Donor support nurtures new paths to University of tomorrow

Linda S. Riefberg ’81 and Lee H. Perlman ’80 made a gift to enhance law internship opportunities and to advance plans for a proposed school of the arts within Harpur College at Binghamton.

The Linda S. Riefberg Law Internship will support junior and senior students in the Harpur Law Council’s Public Interest Law Internship Program, an eight- to 10-week summer program that provides hands-on learning opportunities and connects Binghamton students with Harpur Law Council member attorneys and other Binghamton law alumni.

Discussions on a new school of the arts began in earnest in 2019. It would be centered on five existing departments: art and design, art history, cinema, music and theatre.

The campus community had the opportunity to learn more about the project on Sept. 7 in Casadesus Recital Hall. During a town hall session, Beatrice Szalas of the marketing firm Red Cactus discussed what she found during a competitive market analysis of the project, and how a designated art school could fare against competing and peer institutions.

The proposal is making its way through the University’s Faculty Senate. A search committee has also been formed to find the school’s first director.

Learn more about how a new arts school could draw on Binghamton’s unique strengths.