Accolades

Recent awards and recognition for Rensselaer’s faculty, staff, and students

Jeffrey Schanz, assistant vice president for alumni relations, has been named presiding officer of the Board of Directors for the Association of Private College and University Alumni Directors (PCUAD), an organization consisting of lead alumni relations professionals from 40 U.S. private universities and colleges. PCUAD was founded to provide its members a forum to share and benchmark information that can improve each institution’s alumni programs; to provide professional support to one another; and to serve the advancement profession by doing and sharing research with the profession, enabling staffs to share information with their functional colleagues among member institutions, and supporting the creation of other similar groups throughout the field. Schanz will serve in this role for three years.

A new book by Mary Anne Staniszewski, professor and acting head of the arts department—Alternative Histories: New York Art Space, 1960 to 2010 (co-edited with Lauren Rosati, MIT Press/Exit Art)—was reviewed by The New York Times and described as “an indispensable source book…that stands as vibrant and irrefutable evidence of what happens when people take things into their own hands.” The book provides thumbnail sketches of more than 140 alternative spaces and related organizations.

Rensselaer’s curling club has moved into first place in the national collegiate rankings, according to College Curling USA. The student club, which was formed in 2008, practices at the nearby Schenectady Curling Club.