Posted on Sep 22, 2000

Rudy Nydegger, associate professor of psychology, published an article
in Management Development Forum (Vol. 3, No. 1, 2000, pp. 121-141) titled
“Violence, Aggression, and Passive Aggression in the Workplace: Some Causes
and Potential Remedies.”

George Butterstein, Florence B. Sherwood Professor of Life Sciences,
coauthored a paper, “Ether Stress Increases Leptin Levels in the Rat,”
(with Puja Mahindra '00, Julia Williams '00 and V. Daniel Castracane, Texas
Tech Health Sciences) that was presented at a meeting of the Endocrine Society
in June. He also coauthored (with Mahindra and Castracane) “The Effect of
Diet and Adiposity on Serum Leptin Levels in the Female Rat during Early
Development” for a meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction in
July.

Rebecca Fisher, coordinator of academic and international support
services, has published a review of the book New Ways of Using Computers in
Language Teaching in the fall 2000 issue of Modern Language Journal.

Posted on Sep 22, 2000

The Ralph B. '29 and Marjorie Kenney Community Center, the unique
wedge-shaped building at the corner of Park Place and Nott Street, is to have
its grand opening on Tuesday, Sept. 26, at 3:30 p.m.

College and city officials will join Union students and some of the
youngsters they will serve to open the two story building that once housed the
Alps Grill.

The Kenney Center, made possible by a gift from Mrs. Kenney in memory of her
husband, will serve as a homework center for Union's mentoring program and as
a home base for the College's Big Brothers/Big Sisters program. The center
also is to host health and wellness workshops for community residents by Ellis
and St. Clare's hospitals and youth programs run by Girls Inc.

“The Kenney Center will be a focal point of community activity for the
residents of College Park and their children,” said Gretchel Tyson, Union's
director of community outreach. “It also will be a haven for the many Union
students who volunteer in the community.”

Posted on Sep 22, 2000

Model students – Andrew Clark '00, left, and Schenectady High School sophomores Beena Iype,
center, and Rafael Iskhakov make final adjustments to the model of the lift
bridge they built for the Erie Canal exhibition in the Nott Memorial. Union
students, joined by local high schoolers through the Science and Technology
Entry Program, built four models – the others were a change bridge, aqueduct
and lock – under the direction of Prof. Andrew Wolfe. The students were
recognized last Thursday at a dinner and symposium on the construction of the
canal. “Monument of Progress: The 175th Anniversary of the Erie Canal”
runs through Oct. 29 in the Nott Memorial.

Posted on Sep 22, 2000

Ask first-year student Alexandra Kagan anything about opera. Anything.

Kagan was a regional finalist last April in the Texaco Opera Quiz's
first-ever contest for high school students. The popular event is an
intermission feature of the live radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera.
While panelists are usually critics, performers, conductors, or playwrights, 57
students from eighteen schools competed to be one of the three quiz finalists.

Kagan, a graduate of the Gunnery, a private school in Washington, Conn., was
a New York region finalist, but did not win the final round to participate in
the quiz on the radio — a fact that doesn't bother her at all.

“I am not the most outgoing of people, so the opportunity to be heard by
millions of people internationally was a little nerve-wracking,” she says.

Kagan was introduced to opera by Tom Adolphson, a humanities teacher at the
Gunnery whose passion for music inspired her. “He just started throwing on
different CDs and recordings. Then we went down to the Metropolitan Opera House
in Manhattan. I just fell in love with it,” she says.

When Adolphson said that he needed three students to take on an extra course
load to compete in the opera quiz last spring, Kagan agreed — and immersed
herself in opera for several months, spending three hours each evening studying
operas and composers.

“I had a lot of fun with it,” she says. “I was in shock that I
knew most of the answers. I didn't think that I had done enough to
prepare.” She lost to another student who had studied opera his whole life
and was fluent in Italian.

Kagan is studying psychology and European history — something she fell in
love with while researching operas.

As for continuing with opera, she plans to be a lifelong opera-goer. “I
haven't found one yet that I didn't like,” she says.

Posted on Sep 22, 2000

Complete Campus Events
Calendar

Friday, Sept. 22, and Saturday, Sept. 23
Hale House.
“Preparing Engineers for the 21st Century,” a workshop on implementing
curricular change in engineering education. For more information, see http://engineering.union.edu/iccee.

Friday, Sept. 22, 8 p.m.
Nott Memorial.
Concert: The Blues Duo (Henry Afro Bradley, guitar, and Jasper McGruder,
harmonica) will perform music that ranges from field hollers and popular songs
of the nineteenth century to contemporary rural and urban blues. (Workshop at
12:25 p.m. in Arts 215.)

Friday, Sept. 22, through Monday, Sept. 25, 8 and 10 p.m.
Reamer Auditorium.
Film: U-571.

Friday, Sept. 22 and Saturday, Sept. 23, 8:02 p.m.
Yulman Theater.
Proctor's Too presents Paul Zaloom.
Admission $15; $10 students. Info: 346-6204.

Tuesday, Sept. 26, 3:30 p.m.
Ralph and Marjorie Kenney Center, Park Place and Nott Street.
Open House. Students, faculty, and staff are invited to join community leaders
and neighborhood residents to celebrate the grand opening of the Ralph and
Marjorie Kenney Center in College Park.

Tuesday, Sept. 26, 7:30 p.m.
Schenectady Museum Auditorium.
“Waterways West: The Antecedents and Origins of the Erie Canal” with
Philip Lord, director of the division of museum services, New York State Museum.
Part of “Monument of Progress: The 175th Anniversary of the Erie
Canal,” an exhibition and series of events at Union and the Schenectady
Museum.

Thursday, Sept. 28, 3:30 p.m.
Arts Atrium Gallery.
Artist Ben Frank Moss delivers a slide lecture on his paintings and drawings,
now on exhibition in the Arts Atrium.

Thursday, Sept. 28, 7 p.m.
Nott Memorial.
“Forum for Change,” a discussion with community leaders on the future
of Schenectady.

Through Oct. 21.
Arts Atrium.
“Ben Frank Moss: Paintings and Drawings,” an exhibition by the George
Frederick Jewett Professor of Studio Art at Dartmouth College.

Through Oct. 29.
Nott Memorial.
Exhibit: “Monument of Progress: The 175th Anniversary of the Erie
Canal” with related events throughout.

(A full schedule of events appears in “Union's Calendar,”
distributed weekly on campus, and at www.union.edu/News/Events_Calendars.)