The Terrace Council began in 1905 as a senior honorary society. Today's Terrace Council seeks to promote leadership in the College community through giving and involvement. Membership in the Terrace Council is renewed annually with a gift of $1,000 or more. We are delighted to welcome the Terrace Council's newest members:
R. Douglas Arnold '72, Princeton, N.J.
Bonnie L. Berger, Parent, Dover, Mass.
Eli & Cheryl Blatt, Parents, Glen Head, N.Y.
Kathy Van Oort Davis '75, Albuquerque, N.M.
Charles M. Dexter '81, San Diego, Calif.
Joseph Finkelstein '47, Schenectady, N.Y.
Sigmund C. Giambruno '51, Lake Placid, N.Y.
Mason Kronick '42, Bala Cynwyd, Penn.
Robert G. Leary, Jr. '83, Riverside, Conn.
Jerry B. Little '57, Bondville, Vt.
Arne and Helen Loft, Friends, Scotia, N.Y.
Dr. Victor F. Mattson '49, Hattiesburg, Miss.
Steven A. Mills '73, Bronxville, N.Y.
Dr. Oscar J. Muller '37, Little Falls, N.Y.
Richard & Faye Nespola, Parents, Leawood, Kan.
Lucie K. Pacyga, Friend, Scotia, N.Y.
John 0. Page '36, Huntington, Conn.
C. Michael Reger '71, Rensselaer, N.Y.
Seymour D. Schneiderman, Friend, New York City
Dr. Peter J. Steinglass '60, New York City
Harold B. Turner '70, Lake Katrine, N.Y.
Gary P. Van Graafeiland '68, Rochester, N.Y.
Mrs. E. Glenn Wells, Friend, Schenectady, N.Y.
Interested? Call Michael Lynch, assistant director of annual giving and alumni programs at (518) 388-6174 or on e-mail at lynchm2@alice.union.edu.
The Alumni Chemistry Advisory Council provides a link between Union's chemistry graduates, practitioners in the field, students and faculty of the Chemistry Department, and College Relations. The group meets twice a year and discusses upcoming objectives for the Chemistry Department, including curricula and physical renovation, funding, and other issues related to the improvement of the department.
The twenty-nine current members and their employers are:
Robert P. Yunick '57, Schenectady, Schenectady International, Inc., Chair
David A. Benko '73, Akron, Ohio, Goodyear Tire and Rubber
Steven A. Carr '76, Berwyn, Penn., SmithKline Beecham
Alan R. Case '69, New Milford, Conn., Moore and Munger, Inc.
Peter B. Fleming '63, Woodbury, Minn., 3M
William G. Hawkins '76, Webster, N.Y., Xerox Corp
Richard W. Heiden '70, Lancaster, Penn., R.W. Heiden Associates
Peter T. Kissinger '66, West Lafayette, Ind., Bioanalytical Systems, Inc.
Robert A. Laudise '52, Berkeley Heights, N.J., Bell Telephone Labs
David J. McClemens '64, Chadds Ford, Penn., Mac-Mod Analytical
Frank H. McKim '67, Worthington, Ohio, Scitec Service, Inc.
Jack Minsley '68, Crystal Lake, Ill., American National Can Co.
Peter A. Neddermeyer '63, Ontario, N.Y., Eastman Kodak Co.
Michael F. Newell '74, West Charlton, N.Y., Leybold Inficon Inc.
John H. Peeling '61, New Canaan, Conn., Olin Corp.
Carl G. Seefried, Jr. '66, Southbury, Conn., Olin Corp.
Babs R. Soller '75, Northboro, Mass., University of Massachusetts Medical Center
Michelle A. Spaziani '95, Sunderland, Mass., Chemistry Department, University of Massachusetts
Raymond P. Thorman '76, Mahwah, N.J., International Paper Co.
Jerry L. Thurston '61, Mohnton, Penn., DSM Engineering Plastics Prod.
Joseph L. Zuckerman '54, Livingston, N.J.
Nathan Zutty '54, New Canaan, Conn.
David Hayes, chairman of the Union Chemistry Department
Mike Lynch, Office of College Relations
Charles Scaife, Chemistry Department
Pam Simmons, government grants coordinator
Jane Zacek, Office of College Relations.
The council is scheduled to meet May 9 and is searching for new members. If you're interested, please contact Dave Hayes at hayesd@union.edu or 518-388-6337 or Mike Lynch at lynchm2@alice.union.edu or 518-388-6157.
Basketball means many things to senior forward Amy Hitz.
It's about self esteem and self respect, it's about making friends and being a friend, it's about belonging to something special.
It is not, however, about statistics and records, two areas in which Hitz has excelled during her four-year career at Union. Just the third player to score 1,000 points in the
twenty-one year history of women's basketball at Union, Hitz also has a shot at becoming the College's all-time rebounding leader.
“I haven't been worrying about scoring 1,000 points,”
Hitz says about the first half of the season. “I've been worrying about getting into grad school.”
A psychology major with a sociology minor, Hitz has a 3.6 grade point average and is looking forward to graduate school in hopes of becoming a school guidance counselor and basketball coach.
“I like going to class,” Hitz says. “I enjoy discussing things, applying things I've learned in class to what's going on in my life. If I should get an A it's not because I'm working my tail off, but because I enjoy academics. I enjoy learning.”
Hitz says that basketball has helped her budget her time so that she can give all aspects of her life the attention they deserve.
A member of Delta Gamma sorority, Hitz has held several offices in the organization. She is a member of the psychology national honor society, a volunteer tutor for preschool and middle age children, a member of the Athletic Department's gender equity committee, and has started a peer group that deals with rape victims and survivors of sexual assault called Safe Space Group. In the spring, she runs outdoor track.
The Dutchwomen's leading rebounder each of the last three years, and leading scorer and rebounder the last two seasons, Hitz is again leading the team by averaging 13.9 points and 10.6 rebounds as of early February.
“Scoring and rebounding are part of the game,” Hitz says. “Those are things you are supposed to be doing. To me, it doesn't seem like that big a thing. Playing, being part of the game, being with my friends, being on the team, hanging out with my teammates on road trips are more important than 1,000 points or a rebounding record.”
Basketball at Union has also taught Hitz some of life's hard lessons. The Dutchwomen, who have had only four winning seasons in their history, are 24-62
the last three and a half years.
“It is disappointing that the won-lost record isn't better,” Hitz says. “But I don't think that I would be the person that I am today if we had won every game and won a championship. The struggle, the hard work, has added a lot of character to everyone on the team, including myself. It is easy to be at practice when you're a winner, but it's harder to show up every day when things aren't going your way.
“Coach (Mary Ellen) Burt has taught us that regardless of what happens, good or bad, a positive attitude can make the worst day into a good one,” she continues. “Having faced the struggle, the losses, has given me more drive, more self confidence, and the ability to excel when life is really hard. Knowing the ups and downs of basketball and school gives me the foundation to face whatever I might face in the future.”
While the Dutchwomen still aren't winning regularly, Hitz does feel that the team and the program have improved.
“We are a much better team than we were in my freshman
year,” she says. “We've narrowed the gap against teams that were beating us by twenty and thirty points. Our record still isn't where I had hoped it would be, but we're a stronger unit in terms of competitiveness. Teams have to be prepared for us; they can't take us for granted anymore.”
The Dutchwomen's “Most Valuable Player” after last season, Hitz was selected to the Upstate College Athletic Association's first team by the league's coaches and received Union's ECAC Medal of Merit as the College's “Outstanding Junior Female Athlete.” This year she was elected to the
All-Tournament team for the Union Invitational after setting the event's rebounding record.
Hitz admits that her place in Union's basketball history book will probably mean more to her later in life. For now, she's happy for the many life lessons the game has taught her.
“I've been able to play, to contribute, and to share a great many experiences with my teammates and friends,” Hitz says. “Maybe someday, when I'm looking back, 1,000 points will seem like a big deal, but not in respect to the experiences and relationships that are so much a part of who I am.”
Now in its sixth season in the Eastern College Athletic Conference, Union reached the halfway point of its league campaign in a battle for the home ice advantage in the March playoffs.
The team's 5-6-2 ECAC record is its best effort ever at this point in the season, and the Skating Dutchmen have boasted the nation's No. I team defense since the start of the campaign.
The key is the goalie, Trevor Koenig. A 5'10, 170-pound native of Edmonton, Alberta, Koenig led the country with his 2.18 goals against average, and his save percentage of .927 was the best among netminders who have played more than 450 minutes.
Koenig has led the Skating Dutchmen through three of their six seasons in the ECAC, and each year he has improved. In his first two seasons, he allowed an average of 3.40 goals a game and compiled a record of 12-21-4. On Jan. 4, he led the Dutchmen to a 6-4 win over Princeton to become just the seventh Union goalie to achieve twenty career wins and the first to do so at the Division I level. His 4-2 victory the following Friday at Harvard-Union's first-ever win at the Bright Center-moved him into fifth place on the Dutchmen's
all-time win list.
Koenig is a competitor who enjoys challenges. He decided to come to Schenectady because Union, which does not offer athletic scholarships, did offer him the opportunity to bring respectability to a young hockey team while preparing him for life after his playing days are over.
A mathematics major, Koenig has developed a strong interest in English courses.
“Ever since I was young I
was good in math,” he says. “I'm taking a lot of English courses now, and I'm enjoying those more than my math classes. They allow me to
express myself a little more.”
Nicknamed “The Shark” by his teammates for the big-toothed smile he exhibits after making a save, Koenig has helped improve everyone's playing level. Senior defensemen Greg Buchanan and Bill Moody say that Koenig's fierce competitive attitude is as much a reason for the Dutchmen's success as his athletic talent.
“Trevor has to be one of the most competitive guys in terms of not liking people to beat him,” Buchanan says. “It doesn't matter if it's in a practice or in a game, Trevor does not tolerate losing.”
Moody adds, “He's what we call a `garner,' and it's a pleasure to play with a guy like that.”
Coach Stan Moore notes another attribute.
“Trevor likes to stand up a lot,” Moore says. “It's important to have someone who can make a first, but also a second and third save. Trevor is capable of that.”
Koenig's hockey roots
began in what he considers to be a routine fashion for any Canadian boy.
“Your dad takes you to a couple of professional games, he buys you a little wooden stick, you start playing in the kitchen, and it carries on over to the backyard to the homemade ice rink,” he says. “Just about every kid in Canada grows up playing hockey.”
Koenig played two years of Junior “A” hockey for the Fort Saskatchewan Traders. The best thing about juniors, according to Koenig, was learning to make the most out of his opportunities. “Learning that, I came to Union,” he says. “It was an opportunity I couldn't turn down.”
For Professor Terry Weiner, the connection between his classroom and community work is a direct line.
As a member of both the Sociology and Political Science Departments, Weiner teaches courses about education and politics.
And, as a member of the school board in the town of Niskayuna, N.Y., he regularly applies his expertise in education and politics.
“If one is interested in education, one has to be interested in the political processes by which those decisions are made,” he says. “And many of these issues-like whether or not we have a multicultural curriculum-are not just school issues. They are issues about what type of nation we should be. Consequently, they are highly politicized, and you need to know something about politics.”
Weiner came to Union more than twenty years ago after earning his Ph.D. in sociology at the University of North Carolina (his dissertation topic was “The Effect of Class and Educational Factors in Political Socialization”). Soon after joining the faculty, he and a fellow sociologist, Eugene Schneller, began to investigate the
newly-emerging vocation of physician's assistant. In the classroom,
he developed courses in such areas as health care politics, the sociology of medicine, political sociology, and issues in American education.
“I learned quickly that the things I am interested in are highly political, and that you couldn't understand what's happening to these institutions without understanding the political system,” he says.
In 1990, he decided to carry his multiple interests one step further and became one of four candidates seeking two seats on the Niskayuna Board of Education. It was, he says, “an effort to get off the sidelines,” and, somewhat to his surprise, he was the top vote-getter.
As the parent of a handicapped child, Weiner is interested in special education. He hopes to improve how educational institutions respond to the needs of disabled children and how disabled children are treated by the health care system.
He says that being on a school board enables him to speak
with greater expertise about how schools are funded, how decisions are made, and the constraints that exist in education. He requires the students in his “Issues in American Education” class to attend at least one school board meeting, hoping that they might gain some similar insights.
This winter and spring, Weiner is on leave and getting back to his work on health care, examining (with Schneller) the issue of managed care and HMOs for a book chapter that will help explain the changing health care system to doctors; the two also will look at the consequences of the growing use of managed care to deliver services to the Medicaid and Medicare populations.
There is little doubt that the research will become part of the sociology curriculum when Weiner returns to the classroom next fall.
