645-2181.

UB TO OFFER HEALTH-CARE ADMINISTRATION CERTIFICATE PROGRAM
Registration began Nov. 2 for a new health-care administration certificate program to be offered in the spring semester by Millard Fillmore College at UB.

The program, which is designed for clinicians who are entering administrative positions and middle managers who want to develop further management skills in health care settings such as health care agencies, nursing homes, hospitals and clinics, has been approved by the Continuing Education Program of the New York State Board of Examiners of Nursing Home Administrators.

The curriculum emphasizes problem-solving skills and practical techniques.

Six of the program's courses will be offered during the spring semester, which will begin Jan. 21. They are: Introduction to Computers and Information Systems; Quality Management in Health Care; Third-Party Reimbursement; Integration of Leadership Skills and Total Quality Management; Regulation in the Health-Care Environment and Managed Care: Impact on Health-Delivery Systems.

All courses in the certificate program will be offered at least once during any two-year period. Courses also may be taken by students to fulfill associate and baccalaureate degree requirements or to expand their career-related goals.

For more information or to obtain a free brochure, call 829-2022.

IS YOUR FAMILY ELIGIBLE FOR OBESITY PREVENTION PROJECT?
If one or both parents is overweight and you have at least one thin child between 5 and l0 years of age your family could be eligible for UB's Childhood Weight Control Program, directed by Leonard H. Epstein, UB professor of psychology, social and preventive medicine and nutrition.

This research program, funded by the National Institutes of Health, is designed to find out causes and treatments of childhood obesity. The next family-based research program focuses on prevention of obesity in young children who are at risk for becoming obese.

The program features instruction on changing exercise and eating habits, health and fitness assessments and exercise and nutrition information to benefit all family members. It also includes practical lessons for developing effective parenting skills.

There is no cost, although there is a deposit fee that will be refunded in segments as you pro-gress through the stages of the program. Meetings are one-hour long, one evening a week for eight weeks, followed by biweekly meetings for up to six months. There will be follow-ups at one year and annually after that. The clinic is located on the UB North Campus, Room 4, Baldy Hall.

For more information on the program, call 645-6316.

PSS, UUP CHAPTER OFFER COMMUNICATIONS WORKSHOPS
A series of three luncheon workshops on sharpening communications skills will be presented Nov. 21, Jan. 16 and March 19 by the UB Professional Staff Senate and UUP Health Sciences Chapter.

Speaker for all the workshops will be Roger Stephenson, a consultant with the UB School of Management and professor and former chairman of English at Canisius College. Stephenson, who has conducted workshops for local businesses, recently took part in a research project on writing funded by the Department of Education. He received his bachelor's degree in English from Boston College and his doctorate in American Civilization from Brown University.

The workshops are a continuation of the programs organized by the PSS development committee, designed to help UB personnel improve their skills and enhance their performance.

The first workshop, Thursday, Nov. 21, will focus on developing effective speaking and listening skills in the workplace. Workshop No. 2 on Thursday, Jan. 16, 1997 will cover improving writing and revising techniques. The final workshop Wednesday, March 19, 1997 will address developing skills in editing for brevity and clarity.

Cost of each workshop, to be held from noon to 2 p.m. in The Dakota Grill, 4224 Maple Rd., will be $10, which includes lunch.

For more information, call the PSS office at 645-2003

THOMAS IN RESIDENCE AT UNIVERSITY OF COSTA RICA
William E. Thomas, UB associate professor of theatre and dance, recently spent 10 days in residence at the National University of Costa Rica's School of Dance, through the International Artistic and Cultural Exchange program of the Center for the Arts and as part of its foreign scholar exchange.

He taught workshops in modern dance and choreographed a new work of UNA, the university's dance company. The trip was co-sponsored by the National University of Costa Rica, Faculty of Arts, and UB Faculty of Arts and Letters.

Thomas has co-written and will star in A Day in the Life, to be presented at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center. He has also choreographed a new work for Orchesis Contemporary Dance Theater in Florida.