February 2005
Congresswoman Sue Kelly holds
press conference at SUNY Orange
 U.S.
Congresswoman Sue Kelly held a press conference today at SUNY Orange
to announce that she is introducing legislation in the U.S. House
of Representatives that would enable college students or parents
to deduct all tuition expenses on their federal income tax return. "With
tuition costs rising faster than salaries and inflation, it is
time to provide Orange County families with the ultimate financial
aid for college," Kelly said. Dr. William Richards, president
of SUNY Orange, said "I strongly support Representative Kelly's
bill to allow families to deduct the full cost of college tuition
on their federal income tax return."
The name of the bill is More Money for College Act.
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Nick Mancini restoring leather
coverings in Morrison Hall
Orange County Community College is rare among community colleges
in the SUNY system in its beautiful and historic Middletown campus.
The centerpiece of the campus, donated over 50 years ago by Middletown's
Morrison family, is magnificent Morrison Hall, featuring Louis
Comfort Tiffany lighting fixtures and a large stained glass window,
a variety of marble and wood from around the world, ceiling murals,
exquisite carvings, and woodwork that could not be duplicated today.
The challenge of keeping the building historically accurate while
preserving its beauty is one the College takes seriously, so when
the leather wall coverings in the dining room on the first floor
showed signs of serious wear and damage, SUNY Orange alumna and
Morrison descendent Siggie Morrison donated $7,000 to the College
to hire craftsman Nick Mancini to restore the panels.
"It's a rewarding job," said Mancini. "I like repairing
something that's been around for 100 years and restoring it to
almost its original state."
Mancini, who works with a muralist partner, has been working in
the field of high-scale residential work, doing finishes for walls
for 33 years. He does gold leafing, antiquing, Venetian plasters,
and more, and can tell simply by looking at a wall - no matter
how old it is - how many layers of different colors went on it
to achieve the look.
For instance, in the dining room at Morrison Hall, he was able
to discern that the mouldings that held the 13 leather wall covering
panels in place were not only originally mahogany, but were also
gilded in silver.
"I know how to see through colors," Mancini said. "It's
what I do."
Mancini can also duplicate finishes, making exact duplicates of
any texture. Using his long experience and the right techniques,
he can even make a wall look like suede, he says.
So restoring the leather wall coverings is "not a big job," he
shrugged.
"They were unbelievably dirty," he said. "I removed
the contaminants. You could actually hear the leather moving -
crackling."
Mancini's attention to detail and historical accuracy is precise,
down to the glue he used to replace the panels. After he bought
new cotton muslin to back the panels, he got wheat paste, an old-fashioned
adhesive that was used to hang the wall coverings in the early
1900s.
"Nobody really uses it," said Mancini, "but you
can still buy it. It becomes a very strong adhesive. I used it
when I was a kid [working for my father.] It'll adhere to these
panels."
Because the plaster is sound, but is breaking down in some places,
Mancini took an extra step and built panels to mount the wall coverings
on, for easy removal for future repair and cleaning.
It is these extra steps that make Mancini such a good match for
a place like Morrison Hall - a dedicated, skilled craftsman interested
only in restoring the original beauty of a building, and a building
whose beauty is available to all who wish to learn in Orange County.
Mancini ran a loving hand across the woodwork in Morrison Hall. "You
couldn't build a place like this today," he said.
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Experience the Mind/Body Connection at
SUNY Orange's Institute for Health Care Providers
MIDDLETOWN - Individuals as well as health care professionals
will have a lot to learn at the newly offered Mind/Body Connection,
a monthly Health and Wellness workshop series beginning this semester
at Orange County Community College's new Institute for Health Care
Providers.
Sponsored by the College's Continuing and Professional Education
(CAPE), the Institute for Health Care Providers features courses
offered by instructor Arlene Prince, a specialist on the subject
of holistic health care options. A clinician in private practice,
Prince has a lifetime of experience living, working and teaching
techniques that bring healthy living and thinking into a positive
focus for life.
One of the most powerful courses Prince will offer at SUNY Orange
this spring is "The Amazing Power of Your Mind," a course
she particularly likes.
It's one of my favorite courses," she says, "because
it draws the widest number of people."
The course focuses on the untapped 90 percent of the brainpower
most people don't draw upon, and teaches practical methods for
harnessing this powerful tool to create a healthier life.
Other courses include "The Healing Journey", a course
targeted to enhance students' own mind/body abilities to heal,
and allow people to more actively participate in their own recoveries.
Over 60 to 90 percent of all illness is caused by our inability
to manage stress," says Prince. She says her courses, like "Using
Mind/Body Techniques for Healthy Weight Mangement", "Mind/Body
Program for Optimal Aging-Live Longer", and "Stress Management
Using Mind/Body Techniques" all make use of methods to manage
chronic pain and insomnia, increase energy and positive thinking,
creativity and personal growth.
Prince has studied with various experts, including her mentor,
Dr. Leo Roy, M.D., Canada's first holistic physician; cancer specialist
Dr. Bernie Siegel, M.D.; and she has also studied "Peak Performance
Enhancement" and "Mind/Body Medicine" at Harvard.
Prince is also a speaker, a motivational life coach, and a clinician
in private practice in Warwick, NY. She is the former host and
producer of the radio show "The Mind/Body Connection."
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MEMORIAL SERVICE TO HONOR DR. JAMES LYNCH,
FEB. 8
 A
memorial service honoring Dr. James Lynch will be held on Feb.
8, 2005 at 11 a.m. at Orange Hall Theater at Orange County Community
College's Middletown campus at 115 South Street in Middletown.
Lynch, a professor of English at SUNY Orange, died Tuesday afternoon,
Jan. 11, 2005. He was 61.
Jim Lynch made every class a work of art, challenging students
to think and to love literature," Chris Godwin, English and
Foreign Languages department chair said. "He fired up his
students; he connected the best of our literary heritage with current
life. Jim was also one of our true leaders as Governance president,
Cultural Affairs chairman, and a colleague greatly respected and
admired."
Popular with students, with colleagues and with staff, Lynch pioneered
new courses, advocated for others, and never stopped learning himself
throughout his long career in academia.
Jim did a rare thing at the end of his professional career: he
decided to take on significant responsibilities, and was a gifted
Governance president," said Dr. William Richards, president
of SUNY Orange.
Former students, staff, and faculty are scheduled to make presentations
at his memorial, including Dr. William Richards, president of SUNY
Orange; Roberta Glinton, chair of the SUNY Orange board of trustees;
Christine Godwin, chair of the English department; poet Joan Siegel
and Anne Sandor, English department instructor and former student
of Dr. Lynch.
In addition, there will be a video tribute to Dr. Lynch.
A bench will be placed on the historic campus, and a tree will
be planted in his memory. A scholarship will also be established
for SUNY Orange students. For more information on how to contribute,
please contact Pat Cregar from the college's Educational Foundation
at (845) 341-4769.
A devoted Shakespearean and Jungian scholar, Lynch was involved
in campus life and was an advocate for faculty. At the time of
his death, he was in his second term as president of the campus
Governance system.
Jim Lynch began his career at SUNY Orange 24 years ago, in 1981,
after previous stints as an English professor at Oregon State University,
a lecturer at the Center for Jungian Studies at Wainwright House
in Rye, New York, and as a teaching assistant at the University
of California at Davis, where he earned both his master's degree
and his Ph.D.
Lynch's interests ranged widely, from myths to movies, and he
freely shared those interests with the community and with the students
at SUNY Orange. He created two popular courses, "Introduction
to Mythology" and "Fantasy Fiction", which delves
into Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" and the Arthurian
legend. He gave numerous guest lectures on campus and throughout
the community on various films, and published widely on archetypes
in literature, on various aspects of myth, and on cinema.
His interests even included pop culture. He presented a paper
called "Martin Scorsese's ‘Taxi Driver'" at a philological
conference.
Lynch was chairman of the SUNY Orange Cultural Affairs Committee
from 1985-1988. He was also chair of the academic policy committee,
and served on the editorial board of "Esprit", a literary
magazine by and for faculty throughout the SUNY system. Lynch also
served on the Chester school system Board of Education.
Lynch was SUNY Orange's first recipient for a CUNY Fellowship
for post-doctoral study in English.
He leaves behind a wife, Gisela, three children and two grandchildren,
and a campus community much enriched by his contributions, and
saddened by his loss.
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SUNY Orange receives over $1
million from Oracle for technology
MIDDLETOWN - Orange County Community College
is the recipient of over $1 million in technology grant money from
Oracle's Campus Enterprise Application Interface (EAI) Program.
The purpose of the grant is for the college to implement Oracle's
portal solution product over the next five years. This means, according
to Jim Dutcher, associate vice president for technology at SUNY
Orange, that the college will be able to increase many online services
for students.
"We want to be able to offer anything online that we offer
face-to-face," says Dutcher, "including admissions, registration,
communications, bill-paying, and even more flexible learning environments
than we offer now."
Even more, says Dutcher, the Oracle environment will enhance the
administration's operations, allowing the college to collaborate
and work electronically in virtual groups and by department, sharing
calendars and other information.
The best part, says Dutcher, is that the portal system works with
the technology that the college has in place. "Portal systems
allow us to integrate with the current infrastructure," he
says. "It allows us to create an electronic front door. The
key of a portal is that it allows us to integrate with current
technology without having to replace it."
Dutcher says a beta system will probably be in place by Spring
2005, with a full roll-out of the system targeted by Fall 2005.
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