From an assessment of taurine as a cognitive enhancer to the view among students about the good and bad of ChatGPT, research and discovery from the world-renowned to the campus-based will be the focus of the day when the State University of New York at Old Westbury holds “2023 Student Research Day: Rights and Responsibilities” on Tuesday, April 18.
The 2023 theme for the event is “Rights and Responsibilities: What do rights and responsibilities mean to you?” which has attracted more than 70 student participants who will present their work through oral presentations, poster exhibits and artistic displays.
“Research Day is a showcase for the intelligence, interests and viewpoints of our students,” said Betty Berbari, the event’s organizer and assistant dean of the school of arts and sciences. “Whether a student is studying in the sciences, public policy, business, visual arts or any other field, we challenged them to question the world around them, to explore what’s has gone on before and, in some cases, to surmise what might happen as we go forward.”
While much of the day’s activity surrounds the work of student-researchers enrolled in courses in the college’s schools of arts and sciences, business, education and professional studies, a highlight of the program will be the 1 p.m. keynote address by Max Kerner, founder and executive director of the Bard Prison Initiative, which among many notable achievements was the subject of the acclaimed documentary film “College Behind Bars,” directed by Lynn Novick, produced by Sarah Botstein and executive produced by Ken Burns.
SUNY Old Westbury’s Student Research Day takes place in the Multipurpose Rooms of the college’s Student Union from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Complete information on the day can be found on the SUNY Old Westbury website.
Max Kenner is founder and executive director of the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) which enrolls incarcerated women and men in academic programs that culminate in degrees from Bard College.
A leading advocate for the restoration of college-in-prison, Kenner frequently speaks publicly on issues of education and criminal justice. He is also co-founder of the Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison, which supports colleges and universities in establishing college-in-prison projects nationwide, and also of the Bard Microcollege, which establishes rigorous, tuition-free college opportunities within urban areas in partnership with community-based institutions.
At Bard College, Kenner serves as vice president for institutional initiatives and advisor to the president on public policy and college affairs. He has been a fellow-in-residence at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American history at Harvard University and has served on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s New York State Council on Community Re-Entry and Reintegration since its inception. He is the recipient of many awards including the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library’s New Frontier Award and the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in Education. In addition to the “College Behind Bars” documentary, which aired on PBS in 2019, BPI has figured prominently in the media, including but not limited to features on 60 Minutes, PBS News Hour, the New York Times Magazine and the Washington Post.
