The latest NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) data show that 99 percent of athletes at Colgate and Notre Dame graduated.

The GSR differs from federal graduation statistics because it accounts for students who transfer. The NCAA's figures, unlike the federal ones, do not penalize an institution for athletes who leave to attend other colleges, as long as they depart in good academic standing.

Colgate's federal graduation rate for athletes is 88, just behind Notre Dame, which leads the nation at 90 percent.

See the top 10 schools in NCAA graduation rates as compiled by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Winslow, who played in five Pro Bowl games during his distinguished career, explained that "through football I learned that I could go beyond what I thought was physically, mentally and spiritually impossible. Challenges will come to you in life, and you have to do what it takes to overcome."

"The media likes to say that a kid was 'given' a free education if he gets a scholarship to play ball in school. I take issue with that. These kids promise to play here, go to practice everyday, test their physical limits. It's a contract, the definition of a job. A lot of you guys have an opportunity, and it's your job to take advantage of that. But first and foremost, you have a responsibility to graduate."

Kellen Winslow Sr. meets with students, faculty, and staff members Wednesday before his public lecture at Love Auditorium. (Photo by Andy Daddio)

The Dean of the College office and the ALANA Cultural Center sponsored the lecture.

Charlotte Johnson, vice president and dean of the college, said that her division has been looking for ways to encourage participation in campus events among student athletes and men in general.

"Women were definitely in the minority in this audience," said Johnson. "When do you see that happen at Colgate? I think he had a powerful message and it was great to see so many of the football players and (members of the student group) Brothers come out for it."

Medvis Jackson '11, a member of Brothers, was particularly struck by Winslow's discussion of how sports can transcend different areas of a person's life.

"It was interesting when he talked about earning your position in life, because sure we're all given a couple of breaks here and there, but once you earn something with blood, sweat, and tears that's something that can't be taken away. That definitely translates to the classroom. Just like in football or basketball, you have to learn how to be dependable, and someone that people can count on."

Student bands, a cappella groups, and an improv comedy group provided entertainment throughout the night in the Ho Science Center.

In the past five years, she said Colgate has raised more than $160,000 for St. Jude, which is the second highest sum for any school in New York state - no small feat considering Colgate's size.

Krieger hopes that this year will be one of the biggest in terms of money raised by students. This may be possible, she said, because an estimated 5,200 letters were written, far exceeding expectations.

"St. Judes is the only pediatric research center in the United States that's privately funded, so events like Up 'Til Dawn are really important to the continuing success of the organization and hospital, so I think that this is a really important event that Colgate holds," said Krieger.

For some, Up 'Til Dawn served as a philanthropy event to support as a team, which was the case for the sisters of Kappa Kappa Gamma.

"We got a big group of girls to come and write letters for the cause," said Catherine Toner '11, sorority philanthropy chair. "It's great to see different groups on campus come together and write letters and different campus groups coming to perform. It's just a great community event."

For others, the event had a more personal meaning.

"It's a really strong cause," said Robert Bickhart '12. "My neighbor just had a child who was diagnosed with leukemia pretty early, so something like this really hits home."

Colgate University's Board of Trustees has unanimously approved the appointment of Jeffrey Herbst, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Miami University (Ohio), as Colgate's 16th president. The board has announced Herbst's appointment to the Colgate community and will welcome him to campus at an event scheduled for 11:15 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17. The event also will be broadcast live on the web at www.colgate.edu

"Jeffrey Herbst articulated a vision for the liberal arts at a time when all of higher education is going through a period of reflection and readjustment," said Christopher Clifford '67, chair of Colgate's Board of Trustees. "Based on his knowledge of Colgate's mission and strategic direction, Jeff conveyed to the search committee his confidence in the university's ability to thrive in an ever more global, diverse, and interconnected world. We are confident that Jeff will build on Colgate's strengths and engage our community in exciting new efforts to strengthen our position as a leader in higher education."

"I am deeply honored to be appointed the 16th president of Colgate. The university exemplifies the very best in a liberal arts university at a time when our society is searching for answers that only this type of learning experience can provide. I look forward to working with the Board of Trustees, faculty, students, staff, and alumni to promote this extraordinary community of scholars and to prepare students for the great challenges of the twenty-first century," said Herbst.

Jeffrey Herbst comes to Colgate after serving for five years as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Miami (OH) University. (Photo by Andy Daddio)

"I congratulate Colgate on the appointment of Jeffrey Herbst as its new president," said Dr. William Bowen, president emeritus of the Mellon Foundation and former president of Princeton University. "I worked closely with Jeff when he was at Princeton so I know first-hand how capable he is -- as a scholar, as a teacher, and as a highly collegial leader. This is, in my view, a stellar appointment."

Herbst comes to Colgate after serving for five years as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Miami University in Ohio. While at Miami, Herbst promoted internationalization by broadening the curriculum and expanding opportunities for study abroad, led efforts to increase access for students of limited means, promoted integrity on campus, and expanded the university's outreach efforts in the community.

"Jeff is a person with deep personal values and a great appreciation of a liberal education and an excellent understanding of the changing nature of higher education," said Dr. David Hodge, president of Miami University. "He will be a tireless advocate for the university and its alumni, deeply engaged with everyone connected to Colgate. I wish him and Colgate University the very best."

Before his move to Miami, Herbst was on the faculty at Princeton University, where he also held a number of administrative positions including chair of the Department of Politics, director of the African Studies Program, chair of the faculty committee on study abroad, and acting associate dean of the Woodrow Wilson School.

"Jeff is an inspired choice to lead Colgate University," said Dr. Christina Paxson, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School and Hughes-Rogers Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. "He is deeply committed to undergraduate education, and appreciates the important role of faculty research and scholarship in a liberal arts education. Jeff also has boundless energy and enthusiasm. I expect his expertise in African politics, and his experience in a school of public and international affairs while at Princeton, will be valuable given Colgate's emphasis on global and local community involvement."

A political scientist, Herbst's extensive research and teaching expertise focused on the politics of sub-Saharan Africa, including peacekeeping, how the United States can promote democratic liberalization in Africa, and what the international community can do to further economic growth in less developed regions of the world. He is the author of several books and articles, including States and Power in Africa (Princeton University Press, 2000), co-winner of the Gregory Luebbert Best Book Award from the Comparative Politics Section of the American Political Science Association. He is also the author of, among others, New Order in Sight? The African Union, NEPAD, and the Future of a Continent (with Greg Mills, International Institute of Strategic Studies), and articles in Comparative Politics, Foreign Affairs, ForeignPolicy.com, International Organization, and International Security.

Herbst has been on the faculties of the University of Zimbabwe; University of Ghana, Legon; University of Cape Town; and University of the Western Cape. He has received two Fulbright scholarships (for study in Zimbabwe and South Africa) and a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim foundation.

"Beyond his proven administrative talents and preeminence as a scholar, I was impressed with Jeffrey Herbst's creative vision for liberal arts education in a highly competitive and increasingly globalized environment," said Dr. Damhnait McHugh, search committee member and professor of biology and director of Colgate's Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute. "He was a natural choice as the next leader for Colgate."

"Jeffrey Herbst stood out among the other candidates not only for his high academic achievements, administrative positions held and successes, and understanding of leadership in the 21st century, but more so for his vision for Colgate University as a leading institution in a globalized 21st century," said Dr. John Palmer, associate professor of educational studies at Colgate. "He viewed the plethora of issues related to the internationalization of leading liberal arts campuses as positives and has developed insight into which Colgate will be able to take advantage of internationalization of higher education locally and globally. When he spoke of his vision, I was both intrigued by his depth of understanding of globalization and international as it relates to Colgate University and energized to follow him in his efforts to bring the world to Colgate.

Born in Jamaica, Queens, N.Y., Herbst graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1983 and went on to earn M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in political science from Yale University. He and his wife, Sharon Polansky, a marketing executive, have three children.

But you need to click fast and at the right time, because the project appears for 30 seconds twice each day - at sunrise and at sunset.

The size and movement of the orbs are based on traffic to the website in the past 12 hours; more "hits" on the site will result in bigger and slower moving orbs.

This digital-environmental artwork by Cary Peppermint is called Untitled Landscape #5.

"I wanted to treat the Whitney website itself as a landscape and use my artwork to explore the impact visitors have on this digital environment," said Peppermint, an assistant professor of art and art history.

Peppermint was commissioned to do the project by Christiane Paul, adjunct curator of new media arts at the Whitney.

Paul had seen Peppermint's Eclipse project, which he did for Turbulence.org. That project is a user-driven artwork-application that alters photographs of United States national and state parks based on real-time Air Quality Index (particle pollution) data.

Peppermint is keenly interested in creating digital environmental art that explores relationships between landscape, technology, and culture.

A lot of his work is through EcoArtTech, a collaborative platform with Leila Christine Nadir. They both received artist fellowships this year from the New York Foundation for the Arts.

His Whitney website project will run for about three months. The museum's website will have a link that explains the project and the viewing times, as well. (For today, sunset in New York City will be at 4:41 p.m.)

Next up for Peppermint and EcoArtTech is a project called Fluid Frontier, which is a series of performances and web-based information about water issues near the University of North Texas, where they are conducting short residences at the university's College of Visual Arts and Design.

A celebrated jazz singer and an acclaimed international artist will be on campus and in the village of Hamilton in the coming days.

Jane Monheit, who has established herself as one of the post-millennial jazz world's foremost vocalists, will perform a free concert at 8 p.m. Friday in the Palace Theater.

Monheit has released seven CDs and collaborated with artists such as Michael Bublé, Ivan Lins, Terence Blanchard and Tom Harrell.

Her latest CD -- The Lovers, The Dreamers, and Me -- mixes a blend of world music with her jazz roots. It includes standards such as Cole Porter's "Get Out of Town" to Fiona Apple's "Slow Like Honey."

Monheit's drummer and husband is Rick Montalbano Jr., who grew up in nearby Rome, N.Y. They met in 1997 while students at the Manhattan School of Music.

Next week, artist Eduardo Kac will be on campus for a lecture and an interdisciplinary panel discussion.

Eduardo Kac, Natural History of the Enigma, transgenic work, 2003-08.

Kac, who considers himself a bio artist, first gained prominence with his transgenic work GFP Bunny (2000), centered on the green-glowing bunny named Alba that he created through genetic engineering.

He will give a free public lecture at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in Meyerhoff Auditorium in the Ho Science Center. The Harvey Picker Distinguished Lecture in the Visual Arts is co-sponsored by the Picker Art Gallery and the ICPA.

Kac will discuss his projects, including a recent transgenic artwork called Natural History of the Enigma.

The central work in that series is a plantimal, a new life form Kac created and that he calls Edunia, a genetically engineered flower that is a hybrid of the artist and petunia. The Edunia expresses Kac's DNA, taken from his blood, exclusively in the flower's red veins.

At 11:30 a.m. Thursday in Golden Auditorium, the artist will take part in a panel discussion that will examine the relationship and confluence of art and science and the implications it has on contemporary society.

Other panelists are Jason Meyers, biologist at Colgate; W.C. Richardson, professor, University of Maryland, College Park; Anthony F. Aveni, Russell B. Colgate Professor of Astronomy and Anthropology at Colgate; and Lynn Gamwell, director-emerita, Binghamton University Art Museum.

Meyers recently landed a gig as an associate producer with NBC Sports. For the lifelong sports buff and former Raiders quarterback, it's a dream job.

In his role on the production staff, Meyers acts as a "spotter," the eyes of Sunday Night Football's producer. That puts him inside the broadcast booth with sportscasters Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth.

"I'm positioned just off camera. My responsibility is to keep a close eye on the field and pick out things that might be noteworthy, such as injuries and formations."

Through a headset, he relays the information to the producer who decides whether the details should be aired. If Meyer's talking points make the cut, Michaels and Collinsworth will pass the details onto viewers.

Ryan Meyers '10 poses inside the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. The senior was helped by two alumni in landing a job as an associate producer for NBC Sports.

"Along with plenty of adrenaline, the tremendous learning opportunity the position presents keeps me motivated, helping me keep up with a busy schedule," added Meyers, who transferred from Tulane University to Colgate after Hurricane Katrina.

The New Orleans native tackles coursework during the week before catching a flight out of Syracuse on Thursday nights or Friday mornings to that weekend's game location.

Meyers landed the position with NBC Sports, thanks to a Colgate connection. He met Ken Schanzer '66, president of NBC Sports, during the Center for Career Services' A Day in the Life program, which allows students to shadow Colgate alumni and parents in a variety of professions.

Schanzer later offered Meyers an internship position in the executive offices of NBC Sports, where he also developed a relationship with alumnus Drew Esocoff '79, director of Sunday Night Football.

When the associate producer position opened up over the summer, Meyers said he was honored that Schanzer and Esocoff thought of him.

"If there is one piece of advice I could pass along to students it would be to build relationships with Colgate alumni. They want to help you so much."

The Colgate connection has certainly opened up a world of opportunities for Meyers.

Once the NFL season ends, he will mostly likely assist in NBC's coverage of other sporting events, possibly even the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

"As you can imagine, I'm the envy of all my friends," joked Meyers. "In all honesty, I feel very fortunate."

ABC's Bob Woodruff '83, P'13 moderated a panel discussion featuring six alumni who represented diverse perspectives on the energy field: journalist and Alaska resident Elizabeth Arnold '82; energy investor Bob Gold '80; London-based energy policy advisor and attorney Jane Kozinski '82; wind entrepreneur David Mortenson '88; Edgar Lampert '62, P'10, a real estate developer committed to sustainable building; and Bruce Selleck '71, Harold Orville Whitnall Professor of geology at Colgate.

Innovation, he said, is the only way to fuel a true green revolution. "How do we stimulate 10,000 innovators in 10,000 green garages, trying 10,000 different things, 1,000 of which will be promising, 100 of which will be way cool, and maybe two will give us sources of abundant, cheap, clean, reliable energies?"

ABC's Bob Woodruff '83, P'13 (left) moderates a panel discussion about energy featuring six alumni. Next to him is keynote speaker Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. (Photo by Lorenzo Ciniglio)

Colgate experts agreed on the power of innovation; yet, as Friedman had, they also stressed the importance of price in terms of stimulating both investment and consumer demand for clean energies -- from wind turbines, solar, and hydropower, to clean coal, the smart grid, and natural gas.

Arnold said she sees the power of innovation firsthand in oil-dependent Alaska. "In places where they are still hunting whales and seals, where they still use skin boats, there are wind farms going up." The wind technology, she said, is being developed using dollars that are earned from fossil fuels. "The symbol can't be lost."

Gold said that oil companies will clamor to help once they have a strong profit incentive. "If we want to cure cancer, we wouldn't think of excluding the drug companies. But we're trying to cure an energy problem while excluding the energy companies."

Mortenson, whose company is the largest design-builder of wind energy in the United States, confirmed that price incentives gave European companies a head start in turbine innovation.

"Unless you have a balance of either incentives, through the production tax credit, or the pricing of carbon on polluting industries, you have no price incentive and you don't have any stability or predictability. We are getting our proverbial rear ends kicked," said Mortenson.

Finally, bringing the debate closer to Colgate, Selleck advocated for a source of energy that is abundant below campus, in the Marcellus Shale. "Natural gas is the perfect intermediate fuel," Selleck said, "especially for transportation."

What, then, does the future hold for the science students whose energy is spent above ground at Colgate?

"There's so much geology needed right now," Selleck said, "more than ever before. With the expansion of natural gas development in this country, there are jobs available in spite of the economy and in spite of the low cost of natural gas. Companies know the demand is going to be there."