Posted on Oct 18, 2001

Schenectady, NY (Oct. 18, 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.

Incredibly, Seward's position as Abraham Lincoln's secretary of state -his “right hand,” his distinguished political career as governor of New York, his bold efforts in education and prison reform, his fight for the rights of immigrants and the insane, not to mention his unwavering fight against slavery – including his close relationship with Harriet Tubman – have, for the most part, gone
unrecognized.

Through Dec. 23 in the Mandeville Gallery of the Nott Memorial, Union College will feature the exhibition
titled “All the Good I Can” A Portrait of William Henry Seward.” The
exhibit includes more than 80 items -original writings, prints, speeches,
photos, and other artifacts.

Exhibition items include:

• The
  13″ Bowie knife (a common weapon of Confederate soldiers), used by
  assassin Louis Powell, in an attempt on Seward's life in 1865. Powell was part of the conspiracy – led by John Wilkes Booth – to kill President Lincoln and key members of his cabinet, including Seward. 
• A number of Seward's most famous speeches, including his “Higher Law” address, which attacked the institution of slavery in America, and his “Freeman” speech, which he delivered while defending an insane black man accused of murder in Auburn, NY. Seward was one of the first attorneys to use the insanity defense in court.
• Original
  editions of the New York Times, Daily Herald and Harpers, which detail the assassination of Lincoln and the attack on Seward.
• Memos and letters, in Seward's hand, including his famous memo of April 1, in which he urges President Lincoln to get busy with the business of the country. Seward even suggested that he would take on the tasks of the presidency if Lincoln felt ill equipped for the job at hand.

Public Events:

Exhibition Reception and Symposium – Nott Memorial, Tuesday, Oct. 23, reception 6 – 7:30pm, symposium 7:30pm. “Idealism, Pragmatism and the Dilemmas of Leadership – a Symposium in Honor of William Henry Seward.” panelists include:

Richard Norton Smith, nationally recognized authority on the American presidency and distinguished
professor of presidential history at Grand Valley State University.

William Galston, director of the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Maryland.

Robert Walker, executive director of the Educational Fund of Common Cause, Washington D.C.

Union College Political Science Prof. James Underwood will moderate the session.

Lecture – Nott Memorial, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 7:30pm. “William Henry Seward – Snapshots” by John M. Taylor, author of the Seward biography William Henry Seward – Lincoln's Right Hand

Conversation – Nott Memorial, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 7:30pm. “William Henry Seward and Harriet Tubman –
ReUniting Two Visionaries,” with Pauline Johnson, Tubman's great grandniece and Robert Seward, Seward Family Historian.

Mandeville Gallery hours:

October 18-November 16:

Mon-Thurs 9am-10pm;

Fri 9 am-5 pm; Sat noon-5pm

Sun noon-10 pm.

November 17 – December 23:

9am-5pm daily

Information: 388-6004; www.union.edu/links/gallery

Cost: Free, open to the Public

Posted on Oct 15, 2001

Schenectady, N.Y. (Oct. 15, 2001)
– The Pentagon Papers. Gemini photos of Earth. A 1942 publication on the
internment of Japanese. A 2000 document titled Patterns of Global Terrorism.

Those and other pieces of American
history from Union College's Government Documents collection are on display
through Nov. 9 in the Lally Reading Room of Schaffer Library. “Documents
Through the Decades” commemorates the 100th anniversary of the
library's designation as a Selective Federal Document Depository, one of about 1,400 nationally.

As part of the commemoration,
Robert Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government,
will speak on “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Freedom of Access” on Monday, Oct. 29, at 3 p.m. in Reamer Auditorium.

Each year, the College receives
between 4,000 and 5,000 paper copies of documents, an additional number of
microfiche publications, topographic maps and several hundred CDs, all without charge from the Library Programs Service of the Government Printing Office, the largest publisher in the world. Union selects about 25 percent of the 6,200 items offered, and has ready access to regional depositories, which keep
everything.

Contained in the massive offerings
is not just information from the three branches of government, but subject
areas covering agriculture, law, medicine, history, economics, energy,
engineering, fish and wildlife, oceans, transportation and health.

“I think people are unaware of
what we have here,” says Donna Burton, reference librarian and government
documents specialist, who has curated the exhibit. “If we lead them to (the
documents collection) they are surprised.”

The range of offerings, which also
include such mundane documents as Zip code directories and IRS tax forms, also
surprises library patrons, Burton added.

The most heavily used documents
are the Statistical Abstracts of the United States, popular with
students and faculty doing research on everything from demographics to economic
trends. Schaffer has them dating back to 1929.

And among the least popular?
Perhaps a lengthy volume on Congressional hearings on the replacement of silverware at U.S. embassies, or a document from a House hearing on the shortage of canning lids.

For calendar listings:

Exhibit: “Documents Through the Decades,” a commemoration of
Union College's centennial as a Federal documents depository.

Date: Through Nov. 9 (Talk by
Robert Freeman on Oct. 29, 3 p.m., Reamer Auditorium)

Times: Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 1 a.m.; Friday, 8
a.m. to 11 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.

Place: Lally Reading
Room, Schaffer Library, Union College

Cost: Free

Information: 388-6281

Posted on Oct 12, 2001

The Union College Board of Trustees has approved a restructuring of the College's Engineering Division, including the phasing out of the civil engineering department. As part of this restructuring, Union will focus its efforts on converging technologies.

Noting that Union was the first liberal arts college to offer engineering, President Roger Hull said, “The question before us is how engineering will fit, not whether it will fit. One of Union's defining characteristics – perhaps its most fundamental defining characteristic – is the historic existence of engineering within a liberal arts framework. It is my strong belief that Union must continue to define itself in this fashion, and I pledge to do all that I can to ensure that goal.”

David B. Chapnick, chairman of the Board, said, “During the past two years, as we developed The Plan for Union, we recognized the need to focus on a new direction in engineering while also making the most effective use of our resources.”

“Our decision is a recognition that we should no longer commit resources to sustain the number of faculty necessary to offer four excellent programs in engineering and computer science,” Chapnick said. “We now will focus our energies on converging technologies and the teaching of computer science, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering.”

The overall amount of the College's budget committed to engineering will not increase, but resources previously allocated to civil engineering will be reallocated to other engineering disciplines at the College. In addition, the College will raise $9 million for the renovation of engineering classrooms and laboratories.

Union has about 2,000 full-time undergraduates – 1,700 majoring in the liberal arts and 300 in engineering. Chapnick said that the Board's decision will “rebalance the commitment of financial resources to reflect this reality of student interest in engineering.”

Christina Sorum, Union's dean of the faculty, said converging technologies “will develop engineering and computer science curricula that are not only enhanced by their presence within a liberal arts college but that themselves enhance the education available for liberal arts students through program interaction and access.”

Converging technologies will bring biology, chemistry, physics, and ethics together with computer science, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. In addition to providing computer science, computer systems engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering degrees, converging technologies will expose Union's students to ways of thinking that encompass academic disciplines across the College.

Union already has begun to focus on four converging technology areas:

Bioengineering – the combination of analytical and experimental methods of engineering and computer science with the biological sciences to achieve a better understanding of biological phenomena and to develop new techniques and devices.

Nanotechnology – the convergence of biology, chemistry, computer science, physics, and engineering to create and use materials, devices, and systems at the level of molecular structures.

Mechatronics and Intelligent Systems – the convergence of electrical, mechanical, and computational systems to study basic mechanical design, systems analysis, control systems, and decision analysis.

Pervasive Computing – the convergence of digital communication and computational systems – focuses on topics such as wireless networks, information transmission, and information processing.

“Certainly, the basic health of the College is very sound, and there are many positive indicators – financial and otherwise – of Union's strength and vigor,” said President Hull. “At the same time, we must acknowledge that the competition we face for faculty, students, and resources is intense – and growing increasingly so. We could afford to keep things as they are, but we recognize that this is a time when we must plan imaginatively and carefully for the future.”

The president said that the College now will bring the liberal arts and engineering together in a way that enables the past of engineering to be prologue to its future. “Leading the effort to implement a converging technologies curriculum at an undergraduate college is consistent with Union's history – and certainly consistent with our commitment to offer the best education we can to our students,” he said. “We will implement converging technologies and enhance a program that focuses on computer systems, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering.”

Current civil engineering students will be able to complete their degrees, but no new students will be accepted in the program. The four tenured faculty members in the Department of Civil Engineering are being offered the opportunity to continue to teach in the Engineering Division.

Posted on Oct 12, 2001

Events

Friday, Oct. 12, 4 p.m.
Garis Field
Women's soccer vs. Vassar

Friday, Oct. 12, through Monday, Oct. 15, 8 and 10 p.m.
Reamer Auditorium
Film: The Fast and the Furious.

Saturday, Oct. 13, 1 p.m.
Garis Field
Women's soccer vs. Rensselaer

Tuesday, Oct. 16, 4 p.m.

Garis Field
Women's soccer vs. Rochester

Tuesday, Oct. 16, 4 p.m.
Frank Bailey Field
Field hockey vs. Hartwick

Tuesday, Oct. 16, 3:30 p.m.
Feigenbaum Hall conference room
The Feigenbaum Forum on “The Plan for Union:
Implementing Change at a College.” To be followed by a reception at 5
p.m. in the Nott Memorial commemorating the
50th anniversary of the publication of Armand's
book that introduced the concept of total quality management.
(see story this issue)

Wednesday, Oct. 17, 4 p.m.
Garis Field
Men's soccer vs. Western New England

Thursday, Oct. 18, 7:30 p.m.
Nott Memorial
NASA astronaut Bonnie Dunbar on “From Apollo Into the
New Millennium: Human Space-Flight Exploration.” The Laurence
Levine '52 and Barry Traub '53 Lecture is part of the Perspectives at
the Nott lecture series. Dunbar also will speak to students and
local schoolchildren during the day.

Thursday, Oct. 18, 8:30 p.m.
Memorial Chapel
Tibetan Multi-tonal Chanting performance by the Gaden
Jangste Tibetan monks, part of their week of programs at
the College.

Friday, Oct. 19, 12:20 p.m.
Arts 215
Prof. Tim Olsen, in conjunction with AMU 32 “The History
of Jazz” and with help from some Capital District
musicians, presents a concert of bebop jazz.

Friday, Oct. 19, 3:30 p.m.
Humanities 117
Tibetan Philosophical Debate with monks from the Gaden
Jangste Monastery. (Followed at 4:30 p.m. in Humanities 213
by Philosophical Fridays @ Union talk by Georges Dreyfus
of Williams College.)

Friday, Oct. 19, 4 p.m.
Frank Bailey Field
Field hockey vs. St. Lawrence

Friday, Oct. 19, 4 p.m.

Memorial Fieldhouse
Volleyball – Union Invitational

Friday, Oct. 19, 4:30 p.m.

Humanities 213

Philosophical Fridays @ Union presents Georges
Dreyfus, Williams College, on “The Sound of Two Hands Clapping:
Philosophical Debate in Tibetan Scholastic Education.”
Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy. (Follows Tibetan
philosophical debate at 3:30 p.m. in Humanities 117.)

Friday, Oct. 19, through Monday, Oct. 22, 8 and 10 p.m.
Reamer Auditorium
Film: The Score

Exhibits

Through Oct. 29
Second-floor photography gallery, Arts Building
“Photographs About Light,” new images by students
in Photography 1.

Oct. 18 through Dec. 23
Mandeville Gallery, Nott Memorial
“All the Good I Can: A Portrait of William
Henry Seward” examines the life and accomplishments of the
1820 Union graduate who was senator, New York State governor,
and secretary of state under Abraham Lincoln.

Oct. 15 through Nov. 9
Lally Reading Room, Schaffer Library
“Documents Through the Decades,” an exhibit
commemorating the centennial of the College library's designation as
a Federal document depository.

Through Dec. 10
Social Sciences Faculty Lounge Gallery
“Handicrafts from Around the World,” from the faculty
collections, including cloth, mats, masks, purses and woven
wall hangings. Hours are weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Posted on Oct 12, 2001

Union College is committed to assisting all members of
the College community in providing for their own safety and
security. Information regarding campus security and personal
safety including topics such as, crime prevention, Campus Safety
law enforcement authority, crime reporting policies, crime
statistics for the most recent three-year period, and disciplinary
procedures is available from the Director of Campus Safety.
This information, which is shared as required by the Campus
Crime Awareness Act, may also be accessed from the Union
College Campus Safety web site.