Posted on Mar 31, 2000

When students from Prof. Bill Keat's Mechanics I
class tested their “stump-pullers” just before finals last term
at the Erie Canal Lock 23 restoration project, they were doing the work
much the same way the builders of the canal did a century and a half ago.

“This really makes you appreciate the old guys who
had to do this by hand,” said one student as he was pulling a rope to
try to loosen a stubborn stump. “Yeah,” replied another,
“but they had oxen to pull the ropes.”

Lock 23, a half-mile west of Lock 8 along the
Mohawk-Hudson Bikepath, has been adopted by civil engineering students and
other volunteers who plan to restore it for a park. Program director is
Prof. Andrew Wolfe, who insists that students can best appreciate the
engineering of the lock by doing much of the work the way the original
builders did in 1840.

Posted on Mar 31, 2000

Alpha Delta Phi is sponsoring a literary competition open to all undergraduate students at the College.

Students may submit one entry in each category: fiction
and nonfiction.

Entries, with cover sheets, are due April 3 in the
English department. Cover sheets also are available in the English
department.

Best overall submission will receive
the Samuel Eells Literary Award, named for the founder of the fraternity, and a
$500 honorarium. An honorarium of $200 will be awarded to the best entry in each
category. The awards will be presented in late April.

Judges are Edward Pavlic, English;
Steven Sargent, history; and an alumnus of AD Phi.

Posted on Mar 31, 2000

The Chronicle is
available on the Web each Thursday during academic terms, usually by late
morning. (Most offices receive the paper version on Friday.)

You can fill out the form to subscribe to through
e-mail.

Posted on Mar 31, 2000

Pedro Alejandra Matta, a leader of ex-political
prisoners and victims of torture during Augusto Pinochet's regime in
Chile, is making a rare North American appearance on April 4 and 5.

On Wednesday, April 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's
Reamer Auditorium, Matta will present a public lecture titled,
“Memories of Torture: An ex-political prisoner describes life and
death in Pinochet's prisons.” The lecture will feature slides of
Chilean torture centers and a discussion of Matta's efforts to bring
Pinochet and other military leaders to justice.

Matta has been an outspoken advocate for bringing the
Pinochet regime to justice for their alleged human rights abuses. He
helped to compile the charges that formed part of the extradition case
attempting to bring Pinochet to justice in Spain. That effort was
unsuccessful; Pinochet was allowed last month to leave England, where he
had been under house arrest.

Matta was a student leader in the law school at the
University of Chile, Santiago, in 1973 when Pinochet overthrew the
Salvador Allende government. He was arrested after the coup and taken to
two different torture centers (during which time he was
“disappeared”) and then imprisoned until 1976. At the request of
the U.S. Justice department in 1976, Matta and 200 other political
prisoners were released from Chilean jails and granted exile in the U.S.
Matta lived in California and New York before returning to Chile in 1988,
two years before the end of Pinochet's regime.

Matta's visit, which is part of Union's
commemoration of Latino Heritage Month, is sponsored by the College's
History Department, Amnesty International chapter, ALAS (African and
Latino Alliance of Students) and CELA (Circulo Estudiantil Latino
Americano).

Posted on Mar 31, 2000

Friday, March 31, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Arts Atrium Gallery.
Opening reception for “Return to Nha Trang, Vietnam,” a photo
exhibition by Khang Vodinh '00.

Friday, March 31, and Saturday, April 2, 8 and 10 p.m.
Reamer Auditorium.
Film committee presents Any Given Sunday.

Monday, April 3, 12:30 p.m.
Reamer Auditorium.
General faculty meeting.

Wednesday, April 5, 7:30 p.m.
Reamer Auditorium.
Pedro Alejandra Matta, a leader of ex-political prisoners and victims of
torture during Pinochet's regime in Chile, presents a public lecture,
“Memories of Torture: An ex-political prisoner describes life and
death in Pinochet's prisons.” He also will meet Tuesday with
classes and student organizations.

Friday, April 7, 8 p.m.
Memorial Chapel.
Schenectady Museum-Union College chamber concert series finishes the
season with the Borromeo String Quartet in the last installment of their
six-concert all-Beethoven program.

Friday, April 7, and Saturday, April 8.
Achilles Rink and Collins Park, Scotia.
Union hosts American Society of Civil Engineers regional concrete canoe
and steel bridge competitions. Details in next week's Chronicle.

Through May 21.
Mandeville Gallery, Nott Memorial.
“Separate & Together,” an exhibition by painters Wolf Kahn
and Emily Mason focusing on the husband and wife's common influences and
inspirations.