Posted on Oct 10, 1997

Oct. 13. Campus open house for prospective students. Employees are asked to park
off campus.

Oct. 14, 3:30 p.m., Feigenbaum Hall Conference Room. The Feigenbaum Forum
presents “Liberal Arts Education for a Technological Age.” (See story this
issue.)

Oct. 16, 7:30 p.m., Nott Memorial. Philosopher Jürgen Habermas speaks on
“Learning from Catastrophes: A Brief Look Back at the Short 20th Century.” (See
story this issue.)

Oct. 17, 8 p.m., Memorial Chapel. Schenectady Museum-Union College chamber
concert series presents Spoleto Festival USA, Charles Wadsworth, director, in a program to
include works by Bartok, Schubert and Poulenc.

Through Oct. 19. Mandeville Gallery, Nott Memorial. Exhibition of sculpture,
furniture and jewelry by internationally-known artist Daniel Barrett of Schenectady.

Oct. 21, 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., Arts dance studio. Edward Villella, founder and
artistic director of the Miami City Ballet, will speak on “Supermegatroid,” to
be presented Oct. 22 at Proctors. Members of the Union community are invited.

Oct. 22, 4 p.m., Reamer Campus Center. Anthropologist and nature writer Richard
Nelson will give a talk titled “Deer in Modern America: An Ecology of Heart and
Blood.” Nelson's talk will be based on his book Heart and Blood: Living with
Deer in America.

Posted on Oct 10, 1997

Children at South Avenue Playground, just one block west of Seward Place, have a few larger-than-normal playmates thanks to members of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.

Brothers of Fiji have adopted the playground and established a supervised playground
program for neighborhood kids starting this Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon.

Fiji, whose quarters are nearby in Fox Hall, was involved with the park revitalization
effort when it was targeted for work during the freshmen orientation community service
project, according to Fiji president Eric Houle, who said he noticed the rundown
playground during walks to area restaurants. Since the community service project, the
brothers have been adding the finishing touches: new paint, a truckload of sand, wood
chips where there used to be grass, basketball nets.

“A lot of kids have seen us, asking us questions about what we were doing
there,” Houle said. Over the past month, members of the fraternity have circulated
fliers about the playground program to neighborhood homes, schools and churches.

Posted on Oct 10, 1997

Jürgen Habermas, one of the greatest social thinkers of the century, will give a speech titled “Learning from Catastrophes? — A Brief Look Back at the Short Twentieth Century” on Thursday, Oct. 16 at 7:30 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.

Habermas, a well-known German philosopher and leading representative of the Frankfurt
school of critical theory, has refashioned thinking about technology and culture, politics
and postmodernism, law and democracy. His scholarly work, which includes critical analysis
of contemporary society, ranges across many of the humanities and social sciences. The
author of numerous books and articles, he is perhaps best known for his books Knowledge
and Human Interests, Postmetaphysical Thinking, and Between Facts and Norms.

In his talk at Union, Habermas will examine the peculiar face of the twentieth century
(between 1914 and 1989) characterized by the Cold War, Decolonization, and the reduction
of class conflict against the background of changing trends in demographic growth, in
technology, and in patterns of production. Committed to illuminating living controversies,
Habermas will consider the challenges now posed to the fragile welfare-state compromise by
the stresses and dislocations of economic globalization. Finally, he will ask the
question, is there any viable alternative to the neoconservative response?

Habermas will be a guest at Union for one week, leading discussions and seminars for
Union faculty and students.

Posted on Oct 6, 1997

Schenectady, N.Y. (October 6, 1997) – Anthropologist and nature writer Richard Nelson will give a talk titled “Deer in Modern America: An Ecology of Heart and Blood” on Wednesday, October 22 in Union College's Reamer Campus Center Auditorium at 4 p.m. Nelson's talk will be based on his book Heart and Blood: Living with Deer in America (Alfred A. Knopf, 1997).

Deer came close to extinction at the turn of the century in many parts of the United States, especially the northeast, Nelson explains, but since then deer have made a phenomenal comeback, adapting almost too well to the modern mix of wild, rural, and suburban environments. Throughout the country, people struggle to live harmoniously with deer that inhabit neighborhoods, seriously damage farm crops, overbrowse natural preserves, and carry lyme disease ticks. In his talk, Nelson will address the often controversial relationship between people and deer, with particular attention to hunting issues.

Of Heart and Blood, Jim Harrison wrote: “I can't imagine a more splendid volume on a single species than Richard Nelson's Heart and Blood. It is frankly an incredible book, and I suspect that it will be widely read by hunters and anti-hunters, environmentalists and politicians, and anyone who cares about what's left of the natural world in America.”

Nelson is a writer whose work focuses on human relationships to the natural world. He has spent many years studying the Eskimo and Athabaskan Indian people in Alaska and based on those experiences wrote Hunters of the Northern Ice, Hunters of the Northern Forest, Shadow of the Hunter, Make Prayers to the Raven, and The Athabaskans. His work has appeared in Life, Harpers, Outside, Orion, Audobon, Wilderness, Pacific Discovery, Northern Lights, and others.

His book The Island Within — a personal journey into the natural world surrounding his home — received the John Burroughs Award for nature writing. He was also granted a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and was a recipient of the 1995 Lannan Literary Award for creative nonfiction writing. Nelson was voted “least likely to succeed” upon graduating from high school.

Nelson received a bachelor's and a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison; he earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from University of California, Santa Barbara.

The lecture is free and open to the public. The sixteen-sided Nott Memorial is located at the center of campus and parking is available on campus and on nearby sidestreets.

For more information, call 388-6131.

Posted on Oct 1, 1997

Union College is host to the first concert of the inaugural tour of the Spoleto USA Festival featuring artistic director Charles Wadsworth and violinist Chee-Yun on Friday, October 17 at 8 p.m. in Union's Memorial Chapel.

The program is to include Suk's Elegie for piano trio, Bartok's Contrasts, Schubert's Fantasy in f, D. 940 for piano 4-hands, Poulenc's Clarinet sonata, and Smetana's piano trio.

Charles Wadsworth created the now-famous Mid-Day Chamber Music Series at the Spoleto Festival in Italy in 1960. In 1977, he established Spoleto/USA in Charleston, South Carolina, and now is launching a tour of the festival. The artists performing with the group are all soloists in their own right, and include director and pianist Wadsworth, violinist Chee-Yun, clarinetist Todd Palmer, cellist Andrés Días, and pianist Stephen Prutsman.

Artistic Director Charles Wadsworth has had a long and distinguished career as a champion of chamber music and in January received the 1997 Chamber Music America Award. He was founder and director of the world-famous Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for 20 years and introduces each piece in the program with wit and humor.

Violinist Chee-Yun is a world-renowned soloist and has an exclusive recording contract with Denon Records. She has performed with such leading ensembles as the Atlanta Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the National Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic, among others.

Clarinetist Todd Palmer made his New York debut at Carnegie Recital Hall as winner of the 1987 Artists International Competition and has gone on to perform as a soloist with the Houston Symphony, the Maryland Symphony, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. He has also collaborated with the Orion, Borromeo, Brentano and St. Lawrence String Quartets.

Cellist Andrés Días has had numerous orchestral appearances that have included performances with the Atlanta Symphony, the American Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony and the orchestras of Milwaukee, Seattle, and Victoria (B.C.) as well the Boston Pops. He has also performed recitals at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, and the Gardner Museum.

Prize-winning pianist Stephen Prutsman has received awards for his performance of Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev and has performed in recitals with major orchestras throughout the world, including solo recitals in Boston, Portland, and San Francisco and chamber music at Lincoln Center.

The Schenectady Museum-Union College concert series is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.

Memorial Chapel is located near the center of the Union campus. Parking is available on campus and on nearby sidestreets.

Tickets, at $15 ($7 for students), are available in advance at the Schenectady Museum (518)382-7890 and at the door at 7 p.m. For more information, call 372-3651.