News

Donning pink in support of the fight against breast cancer, the Siena College community packed the Marcelle Athletic Complex for the 13th annual Pink Zone women’s basketball game on February 15 against Rider University. The game is organized by the Capital Region Action Against Breast Cancer (CRAAB!) group and Siena College and generated $30,037.

With hard hats atop their heads, Siena employees eagerly navigated the hallways and leaned into rooms to investigate the new academic building emerging from its construction site at Middlefield Road on campus. Tours for staff and students began this month in Richard and Joan Rosetti Hall, which will house the education, social work and sociology departments.

This Valentine’s Day, members of the Siena College community chose to send a global message instead of flowers or a greeting card. Students, faculty, staff and administrators gathered on the academic quad in front of the Sarazen Student Union to participate in ONE BILLION RISING.

As Dr. Joe Marotta ’80 drove back to the Capital Region from Mount St. Mary College last May, his friend and mentor, a jetlagged Cardinal Peter Turkson, slept in the slightly reclined passenger seat beside him. The next day, Turkson would say Mass with Bishop Howard Hubbard at St. Mary of the Angels Chapel on the Siena College campus.

Ten Siena College students spent a week in the Dominican Republic during winter break. Rather than relaxing on the beach they were working with Franciscan sisters in Santo Domingo as part of a service trip sponsored by the Sr. Thea Bowman Center for Women. The group worked in health clinics and taught young children in the community of Los Tres Brazos.

After receiving a certificate of attendance in 2011, former Siena student Pierre-Louis Joizil returned to his hometown of Fontaine, Haiti with a strong plan for change that has led to involvement from the College community.

A standing-room-only crowd in the Sarazen Student Union erupted last Saturday night when history major Andrew Ford ’13 was crowned Mr. Siena. Ford won the annual contest, a beauty pageant of sorts, which gives eight men from Siena College a chance to show off their talent to benefit Habit for Humanity, an organization that has helped to build or repair more than 600,000 affordable houses for low-income people.

Economically and ecologically minded, Jason Hofstein, Ph. D. developed a completely paperless course using iPads instead of paper for every aspect of the class, including his lectures, student note taking, exams and quizzes.

During winter break, 22 students joined eight faculty members on a trip to Italy, the birthplace of the Franciscan tradition on which Siena College was founded. The trip, called “Religious Treasures of Italy,” took the group on a tour around the country, exploring the historic and religious aspects of each city visited, including Rome, Venice, Florence, Assisi and, of course, Siena.