Posted on May 28, 1999

The faculty approved the awarding of 471 baccalaureate degrees, 146
master's and two doctorates at Commencement during a recent faculty meeting.

A total of 616 students will receive degrees – 460 are day students, 156 are
graduate students.

Also, Therese McCarty, chair of the Faculty Executive Council, announced the new
Academic Affairs Web site. Coordinated by Webmaster Saul Morse, it features the faculty
manual, AAC minutes, committee reports and announcements. The URL is
www.union.edu/Academics/AcademicAffairs.

Dean of Students Fred Alford introduced members of the U2K committee, charged with
“diversifying and equalizing social opportunities on campus.” “This is an
all-community effort, not just a student issue,” said Christie Sorum, dean of arts
and sciences and a committee member.

McCarty reported that the FEC will address several proposed changes to the faculty
manual. Linda Stanhope reported that the AAC will lead discussion on the proposed calendar
changes in the fall.

Posted on May 28, 1999

May 3, 1999

1. The minutes of April 30 were approved.

2. The announcement for the campus of the staggered lunch hour was discussed and
revised. A 6A slot was added for MWF to the 2:55 to 4 p.m. class that extends the class to
4:45. The announcement will be sent to Concordiensis.

3. Revisions proposed by the Psychology Department for their major were discussed and
unanimously approved.

Posted on May 28, 1999

The Intellectual Enrichment Grants program distributed $55,000 this year
to a number of imaginative and creative proposals. From Trish Williams, committee
coordinator, here is a sampling:

— Classics Club (matched by IEF) to purchase a 488-volume set of classical works
to be used collaboratively by departments in Humanities;

— Mountebanks for the production of a murder-mystery dinner theater;

— Reading by playwright Katie Ambrosio of her work, “Cracked Pieces,”
based on twins in a local drug rehabilitation center;

— Shakti and ALAS for celebration of Diwali (Indian New Year);

— Dinner and reception with Corey Cokes, poetry slam winner;

— “Taste of the Tropics,” various types of food and drinks from the
Caribbean;

— Student Activities reception with College trustees during Winter Carnival;

— Chess Club rematch of student v. professor tournament;

— Prof. Carol Weisse and students for travel to Brain and Behavior Symposium;

— Campus-wide leadership conference;

— Prof. George Butterstein and students in comparative vertebrate anatomy class
for trip to the Museum of Natural History;

— International Film Festival, to host six films and discussions.

Posted on May 28, 1999

John Sowa, professor of chemistry, has written a first-hand
narrative of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident for the newsletter of the
Health Physics Society. Sowa was at a science conference in nearby Hershey with a group of
Union students during the 1979 accident. “A Union student was calmed by a TV shot of
workers moving around without shirts,” he wrote. “'They must know how much
radiation is around the plant and being shirtless, it must be OK.' I breathed a sigh
of relief.”

Martin Strosberg, professor of management in GMI, recently presented a paper
titled “Health Care Resource Allocation in the Post-Communist Baltic States” at
a conference on medical ethics held in Riga, Latvia. The conference was sponsored by the
Albert Schweitzer Institute for the Humanities in collaboration with the Soros Foundation.

Carol Weisse, associate professor of psychology and director of health
professions, and students Kafi Nsombi Sanders '99 and Beth Wierzbieniec
'99 offered a workshop to Scotia-Glenville middle school students titled
“What's in a Name? When Racism Hurts” as part of their Diversity Awareness
Day Program on May 18. The interactional program was geared to make students aware of
stereotypes generated by different names. They presented findings from Sanders'
senior thesis project illustrating how doctors may be treating patients differently based
on their race, and worked with students to generate ideas for preventing such biases in
the health care profession.

Robert Sharlet, Chauncey Winters Professor of Political Science, recently
delivered papers at two international conferences. In April, he presented
“Constitutional Law Reform in the Post-Soviet States” at Yale Law School for a
conference on “Promoting Legal Reform in the Former Soviet Union.” He also gave
one of the opening keynote addresses. Conference proceedings are being translated into
Russian, and will be published electronically. In May, he presented “Russia's
Second Constitutional Court: Politics, Law and Stability” at the University of
California at Berkeley for a conference on “Russia on the Eve of the Twenty-First
Century: Stability or Disorder?” held under the auspices of a Carnegie Corporation
grant won by the research team for purposes of the conference and a forthcoming book.

Posted on May 28, 1999

It's sort of a good news-bad news thing.

First the bad news (for some): Campus Safety has a new system that will assist with
swift and efficient enforcement of parking violations. The Automated Issuance Management
System (AIMS) uses a palmtop computer, operated by an officer in the field who writes the
tickets. At the end of the shift, that information is uploaded – quickly and
accurately – to the computer system.

Now the good news (for all): the officer writing the tickets will be driving a
“samaritan” van, complete with jumper cables, air compressor and a variety of
tools. So, you can get a hand with things like jumping your car's dead battery or
filling up a low tire (they won't change tires) when you're in a hurry to get
home for dinner.

Or, you can get a lesson in parking rules and some help in starting your car all
at the same time.