On the sesquicentennial of engineering and the twenty-fifth anniversary of coeducation at Union, President Roger Hull called on the College to continue to embrace societal as well as technological change.
Speaking at the convocation that opened the College's 201st year, the president lamented the paradox that a historically-innovative institution such as Union-the first liberal arts college to offer engineering-did not admit women as full-time students until 1970.
“If liberal arts colleges are to maintain their honored place in society, we must increasingly be sensitive to the need for change,” he said. “Nowhere will change be more apparent in the first quarter of our third century than in the makeup of our student body.”
Not only will there be more technologically-aware students with different learning styles, there also will be a cultural change that will accompany an increase of mil
lions of students of color and a corresponding decrease in millions of white students.
“Those colleges that are able to adjust to change will have a bright future,” he said. “Those who remain unable or unwilling to look at things and do things differently will have a difficult time indeed.
“As we think about what it is we should do, we must always remember that we must take stands based on principle,” he continued. “For far too long women were invisible on this campus; for far too long, too, students of color were equally invisible. We cannot afford either to overlook or look through anyone or to allow any part of our society to remain invisible-not because it is expedient, but because it
is right.”
At the convocation, Jay E. Newman was honored as the R. Gordon Gould Professor of Physics.
Newman has been a member of the faculty since 1978 and is chairman of his department. A graduate of the City College of the City University of New York, he received his Ph.D. from New York University. His areas of specialization include light scattering and biophysics, and his teaching has ranged from introductory courses to National Science Foundation honors courses for distinguished teachers.
The professorship was established by R. Gordon Gould '41, the inventor of the laser, to honor Professor Frank L. Studer, who sparked Gould's interest in the physics of light and inspired his love of optics.
The Phi Beta Kappa Award, established to honor a first-year student for
outstanding achievement in general education, was presented to Sara Saltsman '98, with an honorable mention to Laurie
Kirschner '98. The convocation also recognized 563
Dean's List students, whose names appear on a plaque in the Reamer Campus Center.
The year opened with 521 freshmen and thirty transfer students. The freshman class is forty
seven percent female and fifty-three percent male, and about fifty-five percent are receiving Union College scholarships (Union continues to meet the full financial need of students who apply for aid).
One of the major changes for students was the addition of ResNet-short for “residence hall network.”
ResNet, an ethernet service that provides' direct access to the Internet, is now available to every student in a campus residence hall. The College is among the first in the country to provide students with direct Internet access.
Students without a personal computer can connect to the Internet at any of the College's Office of Computer Systems labs.