Posted on Sep 21, 2001

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A week after the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, and days after the accidental death of junior Mark Stokes, members of the campus community are providing – and receiving – comfort.

Everyone is “working overtime to answer questions like 'Why did the World Trade Center attacks happen and why did it take one of our own?'” observed Viki Brooks-McDonald, protestant chaplain.

“I am stunned by the support that has come from this campus,” she said.

Support came in many forms: fundraisers by fraternities and sororities, candlelight vigils at the base of the flagpole, discussions by religious and student groups.

The College's Alumni Relations office and Web services created a check-in page for alumni on Wednesday, the day after the attacks. A week later, the site had drawn responses from some 4,000 alumni with notes ranging from “I'm OK” to “please remember what you learned at Union. We must retain our American and righteous ideals of democracy, justice, and due process.”

“We just wanted to provide a service,” said Nick Famulare, director of alumni relations. “People are expressing their hopes and prayers for the Union community and family members.”

Alumni Relations and Dining Services have joined to sponsor “Message in a Bottle,” in which people buy a bottle of Union College water and write a message to a rescue worker. On Wednesday, about 6000 water bottles had been purchased for delivery, according to Kate Stefanik '01, assistant director of alumni relations, who developed the program.

Students, faculty and staff wrote their thoughts on large banners near the south entry of Reamer Campus Center. Sentiments included “God bless America,” “Do not start a war,” and “I just ask that we don't do the same to others that has happened to us.” The banners, or perhaps pictures of them, may be sent to New York City, according to Matt Milless, director of student activities, who coordinated the banner program and several vigils during the past week.

Brooks-McDonald, speaking of the enormity of the College's grieving over the past week, said, “The (chaplains) in the basement of Silliman Hall … are suddenly called to explain these tragedies to huge numbers of people.

“I didn't sign on for this,” she recalls of choosing to become a campus chaplain. “I thought I'd be doing mostly weddings. But it's about kids, about youth. We (faculty and staff) have to try to find a way to work through our own fright and we have to work with kids who are new to this.”

Posted on Sep 21, 2001

The College this week mourned the loss of junior Mark Stokes, who died Monday as a result of injuries he suffered in a car accident the day before near his home in New Milford, N.J.

Stokes, a junior sociology major, was a starting defensive end on the College's football team.

He had left campus after Saturday's victory over Worcester Polytechnic Institute to visit friends who had been affected by last week's terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, said John Audino, head football coach. The accident occurred as he was returning home, he said.

Stokes, 20, was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, N.Y., where he died of head injuries at around noon Monday.

Funeral services were to have been Thursday evening through Boulevard Funeral Home, 1151 River Rd., New Milford, N.J. The telephone number is (201) 692-0100. Plans for a campus memorial were incomplete on Wednesday.

A graduate of Bergen Catholic High School, Stokes was a National Honor Society student and a member of the high school's football team. He was named All-Bergen County, All
Parochial and All-State as a senior.

Audino and two other coaches spent much of Monday with Stokes' family before returning to campus for two meetings with the football team.

The team opted to play last Saturday in the wake of the terrorist bombings, and appears likely to play this week at Hobart College.

“As of this moment, we plan on playing,” Audino said at a press conference on Tuesday. “It's still up to the players as a team, but we talked about it at Monday's team meetings, and we're just trying to return to some sense of normalcy. We're just taking it day by day, as anyone does when someone in the family dies.”

Posted on Sep 21, 2001

Retirement trip

Charlie Scaife, professor emeritus of chemistry, and his wife, Priscilla, last week rode their bikes the length of the Erie Canal, a five-day trip.

“We were looking for a good retirement trip and decided this would be just the thing,” said Prof. Scaife, who retired last spring.

The idea was prompted by the College's celebration last fall of the 175th anniversary of the waterway. The Scaifes had perfect attendance at all the events connected with the celebration, the professor noted.

The couple, known widely for the science shows they do for elementary students across the country, averaged a little over 50 miles per day on their Erie bike ride. Their mileage on one day approached 70.

The Scaifes brought a vial of water from the Niagara River in Buffalo to the Hudson River in Albany, just as the first canal boaters did.

But they also did something the first canalers couldn't have imagined: they got their back tires wet in the Niagara and their front tires wet in the Hudson.

Posted on Sep 17, 2001

SCHENECTADY, N.Y.-(September 17, 2001)-Mark Stokes of New Milford, New Jersey (Bergen County), a junior at Union College, died today as a result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident early Sunday morning.

Stokes, 20, was returning to Union after visiting friends in New Jersey. He was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, New York, where he died of head injuries at around noon today.

A sociology major, Mark was a member of the College's football team where he started at defensive end.

A graduate of Bergen Catholic, Mark was a National Honor Society student and a member of the high school's football team. He was named All-Bergen County, All Parochial and All-State as a senior.

Members of Union's football team were among Mark's friends who met with the Union College Counseling Center and College's Chaplins.

Plans for a memorial were incomplete.

(Editor's Note: A photograph is available upon request.
Please call George Cuttita at 388-6170)

Contact:
Charlie Casey
(518) 388-6090 (office)

Bill Schwarz
209-4689
 

George Cuttita
388-6170 (office)
399-1053 (home)
 

Posted on Sep 14, 2001

(Sept. 14, 2001) — The Union College faculty and administration have spent the past two years developing a strategic plan for Union that will reinforce its mission as a liberal arts college with engineering. As a part of the plan, resources will be enriched in the liberal arts areas in which 85 percent of Union's students major, and resources will be reallocated in engineering, which enrolls 15 percent of the students.

A Union College faculty panel – the Resource Allocation Sub-Council (RASC) – appointed to review the proposed phasing out of the Civil Engineering Department, issued its report of alternative reallocations to the College's Academic Affairs Committee (AAC), Faculty Executive Committee (FEC), faculty departments, and President Roger Hull.

RASC members included Prof. Byron Nichols, Political Science Department; Prof. Chris Duncan, Visual Arts Department; Prof. Tom Jewell, Civil Engineering Department, Prof. David Hayes, Chemistry Department, Avrum Joffe '02, and Prof. Kimmo Rosenthal, Mathematics Department and associate dean of undergraduate education.

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 Prof. Tom Werner, to “assure that the issue is addressed according to the faculty governance system.”

The report, according to 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.”

Werner added that the report would be discussed at the Oct. 3 meeting of Union faculty. “A faculty vote will give the administration a sense of the group,” he said.

The Union board of trustees will have the issue of civil engineering on the agenda at its October 12 meeting.

In addition to analyzing the administration's proposal to phase out Civil Engineering, RASC identified five options to be considered. Each alternative, according to the group, has advantages and disadvantages, but all represent significant trade-offs in other areas of academic affairs.

The options include:

1. Phasing out the Civil Engineering program, as recommended by the administration

Or, in order to retain the department:

2. Reducing the size of faculty salary increases

3. Increasing the student body by seven students per year

4. Increasing the student body by four students per year and using any monies from the possible early retirement of faculty in engineering for Civil Engineering

5. Reallocate new faculty hires to engineering and draw on the early retirement savings

6. A combination of small cuts in different programs in the academic affairs area (i.e., reduce the size of the civil engineering faculty by one, reduce Terms Abroad, reduce support for undergraduate research and athletics, add 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. We will continue to define the College in this fashion, and I pledge to do all that I can to assure that goal,” said President Hull.

Under the Plan, the organizing theme of the engineering division is Converging Technologies. Engineering students will continue to receive degrees in mechanical, computer systems, and electrical engineering, and will also be introduced to such state-of-the-art concepts as bioengineering, nanotechnology, mechatronics, and pervasive computing. The division has already developed new classes – some offered this fall – that support this theme, including “Introduction To Nanotechnology,” “Digital Systems & Interface Electronics,” and “Fundamentals of Wireless Electronics.”