The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York), February 13, 2006, Monday

Copyright 2006 Post-Standard
All Rights Reserved.
The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)

February 13, 2006 Monday
FINAL EDITION

SECTION: LOCAL; COLLEGES; Pg. B3

HEADLINE: SU REVIEWS INTERNET POSTINGS

BYLINE: Nancy Buczek Sapna Kollali David L. Shaw Fred A. Mohr

BODY:
Syracuse University students may want to think twice before they send an e-mail or post something on the Internet that could be interpreted by university officials as violating SU's code of student conduct.
Juanita Perez Williams , director of SU's Office of Judicial Affairs, issued a statement Thursday about its policy on student use of the facebook.com Web site following an article in SU's student-run newspaper, The Daily Orange. The article detailed how four students said they were punished by the university after creating and participating in a page on the site that maligned their professor.
"The Office of Judicial Affairs does not conduct investigations," Williams said in the statement. "Rather, we review complaints referred to our attention, determine whether there is sufficient evidence to substantiate a violation of the Code of Student Conduct, and, if so, proceed with the judicial process."
Examples of evidence Williams cited include e-mail, instant messages and information gathered from facebook.com.
Facebook.com was created in 2004 as an online directory for college students to create their own Web sites and connect to other students.
- Nancy Buczek
Doors show displeasure
The membership of the Onondaga Community College Federation of Teachers and Administrators is working without a contract - again, as bright orange signs on some professors' office doors declare.
The union's most recent five-year contract with the college expired Aug. 31. When its contract expired in 2000, it took 12 months for college and union negotiators to reach an agreement. The signs are a way for union members to express annoyance that an agreement hasn't been reached, said union President Kathy Perry .
"At OCC, we have a long history of working without contracts for a year, year and a half. So it's sort of too early for people to get too upset," Perry said.
Negotiators are using an interest-based bargaining technique, a tactic in which both parties identify problems and work to solve them together, rather than going into negotiations with proposals, Perry said.
A facilitator from Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations is working with the group, she said.
"We had gotten to the point where we just weren't making any progress at all," Perry said. She declined to talk about what issues were on the table.
Another meeting is planned for Feb. 20, and a third might be set up before spring break, which begins March 20.
"It would be nice to have it done by the end of the year," Perry said. "We'll see."
- Nancy Buczek
66 going to Gulf Coast
Hamilton College 's Alternative Spring Break program will send 66 students to Louisiana and Mississippi in March to help Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.
ASB is a student-run organization that sends students to the South every year during spring break for community service projects. It began in 1993, when students helped Habitat for Humanity during Hurricane Andrew relief efforts in Miami.
This year's student groups will work with United Way and The Nature Conservancy, both in New Orleans; Louisiana State University and the Boys &Girls Clubs, both in Baton Rouge; Triangle of Hope Ministries in Bogalusa, La.; and Heritage Conservation Network in Biloxi, Miss.
To help raise money for the trip and offset the cost for volunteers, ASB is holding a Not-So-Silent Auction March 2. Silent bidding will take place all day, with a dinner and live auction beginning at 6 p.m. in the Annex.
Anyone interested in donating money or goods to be auctioned can contact Sharon Hakim at shakim@hamilton.edu.
- Sapna Kollali
A whale of a time
Nine Hobart and William Smith Colleges students spent two weeks of their holiday break in West Maui, Hawaii, conducting humpback whale research with a group of scientists from the University of Hawaii.
Sophomore Samantha Wason, of Manlius, and professor Uta Wolfe, of the psychology faculty, were among the group.
Students worked with researchers from the Dolphin Institute to study humpbacks' behavior, song, social organization and migration patterns.
They helped gather photographic and biopsy data for an international humpback whale population project. The program was a first for the Geneva colleges.
- David L. Shaw
Course leads to book
Two teachers at the State University College at Oswego who created a course on how to help children deal with grief wound up writing a book on the subject.
"Counseling Children and Adolescents through Grief and Loss" was written by Jody Fiorini and Jodi Mullen , assistant professors of counseling and psychological services at Oswego.
Fiorini said the topic topped a professional development survey the two conducted several years ago. But when they couldn't find a textbook suitable for a counselor course, they decided to write their own.
In addition to death or divorce, their book discusses coping with entering foster care, moving to a new town and school, and having a parent leave for military deployment, said Mullen.
The authors will sign copies of their book at 7 p.m. March 23 at river's end bookstore in Oswego.
- Fred A. Mohr
Speeding up the process
Cayuga Community College in Auburn is offering a Fast Forward liberal arts sequence to high school students.
The program allows students to attain junior status at a four-year college after one year at CCC.
First, high school students must complete five college-level courses at their high school through the Cayuga Advantage program. Once they obtain their high school diploma, they enroll full time for a year in CCC's liberal arts program.
They pick up two or three more courses during the college's January term and summer breaks, allowing them to earn an associate's degree in liberal arts in one year.
If students have coordinated their course selection with their intended transfer school, then they enroll in a four-year college or university as a junior.
The Fast Forward program makes the goal of a bachelor's degree, career entry or graduate school a reality not only sooner, but at far less expense for tuition, room and board.
Details are available from the college admissions office at 255-1743.
- David L. Shaw