About ESATYCB

The purpose and goals of the organization is to foster excellence in biology education by providing a forum for discussion of teaching principles, practices, and problems. To further advance our goals we also discuss current developments in biological research and offer annual scholarships to two-year college students planning to continue their education in a biology-related field.

The History of ESATYCB

• The formation of ESATYCB was originally proposed by Tom McGrath and Gordon Muck of Corning Community College. Twenty representatives from two-year colleges in New York State met in Corning on May 1, 1982 to draft a constitution. Gordon Muck was the first President.
• The first issue of the ESATYCB Newsletter on October 1, 1982, co-edited by Bernard Marcus of Genesee Community College and Howard Balter of Bronx Community College, announced the first annual conference to be held April 29-30, 1983 at Corning C.C. ,with “Computer Uses in Biology” as its theme. By then, membership more than doubled to 52, with 39 attending the conference.
• On October 20, 1983, ESATYCB was granted affiliate status by the board of the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT), thus requiring that 25% of the ESATYCB membership also be NABT members. A Community College/Two-Year College Biology section was established at the 1984 NABT annual conference, with Donald Emmeluth of Fulton-Montgomery C.C. (also Past-President of ESATYCB) as chairperson. In 1987, he subsequently became the first two-year college biologist to be elected President of NABT.
• The October 1, 1984 issue of the ESATYCB Newsletter included a resolution unanimously passed by the members of ESATYCB on the teaching of evolution. This resolution was distributed to 32 publishers of college biology textbooks in 1986.
• In the March 1987 issue of the ESATYCB Newsletter, Gordon Muck proposed a scholarship to recognize outstanding biology students. Criteria were established by 1988, and the first recipient was Jitendra Vasadani of Glens Falls, New York, who was awarded $300. The fall 1988 issue of the ESATYCB Newsletter listed 19 colleges willing to match the ESATYCB Student Scholarship, with Utica College willing to award $1000.
• In 1989 an Ad hoc Committee was formed to develop a policy statement and rationale for the importance of laboratories in the sciences. The resulting official policy statement on Laboratory Science was published in the Fall 1990 issue of the ESATYCB Newsletter.
• The only annual conference of ESATYCB to be canceled was in the Spring of 1990 due to the death of charter member Stanley Cornish of Mohawk Valley Community College. At that time, he was President-Elect for the second time, since he was the third President of ESATYCB as well.
• The first official logo for ESATYCB was selected prior to the 1993 annual conference, which was also the time that a decision was made to upgrade theESATYCB Newsletter.
• A revised ESATYCB Constitution and Bylaws was approved at the Spring 2002 conference and appeared in the Fall 2002 issue of the ESATYCB Newsletter.
• The voting membership of ESATYCB passed (39 to 12) a position statement, formulated by those attending the April 2003 conference at Williams Lake, on the “Unscientific and Anti-scientific Philosophies and Practices of Alternative Medicine.” The position statement appeared in the Spring 2003 issue of theESATYCB Newsletter.
• Membership in ESATYCB continues to climb with a current record of 127 paid members in 2005.
• Attendance at the annual ESATYCB conference peaked at a record 90 in 2006, with 47 students participating.
• A revised position statement entitled “Application of Sound Scientific Principles Influencing the Philosophies and Practices of Alternative Medicine” to replace the previous position statement entitled “Unscientific and Anti-scientific Philosophies and Practices of Alternative Medicine” was approved by the voting membership of ESATYCB (34 to 4 with 1 abstention).