Will the futon fit? How do I use voice mail? Did the director of ResLife really grow up on a dairy farm?
Katie Round and Jeremy Dibbell at the ice cream/coffee counter
A new web site from Residential Life has answers to those questions and lots more.
The new site, at http://www.union.edu/ResLife, offers everything from floor plans and room dimensions for all the living spaces to tips on laundry. (And for the suds-phobics, there's even a link to a laundry service.)
Students Jeremy Dibbell and Katie Round wrote a “FAQ” page covering all the hot topics: dining halls, furniture, phones, security and insurance to name a few. They even served as “models” for the page.
There are pages that introduce the ResLife office and student staff, a page with a wealth of information for parents, and links to pages on the House System, campus map and visitor's guide.
“I believe that our new web-home is going to prove to be a huge benefit for our students, for prospective students and parents, and for us,” said Doug Bazuin, director of residential life.
The next phase of the site will offer a newsletter, online forms, interactive links, and pictures for the Residence Halls pages. There will also be a page dedicated to prospective students, a page just for first-year students, and rotating pages regarding the lottery, staff selection, and check-in/check-out.
Prof. Don Rodbell, left, and Chris Moy '98 on field trip in Andes Mountains
Chris Moy '98 and Prof. Donald
Rodbell of geology are authors of a paper in the Nov. 14
issue of Nature about a study that
found that El Nino, the tropical phenomenon that can affect weather across the
entire Western hemisphere, occurs on a roughly 2,000-year cycle.
Moy, who was the lead author,
studied with Rodbell as an undergraduate, doing field work in the Andes
Mountains of Peru
and Ecuador.
The paper was based on Moy's graduate work at Syracuse
University under Geoffrey Seltzer,
another author of the paper. Moy is pursuing his Ph.D. in geology at Stanford
University.
In a 1999 study published in Science, Rodbell and Seltzer reported on
their discovery of the first continuous record of El Nino events dating back
more than 5,000 years. The scientists used sediment samples from Lake
Pallcacocha in southern Ecuador
as part of a larger 1993 study of global climate change funded by the National
Science Foundation. The lighter-colored bands of sediment indicated debris that
would flow into the lake during the high precipitation periods characteristic
of El Nino. Jeremy Newman '97 was a co-author on the Science paper.
The recent Nature article confirms the findings of the earlier study, that El
Nino patterns began about 10,000 years ago and increased in frequency starting
7,000 years ago. The new study found high-frequency clusters of El Nino
occurring on a 2,000-year cycle.
Publication in Nature, widely considered one of the
premier international science journals, is a prized event for a scientist. It
is highly unusual for someone to publish their master's thesis in the journal,
as Moy has done, Rodbell notes.
President Roger Hull will name subcommittees of the
Planning and Priorities Committee to examine six areas of the College's budget.
The subcommittees, each to be headed by a
faculty member from the P and P Committee, will look at athletics, benefits,
financial aid, printing, terms abroad, and travel. The six areas are the
College's biggest annual expenses outside of salaries.
Announcement of the subcommittees was made at a
general faculty meeting Monday, where the president and Diane Blake, vice
president for finance and administration, presented an overview of the
College's financial situation.
The College's finances are strong, the president
said, noting that Union's endowment per student is in the top 100 in
the country and that a recent analysis shows that the College is in the top 25
percent in endowment performance.
“Overall, we're in excellent shape for this
year, and we will be next year,” he said. “We're looking farther ahead, since Union – like every college with
an endowment – will have less money coming from the endowment.”
The
endowment provides about 19 percent of the College's revenue. From a market
value of $275 million on June 30, 2000, the College's
endowment dropped to about $216 million on Sept. 30 of this year before rising
to the current $228 million. Blake explained that the College looks at a
three-year pattern to determine how much to draw from the endowment (the
College's rate had been 5.6 percent, which was raised to 6.8 percent to
accommodate the House System). Because of the decline in short-term interest
rates and in the endowment, the College already knows that it will have less
money available in coming years.
The president also said the administration will
reexamine The Plan for Union, which was put together 18 months ago.
“We may have to put some things on the back burner,” he said.
Announcing the formation of the special
committees, the president said, “What we're seeking to do is to make decisions
collectively that will not have a detrimental effect on the academic mission of
the College. What we're also seeking is not to balance the budget on the backs
of the people who make Union the special place that it is.”
Saturday, November 16
Union vs. NYU-Misericordia winner
at William Smith 1:30 p.m.
Sunday, November 16
Union (if it wins Saturday) in Regional Championship
at William Smith 1:00 p.m.
The Dutchwomen's two wins over William Smith this year, both by the score of 1-0, wasn't enough to give the Garnet home field advantage for the upcoming NCAA tournament. It was, however, just what the team needed to win both the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association's regular-season championship (the team's third since the league began in 1995…this season with a 6-1 record) as well as the conference's championship tournament title. The tournament crown earned the Dutchwomen their fourth consecutive trip to the Division III National Championship event.
NOT A SECOND TIME–Head coach Brian Speck prepares to kick over the team's second water bucket after his Dutchwomen got him with the first one following Sunday's 1-0 victory over William Smith that gave Union its fourth-straight NCAA tournament berth.
“There are a lot of factors that go into deciding who hosts the Regionals,” said eighth-year head coach Brian Speck, who has guided the Dutchwomen to an overall record of 101-31-9. “Traveling to William Smith is not that big of a deal for us,” Speck continued. “We've played them so many times over the last few years that it doesn't really make any difference where we play.”
The rivalry between the Dutchwomen and Herons began in 1995 with the first season of the UCAA. While William Smith holds a not-so-commanding 7-3-1 series advantage. All three of Union's victories have been by the score of 1-0 on Garis Field.
The Herons, who have been to the NCAA tournament the last 16 years under 23-year head coach Aliceann Wilbur (who has all 301 of the program's victories), won the first three meetings by scores of 5-0 (1995), 1-0 (1996) and 2-0 (1997). The Herons won both meetings in 1999, 3-0 in regular-season play and 4-1 in the Dutchwomen's first NCAA tournament appearance (after Union had rallied from a 3-0 deficit to defeat Ithaca, 4-3 in overtime, in the play-in game at Ithaca). William Smith won the 2000 UCAA meeting, 2-1 in overtime, and last year won the regular-season contest, 1-0, before beating the Dutchwomen in the NCAA New York Regional championship, 4-3 in penalty kicks. The hosting Herons tied the game with 48 seconds left in regulation before the two teams battled a heavy downpour, and each other, during four overtime sessions.
The 2002 NCAA Bound Dutchwomen celebrate after winning
the UCAA Tournament Title
Members of the squad include (in no particular order)
Captains–Abbie West, Carolyn Stead, Victoria Kuzman
Katie Ryan, Linsey Capecelatro, Alaina LaRocca, Marissa Van
Earlier this year Union defeated New York University, 1-0, in the Williams Invitational. The Dutchwomen have never played Misericordia, which is from Dallas, Pennsylvania.
The Dutchwomen enter the weekend having scored 38 goals while allowing 10. Freshman Erika Eisenhut (7-4-18), sophomore Brittany Cressman (7-2-16), freshman Alaina LaRocca (5-2-12), and senior Abbie West (4-4-12) pace the attack.
Defensively, junior Victoria Kuzman and Lindsay Kroell along with freshman Marissa VanWoeart have teamed to provide goaltenders, senior Carolyn Stead and freshman Julie Gawronski, with excellent protection. Midfielders, juniors Erin Holmes, Stephanie Mole', sophomores Molly Flanagan and Brianna Bailey have done an excellent job with the Dutchwomen's transition game.
Gawronski, who was voted the Most Valuable Player in last week's UCAA tournament after shutting out Hamilton (2-0) and William Smith, has five shutouts this season with an 0.85 goals against average and an 81.0 save percentage. Stead, who has recorded six shutouts this year and 24 for her three-year career as a starter, owns an 0.21 goals against average and a 93.5 save percentage.
Union goes into the weekend ranked first in the NSCAA's New York Regional poll and is ranked 10th in the nation in the November 11 poll.
William Smith heads into the weekend with a 14-3-3 overall record and a second-place ranking in the NSCAA's New York Regional poll. One of the pillars of the team is senior goaltender Leah Cornwell, who has eight shutouts, a goals against average of 0.60 and a save percentage of .826.
Scoring leaders include Alyson Stachura (10-2-22), Maria Paoff (7-3-17), Kristin Falzarano (6-5-17), Arin Belden (6-4-16) and Steph Gridley (5-3-13).
The Herons have scored 43 goals and given up 12.
New York University (10-4-4) plays at Misericordia (19-1-0) and Westminster (15-2-2) while Nazareth (16-3-1) is at Grove City (13-6-2) in Wednesday's two play-in games.
A total of 45 teams make up the championship field.
Thursday, November 14
Union vs. Vassar at Nazareth College, 4:30
Friday, November 15
Union (if it wins on Thursday)
vs. Nazareth, 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, November 16
Union (if it wins on Thursday & Friday)
in Regional Championship at Nazareth, 7:00 p.m.
The 2002 Dutchwomen are the first team in the sport's 27-year history at Union to qualify for the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament.
Union's selection fulfills a goal and a promise made by third-year head coach Sandy Collins. Collins, who was hired to take over the program in the summer of 2000, told the search committee that she was committed to building the Dutchwomen into an NCAA contender.
“This is unbelievable,” said Collins after being informed of the national committee's decision to take Union into the 48-team field. “What an accomplishment for my players, for Union, and for the program.”
Union, which posted its second-straight 20-win season (23-10) for the first time in the history of the program, vaulted into the national limelight thanks to last weekend's second-place finish in the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament (which was held at Clarkson). Union finished 3-1 in the round-robin event, losing to second-year champion Vassar in four games. Fortunately for Collins and her Dutchwomen, history did not repeat itself entirely. In 2001, Union finished second in the UCAA event, losing only to Vassar, for a 25-12 record. However, the NCAA committee overlooked the Dutchwomen in favor of third-place Skidmore, which Union had beaten in the tournament. While they didn't get an NCAA invitation, the Dutchwomen did receive the program's first-ever ECAC championship tournament bid, losing to top-seeded and homestanding Springfield in four games.
“I think last year's selection of Skidmore had to do with past performances,” explained Collins. “They (Skidmore) had been to the tournament a couple of years in a row and we were the new kids on the block. Sometimes it takes a year or two to prove to the national committee that your team deserves an opportunity to compete at that level.”
Collins certainly has shown her Dutchwomen “belong.”
2002 NCAA-Bound DUTCHWOMEN – (top to bottom – left to right)
Kirin Liquori, Erin Liquori, Jess Meloski,
Sue Gestwick, Charelle Carter,
Head Coach Sandy Collins
In 2000, her first year at the helm, Collins led a young Dutchwomen team to an 18-14 overall record and the program's first invitation to the New York State Women's Collegiate Athletic Association's post-season tournament since 1996. Last year's final record of 25-13 not only gave the Dutchwomen their first ECAC invitation, it was the second consecutive season that they were asked to participate in the state event. The 25 wins also set a Union standard for single-season victories. This year, besides finishing second in the UCAA Tournament, the Dutchwomen were again selected to the NYSWCAA event. Union's 23-10 record going into the National Tournament gives Collins a three-year record of 66-37 (a winning percentage of .641).
Union's first opponent in the NCAA Tournament is a familiar one—-UCAA rival Vassar (24-6). The Dutchwomen are 1-4 against the Brewers this year. The first meeting, in the second game of the Vassar Tournament, the hosts won the tie-breaker, 15-12. Union won the second meeting, 3-1, after losing the first match, before Vassar came back to capture the final two meetings, 3-0 and 3-1 in the second game of the UCAA Tournament.
“Neither team will spend a lot of time looking at films,” said Collins. “We have played each other so often over the last two years that the coaches and players know each other as well as they know their own team.
“Now is not the time to change strategies and systems, now is the time to raise our play to a higher level. Whatever happens, this is an exciting time for Union College and Union Volleyball.”
Here is a list of team and personal accomplishments by the Dutchwomen.
Sr. Corrin Jordan – career totals of over 1500 kills – 1900 digs – over 100 blocks – numerous All-Tourna-
ment selections – MVP of this year's UCAA tournament – UCAA “Rookie of the Year” in 1999 – UCAA All-Conference in 2000, 2001 & 2002 – Dutchwomen MVP in 2000 and co-MVP in 2001 – UCAA All-Academic
Sr. Katie Lombardo
– over 600 career digs
2002 Tri-Captain
Jr. Sarah Pontius – third consecutive 1000 assists season – over 200 career service aces – over 200 career kills – over 500 career digs – Co-Captain in 2001, Tri-Captain in 2002 – UCAA All-Conference selection in 2001 & 2002
Jr. Kirin Liquori – over 500 career digs
Jr. Julie Moran – 500 career kills – over 100 career service aces – over 100 career blocks – 900 career digs
So. Sue Getwick – over 200 career blocks – 400 career kills
So. Jess Meliosky – over 200 career blocks – over 200 career kills
