With that question-posed by a student in a classroom that Rebecca Gergely '95 was observing during a term in
Barbados came an idea that led to a year of study abroad.
“I was struck by the similarity of the student's question to that of any American student,” she says. “I became interested in the way different factors of a society influence its education system and how the goals of education evolve in a particular way.”
Her idea recently won her a one-year grant
of $16,000 from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation to support travel and study abroad. Only sixty students from
forty-three
American colleges and universities received the prestigious fellowships this year.
Starting this fall, Gergely will travel to England, Dominica, and Japan to determine how the goals of education are influenced by society. She will examine a number of
factors parental involvement, the role of religion, the status of “vocational” vs. “academic” careers, and government standards for education.
Gergely is an English major from Stowe, Vt., and she plans to enter the College's master of arts in teaching program when she returns in the fall of 1996.
The College nearly doubled its population for three days in April when 1,800 students and advisors from colleges across the country arrived for the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR).
The College had to turn away about 250 applications, a reflection of the growing popularity of undergraduate scholarly activity. Those who came represented 277 colleges and universities from as far west as Cal Tech, as far north as the University of Minnesota, and as far south as the University of Puerto Rico.
For the most part, the presentation titles were appropriately scholarly-“Discourse as Destroyer: Incongruity in the Lineage of Michel Foucault's Theory of the History of Knowledge” and “Ancient Mayan Artifact Imagery and Iconography,” to name a couple.
But there were a few titles with a different tone-“The Effect of Egg Temperature on Angel Cakes” and “The Cat's Orienting Response to Sounds,” for example.
A special feature of the conference was an unusual display of scholarly undergraduate work and reflections on its value. Contributing to the exhibit were Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, members of the National Academy of Sciences, and others.
John Brademas, for example, the former president of New York University, sent a copy of his honors thesis on a Mexican peasant movement; composer William Bascom sent his first violin sonata, written while he was a student at the University of Washington; and Armand Feigenbaum '42, widely considered the pioneer of total quality management, described his undergraduate research at Union on quality control.
The exhibit was organized by several students, who wrote to more than 200 prominent individuals. The display even included a friendly letter from one composer who said he would like to participate but that the scores he composed during his undergraduate days “represent some sort of low point within the history of Western civilization.”
An innovation this year was a Friday night Artsfeast-a celebration of the visual and performing arts combined with a savory variety of international food. The evening went so well that similar activities will be held at future NCURs.
At the annual Prize Day ceremony in May, a number of students received recognition for their academic achievement, community and college service, and athletics. Altogether, more than 100 prizes were awarded. Some of the students who received multiple awards were: -Deanne M. Dixon '95, a biology/chemistry major from Pownal, Vt., who received the Frank Bailey Prize for service to the College and the Dr. Reuben Sorkin Award for proficiency in premedical studies;
David F. Levine '95, of New York City, an economics major, the Joseph Daggett Prize for conduct and character and the Horatio G. Warner Prize for high personal character combined with the highest academic standing in the B.A. program;
Tricia L. Nelson '95, a mechanical engineering major from Kingston, N.Y., the Daniel F. Pullman Prize for high academic standing in engineering, the outstanding Greek woman award, the Mortimer F. Sayre Prize as the senior with the best potential of furthering the ideals of the mechanical engineering profession, and the Warner King Prize to the engineering senior who has contributed most to the traditions and ideals of the College;
Nathan K. Coffin '95, a psychology major from Rutland, Vt., the Joel A. Halpern Prize for outstanding commitment and service to the community and a Meritorious Service Award voted by the Student Affairs Council;
Hallie L. Heller '95, a psychology major from New York City, the Alan Lake Chidsey Citizenship Award for her contribution to the advancement of responsible government in student affairs and a Meritorious Service Award as voted by the Student Affairs Council;
Maximillian L. Heinegg '95, an English major from Schenectady, the Daniel Shocket Prize in Creative Writing and the Academy of American Poets Prize;
Eric J. Belson '95, an English/classics major from Hatboro, Pa., the William F. Allen Essay Prize for a nonfiction essay, the David Brind Memorial Prize to an outstanding English student, the Daniel F. Pullman Prize for high scholastic standing in the humanities, and the George H. Catlin Prize for the liberal arts senior with the highest scholastic record deemed most promising for graduate study and eventual service in college teaching;
Wendy L. Pfaffenbach, an English major from Schenectady, the David Brind Memorial Prize to an outstanding student in English and the President's Commission Prize for Senior Scholarly Activity.
Also honored were two high school teachers, who received the College's Gideon Hawley Award recognizing their continuing positive influence on the academic life of Union students. The winners were Joseph Burke, a physics teacher at Massena (N.Y.) High School, who was nominated by Carol Case '97, and Edward Gagnon, a history teacher at Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, Mass., who was nominated by Katherine Goldman '97.
Prize Day was a highlight of the expanded, two-day Steinmetz Symposium, which celebrated student creative, scholarly, and research achievements. More than 240 students took part, presenting research on topics as diverse as dating patterns to the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the post Cold War era.
The symposium saw oral presentations, dance performances, a concert, poster sessions, and more, including a banquet for presenters and their parents in Old Chapel.
The event is named for Charles P. Steinmetz, professor and head of electrical engineering and physics at Union from 1902 to 1923 and the “Electrical Wizard” of the General Electric Co.
Two buildings. Two committed alumni. The opening of the Yulman Theater and the dedication of the Reamer Campus Center
Morton and Helen Yulman Theater moves to
center stage
President Hull and Helen and Morton Yulman at the ribbon cutting ceremony
Theater at Union, which for much of its life has been performed in the wings, moved center stage this spring with the dedication of the Morton and Helen Yulman Theater.
The Yulmans, joined by more than 100 friends and family members, celebrated the theater opening on a beautiful day in late May. After the ceremony, there was a dinner and then a
special presentation of the building's first production, “The Servant of Two Masters,” written by Carlo Goldoni in 1743.
President Roger Hull, welcoming the guests, noted that the new building is the College's first real theater-a building actually designed and constructed for theater.
“Although the first play at Union was presented in 1804, much of the nineteenth century was a hit or miss proposition,” the president said. “It was not until 1919 that the Mountebanks was organized. Even then, students had to turn to downtown theaters on off-nights when road companies were not booked.”
In 1929, he continued, students were able to transform the central section of Washburn Hall into a theater. When Washburn was taken down to make way for Schaffer library, theater at Union moved into the Nott Memorial, where it stayed for thirty years.
“The Yulman Theater gives a visibility to the arts that has never before existed,” Hull said. “There could be no more fitting celebration of our Bicentennial than the dedication of a building devoted to one of the foundations of the liberal arts.”
Also extending greetings to the guests-and thanks to the Yulmans-were Joseph M. Hinchey '47, chairman of the College's Board of Trustees; William Finlay, director of the theater; Hilary Tann, chair of the Performing Arts Department; and Emilia Teasdale '97, president of the Mountebanks. The theater is located on
Terrace Lane North, next to North College. There is a director's lab with flexible seating for up to 280 persons; a second, smaller performance space; a set design shop; a costume room; faculty offices; and rehearsal spaces. A carpeted lobby offers a spectacular view to the north overlooking Jackson's Garden.
At the dedication, guests were transported to an Italian villa as soon as they entered the director's lab. The play carried on the rich tradition of Commedia dell'Arte, a form that demands a highly physical and stylized performance. The cast of fifteen students rehearsed four hours a day, up to seven days a week. Finlay
described the play as “fast, funny, a classic piece of literature, and a great challenge for the students.”
The new theater opens to Jackson's Garden
The Morton and Helen Yulman Theater is a variation of the “black box” theater. Its distinctive design provides enormous flexibility to theater students and faculty, and it will encourage a variety of productions that would be unavailable in a conventional proscenium theater.
The flexibility of the building is in keeping with the College's approach to theater, which always has encouraged many different kinds of audience-performer relationships. In the Yulman Theater, potential performing spaces are everywhere, and students can learn about-and actually do-all of the theater arts, from set design to acting. Already, the College is seeing expressions of interest from secondary school students who want to major in theater and who have seen the exciting possibilities of the new building.
The Murray and Ruth Reamer Campus Center is dedicated
Norton and Sue Reamer join Roger Hull at the dedication ceremony
Before the weekend was overtaken by the bustle of Commencement, a quiet and moving ceremony marked the dedication of the Murray and Ruth Reamer Campus Center.
On a beautiful Friday evening, several dozen friends of Norton H. Reamer '58 gathered in front of the building that has become known as the crossroads of the campus.
After thanking his wife, Sue, whose help, encouragement, and patience made the gift possible, Reamer talked about his love for his parents, Murray and Ruth Reamer.
“My mother has been a rock and a support and an inspiration for me. She is alive and well in Florida and is an absolutely wonderful woman.
“My father suffered a permanently-disabling stroke when he was fifty-two and I was twelve,” Reamer continued. “He never left the hospital and died twelve
years later. I used to visit him on Sundays and remember talking to someone who could never respond. I resolved to build him a monument, and this campus center is it.
“It is pure joy for me to remember these two people at this place,” he said.
Constructed in 1910, the Reamer Campus Center began as the home for the College's Engineering Departments. Subsequent users included the Mathematics Department and the Graduate Studies program. The building was renovated and expanded into a college center in the late 1980s. As President Roger Hull noted, the dedication, at Reamer's insistence, came only after Reamer had completed his gift to the College.
“One of the things that stands out about Norton is that he never misses a meeting at Union despite a travel schedule of more than 200,000 miles a year,” the president said. “He once said that at Union he can do something for a worthwhile institution that is small enough so that you have a chance to make a difference.
“Clearly, Norton Reamer has made a difference,” Hull continued. “And Murray Reamer is smiling down and Ruth Reamer is smiling from Florida about what their son is accomplishing.”
Several speakers commented on the fact that the building has established itself as the center of the campus.
Christina Sorum, dean of arts and sciences and professor of classics, said, “It's much nicer to have a building already in use. I don't have to say this building
will change the interaction between faculty and students – it already has.”
Norton H. Reamer '58 reflects on his parents – the inspiration for the Campus Center
She said that it was perfect for a classicist to talk about the building, which has as its basis the agora at the foot of the Parthenon.
“It is a place for the dissemination of information-exactly what the agora was,” she said. “This is where learning outside the classroom takes place on this campus, and that's why this building is so important to faculty.”
To Fred Alford, dean of students, the Reamer Campus Center is “where we find out what's really happening. It is the one place on campus we all
come, and repeatedly.”
To Diana Sedita, editor of the Concordiensis, the building gave her “a feeling of community” when she visited Union as a potential student. “I just didn't know I'd be here seventy hours a week, fifty of them in the Concordy office.”
To Nate Coffin '95, president of the Student Forum, the building's designers did make one
mistake-they “didn't put in beds for all of us who seemed to spend all our time here.”
And to Joseph M. Hinchey '47, chairman of the College's Board of Trustees, “The name Reamer represents all we aspire to. We all admire you, and we're all indebted to you.”
Reamer is president and chief executive officer of United Asset Management Corp. in Boston. A native of New York, he received two degrees at Union (an A.B. in economics and a B.E.E. in electrical engineering). He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and earned his M.B.A. with distinction at Harvard University.
A member of the College's Board of Trustees since 1973, he has led many of its committees, is immediate past chairman, and currently serves as secretary. For these and his many other activities on behalf of Union he was awarded the Founders Medal at Commencement.
“Forget your nose- put your whole face to the grindstone.
With such a brief frolic on this planet, every day must have meaning.
Work hard.
Then play hard.
See your friends. See your relatives.
Travel.
Try to fill a day with a day, not just the lagging memory
of a few hours.”
THOR A. BENANDER, THE SENIOR SPEAKER
“This country gives
lots of opportunities, and I decided to
take advantage of them.”
DANUTA TRZEBINSKAYAGER,
VALEDICTORIAN
A native of Poland, she came to Oneonta (N. Y) High School as an exchange student. After deciding to stay in America, she came to Union, where she not only had the highest grade point average of this year's class but won the Robert M. Fuller Prize for original experimental work in chemistry and competed on the
cross-country team. Married to Daniel Yager, who is in the Navy, she will attend Harvard University Medical School this fall after a trip to Poland to see her parents and brother.
The salutatorian was Teresa Hanlon, a psychology major from Castleton, N.Y., and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Psi Chi (the psychology honor society), Sigma Delta Pi (the Spanish honor society), and We Care About U-Schenectady (a student group that renovates homes for purchase by low income families).
“Wow, it's pretty neat!” Philip Beuth 54, winner of an Eliphalet Nott Medal
The Eliphalet Nott Medal, created this year, recognizes the perseverance of alumni who have attained great distinction in their fields. Beuth, who received his BA in English, is the retired president of morning and night entertainment for Capital Cities/ABC in New York City.
Other alumni honored at Commencement were:
–Robert E. Bernhardt '73, the newly-appointed music director and conductor of the Rochester Symphony Orchestra. An
All-American third baseman at Union, he turned to music as a career when his competition for a spot with the Kansas City Royals was George Brett. Most recently he was music director of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra.
-The Honorable Victor H. Fazio '65 is a member of the House of Representatives from the Third Congressional District of California. He was elected president of the student
body in his first try at elective office. Victor in a race for the California Assembly in 1975, he ran successfully for Congress three years later and is now one of the leading Democrats in the House.
–R. Gordon Gould '41 is the inventor of the laser. He sketched the design in 1957, while a graduate student at Columbia University, and won a lengthy struggle for recognition after the Patent Office awarded a patent to another scientist.
–Estelle Cooke-Sampson '74, M.D., is a radiologist with Metropolitan Radiology Associates in
Washington, D.C., director of D.C. Imaging Associates, and a spokesperson for the D.C. Cancer Consortium.
“When you care for a place, it's remarkable how pleasant it is to help it reach its goals and how wonderful it is to make a difference.”
“When you care for a place, it's remarkable how pleasant it is to help it reach its goals and how wonderful it is to make a difference.”
–Norton H. Reamer 58, recipient of the College's Founders Medal for unusual and distinguished service to Union
President and chief executive officer of United Asset Management Corp. in Boston, Reamer has been a member of the College's Board of Trustees since 1973. He has led many of its committees, is the immediate past chairman, and currently serves as secretary.
His many activities on behalf of Union have ranged from leading alumni events, such as send-off parties for entering freshmen, to leading major fundraising campaigns. The renovation and expansion of the Murray and Ruth Reamer Campus Center was made possible by a gift from him in honor of his parents; the building was dedicated June 9 [see the story and photographs in this issue].
“Civility, accountability, responsibility-there's an important linkage among the three. Use the lives of Thoreau and Gandhi and King as yardsticks to measure your own lives and
–President Roger H. Hull, in his remarks to the graduates
“This was not to save my own life but to inform of the horrors of Auschwitz
–Ceslav Mordowicz, who received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree
Mordowicz, a Polish Jew, escaped from Auschwitz in May, 1944, determined to bring the horrors of the Nazi death camp to the attention of the world.
His testimony helped halt the deportation of Hungarian Jews, saving an estimated 200,000 lives. [For more on Mr. Mordowicz, see President Hull's column.]
“I'll put the entire speech in the Congressional Record.” –Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, cutting short his Commencement speech as the sky grew dark and rain threatened
In his address, New York's senior senator noted the “striking parallel” between the political revolutions of the late eighteenth century and the economic revolutions of our time.
Until the late 1800s, he said, political thought turned on ways to inculcate virtue in a small class that governed. This country's founders, however, took the knowledge they had gained about humans' self-interestedness to create political solutions in which ambition would counteract ambition. Unlike the French revolutionaries, America's revolutionaries adapted the old order rather then try to abolish all traces of it.
So, too, with the economy, where the United States unlike the Soviet Union-has transformed the old economic order rather than try to abolish it. In the course of the past
half-century, Moynihan said, the United States has essentially learned to manage an industrial economy.
“Is the world transformed? Well, yes it is. And it would do us no harm to take note between bouts of self-abasement. The legitimacy of a free enterprise society, with free
labor and free markets, is acknowledged across the globe.
Moynihan said that his colleague and friend, Senator Bill Bradley, observes that “the fragile ecology of our social environment is as threatened as that of our natural environment.”
Consider, too, the state of the American family or note that in Washington the talk is less about how the economy can create jobs but how a dependent population can be induced to take them, he said.
“Surely that only strengthens the case for a `science of politics' that seeks, however so often in vain, to understand the world which we inherit but which we also in some measure create,” Moynihan said.
Better late than never…
Eight alumni whose studies at Union were interrupted received their bachelor's degrees at Commencement. The “new” graduates are:
Sidney Brodsky, director of Pediatric Cardiology at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, Fla.;
Steven Hirsh, at attorney in Bemidji, Minn.;
Charles S. Walkoff, a radiologist at the Atlantic City (NJ.) Medical Center;
Judah Roher, a pediatrician in White Plains, N.Y.;
J. Bradley Aust, Dorn Distinguished Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio;
Levan Bedrosian, medical director of The Child's Hospital in Albany, N.Y.;
William Kelly, a retired dentist in Schenectady;
Paul Carbone, director of the University of Wisconsin Clinical Cancer Center and a professor at the University of Wisconsin.
With the dedication of the beautiful Morton and Helen Yulman Theater and the rededication of the College Center as the Reamer Campus Center, Union enjoyed its second and third building dedications is less than four months.
The excitement of the Bicentennial year continued over Commencement weekend. We honored our own and
others Norton Reamer '58, a man whose work on behalf of Union has made a tremendous difference in the life of the College, was awarded the Founders Medal; Robert Bernhardt '73, Philip Beuth '54, Victor Fazio '65, Gordon Gould '41, and Estelle Cooke-Sampson '74 were given the Eliphalet Nott Medal in recognition of achievements in their respective fields; and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the Commencement speaker, received an honorary degree.
Yet, it was the granting of an honorary doctor of humane letters degree to a man whose escape from Auschwitz helped save the lives of as many as 200,000 Hungarian Jews that drew the greatest notice-as it should have. Little known except to Holocaust scholars, Ceslav Mordowicz, a Polish Jew, was one of a handful of men who escaped from Auschwitz in the spring of 1944 with the purpose of bearing witness to what was transpiring there.
Despite increasing reports of Nazi death camps, the world was still largely disbelieving. The Nazis took diabolically elaborate measures to conceal the camps' true nature, not just to prevent international intervention but to lull the Jewish population into acceding to a cunningly-planned transport to extermination.
Such was the state of affairs when Mordowicz and another prisoner, both working at hard labor in a gravel pit, made their escape
from Auschwitz on May 27, 1944. Hiding for three days in an underground bunker in the gravel pit, near the guards' water supply, they waited until the search for them was given up, then crawled in the dark between the watchtowers, swam across a river, and fled.
The reports of these two men and two others who had escaped in April-the Auschwitz Protocols-had reached the Vatican, the White House, and 10 Downing Street. Although the Allies did not bomb Auschwitz, as Mordowicz and his fellow escapees urged, Hungary did stop the deportation of Jews, and about 200,000 of the country's 800,000 Jewish population were saved.
Subsequently, Mordowicz was apprehended again by the Nazis and returned to Auschwitz. Luckily unrecognized by his captors, he emerged at war's end with the distinction of not only having escaped Auschwitz but having bested it twice. He subsequently emigrated to Israel and now lives in Toronto, Canada.
It was at a Toronto synagogue that Union College and Ceslav Mordowicz came together quite by chance a matter of weeks ago. Stephen M. Berk, the Florence B. Sherwood Professor of History and a leading authority on the Holocaust, was delivering a lecture on Auschwitz when a woman rose during the question period and said “the man sitting next to me is Mr. Mordowicz.”
Stunned because he had no idea that Mordowicz was still alive, Steve suggested that we consider honoring Mordowicz. Since this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, nothing, in my view, could be more appropriate than to honor Ceslav Mordowicz. So we did.
It was a splendid end to a splendid weekend and a splendid year. Now on to Union's third century.
