Posted on May 5, 2000

Friday, May 5, through Monday, May 8, 8 and 10 p.m.
Reamer Auditorium.
Film committee presents The Green Mile.

Saturday, May 6, 8:30 to 10 p.m.
Union College Observatory at the F.W. Olin Center.
Observatory open house.

Monday, May 8, 12:25 p.m.
Women's Studies Lounge (3rd floor Reamer).
Prof. Carol Weisse, associate professor of psychology, on “Are Doctor's
Prescriptions Influenced by Gender or Race?”

Monday, May 8, 7:30 p.m.
Arts 213
Peter Rutkoff, National Endowment for the Humanities distinguished
professor of history at Kenyon College, on “Bebop and Abstract
Art.”

Wednesday, May 10, 7:30 p.m.
Nott Memorial.
Brian Greene, specialist in superstring theory and author of bestseller The
Elegant Universe, on “Explaining the Elegant Universe.” Part
of Perspectives at the Nott.

Friday, May 12.
Various campus locations.
10th Steinmetz Symposium.

Friday, May 12, 12:20 p.m.
Performing Arts Studio.
Dance performance featuring original student and faculty choreography.

Friday, May 12, 8 p.m.
Memorial Chapel.
Steinmetz 2000 Concert with Union College and Community Orchestra (Hilary
Tann conducting and Anastasie Prokhorov '01 piano soloist) and Union
College Choir (Dianne McMullen conducting) in a concert of works by
Mozart, Brahms, Pakk Hui

'00, and Grieg.

Saturday, May 13, 11 a.m.
Memorial Chapel.
Prize Day convocation.

Saturday, May 13, 12:30 p.m.
Chet's.
Concert of standards and originals by Union College Jazz Ensemble, Tim
Olsen directing.

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, approaches.

Posted on May 5, 2000

We've
all got them in our basements, those detectors that alert us that radon
levels have reached dangerous marks. But we don't live in our basements,
and we spend lots of time away from home — at work, outdoors, on
vacation. So how do we know about our own exposure to the radioactive gas
blamed for 10,000 lung-cancer deaths each year?

The answer, according to Robert Fleischer, research professor of
geology, is right before our eyes … in our glasses.

It turns out that most eyeglass lenses make perfect “personal
radon dosimeters,” says Fleischer. Most lenses are made of a plastic
– allyl-diglycol carbonate – that is “etched” by the alpha
particles of radon. Many people wear their eyeglasses throughout waking
hours, and leave them close at hand while sleeping, so eyeglass exposures
give a more direct and complete picture of personal radon exposure. And
since lenses are ground to prescriptions, they begin as a “clean
slate” when the wearer puts them on.

Much is known about the effects of occupational exposure to radon among
mineworkers, but data on residential indoor exposure has not been
documented clearly or decisively, Fleischer says. And though measurements
in homes taken by radon detectors are vital in deciding whether remedial
action is required, they often tell little about personal exposures.

Fleischer began his research into “fission tracks” as a
scientist with GE. Among the applications of his work was to determine
astronauts' exposure to radiation as evidenced by etches in their
helmets. From that, he figured that eyeglasses similarly would record
personal exposure to radon.

Fleischer coauthored a paper – “Personal Radon Dosimetry from
Eyeglass Lenses” – with seniors Steve Hadley and Nick Meyer –
delivered at a meeting of the American Geological Association. Fleischer
is to present the research on May 16 in Hiroshima, Japan, at a meeting of
the International Radiation Protection Association.

Posted on May 1, 2000

The Union Bookshelf regularly features new books written by alumni authors and other members of the Union community. If you're an author and would like to be included in a future issue, please send us a copy of the book as well as your publisher's news release. Our address is Office of Communications, Union College, Schenectady, N.Y. 12308-3169.

Hyman Enzer '38

Sandra Solotaroff-Enzer and Hyman Enzer '38 have co-edited a collection of two dozen articles and memoirs about Anne Frank by such well-known personalities as Bruno Bettelheim, Simon Wiesenthal, John Berryman, Philip Roth, Lawrence Graver, and others. Titled Anne Frank, Reflections on Her Life and Legacy, the writings express how interpreters of the Jewish experience in World War II have defined Anne Frank's significance for memorializing the Holocaust.

Enzer, professor of sociology emeritus at Hofstra University, is the author of numerous articles on sociology, literature, and the arts. Sandra Solotaroff-Enzer is an associate professor of English emerita at SUNY Nassau Community College. She has written articles on pedagogy and literary topics. Their book is available from University of Illinois Press. For information, check www.press.uillinois.edu.

Arnold I. Burns '50

For more than fifty years, Arnold I. Burns '50 has been telling stories, and, for more than twenty years, he has been collecting them. An accomplished master of ceremonies, he has told his stories all over the country and to all kinds of audiences. In his book, Laugh Factory, he has gathered what he calls the best and the funniest.

Burns has been deputy attorney general of the United States, chairman of the board of trustees at Union, chairman of the board of Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, senior partner of a prominent New York City law firm, a fundraiser for numerous charities, and a manager of political campaigns. Currently he is managing director of Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder, Inc., an international investment banking firm. The book is available from the Xlibris Corp., at www.Xlibris.com.

Rev. Richard Patterson '70

Rev. Richard Patterson '70, who lives in Clifton Park, N.Y., with his wife and two children, is a writer and lecturer on the subjects of children, family, and parenting. He has written his third book, Confident Parenting in Challenging Times, with such topics as “Relax! Nobody's Perfect!,” “Spanking and its Alternatives,” “How Healthy is Your Tree?”, and “God Isn't Finished.”

The goal, according to Patterson, (agreeing with the late Dr. Bruno Bettelheim), is “… the raising of a child who may not necessarily become a success in the eyes of the world, but who, on reflection, would be pleased with the way he was raised and who would decide that, by and large, he was satisfied with himself, despite the shortcomings which all people have.”

Patterson is also the author of It's the Little Things that Count and Brand Name Kids. Information about his book can be found at www.teknabooks.com or by contacting Tekna Books directly in Chanhassen, Minn.

David D'Aprix '73

Have you ever been in a French restaurant and ordered what you thought was chicken and vegetables but got snails on a bed of pastry smothered in melted blue cheese sauce? To the rescue comes The Non-Connoisseur's Menu Guide. Full of valuable pronunciations, definitions, explanations, and drawings, this small book is a guide to ordering French, Italian, and Spanish cuisines.

The author, David D'Aprix '73, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, has served on the faculty of the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, where he currently lectures, and has given seminars on culinary arts all over the world. He is working on a companion book, The Non-Connoisseur's Pan-Asian Menu Guide, due out in 2001. The book is published by Living Language, a Random House company (www.livinglanguage.com).

By the same author is the International Foreign Language Guide for Hotel Employees, featuring eight languages (Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese). The set includes a phrasebook, two cassettes, and requires no previous language experience. The guide includes cultural notes addressing sensitive issues as well as phonetic transcriptions to help you pronounce each language correctly. The set is $35 and is also available from Living Language.

Robert Glicksman '73

The third edition of Environmental Protection Law and Policy, cowritten by Robert Glicksman '73, the Robert W. Wagstaff Professor of Law at the University of Kansas, is now available. Written with Frederick R. Anderson, Daniel R. Mandelker, and A. Dan Tarlock, the third edition is a major revision, the original being almost twenty years-old.

According to the authors, the early days of the environmental movement were marked by issues on a local level. Today, there is a broad consensus that we need strict laws to protect our air, water, and land resources. The book seeks to introduce students to the fundamental building blocks of environmental law and to explain the logic behind our current regulatory system. Aspen Law & Business, the publisher, can be contacted at www.aspenpublishers.com.

Thomas Parisi '73

In his first book, Civilization and its Discontents: An Anthropology for the Future?, Tom Parisi '73 shows why Freudian anthropology still merits our attention. This comprehensive study explores the connections between Freud's philosophical views on the human condition and the substance and development of his theory. Also discussed are Freud and ethics, Freud's views on matters of religious faith, his position on the value of femininity, and a comparison of Freudian anthropology and its alternatives in the natural sciences. Parisi says, “When you get to Chapter 9, I have my say on Freud's critics.”

Parisi chairs the department of psychology at Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Ind. He has published articles on topics ranging from Freud to the neurophysiology of reflex development. His book is available through Twayne Publishers, 1633 Broadway, New York 10019.

Gregory Derry '74

In What Science Is and How It Works, the author introduces the reader to the process of scientific thinking by addressing a number of questions — How does a scientist go about solving problems? How do scientific discoveries happen? What is a scientific worldview? and others.

Gregory Derry '74 is an associate professor of physics and chair of the Physics Department at Loyola College in Baltimore, Md. He shows how scientists use a small number of powerful yet simple methods to construct realistic models that describe a number of diverse real-life problems, such as the laws of heredity, the inner workings of atoms, and drug uptake in the body. The book is recommended to anyone who wants to see how science relates to religion, ethics, philosophy, or the world in general. The author, an active researcher in experimental surface physics, pursues such interests as the history and philosophy of science.

The book is available through Princeton University Press (pup.princeton.edu).

John Monaco '77, M.D.

As a pediatrician at Brandon Regional Hospital in Brandon, Fla., John Monaco '77 is in a position to see the psychological, social, and physical effects on children of being overweight. He has teamed up with Judy Mazel, author of the bestselling Beverly Hills Diet, to write Slim & Fit Kids: Raising Healthy Children in a Fast-Food World. This book helps parents put their children back on the road to a healthy, fit, vigorous lifestyle. It discusses diet, exercise, how to talk to your kids about their weight, and gives an overview of why different foods interact in the body to create weight gain.

The book is available from Health Communications, Inc., in Deerfield Beach, Fla. (www.hci-online.com).

Posted on May 1, 2000

When B.J. Jenkins travels to Holland, England, France, or Israel, she first has to check out the local police station. “I always have a lot of questions about how police work in different countries,” says the twenty-two-year member of the College's safety staff.

“I tell them I'm from Union College in Schenectady, and they say, 'How do you spell that?'”

So, while others are taking in the sights, B.J. (short for Betty Jean) makes a point of touring the control centers at local and campus police stations, asking lots of questions about how they deal with members of their communities, particularly visiting foreign students who may not be familiar with local laws and customs.

“One thing I've learned is that most countries are much tougher on crime than we are in the U.S. If you do the crime, you're going to do the time.” She also has learned that police in many other cultures deal with people who have a lot more at stake than most Americans. “People in some countries are willing to die for things that we take for granted,” she said. “Things like freedom.”

The police are always very accommodating, she says, but she acknowledges that the police may not always give her the whole picture, leaving her to fill in the gaps with the same intuition that serves her on the job.

Her interest should come as no surprise to those who visit her at her post in the Nott Memorial, where she often fills the quiet moments with books and articles on criminology. It all began when she was a student at the University of Washington. “I was involved in lots of demonstrations,” she recalls. “Things like sit-ins and marches against the war and for equal opportunity. But I didn't do anything violent, and I didn't get arrested.”

Fascinated with how police and campus safety officers learned to deal with student unrest, she became a campus security officer while still a student. Later, she served as secretary to the university's president. While in both positions, she continued to demonstrate. “I would always tell my supervisor or the president what I was doing, and I always did it on my own time.”

Born in Mobile, Ala., and raised in Seattle, she found her way to Schenectady in 1971. She joined campus safety at Union in 1977 (as the first woman on the force) while taking classes toward her associate's degree in criminal justice from Schenectady County Community College. In 1982, the year her second child, Cy, graduated from Union, she embarked at Union on an organizing theme major with an emphasis on campus safety issues for women. She earned her bachelor's degree in 1988.

All but one member of her family graduated from Union. Her husband, Solomon, earned a master's in engineering. Cy graduated in 1982, Jill in 1994. (Darryl, her eldest, graduated from UW, where he played football.)

A longtime volunteer for the Schenectady Rape Crisis Center, she has worked as a counselor for raped and battered women and regularly assists women on campus. As a member of the Albany alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, she has been involved with a number of community service projects.

Of taking her post in the Nott, she recalls, “I was worried I might get bored in here. But there's hardly ever a quiet moment.” Beside the exhibits and special events, there is no shortage of traffic in the form of curious visitors. “People come in here with all kinds of questions, like 'What do you use this building for?'”

Looking back at her career at Union, she recalls a number of campus incidents that still bring a smile – streakers at basketball games, the morning she had to alert President John Morris to stay in his house because a black bear was loose on campus, or the time she stumbled upon two women doing a daytime Naked Nott Run. “I said, 'Girls, I won't ask you for ID, but I suggest you run as fast as you can.'”

As she contemplates retirement in the next year, she is planning her next adventure: a Ph.D. in criminology with the goal of teaching students about computer crime.

Posted on May 1, 2000

When Dick Sakala announced in January that he was retiring as the College's director of athletics, he fought back his emotions, briefly reflected on his career, and said he wanted to go quietly.

A modest, unassuming man, Sakala has run the College's athletic department for the past twenty-three years by combining iron will with his sensitivity, always keeping the welfare of the student-athlete and the mission of the College in the forefront.

Before his appointment at Union, Sakala, who turns sixty in May, had been the associate director of athletics at his alma mater, Columbia University. As an undergraduate he had played quarterback and defensive back for the Lions, helping them to their only Ivy League championship in his senior season of 1961. He had also played baseball, and during his time as an administrator he led Columbia's team for five years, taking them to two NCAA tournaments.

“When I interviewed at Union,” Sakala recalls, “One of the questions I was asked was, 'How would I treat Ned Harkness (the College's hockey coach for several years in the 1970s)?' I answered that I would treat him the same way as I would treat anyone else on my staff.”

Since 1977 Sakala has kept his promise.

“One of the things that really impressed me about Mr. Sakala is how he always treated the athlete with respect,” says Dalton Menhall '92. “He wasn't afraid to ask the students for opinions, and while he didn't always agree, he always listened. Even after I graduated, a subscription form to join the Friends of Union Athletics was accompanied by a note from Dick. He always added a personal touch, and that is one of the things that makes Union so special to me.”

When Sakala arrived in July 1977, Union did not have a full-time athletic director. Controversy surrounding the men's ice hockey program was about to explode into a national embarrassment. Many of Union's athletic teams struggled to achieve the .500 level, and facilities were marginal at best. Today, Union's athletic program is one of integrity and respect.

“Dick has certainly made his mark on Union College and Union College athletics,” says President Roger Hull. “He has worked tirelessly to bring a high level of respect and recognition to the College. Through his efforts, he has provided quality programs for the men and women who have represented Union in athletic competition.”

Under Sakala's leadership, Union has upgraded every one of its athletic facilities. The College has met all federal mandates of Title IX and gender equity without cutting a single men's program, an option taken by many colleges and universities (this year women's ice hockey became the College's twenty-fifth varsity sport, the thirteenth for women). Most teams have enjoyed league, state, or national recognition, and dozens of athletes have received All-League, All-State, and/or All-American honors.

Football has played in two national championship games, and men's and women's soccer, men's and women's swimming, women's lacrosse, and men's basketball have all participated in NCAA championship tournaments. Field hockey, women's volleyball, men's lacrosse, softball, and baseball have all enjoyed success within the Eastern College Athletic Conference and the New York State Women's Collegiate Athletic Association. The men's ice hockey team won the ECAC Division III championship in 1985 and played for the NCAA Division III national championship in 1984; it joined the ECAC's Division I league before the 1991-92 campaign and has qualified to compete in the ECAC postseason tournament four times in nine years.

Sakala started the Friends of Union Athletics, which, through contributions from members, sponsors the annual Block U Awards Dinner. He also had the idea for the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association (UCAA), which began in 1995-96 with Clarkson, Hamilton, Hobart and William Smith, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence, Skidmore, and Union as charter members (Vassar will join in 2000-2001).

And a number of assistant coaches hired by Sakala have gone on to head coaching positions, including Al Bagnoli in football at the University of Pennsylvania, Mark Whipple in football at the University of Massachusetts, Chuck Priore in football at Trinity College, Mark Morris in hockey at Clarkson, and Dan Fridgen in hockey at Rensselaer.

“Coaching at Union is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and my family and I owe it all to Dick,” says John Audino, who was an assistant football coach in the early 1980s and returned to take over the head job in 1992. “He treats you like a professional and gives you every opportunity to succeed. Whoever replaces him has some big shoes to fill.”

Gary Reynolds, head baseball coach and assistant football coach, remembers that he was out of coaching when Sakala hired him in 1983. “The thing that impressed me the most about him over the years was the fact that he let coaches coach. He has a lot of interest in your sport, but he didn't try to dictate.”

Cheryl Rockwood, head athletic trainer and the senior women's administrator, says, “I have the greatest respect for Dick. He treats everyone like a professional, and he allows you to develop.”

Sakala received the Alumni Council's Faculty Meritorious Service Award in 1984, is a former vice president of the ECAC, has been a member of several ECAC championship committees, and served as a member of the NCAA Division III football selection committee.

While Sakala's accomplishments are many, it is the people that he will miss the most.

“The student-athletes have been such a pleasure to be around,” said Sakala. “I've also had the pleasure of working with the most supportive group of professionals during the past twenty-three years. This hasn't been a job, but a pleasure. I look back and feel very good about what I was doing and about the people I was doing it with and the people I was doing it for. It's the personal part of this job that I will always remember.”

Dick Roberts '50, a former member of the College's Board of Trustees, says, “Dick Sakala has been the backbone of the athletic department. He has worked extremely hard to upgrade the facilities to ensure that qualified high school recruits become Union student-athletes, and that those student-athletes are afforded every opportunity to succeed.

“Externally, the success of the programs and of the individuals brings a great deal of recognition and pride to the College as a whole,” he says. “While his legacy will live beyond his tenure, Union and Union athletics are going to miss the influence and future direction of Dick.”

George Cuttita, who became the College's first full-time sports information director in 1980, summed it up when he said, “While I am very happy that he and his wife, Nancy, will be able to enjoy life to its fullest, I will be losing a mentor and a friend. He will be missed.”