“The Art of Liberation Lost and Found,” a lecture by A.T. Miller, is
Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 7:30 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.
It is the next event in the College's dual exhibit on the American slave
experience.
Mellon Awards Go to Ten Faculty
Ten Union faculty and staff have received curricular design support totaling $23,300
for four projects from Union's Andrew W. Mellon grant, said Douglass Klein, project
director.
Three of the projects involve the use of technology to enhance the interdisciplinary
nature of the Freshman Preceptorial; the other is for a new team-taught interdisciplinary
course.
The Preceptorial awards went to Bruce Connolly and Gail Golderman of Schaffer Library
for “Constructing a Foundation for the Mellon Freshman Preceptorial Projects;”
Peter Heinegg, English, for “Resources for Teaching the Bible;” and Steve
Sargent, history, for an adjunct Preceptorial module titled “Miracles from the
Biblical and Modern Perspective.”
Bruce Reynolds, economics, and Cherrice Traver, EE/CS, will develop a new course,
“INFOTECH: The Impact of Technology on Social Systems.” Along with Reynolds and
Traver, Karen Brison, anthropology, David Hemmendinger, computer science, Richard Fox,
political science, and John Spinelli, EE/CS, will contribute course modules.
The Mellon grant also funds campus speakers and travel to learn more about the use of
technology and interdisciplinary teaching. Deadline for applications is Feb. 18.
Applications should be submitted to the Associate Dean's office, S&E 100, or to
kleind@union.edu. More information and application forms are on the Mellon Grant web site,
linked to the Curricular Support Group home page: www.union.edu/RESOURCES/curriculum.
Schlichtmann to Speak on Tuesday
Jan Schlichtmann, the attorney portrayed by John Travolta in the film A Civil
Action, will speak on “Environmental Justice For All?” on Tuesday, Feb. 9,
at 7:30 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.
In 1981, three children whose drinking water came from a contaminated well in Woburn,
Mass., died of leukemia. Five years later, eight Woburn families, represented by Jan
Schlichtmann, charged industrial giants W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods with the
contamination of Woburn's groundwater.
Based on the best-selling book of the same title, the film highlights
Schlichtmann's all-or-nothing pursuit of justice for the families of Woburn.
The talk is sponsored by the College's Minerva Committee and Environmental Studies
Department.
Calendar of Events
Friday, Feb. 5, through Monday, Feb. 8, 8 and 10 p.m.
Reamer Auditorium.
Film Comm. presents Apt Pupil.
Through Feb. 7.
Arts Atrium.
“Under Pressure,” an exhibit of works by 10 Capital Region printmakers.
Monday, Feb. 8, 8 p.m.
Memorial Chapel.
Chamber series presents conductor David Golub, clarinetist David Shifrin and the Padua
Chamber Orchestra in works by Bach, Mozart, Rossini, Dvorak.
Tuesday, Feb. 9, 7:30 p.m.
Nott Memorial.
Jan Schlichtmannn, the real-life attorney portrayed by John Travolta in the film A
Civil Action, will speak on “Environmental Justice For All?”
Wednesday, Feb. 10, 7:30 p.m.
Nott Memorial.
“The Art of Liberation Lost and Found,” a lecture by A.T. Miller of Union's
Africana Studies Department, an event in the College's dual exhibit on the American
slave experience.
Thursday, Feb. 11, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Arts Atrium.
Opening for exhibit, “Looking at Youth,” with photographers Donna Fitzgerald and
Mark McCarty. Show runs through March 19.
Thursday, Feb. 11, 8 p.m.
Nott Memorial.
Physicist Eugene Merzbacher of the UNC Chapel Hill, on “The Arrow of Time: A
Discussion and Demonstration of 'Time Reversal Symmetry.'”
Through March 12.
Social Sciences Lounge.
Exhibit of color photography by James E. Schuck titled “Three Feet From the
Street.”
Schwartz: MS Transforms Her Outlook And Education
Becca Schwartz, a senior
sociology major, didn't think much of her photography project at first. A
self-described “lousy photographer,” she thought the photos in her
“love-hate” project were simply “pictures of me and my life with a
disease.”
But Prof. Martin Benjamin saw something more, and urged her to write some
stream-of-consciousness narratives to go with each photo. In just of few minutes of
writing, Schwartz's project had become the perfect emotional outlet for all the
feelings she had about her life with Multiple Sclerosis.
“As Becca was showing me her work and started to talk about it, she was saying
these really great things,” Benjamin recalled. “She was saying all that she
thought she couldn't say. It turned out to be very therapeutic for her.”
The book – composed entirely of self-portraits — opens with a picture of
Schwartz in sunglasses, writhing in agony. “When I first got sick, my eyes got real
bad and I had to wear sunglasses everywhere,” writes Schwartz. “These are the
same sunglasses that I wore – they are a reminder to me of my first
'meeting' with MS.”
On another page with a photo of syringes, bottles of medication and a copy of Harold
Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People, “Sometimes I feel like
this is my life, all these pills … when things get bad, I need to numb myself, and
have plenty to do it with. It's like I'm being overtaken by this disease …
it's so much bigger than I am.”
And on a page with a photo of Schwartz injecting herself with medication, “This
one makes people cringe … I do it once a week. The first few weeks I couldn't
even look when I did it. I've gotten a little bit better.”
“When people look at the book, they find it disturbing and dark, but this is me
when I'm sick or injecting myself,” she said. “I didn't realize how
powerful it was until people looked at it and told me. I guess that's because
it's so 'normal' to me. My book also gives me something to show people,
'look, here is my MS book.' Maybe it will help them understand about illness
better.”
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, often disabling disease of the central nervous system
caused by lesions in the myelin sheath that coats nerve fibers. Symptoms may be mild and
recurring such as numbness in the limbs (as in Schwartz's case) or severe —
paralysis or loss of vision. Nationwide, there are an estimated 250,000 to 350,000 people
with MS, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Besides “Becca's Little Multiple Sclerosis Book,” she has made MS the
theme of her senior thesis in sociology, specifically what MS means to people her age. She
has searched the World Wide Web and other resources to find other people her age with MS.
“I have learned a lot more about the disease both medically and more importantly,
psychologically,” she says. “Also, I have contacted other college-age people all
over the world with MS, which is the best therapy possible, to e-mail people who actually
understand what you are going through.”