Posted on May 14, 1999

Last Monday, after the final talk in the series on town-gown relations,
Schenectady Mayor Al Jurczynski and President Roger Hull visited with students at Wells
House, the community service theme house that sponsored the forum.

As often happens with students, the conversation eventually turned to food – pizza
to be exact. That's when the mayor asked the students if they had ever tried a Polish
pizza from Our Original Pizzeria in his neighborhood, Mont Pleasant.

No, they said, but they'd like to.

So, last Sunday night just before the 10 p.m. house meeting at Wells House, there was a
knock on the door, and in came two large Polish pizzas with the works – sauer kraut,
cheese and kielbasa – from Our Original Pizzeria, delivered by none other than the
mayor himself.

The mayor not only picked up the tab, but declined a tip, says Ed Lallier, Wells House
member. “He made a cameo and left.”

Posted on May 14, 1999

Mohini Dias, adjunct professor of history from Mumbai (India)
University, has never developed her own syllabus. Instead, the university system in India
has always directed what to teach and what books to assign.

But that has changed for Dias, an exchange professor at the College this term. Dias,
chair of the history department at Jai Hind College, one of approximately 180 colleges of
the University of Mumbai, is teaching two courses at Union: “History of Modern
India” and “Colonialism, Imperialism and Nationalism in Asia.”
“It's been challenging to develop my own curriculum, but I like the sense of
freedom,” Dias says.

Dias is also enjoying the chance to get to know her students. In India, she has classes
of 80 to 100 students – and it is not unusual to see 500 students in one term.
“It's a nice change to be able to get to know your students by name at
Union,” she says.

Dias's visit to Union is part of an exchange program established last term when
Sharon Gmelch, professor of anthropology, and Teresa Meade, associate professor of
history, visited the University of Mumbai.

Posted on May 14, 1999

– In lieu of a practice last week, members of the softball team wash
cars to benefit the Kosovo refugees through the Red Cross relief effort. From left are
Shannon Lawlor '99, Taryn Samol '99, Jane Ruzicka '00 and Deb Cederbaum
'99. On the field, the team shared the UCAA crown with RPI while establishing a
college standard for wins in a season with a 25-11 record. They finished sixth in the
state tourney.

Posted on May 14, 1999

Thursday, May 13, 4 p.m.
Arts 215.
U.C. Knoepflmacher, professor of English at Princeton University, delivers colloquium on
“Fluid Forms: Film, Fairy Tales and Interpretation” for Cultural Studies series.
Discussion on “Repudiating Sleeping Beauty” planned for May 14, 11:45 a.m. in
RCC 302. For details, call ext. 6720.

Friday, May 14, 12:15 p.m.
Science and Engineering, N 304
Physics colloquium with Aaron Reidy '99 on “Spectroscopy of Active Galaxies
Using the 20-inch telescope,” and Bryan Lincoln '99 on “Segregation and
Pattern Formation in Granular Materials.”

Monday, May 17, 7:30 p.m.
Social Sciences 016
International Film Festival presents Faust, directed by Jan Svankmajer. In English.
Series sponsored by grant from IEF.

Friday, May 21, 12:15 p.m.
Science and Engineering, N 304
Physics colloquium with sculptor and writer Rhonda Roland Shearer on “Marcel
Duchamp's Formerly Unrecognized New Brand of Mathematics: The First Application of
Poincare's 'Chaos Theory' Revealed.”

Friday, May 21, 9 p.m.
Nott Memorial.
“Upon the Crooked Bridge,” a recital of music composed in the style of
traditional Chinese music by Kim Kilby '00.

Friday, May 21, though Sunday, May 23.
ReUnion. (Events listed next issue.)

Saturday, May 22, 1 to 6:30 p.m.
Emmet and Craig Streets
Phi Iota Alpha presents Latino Festival, a block party for residents of Hamilton Hill.
Faculty, staff and students welcome.

Saturday, May 22, 1:30 p.m.
Schaffer Library Plaza.
Dedication of new Schaffer Library with presentation by Paul LeClerc, president of the New
York Public Library.

Through May 30.
Mandeville Gallery, Nott Memorial.
Paintings by Stephen Pace.

Through June 13.
Social Sciences Lounge.
Photographs by Michalena Skiados '99 from 1998 anthropology field study in Barbados.

Posted on May 14, 1999

Steinmetz Symposium presentations
ran the gamut, and some had special meaning for their presenters. Here are a few:

— Tom Jenne '99 presented his design for an all-terrain wheelchair, inspired
by his sister, Christina, who had difficulty negotiating her wheelchair over the rough
trails at a nature preserve near their home. “If she hits a bump or a hole, her
wheelchair easily tips over and she falls out,” he said. “It will be nice to
enable her to do some of the things she hasn't been able to do before.”

— Irene Kan '00 spoke on the coverup of the “forgotten Holocaust,”
the Nanjing Massacre during World War II in which 300,000 Chinese died at the hands of the
Japanese. “I was shocked because (the massacre) was so atrocious that the least the
Chinese government could have done was to commemorate it,” said Kan, a
first-generation Chinese American. “It wasn't until four decades later that the
Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum was built.”

— Daniel Pesikoff '99 studied the “Crypto-Jews” of the American
Southwest and Mexico, who trace their roots to 13th-century Spain. He says he learned of the secret societies, who practice Jewish
traditions while publicly appearing to be Catholic, while researching his own ancestry.

— Devaraj Pyne '00, a first-generation Hindu American presented on “The
Use of Discipline on First Generation Hindu Indian-American Families.” He collected
data from six Hindu Temples and was surprised to learn that more acculturated parents are
more likely to use corporal punishment; the original hypothesis was that parents with
greater Indian values would be more likely to use physical punishment.

— Rebecca Schwartz '99, who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis last year,
presented on “Coping in College with Multiple Sclerosis: Constructing a Disease and
Defining a Self.” Central to her thesis were responses she received from surveys she
sent to other college-age students with MS. “It is the best therapy possible to
e-mail people who actually understand what you are going through.”