Posted on Sep 26, 2002

Sandy Collins, now in her third season as the women's volleyball coach, picked up her 50th victory at Union and her 75th overall last weekend while leading the Dutchwomen to the championship of their own tournament. Collins, who guided Union to an 18-14 record in 2000, led the Dutchwomen to a school-record 25-13 campaign last year. Not only did last year's squad set the standard for victories in a season, the Dutchwomen were invited to the ECAC tournament for the first time since volleyball became a varsity sport at Union in 1976.

Collins, who was at Randolph
Macon before coming to Union, picked up her landmark
victories against some tough competition. The Dutchwomen
knocked off Oneonta, the state's fourth-ranked team at the
time, 26-30, 27-30, 32-30, 31-29 and 15-13 on Friday night
before handing Vassar its first loss in nine matches on
Saturday, 23-30, 27-30, 30-20, 30-25. The win over the
Brewers also avenged an earlier loss at the Vassar Tournament
when Union dropped a 23-30, 27-30, 30-25, 30-21, and 15-12
decision to its UCAA rival

The four-match sweep of the Union Invitational not only left
the Dutchwomen with a 7-2 record, it gave the Garnet seven
consecutive victories since dropping season-opening contests
to perennial powers Skidmore and Vassar.If last
weekend's success wasn't enough for the Garnet, Union went to
Middlebury, Vermont on Tuesday, September 24 and beat the
Panthers, 3-2. The Dutchwomen captured the first two
games, lost the next two, then won the tie-breaking fifth
match, 15-4.

Coaches around
the state are taking note of Union's early-season achievements
as the Dutchwomen were ranked fifth in the
region.

Posted on Sep 25, 2002

The future is not in selling computers, but in selling computing power, with users connecting to a power grid similar to the electric grid that lets users purchase only the power they need, according to IBM.

John Kelly III, IBM's senior vice president and group executive explained the company's plan before the Government Technology Conference on Sept. 25.

Kelly outlined how technology has changed in the past four decades, from mainframes in the 1960s and 1970s to personal computers in the 1980s and 1990s. The focus shifted to networking in the late 1990s until today. But the next big change will be in nanotechnology, packing high computer power into small devices. He said he expected personal digital assistants to have more power than today's big super computers that run large businesses.

With that higher computing power, integrating computer systems will become even more important, he said. IBM has a plan that will allow businesses to focus more on customers and their core businesses and less on running their computer systems, he said.

The grid concept would allow people and businesses to network by plugging into the grid.

“Think of this as the marriage of the Internet and supercomputing,” Kelly said. “All computers will talk to each other and share resources. This is not just pie-in-the-sky. We're already working with countries like Great Britain and states like Pennsylvania to put in a large computer grid system.”

He said IBM will also model its pricing schedule after the utilities, too.

“Once you get this grid in place, you can start to think about buying computer power like you buy (electric) power,” he said. “Think of it like a power plant and you'll draw from that power plant as you need it.”

With users being able to tap into power, they won't have to beef up their computers or toss them for newer models, he said. And IBM will handle the integration of computer systems, too.

IBM is also designing computer systems that will work best on the new grid that Kelly described as autonomic. Autonomic is a biology term that refers to involuntary processes the body handles automatically, like a beating heart or blinking eyes. In the case of IBM's future computers, it will mean machines that manage themselves, correct internal defects and manage workloads. It will also handle security issues.

“This is the Holy Grail of computing,” Kelly said. “In a sense it's self aware of its own problems.”

He said system operators will be able to focus on business applications instead of networking issues.

“I view it as taking the shackles off people,” Kelly said.

Posted on Sep 24, 2002

James B. Stewart, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author,
attorney and editor-at-large of Smart
Money, will speak on “The Call to Duty: Leadership After September 11 and
EnRon” on Tuesday, Oct. 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the Nott Memorial at Union College.

His talk, which
opens Union College's Perspectives at the Nott lecture series,
is free and open to the public.

A contributor to the New
Yorker, and formerly page one editor of The
Wall Street Journal, is the author of the national bestsellers Blind Eye, an investigation of the
medical profession, Den of Thieves,
about Wall Street in the '80s, and Blood
Sport, about the Clinton White House.

Stewart is the recipient of a 1988 Pulitzer Prize for The Wall Street Journal articles on the
1987 stock market crash and the insider-trading scandal. As a reporter at The Journal, he covered the Milken and
Boesky scandals, the mergers and acquisitions boom of the 1980s and the world
of investment banking and the stock market.

Stewart, who is also a columnist for Common Sense and SmartMoney.com, combines investigative skills with
a novelist's style and sensibility. With years of experience covering Wall
Street and Washington, Stewart will weave together themes from his new book, Heart
of a Soldier: A Story of Love, Heroism, and September 11, and the erosion
of the recent corporate scandals. His book recounts the life of Rick Rescorla,
a Vietnam war hero and head of security for Morgan Stanley who lost his own
life on September 11, 2001,
while saving 3,700 World Trade
Center employees under his watch.

Other speakers in the Perspective at the Nott series are:

Journalist and author Laurie Garrett on “The
Betrayal of Trust,” Tuesday, Oct. 15; and

Terry Gross, host of NPR's “Fresh Air” on “All I
Did Was Ask: An Evening with Terry Gross,” Wednesday, Nov. 13.

All talks are at 7:30 p.m.
in the Nott Memorial. A free reception follows each talk.

For more information,
call 388-6131.

Posted on Sep 24, 2002

The Master Dancers of Bali,
featuring eight of the Indonesian island's most celebrated dancers and
musicians, will perform on Tuesday, Oct. 8, at 8 p.m. in Union College's Yulman Theater.

Cost is $5, free to members of the Union community. For
more information, call the box office at 388-6545.

The troupe will be on campus for two days, doing a number
of lectures and demonstrations on Monday, Oct. 7, and Tuesday, Oct. 8, which
are free and open to the public. (A complete listing of workshops appears below.)

Under the direction of Mr. I Gusti Raka Pinji Tisna, the
Master Dancers of Bali capture the magic of their island
with a program of five traditional dances and selected Balinese operas, all
with gloriously colorful costumes and live traditional Balinese
music.

Master Dancers of Bali is an eight-performer troupe of some of the island's most accomplished and highly regarded dance
masters, who will perform together for the first time outside of Bali.
The performers range in age from 30 to 80, and span three generations within
the same family. Ms. Ni Ketut Cenik, 80, is the most experienced traditional
Balinese dancer performing. She made her debut at age 12 and has been awarded
the highest honors in the performing arts by the local Balinese government as
well as by the Ministry of Culture of Indonesia.

“(In the West) we require our dancers to retire when they
can no longer do the technical feats of their youth,” said Gail
George, who is organizing the group's visit at Union.
“In Bali, as elsewhere in the East, they not only value,
but revere, their older master performers. Ms. Ni Ketut Cenik is a wonder to
behold.”

Other dancers include Mr. Ida Bagus Oka Wirjana, a
70-year-old master of Kebyar Duduk; Mr. I Made Jimat, the son of Ms. Ni Ketut
Cenik, is one of the most well known and celebrated Balinese dancers and also
an accomplished musician; Mr. Ida Bagus Suteja Manuaba, who began performing at
age 10 and has won numerous awards at festivals throughout Bali; Ms. Ni Wayan
Sekarriani, the granddaughter of Ms. Ni Ketut Cenik and niece of Mr. I Made
Jimat, known for her roles as Rangga (prince) in the Balinese operatic
dance-drama of Gambuh;  Ms. Ida Ayu
Diastini, a noted performer and teacher who has starred in three Indonesian
film and television productions; and Ms. Ni Wayan Latri, who specializes in the
Arja dance and is one of the few female dalangs (shadow puppet masters) in
Bali.

Musical accompaniment will be performed by Mr. I Wayan
Sedia, who specializes in the bamboo flute, drums, rindik (bamboo xylophone)
and gender (metallophone).

The dancers will give the following free workshops and
discussions:

Monday, Oct. 7

2:50 p.m.,
Yulman Theater, “Drama in Bali” with Prof. Bill Finlay's theater class;

5 p.m.,
Old Chapel, “Issues Relating to Tourism and Modernization in Bali;”

8 p.m., Old Chapel, “Dance and Drama in Bali with a Focus on
Shadow Puppets and Masks;”

Tuesday, Oct. 8

10 a.m., Arts Building Dance Studio, lecture and dance demonstration with a class led by
Union dance director Miryam Moutillet

1:35 p.m.,
Arts Building Dance Studio, lecture and demonstration of music with Prof. Hilary
Tann's class.

The program is supported by the Henry Luce Foundation, Unitas, East Asian Studies,
Performing Arts Department, Minerva Committee, Dean of Students Office, and the Anthropology Department at Union College.

Posted on Sep 21, 2002

Michelangelo never had it so good.

About three dozen students got
some encouragement on Saturday while they repainted a large mural outside the Hamilton
Hill Arts Center:
the pounding rhythms of African drums courtesy of the Center's African drum
troupe, who were practicing inside for their fall show.

“It's really neat,” observed one
student. “Music while we paint.”

The students were among an
estimated 200 from the College who took part in the eighth annual John Calvin
Toll Day to put a shine on the city. Students also worked at a number of sites
along Nott Street, Nott
Terrace, Erie Boulevard and
at the Schenectady Museum.
Projects included painting, weeding and planting some red and bright yellow
chrysanthemums.

Students joined members of other
local volunteer organizations to assist with projects at local agencies
including American Red Cross, Bethesda House, Community Land Trust, Eddy
Senior Center,
Family Child Services of Schenectady and Safe Inc. The day ended with a
reception at the City Center Sportsplex, where students could learn more about
local volunteer opportunities.

John Calvin Toll Day is supported
by Al Hill, a 1946 Union graduate, and his wife, Perrie. Toll was the great,
great grandfather of Hill, a retired attorney from Buffalo.
The Hills created the fund to encourage Union students to undertake volunteer
service. “We believe that the experiences from this activity will carry over
beyond graduation and enrich not only those they serve but also the
volunteers,” Hill said.