Posted on Aug 1, 1999

Barry Smith, associate professor of theater, says that he will not retire until he dies, but this year he brought to a close twenty-eight years of teaching at the College.

Smith arrived at Union in 1971, when he and Charles Steckler, associate professor of theater, were hired to transform Union's theater program from one with an emphasis on history to one that focused on performance. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Smith brought to theater a passion for the arts as not only a form of expression but also as a form of awakening.

“Theater is about finding out about what you love,” he says. “It's not about making an impression, but communicating what is heartfelt. Theater becomes the place where students can struggle with these issues.”

Smith became interested in theater as a student at Westminster College. “I had never seen a play in my life, but I was inspired by my theater professor who asked the question, 'What is beauty?' ”

After graduation, Smith went to Thailand for eight years as a fraternal worker with the Presbyterian Church. There, he taught English as a Second Language — and rediscovered theater. Within a short time he was using theater in his classes, and he then began to teach at universities in Bangkok, Thailand.

After returning to the United States, Smith earned his master of fine arts degree at Yale and accepted the position at Union because of the opportunity to create a community of theater. Intrigued and inspired by the Nott Memorial, Smith based much of his teaching on the circular themes of the building, directing shows that took advantage of the unique space. For Madman and the Nun, his first production at the College, he and Steckler turned the entire building into an operating theater with life-sized plastic statues watching the proceedings. For JB, which retells the story of Job, they turned the Nott into a huge circus tent. For Oedipus, the Nott Memorial became a temple.

“I learned the power of the circle from the Nott Memorial,” Smith says.

Smith loves theater because of its involvement with people, he says. “The heart of the theater experience is to work with people. The contribution which theater can make to future doctors, lawyers, dentists, surgeons, engineers, business executives, and teachers goes far beyond polishing the external techniques of presentation. It is the process of touching their humanity, their core. This process helps students to struggle with things they care about, work as a team, and develop a sense of community.”

Smith left Union this summer to accompany his partner, Diane Sadak '85, as she begins a theater teaching position at Towson University in Baltimore, Md. He plans to take care of the couple's two young children, Noel Kendall and Sage Noelle. He also plans to continue to explore his teaching in theater as an adjunct professor at Towson University and other universities in the area.

Posted on Aug 1, 1999

Professor of Economics Peter Prosper (whose name seems particularly fitting for an economist) knew little about economics when he chose his major as an undergraduate at Pennsylvania State University after serving in the Korean War.

He knew that he did not want to study science, math, or the humanities, and that he did not want to be an insurance salesman or a real estate agent. “It seemed to me that a good academic topic would be economics,” Prosper says.

Indeed, he loved it. “It's good stuff. It's all good stuff,” says Prosper about economics.

Prosper got into teaching much the same way he happened upon economics. During his senior year at Penn State, a professor had to leave his post to be with his mother, who was ill, and the department chair asked Prosper to take over his classes. Prosper agreed, and he discovered that he liked teaching. In graduate school the same thing happened — a professor had to leave the university temporarily and Prosper took over, this time leading upper-level classes.

“It must have been fate,” he says.

After earning his Ph.D. from Cornell University's School of Arts and Sciences, Prosper taught at Harpur College for two years before the college became the large university center that it is today (the State University of New York at Binghamton). Since he had decided he wanted to teach at a small college that allowed closer interaction with students, Prosper came to Union in 1964. This June, after thirty-four years at the College, he retired from teaching.

Prosper's teaching specialization — labor — also seems to have fate written all over it. All of the research that he completed as an undergraduate and graduate student was related to labor economics, and he especially loved teaching his labor courses at Union — “Labor and Industrial Relations,” “Labor Economics,” and his upper-level seminar in labor. He also directed the Economics Department's internship program and oversaw industrial economics majors.

In addition to his teaching and scholarship, Prosper worked as an arbitrator, mediator, and fact-finder in labor disputes throughout New York State and the Northeast. He became involved as a fact-finder and mediator in the late 1960s, when the law allowing New York State public employees to unionize was passed. Several years later, he became an arbitrator (arbitrators, unlike mediators or fact-finders, have the power to issue decisions that are final and binding to the case that they investigate).

Prosper says that he became involved in mediation and arbitration because it involved the labor issues that he loves and also gave him new information to use in his classes, which he did frequently. “I just love everything about the cases that I do. I love labor,” he says.

After managing hundreds of cases as an arbitrator, mediator, and fact-finder, Prosper has no plans to cut back after retirement. Instead, he welcomes the flexibility that retirement from teaching will allow him. And, of course, he plans to play as much golf as possible.

Posted on Aug 1, 1999

When Beth Wierzbieniec '99 was a high school student looking at colleges, she knew that a small college “was a place I could become involved in.”

Wierzbieniec has gone beyond being involved; she has been an integral part of the student body, and this spring she was awarded the Bailey Cup, presented to the senior who rendered the greatest service to the College. Her list of activities includes Big Brothers/Big Sisters, tour guide for the Admissions Office, tutor at Elmer Elementary School, orientation advisor, member of the Multi-Cultural Advisory Group, and president of the Student Forum.

One of her most rewarding experiences was her leadership of a project titled “Dialogues on Race.” For a month in the spring of 1998, twenty-one student organizations, dozens of faculty and staff, and the College's athletic teams hosted more than thirty events and activities designed to foster an exchange of ideas, information, and concerns regarding diversity at Union. The Schenectady County Human Rights Commission recognized Wierzbieniec's by awarding her the 1998 Human Rights Youth Achievement Award. She was received the 1998 Hudson Mohawk Association of Colleges and Universities' “Creating a More Welcoming Community” student award.

Wierzbieniec will be in Baltimore with the Teach for America program for at least two years, likely teaching middle school social studies. After that, she says she may go back to school to study public administration or public law.

In addition to the Bailey Cup, she received the Alan Lake Chidsey Citizenship Award for distinctive contributions to the advancement of responsible government in student affairs and a Meritorious Service Award.

“Union has meant so much to me, and it's really nice to know that I have meant a lot to Union,” she said.

Posted on Aug 1, 1999

Thomas C. Gutenberger is the College's new vice president for college relations, overseeing all aspects of the development and alumni relations efforts.

President Roger Hull, in making the announcement, said that the development arena is more complex and more competitive than ever. “We need to be able to do things differently. Tom comes to Union with a proven record of success in college advancement and with the ability to tackle old problems in new ways.”

Gutenberger was director of university development and campaign director at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. Previously, he held senior-level fund raising positions at San Diego State University. He also held a number of positions at Cornell University, including director of the Southwest/Mountain regional office, assistant director of the Western regional office, assistant director of the Cornell Fund, and development assistant.

Gutenberger earned a bachelor's in business administration from the University of Richmond and an M.B.A. from San Diego State University.

Posted on Aug 1, 1999

Scott Stedman '99 plans to spend next year following the footsteps of German literary critic Walter Benjamin and then writing a screenplay about the man he says is “emblematic of the generation of people who adored literature the way that I do.”

The English major is one of sixty graduating seniors from forty-nine colleges and universities who received a $22,000 grant from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation. Stedman is the forty-third Union student to earn a Watson since the program began in 1969.

His topic, “Linking Past and Present Through a Screenplay Based on the Life of Walter Benjamin,” will take Stedman on a journey through Europe, where Benjamin studied and wrote. From September through May, he will follow the writer's travels from Berlin to Switzerland (Bern, Zurich, and St. Moritz), Austria, Naples, Moscow, Paris, and Marseilles. Then, from May through September, he will return to Berlin to write a screenplay based on Benjamin's life.

Benjamin may not be as well known as some of his contemporaries, such as Kafka. But his writings, many of which were published posthumously, have earned him a reputation as one of the most influential literary critics in the first half of this century. He cultivated friendships with some of the most important figures of the time — Bertolt Brecht, Theodor Adorno, and Gershom Scholem.

While he traveled extensively, Benjamin lived almost exclusively in Berlin until 1933, when he fled to Paris. In 1940, at the urging of his friends and sister, he joined a group leaving occupied Paris for Spain. Only a few hours before his arrival at the border, Spanish authorities had closed the crossing, and they threatened to turn the group over to the Nazis. In despair, Benjamin took his life with an overdose of morphine. The next morning, in a cruel irony, the rest of the group was allowed to cross to freedom.

Lost with Benjamin's life was a final manuscript that some speculate may have been his most important work. “The manuscript must be saved at all cost,” he had told a traveling companion. “It is more important than my own person.” The manuscript disappeared after the encounter with the border patrol; whether it was confiscated is unknown. “We will never know if Benjamin took his life terrified of the Nazis or devastated by the loss of his manuscript,” wrote Stedman in his Watson proposal.

“Benjamin's life and work retain an almost undefinable uniqueness all the while remaining tied to the cultural milieu of the European Jewish community,” Stedman says. “These unique elements of Benjamin's character, when matched with the bold, Jewish, intellectual tradition represented by such figures as Kafka and Proust, create an irresistible portrait.”

Stedman says that he always thought Benjamin would make a great screenplay. “This life has so many rich elements that anyone with any artistic sensibility could take these and mold them into a magnificent story.”

Stedman, of Wellesley, Mass., is a founding member of the Coffeehouse, a forum for performance and intellectual exchange. He was a tutor in the College's Writing Center, did a Term Abroad in Barbados in 1998, and participated with the Union team in the National Model United Nations recently at Harvard University.