Posted on May 1, 1994

A recent survey of alumni who participated in the College's Dana Internship program found an overwhelming majority saying that their experiences were extremely rewarding.

Some, in fact, said the program changed their lives.

The program began in 1987, when the College received a $200,000 grant from the Charles A. Dana Foundation. The College raised $400,000 to match the grant and designed the Dana program to provide academically relevant and educationally meaningful work­study for students. The goal was to enhance academic opportunities while simultaneously reducing student financial needs and easing pressure on other kinds of aid, such as annual scholarships.

During the four years of the program, there were seventy-one work­study internships-twenty-one students in summer research, another twenty-five as teaching interns, and the remaining twenty-five as interns in a variety of other Union programs.

How well did it work?

One 1988 graduate said, “I came to school with limited funds with which to finance my education. The Dana internship helped me to earn money to help defray my costs while enabling me to gain experience in my major.”

The program also helped many students focus, change, or reconfirm their majors or career paths.

That 1988 graduate said that his fac­ulty mentor “was extremely helpful in his guidance and shared knowledge and advice with me which helped me to achieve my career goal.”

Another alumnus said, “Prior to this experience, I had been going through the motions of attending college without ever getting involved in a specific project. The summer before my senior year of college, I began to realize that I had no idea what kind of career I wanted to pursue. When offered the Dana fellowship, I realized that I would have time to participate in an internship and also be paid. As a result, I developed a relationship with several faculty mem­bers. My interest in the sciences took off from that point and I haven't looked back since!”

The program also enhanced student­faculty relationships. As one 1990 grad­uate commented, “Me professor I worked with helped me develop professionally and personally. He encouraged and supported me as his Dana Intern, then as his thesis student and advisee. After I graduated, I was hired as an economics instructor at an international college. Throughout my two years there, my Dana sponsor continued to support and advise me. Today, we remain very close, and he continues to support me and my professional development. Therefore, I would have to say that the Dana Experience really changed my life and led to numerous opportunities for me to grow.”

Faculty members also benefited. Peter Tobiessen, professor of biology and director of the Dana program, said the summer research internships were especially helpful and allowed many faculty to accomplish much more than they would have on their own.

The summer research interns lived on campus for a ten-week period while working on a faculty-directed research project. During the academic year teaching interns helped faculty supervise laboratories and quiz sessions and prepare bibliographies for courses. The program interns assisted in Union's Writing Center, the Calculus Crisis Clinic, and the Computer Center.

Dana Interns effectively reduced their student
loans an average of $500 per year.

Posted on May 1, 1994

Louisa Matthew, assistant professor of art history, is the author of “Patna, papal service and patronage: Nicolo Bonafede at Monte San Giusto in the Marches,” which appeared in Renaissance Studies, the journal of the Society for
Renaissance Studies. She has received a visiting fellowship for the 199495 academic year at the Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies in Florence, Italy.

Pilar Moyano, associate professor of Spanish, is the author of “La transformacion de la mujer y la nacion en la poesia comprometida de Gioconda Belli” in the winter issue of
Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispanicos.

Carol Weisse, assistant professor of psy­chology, is the author with Kerry Evers '94 and
Emily Maute '93 of a paper titled “Role-play vs. modeling techniques in HIV prevention: Which is better for fos­tering long-term change?” The paper was presented by Evers at the seventh International Conference on AIDS Education in Chicago.

Posted on May 1, 1994

If a Zoller School fifth grader named Louis becomes a physicist, he may one day attribute his career to a minor mishap he had in the College's Biology Department.

As a classmate was collecting an electrostatic charge from a Van de Graaff generator-his hair standing on end to the delight of his classmates-Louis leaned in for a closer look. Without warning, a small blue spark leaped to Louis's nose.

Suddenly, Louis understood, perhaps better than anyone in the room, that static electricity tends to dissipate its charge, just as a thundercloud sheds its charge through lightning.

More than seventy youngsters from Schenectady's Zoller and St. John's elemen­tary schools made similar, though less dramatic, discoveries as they toured a dozen demonstration stations under the guidance of thirty Union science majors. Stations included an EKG machine, a volcano, an electromagnet, liquid nitrogen,
a laser, and a roller coaster. All were operated by Union students, many of whom were familiar to the youngsters through their visits to the schools as mentors

The students saw the effects of liquid nitrogen on carnations and balloons, created a “slime” by mixing two liquids, and discovered that black inks actually are composed of many colors.

And they had questions, lots of them: Who invented liquid nitrogen? Does Nancy Kerrigan have angular momentum when she spins? Can I keep this slime? Science Day was initiated by Union students who participate in COMPASS (Corporate Mentoring Program in Schenectady Schools).

“Our students love the kids,” said Professor Jill Salvo, who coordinated Science Day. “But it's hard for our students to find the time to visit the schools. Bringing the students to campus is an ideal way to expose them to science and get them excited.”

Posted on May 1, 1994

The College noted Black History Month with a number of events, but none matched the excitement of a visit by Angela Davis.

One of the most famous of the protestors of the 1960s, Davis now is a professor in the History and Consciousness Program at the University of California in Santa Cruz.

She urged the hundreds who crowded Memorial Chapel to search for their own ways to work for change.

“There's a tendency to look back at the '60s and '70s as a revolutionary era, as if it descended upon us,” she said. “What is not pointed out is the hard work people did.”

Some of that hard work, she noted, went into the “Free Angela” movement that spread after her arrest in connection with a shootout outside a court­house in California. Although she wasn't present, she was later arrested and spent twenty-two months in jail awaiting trial on charges of murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy for allegedly helping to plan the attack. She was acquitted after a four-month trial.

She told the Union audience that the methods used to change society then were different from those needed today, and that only today's activists can decide what will work best for them.

The country needs more such organizing and critical thinking, she said skills that seem to have been lost.

Look at the circular arguments advanced to justify building more prisons, she said. Even though prisons can­not stop crime, she said, the common response to more crime is to build more prisons. More funds ought to be spent on steps to prevent crime, she said.

“I want to suggest that one of the campaigns that can be taken up by stu­dents as well as workers and others is a new abolitionism,” referring to reforming the criminal justice system.

She also paid tribute to several women who received much less publicity than the high-profile organizers who created the country's Civil Rights move­ment. Women such as Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, and Ruby Robinson played crucial roles in the early efforts to register black voters in the South
an example, she said, of the strength of diligent, grass-roots organizing.

Posted on May 1, 1994

Two faculty members have been named to endowed professorships­one of the College's principal ways of honoring and supporting its outstanding teachers and scholars. Honored during a ceremony in early March were: 

• Kenneth G. DeBono, installed as the Gilbert
  R. Livingston Professor of Behavioral Sciences; 
• Thomas C. Werner, installed as the Florence B. Sherwood Professor of Physical Sciences.

Kenneth G. DeBono graduated from Grinnell College and received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Minnesota. He taught at the University of Minnesota and Michigan State University before joining the Union faculty in 1986. His teaching and research interests include the psychology of advertising, attitudes and social behavior, social cognition, and applied social psychology. He has contributed numerous articles to a wide range of journals.
The Gilbert R. Livingston Chair in Behavioral Sciences is supported by a bequest from Gilbert R. Livingston, of the Class of 1924. Mr. Livingston was a long-time Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society.

Thomas C. Werner graduated from Juniata College and received his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined the Chemistry Department in 1971 and was chair of the department from 1985 to 1991. His areas of special­ization include modern analytical chemistry, chemical instrumentation, and spectral interpretation, and he has published numerous articles in journals. He is a board member of the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.

The Florence B. Sherwood Chair in Physical Sciences is supported by a bequest from John L. Sherwood, of the Class of 1899, who was president of the Bond and Mortgage Guarantee Company in Brooklyn, N.Y.