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A full 47 years after leaving �ʹڲ�����ַ one course short of his degree, Andre “Bud” Welter ’73 will graduate in May with a bachelor’s in geological sciences.

The InSight mission to Mars has completed its first Earth year of observations. The results were published as a set of six papers in Nature journals. The papers show that Mars is seismically active and reveal information about its complex atmosphere, magnetic field and geology. �ʹڲ�����ַ Assistant Professor Nicholas Warner is a co-author on two of the papers that detail the discovery of quakes on Mars—marsquakes—and describe the alien landscape at the landing site.

The Department of Anthropology at �ʹڲ�����ַ is introducing a new major for undergraduate students interested in the social determinants of disease and health. The sociomedical sciences major examines the correlation between trends in health and its social causes, including social inequality and structural inequities.

�ʹڲ�����ַ’s Department of Theatre and Dance Studies presents the �ʹڲ�����ַ Dance Ensemble in Dancing to Defy Limits. The program will be presented in the Alice Austin Theatre, William A. Brodie Hall, on the �ʹڲ�����ַ campus on November 21–23 at 7:30 p.m. and November 24 at 2 p.m. The performances are open to the public and free parking is available. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the Student Association Ticket Office or online at bbo.geneseo.edu.

�ʹڲ�����ַ’s successful enhanced intersession term is expanded this year with additional offerings of online and study abroad courses for winter break. The term, which runs December 30, 2019–January 21, 2020, allows students to earn credits in the interval between fall and spring terms.

�ʹڲ�����ַ has been named to Forbes’ 2019 “America’s Best Value Colleges” list, ranking 115th on the comprehensive list of 300 public and private colleges, up from 175th when Forbes first began the ranking in 2016. The College ranks fifth out of the ten SUNY institutions on the list.

�ʹڲ�����ַ alumna Janine Rossi ’18 and Kelsey Kwandrans ’19 have won 2019–20 U.S. Student Fulbright awards to Uruguay and Spain respectively. Rossi and Kwandrans become the 28th and 29th �ʹڲ�����ַ student or alumni to win a U.S. Student Fulbright award.

Tshering Sherpa ’21 has been named a Fund for Education Abroad (FEA) Scholar for 2019–20. She will travel to Cadiz, Spain, for six weeks to study Spanish at the Centro Superior de Lenguas Modernas (CSLM), a language school at the Universidad de Cádiz.

Catherine Shields '19 has won a U.S. State Department Critical Language Scholarship. The Grandview Heights, NY, native will spend the summer in Baku, Azerbaijan, at the Azerbaijani University of Languages for an intensive eight-week course of university-level Turkish.

�ʹڲ�����ַ’s Department of Political Science and International Relations will present a special screening of the documentary “Who Speaks for Nature?" by Larry Engel on Friday, March 29, at 4:30 p.m. at the Riviera Theater in �ʹڲ�����ַ. The documentary is based on a book co-authored by �ʹڲ�����ַ Associate Professor Karleen West.

Students in a spring honors course, “The Politics of Sustainability Through Art,” are exploring environmental concerns and the politics that affect sustainability issues in a creative way.
In addition to readings that provide background on climate change, food sustainability and other problems, students are viewing and discussing relevant artwork by artists from around the world creating their own visual art inspired by their learning. 

�ʹڲ�����ַ is hosting biological anthropologist Tanya M. Smith ‘97, Ph.D., for a lecture based on her recent book, <i>The Tales Teeth Tell<i/>. Smith’s talk takes place at 4 p.m., Tuesday, April 2 in Newton 204. Smith’s talk will be followed by a book signing. Copies of her book will be available for sale. The event is free and open to the public. 

Michael Ruggiero ’12, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Vermont (UVM), was recently included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Science 2019 list. In this Q&A, he discusses his research and the excitement he gets from being in the lab.

�ʹڲ�����ַ’s Department of Physics and Astronomy is one of three undergraduate programs in the United States to earn the American Physical Society’s (APS) Award for Improving Undergraduate Physics Education for 2019.

On January 11, �ʹڲ�����ַ President Denise A. Battles and Rectora C. Isabel Cristina Torres Torres of the Universidad de Holguín in Cuba signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU formally establishes a working partnership that will provide �ʹڲ�����ַ students the opportunity to study at the Cuban institution and effectively demonstrates the College’s commitment to offering students global and cross-cultural experiences.

SUNY Distinguished Professor Michael Leroy Oberg is hosting a workshop for nearly 60 local municipal historians on Saturday, Feb. 16.

In a four-year study, Suann Yang, assistant professor of biology at �ʹڲ�����ַ, and science faculty from other institutions found that student buy-in to a new curriculum increases with each successive undergraduate cohort — and learning gains did not suffer.

Beverly J. Evans, professor of French and Western Humanities in �ʹڲ�����ַ’s Department of Languages and Literatures, is among the latest cohort of 14 faculty members the State University of New York Board of Trustees has named to a distinguished professorship.

The Division of Academic Affairs recently honored five employees with its inaugural Academic Affairs Awards for Outstanding Commitment to �ʹڲ�����ַ’s Values.

The revised academic calendar for 2018–19 and beyond now includes the option for students to take courses over intersession. The 2018-19 intersession will have a range of offerings that include online courses.

�ʹڲ�����ַ tops the U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Undergraduate Teaching” rankings among regional universities in the North in its Best Colleges 2019 guidebook. The College also ranked second in the “Top Public Schools” category for regional universities in the North and is 14th in the overall regional category of 187 public and private institutions.

�ʹڲ�����ַ’s Milne Library recently developed and launched an innovative new search tool that can access 52 different OER sources that contain more than 150,000 items. OASIS (Openly Available Sources Integrated Search), was co-developed by Ben Rawlins, director of Milne Library, and Bill Jones, digital resources and systems librarian at �ʹڲ�����ַ.

�ʹڲ�����ַ was identified by the Chronicle of Higher Education as a public institution with one of the best four-year graduation rates.

�ʹڲ�����ַ’s Career Design Center has implemented a new career management system that greatly enhances the department’s ability to manage job and internship postings, run career fairs and track student usage.

Commencement is always a time to celebrate, but this year, Terese Caiazza ’18 and Tanairi Taylor’ 18 will make College history, becoming the first to graduate with a major in women’s and gender studies.