Posted on May 17, 2002

Rebecca Koopman,
assistant professor of physics, gave an invited talk at the
Ringberg Workshop on the Virgo Cluster in Germany last month. The title
of her talk was “An Halpha Imaging Survey of Massive Star
Formation in Virgo Cluster Spirals.”

Robert Sharlet, Chauncey Winters Professor of
Political Science, recently presented a paper on “Progress and Resistance
to Putin's Federal Reforms for Russia” at the Kennan Institute
of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. As the sequel
to Sharlet's article last year on President Vladimir
Putin's extensive restructuring of the Russian federal system, the
paper focuses on political, legal and bureaucratic resistance to
the changes. A summary prepared by the Kennan Institute has
been distributed through various professional electronic
networks here and abroad.

Hilary Tann, professor of music, was invited to the
University of Wisconsin-River Falls on May 14 for a concert
devoted entirely to her music. “The Power of Nature: Music of Hilary
Tann” included two choral works, three chamber pieces, and three
works for full orchestra. The final work in the program was the
premiere of “Sarsen,” written last fall
and jointly commissioned by the St. Croix Valley Symphony
Orchestra and the Saratoga Springs Youth Orchestra. The
local premiere was May 5. Each of the three movements refer
to different standing stones: an erratic in the Adirondacks, the
Bat Stone from the Garden of the Master of the nets in
Suzhou, China, and one of the Kennett Avenue stones from the
ancient stone circle in Avebury, England.

Leo J. Fleishman, professor of biology, is the second
author on a paper published recently in the Journal of
Experimental Biology. The other authors are Ellis Loew, Cornell University; and
Russell Foster and Ignacio Provencio, the University
of Virginia.

Posted on May 17, 2002

Over his 16 years at Union College, Loren Rucinski has
often asked, “What would Joseph Jacques Ramée think?”

“We like to think that Ramée would be happy that we've
taken the time and expense to keep the campus (according to his
1813 plan),” said Rucinski, recently named the College's director
of facilities services.

The College has been successful in resisting a host of threats
to the landscape architect's vision: the architectural whims of the
1960s, the demand for more parking space, and thoroughfares
that bisect a number of other campuses. (“Ramée didn't have to deal
with cars,” Rucinski notes.) The result, he says, is a symmetrical campus
with “a large cut diamond in the center” (the Nott) that “leaves a
great impression with visitors.”

Rucinski joined the College as a campus planner in 1986, and
since then he can rightly claim, “there's not a spot on campus that I
haven't touched.” In fact there are some places on campus he has touched
a number of times as they have been adapted for new uses: Old
Chapel, Wells House and North Colonnade to name a few.

Perhaps the most rewarding part of his Union career was
the recent conversion of homes for student housing on Seward Place
as part of the Union-Schenectady Initiative, he said. The project
was challenging and rewarding in that the College pulled it together
so quickly and it has been praised by the community and
students, Rucinski said.

“Plenty of campuses do adaptive reuse, but we go the
extra mile that some others don't,” he said. On the Seward Place
project, for example, the College preserved or re-created architecturally
worthy elements such as moldings and wood floors, he noted.

Rucinski holds a BFA from Temple University, is a member
of the Society for College and University Planners and
the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers.

Posted on May 17, 2002

Jon Sterngass, the author of First Resorts: Pursuing Pleasure
at Saratoga Springs, Newport and Coney Island will give a lecture
titled “The Legacy of Saratoga Springs as a Resort Community” on
Monday, May 20, at 8 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.

Sterngass, who teaches history at the College, writes that
Saratoga Springs is relatively unchanged since the early 1800s when
Gideon Putnam's grand hotels tapped into the popularity of the mineral
water spas.

Today, more than 50 years after the hugely successful
Grand Union and U.S. hotels were demolished, the city still
boasts what Henry James lambasted in an 1870 travel sketch as “a
momentous spectacle: the democratization of elegance.”

That democratized elegance is precisely what makes
Saratoga Springs so special, according to Sterngass, whose book is
an unusual multi-site historical study spanning a century of
American leisure at the Northeast's best-known playgrounds.

Posted on May 17, 2002

Maureen Farrell, a senior majoring in
interdepartmental English and Women's Studies,
will spend next year doing graduate work at the Christina Institute
of the University of Helsinki.

Farrell, a native of Shelton, Conn., has received a
Fulbright fellowship for her proposal, “The Convergence of Feminism
Across Culture: Examining Finland's Social Policy.”

She plans to examine how American feminist ideals
intersect with those articulated in Finland, a democratic nation of
sharply different cultural and political makeup. Her interests center
on the progressive social policies and politics of women's issues
in Finland in parliamentary legislation and grass roots level.

Finland has confronted equality issues with
“women friendly” legislation to provide affordable and
accessible healthcare and childcare, Farrell said. Meanwhile, the U.S.
system of private health care favors the wealthy, and government
policy allows companies to set maternity leaves, she said.

And while American feminists point to the poverty of
U.S. women under healthcare, the ongoing battle for abortion
rights and the high cost of childcare, Farrell says that Finland views
the ability to work full-time while maintaining a family as a
key issue of equality.

“My research will address what changes in health care
and `family policy' from the Finnish model can realistically be made
in the U.S. system,” she said.

Farrell, who is minoring in Spanish, first considered
her proposal in the fall of 2000 during a term in York, England,
where she compared the national health care system in England to
the private one in the U.S. “I saw that national health care for
women (in the U.S.) is awful,” she recalls. “The policy is there but they
don't have access and it favors the rich.”

Among her research projects, she did independent study
with Carolyn Mitchell, head of women's studies and advisor
on her Fulbright and senior honors thesis. She also recently
presented at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research and
the Steinmetz Symposium (“Defining Female Sexuality Through
the Poetic Voice of Hispanic Women,” Prof. Pilar Moyano, advisor).
She served an internship this year with the Rensselaer
County District Attorney's victim assistance program. Also, she
studied in Seville, Spain, during the winter term.

A dean's list student and winner of the Phi Beta
Kappa Award in general education and the English department's
Hale Prize for non-fiction, Farrell has been a member of the
volleyball and track teams, Outing Club and Safe Space. She was an
orientation advisor and a writer for both
Concordiensis and Ethos.

She recently received the David Brind Memorial Prize
in English and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

“Maureen did a fantastic job researching and writing
her proposal for the Fulbright,” said Prof. Andrew Feffer, who
also advised her. “Other students who are interested in the
Fulbright should consult with Maureen about the ins and outs of
the system.”

Posted on May 17, 2002

Among the memorable quotes from Steinmetz
was this one from sophomore Shawn Kirk, who presented
on “The Incorporation of Classical Music into Progressive
Rock and Heavy Metal:”

“No one looks at an overweight Elvis in a white
jump suit and says, `What a genius that guy was!'”

And later, after playing a selection of heavy
“death metal” music, he turned to the somewhat stunned
audience and said, “That's not Moonlight Sonata. It all sounds like
one big grunt.”