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Alumnus Honors Business Professor Harold Lazarus With an Endowed Chair
Harold “Hal” Lazarus, one of Hofstra’s longest tenured professors and a former dean of the Frank G. Zarb School of Business, was honored on April 30 at a convocation celebrating the establishment of the Harold Lazarus Endowed Chair in China Studies.
The chair was endowed by a gift to Hofstra from longtime trustee and alumnus Alan Bernon ’76, president of Dean Dairy Group, a division of Dean Foods of Dallas. “I wanted to give a gift in recognition of someone who I believe made a difference in my life, and that is Hal Lazarus,” he said.
Harold Lazarus, Ph.D., is the Mel Weitz Distinguished Professor of Business in the Department of Management, Entrepreneurship and General Business at the Zarb School of Business. Dr. Lazarus first arrived at Hofstra in 1952 and taught business for 12 years. He returned to Hofstra in 1973 after 10 years as a professor of management at New York University Graduate School of Business Administration, where he won a trophy for teaching excellence. He served as dean of the Zarb School for seven years.
Dr. Lazarus has taught at Columbia University Graduate School of Business, Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, American College and The New School. Dr. Lazarus served as Phi Beta Kappa visiting scholar at the University of Washington, Lafayette College and Elmira College. He has had seven books and more than 65 articles published. He chairs the board of Phi Beta Kappa Alumni of Long Island. An organization development consultant, Dr. Lazarus lectures in Europe, Asia, and North and South America on leadership, managing time, managing change, effective meetings, problem solving, decision making and communications. He was twice voted “Teacher of the Year” by Hofstra graduate business students.
Alan Bernon graduated from Hofstra with a B.B.A. in finance and has been a Hofstra trustee for 15 years. He served as president of Garelick Farms in Franklin, Massachusetts, from September 1985 until July 1997, when Garelick was acquired by Dean Foods. Mr. Bernon has served on the board of directors and became president of Dean Dairy Group in January 2006.
Susan Sullivan and Lainie Kazan Return to the John Cranford Playhouse
This spring the John Cranford Adams Playhouse was the stage where two famous alumnae, Susan Sullivan and Lainie Kazan, performed for the campus and the community at large. Both shows, Agnes of God and Lainie Kazan – In Concert, were presented by Hofstra Entertainment, formerly Hofstra USA Productions.
On March 24 Susan Sullivan co-starred with Long Island native Talia Shire for a special benefit staged reading of the play Agnes of God. Susan Sullivan, who played “Dr. Martha Livingston,” is best known for her work on Falcon Crest, Another World, My Best Friend’s Wedding and Dharma & Greg.
Talia Shire, a former Long Islander, is recognized for her leading roles in the Rocky and Godfather movies. She is the sister of Hofstra graduate Francis Ford Coppola. Ms. Shire portrayed “Mother Miriam Ruth” in this production of Agnes of God. Costarring with these leading ladies was Hofstra student Missy Dowse from Smithtown, New York, who performed admirably with the two seasoned actresses in the challenging role of “Sister Agnes.”
On June 9 and 10 Lainie Kazan performed her one-woman musical show at the Playhouse. Ms. Kazan has enjoyed a successful career since she was Barbra Streisand’s Broadway understudy in Funny Girl, followed by nightclub stints and guest appearances on virtually every top variety and talk show in network television.
In 1983 Ms. Kazan received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in Richard Benjamin’s My Favorite Year, starring Peter O’Toole. Among her multitude of film credits, Ms. Kazan received critical acclaim for her role in the blockbuster comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which grossed more than $600 million worldwide and won the People’s Choice Award. Ms. Kazan reprised her role in the CBS television series My Big Fat Greek Life. She recently appeared in The Engagement Ring on TNT starring Patricia Heaton, Vincent Spano and Tony Lo Bianco, as well as Whiskey School, an independent feature starring Olympia Dukakis, Mary Stuart Masterson and Gary Swanson. She received an Emmy Award nomination for St. Elsewhere and a Cable ACE Award nomination for The Paper Chase.
Zarb Trading Room Dedicated in Honor of Martin B. Greenberg
The Trading Room at Hofstra, a state-of-theart facility that gives faculty and students access to the same market data, analysis and news available to professional traders in financial institutions, was dedicated on May 7 in honor of Hofstra trustee and alumnus Martin B. Greenberg ’60.
Mr. Greenberg is founder and chairman of the board of Sterling Commodities Corporation. From 1987 to 1990, he served as a board member of the Commodities Exchange Inc., and later served as chairman of the board from 1990 to 1992. He is credited with turning around the fiscally distressed Commodities Exchange. Mr. Greenberg joined Hofstra’s Board of Trustees last fall.
The Trading Room opened in C.V. Starr Hall (a technologically enhanced classroom building) in January 2005 as part of the Frank G. Zarb School of Business. The room features 34 dual-panel Bloomberg terminals that provide access to Bloomberg Professional data and information services. In August 2005 the room was equipped with a wall board and a ticker that displays data from various equity, fixed income, foreign exchange and derivatives markets. Two highdefinition televisions allow for coverage of various financial television networks and market announcements.
The Martin B. Greenberg Trading Room, as it is now known, gives Hofstra faculty and students the ability to access and analyze a vast array of financial and economic data, apply analytical methods, conduct interactive trading simulations, and develop contemporary financial models. The structure and schedule of the facility is tied to courses and research projects in several disciplines, especially finance, business computer information systems and quantitative methods, as well as accounting, marketing and management.
Alumnus Named to Hofstra Board of Trustees
James E. Quinn ’74, president of Tiffany & Co., has been named to the Hofstra University Board of Trustees. “Jim Quinn is a great example of a successful graduate who has given back to the Hofstra community,” said Hofstra University President Stuart Rabinowitz. “He was an active and engaged student and has become a successful businessman, community leader and loyal alumnus. I am delighted that he has agreed to join our Board of Trustees.”
In 1986 Mr. Quinn joined Tiffany & Co., an internationally renowned jeweler and specialty retailer, as vice president responsible for corporate sales. He was promoted to senior vice president of the corporate division in 1990 and to executive vice president in 1992. In 1995 he was named to Tiffany’s board of directors and by 1997 attained the position of vice chairman.
On January 16, 2003, Mr. Quinn was promoted to president of Tiffany & Co. A native of New York, Mr. Quinn majored in communications at Hofstra. He was a member of the football team, Epsilon Sigma fraternity and The Chronicle. After graduation, Mr. Quinn went on to earn an M.B.A. in financial management from the Lubin School of Business at Pace University. Mr. Quinn and his wife, Diane Wittke- Quinn ’73, reside in North Caldwell, New Jersey. They have two children.
Recent Graduate Named Fulbright Grant Winner
MaryEllen Van Wie ’07 has received a prestigious Fulbright grant to spend next year in Bonn, Germany, doing research in the field of German literature and language.
Ms. Van Wie had worked with Neil H. Donahue, professor of German and comparative literature and acting associate dean of Hofstra University Honors College, since summer 2006 on her research project and the highly competitive grant application. She graduated with high honors from the department. Her topic of research is the effects of 20th-century German history (e.g., the Weimar Republic in the 1920s and the Nazi period, 1933-45) on medieval studies in that country as exemplified in the work of Ernst Robert Curtius and Erich Auerbach, two major figures in 20th-century literary criticism.
Ms. Van Wie has been accepted to many graduate schools. Upon her return to the United States, she will begin the Ph.D. program in German Studies at University of California, Berkeley. There she will have full funding for five years, including a named fellowship in the first year.
A German major, Ms. Van Wie has also studied Latin, ancient Greek, Italian and French at Hofstra. While in Germany for a Junior Year Abroad in Munich, she studied Finnish and Romanian. “She is a very accomplished undergraduate scholar and linguist at the beginning of a very promising postgraduate career in Germany, then at Berkeley, and beyond,” Professor Donahue said.
The Fulbright Program, an international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government, is designed to “increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries,” according to the organization. More than 273,000 individuals have participated in the various programs offered.
West Pedestrian Bridge Opens
Hofstra announced the opening of the new West Pedestrian Bridge on April 17, 2007, and is encouraging students, faculty and staff to utilize the bridge to cross Hempstead Turnpike at Oak Street.
All remaining project work is scheduled to be performed during the summer, including painting of the concrete structure and installation of curtain glass entranceways.
Students Mark 70th Anniversary of Guernica Massacre With Unique Memorial to Victims
Two Hofstra University Honors College students, Matthew Ferry and Michael LaFemina, created a multimedia exhibit on the massacre at Gernika during the Spanish Civil War. The exhibition, an interactive DVD that includes audio interviews with survivors of the bombing, was on view at the Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library in April and May. An opening reception was held April 25, one day before the 70th anniversary of the attacks.
The bombing of Gernika killed hundreds of innocent civilians. The event inspired Pablo Picasso to commemorate the victims and the attack with an immense black and white mural measuring 11 feet tall and almost 26 feet wide. Painted in oil, Picasso dubbed the mural “Guernica.”
In December, Mr. Ferry and Mr. LaFemina, with the collaborative assistance of the Hofstra University Museum, the Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library and Hofstra University Honors College, traveled to Spain where they conducted original research – interviewing survivors of the bombing, citizens of Gernika, visitors and artists. They met with the director of the Gernika Peace Museum and the director of the Gernika Gogoratuz Peace Research Centre.
“This began as a final project to a seminar on history and memory. Our original intent was to capture the memories of a generation affected by a bombing during the Spanish Civil War and nearly 40 years of dictatorship,” said Mr. LeFemina. “However, after traveling to Spain and interviewing a number of people, we realized that there were other important questions that were begging to be asked.”
Prior to the opening of the show, Mr. Ferry explained his goals for the project: “By gathering a collection of shared experiences, we hope that this exhibit contains various perspectives and memories of the bombing of Gernika, the Spanish Civil War, and the dictatorship under Franco. Our hope is that this project allows those who have no connection with the events and this society to look through these windows and find a connection.”
School of Communication Launches M.F.A. in Documentary Studies and Production
Hofstra will offer a Master of Fine Arts in Documentary Studies and Production beginning fall 2007. This program is the first of its kind in New York and only the second in the country offered through a university. In the last few years documentaries have entered the theatrical market as never before, reaching even larger audiences in video release. Films such as Fahrenheit 9/11 and An Inconvenient Truth have increased the nation’s awareness of specific social and political issues. And with the expansion of high-speed Internet and other delivery systems, the potential for documentary distribution has never been more promising.
The new M.F.A. program will provide students with the critical, analytic and practical skills for producing their own documentaries. Potential students are not only working documentary filmmakers who wish to continue their research and hone their production skills but also professionals working in other fields (e.g., education, nonprofit, and community organizations) who have a story to tell.
With the M.F.A. as their terminal degree, program graduates are prepared to teach at the university level as well as continue their work in current and emerging fields of nonfiction media.
Newsweek’s Peter Plagens to Teach “The Artist’s Practice”
The M.A. in Comparative Arts and Culture Program has announced that Peter Plagens will be the visiting artist teaching one of its core seminars – “The Artist’s Practice” – in spring 2008. Mr. Plagens is a painter who has shown with the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York since 1974, and he was also the staff art critic for Newsweek from 1989 to 2003. He is now a contributing editor to the magazine.
Mr. Plagens has received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Arts Journalism Program. His paintings were the subject of a traveling retrospective that opened at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles in 2004. He is the author of two books of art criticism – Sunshine Muse: Art on the West Coast, 1945-70 and Moonlight Blues: An Artist’s Art Criticism – as well as a novel, Time for Robo. He is a frequent contributor to ArtNews, Art in America, The Nation and Bookforum. In 2005 he was the Mellon Distinguished Visiting Professor at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont.
The Master of Arts in Comparative Arts and Culture is an interdisciplinary program offered by the Department of Fine Arts, Art History and Humanities, and the Department of Comparative Literature and Languages. However, the program draws on the faculty and course offerings throughout HCLAS. Students frequently choose to study with faculty from the Departments of Anthropology, Drama, English (including American Literature and Creative Writing), Religion, History, Music, Philosophy and Sociology. There are six core courses required for the degree that explore the relationship between the arts and literature and the philosophical and historical movements and theories that shaped them. Students make extensive use of the resources of Hofstra’s Axinn Library, including the renowned Weingrow Collection of Avant-Garde Art and Literature.
Ideal candidates for this program are students interested in an advanced degree in the liberal arts within a comparative context in the humanities and students who are motivated to construct individualized programs of study.
