Your University: Stony Brook Calendar Changes Draw Ire

Multiple media outlets are reporting that the Stony Brook University administration'sare upsetting some religious communities. The university recently announced it will not give students off for religious holidays; the spring break week, typically set for the week in which Passover and Holy Week are celebrated, will instead divide the semester into halves.

The university told CBS Local that no exams would be given or papers due on holidays. Still, both students and faculty are upset. "You really have to choose between my faith and my school work and I don’t want to be put in that position,” student Aaron Gershoff said.

The Jewish Week described the move as "withdrawing the welcome mat" to the university's Jewish students. About 5 percent of the student body of 24,000 is Jewish.

“We are trying to be respectful of all religions,” Charles Robbins, vice provost for undergraduate education and dean of the undergraduate college, told The Jewish Week. “We want to be equally welcoming to everybody.”

Stony Brook Faculty Mentored Intel Top Finisher. Nithin Tumma, from Michigan, worked with Department of Medicine professor Dr. Berhane Ghebrehiwet on his prizewinning project, related to breast cancer therapies. The 17-year-old won the top prize of $100,000 at the Intel Science Talent Search competition. Out of the 40 finalists in the competition, eight of them were mentored by Stony Brook faculty. Click here to read the full story from Newsday (subscription required).

University Professor Tracks Penguin Populations. Heather Lynch, an assistant professor of ecology and evolution, and a team of researchers have been using satellite data and field work to track the migration and reproduction  of the Adélie, chinstrap and gentoo penguin species in the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Their work, published in the journals Polar Biology, Ecology and Marine Ecology Progress Series, has shown these populations have been affected by global warming – with the gentoo population increasing while the others have noticeably decreased.