John Staley is named associate VP of PSUA

John M. Staley, headmaster of Cora P. Maloney College, has been named associate vice president for public service and urban affairs.

As headmaster of the college since 1984, Staley has developed some of the most successful support programs for underrepre-sented minority students at UB, including the Minority Academic Achievement Program (MAAP), as well as having the highest undergraduate minority-student graduation rates at the university.

For the past 10 years, he also has served as project director of the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP), a program funded by the state Education Department that encourages minority and disadvantaged students toward majors leading to the licensed professions. Staley served on the CSTEP statewide steering committee and was treasurer of the Association of Professional Administrators of CSTEP and STEP programs.

He also co-chaired the President's Task Force on the Status of Women at UB-a task force that created the impetus for the creating the Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender, and a North Campus site for the UB Child Care Center, as well as new policies and procedures to address the issues of women's salary disparities and career advancement.

Milles named associate dean at Law School

James Milles, associate director for information and technology, and adjunct assistant professor of law at Case Western Reserve University, has been named

associate dean for libraries and director of the Charles B. Sears Law Library at UB.

Milles is nationally known for his work in integrating state-of-the-art information technologies with traditional law-school teaching, research and library functions.

A graduate of the St. Louis University School of Law, Milles has traveled widely, teaching and lecturing on aspects and applications of the new technologies and their relationship to law education and practice.

Before joining Case Western in 1997, he was head of computer services and an associate professor of legal research at his alma mater, where he planned and implemented automation and telecommunication projects in the law library, coordinating them with the law school and the university.

He is the author of "An Internet Handbook for Law Librarians."

Passover Seder to be held April 19

A traditional Passover Seder and meal will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Pistachio's in the Student Union on the North Campus.

Hillel Foundation of Buffalo, Inc. and the Campus Center for Jewish Life are sponsoring the traditional event for members of the university community and the public. They also will sponsor two other student activities during the eight-day Festival of Pesach.

Cost of the Seder and dinner is $12 for students and $15 for non-students. Call 639-8361 before Monday for reservations.

"We welcome Jewish families who don't have plans for a Seder, as well as non-Jews who would like to learn about this holiday and share in its tradition," said Susan Goldberg Pardo, executive director of Hillel.

Hillel students also will conduct a door-to-door "Magic Matzah" exchange of unleavened matzah for unopened hametz, which includes leavened bread, cereal and pasta products. The hametz that is collected will be donated to the Food Bank of Western New York.

Students will collect hametz from 6-10 p.m. according to the following schedule: today, Fargo and Porter; Monday, Spaulding and Wilkeson, and Tuesday, Richmond and Red Jacket.

Jewish students who live in South Campus residence halls or off campus can exchange their food items at Hillel in The Commons on the North Campus.

Magic Matzah is supported by funds from Tzedek Hillel-Mazon Hunger Grant and Hillel: Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.

Stars to be topic of Shapley lecture

"Massive Stars: The Main Furnaces of the Universe" will be the topic of the Harlow Shapley Visiting Lecture, to be presented at 7:30 p.m. April 21 in 201 Natural Sciences Complex on the North Campus.

The lecture, which will be free and open to the public, will be given by Anthony Moffat, professor of astronomy at the University of Montreal.

Funding for the lecture is provided by the American Astronomical Society, the Harlow Shapley Endowment Fund, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Department of Physics.

For more information, call 645-2017.

"Urban Girls" conference to be held this weekend

"Urban Girls: Entering a New Millennium," the conference to take place tomorrow and Saturday in the Adam's Mark Hotel in downtown Buffalo, has attracted a number of very distinguished speakers, according to conference director Lois Weis, professor of education.

Events will begin at 7 p.m. today at 91 Allen St., Buffalo, with a private reception for the "Urban Girls" exhibition at El Museo Francisco Oller y Diego Rivera, a not-for-profit visual arts organization dedicated to the exhibition fine arts by Latino, African American and other artists of color. In this case, all the artists are women.

A full schedule of programs, panel discussions, talks and other events can be found at http://www.specialevents.buffalo.edu/urban.

The conference has been expanded to include "Teen Saturday," a day-long series of events designed to enhance the participation of young women. These will include discussions with five-time Olympian Willye White; presentations by Red Cross and Planned Parenthood theater groups, a speak-out by student athletes and a dialogue with young women.

Panels will include those on academic and technological issues; athletics and young women; legal issues affecting girls; pregnancy, mothering and adolescence; issues in sexuality; inner-city clubs for girls; immigrant and refugee girls; issues pertaining to lesbian and trans-gendered health and wellness; drug use; experiences of Asian girls and Latinas; violence and domestic violence toward young women; women in scientific and technical professions; the politics of femininity; the contributions of young women to their communities, and other issues.

Speakers will include distinguished sociologists; clinical, social and sports psychologists; educators; athletes; health professionals, and community "action-researchers." Featured presenters will be:

- Award-winning teacher, legal scholar and author Lani Guinier, professor of law at Harvard University, who has devoted major efforts to revitalizing public discourse on multiracial citizen problem solving

- Sociologist Assata Zerai, a senior research associate of the Center for Policy Research at Syracuse University, whose scholarship focuses on the ways that the interlocking spheres of race, class and gender are reflected in maternal and child health care and women's health activism

- Olympian Willye White, who pioneered the development of community-based programs using sport and physical activity as psychological and educational tools to enhance the lives of urban girls

- Lois Weis, UB professor of the sociology of education and author of many books, studies and articles on the subject of social class, race, gender and schooling.

- Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, a member of the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, former board member of the Columbia Law Review and a highly published expert on constitutional and international protections for family rights.

"Green" snowmobile wins contest

The cleanest, meanest, most economical snowmobile machine isn't yet available in a store near you. It's at UB.

A used Polaris, redesigned and retooled by a team of engineering students, last week beat out competitors from six other schools at the Inaugural Clean Snowmobile Challenge at Jackson Hole, Wyo.

Bringing home $17,000 in prize money for their school, the team captured top honors in four of the five major categories, including categories of low emissions and noise levels, best design and fuel economy.

Each of the seven teams from colleges and universities had six months to redesign and retool hand-me-down Polaris snow machines as their entries. The competition was sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers; a co-sponsor was the National Park Service.

The competition, aimed at promoting cleaner, quieter snow machines, took a more serious turn since there's a distinct possibility that snowmobiles eventually may be banned from national parks because of noise and pollution concerns.

UB's four-stroke engine machine had a virtually undetectable reading in hydrocarbon emissions. It also featured fuel injection and a special catalytic converter.

It was quieter, thanks to foam padding lining the hood of the engine. And it got 27.3 miles per gallon, or about double that of other machines.

Jacobson to discuss challenges of IT

Thomas L. Jacobson, acting dean and associate professor in the School of Information Studies, will discuss "Communication Technologies in the New Millennium: Opportunities and Challenges" at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the Screening Room in the Center for the Arts on the North Campus.

The lecture is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences.

Jacobson will review some of the related challenges and opportunities inherent in information technology, address responses required from institutions of higher education and preview one of UB's own responses in establishing the School of Information Studies.

UUP retirees lunch set

Issues such as long-term care planning, the upcoming political elections and an update on retiree affairs and issues will highlight the spring luncheon meeting of the Active Retirees of United University Professors (UUP)-Western New York, to begin at 11 a.m. May 3 in Fanny's restaurant, 3500 Sheridan Drive, Amherst.

The morning session will feature a presentation by Anne Marine, UUP statewide retirement and pre-retirement coordinator.

Kristina M. Young, director of the Health Career Center, will speak on "Planning for Long-Term Care."

In the afternoon session, Gerald Goldhaber, head of Goldhaber Associates and UB associate professor of communications, will speak on "Election 2000."

Reservation deadline for the luncheon and program is April 25. The program is open to UUP retirees, their spouses, friends and union members planning to retire in the near future.

Cost is $12 per person. Call Norma E. Klayman at 634-7044 or Chris Black at 645-2013 for more information or reservations.

Law students to present papers

Members of the university community are invited to attend paper presentations by UB law students who are concentrating in family law to be held from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Monday and on April 24 in the Law School faculty lounge in 545 O'Brian Hall on the North Campus. Refreshments will be served.

The students are all candidates for law degrees in May. The paper presentations on Monday will include the following topics: domestic violence courts in Monroe County, domestic violence and custody, the intersection of domestic violence and shelter, and the effects of domestic violence on children and why their representation should be mandated by statute.

Topics for April 24 will include truancy, early intervention services to infants and toddlers with disabilities, older children and their role in the grandparent-visitation debate, and sibling association rights in New York State.

For more information, contact Susan Vivian Mangold at 645-2428.

Telemedicine to be topic of April 28 conference

The challenges of new technology and its increasing role in helping health-care providers make their services more accessible to patients will be the topic of an all-day conference to be held on April 28 at UB.

The conference, "Telemedicine: Evolving Legal and Regulatory Issues for the Health Professions," will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Center for Tomorrow on the North Campus.

In its broadest sense, telemedicine is the delivery of health care at a distance and is of growing importance for health-care providers and their patients who encounter difficulties in getting needed health-related information, tests and services.

Boston attorney Alan S. Goldberg, who has published extensively on health-law issues and telecommunications technology, will deliver the keynote address at 8:30 a.m. on "Telemedicine: Patientcen-tricity Comes of Age."

The luncheon speaker will be John Bentivoglio, special counsel for health-care fraud and chief privacy officer with the U.S. Department of Justice. His topic will be "Telemedicine: Don't Let the Benefits Blind You to Powerful Anti-Fraud Laws."

Program sessions will address such issues as "A Telemedicine Demonstration: Issues and Problems in the Medical Practice Environment," "A Survey of Legal Issues" and "Legislative and Regulatory Issues."

The deadline for registration is April 20. Call 645-5984 for more information. The program, including lunch, is free to students from the law, pharmacy and medical schools, and $75 to all others.

The program is sponsored by the schools of Law, Pharmacy and Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.