Posted on Nov 8, 2002

The college is forwarding four nominees for Watson
Fellowships for final interviews with the executive director of the Watson
Foundation starting on Nov. 13.

They are:

— Jeff Fairfield,
psychology, Arundel, Maine
— “Running in their Footsteps: A Study of Distance Running
Communities”

Countries:  Finland,
Kenya, New
Zealand, Scotland,
and Greece

–Brian Kern, biology, Voorheesville,
N.Y. — “Life from Death: The Marine
Impacts of Submerged Wrecks”

Countries:  Bermuda,
Bahamas, Micronesia,
Scotland

— Nori Lupfer, visual arts, West
Lebanon, N.H. — “Circuses
and Stunts: Photography of Entertainment in Motion”

Countries:  Brazil,
Switzerland, France,
Slovenia, Italy,
Holland, Germany,
Denmark, Czech
Republic, Russia

— Eric Meissner, biology and political science, Troy,
N.Y. — “The Relationship between
Culture and 'Emergency' Medicine”

Countries: Honduras,
Nicaragua, Netherlands,
England

Each applicant is required to submit a three-page
application form, a five-page project proposal, and a five page personal statement,
plus supporting appendices, and two letters of recommendation.

Nineteen students submitted preliminary proposals to the
campus Watson committee last June, and ten submitted final proposals in
September (of whom seven were interviewed). The campus Watson Committee
consisted of Profs. Ann Anderson, Joyce Madancy, Byron Nichols, Ed Pavlic and
former Watson Fellow Eugene Kokot '70.

Fifty top liberal arts colleges in the country are invited
each year to participate in the Watson Fellowship competition. Each college
nominates a maximum of four students each, for a total of 200. The Fellowship
program selects about 60 Watson Fellows each year. Any or all of Union's
nominees could be winners. Two years ago, Union had two
winners. Last year, Union had none.

Each Watson winner receives a $22,000 stipend for the year
to cover expenses; an additional stipend is added if the winner is married and will
be traveling with spouse. In addition, the Watson Foundation will pay any
undergraduate loans due from a Watson fellow during the year of his/her
fellowship.

Selections are announced in March.

Posted on Nov 8, 2002

Sophomore playwright Kit Goldstein
has created a musical adaptation of “The Wrong Box,” based the classic book by Robert
Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne. The play, performed by an 11-member cast
from Mountebanks, the Union College
student theater club, opens on Friday, Nov. 15, at 8 p.m. in Yulman Theater.

Goldstein wrote the adaptation, music, and lyrics for the
two-and-a-half hour show. She was also the director.

Set in late Victorian England, “The Wrong Box”
is the story of an elderly gentleman, Joseph Finsbury, who is a member of a
tontine – a fund which will pay a substantial sum to the last surviving member
– and his scheming nephew Morris, who would do anything to inherit his uncle's
winnings. When Joseph is involved in a train wreck and assumed dead, Morris
does everything in his power to cover up the death and win the tontine, and
mass confusion and chaos ensue.

Included in the cast are Jeff Silver, Michael Woodrow,
Becca Hutton, Alex Given, Jane Yoon, Julie Francis, Guy Goldstein, Jhulian
Newell-Little, Alexi Nowell, Dana Smullyan and Kristina Yost.

Besides Goldstein, the production crew includes Josh Dubbs
(producer), Anchia Kinard (stage manager), Nathan Stodola (music director/pianist),
Nina Kalinkon (sets), Ashlyn Andersen and Umber Gold (costumes), and Cooper Braun-Enos
and Evan Reid (lights and sound).

This is the fifth play Goldstein has written or co-written
(with sister Umber Gold '00). She has produced three musicals (including a revue
based on Freshman Preceptorial that was presented during Steinmetz Symposium
last spring), one comedy and a historically-based dinner theater mystery. She began
work on “The Wrong Box” last spring. It has been in rehearsal since the start
of fall term. Goldstein is a native of Niskayuna.

Performances are Friday, Nov. 15, and Saturday, Nov. 16, 8 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 17, at 2 p.m. in the Yulman Theater. Admission is
free. For more information, call (518) 388-6812.

Posted on Nov 8, 2002

A number of  friends
and former colleagues are to speak at a memorial service for Prof. Hans Freund
on Saturday, Nov. 9, at 10 a.m. in
Memorial Chapel.

Freund, the Edward E. Hale Jr. Professor of English
Emeritus, died Aug. 24 at the age of 83.

Speakers are to include Kenneth Needleman '80; Leonard
Meiselman, artist and friend; Frank Gado, professor of English, 1963-1999.

The service will be followed by a reception in Everest
Lounge.

Posted on Nov 8, 2002

Terry Gross, the award-winning
host of NPR's Fresh Air, will give a
talk on “All I Did Was Ask: An Evening with Terry Gross” on Wednesday, Nov. 13,
at 7:30 p.m. in Union
College's Nott Memorial.

The talk, the last in the term's
Perspectives at the Nott series, is free and open to the public.

Since 1973, she has been
interviewing some of the most prominent figures of our time – John Updike,
Arthur Miller, Spalding Gray, Diane Keaton, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Jimmy
Carter, Elie Weisel, Marilyn Mason and Jerry Falwell. Her unmistakable voice
reaches some 2 million listeners across 300 public radio stations nationwide.

“The good thing,” said Gross in a recent
interview with Metro Santa Cruz, “is
that anything you could possibly be interested in has a potential connection to
the show. The bad thing,” she continues, “is that anything you could possibly
be interested in has a connection to the show.”

“She has the best interview show
on any medium in the U.S.,”
says William Drummond, a Berkeley-based NPR correspondent, in the Metro interview with Michael Mechanic.
“She actually reads [her subject's] books. With many talk shows, you're lucky
if they read the liner notes. She's also not afraid to ask a completely naive
question, but often it's the question everyone wants to know the answer to.”

“It's a wonderful medium for
conversation and for all things related to language, whether it's a reading or
even a song, because there is nothing visual to distract you,” says Gross,
asked what she finds special about radio. “You're not thinking about somebody's
hairdo or whether you like their clothes. You are just engaged in what they
have to say.”

For more information, call (518)
388-6131.

Posted on Nov 6, 2002

The Dutchwomen are looking to rebound from last weekend's disappointing showing in the New York State Women's Collegiate Athletic Association tournament. Seeded sixth, their highest seed ever, the Dutchwomen lost in straight sets to No. 11 Rochester before falling in four matches to #7 RIT to finish 11th.

The Dutchwomen, now 20-9, can put themselves back into postseason consideration for either the NCAA or the ECAC tournaments with a solid showing at Clarkson.