The University Art Gallery at Sonoma State University is pleased to announce an upcoming exhibition, the biennial SSU Art Faculty Exhibition, which opened with a reception for the artists on Thursday, Sept. 12 and runs through Sunday, Oct. 27.
The exhibition features the work of David D'Andrade (drawing and painting); Stephen Galloway (photography); Kurt Kemp (drawing and printmaking); Bob Nugent (painting); Jann Nunn (sculpture); Mark Perlman (painting); Gregory Roberts (ceramics) and Will Smith (printmaking), and Lote Thistlethwaite (drawing).
The University Art Gallery, founded in 1978 on the campus of Sonoma State University, is dedicated to the presentation of exhibitions, publications, and lectures and symposia on a diverse range of styles, issues and ideas within contemporary art. Presentation of the SSU Art Faculty Exhibition and all University Art Gallery programs is made possible by its members, the Art Advocates, proceeds from the annual "Art from the Heart" benefit auction, and through grants from the Instructionally Related Activities Fund of Sonoma State University, and the SSU Academic Foundation.
Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and weekends, noon to 4 p.m. The gallery is closed Mondays and holidays. Admission to the gallery is free. For more information or press photos, please call (707) 664-2295.
Migrant farm workers in the region will get a boost toward a bachelor's degree thanks to a $1.7 million grant from the federal government awarded to Sonoma State University and two junior colleges.
The university shares in the five-year College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) grant with Santa Rosa and Napa Valley junior colleges to address the needs of the more than 4,500 estimated K-12 students from migrant families in Napa and Sonoma counties.
Last year, only 58 students from a total of 1,200 12th grade students from the migrant farm worker population enrolled at Sonoma State University, Napa Valley College and Santa Rosa Junior College combined.
"The primary goal is to help migrant students achieve a bachelor's degree," says the program's coordinator Dr. Francisco H. Vázquez, Director of the Hutchins Institute for Public Policy and Community Action at Sonoma State University. "The modern economy requires people to have higher skills than labor skills. This way the program is also benefiting the economy," Vázquez says.
The Collaborative CAMP not only recruits migrant students for college but also wants to ensure that the students will do well in classes instead of becoming part of the current state attrition rate for migrant students estimated at 70 per cent. The services that CAMP will provide include supportive and instructional services, assistance in obtaining student financial aid, housing support, and the help of tutors and mentors.
Collaborative CAMP is designed to include the families of migrant students in conversations regarding higher education. "This way, instead of feeling like they are losing a daughter or a son to the university, the families will feel involved in the learning process," Vazquez reports.
During the first year of operation, CAMP will recruit 60 migrant students with the goal of eventually establishing a self-sustaining network of successful former Collaborative CAMP students who will serve as role models and leaders.
The first students are expected to enroll in one of the three different schools in the fall of 2003. Prior to that, CAMP will reach out to the migrant students already enrolled and give them the support they need.
For further information, contact Dr. Francisco Vázquez, Director
Institute for Public Policy and Community Action, Sonoma State University, (707) 664-3185.
The National Science Foundation has awarded an $810,657 grant to Sonoma State University and UC Davis researchers to use a geographic modeling system to track and predict the spread of Sudden Oak Death, a plant disease that has reached epidemic levels in the coastal ranges of California.
This multidisciplinary research grant from the NSF will allow geographers and biologists at Sonoma State University and UC Davis to collaboratively study the critical factors in the environment and host species that contribute to the spread of Phytophthora ramorum, the fungus known to be the cause of the disease.
Leading the effort is Dr. Ross Meentemeyer, director of the university's Geographic Information Systems lab. He will be assisted by SSU biology professors, Drs. Hall Cushman, Nathan Rank and Richard Whitkus and plant pathologist Dr. David Rizzo of UC-Davis.
The grant will be paid in increments over the next four years.
The researchers will be using geographic modeling and remote sensing technologies, in combination with fieldwork and DNA lab analysis, to characterize spatial patterns of disease factors including the genetic background of host species; plant community structure; and environmental controls.
This data is being integrated in a computer simulation model to forecast changes in the distribution of the disease across Sonoma County's landscape. Model predictions will identify critical factors that influence the distribution of SOD and provide predictions of habitat loss from disease.
The computer model will also help develop management strategies for susceptible forests and test regulations designed to prevent long distance spread of the pathogen, a threat that could drastically alter woodlands and forests in California and elsewhere in the USA.
The grant will also allow fostering of participation of undergraduates in cross-disciplinary research and integrate the research into the curriculum of core courses in the biology and geography departments at the SSU.
Sudden Oak Death is spreading rapidly, much like the Chestnut Blight in eastern North America during the early 20th century, and has the potential of completely changing the face of our treasured California landscapes, Meentmemeyer says.
"Although great progress has been made in understanding the basic biology of the pathogen, very little is known on how the pathogen is spreading so quickly and which areas are at greatest risk of infection."
Seventeen plant species are known to be susceptible to the disease, several of which are keystone species of California ecosystems, such as Coast Live Oak, Black Oak, Tanoak, and Bay Laurel. Evidence of the disease has now also been found in Douglas Fir saplings at the SSU's Fairfield Osborn Preserve and among redwoods in other parts of the region.
For further information, contact Dr. Ross Meentemeyer, (707) 664-2558
The Environmental Technology Center will present an informative and practical hands-on workshop on the many uses of solar energy for cooking from 1 to 4 p.m. on September 21.
This workshop will teach participants how to easily build a solar cooker; will present a variety of solar cooker designs; provide an opportunity to taste several delicious dishes prepared on-site with a solar cooker; and will educate participants on how people all over the world are making use of this simple technology.
In many developing countries, a large percentage of the population uses wood for cooking. For example, in Ethiopia fuel wood, constitutes over 80% of the energy consumed by a family for all activities. The result is massive deforestation and heavy back-breaking and health-impairing work for, mostly, the women in those countries. The introduction of this simple solar technology allows women to provide meals for their families while reducing the time spent gathering fuel and tending fires. Internationally, solar cooking is not only improving cooking practices but it also improving the social dynamics and health of thousands of people.
All are welcome to attend this event. With online pre-registration, before Sept. 14, the cost to attend the workshop is only $10, after Sept. 14 the cost is $20. This event will take place at the Environmental Technology on the Sonoma State University campus, 1801 East Cotati Avenue, Rohnert Park.
To pre-register online for this event go to, http://www.sonoma.edu/ensp/etc/registration/default.html . For additional information, contact: Armando Navarro, Environmental Technology Center, email, Armando.Navarro@sonoma.edu (preferred) or phone at (707) 664-2577.
Comments such as "Jean Bee Chan is a perfect example of a student-centered educator through her teaching, scholarship and community service," says Saeid Rahimi, Dean of the School of Science & Technology, are among those that earned her the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce Excellence in Education Award.
Chan's contributions to the North Bay community for her work as an excellent teacher, wonderful mentor and active and productive member of the community, exemplify what it means to be a teacher, according to Rahimi.
Her many milestones throughout her 28 years at SSU include founding the M*A*T*H Colloquium in 1974, working with other faculty to start the award-winning Math Club, initiating a student-centered teaching method that revolutionaized math teaching at SSU, worked to have a place for students and to come together where intellectual discourse which later became the Math Lab, served as a mentor for the 11 years of the SSU Faculty Student Mentor program.
Jean is also very active in her community and became the founding and continuing judge of the Press Democrat's Youth Service Award, which encourages youths to serve their community. She volunteers her time as a tutor in the town in which she lives. Her annual work with the Expanding Your Horizons conference for girls in Marin County gives her the opportunity to touch the lives of the generation of students younger than college-aged.
Nationally, Jean has served as an officer of the Mathematical Association of America and has been selected to serve on their Board of Governors. Her reach extends well beyond the walls of SSU, reaching students across the country. In 1996 she received the Marin County Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award for her civil rights and human right work. In 1998, she earned the Marin Women's Hall of Fame Award for her work in education.
Also nominated from SSU were Mary Ann Nickel, School of Education; Rocky Rohwedder, Environmental Studies and Planning; and Tim Wandling, English Department, who were all recognized by the Santa Rosa Chamber as being excellent teachers and mentors.
The annual award honors one person from each level of education (elementary, secondary, vocational, colllege/university) who promote student achievement, spend time outside of class working with students and/or parents, serves a role model of life-long learning for fellow educators, and provides work-based learning opportunities for students both inside and outside the classroom.
Kathleen Cleaver, Senior Lecturer at the Emory University Law School and former Communications Secretary for the Black Panther Party, will be speaking about her life as an activist and a scholar at Sonoma State University on Thursday, Sept. 26 at 8 p.m. in the Cooperage auditorium. Admission is free. Students, staff, faculty, and the public are encouraged to attend.
Kathleen Neal Cleaver first became active in the civil rights movement when she began working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1966.
Shortly thereafter, she became involved with the Black Panther Party, headquartered in Oakland, California. Cleaver was Communications Secretary for the Panthers from 1967 to 1971. In the late-1960s, she was forced to flee into exile with Eldridge Cleaver, the writer/activist who was then her husband. The two returned to the United States in 1975.
Since the 1970s, Kathleen Cleaver has remained involved in struggles for human rights, especially through her scholarship and teaching as a professor of law. After earning a BA and JD at Yale University, she served as a visiting scholar there and also at Sarah Lawrence College.
She has won fellowships from Harvard University, Rutgers, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia, where she has also served as a member of the board of directors for the Southern Center for Human Rights.
At Sonoma State, Professor Cleaver will speak about her life's work struggling for social justice. The talk will be distilled from her memoir "Memories of Love and War," which she is in the process of completing.
"A Conversation with Kathleen Cleaver" is co-sponsored by the Sonoma State History Department, Women's & Gender Studies Department, Inter-Cultural Center, and the School of Social Sciences.
The media research group Project Censored at Sonoma State University announced today its list of the most under-covered "censored" news stories of 2001-2002. The censored news stories are published in the annual book Censored 2003 from Seven Stories Press.
The Sonoma State University research group is composed of nearly 200 faculty, students, and community experts who reviewed over 900 nominations for the 2003 awards. The top 25 stories were ranked by the Project's national judges including: Michael Parenti, Robert McChesney, Robin Andersen, Norman Solomon, Carl Jensen, Lenore Foerstel and some 20 other national journalists, scholars, and writers.
"We define censorship as any interference with the free flow of information in American Society," stated Peter Phillips Director of the Project, "Corporate media in the United States is interested primarily in entertainment news to feed their bottom-line priorities. Very important news stories that should reach the American public often fall on the cutting room floor to be replaced by sex-scandals and celebrity updates."
The annual Project Censored awards ceremony will be held at Sonoma State University on September 28 in Evert B. Person Theater at 7 p.m. ($20 regular $10 students and seniors).
Political Analyst/author Michael Parenti and cartoonist Dan Perkins, aka Tom Tomorrow, will be the keynote speakers for the event. Davey D of KPFA's Hardknock radio will be MC for the evening. Authors of the year's most censored stories will speak and receive their awards.
Press review copies of Censored 2003 are available by calling Seven Stories Press at 212-226-8760 or e-mail greg@sevenstories.com.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
THE 25 MOST CENSORED NEWS STORIES
(Complete details on the authors of these stories, where they were
published, and names of judges and student researchers can be found at www.sfbg.com/36/48/project_censored1.html)
# 1 - FCC Moves To Privatize Airwaves
Several years ago, the Progress and Freedom Foundation, in their report "TheTelecom Revolution: An American Opportunity," recommended a complete privatization of radio frequencies, whereby broadcasters with existing licenses would eventually gain complete ownership of their respective frequencies. They could thereafter develop them in markets of their choosing, or sell and trade them to other companies. The few non-allocated bands of the radio frequency spectrum would be sold off, as electronic real estate, to the highest bidders. With nothing then to regulate, the FCC would eventually be abolished.
# 2 - New Trade Treaty Seeks to Privatize Global Social Services
A global trade agreement now being negotiated will seek to privatize nearly every government-provided public service and allow transnational corporations to run them for profit. The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is a proposed free-trade agreement that will attempt to liberalize/dismantle barriers that protect government provided social services.
# 3 - United States' Policies in Colombia Support Mass Murder
Over the past two years, Colombia has been Washington's third largest recipient of foreign aid, behind only Israel and Egypt. In July of 2000, the U.S. Congress approved a $1.3 billion war package for Colombia to support President Pastrana's "Plan Colombia." Plan Colombia is a $7.5 billion counter-narcotics initiative. In addition to this financial support, the US also trains the Colombian military.
#4 - Bush Administration Hampered FBI Investigation into Bin Laden Family Before 9/11
A French book "Bin Laden, la verite interdite (Bin Laden, the forbidden truth)" claims that the Bush Administration halted investigations into terrorist activities related to the bin Laden family and began planning for a war against Afghanistan before 9-11.
# 5 - U.S. Intentionally Destroyed Iraq's Water System
During the Gulf War the United States deliberately bombed Iraq's water system. After the war, the U.S. pushed sanctions to prevent importation of necessary supplies for water purification. These actions resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians many of whom were young children.
# 6 - U.S. Government Pushing Nuclear Revival
The US Government is blazing a trail of nuclear weapon revival leading to global nuclear dominance. A nuke-revival group proposes a "mini-nuke" capable of burrowing into underground weapon supplies and unleashing a small, but contained nuclear explosion. This weapons advocacy group is comprised of nuclear scientists, Department of Energy (DoE) officials, right wing analysts, former government officials, and a congressionally appointed over-sight panel. The group wants to ensure that the U.S. continues to develop nuclear capacity into the next half century.
# 7 - Corporations Promote HMO Model for School Districts
For decades, public schools have purchased innumerable products and services from private companies-from text books to bus transportation. Within the last decade, however, privatization has taken on a whole new meaning. Proponents of privatized education are now interested in taking over entire school districts.
# 8 - NAFTA Destroys Farming Communities in U.S. and Abroad
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are responsible for the impoverishment of and loss of many small farms in Mexico and Haiti. NAFTA is also causing the economic destruction of rural farming communities in the United States and Canada. The resulting loss of rural employment has created a landslide of socio-economic and environmental consequences that are worsening with the continued dismantling and deregulation of trade barriers.
#9 - U.S. Faces National Housing Crisis
The national housing crisis affects nearly 6 million American families and is growing worse. Over 1.5 million low-cost housing units have recently been lost, and millions of children are growing up in housing that is substandard, unaffordable and dangerous. A new crisis in affordable housing is spreading across America. What was once a problem relegated to low income families along the east and west coasts, is now affecting the middle-class all across the country.
#10 - CIA Double Deals In Macedonia
The CIA destabilized the political balance in Macedonia to allow easier access for a US-British owned oil pipeline, and to prevent Macedonia from entering the European Union (EU), thereby strengthening the US dollar in a German deutschmark dominated region.
#11 - Bush Appoints Former Criminals to Key Government Roles
Since becoming President, George Bush has brought back into government service several men who were discredited by criminal involvement in the Iran-Contra affair, lying to Con
Paintings collected and cataloged by the Moore family of Petaluma will be on display at the InterCultural Center Gallery in the Sonoma Student Union at Sonoma State University from Sep. 3-26.
The exhibition, "A Celebration of Modern Latin American Art" includes original modern works from well-known artists representing the countries of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, Mexico, and Peru. The opening reception will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 4 in the InterCultural Center Gallery from 4-6 p.m.
Featured works include Peruvian artist, Fernando de Szyszlo?s piece titled, The Execution of Tupac Amaru. Writes Mario Vargas Llosa, ?Szyszlo belongs to the minority of modern creators that maintain the tradition of the humanist painters, for whom painting is the expression of a sensibility and intelligence nurtured with water from many cultural springs, ranging from philosophy to science, who for this
reason hope to project their work into other fields of human endeavor, and who have always refused to consider their art a ?specialty.?
Among the authors, events or works of art to whom he has rendered homage (Rimbaud, Breton, Vallejo, Arguedas, the Quechua poem "Apu Inca Atawallpaman", the execution of Tupac Amaru, Cajamarca, etc.), in the themes or titles of his paintings, in his own writings. (www.museum.oas.org/permanent/abstraction/szyszlo/writings_about.html#llosa)
Tupac Amaru became the last emperor of the Incas in 1570. Tupac Amaru had grown up in the Incan convent of Vilcabamba, the so-called religious university of the Incas. He was favored by the native religious and military leaders. He opposed Christianity and the Spanish occupation. According to art collectors, Norman and Barbara Moore, ?The head of the Incas was considered also to be the sun. When the Spaniards executed the Inca Emperor there occurred a simultaneous eclipse of the sun.?
Other featured artists include Carlos Ramos Galvez of Peru. Galvez studied in the Escuela de Artes Plasticas de la Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru and has won many awards, including Premio "Amigos de Ibiza" en la III Bienal Internacional de Ibiza, Spain in 1968. Ramos Galvez, also from Peru excels in engraving, especially in his unusual ?cartongraphias,? which utilize many new ways of printmaking. He works with his cartongraphias like an alchemist, resulting in more rich and novel techniques.
Mexican artist, Leticia Tarrago, worked in the atelier of Guillermo Silva Santamaria in Mexico City when the Moores visited in 1968.
Argentinian artist, Oscar Esteban Conti, 'Oski', is a caricaturist, cartoonist and humorist, well known in South America for comical illustrations of ?Fausto; Impressiones del Gaucho, Anastasio el Pollo, en la Representation de esta Opera, by Estanislao Del Campo,? and for the humorous book, Historia de Indias.
The InterCultural Center is located in the Sonoma Student Union and is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and on Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
