3 CAMPUS UPDATELt. Governor Donohue Touts Quality Communities, ESF

NASA Administrator Visits SUNY-ESF Lab

Burkly, Fitts to Lead Trustees; Sloan Appointed New Member

Chemistry Student Named First Ross S. Whaley EndowedScholarship Recipient

Brock Named Fellow of ASPRS

ESF Makes Short List of ‘Exemplary Institutions’ in theChronicle of Higher Education

SUNY Honors Two ESF Professors for Research

Doble Receives Foundation Award for Teaching

ESF Celebrates Bob Marshall’s Legacy

SUNY Honors Two ESF Graduates

7 HUNGRY FOR KNOWLEDGE? HAVE A ‘MEAL WITH NEIL’ESF students and their new president have found a way to trade ideas and keep abreast of each other’s concerns.

8 SPENDING SPRING BREAK IN SNOW, NOT SANDWho’d rather be in snow than sand? These ESF students —and they had a blast.

10 CAMPUS PROFILEFree-lance writer Paula Meseroll takes a close-up look at the individuals who comprise ESF’s Board of Trustees.

14 ESF STUDENTS ‘KEEPING THE GREEN ALIVE’Students and staff had a great time during the college’s first-everparticipation in this Syracuse tradition.

ON THE COVERFree-lance photographer Dave Revette captured students on theirway to class one lovely day.

Inside ESF is published four timeseach year for alumni and friends ofthe SUNY College of EnvironmentalScience and Forestry.

SUNY-ESF1 Forestry DriveSyracuse, NY 13210-2778www.esf.edu

President:Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr.

Vice President for Administration:Connie S. Webb

Editor:Jeri Lynn SmithDirector of News and Publications jls@esf.edu

Graphic Designer:Wendy P. Osborne News and Publications

Photo Credits:Page 3, Wendy P. Osborne; page 4, Jerry Klinebergand Lindi Quackenbush; page 5, Dave Revette andBen Dall; page 6, Jerry Klineberg; page 7, Justin F.Culkowski; pages 8 and 9, William F. Porter; page 10,Wendy P. Osborne and photo courtesy of Stearns &Wheler; page 11, Jeri Lynn Smith, photo courtesy ofBond, Schoeneck & King, LLP, and Ron Trinca; page12, photo courtesy of Bryant & Stratton Business In-stitute, photo courtesy of Harden Furniture Co.; Page13, Claire B. Dunn, Wendy P. Osborne, and photocourtesy of Adirondack Park Agency; page 14, St.Patrick’s Day Parade committee.

Additional Assistance:Kathleen A. CiereckCynthia A. GamageAnne M. Fleischer ’04

Office of News & Publications122 Bray Hall315-470-6644www.esf.edu/newspubs

The State University of New York College ofEnvironmental Science and Forestry offers a di-verse range of accredited programs and degree op-tions in chemistry, construction management andwood products engineering, environmental andforest biology, environmental resources and forestengineering, environmental studies, forest re-sources management, forest technology, landscapearchitecture, and paper science and engineering.

The College’s mission is to be a world leaderin instruction, research, and public service relatedto: understanding the structure and function ofthe world’s ecosystems; developing, managing,

and using renewable natural resources; improvingoutdoor environments ranging from wilderness,to managed forests, to urban landscapes; andmaintaining and enhancing biological diversity,environmental quality, and resource options. Assuch, ESF has maintained its unique status withinSUNY ’s 64-campus system as one of only fivespecialized colleges and one of only eight doc-toral-granting institutions.

ESF takes affirmative action to provide equalopportunity for all people and to build a campuscommunity that reflects a wealth of diversity.

IN THIS ISSUE

Printed on recycled paper.

Inside ESF Spring 2001 3

CAMPUS UPDATE

Lt. Governor Donohue ToutsQuality Communities, ESF

Lt. Governor Mary O. Donohue wasjoined by ESF faculty at a press conferenceto announce a partnership that will helpwaterfront communities in designing andplanning future development.

The announcement, made in the BrayHall Rotunda Wednesday, Feb. 28, focusedon the college’s Council for CommunityDesign Research, which will work with theNew York Department of State to imple-ment one of the 41 recommendationsmade by the Governor’s Task Force onQuality Communities.This is the first taskforce recommendation to be implemented.

“The program here at ESF is a modelfor our goals to work with communities toimprove the quality of life in terms of plan-ning future economic and environmentaldevelopment,” said Donohue. “In the taskforce report, we specifically note the needfor efforts from the SUNY community indeveloping and implementing outreachprograms to aid communities.”

The Department of State will provide$94,000 in initial funding for the project.

Through the DOS’sDivision of CoastalResources, ESF facultyand graduate studentswill work on threecommunity-basedplanning and designprograms to establish alocal vision for water-front revitalization.Design workshops withselected communitieswill solicit publicinput, and state agen-cies will review the

plans and identify potential assistanceneeded for implementation.

The council also will begin workingwith other SUNY campuses to develop aSUNY-wide network to help New Yorkcommunities advance effective revitaliza-tion activities, Donohue said.

In addition to the work with waterfrontcommunities, the Council for CommunityDesign Research also will conduct a seriesof four regional meetings across New Yorkwith local governments, not-for-profit or-ganizations, and the development commu-nity to discuss community priorities,identify critical issues facing New Yorkcommunities, and develop a researchagenda to address them.

ESF’s Council for Community DesignResearch was established in 1998 to for-malize the public service and communityoutreach work of the Faculty of LandscapeArchitecture. It is led by Cheryl S. Doble,an associate professor in the faculty.

NASA Administrator VisitsSUNY-ESF Lab

NASA administrator Daniel S. Goldinvisited ESF’s Mapping Science Laboratoryduring a stop in Syracuse March 12.

ESF and NASA have been partners fortwo years in the space agency’s Affiliated Re-search Center program. The ARC providesa connection between business and ESF’shigh-tech remote sensing and mappingtechnology. Businesses large and small canuse the technology to develop and marketinnovative products and services.

ESF is also involved in a NASA effortto put remote sensing and other geographicinformation technologies to work for stateforestry agencies. In all, ESF scientists haveworked cooperatively with the spaceagency for more than two decades.

Goldin’s Syracuse visit was sponsoredby Syracuse University, where Goldin,New York Governor George Pataki, andCongressman James Walsh (R-Syr) an-nounced a $3 million seed grant to imple-ment the Advanced Interactive DiscoveryEnvironment (AIDE) for EngineeringEducation project. ESF is a partner withSU and Cornell University in the newAIDE program.

Burkly, Fitts to Lead Trustees;Sloan Appointed New Member

Thomas C. Burkly, vice president ofStearns & Wheler Environmental Engi-neers and Scientists, was elected chair of theESF Board of Trustees at its Feb. 2 meeting.

Burkly, who joined the Board in 1997,takes over from Curtis H. Bauer ’50, whohas spent more than 30 years as a trustee.Bauer chaired the Board since 1995.

Quality all around: ESF President Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr.,New York Lt. Governor Mary O. Donohue, and Associate ProfessorCheryl S. Doble.

Continued on page 4

A resident of Cazenovia, N.Y., Burklyhas more than 33 years of experience in en-vironmental engineering. His specialty iswater supply treatment and distribution.

Daniel T. Fitts ’80, executive director ofthe Adirondack Park Agency, was electedvice chair.

Fitts was supervisor of administrativeservices at the APA before taking over asexecutive director in January 1995. He hasworked with the agency since 1987 and wasappointed to the ESF Board of Trusteesin 1998.

Attending his first meeting as an ESFtrustee in February was Stephen F. Sloan,the former secretary of the New York StateSenate. Sloan was appointed to the Boardby Gov. George Pataki.

Sloan is an alumnus of ESF, where heearned his master’s and doctoral degrees in1967 and 1969, respectively, in the field ofresource management. He also serves as amember of the ESF College Foundation,Inc. Board of Directors.

Sloan was secretary of the State Senatefor 17 years, where he was responsible forthe senate’s business affairs and served asan advisor to the majority leadership. Heretired from the position in 1997.

For an in depth look at ESF’s trustees,turn to the feature profile beginning onpage 10.

Chemistry Student NamedFirst Ross S. Whaley EndowedScholarship Recipient

Heather Conway of Warsaw, N.Y. wasselected as the first recipient of the Ross S.Whaley Endowed Scholarship, named forESF’s former president.

Conway is a freshman chemistry majorat ESF.

“I chose to attend ESF because of theschool’s strong chemistry program andwonderful faculty. After meeting someof the chemistry faculty during a collegeopen house, I turned to my mom andsaid, ‘This is where I want to go to school,’”said Conway.

Conway hopes to work in cancer re-search some day.

The scholarship fund was established inMarch 2000 by the college Board ofTrustees and the ESF College Foundation,Inc. Board of Directors to honor Whaleyfor his accomplishments during his 16-yeartenure as president of ESF.

Initial contributions to the endowmentquickly exceeded the foundation’s goal of$100,000 and eventually totaled in excessof $175,000. Donations came from morethan 115 individuals close to Whaley andthe college. The former president said heremains grateful to all those individuals.

“The purpose of higher education is toassist people in reaching their potential,”said Whaley. “When scholarships enableESF to serve that purpose, donors havemade a significant contribution to the bet-terment of all of us.”

The scholarships are awarded based onstudents’ academic achievements and com-munity service. “We believed this would bea particularly nice way to honor Ross, whois so supportive of meritorious students,”said J. Warren Young, a foundation direc-tor and a leader in the campaign to estab-lish the endowment.

Conway says she would not have beenable to attend ESF without the award. “Ithink people who establish scholarships arewonderful and deserve a great deal ofthanks.Their gift of money helps others toachieve their dreams,” she said.

Brock Named Fellow of ASPRSRobert H. Brock, Jr. ’58, professor

emeritus in the Faculty of EnvironmentalResources and Forest Engineering, wasone of two scientists nationwide elected tofellowship in the American Society ofPhotogrammetry and Remote Sensing(ASPRS).

Brock and Roger E. Crystal, retiredfrom the U.S. Forest Service, were electedto the prestigious rank by the ASPRSboard of directors in March. The boardconfers the designation of fellow for pro-fessional excellence and service to the soci-ety. For 40 years, Brock has engaged inmapping sciences research for governmentand private industry. This work led to nu-merous journal articles, papers and reportsin the areas of image analysis, image meas-urement, analyticmapping systems,system calibrationand global posi-tioning systems.His work has co-produced patentsfor a System for

4 Inside ESF Spring 2001

CAMPUS UPDATE

Celebrating Scholarship: Heather Conwayand Ross S. Whaley

Robert H. Brock, Jr. ’58

Correlating Electronic Distance Measure-ment and Aerial Photography for the Ex-tension of Geodetic Control, RadarCalibration Using Direct MeasurementEquipment and Oblique Photometry, anda Surface for GPS Relative Positioning.

Brock has been a member of theASPRS since 1958 and served the societyin a variety of capacities, including as amember of the board of directors and onthe board’s executive committee. Brockalso is active in the American Society forAgricultural Engineers, which oversees thesociety’s EAC/ABET university accredita-tion efforts.

ESF Makes Short Listof ‘Exemplary Institutions’in the Chronicle of HigherEducation

ESF is among 19 colleges and universitiesin the National Survey of Student Engage-ment listed as “Strong Performers: AcademicChallenge” in the Nov. 17, 2000, issue of theChronicle of Higher Education.

According to the article, survey authorssuggest one way of thinking about educa-tional effectiveness is to determine institu-tions where students perform at a very highlevel on one or more benchmarks.

ESF is listed with Miami and Pepper-dine universities as doctoral-intensive in-stitutions where senior-level students areacademically challenged.

“There is a common assumption thatundergraduates are given short shrift atdoctoral-granting institutions,” said RobertH. Frey, dean of Instruction and GraduateStudies. “At ESF, the data say we pay greatattention to our undergraduate students.”

Other institutions and their categorieson the list are: Antioch, Centre, EvergreenState, Sweetbriar and Wesleyan colleges(Liberal Arts Colleges); Barton, Columbia(S.C.), and Covenant colleges (GeneralColleges); College of Saint Catherine(Minn.), Regis, and Saint Michael’s col-leges and the University of Richmond(Master’s Institutions); and BrighamYoung University, Loyola University ofChicago, University of Michigan at AnnArbor, and the University of Virginia(Doctoral-Extensive Universities).

“When you look at all of the institu-tions that were surveyed, many of them aremaster’s- or baccalaureate-granting institu-tions that do not focus a great deal on re-search as part of their mission. Evencompared to them, ESF undergraduatesare very well satisfied,” Frey said.

“We scored, in almost all cases, above theaverage score for doctoral-intensive institu-tions and all other colleges in the survey.”

SUNY Honors Two ESFProfessors for Research

Two ESF professors were among 22SUNY researchers honored for their con-tributions to science and medicine.

Dr. James M. Hassett, chair of the Fac-ulty of Environmental Resources and For-est Engineering, and Dr. Robert M.Silverstein, professor emeritus of Chem-istry, were among guests at the first Chan-cellor’s Recognition Dinner to HonorResearch in Science and Medicine. Thedinner was held at State University Plaza inAlbany Jan. 22.

Hassett is an environmental engineerwhose research focuses on hydrologicmodeling, and water quality managementand modeling. He currently is involved ina number of projects aimed at safeguard-ing the quality of New York City’s drink-ing water.

Hassett’s work also includes the incor-poration of risk assessment into environ-mental decisions. Most recently, his effortsin this area have concentrated on modelingchildhood lead exposure.

Silverstein, who last year was electeda fellow of the National Academy of Sci-ences, is an internationally recognized ex-pert on the chemistry of insect com-munication. He is considered one of thefounders of thefield of chemicalecology.

Silverstein isfamous for hispioneering studyof bark beetles,which led to

Inside ESF Spring 2001 5

CAMPUS UPDATE

‘At ESF, we pay great attention to ourundergraduate students.’ — Robert H. Frey,dean of Instruction and Graduate Studies.

James M. Hassett

Continued on page 6

6 Inside ESF Spring 2001

several scientific breakthroughs, includingthe first identification of an aggregatingpheromone. Silverstein and ESF colleagueDr. John B. Simeone were the founders andlongtime editors of the Journal of Chemi-cal Ecology.

SUNY Chancellor Robert L. King, whorecently announced the goal of doublingthe university’s sponsored research to $1billion annually within five years, used theoccasion of the dinner to praise thestrengths of the SUNY system.

“Each of you has distinguished yourselvesand our University by the body of your work.Learning of the specifics of your work hasvalidated all of my beliefs and my vision forwhere we as a great research institution cango. Your achievements have proven that theState University plays host to tremendous re-search initiatives and has, and will continueto make great contributions to our state, oureconomy and our society,” he told the hon-orees and assembled guests.

Doble Receives FoundationAward for Teaching

Cheryl S. Doble, an associate professorof landscape architecture, was named the2000 recipient of The Foundation Awardfor Exceptional Achievement in Teaching.

In her eighth year of teaching studiodesign courses at ESF, Doble has blendedteaching and research to help communitiesdesign their futures. As director of ESF’sCouncil for Community Design Research,she gathered colleagues and students to ex-amine neighborhoods, preserve historic re-sources and develop green spaces.

“We tend to work with communitieswho can’t afford to pay people to come in,”she said.

All thesetasks involvet e a c h i n g ,Doble says —teaching peo-ple that theycan have thecommunitiesthey crave, andteaching stu-dents the tech-

nical aspects of design and the skills to listento what citizens want.

The Foundation Award for ExceptionalAchievement in Teaching was created by theESF College Foundation, Inc. Board ofDirectors in 1999. The award carries a$1,000 stipend for use in the recipient ’steaching or research pursuits.

Donald J. Leopold received the firstFoundation Award last year.

ESF Celebrates Bob Marshall ’sLegacy

The 100th anniversary of Bob Mar-shall’s birthday was a day of celebration atESF.

The Faculty of Forestry hosted activitiesthroughout the daylong event, which washighlighted by the unveiling of plaquescommemorating the contributions to thecollege of Bob and his father, Louis Mar-shall.

Both plaques hang in the Louis Mar-shall Memorial Hall, the second buildingconstructed on campus.

Both Marshalls were early leaders of theconservation movement. Bob, a 1924 grad-uate of ESF, is widely known for being oneof the first people — along with hisbrother, George, and their guide, HerbClark — to climb all 46 Adirondack HighPeaks. He also hiked extensively in the

West. The sprawling Bob MarshallWilderness, which includes more than amillion acres of pristine wild lands strad-dling the Continental Divide in northwest-ern Montana, is named for him.

Louis Marshall was a leading force inthe founding of ESF. A Syracuse native,Louis was a famous civil rights lawyer witha practice based in New York City. Duringthe 1894 state constitutional convention,he helped develop the article that estab-lished the state forest preserve. Louisserved as president of ESF ’s Board ofTrustees for 18 years after the college’sfounding.

Among the special activities scheduledfor Jan. 19 was a symposium on easternwilderness issues featuring presentations byRebecca Oreskes of the U.S. Forest Service,David H. Gibson of the Association forthe Protection of the Adirondacks, andJames M. Glover, an author and professorat Southern Illinois University.

At 5 p.m., students held a “birthdayparty” in the Alumni Lounge. An eveningbanquet paid tribute to the Marshall fam-ily contributions to ESF. Perry Brown,dean of the University of Montana Schoolof Forestry, spoke on “Wilderness Man-agement in the United States.”

The Faculty of Forestry had many rea-sons to celebrate. According to Dr. WilliamR. Bentley, chair of the Faculty, theForestry’s Millennium Gift Drive hadreached its first year target of $1 million byDec. 31, 2000. The fund will be used tosupport student and faculty scholarship,and enhance the quality of education forstudents pursuing resource managementdegrees at ESF.

CAMPUS UPDATE

Cheryl S. Doble

Inside ESF Spring 2001 7

CAMPUS UPDATE

SUNY Honors TwoESF Graduates

Stuart E. Hosler ’52 andNancy A. Mayer ’71 werenamed to the State Universityof New York 2000 AlumniHonor Roll.

Hosler is the retired ownerof Hosler Agency, an insur-ance agency. He has been ac-tive in community andenvironmental organizations,serving as a member of theboard of managers for DerbyHill Bird Observatory.

He also was president of the OnondagaCounty Nature Center and the OnondagaCounty Chapter of the Audubon Society.

Mayer is currently pursuing a master’sdegree at ESF. She is a manufacturing con-sultant for Donald J. Mayer & Associates,a company she founded with her husbandin 1988. The company helps clients makethe transition from traditional manufactur-ing to cellular/flow manufacturing.

Both Hosler and Mayer are past presi-dents of the ESF Alumni Association.

ESF students and their new presidenthave found a way to trade ideas and keepabreast of each other’s concerns. They callit “Meals with Neil.”

Dr. Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr., who isnearing the end of his first year in office,has been meeting periodically with groupsof students over breakfast or lunch. Theyshare a meal and viewpoints about what’shappening on campus.

Julie L. Rawls, director of student activ-ities, said the get-togethers were suggestedby students who attended a leadership re-treat last fall at the college’s Newcomb cam-pus.They wanted more interaction with thepresident.

Several meals brought students from alleight academic programs to meet withMurphy. On other occasions, Murphy metwith members of ESF’s Learning Commu-nity and with students of color.

Rawls usually attends the meals along withS.Scott Shannon, chair of faculty governance.

Rawls said the issues raised by the stu-dents tend to echo each other from onemeeting to the next such as concerns aboutgeneral education requirements. She saidthe positive comments also tend to be re-peated, such as, “I really feel like people careabout me here.”

During a February meeting, studentsraised issues ranging from the need formore recycling bins around campus to a de-sire for students and staff to act more like acommunity.

Shani White, a fifth-year landscape ar-chitecture major, said she would like to seemore opportunities for ESF students to ob-tain internships. Murphy said other stu-dents have made the same request. Most ofthe experience-based learning at ESF isdone by juniors and seniors, he said, andhe’d like to see it expanded to include morefreshmen and sophomores.

Cesar Yoc, a sophomore environmentalstudies major, said ESF students need to have

a better understanding of society in order tobest use their academic training. Murphyagreed, saying students must understand howtheir training fits into the concept of sustain-ability.He said he would like to see every stu-dent at ESF take a course in the generalconcept of sustainability.

White said after the breakfast thatmeeting with Murphy was one of the ad-vantages of attending a smaller school likeESF. “When one of your hopes is thatyou’re not just a number to the people whorun the college, you find out for sure thatyou’re not,” she said.

Her classmate, Charlene Griffin, hadanother way of assessing breakfast withMurphy. “It’s great,” she said. “At other col-leges, the president is like the wizard, theguy in Oz. You never see him.”

SUNY honorees Stuart E. Hosler ’52 andNancy A. Mayer ’71.

Hungry for Knowledge? Have a ‘Meal with Neil’by Claire B. Dunn

Coan and 12 classmates took part in the annual wintry outingofficially known as winter mammalian ecology, taught byDr. William F. Porter and Richard W. Sage, Jr., director and as-sociate director, respectively, of the Adirondack Ecological Cen-ter at ESF ’s Newcomb campus. They were joined by Dr. JoeMerritt, director of the Powder Mill Biological Station, a field sta-tion of the Carnegie Museum at the University of Pittsburgh.Merritt is an internationally known mammalogist with a strongbackground in winter ecology.

The students earn two credits as they spend a week learninghow animals live in — and adapt to — the deep freeze of anAdirondack winter.

“These kids came because they’d rather be in the snow than inthe sand in March,” Porter said. “These are kids who love thesnow and I think they’re amazed at how much biology is happen-ing in the midst of three to four feet of snow. Or under it.”

This year’s group comprised three graduate students, includ-ing one who attends Yale University, and 10 undergrads.

“It’s the best class I’ve taken,” said junior Aleitha Burns. TheTexas native took the course because she wanted to experience realAdirondack winter.

The students in the 2001 course were greeted by the deepestsnow and best weather Porter has encountered since he beganteaching the course about six years ago. Huntington Wildlife

Spending Spring Break

in Snow, not Sand

Spring break was coming and Bridget Coan EFB ’01 knew exactly

what she wanted to do. “I thought, ‘It’s my last semester. I’m not

going to work. I’m going to go have fun,’ ” she said. So, as college

students from all over the country packed sandals and went

south to party, Coan packed her boots and headed north to

study intensely for a week in snowy Newcomb, N.Y.

“We had a blast,” she said.

by Claire B. Dunn

Forest was under three to four feet ofsnow. The weather was alternately sunnyand snowy, and the snowy periods fea-tured big, puffy flakes drifting down ontoclassically beautiful winter scenery.

The students spend at least half theircourse time — or some five to six hours aday — outside. They study animal physi-ology, anatomy and behavior.

“We try to help them understand howmammals are adapted to living in a coldclimate. We talk about everything fromshrews, which are the smallest, to moose,which are the largest,” Porter said.

“We offer students a field-oriented ed-ucation at ESF, and this is part of that.”

“I’d never done small-mammal track-ing,” Burns said. “We learned to age deerby looking at their teeth.They were actualthings I’ll be doing some day if I work in the field.”

Coan, who is headed to a job working with the U.S. Fish andWildlife Service, said the course combined a lot of learning withhands-on experience and the occasional snowball fight.

“It’s hard to learn that much in only a week. But I learn fasterwhen it’s more hands-on,” she said. “It was very high-paced. Butyou were having so much fun, you didn’t notice.”

Porter said the students who take the course tend to be upbeatextroverts who don’t complain about cold and snow. “The morethey can be in the field, the happier they are,” he said. “That’s whythey’re in Newcomb in March.”

Sage likes to kid the students about taking a winter course dur-ing spring break. “Isn’t that an oxymoron?” he said. “We’re the onlyplace that can have dead of winter during spring break.”

Porter said the students enjoy the “mixof personalities” among the three teach-ers. Coan put it another way: “Dr. Porterand Dr. Merritt are just hysterical,” shesaid. “Dr. Merritt is an absolute riot. He’skind of like Monty Python, going onabout small mammals and just crackingyou up the whole time.”

Merritt, who met Porter several yearsago at a meeting of field station scientists,acknowledges that he likes to serve upeducation with a large dose of entertain-ment. When he presents a lecture, hebases it on research he has done all overthe country. In addition to giving the stu-dents facts they need to know, his methodteaches them about the process they areengaged in.

“They can see the evolution of re-search,” Merritt said. “It puts it in a goodperspective.”

The students spent one day in a spruceswamp, snowshoeing about a mile intothe woods. “The wind was whistling andthe snow was blowing and these kids werethrilled because we got on the trail of aporcupine and we followed it to its den.

And there it was,” Porter said.Sage said some of what the students see has been facilitated by

the center’s staff members, particularly instructional support asso-ciate Charlotte Demers, who spends much of each January andFebruary snowshoeing into the woods to bait and check smallmammal traps. Her work makes it much easier for the students tocatch something in March.

“Everything you do in the winter is twice as hard as it is in thesummer,” Sage said. “Charlotte handles a lot of the logistics.”

Porter called the class a vital part of ESF’s field-oriented educa-tion. One day, which had been set aside for classroom instruction,turned out to be a particularly gorgeous day, by Adirondack winterstandards: sunny and 40 degrees. “We said, ‘It’s too good an oppor-tunity. We’ve got to take the students out,’ ” Porter said. So theyheaded outside and did an exercise in building a snow shelter called

a quin-zhee (an Eskimo word for icehouse), learning first-hand about the prop-erties of snow and how a shelter can helpconserve the energy of a field biologist.

“That ’s doing science,” Porter said.“And that’s what it’s all about.”

Dunn is assistant director of news and pub-lications at ESF.

Inside ESF Spring 2001 9

“These are kids who love the snow and I think they’re amazed at how muchbiology is happening in the midst of three to four feet of snow. Or under it.”

Dr. William F. Porter

On opposite page: Sarah Rickard, left,Jessica Stinson, Tom Meier and AleithaBurns take a break on the trail duringan outdoor class session at HuntingtonWildlife Forest.

Above: Bridget Coan, kneeling, and SarahRickard work in the snow during springbreak at ESF’s Newcomb campus.

ESF students, left, snowshoe into the woodsfor a lesson on how mammals adapt towinter weather.

here was both an air of excitement at the February meet-ing of the ESF Board of Trustees and a realization thatit was a historic occasion.

A little over an hour into the meeting came the news thateveryone had been awaiting with anticipation: Mary O. Donohue,New York’s lieutenant governor, had arrived on campus to attendthe meeting, her first as an ex-officio member of the Board. Dono-hue was greeted warmly by Board members, many of whom sheknew. Taking her place at the table, she watched with interest asESF President Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr. highlighted his timetable

and goals for a college strategicplanning process presentation,“Daring to Dream,” received anenthusiastic response from every-one present, including Donohue.

“You have a lot to be proud of,”she said. “This is a noble vision forthe growth of the college. BothGovernor Pataki and I are enthu-siastic environmental believers andwe are very impressed by the workyou do here at ESF.”

“It was quite an honor to havethe lieutenant governor come toour meeting,” said Thomas C.Burkly, who was installed that dayas chair of the Board. “Her office,

through her counsel, Jill Dunn, has been very supportive of whatwe’ve been doing at ESF.”

Among the colleges in the SUNY system, ESF alone has aBoard of Trustees.The trustees are appointed by the governor andmust be approved by the state Senate. The Board, currently com-prising 15 members, has a powerful influence on the operation anddirection of the college.

Burkly, vice president of Stearns & Wheler, a professional en-gineering firm, has served on the Board since 1997. He first be-came acquainted with ESF when he accepted then-President RossS. Whaley’s invitation to serve on the President’s Council. “Thisis a very special place,” Burkly said. “I noticed that the first time I

came on campus.There is a warmth of feeling among faculty, staff,students and the administration that is quite genuine. That feel-ing is one of the reasons I’m involved with ESF.”

The sentiment is echoed by Daniel T. Fitts, the Board’s newlyelected vice chair, who earned a master’s degree from ESF and Syra-cuse University in 1980. “In my view, the college hasn’t changedsince I was a student,” he said. “When I attended ESF, it was reallylike a family. ESF students came together, did things together, caredfor each other.The school cared for us. I have friends I keep in con-tact with to this day, both students and people I worked with at theschool. I believe that same atmosphere exists today.”

Fitts, executive director of the Adirondack Park Agency, was ap-pointed to the Board by Pataki in 1998. “Being on the Board wasn’tsomething I sought, but when I was asked to serve by the governor,I was quite honored and jumped at the chance,” he said.

When Curtis H. Bauer was appointed to the Board of Trusteesby Gov. Nelson Rockefeller in 1969, ESF was still called the Col-lege of Forestry. “At that time, people appointed to the Board rep-resented geographic areas of the state and were generally involvedin an occupation in line with the subject matter being taught at thecollege,” said Bauer, a forestry consultant with Forecon, Inc. “Thegentleman who represented western New York died suddenly andshortly thereafter I was asked if I was interested in serving on theBoard.”

Over the years, Bauer, who most recently served as chair of theBoard, has witnessed many changesin the duties of the Board.

“In the past, the Board had amuch larger role in the operation ofthe college, which included develop-ment of the budget,” he said. “Alongwith the dean, who was then thechief administrator of the college, weworked out the budget and it went toAlbany for approval by the Legisla-ture. In those days, there was more ofa hands-on role for the Board.”

CAMPUS PROFILE

ESF Trustees:Working to Do What’s Best for the College

T

10 Inside ESF Spring 2001

The college has maintained itsreputation as a close-knit commu-nity, notes Bauer, who graduatedfrom ESF in 1950, but there havealso been striking changes during histerm on the Board.

“ESF has broadened its mission,changing its curriculum to meet theneeds of society,” he says. “Those aredramatic changes that were made

with a great deal of forethought and consideration by the admin-istration and the Board of Trustees. When I was an undergrad,there were very few women students, whereastoday we are now almost evenly balanced be-tween males and females. Our college is defi-nitely not the same college it was in the 1940s.”

The Board has a number of functions, ac-cording to Bauer, not the least of which is toserve as a “sounding board” for the president.“He can come to us and lay out his agenda, thenask us what we think,” he said. “We can makesuggestions, offer our opinions, then supporthim in what needs to be done.”

The Board’s newest member, Stephen F.Sloan, is the former secretary of the New YorkState Senate. Although the February meetingwas his first as a member of the Board, this wasnot his first visit to campus: Sloan earned both his master’s anddoctoral degrees in the field of resource management at ESF. As astudent here, he said, it never crossed his mind that he might some-day be appointed to the Board.

“I probably didn’t know therewas a Board of Trustees when Iwent to ESF,” laughs Sloan, whois also a director of the Board ofthe ESF College Foundation.“But I’ve always had an activeinterest in ESF; I was an adjunctprofessor here for a time and I’vemaintained contact over theyears with the college.”

Sloan believes that his insideknowledge of the workings ofstate government will be a bene-fit to the Board and to ESF. “Iclearly do not want to be a lobby-ist in Albany for the college —

that wouldn’t be appropriate,” he says. “But I do know how stategovernment runs and how politics works, so I can advise the Boardon what might get through the Legislature and what might not fly.I’m looking forward to workingwith Bob Moses, who is also veryattuned to the Albany scene.”

Robert E. Moses’ first introduc-tion to ESF had nothing to do withstate government. Moses’ son,Frank, then a high school junior,had applied for admission to ESF.Moses accompanied his son on a

campus visit andsat in a class-room with him,listening to apresentation onlandscape archi-tecture. “I wasvery impressed,”said Moses, apartner in the law firm of Bond, Schoeneck &King, who has served on the Board since 1997.“I remember seeing all the contributions the de-partment had made to the city of Syracuse as apublic service. It was similar to the program thatis now formalized in the Council for Commu-

nity Design Research, which was cited by the Lieutenant Gover-nor’s Task Force on Quality Communities as being an outstandingexample of the availability of university resources for communityimprovement.”

Moses accepted the appointment to the Board in part becauseof the history and tradition of public service at Bond, Schoeneck& King. “As a partner in the firm, I am trying to fulfill that tra-dition as one of my responsibilities,” he said. This year, his sonwill graduate in May.

William L. McGarry, Jr., vice president and senior counsel ofBristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s Worldwide Medicines Group Tech-nical Operations, is a Central New York native whose love of theAdirondacks has kept him in the area. “All my life, I’ve spent mysummers in the Adirondacks,” said McGarry, who also is a di-rector of the ESF College Foundation. “I’m a pilot and as a hobby,I fly seaplanes. It’s my way of getting to know and understand thetopography of the Adirondacks, which I love. What ESF does,supporting and protecting the environment, is totally consistentwith my philosophy and makeup.”

Inside ESF Spring 2001 11

“As I got to know thepeople and the institu-tion, I realized that this

was a real gem. Sincethen, I’ve become an

enthusiastic supporter.”

William L. McGarry, Jr.

Continued on page 12

12 Inside ESF Spring 2001

McGarry earned his law degreefrom Syracuse University in 1974, buthe admits that he was virtually un-aware of ESF until about 10 years ago.

“That ’s when Ross Whaleyreached out to Bristol-Myers, invit-ing us to the college to let us knowwhat they did and how they wouldlike to establish relationships withthe area’s businesses, especially those

in the scientific field,” he said. “As I got to know the people and theinstitution, I realized that this was a real gem. Since then, I’ve be-come an enthusiastic supporter.”

McGarry agrees with his fellow Board members that ESF isperhaps Central New York’s best kept educational secret and be-lieves that the time has come for more people to learn about thecollege.

“I think that would help in a lot of ways,” hesaid. “It would help to get more money from theState University of New York if there is publicrecognition of an institution like ESF really help-ing New York to improve its environment andquality of life. I think in that respect, ESF pro-vides a larger benefit than any of the other SUNYinstitutions.”

Edward J. Heinrich, Syracuse campus direc-tor of Bryant & Stratton Business Institute, wasasked by a state legislator if he would be inter-ested in serving on the Board. “I was very inter-ested,” said Heinrich, who has been a member ofthe Board since 1997. “I have been very muchaware of the college for many years, with mybackground in education. I have always had ahigh regard for the institution.

“I’ve always been an educator, except for the short period of timewhen I was director of human resources at Eagle Comtronics, butI do think I bring a different view of education. Having worked inboth the public and private sector, I take perhaps a more pragmaticlook at education in general, which lends a different perspective tothe Board. I think with Dr. Murphy coming from a business back-ground, that is absolutely tremendous for the college.”

Heinrich sees changes in the Board’s function under the newpresident.

“Under Dr. Murphy’s leadership, I see the Board growing fromstrictly a fund-raising, statutory responsibility, to being more in-volved in his vision of making the public more aware of the college,the many positives of ESF,” he said. “It’s probably the best kept

educational secret around — that needs to be changed. I think stepsare being taken now to do just that. Any student in the state of New York who has a passion for the environment, is interested inthe programs that ESF offers and is not made aware of the excel-lence of the college, a great disservice is being done to them. ESFis world renowned and has faculty that are world leaders in theirfield — and all of this at state tuition. It ’s phenomenal.”

Gregory Harden, president and CEO of Harden Furniture Co.,a member of the ESF Board since 1998, would like to see the col-lege utilize the Internet in recruiting students. “One of the biggestchallenges for ESF, as for any college, is selling itself,” he said.“There is a lot of competition in the country for students. Twentyyears ago, if you wanted to find a way to market to that universe ofa couple hundred thousand science students a year who would beinterested in your curriculum, you really didn’t have a good way tosegment the market. Maybe you sent a brochure to all the top

science students in the Northeast. But nowwith the Internet, if you have a great look-ing Web site, you can reach those potentialstudents who are doing their college search,and maybe even their applications, online.At Harden, we use the Internet quite a bitand find it to be a wonderful tool.”

Serving on the ESF Board is a natural fitfor Harden. “I’m in an industry that’s relatedto the environmental sciences,” he said.“Harden Furniture not only manufacturesfurniture but we operate a sawmill and ownabout 10,000 acres of timber property in theTug Hill Plateau.”

Harden says that his tenure on the Boardhas been an in-depth learning experience.“It has been very interesting to me to serve

on this Board and to see some of the presentations that have beenmade by faculty,” he said. “It hasbeen almost like going back toschool again — we’ve been exposedto a lot of the curriculum and theeducational aspects of ESF. I as-sumed that as a member of theBoard I’d sit around discussing fi-nances and fund raising and a lot ofadministrative things, but the focusis very much on the curriculum andinstruction. We had our fall meetingat the Huntington Wildlife Stationand it was absolutely fascinating.

“That’s one of the bestthings about this Board.

Everyone bringssomething different

to the table and becauseof that we have a

wealth of experienceand knowledge.”

Heidi J. Busa

We spent quite a bit of time in theforest talking with staff membersand learned a lot of things aboutnorthern hardwood forests. It reallywas a lot of fun.”

Board member Heidi J. Busa alsocites that meeting as a memorableevent. “It gave many of the mem-bers an idea of what ESF is really allabout,” said Busa, an ESF alumna

and science department chair at Marcellus High School. “It wasgreat because we can sit in Board meetings and talk about issuesand all of that, but for us to be up there and see what is taught, totour the campus property, to swim in the lake, was an experience Iwould not have missed for anything in the world. It brought useven more closely together as a Board. It was something that peo-ple could look back on and say ‘That’s what makes ESF special.’ ”

Busa, appointed to the Board in 1998, sees her membership inthe governing body as an opportunity to give back to her alma mater.

“It gives me the chance to share my vision of where I think thecollege should go,” she said. “One of the most important things wedid as a Board was to conduct the search for the new president. Iam very pleased that Dr. Murphy is there, ready to take his visionand move ESF forward into the future.”

For Busa, the concerns of students are the main focus of herwork on the Board. “I think the students are what this school is allabout,” she said.

Busa is actively involved in promoting the college to high schoolstudents, participating in the Environmental Studies Project andteaching the global environment course for the ESF in the HighSchool program.

“I tend to gravitate toward my area of expertise rather than thefinancial aspects of the college,” she said. “That’s one of the bestthings about this Board. Everyone brings something different to thetable and because of that we havea wealth of experience and know-ledge. We complement eachother well and can look at thingsfrom different perspectives.”

Her fellow Board membersagree with that view.

“The Board has a very goodbalance and it’s beneficial to havepeople with different perspec-tives,” said Harden. “When youbring people from different fields

together — people who have been very successful — there is a ten-dency to cultivate some big egos, but that’s not the case with theESF Board. It’s a wonderful mix of individuals who are really in-terested in ESF and the community. They aren’t there to add totheir resumes or to tell the world how important they are.”

“The diversity of the Board will help us to accomplish a num-ber of things simultaneously,” said Sloan. “I know that Tom Burklyis interested in fund raising, whichisn’t my forte. Those kinds of dif-ferences are good to have.”

Said Fitts: “Our Board is really agreat group of people from a verybroad spectrum of work life, gov-ernment, business, and geographiclocations around the state. We workwith a great administration, facultyand staff. I see this as a collegial re-lationship with all of us working to-ward the same goal, which is thebetterment of ESF.”

Providing the student point ofview is Board member Matthew M.Renaud, a senior environmentalstudies major from Kingston, N.Y.He was elected by the students to represent them on the Board inhis sophomore year and has won re-election each year since.

“The Board members are all extremely friendly and welcomingto me as I think they would be to any student in the position,” Re-naud said. “They always listen to what I have to say. After almostevery meeting, several of the members will come up to me andthank me for my comments, because I give them a different per-spective. There is no sense of hierarchy among the Board — we allwork on a common level.”

Renaud, whose career goal is to be a water rights lawyer in thewestern United States, sees his time on the Board as a valuablelearning experience. “I was fortunate to be on the Board during thepresidential search,” he said. “I learned a lot about the college itselfand the financial aspects of higher education. It was a very inter-esting time.”

Having witnessed the Board in action for three years, Renaudbelieves that ESF students can have confidence in their decisions.

“I’ve always been impressed by the time and thought they put intotheir discussions,” he said. “They really do think about the issues andmake informed decisions. They do what is best for the college.”

Meseroll is a free-lance writer based in Syracuse.

Inside ESF Spring 2001 13

“Hey! Tree Guy!”Snow was falling and the temperature was hovering in the low

30s. It was nearly two hours into Syracuse’s three-hour-long St.Patrick’s Parade. But the tens of thousands of spectators who gath-ered for the city’s annual rite of spring were still lined up along thecurb, refusing to be deterred by the less-than-spring-like weather.

Then along came ESF President Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr., with ahandful of staff and a group of students, flanking the first float the col-lege has ever entered in the parade. In the hands of the marchers were1,000 tiny spruce seedlings, bundled up for distribution to peoplealong the parade route.

“Hey! Tree guy! Can I have one?”Before the parade was over, every tree had been handed to a

spectator, including the man who stood on South Salina Street call-ing Murphy “tree guy.” And the students who designed and con-structed the float had had a wonderful time.

“Everything connected with this project was fun,” said PatCostello, a freshman landscape architecture major.

ESF’s participation in the parade was part of the visibility cam-paign that Murphy instituted shortly after he took over last year ascollege president. Other elements of the campaign have been bill-Boards around the city, newspaper advertisements and sponsorshipof traffic bulletins on radio and television.

Entering the parade line-up gave the college a chance to partic-ipate in the centerpiece event of a weekend of St. Patrick’s Day-related activities. This year, the parade’s 19th, saw 157 units follow-ing the green stripe that had been ceremoniously painted along theparade route. Marchers included scores of bands, community groupsand businesses. Bagpipe bands from all over New York participated,as well as bands from Canada and a Mummer string band from thePhiladelphia area. The parade was broadcast live by a Syracuse tel-evision station, and aired a second time that night.

Unlike the other recentvisibility efforts, the float waslargely the work of students,in particular, members of theStudent Construction Asso-ciation and the residents ofESF’s first Learning Com-munity. The Learning Com-munity students live togetheron the eighth floor of SadlerHall and take some classes together.

They also work on community service projects together, which in-cluded placing a gaily lighted evergreen tree in the lobby of Bray Hallduring December. Over a 5-week period students spent evenings andSaturday mornings sawing, painting and hammering, with the assis-tance of staffers from the college physical plant department. On oneoccasion, Murphy joined them and helped with the construction.

The result was a float that carried the message, “Keeping theGreen Alive,” mirroring the parade’s theme of “Saluting the IrishSpirit: Celtic Pride, Alive, Alive O!”

The float, constructed on a college-owned trailer, sported threeeight-foot-tall wooden trees, with an Irish flag hanging amongthem. Around the float’s perimeter, 14 wooden shamrocks rockedfrom side to side. Jimmy Blake, a freshman majoring in environ-mental resources and forest engineering, rode on the float, wearinga bear suit with an ESF sweatshirt tied around his shoulders and aknitted ESF cap perched on one ear.

Several students, including landscape architecture major GeoffGuenther, who headed the Learning Community’s participation,had added some artistic touches to the trees: birds, squirrels, but-terflies and even knotholes to provide homes for the wildlife. JimDaggett, a sophomore majoring in construction management andwood products engineering, used his 20 years’ experience in theconstruction business to provide technical expertise.

“Once we got our main idea down, putting it together wasreally a snap,” Guenther said. “The simple design we worked withwas a good choice. Every time we worked on it, we got a lotaccomplished.”

For the parade, a major civic event that organizers call “thelargest St. Patrick’s parade, per capita, in the United States,” thefloat was hitched to a forest-green ESF van driven by BernieReschke, a general mechanic in the physical plant department.Themarchers donned specially designed ESF sweatshirts that bore themessage, “Keeping the Green Alive,” and handed out all of the1,000 seedlings that had been obtained from the New York StateDepartment of Environmental Conservation.

At the end of the route, the marchers’ sweatshirts were dampwith snow, but their enthusiasm was not dimmed by the decidedlywintry weather.

“We had a great time,” Guenther said.

Dunn is assistant director of news and publications at ESF.

Above Students pose with the float that represented ESF inthe Syracuse St. Patrick’s parade.

ESF students and staff members walked the parade route,distributing 1,000 spruce seedlings to viewers.

Going Somewhere?Going Somewhere?

When you transfer to SUNY-ESF, you’ll be attending theoldest and most respected college in the country focused onthe science, design, engineering, policy and management ofnatural resources and the environment — the college that, forgenerations, has defined “environmental science.”

You’ll work side-by-side with world-renowned professors oncutting-edge research and with students whose commitment toimproving our world mirrors your own.

Apply Now!Office of Undergraduate Admissions Toll-free at 1-800-777-7373 or 315-470-6600E-mail us at esfinfo@esf.edu

Make it the trip of a lifetime

www.esf.edu • Syracuse, New York

Charlene M. GriffinLandscape ArchitectureAlbany, New York

ON CAMPUS

Inside ESFOffice of News & Publications1 Forestry DriveSyracuse, New York 13210-2778

C H A N G E S E RV I C E R E Q U E S T E D

Books and MonographsBlack, Peter E., and Brian L. Fisher ’83, Con-servation of Water and Related Land Resources,Third Edition. CRC Press/Lewis Publishers,Boca Raton, Fla. 494 pages. 2001.

Awards and HonorsBrock, Jr. ’58, Robert H., elected Fellow of theAmerican Society for Photogrammetry and Re-mote Sensing.

Brocke, Rainer H., appointed to the Board ofdirectors, Onondaga County Resource RecoveryAgency, by County Executive Nicholas J. Pirro.December 2000.

Coughlan, Jr., Stephen M., awarded “Best Stu-dent Paper” for his submission on Atlanticsalmon restoration from the New York Chapterof the American Fisheries Society. January 2001.

Dawson, Chad P., and Steven Hollenhorst,named co-managing editors of the InternationalJournal of Wilderness.

Murphy, Jr., Cornelius B., appointed to theBoard of directors, Greater Syracuse Chamber ofCommerce.

Ranger School, Certificate of Appreciation for“continued dedication and support,” NorthernAdirondack Chapter, New York Forest Owners’Association. February 2001.

Savage ’86, James M., Certificate of Apprecia-tion for service as Board member and newslettereditor, Northern Adirondack Chapter, New YorkForest Owners’ Association. February 2001.

Silverstein, Robert M., Lifetime AchievementAward, The Technology Club of Syracuse. Feb-ruary 2001.

SUNY-ESF, Certificate of Appreciation, NewYork State Christmas Tree Growers’ AssociationAnnual Meeting. Oneida, N.Y. Jan., 2001.

CAMPUS CALENDAR

NON-PROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDITHACA, N.Y.

PERMIT NO. 164

May 31 - June 2Alumni Senior Reunion. Syracuse Campus. Additional Information: Office of Alumni Relations, 315-470-6632.

August 3-4Ranger School Reunion, Wanakena, New York. Additional Information: Ranger School Alumni Office, 315-848-2566.

August 10-12Cranberry Lake Reunion, Cranberry Lake, New York. Additional Information: Office ofAlumni Relations, 315-470-6632.

October 5-6 or October 12-13Homecoming Weekend, ESF Campus. Additional Information: Office of AlumniRelations, 315-470-6632.

October 11-12Syracuse Pulp and Paper Foundation Annual Meeting, ESF Campus. Additional Infor-mation: Syracuse Pulp and Paper Foundation, 315-470-6592.

October 17ESF College Foundation Annual Meeting. Additional Information: Office of Develop-ment, 315-470-6683.