Posted on Apr 21, 2000

Janine Abbate will talk about her research into
whether jurors can lay aside differences in race and upbringing. James
DeWan will discuss his work on the relationship of committees and
fundraising sources in Congress. Jaime Garrand will present her findings
on the last deglaciation as recorded in the pollen record at Ballston
Lake.

They are among the contingent of 47 students and five
faculty who travel to NCUR 2000 – the National Conference on
Undergraduate Research – April 27 through 29 at the University of
Montana, Missoula.

Union consistently has one of the largest groups at NCUR,
which draws over 2,000 undergraduates, faculty, and administrators to hear
and discuss undergraduate creative and scholarly work. Union has hosted
NCUR twice.

Accompanying this year's group are faculty members
Ashraf Ghaly, civil engineering; Megan Ferry, modern languages; and James
Adrian and Michael Hagerman, chemistry. Tom Werner of chemistry, former
chair of the NCUR board of governors, will be at the conference as
director of the NCUR-Lancy Initiative, which provides funding for summer
student research programs.

Posted on Apr 21, 2000

Friday, April 21, 8 p.m.
Nott Memorial.
Robert Vrooman, known as the “classic whistle blower” for his
labeling of the Wen-ho Lee prosecution as racial profiling, will speak on
“Lessons of the Wen-ho Lee Affair.”

Friday, April 21, through Monday, April 24, 8 and 10
p.m.
Reamer Auditorium.
Film committee presents The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Wednesday, April 26, at 7 p.m.
Memorial Chapel.
The Union College Choir, directed by Prof. Dianne McMullen, will perform a
concert of Mozart's Regina Coeli, English madrigals, Brahms' Ziguenerlieder,
and English folksongs.

Thursday, April 27, 12:30 p.m.
Reamer Auditorium.
General faculty meeting.

Thursday, April 27, 7:30 p.m.
Nott Memorial.
Pico Iyer, longtime correspondent for Time magazine, on “The
Global Soul: The People of the 21st Century.” Part of the
Perspectives at the Nott series.

Friday, April 28, 4:15 p.m.
Humanities 213.
Philosopher Susan Haack, Cooper Senior Scholar in Arts and Sciences at the
University of Miami and the visiting Spencer-Leavitt Resident Professor in
a public lecture on “An Epistemologist in the Bramble Bush: At
the Supreme Court with Mr. Joiner.”

Through May 13.
Arts Atrium Gallery.
Steinmetz Symposium Art Exhibition featuring the works of several
students.

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,
inspirations and approaches.

Posted on Apr 21, 2000

Sharon
Gmelch, professor of anthropology, has received a Fulbright Fellowship to
be a lecturer and researcher in the fall of 2001 at the University of
Ireland in Maynooth, west of Dublin.

Gmelch said she expects to teach a graduate-level
seminar for third-year anthropology majors, either in tourism or Irish
Travellers and ethnicity.

She expects her research will focus on the itinerants, a
group she first studied about 30 years ago. That work produced two books: Tinkers
and Travellers (1975), which won “Book of the Year” by the
Irish Book Publishers Association, and Nan: The Life of an Irish
Traveling Woman (1986), a finalist for the American Association of
Anthropology's Margaret Mead Award.

Much has changed for the Travellers since her original
work, said Gmelch. The Irish economy is stronger, thanks in part to the
European Union, and Travellers who once used horse and wagon now have cars
and trailers. The group is more integrated into the rest of the Irish
community. Also, they are more politically aware and organized, and they
have a much stronger sense of ethnic identity.

Teresa Meade, associate professor of history, recently
received a Fulbright to teach next year at several universities in Tokyo,
Japan.

Posted on Apr 14, 2000

March 27, 2000

1. The minutes of March 6 meeting were corrected and
approved.

2. The Subcouncil on Courses and Programs presented
courses that were granted permanent approval by the Subcouncil. All of the
courses were approved by the AAC:

— HST 198/MLT 51 – China's
Cultural Revolution

— CHN 130 – Advanced
Chinese

— CHN 131-132 – Advanced
Chinese

— EAS 20/MLT 40 –
Literary traditions in China and Japan.

— EAS 21/MLT 41 –
Perspectives in Modern East Asian Literature.

— EAS 22/MLT 35 –
Chinese Cinemas.

— EAS 23/MLT 36/WS 133 MLT
50 – Chinese Language & Culture

— MLT 37/ENG 35b – Asian
American Film and Performance

— ENG 35a – Asian
American Literature

3. The committee discussed an articulation agreement
with Berkshire County Community College. The AAC approved the articulation
agreement.

4. The AAC continued its discussion of freshman midterm
grade reporting policies. The AAC will request that the Registrar report
the number of faculty responding to the midterm grade report request and
the number of “D's” or “F's”. The form will be
amended so the faculty can easily respond if there are no “D” or
“F” grades.

5. The committee began a discussion on academic credit
for distance-learning courses taken via Internet. This discussion was
tabled until a report can be made from the Academic Computing
Subcommittee.

6. The committee reworked the wording of the memo sent
to the faculty on unpaid internships and company requirement of course
credit.

Posted on Apr 14, 2000

What is second nature to any candy lover – opening
a bag of M&M's and pouring them into a bowl – takes on a new twist
on Saturday as students from a dozen area middle and high schools come to
campus to take a new approach to the task.

The goal: design a Rube Goldberg machine, named for the
famed Pulitzer Prize-winning artist whose “inventions” satirized
new technologies, that incorporates a minimum of 20 steps to pour M&M's
into a bowl without spilling. The machines will include everything from
levers and chains to ball bearings and bells, according to some student
designers.

Hosted by the College's engineering department, the
contest runs Saturday, April 15, from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Memorial
Fieldhouse.

The winning team will receive a $100 honorarium.

“The contest, quite simply, makes engineering
fun,” said Dean of Engineering Robert Balmer. “The only limits
on machine design are their own imaginations. It's a great way for
students to showcase their design talents and inspire an interest in
engineering at the same time.”