Charles Fulco, BA '90

Economics major now "star-struck" 

In the 13 years since he graduated from UB, Charles Fulco, B.A., 1990, has never used his economics degree professionally. And that fact won’t change now that he has landed his dream job, either.

Fulco is the space science coordinator and planetarium director for the Port Chester, New York school district. Astronomy became his passion after he received a telescope as a child, which “turned me on to looking up,” he says. He remembers vividly being allowed to stay home from school to watch the Apollo mission moon walks, and he has been a frequent visitor of the planetarium ever since.

He held a series of jobs after graduating from UB, from publishing to Wall Street to working on an Alaskan cruise ship. While working on the ship, Fulco began giving “star talks” on the bridge deck to the passengers, which solidified his desire to teach in a formal setting. “You can’t believe what the night sky looks like in Alaska, where it isn’t polluted with artificial lights.” Back home in Port Chester, Fulco half-jokingly asked the planetarium director if he could have his job when the director retired – and that is exactly what happened.

He teaches an introduction to cosmology course to high school students, and basic astronomy to elementary children. For his teaching curriculum, Fulco has found he needs to get back to basics. “I’m finding that I need to start with basic celestial topics, like how the sun, moon and stars appear to move, why the moon has phases, what the sky tells us.” In contrast, “students of a hundred years ago or more seemed to know and rely on that information for planting and everyday life. The irony here is that the more wired and technologically advanced we are, the less we know about our natural world.”

Beyond textbook learning, Fulco strives to bring a hands-on approach to teaching. For example, his high school and afterschool students are learning how to operate the planetarium, giving them a sense of ownership. In addition, he believes that science doesn’t have any borders. “I was with some of my Spanish-speaking students and was searching for a word,” he said. “I speak Spanish too, but one of my students had to teach me the word for ‘sunset.’”

In addition to teaching, he is also working on ways to increase public attendance at the planetarium. He has started monthly public sky shows about current astronomy issues, such as the planet Mars being extremely close to Earth.

His has put his love of astronomy to another good use through a group he co-founded called SELENE, which is concerned with light pollution. “We are communicating how bad the night sky has become aesthetically, and how we waste tax dollars and natural resources through improper use of lighting.” He cites his own area as an example of a polluted nighttime environment. “We are raising awareness to both reverse existing problems and to prevent light pollution from affecting other areas of the state which still have dark skies.” The group helped lobby for the “Sensible Lighting” bill, which passed both houses but which Gov. George Pataki vetoed; Fulco hopes will be taken up again in the next session. One note of progress though – after a presentation to the mayor of Port Chester, the village began replacing all its streetlights with ones that shine only downward, therefore eliminating upward lighting that pollutes the night sky.

Though Fulco isn’t an economist, he enjoyed his studies at UB. Economics “let me use and begin to appreciate math and apply it to real-world settings. I liked applying formulas with a little bit of unknown and being able to predict outcomes.” He also took full advantage of living in Western New York. “I really took advantage of what that area had to offer, like Letchworth State Park, Niagara-on-the-Lake, and backpacking at Chautauqua and Alleghany State Park. I met a lot of great friends at UB.” He has continued his relationship with the university by volunteering as a UB Alumni Ambassador, where alumni attend high school college fairs and other events in an effort to bring the best and brightest freshmen to UB.

Written by Barbara A. Byers, APR
November 2003

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