News

At the Sept. 20 session of the Institute for Retired People (IRP), Gregg A. Tripoli, executive director of the Onondaga Historical Association (OHA), will talk about the renovation of the building and other projects currently taking place. He will also discuss plans for 2013, as OHA celebrates its 150-year history.

Tripoli received a B.A. from Hamilton College and an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh. He served as the special assistant to the minister of economic affairs in Italy for the Republic of San Marino. For the next 20 years, Tripoli traveled the world as a management consultant for a group of multinational companies headquartered in Kuwait. He has been the executive director of the Onondaga Historical Association since February 2008. Tripoli is also vice president of Cathedral Square Development Corp., a member of the Arts and Cultural Leadership Alliance, and the Cathedral Square Neighborhood Association. He serves on the board of directors of the Downtown Committee of Syracuse, the advisory board of Art-In-Motion and several committees for Syracuse University’s South Side Initiative and the Connective Corridor.

The IRP program runs from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., and is free and open to the public. IRP sessions are held at the First Baptist Church of Syracuse, 5833 East Seneca Turnpike, Jamesville.

The Syracuse University Summer Dance Intensive Program will hold a free dance performance at Syracuse Stage on Saturday, July 28, from 1-2 p.m. The performance showcases the talent of students who have completed three weeks of vigorous study with world-renowned faculty. The diversity and brevity of this free performance is the perfect cultural event for both children and adults.

The program will open with an exuberant classical ballet set to Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin’s “Polonaise,” with featured guest artist Momchil Mladenov and Syracuse native Evelyn Kocak. Kocak will also perform a ravishing variation of technical purity from the ballet “Paquita.” This year’s international scholarship student from Bulgaria, Elena Dimitrova, will dance the colorful variation from “Don Quixote,” followed by excerpts from the ballet “Le Corsaire.” Other works on the program include a student-choreographed improvisational work, a modern work and a section from the hit Broadway musical “A Chorus Line.”

The program is administered by University College of Syracuse University. Information about the Summer Dance Intensive can be found at www.uc.syr.edu/ballet.

Onondaga Citizens League announced the recipient of the 2012 Levi L. Smith Civic Education Award at its annual meeting on June 6. Ralph Ketcham, professor emeritus of history, public affairs and political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, received the annual award.

The award honors an outstanding citizen or organization that has contributed to the field and practice of civic education in Central New York. The namesake of the award is the founder and former executive vice president of the Onondaga Citizens League, who for many years exemplified good citizenship by giving much thought and effort to strengthening civic education.

Ketcham began his career at SU as a graduate fellow in 1951 and received his Ph.D. in 1956. He was named professor of American studies and public affairs at SU in 1963, professor of political science in 1965, professor of history in 1968 and Maxwell Professor of Citizenship and Public Affairs in 1994. His specialties include American political thought, the era of the American Revolution, public policy and comparative political cultures. He is the author of numerous books and other publications including, most recently, “The Madisons at Montpelier; Reflections on the Founding Couple” (University of Virginia Press, 2009), and “The Idea of Democracy in the Modern Era” (University Press of Kansas, 2004). Ketcham is currently working on a manuscript, “The American Political Science Association and the Teaching of Democracy and Citizenship in the Twentieth Century.”

In 2003, Ketcham received the George Arents Pioneer Medal, which recognizes career accomplishment and is the highest alumni honor Syracuse University bestows.

University College of Syracuse University and Le Moyne College have invited citizens to attend a discussion on Wednesday, May 2, at 7 p.m. at Grewen Auditorium on the Le Moyne College campus. Rebecca Garden and Joel Potash will discuss narrative medicine, which uses poems, novels and, particularly, stories written by people with illness and disability to help health care professionals improve health care by listening to patients’ stories.

Garden is an associate professor at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at SUNY Upstate Medical University. Potash is a professor emeritus at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities. He sits on the University Hospital Ethics Committee. The pair will examine the increasing use of technology in medicine as well as the increase in patient load, which often depersonalizes the practice of medicine.

The event is free and open to the public. Parking is available in lot C off Springfield Road. For more information, call 315-443-4846 or e-mail cmkarlho@syr.edu.

Michelle Singletary has been named director of SummerStart and Syracuse Success Initiative (SSUI) at Syracuse University effective May 15.

Singletary joined Syracuse University’s Office of Residence Life (ORL) in June 2006 as the assistant director. Prior to her role in ORL, she was the interim director of Multicultural Affairs at SUNY Geneseo. Singletary has been a strong advocate for students in her many voluntary leadership positions in various campuswide initiatives and committees at SU, as well as SUNY Geneseo and Ithaca College.

Singletary holds a bachelor of science degree in health education from SUNY Cortland and a master of science degree in education, also from SUNY Cortland.

Syracuse University’s SummerStart Program is one of the longest-standing programs of its kind in the nation. It provides a transitional experience to admitted SU freshmen during the summer prior to their matriculation. SSUI supports selected SU undergraduates with additional academic support in conjunction with enrollment in summer courses.