Posted on Mar 1, 1999

We hear
all the time that we live in the days of the “me” generation. Not true, not by a
long shot.

I stated, in my last column, that sixty percent of the students we admitted who chose
to attend another college cited Schenectady as the main reason. Together with the fact
that I believe that colleges have an institutional obligation to contribute back to the
communities in which they are located, it is clearly in our best interests to address the
problems in the neighborhood to our west.

However, our admissions officers are also hearing another side to that story.
Increasingly, potential students are expressing an interest in attending college in an
urban area. They want the excitement, the energy, and the choices of a metropolitan area
over the quiet but remote locales of many of our competitors across the Northeast; they
also want to try to make a difference.

I used to say that forty percent of our students were engaged in community service.
Now, with sports teams increasingly being involved in service, that number is probably
closer to sixty percent. While some of it consists of one-time fundraising events, there
are dramatic stories of students who really do make a difference.

Take Deb Leif and Jamie Drown who, while not focusing on the community outside of
Union, put their efforts on the line to make the Union community a stronger one. It was
they, as the presidents of the Panhellenic and Interfraternity Council, who did the
legwork and convinced their sorority and fraternity sisters and brothers to work with the
faculty (and administration) to eradicate the abuses of the system so that it can be a
viable and positive contributor to Union's third century.

Or Hemwatie Ramasami. A political science and history major, she has been a persistent
and passionate voice working to make Union more diverse.

Or Maria Vianna, who gives countless hours to lead We-Care-About-U-Schenectady, a
volunteer effort that has performed many tasks, large and small, to improve our city.

Or Beth Wierzbieniec. Long involved in College affairs and currently president of the
Student Forum, her efforts were particularly important in organizing a Big Brothers/Big
Sisters summer camp at Union, where fifteen “littles” took advantage of a
variety of activities that reinforced what they had learned in school.

We are going to build on the efforts of our students and on the College's commitment to
the community. For too long we have been troubled about where we are located. We intend to
turn our location into a comparative advantage, beginning with the revitalization of the
area around Union to the resurrection of downtown, and we are hearing from potential
students (and their secondary school advisors) that our efforts will soon bear fruit.

Of course, not everything will be service-oriented. We have what many students are
looking for, be it the opportunities for internships that will help them learn about what
they want to do with the rest of their lives or a variety of things that they can do in
the Capital District (and will soon be able to do in downtown Schenectady).

Internship possibilities galore exist, from working in local government to exploring
opportunities in the Albany Institute of History and Art and other regional museums to a
psychology practicum with direct exposure to clinical populations. The Capital District
truly does offer a wealth of opportunities educationally.

Our students can also take courses at more than a dozen other nearby colleges and
universities through the Hudson-Mohawk Consortium of Colleges and Universities. Probably
the most exciting possibility rests with our longstanding association, through Union
University, with the Albany Law School, the Albany School of Pharmacy, and Albany Medical
College. In particular, the recently created eight-year Leadership in Medicine program
with Albany Med, which will give participants a B. S. degree from Union, an M. S. in
Health Care Administration from our Graduate Management Institute, and an M. D. degree
from the Albany Medical School, is a tremendously exciting venture, for, according to
organizational gurus Armand (Class of 1941) and Donald (Class of 1946) Feigenbaum, the
program breaks down the silos which all too often exist in parts of a college. Here we are
truly integrating disciplines.

Of course, there is more to our location than what is offered in Schenectady. I love
our relationship to the ABCs (Adirondacks, Berkshires, and Catskills), our proximity to
Boston or New York City (where the train time should shortly be dramatically reduced
through a new track system and high-speed train) so that our students can get to the
museums or sporting events of those great cities, or the Hudson-Mohawk bike trail that
students can bike or roller blade on.

While I could go on, the point is clear: While location has been perceived as a
negative in the past, I believe that it can be and really is going to be a positive.
Perhaps that's the reason that we seem to attract young people that want to do things and
who want to get involved in a variety of ways. There are plenty of outlets for their
energy, and the more that we develop for them (and that they develop themselves), the
stronger we will be as a college.

Roger H. Hull

Posted on Mar 1, 1999

Yervant
Terzian opened his Founders Day remarks by noting some less-than-accurate predictions from
the past:

— 100 years ago, Charles Duell, commissioner of the U.S. Office of Patents, said,
“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”

— About the same time, Lord Kelvin, president of the Royal Society, said,
“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.”

— In 1932, Albert Einstein said, “There is not the slightest indication that
nuclear energy will ever be obtainable.”

— In 1943, Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, said, “I think there is a world market
for maybe five computers.”

Terzian, the James A. Weeks Professor of Physical Sciences and chairman of the
Astronomy Department at Cornell University, then cautiously offered “some possible
developments to cheer us up:”

— Biotechnology and genetic engineering will allow fast medical diagnostics and
therapy and will make life longer and more comfortable.

— Information transfer through the Internet and artificial communication satellites
will unite the entire globe.

— Energy from nuclear fusion slowly will dominate.

— It will be possible to exercise limited climate control on the scale of cities.

— The most exciting event will probably be that we may make contact with an
extraterrestrial, intelligent, communicative civilization.

But those possibles can happen, he suggested, only if education becomes our highest
priority. “We have arrived at the doorstep of a new century largely unprepared to
educate and lead six billion people, and double that number in fifty years,” he said.

Terzian, whose work combines research (he has long been associated with the Arecibo
Observatory in Puerto Rico) and teaching, received an honorary doctor of science degree
from Union.

President Roger Hull paid tribute to Terzian's research in such areas as the radio
properties of galaxies and radio emissions from planetary nebulae; the president also
noted Terzian's commitment to teaching and his leadership of such activities as the Pew
Science Education Program, which makes grants to support undergraduate science education.

“It is fitting that in a year in which Union opens its own observatory and
high-technology classroom building, we honor one of this country's most distinguished
astronomers and teachers of science,” President Hull said.

Terzian said his visions of the twenty-first century, and the very real miracles of the
twentieth century, such as nuclear energy, antibiotics, and instant communications, are
based on science and technology. We have an increasing understanding that nature and the
universe behave according to specific rules, he said, and that applying this knowledge can
provide a comfortable and safe human existence.

Yet, he continued, society as a whole remains “mostly ignorant” about the
sciences. That is why education must be our highest priority in the new millennium, he
said.

“I want to tell you that the twenty-first century will be the happiest, most
peaceful, most productive, and most beautiful period of human history,” he said.
“For a small percentage of people, this may be true. But it will be very different
for the majority of humans who will have to struggle hard to just survive. The education
of the masses will be very slow and will hinder efforts to improve the quality of
life.”

The most important asset for the next century, he said, will be knowledge. Prosperity
and a safe future depend on an educated public, and that won't happen unless we all get
involved.

“There are no quick fixes,” he said. “We need to make learning an
ongoing, enjoyable life process. In this, all disciplines must cooperate and contribute.
Hope and prayers alone will not solve our problems, but unselfish, intelligent actions and
hard work may do so.”

Posted on Mar 1, 1999

Mike Hogan '73 owes his career to the fact that a lot of intelligent people
guessed wrong.

Hogan solves the Year 2000 (or Y2K) computer problem — a problem that exists, he says,
because computer programmers once assumed we would have new programs and systems by 2000.
“Unfortunately, everyone had a cavalier attitude about it.”

In the early days of computers, memory was scarce and expensive. Programmers, eager to
save space, used a two-digit rather than a four-digit code for dates. This practice
persisted long after the need for saving space was eliminated, and when the year 2000
arrives, many programs will not be able to distinguish between the years 1900 and 2000.

Hogan, director of application services at DMR Consulting in Jersey City, N.J., studied
programming as an undergraduate and experienced that early memory crunch. “Union's
computer at the time had twenty kilobytes of memory (most new desktops have sixteen to
thirty-two megabytes), so we all ran around with trays of punch cards because we weren't
allowed to use any storage space,” he explains.

After graduation, he began as a junior programmer at Beneficial Management Corp., later
becoming a vice president. In 1996, he joined Trecom (recently acquired by DMR Consulting)
to focus almost exclusively on Year 2000 issues.

At first, companies focused on fixing software. By 1998, the focus broadened to risk
management. Businesses are highly interconnected, and the internal problems at one company
can have a ripple effect — so everyone must anticipate as best they can.

For example, Hogan recently worked with a jail in Florida. The jail's managers were not
worried that cell doors would fly open at the stroke of midnight on Dec. 31, 1999; their
software specialists had fixed that problem. Instead, they feared that trouble might arise
from failures in smaller systems — an air conditioning failure, for example, or caterers
failing to deliver a meal. Hogan introduced contingency plans to deal with these kinds of
problem.

“It has been a real eye-opener to see how closely intertwined businesses are and
how fragile the balance is,” he says. “There are so many different levels and so
many different threads to follow. It never ends; you could drive yourself crazy.”

Is all the talk just hype? Hogan says that there is a reason to take some of the
predictions seriously. “The Year 2000 problem is too difficult and illusive for us to
find everything,” he says.

He predicts that most large companies, especially banks, will be well-prepared for Jan.
1, 2000, but he fears that small and medium-sized companies that do not have the resources
to deal with Y2K may be very hard hit.

He anticipates problems with microchips that exist in many devices we take for granted
— fire and security alarm systems, appliances such as ranges and microwaves, consumer
electronics such as VCRs and stereos, business equipment such as faxes and photocopiers,
and computers in automobiles.

“Literally every device that has a digital panel has an embedded chip,” Hogan
says. “Even if it doesn't appear that it has a calendar, it may use a chip that has
both a clock and a calendar, which is hidden. Devices that you never gave a second
thought to may start failing.”

He sees a potential for temporary failures in electricity, and he plans to buy a
generator. He also recommends:

— not flying at the turn of the century;

— avoiding high rise buildings;

— avoiding mass transit;

— filling prescriptions in December;

— renewing licenses and registrations in December, if possible;

— topping off oil or LP gas levels in December;

— keeping excellent records of bank statements and credit card bills;

— requesting a personal earnings and benefit statement from the Social Security
Administration in 1999;

— having your credit check conducted during 1999 if you plan to finance a large
purchase in 2000;

— and staying healthy; imagine the number of chips in medical diagnostic and
monitoring equipment.

The Year 2000 problem certainly won't end with the stroke of midnight, but Hogan does
anticipate a change in his work after the first few months of 2000. For instance, he's
looking ahead to helping companies manage the transition to the Euro, which is proving to
be an even larger problem for European companies than the Y2K bug.

“A lot of resources have been poured into the Year 2000 problem at the expense of
other projects,” he says. “I expect we will be picking up those other projects
next.”

Posted on Mar 1, 1999

The
men's and women's basketball teams made solid progress this winter, with the men receiving
their first postseason invitation in the past five years.

The men's team finished 15-11 and came within a few minutes of earning an automatic
NCAA berth, awarded to the top team in the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association (UCAA).
Union succumbed to a second-half rally and lost to eventual league champion Hamilton,
84-79, and later dropped a 71-70 game to St. Lawrence.

The team was invited to the ECAC Upstate New York playoffs, but, despite a second-half
rally, was eliminated by top-seeded New Paltz, 99-93.

Coach Bob Montana's team graduates just one senior, Rob Groelz, who led the team in
rebounding (seven a game) and was third in scoring (15.2 per game). The scoring was led by
freshman Dave Musella, who had 429 points; he was selected rookie of the year by both the
UCAA and ECAC Upstate New York coaching staffs. As a team, Union finished first in the
country in Division III in three-point field goal percentage (45.5) and was sixth in the
country in three-point field goals per game (9.3).

The women's team finished 9-15 and closed the “competitive” gap; the average
score this year, for example, was 65.3 for opponents to 64.7 for Union, compared to last
year's 73 to 65, and Union had a small advantage in rebounding (43.2 to 42.5).

Coach Mary Ellen Burt was pleased with the depth of this year's team. Every one of last
year's starters saw her average minutes reduced this year because of a much stronger
bench. And, happily, Union will not lose a player to graduation.

The men's hockey team had a disappointing year, finishing 3-26-3 and in last place in
the Eastern College Athletic Conference's Division I. The biggest factor was Union's
inability to score, with only 52 goals in 32 games. The women's hockey team, which is in
the middle of moving from club to varsity status, finished 2-18.

In swimming, the men's team wound up third in the New York State meet after winning the
title the previous four years. Seniors Jeff Hoerle and Dave Searles had outstanding
seasons, and both went on to the NCAA Division III meet for the fourth time. The women's
team placed fourth in the state meet.

Senior Peter Flynn won the three-kilometer championship at the state indoor track meet
with a time of 8:48.10; he was fourth in the 5K.

Posted on Mar 1, 1999

Teaching comes so naturally to Hyungji Park, assistant professor of
English, that she cannot remember when she taught her first class.

All she remembers is lecturing passionately, filling the chalkboard with notes in an
empty college classroom at her father's university. She was a high school student on
summer break, giving a lesson on photosynthesis to a hypothetical group of students.

A few things have changed since then — for one thing, her subject now is Victorian
literature rather than biology — but the enthusiasm and desire to share her excitement
with students remain.

Park began her undergraduate years at Harvard planning to become a research scientist.
Working in the immunology lab of a Nobel laureate one summer, she was avidly reading Don
Quixote while waiting for her experimental slides to develop.

“My timer for the slides would go off every fifteen minutes, and I would have to
apply a new solution to the slides,” she says. “But even with those
interruptions, the novel was a great read. Then I noticed that no one else was
reading.” Realizing that her passion for reading might signal that biology was not
the best match for her interests, she changed her major to English and graduated with high
honors.

Now in her third year at Union, Park teaches British literature, specializing in the
Victorian period, a specialty that she chose in much the same way she chose English as a
career — by giving in to her instincts.

“When I was in high school, some of my favorite books were Jane Eyre, Wuthering
Heights, and Pride and Prejudice,” she says. “I read them over and
over; they were my equivalent of coming-of-age teen novels. Later, I never thought that I
could become a Victorianist because those novels were too much embedded in me; they had
helped constitute my identity, and I wasn't sure I could deal with them critically, as a
scholar should. I'm still struggling with that, but I think the personal dimension
enriches my scholarly approach.”

After graduating from Harvard, Park spent a year teaching English at Concord Academy, a
private boarding school in Concord, Mass. Over her spring break in London, she found
herself at the British Museum reading every word of every description about the displays.
That was when she knew for certain that she wanted the life of a scholar — focusing not
only on teaching but also on research.

“One reason college-level teaching is so rewarding is because you are also
expected to pursue an active research agenda,” she says. “In the British Museum
that day, I was thirsty for knowledge because I had been teaching for six months — giving
and giving of myself — without taking in anything. As a professor, I am learning and
absorbing and processing new material all the time so that in the classroom I am not
speaking from a position of fixed authority but rather asking students to participate in
the investigation of a topic with me.”

One way she does this, she says, is by going into her classes with questions instead of
answers. “I don't think that there is just one answer for many of the questions we
raise,” she says. “There are many answers. In class, I make some speculations
and offer some possibilities and then see if the students take it further. The chance of
learning as much from my students as they learn from me is one of the things I like best
about teaching.”

Park's research interests and course offerings are centered on Victorianism, but are
founded in history as well as literary criticism. As a graduate student, Park says that
she became intrigued with the effects of empire upon male characters in Victorian novels.
Her curiosity developed into a doctoral dissertation at Princeton that examined the
importance of empire in shaping British masculinity in the nineteenth century.

“In the Victorian novel, there are numerous male characters who go away somewhere,
usually to India or Asia, for a period of time and return without any explanation of how
this experience affected them,” she explains. Few of the male characters who returned
from abroad bragged about their experiences; most, in fact, didn't talk about their
experiences at all, choosing to become upright, respected Englishmen who meld into
society.

“English masculinity is dependent upon having an empire, yet successful Englishmen
do not engage directly with their experiences in the colonies at all,” she says.

Just as Park's dissertation evolved from a natural curiosity, the range of her courses
at Union reflects the range of her interests.

Her early Victorian literature course last fall explored issues of class mobility,
industrialization, professions for women, working class conditions, and empire and
nationalism. She included often-overlooked books such as Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth
Barrett Browning and Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte because they offered
important commentaries on the lives of women in the nineteenth century.

“What made the class really exciting, though, was that we had very active
discussions,” Park says. “The students made interesting connections that I
hadn't seen before.”

This winter, Park taught nineteenth century novel and film, a course that resulted from
her observation of recent film adaptations of Victorian novels. “I began to ask
myself, 'Why is it that in the 1990s we have this particular obsession with turning
nineteenth-century British novels into films?' “

To answer the question, her course examined older film versions of the novels as well
as new ones.

“We explored the relationship between time period and medium by looking at two
historical periods and two forms of cultural products — the novel and film, which in many
ways occupy the same position, as forms of popular entertainment, relative to their time
period,” she says.

The initial question that prompted the course about why film adaptations are recently
so common has many answers, she says — the films offer a sense of security (with tidy,
happy-ending plots) combined with escapist pleasure (the difference between our own world
and Victorian society in everything from clothing to manners to social expectations).

This spring, Park's course on Victorian detective fiction explores why this particular
genre developed at the same time as the rise of the British Empire.

“Detective fiction actually has a very conservative thrust,” Park explains.
“While we popularly think of detective fiction as about the adventurous and the new,
it is actually about maintaining the status quo. What is so satisfying about detective
fiction is that you start out with a certain situation which gets overturned, but by the
end is restored.”

Park says the simultaneous rise of detective fiction and the rise of the British Empire
reinforced British interests and provided reassurance in a changing world. “In the
Victorian age, when Britain was in contact with so many foreign cultures, there was a fear
that foreigners might somehow affect domestic society. The detective's job was to make
sure that didn't happen and to protect England.”

Park continues to follow her instincts and interests into new paths. Last year, she
developed a course on Asian-American literature that explores literary works as well as
the social/historical context of Asian-American identities. Park, who grew up in Korea,
developed an interest in Korean and Korean-American literature while a graduate student at
Princeton. She proposed Princeton's first course on Asian-American literature, but never
taught the course, leaving Princeton to come to Union.

“Asian-American literature is a completely new field that didn't exist a decade or
two ago, which makes it very exciting,” Park says. In fact, this new area intrigues
her so much that she will take a leave of absence next year to teach at a Korean
university and conduct research on Korean and Korean-American literature.

“I think that Asian-American literature is something I will continue to work on
bit by bit, but I imagine I will remain primarily a Victorianist,” she says.