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Senior class gifts come in all shapes and sizes, and they usually benefit the campus community. This year, the Class of 2011 has taken a different tack, choosing instead to honor alma mater with a gift that impacts alumni.

Dick Hyman plays the piano with an ease that many of us display while brushing our teeth — assuming routine dental care could inspire awe in an audience of 150 ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ community members.

Before the sun could push above the horizon this morning, 153 community members braved the frigid air and crossed the threshold of the new Trudy Fitness Center.

The wait is over. Thanks to the hard work of staff and contractors, with generous support from alumni and parents, ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ’s Trudy Fitness Center will open at 6 a.m. this Monday, January 31.

For almost a year, Griffin O’Shea ’13 has been planning an alternative spring break trip to Kenya. Sponsored through the Center for Outreach, Volunteerism, and Education, eight ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ undergraduates will spend May 17-31 with orphans and vulnerable children at the Caroline Wambui Mungai Foundation school in Wangige, located northwest of Nairobi.

Every year, 600 colleges and universities submit applications for Fulbright fellowships. When the Chronicle of Higher Education published the program’s list of top producers this fall, ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ tied for eighth place among bachelor’s institutions.

Physics department faculty members Charlie Holbrow, Jim Lloyd ’54, Joe Amato, Kiko Galvez, and Beth Parks have spent the last four years working together on a revision of the ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ-inspired Modern Introductory Physics.

¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ has always had a strong sense of place. On ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ Day, August 13, the university reaffirmed its longstanding ties to the Central New York region by completing a $5.4 million endowment for the Upstate Institute thanks to the generosity of Jean-Pierre Conte ’85 and Board of Trustees Chair Chris Clifford ’67.

Even politics-as-usual requires analysis and explanation. ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ community members heard the historical perspective on the 2010 elections and current U.S. political climate from FOX News contributor and Washington Examiner columnist Michael Barone during a lecture and debate Wednesday night.

The landscape of violence in Africa is as varied as the continent’s physical topography. Scott Straus, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, brought this message to ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ during the second annual Schaehrer Lecture, sponsored by the Peace and Conflict Studies Program on Thursday.