Posted on May 18, 2001

Anyone who spends time walking the campus is bound to see college arborist Paul Freemantle up in a tree, dangling from ropes, chainsaw in hand.

So it was something of a busman's holiday on Saturday when Freemantle volunteered the day to remove branches from trees along Riverside Park in Schenectady's Stockade neighborhood.

Freemantle cleaned up more than a dozen silver maples and honey locusts, just in time for a Stockade neighborhood cleanup this weekend, when all the debris will be carted away.

His involvement began over coffee in Reamer Campus Center when Jean Delgado, library specialist and secretary of the Stockade Garden Club, casually asked if he knew anyone who could trim the trees. “It didn't take him 10 seconds to say, `I'll do it,'” she recalls.

Posted on May 18, 2001

Once you get a 144,000-pound plane rolling, it almost goes by itself.

So says Jake Cole '04, one of 20 members and coaches of the football team who took part in a “Plane Pull” on Saturday at Albany International Airport. The event raised more than $15,000 for Special Olympics.

Each 20-member team had two tries at pulling a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 along a 12-foot course. Pilot Rick Wise was at the controls, applying the brakes at the end of each pull.

The Union team placed third with a time of 6.67 seconds. A team from the New York State Police won (6.16). Coxsackie Correctional Facility was second (6.23).

A team from the airport had the third fastest time of the day, but was later disqualified for having “too many men and women on the tarmac,” said airport spokesman Doug Meyer.

No speed records were set, Meyer reported, adding the plane was never in any danger of becoming airborne.

Posted on May 15, 2001

All most people know about him is that he bought Alaska in a
deal known as “Seward's Folly.” But any graduate of Union College, from which William Henry Seward graduated with highest honors in 1820, will
tell you there was a lot more to the man than that. For example, if Lincoln hadn't been the Republican nominee in 1860, it very likely would have been —
and, in fact, almost was — Seward.

Union will observe Seward's 200th birthday on May 16 from 6 – 8 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.

Today, two of Seward's most ardent local admirers, Union freshman Jeremy Dibbell, chair of the College's Young
Republicans' Club, and fellow freshman and self-described dyed-in-the-wool
Democrat, Matt Gerien, are putting aside their political differences to host a
200th birthday-bash in honor of the man they regard as “one of the
most prominent political figures in America's history.”

The celebration kicks off at 6 p.m. with Byron Nichols, Union professor of political science,
who will discuss Seward's time as a student and his distinguished political
career as governor of New York and later as secretary of state under Abraham
Lincoln. Seward memorabilia —
writings, prints, and other documents – and a model of a future sculpture of
Seward, which will be placed at the center of Seward Place ( a street that
borders Union) will be on display in the Nott Memorial. The event finale
includes a lawn party just outside the Nott with food (including an
Alaska-shaped birthday cake and Eskimo pies) and a rousing group-sing of “Happy
Birthday William Seward.” Folk musicians John Kirk and Trish Miller will
perform period music during the lawn party.

The 200th birthday celebration is only the beginning of Union College's Seward
Bicentennial Bash. The neighborhood surrounding Seward Place, adjacent to the
Union campus, has been transformed thanks to the College's $10 million
revitalization effort, and the city of Schenectady is wrapping up work on a
major upgrade for Seward Place streetscape. And, in the fall, Union will mount
a full-fledged exhibit devoted to Seward in the Nott Memorial featuring
artifacts, writings and lectures.

Posted on May 15, 2001

Schenectady, N.Y. (May 15, 2001) – Offered drugs? Just say no. Offered sex? Just say no.
Offered liberal feminist pabulum that nurtures intellectual weaklings and
ne'er-do-wells? Just say Know!  Jane
Curry will bring her one-woman show, “Just Say Know” to Union College's Nott
Memorial on Wednesday, May 23rd at 7 p.m.

“Just Say Know” is performance satire that explores the
impact of the use and misuse of science, the recurring nature of biological
arguments, and the back-to-the-classics movement on women in higher education.

The performance
runs approximately forty minutes in length followed by a discussion period.
While the performance centers on women's stories, history and experience as
they have navigated cultural norms and expectations, the shows are for
everyone.

Jane Curry will
perform at Union College in celebration of 30 years of coeducation at the
college. She will also be speaking to students in Professor Andrea Foroughi's
Women in Modern America class on Thursday, May 24th.

The performance on
Wednesday is free and open to the public. For more information, call 388-7109.

Posted on May 11, 2001

Hilary Tann, professor of music, has had a number of her works performed recently. A chamber work, “The Walls of Morlais Castle” was performed in Hudson on May 5. “Toward Dusk” was premiered by the Saratoga Springs Youth Orchestra on May 6. The Montgomery County Chorus is performing three choral works this month in Philadelphia and will tour the U.K. with those pieces in July. Tann has completed a concert overture, “The Grey Tide and the Green,” for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra to be premiered at The Last Night of the Welsh Proms on July 28 in Cardiff, Wales. The NEA Millennium Commission, “Fanfare for a River,” which premiered in Knoxville this winter, was selected for the Hartwick Summer Festival and will open the 2001-2 season of the Schenectady Symphony Orchestra in October.