Ellen Kraly, geography professor and director of Colgate’s Upstate Institute, speaks at a gathering at the Colgate Inn.

Nonprofit directors and members of municipal agencies spoke Thursday about how Colgate’s Upstate Institute has made significant, long-lasting contributions that have benefited their groups and the upstate region.

The institute is a powerful focal point for resources at a time when many groups are squeezed by funding cutbacks, said Patricia Hoffman, executive director of the nonprofit organization that runs the Oneida Community Mansion House, a multipurpose National Historic Landmark. Read more

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Wes Testo ’12 has won a prestigious award from the Botanical Society of America for his research of a rare species of fern protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Testo presented a poster at the society’s annual conference held recently in Providence, RI. Also presenting a poster about fern research was Michael Britton ’12. Read more

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Catherine Cardelus

The following is a faculty research project supported by the Upstate Institute:

Catherine Cardelús, Assistant Professor of Biology

Professor Cardelús received funds for “Above and Belowground Responses to Acid Rain Mitigation in Adirondack State Park.” She will work with a team of students to examine the effect of calcium addition on forest nutrient recovery to learn whether “liming” might be a potentially effective mitigation strategy to fight the effects of acid rain in the Adirondack Park. She and her students will collect leaf litter and measure tree growth several times during the coming year at four established test plots near Webb, New York. They hope to learn whether limed plots have more available nitrogen, and whether plants in those plots retain their leaves significantly longer and are therefore more productive.

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The following is a faculty research project supported by the Upstate Institute:

Daisaku Yamamoto, Assistant Professor of Geography and Asian Studies

Rural prosperity is an alternate way of measuring a community’s success by considering employment rates, levels of poverty, school enrollment, and housing conditions, in addition to patterns of economic growth. Drawing on international and national research, this focus on regional prosperity seeks to capture a more holistic nature of development and to emphasize ‘resilience,’ the capacity of localities and regions to endure various shocks and distress over an extended time period. .. Using quantitative and qualitative indicators such as civic engagement, environment, social capital, Yamamoto will learn about “prosperous” and “resilient” rural communities in the region as a basis for future in-depth research.

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The following is a faculty research project supported by the Upstate Institute:

Tim S. McCay, Associate Professor of Biology

Although earthworms are well known for their positive role as decomposers of plant litter, they can have negative effects on ecosystems in which they did not evolve. The central problem regarding exotic earthworms in Upstate New York is that little information is available to land managers regarding the distributions of exotic and native taxa. McKay’s work will therefore seek to develop a better understanding of the distributions of exotic and native worm species in natural areas of central New York, and a better understanding between the different species and land-cover types in the region.

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Professor Pete Banner-Haley

The following is a faculty research project supported by the Upstate Institute:

Charles Pete Banner-Haley, Professor of History and Africana and Latin American Studies

This research project seeks to provide an overview of the networks that African Americans created in Upstate New York. Through their social institutions such as the family, churches, and various social organizations, African Americans in the Upstate region engaged in communal efforts to advance and nurture pride in the race, increase opportunities for educational advancement and professional employment, and enhance their status as American citizens.

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Joscelyn Godwin

The following is a faculty research project supported by the Upstate Institute:

Joscelyn Godwin, Professor of Music

Professor Godwin is writing a manuscript on some of the eccentric spiritualities in the Upstate New York region, which was once known as the “Burned-Over District” for its history of religious revivals such as the Oneida Community. Read more

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The following is a faculty research project supported by the Upstate Institute:

Adam Burnett, William R. Kenan Jr Professor of Geography
William Peck, Associate Professor of Geology

Adam Burnett and William Peck received start-up funding to develop a project that will examine lake-effect snow patterns in Upstate New York. During the winter they recruited volunteers to sampleprecipitation from over a dozen locations in central New York, and coordinated collecting to sample snow from several lake-effect snow bands. Over seventy snow samples were collected from twenty storms. They will measure stable oxygen and hydrogen isotopes of these samples to learn about the path the moisture has taken and the conditions of snow formation in order to better understand lake-effect storms and other weather events. This project has also been funded by the Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute.

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William Peck

The following is a faculty research project supported by the Upstate Institute:

William Peck, Department of Geology

Maple syrup production is an important upstate economy, and its supplementary income helps make family farms economically viable. The maple syrup industry in the US is currently threatened by a variety of environmental and economic factors, some of which especially affect Upstate producers. Read more

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Professor Pete Banner-Haley

The following is a faculty research project supported by the Upstate Institute:

Charles “Pete” Banner-Haley, Professor of History and Africana and Latin American Studies

Professor Banner-Haley will conduct research on the history of African Americans in the Upstate counties of Broome, Chemung and Steuben to consider gender relations between African American men and women between 1890 and 1950. He will examine attitudes toward child-rearing and family structure, and the role that it played in the struggle for racial equality in these communities. Read more

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