Spring 2013 - D'Youville College

and announced my release of a HardenedGentoo desktop for the Yeeloong, a highsecurity operating system that respects theuser’s freedom [14] . I continue to maintainand update the system to this day.In 1982, Richard Stallman was criticizedfor having extreme views. Today, theydo not seem so extreme. For the mostpart, companies and governments dorespect people’s privacy and freedom.But the fact that this technology permitsabuses means that, given human nature,someone, somewhere is going to try. Asthese technologies become as common asthe casual student texting in the halls, thereis a need to build devices that protect us.In a small corner of D’Youville College,research on protecting our freedom in aworld of potentially dangerous technologiesis an ongoing endeavor.References:[1] http://stallman.org[2] Thttp://www.gnu.org[3] http://www.fsf.org/, http://www.eff.org[4] See the article about the NASDAQ OMX athttp://lwn.net/Articles/411064[5] http://www.engineyard.com[6] Every time you access http://moodle.dyc.edu, oruse one of our blogs at http://blog.dl.dyc.edu/, orthe students do the Student Satisfaction Surveyat https://survey.dyc.edu, they are accessing aGentoo Linux system similar to what’s rung atthe NASDAQ.[7] See, for instance, the Guardian article about howthe FTC indicted Facebook regarding unfair anddeceptive privacy claims: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/nov/29/facebook-ftcprivacy-settlement[8] http://www.gentoo.org/. The current list ofGentoo developers is at http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/roll-call/userinfo.xml[9] My hardened embedded images are mirroredat most major universities and technicalinstitutes around the world. For example, youcan see some of them at Rochester Institute ofTechnology, at the following urls:mirrors.rit.edu/gentoo/experimental/amd64/uclibc/mirrors.rit.edu/gentoo/experimental/arm/uclibc/mirrors.rit.edu/gentoo/experimental/mips/uclibc/mirrors.rit.edu/gentoo/experimental/x86/uclibc/[10] www.google.com/intl/us/chrome/devices/chromebook-samsung-550.html[11] news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4511042.stm[12] www.lemote.com/en/products/Notebook/2010/0310/112.html[13] freedomincluded.com/[14] Here’s my initial announcement: http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel.announce/1738DYC SOCIOLOGY PROFESSOR TAPPED FORTHREE SCHOLARLY BOOKS ON HUMANRIGHTSDr. Julia Hall, associate professor ofsociology at D’Youville College, has beensigned by two leading publishers to writethree books in her specialty, human rights.Routledge Publishers and Sense Publisherswill publish and market her works in 2013.Routledge is a global publisher of academicbooks, journals and online references.Sense Publishers, an international academicpublishing house, produces books in thefield of sociological educational research.Her book, “Children’s Human Rights andPublic Schooling in the U.S.,” addresses theserious human rights violation taking placeamong children everywhere including inthe U.S. I think it’s important for the publicto know that as the economy continues toconstrict, more and more young people findthemselves struggling to grow up on theserazor-thin margins of survival,” she said.She argues that public schools could bethe very place where children come tounderstand they have rights, but many donot get this information.Hall’s second book, “Low Income Childrenand the Assault on Dignity: PolicyChallenges and Resistance in the CurrentPolitical Economy,” focuses on low incomeschool children in Chicago as an exampleof schools and communities in whichsilencing, limitations, despair and lack ofdignity is a normal part of life.Outside reviewers say the book willpresent a more dimensional and dynamicunderstanding of how the dignity of youthis being eroded.Her third book, “Urban Girls and Culturesof Violence and Silencing in an Era ofPublic Repression,” will focus on the resultsof her extensive research on violence in thelives of girls, which indicates an escalationof the problem in conjunction with shifts inthe economy.To submit an article forconsideration in D’Mensionsemail: dmensions@dyc.edu“Increasing numbers of urban girlsstruggle to negotiate their lives at home, intheir neighborhoods, and in their schools asthose spaces are becoming saturated withviolence,” she said.According to Dr. Brad Porfilio, “The bookwill put the reality of violence in the livesof urban school girls as shaped by theeconomy back on the map…”Hall has been a D’Youville faculty membersince 2001 and teaches undergraduatecourses in sociology, including researchmethods, social problems, principals ofsociology, cultural diversity, human rightsand other related courses.She has received four large competitivegrants from external agencies to fund herresearch. Two were co-authored with Dr.Donald F. Sabo, a professor in the healthservices administration at D’Youville anda nationally known sociologist.Hall was voted the “Scholar of the Year”by the college faculty in 2005 and haspublished approximately 40 articles andbook chapters in peer-reviewed journals andbooks. She also serves on the editorial boardof The Journal of Critical Education PolicyStudies, a leading public policy publication.Hall started and oversees an initiative thathas obtained $3.7 million in scholarshipsfor low-income high school and collegeyouth in Buffalo. This program is currentlyongoing.Active in community service, she isinvolved with various communityorganizations including working withcity children in an after school programat the Valley Community Center, whereshe helps prepare entries for art contests.Dr. Hall is an organizing member for theannual Prader-Willi Syndrome ResearchFoundation walk and race held at ChestnutRidge Park, and is a former board memberof the Literacy Volunteers of Buffalo andErie County.alumni.dyouville.edu 13