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On February 3, the SUNY Potsdam community learned about the passing of Joe Sarnoff in an e-mail delivered by Carol Rourke, executive assistant for the office of the president. In his forty year tenure as a member of SUNY Potsdam's family, Joe filled a variety of positions: beginning as the Assistant Director of the Student Union in 1970, he later became the Director of Student Activities, progressed as the Director of the College Union and then became the Director of Retention.
On Friday, January 29, SUNY Potsdam lost the beloved faculty member Linda Nelson. Suspicion arose when Nelson did not arrive on campus for her usual Friday classes, and it was later found that she had passed away in her home. Nelson began teaching in the History Department at SUNY Potsdam in the spring semester of 1999 and has been teaching classes steadily ever since.
President Obama has asked NASA to end its current plans to return a manned mission to the moon by 2020. Instead, NASA will focus its efforts on developing new, more effective space exploration technologies. President Obama's proposed 2010 budget allots $3 billion over the next five years to the agency for robotic missions to the moon, nearby asteroids, and, eventually, Mars, with the intent of establishing manned mission opportunities to pursue in the future.
Last week, Wal-Mart announced that it would be laying off over 10,000 workers from its Sam's Club stores. Reports of the final number differ, but it appears to be between 18-20 employees per store, mostly product demonstration and membership recruitment associates.
Dear Racquette, Some memories of Joe Sarnoff. The first memory that always comes to my mind about Joe was way back when my husband and I were students in 1980-81. My husband, Dave Rourke, was working as a student director in the Union at the time and we were visiting with Joe in the Union lobby.