Sometimes people think that loan consolidation is too much of a hard work, so they leave all their loans as is and try to cope with all payments. In reality, consolidating your outstanding student loans is not at all hard. All it takes is a bit of careful research, to find the lender that will help you save the most. And the benefits of consolidating your college debt are significant. Consolidating can save you several hundred dollars. Find out how to get the most benefits of your student loan consolidation.

Benefit 1: Less hassle

How many bills do you have to pay every month? How many of them are from different lenders for your student loans? If you are like most people you probably hate keeping track of all bills and payments that tend to arrive at a different time during the month. Consolidation will solve this problem - you will have to make one payment every month, that's it. No more forgotten student loan bills and trying to remember what you paid or haven't paid yet.

Benefit 2: Your will pay less

Even though your consolidated rate is calculated as an average of your existing loan rates, the resulting rate is usually slightly less. So your monthly payment will be lower.

Often students and young graduates try to compare several lenders in hope of finding the lowest consolidation rate. There is no reason to do so. According to the law all lenders have to offer you the same interest rate as Federal Family Education Loan Program. However, most lenders offer additional benefits and that's where you savings will really come from.

Majority of lenders reward you with reduction of interest for setting a direct bank withdrawal. Paying on time is also very important - usually you can get a reduction up to 1 percent on your interest rate for paying before the due date for 24 or 36 month. So, for example, if your current average interest is 7.5 percent, after all discounts it will be 6.25 percent. Considering that you will repay your loan for several years this will account to a substantial savings.

Benefit 3: Better credit history

When you pay several loans it is inevitable that from time to time you miss some of the payments. This can lead to damaging your credit history. And as you know, if you have bad credit, it will be difficult to get new credit cards and a mortgage when you decide to get your own home. On the other hand, consolidating all your loans and paying one bill on time every month will help you built a strong credit history.

So, there is really no reason not to consolidate. The only thing you will have to keep in mind is that you will have to choose the lender for your consolidated loan very carefully. As a general rule consolidating college loans is only allowed once. There are only two exceptions - if you decide to continue your study and take another loan and if not all your student debt was included in the first consolidation.

So usually you can't "reconsolidate" if you see a better offer later. For this reason you will have to look at the fine print so there are no surprises later. For example some lenders offer attractive benefits, but they have additional fees or their fees for late payment are enormous. You will have to find all this out before you commit to a particular lender.

Now that you have graduated from college, one of the most nagging prioritises for you is to settle your student days loans, whether private or Federal college loan. So how nice would you feel to note that you have a constitutional right to lawfully reduce your student loans liability by as much as 60%.

Federal Loan Consolidation:

You can use the Federal college Loan Consolidation Program to make your student loan repayment more manageable. Yes, this program allows you to bundle your existing variable-rate federal loans into a single, fixed-rate loan of unprecedented rates as low as 4.5%.

Best of all is that it is free to consolidate, and there are reputable online private firms that make it even easier with fast, online applications plus, you get Education Finance Advisors who can answer your questions and help you through the loan consolidation process for better college student loan consolidation.

College loan Consolidation Drawback And Best College Consolidation Loan:

Even if you have already consolidated your Federal Loans at a higher rate than 4.5% or you are still carrying your private loans and would like to refinance them, there are also reputable firms you can use to get better deals in spite of college loan consolidation drawback. You can even lump all your loans, both private and Federal, into one single loan portfolio and get even lower rates.

Even if you want to continue your education, you will find loan organizations specializing in helping graduate students and continuing education students. You can even deduct already paid interest on Federal Student Consolidation loans.

If you have a variety of different student loans, you may want to start thinking about your consolidation options. There are various companies that offer consolidation options that will allow you to take all of your college loans and consolidate them into one monthly payment. This is a great option because it is much easier to keep up with one payment and it can also save you a great deal of money on interest rates as well. When you consolidate your student loans, you want to make sure that you get a great deal, so consider the following tips before you make any final decisions.

Tip #1 - Compare Lenders - One of the first things that you should do when you are considering a consolidation loan is to compare a variety of different lenders. While the first lender you consider may seem to have great rates and options, you need to keep looking around to make sure that you find the best deal possible. Consolidation loans are highly competitive and there are many companies out there that will want to help you, so make sure that you compare various companies and their rates before you make your final decision on a lender.

Tip #2 - Check Out Discounts - Another thing that you should consider when you are looking for a consolidation loan is the discounts that are offered by a company. Many companies offer discounts if you opt for automatic withdrawal from your bank account. Other companies offer discounts if you pay all your payments on time for a certain amount of time. Make sure that you find the options that will best save you money.

Tip #3 - Avoiding Extending Your Loan - What many students fail to realize when they are consolidating their loans is that some companies are offering loans that will last for 20 years instead of the 10 years that their initial loan was to last. Going with a loan over 20 years will end up costing you a great deal more in interest rates. You are usually better off to stick with 10 year loans if you want to save money in the long run. Be sure that you check out the terms and the length of the loan before you make a decision.

Tip #4 - Read the Fine Print - Before you sign your name on the dotted line, make sure that you have read all the fine print and the terms regarding your student loan. Many times there are consolidation loans that will look good, with companies offering great rates and special discounts, but many times there can be a catch that you are not aware of.

When you are consolidating your student loans, you want to make sure that you get the best deal possible so you can save money. If you keep these tips in mind, you will be able to pick out the best consolidation loan for you.

Student Debt Consolidation meets its purpose of reducing both the applicant’s overall student debt and particularly the amount of the monthly payments making student debt more affordable. Yet, lenders are offering further benefits and savings on student debt consolidation.

When you choose to consolidate your student debt you are seeking a friendlier repayment program, a debt reduction, lower monthly payments and most of the time all of these altogether. This, however, doesn’t imply that you should go for the first offer you receive, by searching around a little you can obtain further savings and benefits like the following:

Significantly Reduce Your Monthly Payments

By consolidating your student debt, incredible reductions on your monthly payments can be achieved. There are student debt consolidation programs that can offer you reductions on your monthly payments of up to 60%. Bear in mind though, that nothing comes at no cost and you’ll probably end up paying higher overall amounts in terms of interests over the whole life of the loan if you obtain the reduction by extending the repayment program.

Low Interest Rates And Additional Rate Reductions

You can obtain an interest rate as low as 5.25% on your student debt consolidation loans and sometimes even less. But many lenders offer additional reductions on their benefit programs if you meet certain requirements like debit on bank account of the monthly payments. These additional reductions can reach up to 2% but the average reduction you can obtain is around 1.25%.

No Fees and No Penalties For Pre-payment

Many lenders are offering no fees at all for consolidating student debt. And most importantly, since what most applicants want is to be able to become debt free as soon as possible, they can take advantage of those student debt consolidation programs that have no penalties for repaying your debt earlier. Thus, you can become debt free sooner and save thousands worth of interests.

Deduct The Interests On Your Consolidation Loan From Income Tax

Another great benefit you can obtain when consolidating your student debt is that the interests on your student debt consolidation loan are Income Tax deductible which implies high savings. Bear in mind that we are talking about the Federal Income Tax only and not other taxes which may or may not include this benefit. You’ll need to contact local agencies in order to know whether there are additional deductions you can make on your taxes.

Additional Benefits For Graduated Students

Once you’ve graduated you can obtain additional benefits if you decide to consolidate your debt. This includes further interest rate reductions and other benefits like forbearances. For example: you can obtain up to a 1% interest rate reduction if you decide to consolidate your student debt while you are still on your grace period. This implies starting to repay your debt right away but grants you huge savings on the long run.

As you can see, there are many benefits that student debt consolidation provides to those who decide to take that path. Thus, if you have accumulated student debt and you want to ease your financial situation, don’t doubt it. Student debt consolidation is definitely the way to go.

You've done it! You have finished college and now the excitement of finding work starts. But with it should also comes a worry about repaying your student loans. But don't stress out too much, there is still a little bit of time, before you start getting your loan repayment bills, this time is called grace period. Find out what grace period is and how you can use it to greatly reduce your debt with student loan consolidation.

What is a grace period?

Grace period is the time between your graduation and the time when you start receiving bills for your student loan. The idea is to give you a little bit of time to find work, so you can easily make your monthly payments. Usually grace period is 6 month, but it can be different for every loan. You will have to check your loan papers to confirm how long your grace period is.

If you have not consolidated your college loans already, grace period is the perfect time to do so. If you go for a student loan consolidation program during your grace period, with most lenders you can lock a lower rate for your new consolidated loan. If you want to consolidate after the grace period, your rates will be higher.

Why go for a student loan consolidation?

There are many benefits of consolidating your loans. First, the interest rate on your new consolidated loan will be lower than the rate on your existing loans. This means lower monthly payments and shorter time to repay your loan. Second, you will get one bill instead of several, so it is more convenient. Third, most lenders offer special discounts and benefits when you consolidate. Usually you get rewarded for paying before the due date, for example your rate can be reduced by 1 percent after making 24 payments on time. This can be a big saving, especially if you have a big debt.

Are there any disadvantages of loan consolidation?

There is one possible disadvantage - when you consolidate your interest rate is locked, it won't get any higher or lower while you repay. On the other hand, the rate on your unconsolidated loans might increase or decrease over time. So in theory it is possible that in the future your loan rate will go down and become lower than your consolidated rate. However, in practice, bearing in mind current economic situation it is very unlikely. So I would say, there is absolutely no reason, why you shouldn't consolidate your debt.

How consolidation during grace period works?

If you took a federal student loan, consolidating it during your grace period would give the same results as consolidating while you are still a student. In a sense grace period is a time when your student status is deferred or postponed by six months. After that, you will be in repayment period. In-repayment rates for consolidation are always higher.

If you have several loans by private lenders, the situation is a bit different. They might not give you any grace period at all. So it is important to review the terms of your loan before you graduate.

Consolidated loans don't have grace periods

One thing you have to know is that consolidation loans don't have any grace period. That means that generally you will get your first bill in 60 days after you have been approved for consolidation. So if you think that you might need some time to find work, it is better to wait with consolidation before your student loan come close to the end of their grace period.

Don't miss the opportunity to consolidate your loans while you are still in grace period. You can save a lot by locking a lower rate.

As Chief Accountant of the SEC, Donald T. Nicolaisen, CPA, is charged with overseeing the commission's accounting and auditing policies and standard-setting initiatives at the national and international levels. He and his staff spent a November morning chatting with the Journal of Accountancy. In this first of a two-part interview, Nicolaisen talks about issues ranging from Sarbanes-Oxley section 404 to fair value, from fraud to the future of AICPA-PCAOB relations. (Part two of the interview will appear in the February issue.) This article is for any CPA, student or educator whose work comes into contact with the SEC.

JofA: You've been on the job a little over a year now. Where have you devoted most of your time and attention?

Nicolaisen: When I joined the SEC over a year ago, I knew that dealing with complex accounting issues and registrant matters would consume a significant amount of my time. These activities have historically been within the purview of the Chief Accountant. What's new is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which established an appropriate foundation to improve financial reporting. With key provisions of the act taking hold, I have spent time working with the PCAOB as it established itself as a regulator and further defined its role. In addition, I have spent considerable time on the Sarbanes-Oxley internal control requirements. I also believe that there has been a renewed focus on strengthening corporate governance and restoring investor confidence. These are all positive developments, and it is very rewarding for me personally to have a role in helping to shape these changes.
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Speaking about change, I should also mention the FASB and the IASB, who are very enthusiastic about the convergence of accounting standards. This is an enormous undertaking, and one that I fully support.

Finally, since I joined the commission, my office has doubled in size. We are now at our full complement with over 60 highly skilled and dedicated professionals. Restructuring and expanding the Office of the Chief Accountant (OCA) has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my job, and I am very proud of my staff.

These are just a few of the issues that I have been working on. As you can imagine, the last year and a half have been very busy, and I expect that will continue.

JofA: When you arrived at the OCA, you were very keen on the need for change at the top. Have you made progress?

Nicolaisen: This is a time of immense change; that's one of the reasons I chose to join the SEC. Sarbanes-Oxley has given us an opportunity to restructure all aspects of the financial reporting process--governance, audit committees, standard setting and peer review, compliance reporting, evaluation of and reporting publicly on internal controls, management reporting on the accuracy of its financial statements--and, of course, the establishment of the PCAOB. Those are very significant changes.

These pieces are in place, and I believe they will improve the financial reporting process as well as help to restore investor confidence. But doing the right thing and instilling strong moral and ethical standards cannot be done through legislation or regulation alone. This has to come from the private sector. I think it's important that we recognize the many market participants who have worked tirelessly and diligently over the past few years to improve our systems and to regain investor confidence. There's been a real dedication on the part of many people to change. For example, there's been a focus on substantively improving corporate governance and the role of audit committees. And my sense is that preparers and auditors are focusing intently on the importance of financial reporting and of the audit process. Across corporate America significant additional resources have been added, training and continuing education have increasingly focused on ethical and technical matters, and there is a real push--starting at the top of business organizations--to make the tough calls and to get the numbers right. These are all positive developments.

That being said, I also recognize that we continue to discover both industry-wide and company-specific failures of business ethics and of disclosures to shareholders. These failures are unacceptable and highlight the need for continuing vigilant oversight and enforcement.

The internal control requirements are another area of major change. Of all the reforms contained in Sarbanes-Oxley, I believe that the internal control requirements may have the greatest effect on improving the accuracy and reliability of financial reporting. It is also what I consider to be the most urgent financial reporting challenge facing a large share of corporate America and the audit profession certainly through the first quarter of 2005.

JofA: Can you give us a little detail?

Nicolaisen: We've talked about management and auditors reporting on internal controls over financial reporting for as long as I've been in the profession. Now it's a reality. The amount of effort required to implement this change has been daunting for both auditors and preparers. Coupled with that is a renewed recognition of the importance of auditing. Auditors are working hard, training their people, and spending significant resources and energy to implement the internal control requirements. It's important that with all the focus on internal controls, we don't lose sight of the importance of doing a high quality audit. And, from everything that I hear, people believe that the audit function matters and that the contributions that CPAs make do matter. So there's been a tremendous strengthening of the quality of the audit.

Of course, there are many reasons why neoliberal ideology would flourish within the context of charter school reform. Jt is, after all, a reform movement with deep andstrong neoliberal politicalroots. (Wells, A. S., Slayton, J., & Scott, J., 2002)

Introduction

When analyzed within the frameworks of Postmodern Theory, Wells, López, Scott, and Holme (1999) state that "charter schools embody many of the contradictions of the so-called postmodern paradox" (pg. 174). Similarly highlighted are the contradictions and paradoxes of Post-Fordist society, the Network society, neoliberalism, and the market principles being introduced into the realm of educational accountability, education policy, and educational reform. Charter school "reform"1 is not an exception, but perhaps a great example of all these contradictions.

This article attempts to enter the charter school dialogue by looking at the charter school movement through an anti-essentialist social movement and new social movement lens. In the anti-Western new social movement conception there are no set patterns to how movements manifest themselves, or how they were intended to manifest themselves, and local context and activism defined as the agency to act through contentious daily practice is paramount (Holland & Lave, 2001). This article then, theoretically places the intended macro-charter school vision as an essentialist, Western social reform movement in education, but one that has not followed a uniform, easily understood, projected, and coherent model. Its manifestation then, has been that of a new social movement without definite and set patterns of generalizability, focusing on local contexts of activism as daily practice, and exhibiting an abundance of contradictions and paradoxes. Principal amongst the contradictions is that reform is intended to level the playing field, to allow for access, and to ultimately equalize. Although superficially, and in the spirit of postmodern simulacra, charter schools have done that, deeper contextual analysis and case studies of charter schools, especially of predominantly White charter schools, reveal differing results.
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The rush to open charter schools, especially by minority groups, is out of dissatisfaction with public school education (Fuller, 2000). This can be seen as a move in the tradition of civil rights and social justice movements of decades past. Afro-centric, Latino centric, women centered, etc. charters have been established in this spirit of opportunity and reform ( Wexler & Huerta, 2000). However, not just officially declared identity politics interest groups have joined the bandwagon of the charter school movement. Predominantly White groups and wealthy communities have also appropriated the rhetoric of charter school reform using "community," "heritage," or "academy" as proxies for race and or class. Nevertheless, predominantly White charter schools display characteristics that are revealing of a systemically racist and classist society. The White Eurocentric cultural capital imposed as the "standard" or "mainstream" in U.S. society allows these schools greater access to resources, both economic and otherwise that allow for their existence and success (Wells, Holme, Lopez, & Cooper, 2000).

This article focuses on the case of Heritage Charter School (HCS), a predominantly White, rural community charter school. Using the "community school" and "school of choice" rhetoric, members of the Heritage community have managed to keep a predominantly White elementary school open for over one hundred years, even when the Local Education Agency (LEA) closed down their redbrick school building in an effort to consolidate. In effect through the postmodern lens, HCS is and is not a converter charter school. A converter charter school is usually allowed to continue using the old school building by the new charter school. In that sense HCS is not a converter charter school because the LEA refused to let the new school use the old buildings; community members, however, use the rhetoric of heritage to say it is still the same school. I would say that both claims are true. Local community activism through contentious daily practices created a new site for the school using the new charter school reform and the claim to "community" school identity.

Today, HCS has established a good reputation for itself academically and socially as a "community school," although the meaning of community may have shifted now that the school population is almost as large as the predominantly White retirement community itself, and projected to continue growing. Through private/ public partnerships and free market principles, HCS now has an over 2 million-dollar budget. HCS is currently led by a set of community "heroes" that have an abundance of access and knowledge in curriculum, school administration, and political and business connections at all levels of government to make HCS a success. There are, however, several contradictions. HCS does not reflect the racial demographics that it should according to charter school laws; it lost half of its African-American student population in the transition from the old Heritage Elementary to HCS and the current African-American student recruitment efforts are problematic.

The justification behind the uses of servers on college and university campuses is as simple as "more is never enough."

Servers--the software and hardware that store data and handle its processing--are often known by their end users mainly as the sources of blame for various computing failures. "The server's gone down" may be the single best-known phrase in information technology (IT). But schools are relying on their servers to do more than in the past, especially in the area of storage, which they look to as a path to the paperless office they've been promised for more then a decade by the apostles of high technology (see sidebar).

The result is that information technology departments are using servers that are easier to maintain than earlier generations, cheaper to manage, provide more capacity for today's tasks, and will grow with the organization's needs. Hardware and software vendors have provided technology that replaces expensive servers with ones that are more flexible and cheaper to buy and maintain.

Make It Powerful
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Few organizations understand the need for huge amounts of server capacity like research universities. They rely on the ability to create, analyze, and store images, computations, and data on a vast scale.

At the University of Houston's Advanced Computing Research Laboratory in Texas, a variety of academic units at the university are able to get resources for computer and computational science research. It uses 60 HP zx6000 workstations with dual 900 MHz Itanium 2 processors and an HP rx5670 Itanium 2 four-way server with 1 GHz processors, all running the Linux operating system. With this setup, the center achieved new heights of performance speed, all in a setup that allows it to be flexible to serve its diverse and changing user needs.

Princeton University (N.J.) took a different route to outfit ting one of its own research centers. The Center for the Study of Brain, Mind and Behavior (CSBMB) uses a 64-node G5 Xserve duster from Apple to handle its image analysis and simulation modeling. Though it is housed in the psychology department of the university, it is an interdisciplinary facility that touches on many academic areas, including chemistry, computer science, applied math, and more. "We are really an imaging facility," says Randee Tengi, CSBMB system administrator. "People collect huge amounts of data, then they go back to the lab and analyze it."

To store the vast quantities of images needed for work in simulation and analysis of neuroimaging data, CSBMB uses an 11-terabyte Silicon-Server from BlueArc Corporation. (A terabyte measures the storage volume; one terabyte is 2 to the 40th power, or about 1,000 gigabytes.)

When the center opened six years ago, every user (there are now about 100) used the same machine that ran the imaging software. "We still wanted a central processor for parallel jobs, so we needed a cluster machine," says Tengi. "We wanted all of the data on one file server so users could also access it from their desktops."

As a result, the centers technology lets them use their own desktop computers (whether they run Mac OS X, Windows, or Linux operating systems) to access the image data from the central file sewer.

Though server power is the name of the game at CSBMB, manageability is near the top of Tengi's list of benefits she's derived from the new system. The center has limited resources for administering its technology, so she appreciates having a system that is easy for her to maintain and easy for the end users to operate.

Austin Community College (Texas) worked with IBM in an effort to better serve its growing student enrollment, up more than 19 percent since 1993, which has increased the amount of data that the IT department must manage and support. The school specifically wanted to increase the speed of its web-based and campus-based services around the clock.

The school implemented an enterprise sewer consolidation project that combined several applications from four independent computer servers to only one IBM server, the eServer pSeries 670 running AIX 5L. The switch is expected to save the school approximately $50,000 a year, especially in the area of student grading. In addition, faster online processing has allowed faculty to submit end-of-semester grades via the web, rather than on optical scan sheets.

Make It Simple

For some users, the pain point is keeping the darn thing running. The students at the Yale Daily News needed a system that not only is easy to use--especially in the late-night hours when the paper is assembled--but is easy to maintain. The paper has no dedicated IT staff; instead, it reties upon a part-time consultant and its own part-time photo editor, Nathan Francis, a computer science major at Yale University (Conn.).

In January 2004, the paper updated its Apple servers and operating systems to take advantage of new features in publishing technology. "We'd had some problems," says Francis. The Quark publishing system it was using "had some issues" with the server, and stability problems sometimes led to the toss of articles. So along with the adoption of Adobe's InDesign publishing software, the paper upgraded to two dual 1.33 GHz Xserve servers and the Mac OS X operating system for the servers and the client computers.

Big, publicly traded companies have been likened to sharks, which have to keep swimming to start sinking. Competing in areas where margins are thin but needing to show shareholders they are moving forward, they are logical candidates for acquisitions and mergers. In the banking sector, which has had its share of such consolidations, there is the further impetus that bigger corporations have bigger capital needs. Needs that only banks with serious financial expertise and clout can serve.

M&A activity is not always evident. Recessionary times tighten appetites along with belts. But merger fever sometimes gets a grip when economic activity picks back up again, as now.

Recently, two very, very large banks have made bids to enter Vermont: Toronto Dominion, which seems likely to acquire a 51 percent share of Banknorth; and Citizens, which was assisted by its parent company the Royal Bank of Scotland in buying Charter One. The tectonic plate movement for the deals may have originated elsewhere, but the banking industry is watching for tsunamis.

So far, Vermont has managed to retain a significant number of community-scale banks, whose customers appreciate personal service and whose shareholders prefer steady to perhaps spectacular returns. But even these institutions may feel the effects of the Citizens deal, not least because Vermont president Jim Keyes has extensive experience here, and is determined to remain and make his company live up to its name by providing locally oriented and socially responsible service.
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Big And Bigger

The Federal Reserve gave its approval January 18 for TD Bank Financial Group (NYSE: TD), headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, to purchase 51 percent of the stock of Portland, Maine-based Banknorth Group, Inc. (NYSE: BNK). A stockholders' meeting February 18 approved the deal, for which the bank had prepared by removing debt from its balance sheet and spending money on M&A costs, causing their 2004 profits to drop 14 percent from 2003 despite record Q3 earnings. Without those costs there would have been an 11 percent increase in earnings, with 2004 loans and leases up 13 percent to $17.7 billion.

Also in 2004, Banknorth completed Massachusetts acquisitions of the Foxborough Savings Bank and the CCBT Financial Companies, the holding company for the Cape Cod Bank &Trust Co. They also agreed to buy BostonFed Bancorp, Inc. in 2005. At year's end, Banknorth had $28.7 billion in assets, from operations in Maine (Peoples Heritage Bank), New York (Evergreen Bank), and the Banknorths of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Toronto-Dominion, with a market cap of about $26 billion, increased its branches to 230 in 2004 by acquiring 57 from the Laurentian Bank, and bought the Liberty Mutual Group insurance business (total employees as of early February: 42,843). Toronto-Dominion is the TD in the global investment firm TD Waterhouse. At the close of their fiscal year on October 31, net income applicable to shares of common stock totaled $2.23 billion Canadian dollars, up from $989 million.

But the impacts of this cross-border alliance may not be immediate and obvious. "We're stiff a company that operates on its own," said Philip Daniels, president and CEO of Banknorth Vermont. "Their interest and their policy is to allow us to run our bank as we have in the past," he said, meaning there won't be a wave of consolidation-related job losses. No change in the operating system, no change in the management team.

"It gives our banking organization the capital that is needed to go out and do other acquisitions," Daniels said. But in Vermont, Banknorth is already number two in market share, and attempts to grow larger by purchasing other Vermont banks could easily bump into limits set by regulators, he observed.

On the commercial side, however, it will make a difference that they are allied with Canada's third largest bank, Daniels said. "They have a lot of investment in international banking," he said, and "we see that as a really great benefit for Vermonters trying to attract business from Canada."

Another thing they bring, Daniels said, is "they can help us in doing very, very big deals." Banknorth has been able to handle transactions up to $40 million, but if something on a bigger scale came along - such as a very large company wanting to set up a Vermont operation they will have the resources to help.

Toronto Dominion is one of the most technologically advanced institutions in its banking system, Daniels said. This will be "an opportunity to look at how they do certain things," he said.

Toronto Dominion has looked at Banknorth's employees, and they liked what they saw, Daniels said. One of the greatest benefits of the merger is that "our staff didn't want to have to wake up every day wondering if we would be bought by a big bank and lose a quarter of our jobs. Our staff is our most important asset. We think it's important that they have that peace of mind."

"It's almost all upside and very little downside," Daniels said of their arrangement.

STAMFORD, Conn. -- The Student Loan Corporation (NYSE:STU) today reported net income of $46.1 million ($2.31 basic earnings per share) for the first quarter of 2006, a decrease of $20.0 million (30%), compared to net income of $66.1 million ($3.31 basic earnings per share) for the same period of 2005. The decrease in net income was primarily attributable to reduced floor income of $12.4 million (after tax) and the impact of the Deficit Reduction Act of $3.4 million (after tax) which reduced revenue by $1.9 million (after tax) and increased the provision for loan losses by $1.5 million (after tax). Net income was also reduced by an increase in operating expenses of $4.5 million (after tax) and by a higher effective tax rate compared to the prior year. The operating expense increase was primarily due to the $3.8 million (after tax) impact from the favorable settlement of certain state sales and use taxes in the first quarter of 2005 that did not reoccur in 2006. These impacts were partially offset by 13% growth in the average managed loan portfolio over the previous twelve months.

During the twelve month period ending March 31, 2006, the Company's managed loan assets grew by $3.3 billion (12%) to $31.5 billion. Combined Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) Stafford and PLUS loan disbursements and new CitiAssist Loan commitments totaling $1,895 million for the first quarter of 2006 increased $166 million (10%) compared to the same period of 2005. FFELP Stafford and PLUS loan disbursements of $1,276 million increased $95 million (8%), and new CitiAssist Loan commitments of $619 million increased $71 million (13%), compared to the same period last year. In addition, secondary market and other loan procurement activities added approximately $993 million of loans to the Company's student loan portfolio during the first quarter of 2006, representing an increase of $112 million (13%), compared to the same quarter of 2005. Approximately 91% of the 2006 secondary market and other loan procurement volume was composed of FFELP Consolidation Loans. The Company's total revenue of $112.9 million for the first three months of 2006 was $14.7 million (11%) lower than total revenue of $127.5 million for the same period of 2005. Net interest income of $107.1 million for the first quarter of 2006 was $21.8 million (17%) lower than net interest income of $128.9 million for the same period of 2005. The decrease in net interest income was primarily attributable to an $18.3 million decrease in floor income for 2006. Floor income, as defined by management, is the amount of additional interest income generated when interest margin exceeds the minimum expected spreads. Floor income is described in greater detail in the Company's 2005 Form 10-K. In addition, net interest income was impacted by a $7.8 million net spread reduction in customer assets. The net interest margin for the first quarter of 2006 was 1.68%, a decrease of 35 basis points from 2.03% for the first quarter of 2005.

For the first quarter of 2006, gains on loan sales increased $6.7 million due to the sale of $214 million in assets. Fees and other income increased $6.0 million, primarily due to higher securitization related servicing fees.

Total operating expenses of $37.6 million for the first quarter of 2006 increased $9.6 million (34%) from the same period of 2005, primarily due to the impact from the favorable settlement of certain state sales and use taxes totaling $5.8 million in the first quarter of 2005, which did not reoccur in 2006. The remaining increase primarily reflects the incremental costs to originate, service and administer the larger managed loan portfolio. The Company's operating expense ratio (total operating expenses as a percentage of average managed student loans) for the first quarter of 2006 was 0.49%, eight basis points higher than the same quarter of 2005 primarily due to the tax settlement noted.

The Company's provision for loan losses for the first quarter of 2006 was $6.1 million, $5.5 million higher than the provision for the same period of 2005. Approximately $3.0 million of the increase was primarily attributable to an increase in the CitiAssist Loan portfolio in repayment. The remaining $2.5 million increase was attributable to the impact of the risk-sharing provisions of the recently enacted Deficit Reduction Act. The Deficit Reduction Act imposes a 1% risk-sharing deductible on FFELP default claims submitted after June 30, 2006 by loan servicers that have been designated as Exceptional Performers. (A 3% risk sharing deductible applies to loan servicers not so designated.) The Exceptional Performer designation is granted by the Department of Education in recognition of an exceptional level of performance in servicing federally guaranteed student loans. Currently, a recipient of this designation receives 100% reimbursement on all eligible FFELP claims as long as the recipient continues to meet eligibility standards. See the Company's 2005 Annual Report and Form 10-K for further information.

Few of us would refuse free money. But when it comes to federal education funds, states are doing just that-and, in the process, providing an interesting context for President Bush's latest budget.

His budget would cut more 'than $4 billion from 48 ineffective federal education programs and reallocate most of it to several new Bush initiatives focused on high school and college students. Overall, the president is recommending a $530-million cut in the Department of Education's $56-billion annual budget.

Bush's budget request coincides with the release of an explosive new study by the House Education and Workforce Committee that shows states are incapable of spending all the federal education dollars sent their way. The committee found that the states "returned more than $66 million in unused federal education funds to the U.S. Treasury in 2004."

Democrats, inexplicably, ignored these findings and lambasted Bush. Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy characterized the President's budget as "the most anti-student education budget since [President Reagan] tried to eliminate the Department of Education." Where is the Democratic line in the sand?Reconciliation Important

"A word that people are going to have to become familiar with," House Budget Chairman Jim Nussle announced at his committee's first healing on President Bush's fiscal 2006 budget, "is reconciliation." "Reconciliation" is Washington-ese for the hodgepodge of legislative proposals required to squeeze savings (in amounts set forth by the House and Senate in the annual budget resolution) from exploding entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and farm subsidies.

The new chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, New Hampshire's Judd Gregg, echoed Nussle's blunt assessment. Gregg fingered Medicaid and Medicare as the programs most in need of Congress's attention.

In his budget, the President proposed several tweaks to Medicaid that would yield a 10-year savings of $60 billion and recommended about $6 billion in reforms to corral runaway farm subsidies.

The willingness of lawmakers to acknowledge the inevitability of the first budget reconciliation process that would force Congress to look at mandatory-spending reductions since 1997, combined with Bush's willingness to confront controversial areas of federal largesse, suggests that the political battle lines in 2005 will resemble those that prevailed during the days of the Republican-controlled Congresses of the mid-1990s.

Expect congressional Democrats to wage relentless battles against every Republican proposal to reduce spending, even as they decry Republican deficits and profligacy. But congressional Republicans should welcome the return of this brand of warfare, which will help them re-establish a reputation for spending restraint with their frustrated conservative base. This would be no small political feat, given that the 2006 mid term election qualifies as a "six-year itch" election (where voters historically turn out members of the president's party during his sixth year in office). Enthusiasm among core Republican supporters will be crucial for Republicans to retain control of Congress.

To earn this enthusiasm, Republican leaders will have to deliver on the high expectations established in the President's budget-a 1% reduction in non-security spending, some restraint in federal entitlement programs, and the enactment of promising budgetary reforms, such as the President's proposal to require Congress to vote in an expedited manner on the elimination and consolidation of wasteful federal programs.

A Taxing Debate

Every legislative debate requires a right and left wall-parameters within which the real debate takes place. Liberals and conservatives define their dream scenarios, and the outcome winds up somewhere in the middle.

During the struggle to enact President Bush's $1.6-trillion tax cut in 2001, for example, House conservatives rallied around an even larger $2.3-trillion tax reduction plan designed by former Rep. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. Their insistence on the largest possible tax cut created a necessary context for the President's plan, as did liberal proposals to move the other way and increase taxes on the "rich."

The current confrontation over Social Security is no exception. At a recent gathering, more than 50 House conservatives agreed to several debate-defining markers. Among them:

* Workers should be able to deposit all of the employee's share of the payroll tax, about 6% percent of every dollar earned up to $90,000, into a personal account, not the President's recommended level of 4% (with an initial cap of $1,000).

* The accounts should not be delayed until 2009, as the President proposes.

* No tax increase can be part of the final deal, whether that hike comes in the form of an increase in the amount of wages subject to the payroll tax, an increase in the payroll tax itself, or the introduction of a new tax to offset the costs. Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, described the opposition to new or increased taxes as "deafening."

Dynacolor Graphics is one of the fine art industry's
leading printers of full color gallery announcement
cards and invitations, catalogs, posters and lithograph
prints. Call us today at 800.624.8840 for
more information and free samples.

Modern Postcard
1675 Faraday Avenue.
Carlsbad, CA 92008
Web: www.modernpostcard.com

Specializing in producing full color postcards, starting
from $125 for 500 copies. Call today for free
samples and information.

See our ad page 163

320 Studio
320 Allen Street
Hudson, NY 12534
212.367.8865
Web: www.320studio.com

320 studio specializes in producing Giclee fine-art
limited edition prints for artists & photographers.
We employ an ICC color matching system & produce
color profiles in-house to maintain strict color
control to match original piece of art. High-resolution
drum scans are made in-house or we can copy
your original artwork with a digital scan back fitted
to a 4x5 view camera. Limited edition Giclee's printed
on 100% acid free watercolor papers and come
with a Certificate-of-Authenticity, that includes your
edition information.

Treaty Oak Press
Color Invitations, Catalogs Art Cards
500 cards $109
Web: www.treatyoakpress.com
Free samples: Toll Free 866.493.4432

ART BOOKS

oUTER-aRT, the Worst Possible Art in the
World! art book by Florentin Smarandache
University of New Mexico
200 College Road
Gallup, NM 87301
505.726.1720 Fax: 505.863.7532
Web:
www.gallup.unm.edu/~smarandache/a/outer-art.htm
Email: smarand@unm.edu

"Outer-Art" is a movement set up as a protest
against, or to ridicule, such random modern art
which states that everything is...art! It was initiated
by Dr. Florentin Smarandache, in the 1990s, who
ironically called for an upside-down artwork: to do
art in a way it is not supposed to be done, i.e. to
make art as ugly, as silly, as wrong as possible,
and generally as impossible as possible!

See our ad page 94

ART RELATED WEBSITES

ArtistsRegister.com
1543 Champa Street, Suite 220
Denver, CO 80202
888.562.7232
www.artistsregister.com

ArtistsRegister.com showcases nearly 2,000 visual
artists nationwide, from traditional to avant-garde,
Developed and managed by the nonprofit Western
States Arts Federation, this membership-based
online community connects artists and art lovers-no
matter where they are. Discover artists or be discovered
covered by art enthusiasts in an easily searchable
online gallery. ArtistsRegister.com is your place to
find artists and art!

See our ad page 163

ART SCHOOLS

Columbia College Chicago

600 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60605
312.344.7130 Fax: 312.344.8024
Web: www.colum.edu
Email: admissions@popmail.colum.edu

Offering BA, BFA, and/or MFA degrees in more
than twenty disciplines in the visual, performing
and media arts including film/video, art & design,
photography, interdisciplinary arts, theater, poetry,
music, television, radio, journalism, sound
design, fashion design, dance, fiction writing, arts
management, marketing communications, academic
computing. Learn the best in theory and practice
from working professionals in a dynamic
urban environment.

Rutgers-Mason Gross School of the Arts

Visual Arts Department
33 Livingston Avenue
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1959
732.932.2222 MFA press 2 BFA press 3
Fax: 732.932.2217
Application Deadlines: BFA, December 1, 2003
MFA, February 1, 2004
Web: www.masongross.rutgers.edu
COME STUDY WITH US.

The BFA and MFA Visual Art programs encompass a
wide variety of perspectives in painting, sculpture and
ceramics, photography, film and video, performance,
printmaking, mixed media, and undergraduate graphic
design. The studio curriculum is complimented by
undergraduate and graduate seminar courses
addressing critical, social and aesthetic issues.
Students may take art-related internships outside the
school. Rutgers University's proximity to New York City
provides students with convenient access to major
galleries and museums.

See our ad page 161

Vermont College of Union Institute & University

36 College Street
Montpelier, VT 05602
800.336.6794; 802.828.8500
Fax: 802.828.8855
Web: www.tui.edu/vermontcollege
Email: vcadmis@tui.edu

The MFA in Visual Art Program at Vermont College
allows students to earn a 60-credit degree over a
period of two years. The Program combines ten-day
on-campus residencies followed by six-month
semesters of self-designed studio practice conducted
from students' home studios in the context of the
communities in which they live, work, and make art.
The Program encourages an interdisciplinary
approach to studio practices, helping emerging
artists to integrate contemporary cultural theory with
the practical concerns of their own media, method,
and place in the world.

See our ad page 163

ART SUPPLIES

Artpaper.com
A Division of True Blue Art Supply & Services
15 Pershing Road
Asheville, NC 28805
828.296.0404 Toll Free: 866.296.0404
Fax: 828.296.0505
Web: www.artpaper.com Email: info@artpaper.com

Suppliers of archival quality papers for all arts
media. Bulk pricing, free samples, reference guide,
and free shipping on orders over $400. Owned and
operated by working artists. For quality art supplies
at discount prices check out our partner's site at
www.cheapartsupply.com

Chavant, Inc.
Clay Modeling Products
42 West Street
Red Bank, NJ 07701
800.CHAVANT Fax: 732.842.3621
Web: www.chavant.com

Since 1892, Chavant has produced a wide variety
of professional grade, oil based plastelines. Please
order a sample kit and evaluate these superior
quality clays and tools. Skilled sculptors agree the
fine art of sculpture begins with the finest clay!

Craft Cut Products
The only professional, quality, heavy-duty custom
stretcher bar. SAVE - direct from the factory. Free
shipping for artists. 866.989.7136
E-mail: craftcut@aol.com

Graphic Chemical & Ink Company
728 North Yale Avenue, Villa Park, IL 60181-7027
800.465.7382 Fax: 630.832.6064
Web: www.graphicchemical.com

The most complete line of Printmaking materials available.
Etching * Lithography * Photo-etching * Relief *
Monoprinting * Silkscreen

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Kremer Pigments, Inc.
228 Elizabeth Street (corner of Prince)
New York, NY 10012
800.995.5501 or 212.219.2394
Fax: 212.219.2395

500 historical and modern colors: natural earth
pigments, natural organic dyes and manufactured
mineral and organic pigments. Use in oil, egg tempera,
fresco, acrylic, gouache, casein and other
vehicles. We carry the most extensive, professional
line of raw materials for fine arts. Free catalog.

R & F Handmade Paints, Inc.
506 Broadway
Kingston, NY 12401
800.206.8088 Fax: 845.331.3242
Web: www.rfpaints.com

Made for artists, by artists. R & F Pigment Sticks are
juicy, butter-smooth, intensely colored oil sticks. R
& F Encaustics are luminous, richly pigmented and
made with pure beeswax. Call for free catalog and
workshop information.

Savoir-Faire
40 Leveroni Court
Novato, CA 94949
Tel: 415.884.8090 Fax: 415.884.8091
www.savoir-faire.com

For two decades, Savoir-Faire has occupied a
unique position in the world of art materials. As
both an importer and distributor of premium quality
art materials and stationery we offer a range of
products, market knowledge and support capabilities
no other company can match. Every line
we represent reflects our standards of innovation,
craftsmanship and quality. As we grow and enter
new markets we remain first and foremost a company
of people. Our special industry position
allows us to serve international manufacturers as
well as domestic retailers and their customers
with equal understanding and regard. In turn, our
dynamic team provides the vital communication
link, sharing its expertise with our clients, teachers
and artists. Savoir-Faire. More than an
importer, A partner.

See our ad page 65

ARTIST RESIDENCY

John Michael Kohler Arts Center

Two-to six-month Arts/Industry residencies at Kohler
Co., the nations leading plumbingware manufacturer
to develop functional or sculptural work in vitreous
china, iron, enamel or brass. Weekly stipend,
housing, studio, materials, photography services,
and travel reimbursement (within continental U.S.).
Deadline: Aug. 1 for all 2004 residencies.
Information, send SASE (#10 with $.55 postage):
Arts/Industry Coordinator, JMKAC, 608 New York
Ave., Box 489, Sheboygan, WI 53082, Tel:
920.458.6144; Fax: 920.458.4473; www.jmkac.org.

ART WANTED

Private Art Dealer Seeks Erotic Art

High quality, over the top, gay or straight. Send
photos, slides, size and prices to: S.J.W. Studio,
1424 10th, Seattle, WA 90122. Attn: Steve.
Consignment only.

ARTISTS WANTED

Around The Coyote Art Organization's
Current Opportunities

ATC Space, an alternative exhibition space for
emerging artists in Wicker Park, Chicago, is available
for rent for group or solo shows. Artist-in-Residence
Program seeks submissions. Stipend
available. Proposals should be site-specific. We
encourage installation work.
Deadline May 15th. ATC Fall Arts Festival, the
nation's largest multimedia art event, attracts over
40,000 visitors annually. All art media: visual, theater,
video, dance and poetry. Deadline June 14.
Information about all the programs listed above is
at www.aroundthecoyote.org or call 773-342-6777.

ArtREPS
23035 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 102
Woodland Hills, CA 91364
800.959.6040
Web: www.artrepsart.com
Email: merrick@artrepsart.com

ArtREPS is a fine art agent with a verifiable track
record of success since 1993. We represent fine
art/decorative art to royalty print market publishers
that publish and distribute art nationwide as
limited editions, open editions, posters and other
types of licensed art related products. Please
send slides/photos/CD, SASE, to: John Merrick.
Or email your website for review.

Book Art Press

Art publisher seeks artists for 2003-2004 edition of
New Art International. For brochure and application,
send SASE to: Book Art Press, P.O. Box 57,
Woodstock, NY 12498.

Galerie Gora
Seeking national and international artists.
Send resume, slides or photo to:
Galerie Gora
460 Ste-Catherine West, Suite 305
Montreal, QC, Canada, H3B 1A7
Fax: 514.879.0164
Online submissions are accepted
Web: www.gallerygora.com Email: art@goraart.com

Pleiades Gallery

Prominent artist-run gallery in Chelsea. No commission
on sales, low dues/fees, updated mailing list,
multi-ethnic. Limited memberships now available.
Information: SASE to PLEIADES GALLERY, 530
West 25th Street (4th Floor), New York, NY 10001-5516
or call 646.230.0056.

Sculptors/Artists

Invited to showcase their artwork in TWO premier
Washington, D.C. Restaurants. We are in search of
unique works to display on a loan-out basis. This
opportunity offers superior exposure to artists interested
in displaying works in an environment filled
with an up-scale clientele. Visit our website @vivogallery.com
or robertodonna.com for restaurant
specifications. Forward all correspondence and artwork
samples to: P.O. Box 668, Arlington, VA
22216, Attn. J. Salvadori

AWARDS

Lucelia Artist Award
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Washington, D.C.
AmericanArt.si.edu

The Lucelia Artist Award was established to recognize
annually an American artist under the age of 50 who
has produced a significant body of artwork that
demonstrates exceptional creativity. The $25,000
award is intended to encourage the artist's future
development and experimentation. Past winners were
Jorge Pardo (2001), Liz Lamer (2002) and Rirkrit
Tiravanija (2003). The award winner is determined
each year by an independent jury; applications are not
accepted for this award.

See our ad page 165

COMPETITIONS

CALL FOR ENTRIES

Austin, Texas-based First Frontier Collage Society
4th Annual Open Exhibition. September 7 - October
5, 2003. Slides postmarked no later than July 1,
2003. Open to artists 21+. $1000 Best of Show, plus
additional awards. Juror Dan Burt, internationally
known watermedia artist, teacher and author. For
prospectus send SASE to: FFCS, Nina Mihm, 4708
Peace Pipe Path, Austin, TX78746. For additional
information, call Delda Skinner 512.288.1116.

Call for Entries

24th National Print Exhibition, Juried Competition,
Oct 12 - Nov 16 Juror: Joni Moisant Weyl,
Founder/Owner of Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant
Weyl. NY Cash awards include $1000 Best in
Show. ELIGIBITLITY: All original prints and monoprints,
completed since January 1, 2001. Entry Fee:
$25, per 3 artworks. Deadline for All Entries: June
30th (Not Postmarked Date) FOR PROSPECTUS:
Please send S.A.S.E. to: Silvermine Guild Arts
Center, Dept. Print Exhibition, 1037 Silvermine Rd.
New Canaan, CT 06840
or download from website: www.silvermineart.org

CALL FOR PUBLIC SCULPTURE

June 21 deadline. Pensacola Outdoor Sculpture
Competition and Exhibition. Prize money available,
$3,000 best of show, $750 runner-up, $500 third
place. Show runs from October 3rd, 2003 to June
4, 2004. No proposals or installations. Awards juror
is Albert Paley. For prospectus send SASE to:
POSCE, Pensacola Museum of Art, 407 S. Jefferson
St., Pensacola, FL 32501.

Call for Works/Artists

Sarratt Gallery at Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee collegiate committee is
accepting submissions for 2004-05. Deadline
February 15, 2004. Send 10-15 slides and/or
media material, resume, artist statement and paragraph
bio with SASE: Bridgette Kohnhorst, Gallery
Director, Vanderbilt University, 207 Sarratt Center,
Nashville, TN 37240-0001
www.vanderbilt.edu/sarratt/gallery.htm

Chelsea Global Art Competition

Museum-curated, distinguished Chelsea gallery
sponsoring prestigious juried, all media group
exhibition featuring awards, prizes & exhibition.
For details, send SASE to: AMSTERDAM WHITNEY
Gallery, 511 West 25th Street, New York,
NY 10001.212.255.9050;
www.amsterdamwhitneygallery.com

City of El Dorado, Kansas

3rd Annual National/Regional Juried Art
Competitions. National competition. All two-dimensional
media and/or wall mounted works such as
assemblages and low-relief pieces. Artwork must
not protrude more than 12 inches from the wall surface.
Juror: David Kohan. $1500 Best of Show.
Regional competition. Artists in CO, KS, MO, ND,
NE, OK, SD, TX. Watercolor, oil, acrylic, fiber art,
drawing/mixed media, original prints. Juror: Andrea
Norris, $1500 Best of Show. Entry deadline: July 21.
Fee: $30/3 slides. For Prospectus: The Fine Art of
Living Well, P.O. Box 503, El Dorado, KS 67042 or
email kmyers@eldoks.com

Kentucky, Ashland: Cardinal Valley 30th
Annual Juried Competition & Show

October 16-19, 2003. Open to artists in IN, IL, KY,
OH, TN, WV and VA. Only Original artwork completed
in last 3-years in medium of 2-D paintings,
woodcarving (up to 4' tall, 3' wide), photography
and pottery. Separate judges for each medium.
Awards up to $8000. Slide deadline July 31, 2003.
Entry fee: $25/3-entries (35mm slide or CD), $5
each add'l. Limit 5 entries. For prospectus, call
Ashland Area Art Gallery 606.329.1826, email:
bj218@bellsouth.net or download from www.satellitegallery.com
or send SASE to: PO Box 534,
Hermitage TN, 37076-0534.

National Juried Exhibitions

"Personal Impressions: Contemporary Printmaking",
September 5 - 28, 2003. Deadline: June 30. Open
to all print media. Juror: Ann Williams, M.F.A., artist,
printmaker, curator, trustee New Jersey Printmaking
Council. Jurying 4 slides $30. "Quilts for Art Sake II",
October 3 - 26, 2003. Deadline: July 15. Open to
studio art quilts in any media. Juror: Hildreth York,
Phd., Professor Emerita, Art History, Rutgers
University. Jurying 4 slides $30. Prospectus for both
exhibitions: SASE #10 to Gallery 214 ArtSpace, 214
Glenridge Avenue, Montclair, NJ 07042.

SoHo, NYC International Art Competition

Awards: Cash, Group, One-person Exhibitions and
more. For details send self-addressed stamped
envelope to: Agora Gallery, AIA, 415 West
Broadway, New York, NY 10012. For more information
about Agora Gallery, please visit our website
at: www. Agora-Gallery.com

SOHO20 CHELSEA'S

Ninth Annual International Exhibition of Art
July 15 - August 9, 2003. Juror: Evelyn Hankins,
Asst. Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY.
Deadline: May 15, 2003. Winner best in show
receives solo exhibition concurrent with group show
winners. Open to international community of women
artists 21+, all media. Further information and
prospectus available at www.soho20gallery.com,
email: soho20@earthlink.net. Or send SASE to
SOHO20 CHELSEA, 511 West 25th Street, Suite 605,
New York, NY 10001.

10th Annual National Open Juried Exhibition

Open to all artists, all fine art media including fine
craft and photography. $1000 in awards. Slide
deadline July 7th. Jury Fee: $25/4 slides, $5 each
additional. To be on exhibit August 23 - Oct 13th.
Prospectus required. Located in Tampa's
Channelside District. Send SASE to: Artists
Unlimited, 223 North 12th Street, Tampa, FL 33602.
erineliz@artistsunlimited.org. 813.229.5958.

Texas, Laredo Center for the Arts: Michelob Light
Sponsors the 11th Annual Juried Exhibition

December 5 - 28, 2003. Watercolor, Oil, Acrylic,
Drawing, Printmaking, Mixed Media, Sculpture.
$3000 cash awards, plus merchandise awards.
Juror: Carol Fairly, Professor of Art at Sul Ross State
University. Fee $30/3 slides, deadline September 5.
Send SASE to Laredo Center for the Arts, 500 San
Agustin Ave., Laredo, TX 78040. (956) 725-1715.

3rd Annual National American
Landscape Exhibition

Maryland Federation of Art. Slide deadline: July 3,
2003. Maximum 4 original entries. Fee: $25, 1 - 2
entries, additional entries $5 each. Awards $1500.
Juror: Joann Moser, Senior Curator, Smithsonian
American Museum. Exhibition: Sept. 5- Oct. 12,
2003. Send SASE for prospectus: Dept. 3 MFA
Circle Gallery, PO Box 1866, Annapolis, MD 21404.

World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation is
conducting an open, international competition to
select a design for the memorial at the World Trade
Center site. Competition guidelines, registration and
instructions are available at www.wtcsitememorial.org.
The deadline to register is May 29, 2003, 5:00 pm
EST. Registration is required to participate in the competition.

See our ad page 162

EDUCATION TRAVEL--CUBA

Cuba: People & Culture
WorldGuest Services
800-873-9691
Website: www.worldguest.com
Email: cubastudy@worldguest.com

Cuba is the most exotic destination in the hemisphere
and Havana, once known as the "Paris of
the Caribbean", is truly a European city. We are
experts in the field of Cuban studies and offer
study programs licensed by the US Department
of Treasury to examine Cuba's people and culture.
Our cultural exchange programs provide a
unique opportunity to discover Cuba through its
art, music and architecture in a group of likeminded
travelers.

See our ad page 94

EXHIBITION FRAMES

Metropolitan Picture Framing
800.626.3139
Web: www.metroframe.com

Contemporary custom-made exhibition frames at
wholesale prices. Available in Maple, Cherry,
Walnut, & Ash. Unfinished or 16 custom finishes.
Floater frames for canvases on stretcher bars in
standard and non-standard depths. Complete custom
packages available including: custom cut
mats, plexi, backing boards. Free color catalog:
Metropolitan Picture Framing.

EXHIBITIONS

Montclair State University proudly announces
its MFA Thesis Exhibition: "Between"

May 9 - 23, 2003, at the White Box Annex, 601 West
26th Street, 14th Floor, New York, New York. The
opening reception will be May 9th, 6-8 p.m. Curated
by Nancy Princenthal, the show includes works by
Amelia Martinez, Beverly Stern, Hsueh-erh Hung,
Hyung Goo No, Philip Shimko and Seth Goodwin.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11 am to 6 p.m.
John Czerkowicz, director, MFA Program.

FURNITURE

Museum & Library Furniture
202.537.0098 Fax: 202.537.4851
Web: www.themuseumstool.com

People with an appreciation for fine objects and
ideas, like most museum and library visitors, will
delight in the utility and beauty of M&LFs quality
solid-wood furniture. Museum & Library Furniture,
LLC provides customers with simple, style-neutral,
functional, environmentally sustainable furniture
exhibiting the highest standards of design
and construction quality for use in museums,
libraries, churches, schools, offices and homes.
Your gallery deserves nothing less.

See our ad page 98

INSURANCE

Protect Your Passion!
Art Insurance for Museums, Galleries,
Exhibitions & Collectors
Thomson & Pratt Insurance Associates, Inc.
877.334.6327 Toll Free
Website: www.fineartguy.com
E-mail: Fineartguy@aol.com

MASTER CLASSES & WORKSHOPS

Great River Arts Institute

Master classes in the visual and literary arts.
Located in the New England village of Walpole,
New Hampshire, students work with
artists/instructors from the visual and literary arts
disciplines. Faculty include: Doug Trump, David
Brewster, Eric Aho, Catherine Farish, Tom
Wessels, Sarah Amos, and more. Courses run
from two to five days. Local accommodations
available.

For information: www.greatriverarts.org or call
603.756.3638.

The National Academy

Will be launching its Summer Workshop program,
which consists of 13 intensive workshops in watercolor,
painting, mixed-media, drawing, printmaking
and pastels. Philip Pearlstein will be teaching one
of the workshops entitled "Several Ways to Paint
the Figure" on July 28 - August 1. Registration
begins May 19. Our Student Year-End show will
open June 20 at the National Academy of Design
Museum. For more information contact the school
or visit our website.

MOVERS/PACKERS

DAD Trucking Co., Inc.
855 Edgewater Road
Bronx, NY 10474
718.893.3044 Fax: 718.893.3924

At DAD, we manage transportation projects, providing
all the services related to the transportation
of fine art and antiques: multi-modal transportation,
packing, crating, exhibition consolidation, storage,
distribution services and import/export service.

PRESSES

Conrad Machine Company
1525-I South Warner Street
Whitehall, MI 49461
231.893.7455 Fax: 231.893.0889

Etching presses, litho, combination, monoprint,
blockprint, portable table top, floor models, motor
or hand driven, new or used from 12" to 52". Free
catalog upon request, Used, remanufacturing,
trade-ins, request listing. Manufacturing presses for
over 35 years.

SCULPTURE RESOURCES

Atlas Metal Sales
303.623.0143 or 800.662.0143 toll free
Fax: 303.623.3034

Atlas Metal Sales is a warehouse distributor of silicon
bronze sheet, rod, bar, tube and welding rod.
Atlas has established a reputation for quality and
competitive pricing in serving the needs of the art
community throughout the U.S. by supplying specialty
alloys in a variety of shapes and forms
required by bronze sculptors, fabricators,
foundries, blacksmiths, artists and craftsmen. Atlas
provides such services as saw cutting, shearing
and forming. 800.662.0143.

SYRACUSE - Galaxy Communications, LP covers the airwaves from Syracuse to Albany. The radio company owns 12 stations in the Syracuse and Utica-Rome markets, and two in the Albany market.

The company's CEO Ed Levine has been in the radio business for more than three decades and has worked his way from college disc jockey to station owner.

Born in Westchester County, Levine came to Syracuse in the 1970s to attend Syracuse University. He began his radio career at WAER, the college's student-run IM station. After college, Levine helped launch WAQX-95X in 1978. The IM rock station has be a Syracuse fixture ever since.

As radio enters the satellite era, Levine recalls that FM wasn't the dominant band when he started his career in commercial radio. In the late 1970s, Syracuse and many other radio markets across the U.S. were dominated by AM rock channels. FM was a place for jazz, classical, and "easy listening," Levine recalls.

A news report from 1978 took note that "WAQX will broadcast commercials."At 95X, Levine moved from disc jockey into the role of program director. He had previously held the program director's post at WAER. Being a program director, Levine explains, gave him a chance to influence what songs made it on the air.

"In radio, one person can make all the difference," he says.

From 95X, Levine went on to work as a program director at stations in Albany, Washington, D.C., and Houston. In the mid-1980s," Levine decided to apply for his own radio license in the Utica market. By 1989, with backing from business partner Robert Raide, Levine put station WKLL on the air in Utica. The station cost approximately $170,000 to start, Levine recalls.

During the 1990s, Levine completed his transition from employee to owner, acquiring stations in Albany and Syracuse. He later added new partners and created Galaxy Communications, LP.

In the fall of 2001, the company moved from offices on Route 31 on the Madison County side of Bridgeport into a newly built studio building at 235 Walton St. in Syracuse's Armory Square. Levine keeps a "before-and-after" photo comparison on the wall of his office to show how far the business has come. The new building features multiple street-level studios where fans can see the radio hosts at work. Outdoor speakers play Galaxy radio stations for passers by.

In the 1990s, federal deregulation allowed companies to expand their station ownership, leading to mass consolidation. Galaxy Communications stations now compete against large, national companies such as Citadel Broadcasting and Clear Channel Communications. Levine is well known in the radio business for his criticism of Clear Channel as the epitome of "corporate" radio. He believes Galaxy's local ownership and management better serve the community. In December, radio-ratings service Arbitron elected Levine to its Radio Advisory Council.

"We live here," Levine explains, "Syracuse or Utica are never going to be as important to some far-off corporate headquarters as they are to us."

In addition to his rivalry with Clear Channel, Levine has had some public run-ins

with Howard Stern. In the early 1990s, Levine operated a consulting firm called "Sternbusters" that helped radio stations counter-program against the syndicated morning show. Levine's Albany station had maintained its ratings against Stem after his show began airing in the Albany market.

Last year, WAQX owners Citadel Broadcasting dumped Stern from the Syracuse market after he repeatedly discussed his impending move to satellite radio. Citadel had previously imposed a delay on the show and edited references to Sirius satellite radio where Stern will air next year. Ratings for 95X's replacement morning show have fallen below the numbers Stern used to bring in, and angry fans have protested the change. One fan has started the www.95xsucks.com protest Web site.

Media outlets are asking Levine's opinion of Stern's feud with Citadel. Levine recites some advice he received long ago.

"When the competition is self-destructing," says Levine, "just get out of the way."

Ed Levine Chief Executive Officer Galaxy Communications, LP

Why not slip into your favorite terry-towel housecoat and fuzzy slippers, grab the bonbons and make yourself comfy on the sofa for the next installment of the printing industry's longest running soap opera, As The Prepress World Turns. Follow the dramatic antics of some of your favorite prepress characters: Kodak, Creo and Heidelberg.

Everyone loves a wedding and almost realized it was only a matter of time before those crazy, love-struck kids Creo and Kodak made eye contact and started dating. The relationship progressed more rapidly than expected, however, and now the prepress community is anxiously anticipating the biggest wedding of the year.

How did this union come to be? Last October, a group of shareholders led by Toronto-based hedge fund Goodwood Inc. launched a proxy battle with the intention of unseating Creo's board of directors. The shareholders, unsatisfied with the current Board's performance, had nominated turnaround specialist Robert Burton, head of Burton Capital Management, to replace Creo's embattled CEO Amos Michelson. Burton was also part of the shareholder coalition. After months of infighting between Creo's board of directors and these dissident shareholders, the board recommended shareholder acceptance of an acquisition offer from Kodak.

The past couple of years have not been easy for Kodak the one-time imaging/film giant. The explosive digital photography market has been a source of continuous erosion of analogue film sales, which would naturally have an impact on Kodak's bottom line. Kodak seemed slow to acknowledge this trend and was soon outpaced by other more aggressive players in the digital photography area.Likewise, Kodak's dominance of the prepress film market was challenged by rapid printing industry-wide acceptance of computer-to-plate technology. When Kodak eventually decided to cater to the growing CTP client base, they chose to enter the market with a thermal plate. While the thermal plate initially seemed like a good move for Kodak, it was not long before Agfa and Fuji scooped the up-and-coming violet-laser plate business.

Meanwhile Creo attained market dominance of the rapidly evolving computer-toplate output sector with its innovative imaging devices. While Creo's affection for thermal CTP technology has done well for the company so far, they also have done nothing to address the burgeoning visible light/photo-polymer plate market. At the same time Creo's Prinergy workflow continued to evolve into a stable and mature PDF-based prepress workflow able to drive multiple CTP devices besides its own Trendsetter line.

Mail the invitations

So what is next? Well, with Creo shareholders not meeting until March 29, even the certainty of the Kodak acquisition is suspect. However, the proposed merger raises some interesting questions. The bundling of consumables and CTP devices is logical and inevitable, but what about variable data printing (VDP)? Creo has been collaborating with Xerox in the field of VDP and digital printing for nearly 10 years now. The result of their efforts includes the creation of Creo's Spire Color Server RIPs for Xerox's iGen3 digital presses, as well as Creo's Darwin VDP tools for Quark and InDesign users.

Kodak on the other hand, has acquired and re-branded Heidelberg's NexPress digital press technology and produced its own PDF-based, VDP workflow technology. So will Creo now suddenly admit that NexPress is a better technology? Will Kodak abandon its NexStation in favour of Creo's Darwin VDP tools and Spire Color Server RIPs? There is no doubt that a consolidation of products are inevitable with Kodak's direct competition with Xerox for the VDP/digital printing crown.

Dots or not

Creo's inkjet-based proof offerings utilizing its proprietary Epson and Iris solutions compete directly with Kodak's high-end Approval proofing system. Many prepress departments have been slow to adopt Approval, largely due to the sizable capital investment required to implement the system. At the same time, many printers have been quite successful in educating their client-base to accept cost-effective, albeit lower-quality, contract proof options.

Instead of wrestling with the dot-accurate proofing beast, Creo's approach to contract proofing has been to sell the "dotless proof and stochastic screening" combo. When the wedding reception is over and all the guests have gone home will Creo be lovingly coerced to do an about face and start pushing the dot-accurate Approval proof or will Kodak suddenly become enamored with stochastic screening?

And what of Kodak's rumoured research into a photo-polymer plate, which some say is already in beta-test phase - will that be abandoned? On the other side of the same coin, Creo acquired a thermal plate manufacturing facility in South Africa late in 2003 with the intention of adding plates to its product line. Will Creo's own branded thermal plates be dropped in favour of a Kodak product?

The jilted lover

And while we are asking questions, will Heidelberg assume the role of the jilted lover? The hardware manufacturing giant was at one time partners with Creo in their Prinergy workflow and marketed the Trendsetter as though it were its own CTP device. Heidelberg's sales reps claimed to be selling more of the popular Trendsetter units than Creo.