The College has been awarded a $1.769 million federal loan for a variety of energy conservation programs.
The funding, through the College and University Energy Assistance Program, is in the form of an interest-free loan that Union will repay over ten years out of savings realized from the energy improvements.
The College is a five-year partner in the Environmental Protection Agency's Green Lights energy conservation program and has taken a number of measures to cut energy costs. For example, it has replaced about sixty-five percent of its lighting with high-efficiency units, saving 172,000
kilowatt-hours and $15,000 per year.
Union was one of eleven colleges and universities selected for the loan program, according to David Grzybowski, director of campus operations and author of Union's proposal. Upgrades will include:
Replacing thirty-year-old cooling systems;
Extending energy management controls to more buildings, to tailor energy consumption to building use patterns;
Retrofitting motors for air handling systems with high-efficiency units;
Retrofitting buildings with energy-efficient lighting.
Robert Baker, professor of philosophy, was the keynote speaker for a lecture series titled “Making Choices: The History of Conflict in Medical Ethics” at the New York Academy of Medicine. His lecture was related to work that was recently published in a volume he edited, Anglo-American Medical Ethics and Medical Jurisprudence in the Nineteenth
Century. Baker has been named a fellow by the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, supporting his research on the history of medical ethics.
Karen Brison and Stephen Leavitt, assistant professors of anthropology, co-edited a special issue of the journal Ethos that collected papers on mourning in various cultures. Each also contributed papers to the journal.
A photo of magnified cells earned Barbara Danowski, assistant professor of biology, and her former research student, Kenny Lee '95, an honorable mention in Nikon's twenty-first annual International Small World Competition. The cells, labeled with bodiphy phalloidin and alpha-actinin, were photographed at a magnification of 250 times under fluorescent light.
Danowski is a cell biologist specializing in microscopy, and Lee now is a research technician at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Nikon's annual contest recognizes excellence in photography through the microscope. Of the hundreds of submissions worldwide, there
were twenty prizewinners and twelve honorable mentions.
Robert Sharlet, professor of political science, has returned from a two-year leave with the Rule of Law Consortium in Washington, D.C. He recently chaired a panel at the National Slavic Conference, gave two presentations on the Russian parliamentary elections at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, spoke on the Rule of Law at the Heritage Foundation, and edited and contributed to the first three issues of Rule of Law Consortium Newsletter about the consortium's progress in assisting law reform in Russia and the newly independent states.
Brenda Wineapple, Washington Irving Professor of Modern Literary and Historical Studies, is the author of an essay, “Two: Methodology and Dual Biography,” in Biography (Vol. 2), edited by Frederick J. Karl. The volume contains essays by nationally-known biographers about their work; Wineapple discusses Sister Brother Gertrude and Leo Stein, which was published this spring by G.P. Putnam's.
Richard Wilk, associate professor of mechanical engineering, is the author of articles in three journals, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, Energy and Fuels (with K.
Aniolek), and Solar Energy The Journal of the International Solar Energy Society (with J. Bolletin).
Trish Williams and Melissa Powers wanted to lead by example in community service, so they really became leaders… Girl Scout leaders, that is.
Williams is associate dean of students and director of residence life, and Powers is former assistant director of residence life. Their office requires that Union resident assistants become involved in community service, so forming a Girl Scout troop seemed a good way to get involved themselves.
To become leaders, Williams and Powers had to go through a training process, including camping, which they both describe as “interesting.”
For Powers, a Girl Scout since her elementary school days, most of the training was old hat and pretty easy. For
Williams never a Girl Scout-it was just the opposite. Since most leaders are former Girl Scouts, the trainers assumed that everyone was familiar with what they were teaching.
“Everything was new to me,” she says. “The paperwork was the easy part, but everything else I had to be taught.” But they helped each other through (“I do the administrative stuff, she (Powers) plays with the kids,” Williams says), and soon they had their own troop.
Since the troop began, Erica DeCarlo, a senior and longtime Girl Scout, has been helping, and last fall, Farah Lalani, a freshman who has also been a scout since early elementary school, got involved. DeCarlo and Lalani went through leader training together and are now official leaders. Powers and Williams hope to pass the troop into students' hands.
The troop has eight members who are in grades one through five at three nearby elementary schools. Meetings are held every other week in the Reamer Campus Center, which Williams and Powers say has been beneficial for both the troop and Union students-the girls like to be at college, and the
students provide good role models. Many students who see-and hear-the girls in the Campus Center have offered to help on various occasions.
Williams and Powers have taken the troop camping and have had picnics with the girls and their families. And, of course, they have been working toward their badges. One badge involved making art to wear. For this project, the students of Ludlow House, where DeCarlo is house manager, got involved. Each girl was paired with a student, and they painted each others' faces. “The girls really enjoyed having a buddy for the day,” Powers says.
Williams and Powers have enjoyed watching the troop grow over the past couple of years. “It's working out well,” Williams says. “It's good to see them working together and interacting. And they can even sit still for a minute now,” she says, laughing.
The Board of Trustees has elected Dr. Estelle Cooke-Sampson '74 and Christine Isaaks Reilly '75 as term trustees.
Cooke-Sampson, of Washington, D.C., is a radiologist with Metropolitan Radiology Associates in Washington and director of D.C. Imaging Associates.
A biology major, she earned her medical degree at Georgetown University Medical School. She did an internship with the U.S. Public Health Service in Louisiana, a radiology residency at Howard University Hospital in Washington, and a fellowship in CT/ultrasound, also at Howard. She belongs to a number of professional organizations, is a spokesperson for the D.C. Cancer Consortium, serves in the D.C. National Guard, and is on the D.C. Board of Medicine and the Board of D.C. Medical Society.
She has served the College as an admissions representative, career day presenter, and alumni event speaker, and last year she was awarded an Eliphalet Nott Medal for distinction in her field.
She and her husband, Robert Sampson, have two children.
Reilly, of Washington Crossing, Penn., is head of worldwide operations and technology strategic planning for Morgan Stanley Asset Management and Miller, Anderson & Sherrerd. She also is responsible for mutual funds administration for Morgan Stanley Asset Management's Worldwide Mutual Funds.
Reilly began her career as a systems analyst and became a principal of the firm in eight years. She credits her technology courses at the College with providing the foundation for her success. “Union had one of the few computer science degrees in the early '70s,” she says. “Union's courses, and the fact that liberal arts courses were required, provided what I needed to succeed.”
She earned her bachelor's degree in computer science and mathematics. As an alumna, she has been a member of the Trustee Board of Advisors, a member of the Ramee Circle, an associate class agent, and a participant in alumni career networking.
Jeanette Springer has been away from the cold for some time, and her reintroduction to winter in Schenectady this year was “a singularly unpleasant experience.”
Springer, a native of Antigua and a resident of Barbados since 1974, left the warmth of home to spend a year abroad as the Fulbright Scholar in Residence at Union.
Springer is teaching two courses, “Contemporary Caribbean Women Writers,” which looks at the work, both novels
and short stories, of such writers as Merle Hodge, Olive Senior, Jamaica Kincaid, and Zee Edgell, and “Women in Black Literature,” which focuses on the work of writers such as Jean Rhys, Joan Riley, and Ama Ata Aidoo as well as a few male writers who present significant portraits of black women.
Springer loves teaching about these writers and their work. “I like seeing people like me in literature,” she says. For most of the students the material is novel. “They seem to be enjoying it, since it's new to most of them.”
She also is taking courses, which lets her research her
“black cousins” from Africa, America, England, and Canada as well as expand her general knowledge. She has taken French, photography, “Voice for the Stage,” and a creative writing class. She says that she enjoys having the opportunity to take classes to “improve as both a teacher and a person.”
This is not Springer's first stay in the United States. She was an undergraduate at Hampton University in Virginia and a graduate student at the University of Indiana. She did Ph.D. work at the University of British Columbia.
In Barbados, Springer is head of the English department at Barbados Community College, teaching Chaucer and modern world literature and doing research in Caribbean women's literature, on which she's written several papers and given several lectures.
The latter is what brought her to Union. Last year, Sharon Gmelch, professor of anthropology and director of the women's studies program, was awarded a grant from the Council for International Educational Exchange to bring a Fulbright scholar to campus. Springer sent course outlines and her qualifications and was chosen for the fellowship as Fulbright lecturer in Caribbean women's literature.
Teaching at Union has been enjoyable for Springer, but it has also posed some challenges. “Like students everywhere, there are those at Union who don't always do their homework or do it carelessly. But then, of course, there are the students who study hard and produce work of high quality,” she says.
Springer has encountered some “culture shock” when it comes to classroom etiquette in the United States. She says that at Union students leave the classroom the minute time is up, even if she is in the middle of a sentence. In Barbados, students wait until she has finished speaking before leaving, even when class time is over.
She has also faced some difficulty in relation to the short length of the terms at Union. Since her courses are open to students from all majors, she must cover the material with reference to social problems and issues while making sure that the students first understand literary techniques-a real challenge in such a short period of time.
Overall, Springer has enjoyed her experience in Schenectady minus the snow and cold weather, of course. She will be happy to return to Barbados at the end of June, but for the moment is quite comfortable at Union. “This is a nice change of environment and lifestyle,” she says.
