Posted on Sep 21, 2001

Sept. 10, 2001

1. Electing Chair – Mark Walker nominated, seconded; no other nominations; Walker by acclaim.
2. Minutes from 9-3-01 approved as written.
3. List of “AAC new/old business for the 01-02 academic year”
   1. Discussion of what is old vs. new
   2. 7/8 med program affects the Bio/Span ID majors problem of sequencing Spanish courses for Spanish major really means “language majors” modern and ancient
   3. C. Sorum – suggestion for raising GPA for Dean's List
   4. K. Rosenthal – internships and credit for them
   5. ID majors: AAC did vote on policy last year, didn't bring to faculty
   6. 24-hour study space

   C. Sorum notes library will be open Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. and Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. during exam periods; checking up on Olin room that is supposed to be open 24 hours

4. Discussion of agenda for term
   1. Special (RASC) report will be delivered to AAC members Friday, Sept. 14; to be discussed Sept. 17
   2. agenda for discussion of report
   3. need for documentation of issues
5. RASC Report
   – Availability to students
   – RASC decided that Avrum Joffe will present an executive summary to Student Forum

Posted on Sep 21, 2001

Prof. Tim Olsen, in conjunction with AMU 32 “The History of Jazz” and with help from some Capital District musicians, is presenting lunchtime concerts tracing the evolution of jazz.

All concerts are on Fridays at 12:20 p.m. in Arts 215. Admission is free.

Upcoming concerts are:

– Sept. 28: Swing
– Oct. 19: Bebop
– Nov. 2: Modern jazz

Posted on Sep 21, 2001

A committee has been formed to consider the reappointment of Thomas Ashman, assistant professor of finance in the Graduate Management Institute. Any member of the campus community wishing to offer written or oral testimony concerning this professor should contact a member of the Reappointment Review Committee: Donald Arnold, committee chair, (arnoldd@union.edu); Sue Lehrman (lehrmans@union.edu); and Jim Lambrinos (GMI: lambrinj@union.edu).

Posted on Sep 21, 2001

Gilbert Harman of Princeton University will speak on “Skepticism and Foundations” in “Philosophical Fridays @ Union College” on Friday, Sept. 21, at 4:30 p.m. in Humanities 213.

His talk is the second in the Union College philosophy colloquia, a four-part series of talks by noted philosophers, all of which are Fridays at 4:30 p.m. in Humanities 213. The talks are free and open to the public.

Harman, professor of philosophy at Princeton University, is interested in ethics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, learning theory, cognitive science, and theoretical and practical rationality. He is the author of Thought, of The Nature of Morality, of Change in View, of Reasoning, Meaning and Mind, Explaining Value, and (with Judith Jarvis Thomson) of Moral Relativism and Moral Objectivity. He is editor of On Noam Chomsky and Conceptions of the Human Mind, and is co-editor with Donald Davidson of Semantics of Natural Language and of The Logic of Grammar.

Others in the series are:

– Oct. 19, Georges Dreyfus, Williams College, “The Sounds of Two Hands Clapping: Philosophical Debate in the Tibetan Scholastic Education;” and

– Oct. 26, Delia Graff, Cornell University, “Ascriptions of Desires, and Descriptions of Desires.”
For more information, call the Department of Philosophy at ext. 6376.

Posted on Sep 21, 2001

A faculty panel – the Resource Allocation Sub-Council (RASC) – appointed to review the proposed phasing out of the Civil Engineering department, last Friday issued its report to the College's Academic Affairs Committee (AAC), Faculty Executive Committee (FEC), academic departments, and President Roger Hull.
The report is to be considered at a general faculty meeting on Oct. 3, and by the College's Board of Trustees on Oct. 12.

The proposal to phase out Civil Engineering is an effort to reallocate resources within the engineering division to focus on electrical, mechanical and computer systems engineering as well as computer science. RASC was formed, according to Faculty Executive Committee Chair Tom Werner, to “assure that the issue is addressed according to the faculty governance system.”

The report, according to Byron Nichols, RASC chair, “presents a range of options to be considered as the College weighs this important decision.” The committee did not take a position on any one option, he said. “The report offers a framework for continued discussion of the proposal.”

Other RASC members were Chris Duncan, visual arts; Tom Jewell, civil engineering; David Hayes, chemistry; Avrum Joffe '02; and Kimmo Rosenthal, mathematics, and associate dean of undergraduate education.
Besides analyzing the administration's proposal to phase out civil engineering, RASC identified five options for retaining the department, each of which represent significant trade-offs in other areas of academic affairs, according to the report.

They include:

1. Reducing the size of faculty salary increases;
2. Increasing the student body by seven students per year;
3. Increasing the student body by four students per year and dedicating funds to civil engineering from the possible early retirement of engineering faculty;
4. Reallocating new faculty hires to engineering and drawing on the early retirement savings;
5. Making a combination of small cuts in different programs in academic affairs (for example, reducing the size of the civil engineering faculty by one, reducing Terms Abroad offerings, reducing support for undergraduate research and athletics, or adding a lab fee to engineering courses.)

“One of Union's defining characteristics – perhaps its most defining characteristic – is the historic existence of engineering within a liberal arts framework,” said President Hull. “We will continue to define the College in this fashion, and I pledge to do all that I can to assure that goal.”

Under the Plan for Union, the engineering division is adopting an organizing theme known as “Converging Technologies” in which students continue to receive degrees in mechanical, computer systems, and electrical engineering. They will also be introduced to concepts such as bioengineering, nanotechnology, mechatronics, and pervasive computing. The division has developed new classes – some offered this fall – including “Introduction To Nanotechnology,” “Digital Systems and Interface Electronics,” and “Fundamentals of Wireless Electronics.”