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There were bright smiles, even if there wasn’t any bright sunshine, greeting the newest members of the �Ա���Ƶ community today as first-year students moved into their residence halls.

As part of its aggressive push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and advance sustainability, �Ա���Ƶ has signed a 15-year commitment with Patagonia Sur to purchase forestry-based carbon offsets. Under the agreement, a total of 225,000 native-species trees will be planted on 430 acres of land in Chile’s Aysén Region of Patagonia.

�Ա���Ƶ President Jeffrey Herbst is the co-author of an article on ForeignPolicy.com that explores the idea of “fault lines” within nations that can lead to mass violence. The article is titled “The Fault Lines of Failed States: Can social science determine what makes one state fail and another succeed?”

While most people know that �Ա���Ƶ’s undergraduate population has become increasingly international, it may come as a surprise that so many young people, in their formative middle school and high school years, travel across oceans to come to campus.

Robert Simpson ’97 has been chosen by N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo to help lead a new organization tasked with better coordinating economic development opportunities in central New York.

Two accomplished alumni have been selected to lead �Ա���Ƶ’s Board of Trustees. Denis F. Cronin ’69 was elected chair, and Robert A. Kindler ’76 was named vice chair during the group’s June meeting.

A �Ա���Ƶ liberal arts education leads to successful careers, a recent survey shows. A study by PayScale provides concrete evidence that �Ա���Ƶ graduates fare very well when considering salaries. The school was ranked ninth overall for median mid-career salaries in a survey of more than 1,000 undergraduate colleges and universities.

�Ա���Ƶ President Jeffrey Herbst is among a group of university presidents who are visiting Israel this week. The presidents from around the nation consulted with the trip’s sponsor, Project Interchange, on the program that runs from July 4 -11.

Shortly after announcing her agenda that she hopes will focus New York State’s manufacturing efforts on clean energy and technology, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) stopped at �Ա���Ƶ to talk to youths about their critical roles in science.

Forget summer break. �Ա���Ƶ has spent the days since graduation busily poring over its ledgers, tallying the thanks it owes alumni, parents, and friends for their support in Fiscal Year 2011. The official count, announced today, comes to 39 million — the dollar amount raised from all sources between June 2010 through May 2011.