About Hofstra
Hofstra University is a dynamic private college on Long Island, NY, where students can choose from more than 140 undergraduate and 150 graduate programs in liberal arts and sciences, business, communication, education, health and human services, and honors studies, as well as a School of Law and School of Medicine. | more |
Events
Year in Review: 2008
January | February | March | April | May | June/July | August | September | October | November | December
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Herman A. Berliner outside the Chemistry and Physics Building, named in his honor by Hofstra Trustee Alan J. Bernon ’76, who had once been Dr. Berliner’s student.
October
October 2: Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo and President of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haass discussed "What Will the Next President Do? Identifying the U.S. Agenda for 2009" at the John Cranford Adams Playhouse.
October 2: Hofstra Law School hosted "U.S. Supreme Court at a Turning Point?" a panel discussion about important cases under review by the U.S. Supreme Court and how the presidential election would affect the Court's composition. The panel included Hofstra Law Professors Robin Charlow, Leon Friedman, Julian Ku and Eric Lane.
October 2: Students, faculty and members of the public assembled at Hofstra in the Student Center Theater to view and discuss the vice presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
October 3: The Department of Drama and Dance launched its fall 2008 season with Luis Alfaro's Electricidad, a modern retelling of Sophocles' Electra. This was followed later in the mouth with the musical Footloose and in November with Howard Sackler's The Great White Hope, presented in conjunction with the Hofstra Cultural Center conference The Greatest: From Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali.
October 3: The Department of Music presented its Fourth Annual Benefit Concert, followed by a number of student recitals and performances this fall. These included the Hofstra Collegium Musicum, the Hofstra Chorale and Chamber Singers, Hofstra Opera Theater, Hofstra Jazz Ensemble, Hofstra Symphony Orchestra, Hofstra Chorus and String Orchestra, and Hofstra Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band.
October 5: The Joseph G. Astman International Concert Series launched its fall 2008 season with the theme, "All American Music." Concerts included Politics and Protest, featuring legendary folk singer, composer and lyricist Oscar Brand on October 5; On the Stump, featuring Jeff Newell's New-Trad Octet on November 2; and Made in America: A Musical Tribute to the Land of Opportunity, featuring vocalist Betsyann Faiella on December 7.
October 7: Two noted economists, Dr. Nouriel Roubini and Dr. Alice M. Rivlin, examined the state of the U.S. economy and its impact on the 2008 presidential campaign at a town hall meeting. The discussion was facilitated by Dr. Robert Guttmann, professor and chair of Hofstra's Department of Economics.
October 7: Presidential campaign speeches and their impact on American politics and the nation was addressed by Michael A. Cohen, author of Live From the Campaign Trail: The Greatest Presidential Campaign Speeches of the Twentieth Century and How They Shaped Modern America. The program looked at the history of presidential stump speeches and the promises made by candidates.
October 7: Students, faculty and members of the public assembled at Hofstra's Student Center Theater to view and discuss the second presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.
October 10: Hofstra Law School's Journal of International Business and Law, the Frank G. Zarb School of Business and The National Security Network sponsored "U.S. Foreign Policy and Its Effect on the Domestic Economy." Hofstra Law Professor Daniel J.H. Greenwood moderated the panel, which included Yale Professor of Law Lea Brilmayer, New York University Stern School of Business Dean Thomas Cooley, George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs Director of Graduate Programs Karl F. Inderfurth, Auspex Group Chairman and Chief Investment Officer Dennis Keegan, and Yale Professor of Law Michael Reisman.
October 11: Hofstra students "Rocked the Debate" at a free concert on the Intramural Fields. The event included student performances by the Alpha Phi Alpha step team, SPIT and 6th Element. Afterward, special guest Lisa Hannigan opened for the day's featured performer, Jason Mraz.
October 12: The American Chamber Ensemble, a professional music group in residence at Hofstra, performed a program of works by former Hofstra professor Elie Siegmeister and Elliot Carter in celebration of their 100th birthdays. The concert also featured premiere performances of works by Long Island composers.
October 13: Writer, lecturer, editor and feminist activist Gloria Steinem discussed gender and race in politics, just two days before the final presidential debate at Hofstra. Ms. Steinem is president of Voters for Choice.
October 14: Hofstra President Stuart Rabinowitz rang the opening bell at the NASDAQ stock exchange in New York in honor of Hofstra's historic hosting of the third and final 2008 presidential debate the following day. Joining President Rabinowitz were New York State Comptroller and Hofstra alumnus Thomas DiNapoli; Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray; Village of Hempstead Mayor Wayne Hall; John D. Miller, then chair of the Hofstra Board of Trustees; and Hofstra Trustees Helene Fortunoff, Arthur J. Kremer, Donna Mendes, Marilyn B. Monter (current chair of the board), Edwin C. Reed and Debra Sandler.
October 14: Costumed professional actors and Hofstra students staged historical re-enactments as one of the events leading up to Hofstra's hosting of the third presidential debate on October 15. The Center for Civic Engagement presented Democracy in Performance at the John Cranford Adams Playhouse and in tents on the South Campus quads. This event grew out of an Educate '08 class taught by taught by Professor of Speech Communication, Rhetoric and Performance Studies Lisa Merrill, Ph.D., titled "Democracy in Performance."
October 15: After more than two years of planning and preparation, Hofstra was the proud host of the third and final 2008 presidential debate between then-Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain. The debate at Hofstra was the first debate held in New York state since 1960 and the first ever at a New York college.
October 15: The Council on Foreign Relations and Hofstra's Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency hosted a press briefing titled "Bailed Out or Bogged Down: Economic Challenges Facing the Next President," featuring Edward Alden, the Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow for the Council on Foreign Relations and former Washington bureau chief of Financial Times; Brad W. Setser, fellow for geoeconomics, Council on Foreign Relations; and Meena Bose, director, Hofstra's Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency.
October 15: Hofstra Law School held a series of teach-ins on the "Challenges for the Next President," which included panel discussions on "Human Rights and Immigration Law" with special guest Yale Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh; "The Supreme Court" with Hofstra Law Professors Robin Charlow and Leon Friedman; "The Economic Crisis" with Hofstra Law Professors J. Scott Colesanti, Ronald J. Colombo, Daniel J.H. Greenwood and Norman I. Silber; "Health Care" with Hofstra Law Professors Efthimios Parasidis and Joel Weintraub; and "National Security" with Hofstra Law Professors Eric Freedman, Leon Friedman, Scott Horton and Julian Ku.
October 20: Hofstra's Chemistry & Physics Building was named Herman A. Berliner Hall. Hofstra alumnus and Trustee Alan J. Bernon '76 donated the funds to name the building as a tribute to his former teacher. "What could be better than naming one of our new important buildings, our science building, after someone who began his career at Hofstra as a faculty member and in his 39th year at Hofstra has been responsible for Hofstra's academic progress to date?" said President Stuart Rabinowitz.
October 22: "The Bible, the Koran, and Dr. Seuss: Faith-Based Prisons in the 21st Century," a lecture by Winnifred Sullivan, Ph.D., examined the role of religion in our penal system and the views of the presidential candidates on the role and purpose of incarceration. Dr. Sullivan is the author of Paying the Words Extra: Religious Discourse in the Supreme Court of the United States; The Impossibility of Religious Freedom; and Prison Religion: Faith-Based Reform and the Constitution.
October 27: Hofstra mourned the passing of Trustee Emeritus Robert E. Brockway '46, professor of marketing, senior executive-in-residence and special assistant to the dean of the Frank G. Zarb School of Business. Bob Brockway had a distinguished business career that included serving as president of the CBS Video Recording Division, president of Polygram Corporation, and chairman and CEO of Olympus Corporation. In 2007 his son, Peter, established a distinguished professorship in his father's name in the Department of Marketing and International Business. Bob Brockway and his wife, Hope (Morehouse) Brockway '45, were recipients of the 2006 Marjorie and James M. Shuart Alumni Family Award in recognition of their friendship and service to the University.
October 28: Former White House Press Secretaries Dee Dee Myers and Ari Fleischer continued the on-campus dialogue about the presidential election at Monroe Lecture Center Theater. Myers, who served during the Clinton administration, was the first woman and youngest person ever to serve as White House press secretary. Fleischer was the primary spokesperson for President George W. Bush and delivered the daily White House briefings from 2001 to 2003.
October 29: Hofstra University and the Hofstra University Museum dedicated a new sculpture, Frederick Douglass Circle, at the Monroe Lecture Center Courtyard, South Campus. The sculpture, designed by artist Vinnie Bagwell, was chosen from five other finalists by President Rabinowitz based on a recommendation from Hofstra University Museum Director Beth Levinthal, Provost Herman Berliner, and students. "The drive for this sculpture came from a student referendum several years ago encouraging the University to invest in artwork that reflected the diversity of our campus," said President Rabinowitz.
October 30 to 31: The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, in cooperation with the Hofstra Cultural Center, presented I Am Going to Speak About Hope, an international poetry symposium celebrating the work of Cesar Vallejo on the 70th anniversary of his death. The symposium was accompanied by a theatrical production, I Am Going to Speak..., conceived and performed by Bob Spiotto, executive producer of Hofstra Entertainment.
