Every year, the state university and numerous academic and professional organizations honor hundreds of UUP members for outstanding accomplishments in their disciplines, on campus and in their communities.

The Voice is pleased to recognize some of these members here.

• A novel by Matt Bondurant, an assistant professor of English at SUNY Plattsburgh, earned favorable reviews from The New York Times, Booklist and Publisher’s Weekly, and was scheduled to be featured in Esquire and Rolling Stone.

Based on the true story of Bondurant’s grandfather and two granduncles, The Wettest County in the World (Scribner, January 2009) is a gripping Depression-era tale of brotherhood, greed and murder.

Bondurant has published several books of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, as well as short stories.

• Thanks to the efforts of Reginald Ocansey, an emeritus professor of physical education and sport from SUNY Brockport, students at The University of Education at Winneba in Ghana have greater access to textbooks and athletic equipment.

Ocansey, who now lives in Ghana, coordinated the donation of uniforms, sports equipment and books from SUNY Brockport.

• A book by Veronica Tichenor, an assistant professor of sociology at SUNY Institute of Technology in Utica, was recently featured in a CNN.com report.

Earning More and Getting Less: Why Successful Wives Can’t Buy Equality (Rutgers University Press, 2005) looks at the power dynamics in marriages where wives earn much more than their husbands.

• Emily VanDette, an assistant professor of English at SUNY Fredonia, has received a $1,500 grant from the college’s Community Outreach Partnership Center for a poetry correspondence program open to residents of the City of Dunkirk. It is one of many campus/community partnerships that tap the expertise of academic and professional faculty.

— Karen L. Mattison