This is the last issue of the Chronicle for the fall term. Publication will resume with the start of classes in January.
Read MoreThe geology department was ranked fourth in geoscience research at national liberal arts colleges by a study from Mount Holyoke College.
The study, which appeared in the Journal of Geoscience Education, considered the number of articles, pages, and abstracts published in the scientific literature between 1987 and 1996. Union faculty published 28 scientific articles.
Williams, Colgate and Wesleyan were listed first through third, respectively. Franklin & Marshall was fifth.
“At Union, we place a strong emphasis on research – at both the faculty and undergraduate levels,” said John Garver, professor of geology. “This is a welcome validation that our efforts are well-placed.”
Garver noted that about 50 to 60 percent of recent graduates from geology go on to advanced studies in geology and allied sciences.
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Union has launched a new personalized news service that provides a central source for information about what's happening at the College. “About U” is a weekly e-mail containing headlines and summaries from Union news stories, with links to full stories on Union's web site.
The service draws from all of Union's official publications, including the Chronicle, Union College Magazine, press releases, and athletics news.
Members of the Union community are welcome to sign up for About U by visiting www.union.edu/AboutU. Subscribers can choose from among 12 different categories of news, including “Arts,” “Athletics,” and “Academics and Awards,” for example, and will receive only stories relevant to these interests. A “subscribe to all” feature will enable a subscriber to receive all stories. Subscribers may also change their preferences or “unsubscribe.”
“The system was initially designed as a way to keep prospective students informed about Union,” according to Tom Smith, Union's Web site director. “But we quickly realized that all of Union's audiences would benefit from a service like this, so we are opening it up to everyone.”
According to Nick Famulare, director of alumni relations, “We got a ton of positive feedback when we announced this service to alums. They always want to hear more about Union, so this is a great way to keep in touch with an important audience.”
“The fact that this service is unique gives us a little edge in the admissions process,” said Dan Lundquist, vice president for admissions. “We're always looking for ways to keep Union's strengths on the minds of prospective students, and 'About U' is the perfect way to do that.”
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They confess to feeling a bit like “guinea pigs.”
But Beth Fuller, Emily McConnell and Danielle Faul also say they are excited about being the first Union students to take a term abroad in Vietnam. And they say they look forward to sharing the experience with classmates and helping to recruit for a program there next fall. The juniors are going to Vietnam for the winter and spring terms as part of the Partnership for Global Education, a collaboration between Union and Hobart and William Smith Colleges. The partnership is using a grant of nearly $200,000 from the U.S. Department of Education to develop a joint program in Hanoi.
The Union trio has joined 17 of their HWS counterparts for videoconferenced classes taught by Jack Harris, a sociologist at HWS, who will lead the term. The two groups met recently when the HWS students came to Schenectady for a Vietnamese music program. HWS has sent students to Vietnam three times; this is the first time Union students have gone.
The Union coordinator for the Vietnam term is Ted Gilman, acting director of East Asian Studies, who will lead the term in Vietnam next fall.
The students will take three classes, one each on the language, culture and sociology of Vietnam. In addition, they will do an independent study that Faul said, “may totally change after we get there.”
For now, Fuller, an economics major, plans study the impact of technology and the role of U.S. policy on productivity in Vietnam. McConnell, an interdepartmental major in economics and anthropology, will investigate cottage industry and market structure. Faul, a biology major, will compare socialized medicine between rural and urban areas. Faul also plans to provide content for an environmental science Web site that an HWS student is using to teach youngsters at a Geneva, N.Y., school. Faul said she hopes to be able to extend that program to one of the Schenectady schools.
Faul, who moved throughout Asia as a child, says the trip will be “kind of like going back home,” adding she is eager to compare Vietnam before and after the war. Fuller says she expects a visit from her father, a veteran of the war who has not returned since 1969. McConnell says she looks forward to an extended stay in a Third World country that is unlike anything in the West.
“It's hard to be the first to go, and we're going to fumble our way through,” said Faul. “But it's exciting. Our friends can't believe we're going on a term in Vietnam.”
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