Posted on May 1, 1998

John Rand, a polar engineer with the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in Hanover, N.H., will give a talk titled “The Spirit of Inquiry: Engineering at the South Pole” on Monday, May 18, at 7:30 p.m. in Union College's Nott Memorial.

The talk is free and open to the public.

Rand, one of the foremost authorities on extreme cold-weather engineering challenges, is the National Science Foundation's project engineer for the redevelopment effort of the New South Pole Station, now under way.

His talk will include a brief introduction to the physical and environmental conditions in Antarctica; a summary of the logistical challenges to the program; a short history of the evolution of the stations at the South Pole; and the recent upgrades to the station and the science facilities.

His appearance at Union was made possible by collaboration between Union's mechanical engineering department and the 109th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard at Stratton Air Base, Scotia, N.Y. The 109th is the sole provider of flight support for NSF polar research and the unit that will carry all construction material to the South Pole redevelopment.

“Union College is proud to begin what I hope will be a long and productive collaboration with the 109th Airlift Wing on the exciting topic of NSF polar research,” said Roger Hull, president of Union College. “Our students and faculty are eager to make great use of a partnership that brings polar science to Union.”

Rand graduated from Norwich University with a BSME in 1969. After graduation, he entered active duty in the Army and in 1970, he was assigned to CRREL as a second lieutenant.

He was soon introduced to the polar environment with research assignments in Greenland and Antarctica. In 1972, Rand joined CRREL as a civilian employee where he served as mechanical engineer designing equipment, devices, instruments and controls for use in cold regions research. As the principal investigator for CRREL's drill development effort, Mr. Rand designed the CRREL 100-meter drill, the Wireline Drill for the Ross Ice Shelf Project, and a number of small, hand coring augers.

In 1984, Rand switched responsibilities within the Laboratory and participated in the Corps of Engineer's River Ice Management Program as a principal investigator for two work units: Structural and Operational Modification to Control Ice at Locks and Improved Ice Passage at Navigation Dams.

In 1991, he turned his interests to the South Pole. He designed and installed an innovative water supply system for the polar ice station at the South Pole in Antarctica. In 1992, he was asked by the National Science Foundation to be the NSF project engineer for the redevelopment effort for the New South Pole Station. Mr. Rand currently remains in that position.

He has authored many technical papers, has three patents and participates in national and international meetings and conferences on cold region technologies.

The Nott Memorial is located at the center of the Union College campus. Parking is available on campus and on nearby sidestreets. For more information, call 388-6131.

Posted on May 1, 1998

For William Unterborn '84, graduating from Union paid off in just thirty
seconds.

Unterborn was a recent contestant on
the wildly-popular television show,
“Jeopardy!,” where he faced the following final
answer:

Answer: A tributary of the Hudson River
that is also the name of a hairstyle.

Unterborn's question: … What is the
MOHAWK?

(For anyone who doesn't know, the game
involves coming up with appropriate questions for answers
supplied by the host.)

The answer stumped the other two
contestants — one of whom had been leading the
competition — and Unterborn went on to become a
three-time champion during first few days of January. His
total winnings were $31,899 (he also won a trip to Mexico
for coming in second on the fourth show).

“Being a contestant on 'Jeopardy!'
is something I've always wanted to do,” Unterborn
says. Finally, after years of shouting out the answers at
his television, he decided to try the real thing. The
show's web site was soliciting applicants, and he
applied. Randomly selected from the applicant pool, he
was invited to join 1,000 potential contestants for a
testing session in New York City. All took a written
test, and Unterborn was one of nineteen in his session of
one hundred who “passed” the test and joined
the list of potential contestants.

“I took the test around Memorial
Day but didn't hear from them until the end of October,
when they told me that I'd be on a show taped in
November,” he continues. To prepare, Unterborn
bought a CD Rom version of “Jeopardy!” and
played the game several times a day. An English major at
Union and now the merchandising coordinator for World of
Science, Inc., he says that he reads a lot and is a
“news junkie,” so the game came naturally to
him.

After that first game, when Unterborn
won with his question “What is the Mohawk?”, he
won two more close games. Finishing the double jeopardy
round in second place each time before the final jeopardy
round, Unterborn says that winning was always a surprise.
“In the second game, I knew that I had had fun, and
I was sure that the other guy had the question right. But
then out of the corner of my eye I saw him shaking his
head, and this wave of emotion came over me,” he
explains.

Unterborn plans to use his winnings to
help turn the 150-year old Victorian home he and his
wife, Irene, own in Palmyra, N.Y., into a bed and
breakfast.

So are there any secrets to winning
“Jeopardy!?”

Unterborn says that probably the most
difficult part of playing the game is the timing of the
buzzers. “By the time you reach that level, all of
the contestants know probably ninety percent of the
material. The trick is buzzing in on time,” he says,
explaining that if you hit your buzzer before Alex Trebek
has finished reading the questions, you suffer a one-half
second lockout.

Unterborn says that “the
luster” of being a “Jeopardy!” champion is
beginning to wear off after several days of being
something of a star in his small town. He even admits
that he isn't watching “Jeopardy!” much these
days as he spends his early evenings with his
three-year-old son, Jeremy.

Posted on May 1, 1998

Elizabeth
McGaughan '96 says that she always knew that whatever career
she picked would be a way of life – either as a
college professor, a furniture-maker, or as the owner as
a coffeehouse.

Lucky for Union students, faculty, and
staff, she picked the latter – at least for now.

In mid-February, McGaughan opened the
Pedestrian Café in a brick Victorian house at the corner
of Union Street and Nott Terrace, directly across from
the Blue Gate. Formerly a doctor's office, the café
offers light fare as well as coffees and teas, and live
music on weekends and evenings.

“I had been talking about opening
a coffeehouse the entire time that I was a student at
Union,” McGaughan says. “When this building
became available, I knew I had to do it.

“I love art and artful thinking,
and a café is a place where that traditionally happens.
I wanted to create a place where I could express myself
creatively and offer an opportunity for others to express
themselves as well,” she explains.

With diverse interests, McGaughan says
that she loves the unpredictability of running the cafe.
She says that she never knows what will happen each day,
and that being around creative people means that
inspiration for art is everywhere. A classics major at
Union, McGaughan says that one of her greatest dilemmas
has always been choosing what to do; she always wants to
do everything. “One of the reasons I was drawn to
classics was because it is a real eclectic mix of
disciplines – philosophy, science, literature,
poetry, art, mathematics. I am just sort of exploding all
the time, so the café is a good place for me because I
can do creative things.”

The café itself reflects
McGaughan's creativity, blending contemporary
lighting and bold colors with the antique look and feel
of the building, contrasting cool blue walls with the
dark, ornate woodwork. “I love aesthetic tension,
and so that was what I was trying to achieve here,”
she says, pointing to contemporary lampshades contrasting
with traditional Victorian wainscoting. McGaughan's
goal is to appeal to a diverse crowd, not just Union
students and faculty. She says that she's already
drawing from local neighborhoods, the county offices, and
Annie Shaffer retirement home as well as the Union
community. “I knew that people would walk downtown
if we offered them something more interesting than their
own houses,” she says.

This is not McGaughan's first
entrepreneurial experience, but her first since finishing
college. After high school, McGaughan worked in sales for
a couple of years before starting her own auto leasing
business at the age of nineteen. Ultimately, McGaughan
says that her business failed but she learned a valuable
lesson from Ken Lally, a longtime friend of the College
and recent donor for the renovation of Schaffer Library.
Lally's office was located in the same building as
McGaughan's and she often went to him for advice,
unaware of the magnitude of his success. “He was
kind of like my grandfather,” she says. When she was
coming to terms with the impending doom of her business,
she looked to Lally for advice. “He said to me,
'Cut your losses. Go bankrupt, but go back to
school, and when you're ready, try something
again.' And that is what I did,” she says.

“Declaring bankruptcy was totally
humiliating, but there was this successful man who was
telling me that it was OK, but to do something about
it,” she says. “That made a big difference in
my life.”

She took his advice and went to
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and then Schenectady
County Community College for a couple of years before
finally transferring to Union. An accomplished student,
she graduated summa cum laude from Union and also
received several awards for her accomplishments at the
College's Prize Day ceremony.

After graduation, McGaughan spent a
year putting together the financing for the café, and in
February, her dream finally came true. “I love the
whole creative and artistic experience of operating the
café and love that I can be part of the community right
across the street from some of the most brilliant
professors,” she says.

Looking back, McGaughan remembers often
saying to a friend at Union studying economics,
'Don't kill the poet,' while he countered
with 'Don't kill the entrepreneur.' As
owner of the Pedestrian Café, McGaughan is an
interesting blend of the two.

Posted on May 1, 1998

Every weekday this
spring, yellow school buses rolled to a stop in the
traffic circle near Memorial Chapel. Out of the buses
poured groups of boisterous children, happy to be on a
field trip and away from school for the morning.

The students and their teachers then
took the short walk to the Nott Memorial, where they
entered a world far-removed from what they experience
every day. Here, in the silence of that vast hall, they
saw two powerful exhibits — “French Children of the
Holocaust: A Memorial Exhibition” and “Of Light
Amidst the Darkness: The Danish Rescue.”

Within moments, the boisterous children
became quiet spectators. Gazing at the photographs of
French children killed by Nazis and listening as
survivors talked about the horrors of that far-away
world, they were solemn and silent.

Seldom has the College had an exhibit
as powerful as this one. And seldom has Memorial Chapel
been as packed as it was on March 15, when we honored
Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, whose efforts to track down
Nazis has brought long-hidden (and protected) war
criminals like Klaus Barbie to justice. Joined by faculty
and staff members, hundreds and hundreds of Union
students listened to the riveting story of these heroes
(an evening shared by thousands more in late April, when
an hour-long program about the evening was broadcast on
PBS stations throughout New York).

That their story touched people is
shown in the comments left by visitors of all ages:

“May the souls of all these
children be at peace and may humanity never forget nor
forgive such atrocities.”

“This should be seen by all
anti-Semites that still exist and dare to say there never
was a Holocaust.”

“I felt the exibit was realy
educational and i learned stuff i never knew.” (sic)

“The exhibit is painfully
beautiful.”

“Hitler is in hell.”

“You have put a face on the
Holocaust. A very powerful message.”

“No name — I'm ashamed —
devastated — and heartbroken to read and see this
exhibit. In 1940 I was 20 years old — an adult too
focused on my own life to know what was going on around
me. I hope today's youth are better educated.”

For me, the evening with the Klarsfelds
and the exhibits were particularly powerful and very,
very personal. Since my roots trace back to Nazi Germany
— with a grandfather who was an early leader against
Hitler, grandparents who were interned in Gurs and
Bourg-Lastic, and twelve relatives who died in camps — I
know that I need no reminder of that black period. Yet I
know that others do, and I feel that the Klarsfelds and
the exhibits conveyed much passion and history that put
faces to names and names to faces.

Those of us who work at Union know that
much of the learning that occurs here goes on outside the
classroom — in a conversation between a student and a
faculty member, for example, or when small groups of
students sit together in the library and collaborate on a
project. Our two exhibits proved to be extraordinary
learning experiences for thousands of area youngsters
(and adults), and we are proud that we were able to work
with the Holocaust Survivors and Friends Education Center
to bring these Holocaust reminders to our campus.

Roger H. Hull

Posted on May 1, 1998

Union's Scholars Program creates a
number of special opportunities for talented students
eager to take advantage of the diversity of the College's
intellectual experiences.

Selected from the top applicants to the
first-year class, scholars participate in a program that
builds on the best of what Union does — small classes,
independent study, and terms abroad. In its first two
years, the program has attracted more students than
anticipated, with about twelve scholars in the Class of
2000 and another thirty in the Class of 2001.

Linda Cool, dean of the faculty and
director of the scholars program, says its thrust is
“to enhance the aspects of a Union education that we
thought were our hallmark.”

Those include the freshman
preceptorials, which focus on developing reading,
analyzing, and writing skills; close interaction between
faculty and students; involvement in independent
research; and terms abroad and other types of off-campus
experiences.

In the freshman year, Union scholars
participate in a scholars preceptorial — a two-term,
small, discussion-oriented class led by experienced
faculty members and taken in addition to the normal
nine-course load. Students engage in discussion and
present their own work, as well as attend special events
including lectures, theater, and dinners with faculty who
teach in the various areas explored in class readings.
Often, scholars will present their work in the spring in
a special Union scholars section of the Steinmetz
Symposium.

During their sophomore year, students
complete a two-term, one-credit, independent research
project, working one-on-one with a professor of their
choice.

“We think that really talented
sophomores will be ready for independent research,”
Cool says. “One of the purposes of the General
Education curriculum is to get students experimenting
with a variety of different disciplines, and we hope that
students who are already sophisticated and mature enough
would find this a very broadening experience.” The
project culminates in a major paper, which the student
presents at the Steinmetz Symposium.

The junior year, still somewhat under
development, comprises participation in a term abroad or
an off-campus internship. During the senior year,
scholars are expected to complete honors theses in their
majors; they may also carry one extra course without
charge.

Scholars have the option of graduating
early, but they must enter the program with at least two
advanced placement credits, take additional courses
including one summer course, and consult closely with
their advisors and the dean of the faculty. However,
scholars are encouraged to remain at Union for the full
twelve terms to take maximum advantage of the educational
opportunities offered to them.

Cool emphasizes that the scholars
program has tremendous flexibility and that scholars are
encouraged to branch out, studying in a variety of
disciplines and finding the connections between them.