July: New Logos Are Unveiled

Hofstra announced the launch of a new University logo, the shield, designed by Powell New York, a full-service branding and marketing agency. The logo was designed using input from many focus groups, interviews and surveys with students, faculty, staff and alumni. The shield represents the University's commitment to its heritage and a tradition of academic excellence, while the dynamic representation of the H within the shield embodies the evolutionary, changing nature of the University. Hofstra Athletics also has a new logo and is now known officially as "The Pride." The Hofstra Pride refers to a pack of lions, male and female, who work together toward a common goal and symbolize determination and strength.

President Bill Clinton at Hofstra University's Presidential Conference

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation notified Hofstra that it had awarded a prestigious graduate scholarship to Honors College graduate Christina Cipriano '05, who is currently pursuing a master's degree in international educational policy at Harvard University.

Hofstra USA Productions continued its successful summer theater season with a production of Annie Get Your Gun at the John Cranford Adams Playhouse. The following month the group's summer season closed with the East Coast premiere of The Cat's Meow, directed by Ed Dennehy '68.

August: "Ides of March" Finds a New Home on North Campus

The Hofstra Museum installed a diamond-shaped sculpture, "The Ides of March," on the North Campus on August 26. The work by famed sculptor Philip Pavia made headlines last spring when three of its four pieces were stolen from a warehouse at the Hippodrome in Manhattan. The unexplained removal of the three "Ides of March" pieces was very puzzling, as each component was extremely large and weighed approximately 1,000 pounds. The pieces were returned under mysterious circumstances. Mr. Pavia passed away weeks later with the peace of mind that one of his favorite works was again intact. "The Ides of March" is a very recognizable piece of art, as it had been on display outside the New York Hilton on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan for many years.

The Frank G. Zarb School of Business and the North Shore- Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Health System announced on August 16 the addition of two new Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) programs, offered with concentrations in health services management and quality management. The programs, the first of their kind on Long Island, include instructors from North Shore-LIJ. No other business school on Long Island has aligned itself with a hospital or health system to offer such programs.

Hofstra and the company, Ruckus, reached an agreement during the summer that gave students access to Ruckus' digital entertainment network. The agreement between Hofstra and Ruckus makes the service, and its library of more than 1.2 million songs, available to all Hofstra students. Ruckus also allows students to find friends and exchange tracks and playlists through their community and legal music sharing features.

On August 30 Aaron D. Twerski was installed as the new dean of Hofstra University School of Law. The convocation included remarks by the Honorable Judith S. Kaye, chief judge of the state of New York, and James A. Henderson, Jr., the Frank B. Ingersoll Professor at Cornell Law School. Dean Twerski first served the Hofstra Law School community as a faculty member as well as interim and associate dean from 1972 through 1986. He is a scholar of international renown in torts and liability. On August 31 Hofstra announced that it would help accommodate displaced students from colleges and universities in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The University registered students from affected institutions under "visiting" student status and provided special academic advisement, counseling, and financial aid assistance to students and their families.

September: Start to an Exciting Semester Begins With a Grant for Excitable Media

The semester began on September 6 with the University's third New Student Convocation. This new tradition, held at the John Cranford Adams Playhouse, allows Hofstra's senior officials to formally welcome freshmen and transfer students and introduce them to the faculty and administrators with whom they will work during their college years.

Hofstra received a three-year grant with anticipated funding of $270,000 from the National Science Foundation for the investigation of "Fundamental Principles Governing Spontaneous Activations of Chemical Excitable Media." Dr. Harold M. Hastings, professor and chairperson of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Dr. Sabrina G. Sobel, associate professor of chemistry, are leading the project. The cardiac electrical system is perhaps the best known biological excitable medium. What are commonly known as heartbeats , for example, are the results of electrical activations which are propagated through the atria and ventricles.

A state-of-the-art digital Language Learning Center opened at Calkins Hall, featuring IBM flat screen computers, SMART interactive white boards and Sony Virtuoso software. The 44-station Language Learning Center, which includes a language classroom and small wireless lab, features a total of 65 computers. Flat screen monitors have PC-TV cards that allow the computers to receive satellite or digital cable footage. Advanced language students – studying everything from Arabic to Swahili – will be the primary users of the Center. However, other members of the campus community, such as professors who may be traveling to other countries to study and ESL students will also use the equipment to refine their language skills.

September 15 and 16 an international conference, titled "Youth Employment in the Global Economy," was held to examine the far-reaching implications of an important job sector. The number of young people with jobs in the United States has fallen to its lowest level since 1948, when the government first started counting. The conference analyzed the forces behind young Americans' worsening economic status and the most promising strategies to improve their future employment prospects.

October: Legal Lectures Take the Spotlight

October 14 Hofstra began its Homecoming Weekend festivities with the Alumni Awards Dinner, honoring Phil Rosenthal '81, Norm Coleman '71, Martin Greenberg '60, Donna Mendes '73, Elaine Sherman '78, Horace and Amy Hagedorn, and Robert Salvatico '95 (see profiles in Hofstra Update, fall 2005 issue). The October 15 Homecoming parade, featuring the float theme of "Board Games," started at Oak Street and finished at James M. Shuart Stadium, where the Pride later celebrated a 44-0 Atlantic 10 Conference victory over the Maine Black Bears. On October 16, Phil Rosenthal, the creator and executive producer of Everybody Loves Raymond – joined by his wife, Monica Horan '84, who played "Amy" on the show – performed a benefit show at the John Cranford Adams Playhouse. There he waxed nostalgic on the sitcom and revealed how his real-life family experiences inspired some of Raymond's funniest moments.

Professor of Law J. Herbie DiFonzo presented the Fall 2005 Distinguished Faculty Lecture on October 19, titled "The Surprising Unreliability of DNA Evidence: A Tale of Bad Labs and Good Statutes of Limitations." The lecture explored how DNA evidence has proven itself to be unexpectedly unreliable, due not to any question about the scientific principles underlying its methodology, but rather to the public DNA labs' systemic corruption, gross negligence and endemic failure to properly train technicians on how to process DNA samples.

On October 20 Raymond Cross, whose legal career is chronicled in the book Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes and the Trial That Forged a Nation (Little, Brown Publishing Co., 2004), was the guest speaker for the 13th Annual Axinn Lecture Series. Mr. Cross, who works extensively with Indian tribes, Indian organizations and federal agencies on issues of Indian education, tribal self-determination and cultural and natural resources preservation, received a Hofstra Presidential Medal, one of the University's highest honors.

For the third consecutive year, Hofstra University was the host and site of a unique musical and educational event. On October 20 and 21, approximately 200 Long Island seventh graders performed alongside 100 players of the Hofstra Symphonic Band, who acted as teachers and mentors to their younger counterparts. Rehearsals on October 20 and on the early evening of the following day culminated in a concert for family and friends at the Hofstra University Arena at 8 p.m. on October 21. The event was organized by Professor Peter Loel Boonshaft.

The School of Communication hosted an October 26 appearance by Aaron Brown, formerly of CNN, who spoke to students from all disciplines at the Lowenfeld Conference and Exhibition Hall, Axinn Library.

Hispanic Heritage Month continued on October 28 with "Beyond Borders: A Celebration and Exploration of Hispanic Culture, Education and Life," a symposium co-directed by Hofstra Professors Andrea Garcia and Miguel-Angel Zapata. The event featured an array of international guests with the goal of bringing together diverse voices from different fields to engage in a dialogue about issues that shape Hispanic lives in New York and Latin America, including culture, literature, arts, education, politics and everyday life.

The School of Law held its fifth major conference on legal ethics, October 30 to November 1, titled "Lawyers' Ethics in an Adversary System." The conference marked the 30th anniversary of the publication of Hofstra Law Professor Monroe Freedman's seminal book, Lawyers' Ethics in an Adversary System (Bobbs Merrill, 1975), which remains one of the most influential books ever written on the subject of legal ethics. Over the course of the three-day event, 19 speakers from around the country – with as many different perspectives – examined the ethics of lawyers in an adversary system. Highlights included a keynote address by Alan M. Dershowitz, Harvard Law School's Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law.

November: Presidential Conference Makes Hofstra History

In celebration of Hofstra's new Department of Religion and the establishment of the Msgr. Thomas J. Hartman Chair in Catholic Studies, Archbishop Joseph M. Zycinski, Ph.D., presented a lecture on November 7 titled "The Evolutionary Genesis of the Human Person in the Evolving Universe." Archbishop Zycinski is the author of nearly 40 books on philosophy of science, relativistic cosmology, and the history of the relationship between natural sciences and Christian faith.

The "Great Writers, Great Readings" series continued for a second year of high-profile appearances by acclaimed writers. On November 7 Haruki Murakami spoke at Monroe Lecture Center Theater. Mr. Murakami's books published in the past five years include Kafka on the Shore, Sputnik Sweetheart, A Wild Sheep Chase, Underground, Norwegian Wood, and South of the Border, West of the Sun. Playwright Donald Margulies completed the fall 2005 semester schedule of the series on November 17. Mr. Margulies received the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Dinner With Friends.

November 10 to 12 Hofstra hosted its 11th presidential conference, William Jefferson Clinton: The "New Democrat" From Hope. Former President Clinton delivered a major address at the Hofstra University Arena on the first day of the conference where he said, "If I could live my life over again, I would not avoid a life of public service. With all its slings and arrows, I would do it all over again." The conference included the participation of scholars, journalists and many members of the former president's Cabinet, including Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; Permanent Representative to the United Nations Richard C. Holbrooke; White House Chief of Staff Thomas "Mack" McLarty III; Director of the Office of Management and Budget and Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta; Secretary of Defense William Perry; Chief of Staff John D. Podesta; Attorney General Janet Reno; and U.N. Chief Weapons Inspector in Iraq Scott Ritter.

On November 14 E. R. Shipp, columnist for the New York Daily News and former reporter for The New York Times, was installed as the University's Lawrence Stessin Distinguished Professor of Journalism. Since 1994 Shipp has been a columnist for the New York Daily News. She was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1996 for her penetrating columns on race, welfare and other social issues.

There was a ribbon-cutting ceremony on November 22 to celebrate the opening of the Trading Room at Hofstra's Frank G. Zarb School of Business. Located in the Zarb School's technologically enhanced classroom building, this facility has 34 dual-panel Bloomberg terminals that provide access to Bloomberg Professional services. The facility offers opportunities for individuals to access and analyze a vast array of financial and economic data, apply analytical methods and conduct interactive trading simulations. At the ceremony, former Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Arthur Levitt, Jr., received a Presidential Medal from the University.

In celebration of its 10th anniversary, the School of Communication hosted a tribute to the late Madeline Kahn '64 at Tribeca Grill in Manhattan on November 30. All proceeds from "Memories of Madeline" benefited an endowed scholarship in the actress's name for a film or television student. In attendance were many celebrities, including Jane Alexander, Barbara Barrie, Bill Cosby, Ms. Kahn's husband John Hansbury, Eric Mendelsohn, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Klein and Wendy Wasserstein.

Two Zarb School of Business faculty members were named distinguished professors in a ceremony on November 30. Esmeralda O. Lyn, professor of finance and chairperson of the Department of Finance, was installed as the C.V. Starr Distinguished Professor of Finance and International Financial Services. George J. Papaioannou, professor of finance, was installed as the C.V. Starr Distinguished Professor of Finance and Investment Banking.

December: Physics Launches New Stargazing Program

The Department of Physics and Astronomy launched a new program called "Stars on Sundays" to take place the first Sunday of every month. Guests from both on campus and off view the evening sky from the fourth-floor astronomical observatory of the Chemistry/Physics Building on California Avenue. For the first program on December 4, stargazers were able to see the best view of Mars, at its closest point to the Earth until 2018.

On December 6 law enforcement officials, education scholars, school personnel and administrators, parents and representatives from faith-based and governmental agencies from Nassau and Suffolk counties convened at Hofstra for a conference co-sponsored by the School of Education and Allied Human Services, titled "Youth, Violence and Gangs: A Call to Action II." The event analyzed the gang problem spreading throughout Long Island and taught current intervention strategies.

John D. Miller '79 was elected chairman of the Hofstra University Board of Trustees. Mr. Miller previously served as vice chair of the Board. The other elected officers to the board are Vice Chair Joseph M. Gregory '74, president of Lehman Brothers, Inc.; Vice Chair Edwin Reed, CFO of the Greater Allen Cathedral of New York in Jamaica, Queens; and Secretary Marilyn Monter, vice president of The Holiday Organization and a 1976 graduate of Hofstra Law School.

Dr. Laurie Johnson, a professor in the School of Education and Allied Human Services with expertise in conflict resolution, was awarded a prestigious Fulbright grant to work extensively with counselors and teachers in Cyprus. Cyprus has been a divided land since 1974, when Turkey invaded the island, ethnopolitically dividing it into Orthodox Christian Greek Cypriots in the south and Muslim Turkish Cypriots in the north.

Dave Cohen, former defensive coordinator at the University of Delaware, was named head football coach on December 13. Cohen became Hofstra's seventh head football coach in the program's 65-year history, replacing Joe Gardi, who retired at the end of the 2005 season after 16 years at the helm. Midyear commencement, celebrated on December 22 at the Hofstra University Arena, marked the first graduation ceremony for Saturday College, a relatively new division of the University that allows students to complete their bachelor's degree by taking courses on the weekend. The ceremony's honorary degree recipient was Dr. Colin Goddard, chief executive officer of OSI Pharmaceuticals.

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