Posted on May 8, 1998

At a time when a new Carnegie Foundation report is criticizing research universities for not promoting research-based learning for undergraduates, Union College is preparing to celebrate faculty-mentored research that has been a feature of the College for nearly 70 years.

On May 8, more than 200 students – about 10 percent of Union's enrollment – will present their research and creative work at the eighth annual Steinmetz Symposium. (Nearly 50 of the students involved have just returned from presenting their work at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.)

Charles Hurd, a chemistry professor at Union from the 1920's to 1956, gained a national reputation not only for his contributions to silicon chemistry, but for collaborating with Union undergraduates on most of the papers he published. This was at a time when the predominant view was that of Robert Hutchins, president of the University of Chicago, who believed it inappropriate even for undergraduate faculty to do research.

Union's undergraduate research has been going strong ever since. Union has been a charter member of NCUR, has twice hosted the conference, and continues to have one of the largest contingents.

The Steinmetz Syposium, named for Charles P. Steinmetz, a Union professor and the “electrical wizard of General Electric,” began eight years ago as a way for students to showcase their faculty-mentored achievements to the campus community. Each year, a number of parents and alumni attend.

New this year to Steinmetz is a program that will contain the abstracts of most of the student presentations. They will be available at locations throughout campus.

Steinmetz Symposium Schedule

Classes will be canceled during Steinmetz Symposium, Friday, May 8, starting at 1 p.m.

The Steinmetz Symposium is divided into four sessions:

Session I, 1 to 2:20 p.m., concurrent oral presentations in Humanities, Social Sciences, Science & Engineering and Steinmetz Hall.

Session II, 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., poster sessions and Jazz Ensemble performance in Reamer Campus Center; art exhibitions in arts atrium; dance performances in dance studio, and choir performance in performing arts studio.

Session III, 3:30 to 4:50 p.m., and Session IV, 5 to 6:20 p.m., concurrent oral presentations in Humanities, Social Sciences, Science and Engineering and Steinmetz Hall.

The Steinmetz Banquet in Upperclass Dining will follow Session IV.

The Union College Orchestra, directed by Prof. Hilary Tann, will present “The Russians Are Coming,” a “Pops” Concert featuring works by Russian composers at 8:30 p.m. in Memorial Chapel. The program are Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite, Borodin's Polovtsian Dances, Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain, known to many from Walt Disney's film, Fantasia.

The Steinmetz Symposium is the first part of “Recognition Weekend,” the second being Prize Day on Saturday, May 9 at 11 a.m. in Memorial Chapel.

Posted on May 8, 1998

April 22, 1998

1. Minutes of April 17, 1998 were amended to change the year in item #3
to the class of 2003 and then approved.

2. Kimmo Rosenthal discussed the report of the Liberal Arts &
Technology Committee.

3. Hilary Tann, chair of Performing Arts; Penny Adey, registrar; and
Judy Peck, assistant registrar, discussed the problems associated with allocation of
credit for practica. Hilary Tann presented the problem she perceives in allowing only two
academic credits for practica regardless of the number of practica taken. The second
problem is one of record keeping. There was much discussion of how many practica it is
appropriate to count toward graduation in a liberal arts curriculum. There is an
additional issue of flagging the transcripts after they received two credits.

The AAC decided it did not want, at this time, to review the policy that
grants up to two credits toward graduation from practica.

Dean Lewis, Professor Tann, Registrar Adey and Asst. Registrar Peck were
asked to devise a system to easily accumulate practica appropriately and add them to the
transcript. They will report to the AAC at its next meeting.

Posted on May 8, 1998

Want to put those old glasses to good use?

Members of the College community this week donated some 20 pairs of old
frames and lenses for the Gift of Sight, a cooperative project by the Lions Club and
Lenscrafters for international optical missions in developing countries.

A collection box is located outside the mailroom in Reamer Campus
Center.

For more information, call Elvera Shutter of the Office of Computer
Services at ext. 6668.

Posted on May 8, 1998

Robert Baker, professor of philosophy, is co-editor with Kathleen
Wininger and the late Frederick Elliston of the third edition of Philosophy and Sex
(Prometheus Books).

In 1975, Union professors Baker and Elliston published the first
English-language collection of contemporary essays on philosophy and sex.

For the third edition, Baker teamed with Neitzsche scholar Kathleen
Wininger, formerly a visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Union and currently
professor at the University of Southern Maine.

The newly published 671-page third edition is in memory of Elliston, who
died in an automobile accident.

Posted on May 8, 1998

Martha K. Huggins, Roger Thayer Stone Professor of Sociology, has
published Political Policing: The United States and Latin America (Duke University
Press). The Portuguese version is to be published in Brazil by Cortez Editora in
August.

Author and essayist Philip Agee, who wrote Inside the Company: A CIA
Diary, describes Political Policing as “a major exposé (that) every
American concerned about our country's role in the world should read.” A.J.
Langguth, author of Hidden Terrors, of the USC Annenberg School of Communication,
writes that Political Policing is a “brilliant exposé … written with
scholarly precision and patriotic outrage.”

The cover of the Duke University Press edition is taken from political
artist Leon Golub's “White Hand” series depicting police torture.