House System brings him back
In the fall issue of Union College, you published a letter from a 1967
alumnus rebuking the College for placing fraternities and sororities “on a
slippery slope on which they will surely wither and die.” As a protest, he
wrote, he is making no contribution to the Annual Fund “for the first time in
perhaps twenty-five years.” He said he is also removing Union as a beneficiary
of a $50,000 life insurance policy and will reconsider his estate planning “to
assess the ultimate outcome [of the house system reorganization] for the Greek
system.”
I found the letter from the critical alumnus very persuasive. After reading
it, I have resolved to contribute to the Annual Fund this year for the first
time since my graduation in 1963.
If, as the letter-writer argues, fraternities and sororities are on a
slippery slope to oblivion, the students at Union College will be the
beneficiaries. I believe the personal, social and educational benefits of the
extinction of fraternities and sororities would far outweigh any benefits that
could possibly accrue from the financial contribution that your correspondent
brandishes threateningly.
My years at Union were educationally gratifying, but fraternities at that
time so dominated the social life and tone of the campus that I came to believe
that students and graduates were stunted as a direct result. Belonging to a
fraternity was considered a social necessity, and I did join one-a fraternity
that had a reputation for being inclusive. At my first meeting as a full member,
I watched in horror as the personal attributes of a prospective member were
meticulously and viciously dissected by many of those weighing his admission.
That prospective member was not invited to join. I walked out in the middle of
my first meeting as a member and never returned to that or any other fraternity.
I had learned in one meeting a lifetime's worth of lessons in social equity.
Specifically, one of the lessons I learned was that social exclusion and the
arrogance of insiders warp those who believe they have the right to exclude far
more than it does the excluded themselves. Thereafter, I felt far more
comfortable among the excluded than among those who assumed they had the right
and wisdom-and who certainly did have the power-to exclude them from the
organized social life of the campus.
It is especially important in educational institutions that students be
exposed to ideas and people not of their own adolescent choosing and, indeed,
beyond their home-bred comfort zone. Clinging to old and comfortable ideas,
social groups and institutions while shunning the unfamiliar or different is a
formula for ignorance and intellectual laziness. The necessity of reaching
beyond narrow social cliques should never be more apparent than now, when the
world is tormented and its security threatened by fanatical adherence to old
tribes. I have not contributed to Union College in the years since my graduation
because I prefer to donate my limited available funds to causes that foster
inclusion. That those causes are less popular and more in need of contributions
is one of the sad, stark facts of American life.
Enlightened colleges and universities treat fraternities and sororities as
vestiges of a backward time. I passed through Union at such a time. If the
College is truly serious about eliminating the death grip that these sclerotic
institutions have had on campus life, then Union has gained a supporter-nearly
forty years after his graduation.
Peter Sussman ‘63
Berkeley, Calif.
Three cheers
for alumni in the arts
As an arts lover, I was thrilled to read in the class notes of the fall issue
that so many Union alums are making their mark on the arts world. In that one
issue I learned that Helena Binder ‘76 was an opera director at some of the
leading companies in the U.S., that my classmate Robert Bernhardt ‘73 was a
leading symphony orchestra conductor, and that Tom Riis Farrell ‘81 was an
award-winning actor.
The latter name is of particular interest to me. Tom Riis Farrell is a
marvelous actor. He just finished a run Off Broadway in “The Resistible Rise of
Arturo Ui” in a cast that included Al Pacino, Steve Buscemi, Billy Crudup, and
Chazz Palminteri. I saw Tom perform in the national company of “Dirty Blonde” at
the Kennedy Center in Washington. He was sensational, as evidenced by the fact
that he won a Helen Hayes Award for his performance, Washington's leading
theater prize.
I was also in the audience at the Kennedy Center when Tom accepted the award.
My wife and I were previously honored the same night for winning the “Washington
Post Award for Innovative Leadership in the Theatre Community.” At the time, I
had no idea that Tom was a Union graduate. I (and the audience around me) am
probably lucky in that regard, because I'm sure I would have broken out (loudly)
into the Union Alma Mater when Tom was announced as the winner.
That evening, I applauded loudly for an actor I liked
a lot. Now I applaud again since Tom is a Union graduate. Thanks “Union
College” for bringing this to my attention. Now, how about a feature article
on Union's contributions to the arts that honors people like Tom, Helena, and Robert
who have brought so much joy into other peoples' lives through theater,
opera, music, and dance?
Mark Shugoll ‘73
Annandale, Va.
Union-Made Memories
When I lifted the cover page of the Union calendar for 2003 and saw the snow-
carpeted campus, I had something of a heartthrob as my mind rewound, decade after decade, to the first day I laid eyes on it as a student in
September 1930. The sheer beauty of the campus as I entered the Main Gate and strode on the tree-lined
road, heading toward Nott Memorial, left an imprint
that has never faded.
Union left more than a mark
of beauty. I grew up there, intellectually and socially at least, and no subsequent experience, not graduate study, not World War II army service in Europe, professional or academic career had
an equivalent impact.
It's no wonder, then, that Union has a place in the preface of my new book, which will be published almost
sixty-nine years after graduation. In it, I refer to individual courses: seminar on social and political philosophy (taught by Professor Larabee), modern European drama (Herrick), labor economics (Cummins), and international politics (Gottshalk). In my mind, they, and other courses in science and the humanities, became seamlessly connected, combining to give me a world outlook that has been useful in comprehending and contending with personal, national, and world crises
during my long lifetime. By whatever name, worldview
or Weltanschauung, this ought to be the birthright of every student.
Some learning came from unintended experience. I entered Union at age sixteen, so socially backward that only then did I discover the opposite sex. Dating at times took precedence over assignments until midway in my sophomore year. Then, in a course in English, I turned in a written assignment (three poems by my choice) a day late. My instructor returned it with
the following note. “That you have talent is evident here, for which you earned an A. That you failed to turn it in
on time is also evident, for which your grade is reduced to B.” Those few matter-of-fact words about the consequences of one's actions in the real world, given without preachment, changed my
pattern of behavior.
In the graduate course on life-span human development that I taught for many years,
I reported on research that demonstrated the benefit to older people of a positive life review, a kind of reliving of fulfilling moments, like this one. I'm in a freshman course on European history, sitting
in a classroom on a Saturday morning in the fall of 1930, the wind whistling sharply outside the windows, as Professor Jones, nattily dressed
in cream-colored flannel trousers, tweed jacket, and colorful tie, lectures with obvious pleasure and a wry sense of humor. I can hear him now, seventy-two years later, as he transports us to another time, another place, revealing political machinations not unlike those we were experiencing during
the Great Depression and Hitler's rise to power. Was it last Saturday?
I had the good fortune (or was it misfortune?) of attending Union during one of the most turbulent periods in United States history. Men
at Union did more than play touch football, engage in campus politics, and date. Many spent countless hours in discussion, informally or in extracurricular activities like debating. We grappled with the seemingly intractable problems of our time. Most
of my classmates are gone now, yet at times I have the mental images of us talking, arguing, shouting, exhorting
-pictures of us all very much alive. I treasure those memories.
Milton Schwebel '34
Piscataway, N.J.
Milton Schwebel, Ph.D.,is emeritus professor of psychology at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers University. His e-mail
is mschwebe@rci.rutgers.edu. His new book is called Remaking America's Three School Systems: Now Separate and Unequal. It is published by Scarecrow Press, and samples and reviews of the book are at www.scarecrowpress.com.
We welcome letters. Send them to: Office of Communications, Union College,
Schenectday, N.Y. 12308 or magazine@union.edu.