March 23, 2006 Volume 27, No. 23
Speech Team advances to national contest
Binghamton’s Speech Team
had a remarkable showing at
the 59th Annual New York State
Forensics Championship held
March 4-5 at New York University.
Every member garnered
awards for outstanding performance.
At the District Tournament
the following day, Binghamton’s
team was once again victorious.
Five students advanced to compete
in the American Forensic
Association National Championship,
which will be held
March 31-April 3 in Florida.
Binghamton University (and
New York state) will be represented
by the team of Dana
Stecker and Kristen Giammarinaro
in Dramatic Duo Interpretation,
Tanya Parks in Poetry
Interpretation, Fang Fang
Fu in Persuasive Speaking and
Giammarinaro in Persuasive
Speaking, After Dinner Speaking
and Program Oral Interpretation.
Debate team headed to national tournament
Binghamton students Jake
Gartman and Matt Malia defeated
a team from the University
of California at Berkeley
for one of the final 10 spots to
attend the 2005-2006 National
Debate Tournament (NDT).
The NDT is the longest-running
debate tournament in
America’s history, and one of
the few that requires schools to
qualify in order to attend.
This is only the second time
in Binghamton University’s history
that the debate team has
qualified. Last year was the
first. Qualifying two years in
a row has put Binghamton’s
debate team on the map and
drawn interest from high school
debaters.
This year’s NDT will be held
March 24-27 at Northwestern
University.
Former weapons inspector to give lecture April 1
Former United Nations weapons
inspector Scott Ritter will
speak in the Anderson Center’s
Osterhout Concert Theater at 7
p.m. Saturday, April 1.
The title of his talk, which
is free and open to the public,
will be “Iraq: How We Got There,
and Where We’re Going.”
Ritter will sign copies of
his latest book following his
speech, which is co-sponsored
by the History Department, the
Binghamton Political Initiative
and Peace Action of New York
State.
Wolf to visit campus for Sunday program
Atka, a 3-year-old Arctic
wolf, will visit campus as part
of an informational program on
wolves and other endangered
species.
The program, which is open
to the public, will be held at
2:30 p.m. Sunday, March 26,
in LH-2.
Atka, who was raised in captivity,
has become the ambassador
wolf of the Wolf Conservation
Center (WCC). WCC’s
primary handler, Rebecca Bose,
will also be on hand.
The mission of the nonprofit
WCC is to educate people about
wolves, the need to preserve
their habitat and wilderness
and biodiversity issues.
The Binghamton Scholars
have undertaken this effort as
part of the community-service
aspect of their program. A $2
donation is requested and all
proceeds will go to the WCC.
Barbara Gordon, dean’s widow, dies
Barbara Baker Gordon,
widow of S. Stewart Gordon,
Harpur College’s first dean,
died Feb. 28 in Johnson City.
She was 89.
The family requests that memorial
contributions go to the
S. Stewart and Barbara Baker
Gordon Memorial Scholarship,
which was established in 2001
by the Binghamton University
Retirees Club and the Gordon
family.
Awarded to a Harpur College
student, with preference for a
graduate student in the Department
of English, the scholarship
is based on merit and financial
need as determined by the Office
of Student Financial Aid.
Mail donations to:
Binghamton University Foundation,
c/o The S. Stewart Gordon
Memorial Scholarship, Account
20464, P.O. Box 6005,
Binghamton, N.Y. 13902.
Alumnus, now a professor, to speak April 7 on campus
Donald Hood ’65, a psychology
professor at Columbia University,
will give two talks on
campus Friday, April 7.
Hood teaches courses on the
relationship between the brain
and behavior. His research focuses
on the biological basis of
vision. Many of his more than
150 publications deal with the
basic neuroscience of vision.
Others, in collaboration with
ophthalmologists, concern diseases
of the retina and optic
nerve.
His research is widely credited
with shaping the boundary
between the basic science of vision
and the electrophysiology
of retinal diseases.
He will speak at noon April 7
in LH-7 about “Life after Harpur
College/SUNY Binghamton, or
how a few key decisions affected
the quality of my life.”
At 3:30 p.m., he’ll deliver a
lecture titled “Measuring the
Electrical Activity of Normal
and Abnormal Human Visual
System” in CV-49.
