Center on Russia and the United States

1 through 5 November 2005. SUNY participation in the conference Mathematics and Cybersecurity 05, MSU, Humanities Building 2 . Conference program

26 October through 6 November 2005. SUNY delegation headed by Interim Chancellor Admiral John R. Ryan to visit Moscow State University.

21 September 2005. Official Moscow State University representative Olga Yakimenko begins tenure in Albany as SUNY Center Academic Co-Director.

1 September 2005. Fulbright Teaching Fellow Charles Rougle (University at Albany) begins tenure in Moscow as SUNY Center Academic Co-Director. In addition to duties at the Center, Prof. Rougle is teaching a course on Russian-English translation at the MSU Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies, and translation workshops are planned with the Faculty of Public Administration and the Faculty of Philology. In late October, he and fellow Fulbrighter Prof. Douglas Robinson (University of Mississippi), currently with the Department of Linguistics and Translatology at Voronezh State University, will present a joint paper at the 7th Fedorov Readings conference organized by the Fedorov Center for Translation Studies at St. Petersburg State University.

June 20 - July, 06, 2004 the exchange of the students groups of biological faculty of Moscow State University and SUNY University at Syracuse is planned. Students from SUNY will have field studies at Zvenigorod biostation and students of the Moscow State University – at the Cranberry Lake biostation in SUNY.

June 19 - 23, 23, 2004 Moscow State University is visited by the vice chancellor of SUNY for international programs R. Gosende. In his visit schedule meetings with MSU administration, deans of the faculties and students are included.

May 18 - June 13, 2004 The group of students of Genessio SUNY under the direction of their professor Robert Goeckel are trained during the summer school at the faculty of foreign languages of Moscow State University within the program " Russian civilization". The program acquaints students with the features of Russian culture, Russia history. Excursions across Moscow and Saint Petersburg, visiting of historical places, museums and theatres are included in the program.

March 15, 2004: Nineth University Forum will take place at 15:30 in the room M1 at the Biological faculty of MSU (ul. Mendeleeva). The theme is "Biological Illiteracy". We are honored to invite Prof. S. Teale, Dr. A. Smurof and Ph.D A. Oleshkin as speakers.

March 19-27, 2004: Prof.: John Ryder, Director of International Programs will stay in Moscow to participate in the conference on education organized by the US Embassy. He will also conduct some lectures at MSU. The exact time and place will be announced later.

March 08, 2004: Dr: Olga Iakimenko, Research Assistant, MSU Faculty of Soil Studies is going to SUNY ESF as a part of MSU-SUNY Professional Fellows Program. She will make some presentations in her field and participate in discussions connected with exchanges of biological field work of SUNY and MSU students.

March 4-19: Prof. Stephen Teale, Director, ESF Biological Station in NY will have classes on etymology, conduct meetings connected with ESF and MSU Ecocenter cooperation. We shall announce the time and the place of his lectures.

February 27, 2004: Eighth University Forum will take place at 15:30 in Lecture Theater 10 at the faculty of Public Administration. The theme is “Comparison: principles of management in Government and Business” We are very honored to welcome our speakers: Laurence Wohlers, Minister Counselor for Public Affairs, US Embassy and A.T. Smith, President, ChevronTexaco

Since February 09, 2004, SUNY professor Greg Garvey begins his classes on American Studies at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Public Administration and Management

January 21, 2004. The US Embassy delegation consisting of Michael Sullivan; Natalya Dobrovolskaya and Natalya Mitoussova was invited to Natural History Museum at MSU to get familiarized with the development of MSU-SUNY partnership relations in ecological education. (details)

June 8, 2001. The SUNY Center on the United States and Russia at Moscow State University was opened in a ceremony hosted by Rector Sadovnichy of MSU and Chancellor Robert King. In their remarks hailing the new Center they were joined by Mr. Alexander Almasov, head of Press and Culture Section at the American Embassy. The new center is centrally located in Zone A, Room 161 of the Main Building of MSU.

June 6, 2001. Chancellor King hosted a gala concert by the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin under conductor Mikhail Rachlevsky at the Kremlin Armory. The guests included numerous representatives of the MSU administration and faculties, as well as dignitaries from the diplomatic, governmental and business community in Russia.

June 4-18, 2001. The champion baseball team of SUNY Cortland arrived for a series of games against the Moscow State Tornadoes, the Russian national team, and the St. Petersburg team. The Red Dragons from Cortland also hosted several baseball training clinics for youth, in addition to sight-seeing in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Chancellor King played in several of the games in addition to presenting the host teams with specially-engraved bats from Cooperstown, NY, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Both sides agreed to a SUNY-MSU rematch in 2002.

June 4-10, 2001. Chancellor Robert King began a week-long official visit to Moscow State University, meeting with key officials at the University and in the public and business sector in Moscow.

March 4, 2001. The Chamber Orchestra Kremlin under the baton of Mikhail Rachlevsky will perform at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. The program includes Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" and Tchaikovsky's "Serenade for Strings".

On January 15, 2001 a new MSU Co-Director of the SUNY Center on Russia and the United States, Dr. Nikolai V. Semin will begin performing his duties at the office. His appointment runs until June 30, 2001. Dr. Semin graduated summa cum laude in 1992 from Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics, Moscow State University. His current position at the University is that of provost. Dr. Semin's lectures will cover a wide variety of topics including reform of the education system in Russia, the MSU network as a principal component of the Russian Internet, the Russian Internet, open education in Russia, and mathematical education in Russia, etc. Dr. Semin is expected to lecture at SUNY campuses and other universities as well.

In 2000-2001, the Co-Directors of the sister centers took up their positions. Dr. Robert F. Goeckel, Professor of Political Science, SUNY Geneseo, left for Moscow the first of September to assume his position as SUNY Co-Director of the Center on the United States and Russia. Dr. Robert Goeckel successfully combines his academic work associated with his Fulbright grant, with contacts with the US Embassy and responsibilities as SUNY Co-Director of the MSU Center.

In the past eight months, the Centers implemented the programs that were developed in the previous year and began to elaborate new programs.

Distance Learning Program

During the first week in October, three MSU professors from the Faculties of Foreign Languages and History participated in a three-day training session at the SUNY Learning Network Distance Learning Training Center in Syracuse, New York along with three SUNY faculties. Three courses are in the process of development and will be offered fall semester 2001.Three additional MSU professors will participate in the Distance Learning-training program in spring 2001.

SUNY Professional Fellowships

Provision was made in the 2000-2001 budget for four two-month fellowships for MSU junior faculty to gain first-hand experience on a SUNY in teaching new curricula and developing new courses. The four young Moscow professor that will be working on SUNY campuses run the gamut of disciplines, and reflect the interest on both sides in fostering closer contact. The School of Management at SUNY Binghamton not only requested to take a fellow but asked to extend the fellow’s program to six months. Dr. Chihun started her fellowship in mid-Januaryat SUNY Binghamton. Dr. Svetlana Titova will start her professional fellowship in using technology to teach English to foreigners at SUNY Cortland around March 1, and Dr. Andrei Baev will be working with Dr. James Glimm in the Department of Mathematical Physics during March and April, 2001. Finally, Dr. Olga Solovyova is planning a Professional Fellowship in Criminal Justice at SUNY Albany towards the end of the semester.

SUNY Senior Faculty Seminars

The program for the year 2000-2001 provided for three two-week visits of SUNY senior faculty to teach a short course in a subject requested by Moscow State. Three SUNY professors have already been identified and once again reflect the diversity of faculty interest in closer cooperation between our two institutions.

A. From November 19 to November 28, Dr. Neil Ringler, Head of the Department of Ecology and Forestry conducted a series of lectures in the Biology and Geography Faculties and at the MSU Ekocenter.

B. Dr. Jon Rubin, Professor of Media Studies, SUNY Purchase, has submitted a proposal to deliver a seminar on Issues relating to Contemporary Film.

C. Dr. Qiqing Yu will be conducting a two-week seminar in actuarial math in the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering.

D. Dr. Ivan Zassoursky completed his term as the first MSU Senior Faculty Research Fellow and returned to Moscow in December 2000. Dr. Zassoursky spent the fall semester traveling throughout the SUNY campuses, giving lectures and explaining the new direction the SUNY/MSU partnership. We estimate he reached over 5,000 students with his lectures. He has also lectured at MIT, Columbia, New York University. The purpose of his lectures was to attract students from whatever university to the SUNY/MSU program and to change stereotypes of Russia, the difficulties of study in Russia and the dangers of living there.

Institutional Outreach

A. Fulbright Support

During the summer and fall of 200, we worked with the Department of State on expanded Fulbright support of our center. We are pleased to announce that for the academic year 2001-2002, both co-directors will receive Fulbright awards.

B. Grant applications

During the review period, we have participated in three grant application projects: The SUNY Research Foundation application to USAID regarding judicial reform, the World Bank grant competition regarding the development of a comprehensive environmental education program in Russia and the one-time grant application to the Trust for Mutual Understanding for a tour of the SUNY campuses by Russian contemporary jazz groups.

C. The Foreign Policy Association’s Hyperlink

This year SUNY joined forces with the Foreign Policy Association (FPA) and the Albany Time’s Union in editing a newsprint web-based version of FPA’s Great Decisions called the Foreign Policy Hyperlink (www.fph.suny.edu). The goal of this publication is to bring together a community of media that will help students to think about important foreign affairs central to US interests.

New programs and directions

A. International Studies and Technology Program

A new program is being developed as a partnership between major advanced materials and technology companies located in New York State, the SUNY campuses and MSU. The program will be coordinated through the SUNY/MSU Centers with students and post graduates from MSU performing research on a SUNY campus for an interested company, and students and post graduates from SUNY completing their doctoral research in laboratories at MSU.

B. Initiatives by the MSU Faculty of Biology, the MSU Ekocenter and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF)

First, there is the development of the grant application on environmental education. Second is the exchange of students working on similar research agendas at various SUNY or MSU biological stations that we hope will start in the summer of 2001. The third and perhaps the most exciting venture is potential cooperation between MSU Zoological Museum and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

C. Public Administration Initiative.

The MSU School of Public Administration is looking for ways to integrate its programs with SUNY programs on a permanent for-pay basis. The Center was able to arrange a meeting with the head of Binghamton’s Center on Democratic Performance and a representative from the Department of Public Administration to start the process of developing a long-term program of student, faculty and research exchange.

D. Rule of Law Initiative.

Rule of Law comprises a second important area whose reform is critical to the Russian Federation’s transition to democracy. The SUNY/MSU Centers have joined with the International Development Group of the SUNY Research Foundation, the John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs, and the Massachusetts Judges Conference in making a tender to USAID for a three-year grant aimed at assisting the Russian Court Administration to reform its procedures. Involved in the project are the MSU Faculties of Law and Public Administration, the Office of Court Administration of the State of New York, the Buffalo Law School, and the various departments on the SUNY campuses that have expertise in this area.

E. Digital Media Initiative

The Media Department of SUNY Purchase and MSU's Department of Journalism are working on the development of a digital media-training center at MSU that will serve the Central Russian Region. Participants include SUNY Purchase, SUNY Cortland and SUNY Oswego, the European Free Institute, Minsk, Belarus, and MSU associated institutions in the Central Russian Region. For the year 2001-2002, the participants will be looking for an additional grant to fund a small exploratory and experimental program that will include all the participants.

F. The Information Technology Initiative.

This initiative is just taking shape. Dr. E.I. Moiseev, Dean of the Faculty of Computational Science and Dr. Alexander Lukshin, Vice-Dean for International Relations, have just returned from visiting three SUNY campuses where they have been hammering out agreements on student exchange, faculty exchange and research agendas. Another exciting aspect of the IT initiative is how to mesh SUNY’s library system, SUNY Connect, with that of Moscow State. Dr. Semin will be working on ways to solve that problem.

On September 7th the Center welcomed its first senior Researcher Associate, Dr. Ivan Zassoursky, from MSU Faculty of Journalism. Dr. Zassoursky is conducting research on media and culture in America. He is also finishing the second edition of his award winning book "Mass Media in the Second Republic", and is working with the US publisher to get the book published in English. If that were not enough, Dr. Zassoursky has done a splendid job conducting lectures on many SUNY campuses on Russian media and politics in the 1990s. Students seem to like his laid back approach and informative presentation. He also lectured at Harvard, Columbia, NYU and Georgetown University in Washington DC. Click here for the schedule of Dr. Zassoursky's lectures.You can get more information about Dr. Zassoursky's interest and resources in English and Russian on his web-site: www.geocities.com/zassoursky There you can get an access to his work papers and the full text of his book (in Russian only).

For those of you who are interested in getting a marvelous experience and taking a semester abroad at the Moscow State University we have some great news. President Clinton has signed the legislation establishing the "Benjamin A. Gilman International scholarship" program to help American undergraduate students of limited financial means to study abroad. Favorably for us, SUNY New Paltz President, Roger Bowen, a person very much involved in the expansion of the study abroad opportunities for students at New Paltz, supported Rep. Benjamin A . Gilman, writing the legislation.

On December 29, 2000 our visiting scholar from MSU , Dr. Ivan Zassoursky, left for Moscow. We are saying goodbye to him and thanking him for the work and active participation in the Center activities.

October 2-4, 2000 three Russian Faculty from the Moscow State University (MSU) received training in the distance learning program sponsored by the State University of New York Learning Network (SLN) at the SUNY Training Center in Syracuse, NY. The three courses that resulted from this experience will be offered in Fall 2001. These courses are: Doing Business in Russia, Russian American Perspective on Russia, and America in the 1930s. Our thanks go to the SUNY Cortland Dean of College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. John Ryder, and Dr. Anna Pavlovskaya from the MSU Department of Foreign Languages for the hard work they put in to develop the Russian studies course. We also would like to thank the Empire State College Professor Lesley White and Dr. Tatiana Tarabanova for their development of the "Doing Business in Russia" and Dr. Frisch, SUNY Buffalo and Dr. Rogilev, MSU, both of whom will teach America in the 1930, for their contribution to the course.

All three courses will be offered on-line under the relevant college number. We will keep you posted on the dates the courses will be available.