Posted on Feb 12, 1999

The College's Board of Trustees has approved a 1999-2000
budget that President Roger Hull says meets the challenge of strengthening the
College's competitive position while limiting the increase in the cost to attend
Union.

The 1999-2000 budget reflects a number of priorities. Among them:

— A commitment to limiting increases in the cost of a Union education. This is the
seventh consecutive percentage decrease and the smallest dollar increase since 1986-87.
The total for tuition, room and board and other fees is $30,573, a 3.48 percent increase
over this year.

— A continued commitment to meet the financial need of all accepted students. The
College will increase its financial aid budget to nearly $17.3 million, a 4 percent
increase over this year. The financial aid expenditure represents about 35 percent of
budgeted tuition and fees revenues.

— Providing fair and competitive compensation. Faculty and administrative
salaries, as well as hourly wages, are to increase by a 2 percent cost of living component
and a 1.5 percent merit pool . Both components are awarded based upon the respective
evaluation processes in place for faculty and staff. In addition, the upcoming budget is
the third in a four-year plan to bring faculty, librarian and certain administrative staff
salaries in line with comparable positions at other institutions.

In a budget report last week to faculty, Diane Blake, vice president for finance and
administration, said that 74 percent of revenues come from tuition, room and board and
another 4 percent comes from graduate studies revenue. The draw on endowment is about 12
percent. Sixty-five percent of expenditures are for academic programs, student financial
aid and employee benefits. Benefits total $9.1 million, about 11 percent of the total
expenditures. There is no inflationary increase for supplies in the upcoming budget. Blake
also noted that deferred maintenance has been reduced from $18 million to $8 million over
the past several years. Campus assets are valued at about $200 million.

A technology endowment will provide about $185,000 for technology needs in Schaffer
Library. An endowed fund designated to provide funding for an annual computer replacement
reserve was established in 1997-98 using unrestricted bequests that have come to the
College. At its present size, this endowment will provide about $38,000 in 1999-2000. The
goal is to eventually provide $800,000 for this purpose.

In other action, the College's Board of Trustees learned:

A $9,000 grant from Campus Compact will be used to form a partnership between Union, GE
Elfun and Van Corlaer School for the mentoring of elementary students. The grant will
cover the cost of running a Neighborhood Outreach Center in the Seward-West area in the
hopes that the model program can be enlarged.

The College's endowment, as of Dec. 31, was about $245 million (market value).

Some 35 homes have been purchased through the Union-Schenectady Initiative at a cost of
$2.3 million, and meetings continue to develop a “blueprint” for the use of the
buildings. Three employees have purchased homes under the employee incentive program, and
others are considering purchases. Among items under discussion for the neighborhood are a
Montessori School, a Union ice rink, and an off-campus bookstore and Campus Safety office.

Plans have begun for renovation of Parker Rice (to be renamed Abbe Hall), 1294 Lenox,
AD Phi (for admissions), and Fero House (for AD Phi).

Campus Safety has replaced the residence hall desk attendant program with a
neighborhood policing concept designed to make officers more accessible to students to
assist with safety and security concerns.

Gift totals for the first half of the fiscal year were about $6.7 million. Capital
receipts were $5.2 million, and Annual Fund receipts were $1.5 million.

The Board declared tenurable and promoted to associate professor: Karen Brison and
Stephen Leavitt, anthropology; Ronald Bucinell, mechanical engineering; Ashraf Ghaly,
civil engineering; John Stephen Horton, biology; and Amanda Leamon, modern languages.

Posted on Feb 11, 1999

By Richard L. Fox Almost a thousand students, faculty members and administrators packed Union College's largest lecture hall to hear the Rev. Jesse Jackson give an address on the first day of Black History Month. This was quite a turnout for a college of only 2,000 students. The local press was there, as were the Albany affiliates for the television networks.

Mr. Jackson spoke with great passion about the dilapidated condition of inner city public schools, the high number of children living in poverty and the expanding prison population. He noted that the civil rights movement is now stalled along economic, not racial, lines. One thing Mr. Jackson did not dwell on was the impeachment trial of President Clinton.

By all accounts Mr. Jackson gave a masterful performance. His oratory was powerful, and he was interrupted numerous times with applause. Whether they agreed with him or not, members of the mostly white, middle-class audience responded to his passion — not an easy task in this cynical time. After the speech, Mr. Jackson first took questions from the press.

The members of the press asked only six questions. The first was whether Mr. Jackson would run for President in 2000. The next reporter asked, “What do you think about what is going on in Washington?” The next question was, “Do you think the President should be removed from office?” The next: “Have you and President Clinton gotten closer since the Lewinsky scandal broke?” And then: “How would you like to see the scandal in Washington resolved?” And finally: “What team did you cheer for in the Super Bowl?” The journalists in attendance were clearly taking their cues from the national press corps. Not one of them asked about the substance of the speech. They did not seem to care what impression they made on the audience.

When it was the students' turn, the tenor of the questions changed. The first student asked, “How can we help to bridge the economic gap you spoke of?” The next audience member asked: “Martin Luther King used to refer to a 'beloved community.' What does that term mean to you?” But the highlight of the evening came when the next student spoke. “You just gave a very powerful and moving speech, and the press asked you only about the scandal in Washington,” the young man said. “What does that say to you?” The hall erupted in the loudest applause of the evening.

No one wanted to hear about Monica Lewinsky. Everyone wanted to think about serious issues. The message the audience was sending was clear: The press is speaking for itself, not for us.

Posted on Feb 8, 1999

Schenectady, N.Y. (Jan. 29, 1999) – Old friends, conductor, David Golub and clarinetist, David Shifrin, join one of Italy's most celebrated performing ensembles, The Padua Chamber Orchestra, on Monday, Feb. 8, 1999, at 8 p.m. in Union College's Memorial Chapel. The concert is the ninth performance of the Schenectady Museum – Union College Concert Series.

The program will include Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5; Mozart's Clarinet Concerto; Rossini's Theme and Variations for Clarinet and Orchestra; and Dvorak's Serenade for Strings.

David Golub, one of the most distinguished musicians of his generation, has performed as a pianist throughout the world in recital and as a soloist with orchestra, chamber musicians and recording artists. A member of the Golub/Kaplan/Carr Trio, Mr. Golub devotes several weeks each season to touring throughout the United States and Europe with the Trio, in addition to his other piano and conducting engagements. He has performed at virtually every major American summer festival and has participated in festivals in Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Helsinki, and Prague, as well as the Casals Festival in France. Mr. Golub's versatility permits him on occasion to assume the role of conductor, which wins him accolades from critics. Tim Page wrote in New York Newsday, “David Golub conducted with appropriately Rossinian elegance and appreciation from the keyboard.”

David Shifrin, described by Clarinet Magazine as “Unsurpassed as a clarinet soloist,” is director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He is a highly acclaimed chamber musician appearing frequently with such distinguished ensembles as the Guarneri, Tokyo and Emerson string quartets. He is also music director of Chamber Music Northwest, the prestigious Summer Chamber Music Festival in Portland, Ore. A professor at Yale University, he is the recipient of a Solo Recitalist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and has served on the faculty of the Julliard School, the University of Southern California, the University of Michigan, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the University of Hawaii.

These two musicians will join forces with the acclaimed Padua Chamber Orchestra (Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto) in the debut of the Orchestra's 1999 North American tour. Founded in 1966, the Orchestra boasts world-wide performance accolades as it performs more than 150 concerts a year, appearing regularly in France, Germany, Greece, Sweden, and Switzerland as well as Asia and South and Central America.

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

Tickets, at $20 each ($10 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.

Posted on Feb 5, 1999

Jan. 25, 1999

1. The minutes of Jan. 18, 1999 were approved.

2. There was considerable discussion of the article in the Jan. 21, 1999, Concordiensis
concerning calendar change. The members of the AAC were disturbed by the statement
attributed to President Hull that if the Board of Trustees decides that it will not
entertain any formal proposals concerning the calendar change, “the idea will be
killed and that will be the end of it.”

It has been the understanding of the members of the AAC that:

a) document being sent to the Board in no way constitutes a proposal or recommendation
from the AAC. Rather it is an attempt to provide a complete and objective overview of the
advantages and disadvantages of the two calendar systems under discussion;

b) the document was to be sent to the Board in order that they might have the same
information as the other members of the Union community;

c) after all parts of the Union community — including the Board, the students, the
faculty, and the staff — have reviewed the document, the members of the AAC will take
the concerns and suggestions of these groups under consideration as a basis for deciding
the future of a proposal for a semester calendar.

Posted on Feb 5, 1999

Eugene Merzbacher, professor of physics at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, will speak on “The Arrow of Time: A Discussion and Demonstration of
'Time Reversal Symmetry'” on Thursday, Feb. 11, at 8 p.m. in the Nott
Memorial.

Merzbacher is author of Quantum Mechanics.

The talk, organized by the Physics Department, is sponsored by the American Institute
of Physics Visiting Scientist Program in Physics (VSPP).