Members of the Union community have begun a fund drive to assist the family of Brian Fitzgerald, campus safety officer, whose Scotia home was destroyed by fire on Saturday.
The fire claimed the lives of the family's two dogs and cat. Also lost were most of their possessions. The family was not home when the fire broke out.
Contributions, with checks payable to Union College,
may be sent to Human Resources. For more information, call ext. 6108.
Seniors
Angela “Angie” DeSilva and Emily Sweeney share a common bond in shepherding the
“Relay for Life” American Cancer Society fundraiser for cancer research.
Both
experienced the disease's impact on their lives. Two years ago, DeSilva's
boyfriend, Ryan, died from cancer. Sweeney's mother is a cancer
survivor.
Despite
her loss, DeSilva feels she is a better person for the experience. She said her
boyfriend's death changed her life. Her career path became clear: a dual major
(psychology and sociology), she plans on going to grad school to become a
counselor to terminally ill children and their parents.
Also
out of her grief grew a passion for her ACS fundraising, which she says may be
her most enduring tribute to Ryan's positive attitude and resilient spirit.
For Sweeney, going through the fight has made her want to help others. “I thank God that my mom is in remission and I know that she is where she is because of all the people who have raised money for cancer research. So many people will be touched by cancer, if not directly, somehow
indirectly.
“I think the participation of the Union campus speaks for itself,” Sweeney said. “[It] indicates that a lot of the campus community (particularly the students) have been touched by cancer or realize the threat that this disease presents.
“Angie and I are overwhelmed by the support we have received. We have surpassed any goal that we set and are excited and enthusiastic about the upcoming event.”
Relay
for Life begins Friday, May 30, at 7 p.m. and ends Saturday, May 31, at 9 a.m. Teams will run or walk the perimeter sidewalks
around the Nott Memorial and Library Field. This will be the College's first “Relay,”
which has been an ACS fundraiser since 1985.
By
March 12, more than 650 participants and 42 teams were registered. DeSilva
anticipates at least 700 by the day of the event. Participants so far include President
Roger Hull and Dean of Students Fred Alford.
There
is a $10 registration fee. Teams are comprised of eight to 15 people. During
the 14-hour event, each team will have at least one member walking or running. Each
member is required to raise about $100 in donations.
While
team members are walking, other activities will be going on, such as an outdoor
movie by West and food tents.
At
9
p.m. Friday, a
ceremony will honor those fighting cancer and remember those who fought the
good fight but lost. Students will be invited to speak about their experiences,
including two students who are themselves cancer survivors. For $5, people may
purchase luminaries, which will encircle the Nott, to honor or memorialize a
loved one. The total raised will be announced at the conclusion of the event.
For
registration or other information, contact DeSilva at desilvaa@union.edu or Sweeney at sweeneye@union.edu.
Beth Post has been named director of financial aid, it was
announced by Dan Lundquist, vice president for
admissions and financial aid.
“Beth's vast experience in the field of higher education
financial aid has been critical in making it possible for thousands of
promising students to get a Union education,” Lundquist said. “Her tireless
work as an advocate for affordable higher education, has allowed students
everywhere to have access to a first-rate college education.”
Post, who has been in the financial aid field for 15
years, started at Union College
in 1993 as associate director of financial aid.
She was promoted to senior associate director and then director of
financial aid planning before taking her current position.
A graduate of Siena
College, she previously worked in
the financial aid office at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
In 1997, Post received the Academic Opportunity Program/Higher
Education Opportunity Program's Mary McLeod Bethune Award for service and
dedication to students.
She is an active member of the New York State Financial Aid
Administrators Association (NYSFAAA), the Eastern Association of Financial Aid
Administrators (EASFAA), and the National Association of Student Financial Aid
Administrators (NASFAA). She is co-chair of NYSFAAA's Government Relations
Committee, and she is a member of the Legislative Forum Steering Committee, a
consortium of admissions financial aid and school counselors who advocate for students
with state legislators.
The folks in Sabrina Kanner's company have an expression:
“It's better to ask for forgiveness than for permission.”
Thus empowered, they jumped into action following the 9-11 terrorist
attacks, “finagling” their way past officials to begin an ambitious one-year plan
to fully restore the World Financial
Center's Winter Garden. The first
major rebuilding project, completed ahead of schedule, created a respite from
the tragedy. Kanner calls Winter Garden an “urban cathedral that is a place for
people to come and feel part of the community.”
Kanner, a 1980 grad who is vice president for design and
construction at Brookfield Financial Properties, which oversaw the $50-million
reconstruction of the 10-story complex, visited campus on Tuesday to share her
experience with faculty, staff and students.
Comparing the destruction of lower Manhattan
to Europe after World War II, she said she was
especially saddened by images of the human toll of the attacks: a woman's
shoe, memos from Canter Fitzgerald, policemen weeping, Red Cross volunteers
sleeping under tables. “It was just about the saddest thing you could see,” she
said.
But for all the horror of the attacks, the spirit of cooperation
was equally moving, Kanner said. She described a weekend trip to a quarry in Italy
where she was to inspect marble that would be shipped for the rebuilding
project. When she arrived on a Saturday morning, all the employees were in the
parking lot, eager to greet her and to express their enthusiasm to help in rebuilding
from what they called “a crime against the world.”
“I thought I'd have to beat these guys up to meet this
extraordinary schedule and they were jumping through hoops,” she said. “They set
the pace for the Americans.” She recalls telling one U.S.
contractor on meeting a tight deadline, “They're doing it in Italy.
You have to do it in middle America too.”
There were no jurisdictional issues among the various
trades. Everyone pitched in to do design work in the field. Workers wore
t-shirts that read, “Whatever it takes, the trees are coming” (a reference to
the palm trees that were placed in the atrium of the Winter Garden).
When the Winter Garden was completed, it was the site of
press conferences by the governor and the mayor. President Bush used the venue
to address the United Nations.
Kanner was critical of some of the proposed designs for
buildings that would replace the World
Trade Center
towers. “Some of them are taller than the original towers,” she said. “Who is
going to work there?” Besides being targets for terrorism, skyscrapers are inefficient,
she said. The ideal height for the buildings should be about 50 stories, she
noted.
But lower Manhattan
will be completely rebuilt in 8 or 10 years, she said. “[It] will be better
than it ever was,” she told a group of students. “I'll be happy to walk you
around the Winter Garden.”
Kanner, the former Sabrina Rau, fascinated a group of 30 Union Scholars, many of whom were wondering how the English
major ended up running a large construction operation. “My mother must have
asked me that question 20 times,” she responded to one student's query. “I got
into this by accident. By the end of my second year [at Union],
I realized I would not be an English professor, so I looked at different areas
to round out my career.”
She took a number of courses in math (perhaps her strongest
subject, she admits) business and computer science and graduated Union
to a job that involved writing financial reports for a painting contractor.
That ultimately led to a career as a manager in the male-dominated field of
construction.
“My ability to talk and write and see critical junctures in
a program has been really helpful,” she said, adding that the learning
continued after she left Union. “As much as you learn
[in college], you really start learning when you leave.”
Michelle Arcuri is speaking on “From Sea to Shining
Sea: An Analysis of Homelessness in
America.”
Emily Burns is giving a talk on “The Development of
Landscape Painting in Renaissance Venice.”
Joseph Cefaly is presenting on “Time-Delayed Fluorescence of
Single Cell Algae.”
They're all headed to the high country of Utah's
Wasatch Mountains for the 17th National Conference on Undergraduate Research held this year at the University of Utah,
Salt Lake City.
They are among 29 Union students at the conference. As in
years past, the Union contingent is among the largest at the conference. Union was a charter participant in NCUR in 1987, and hosted the conference in 1990 and 1995.
The Union group is accompanied by Ann Anderson, professor
mechanical engineering and member of the NCUR Board of Governors; Mousumi Duttaray, visiting assistant professor of economics; and Thomas Werner, Florence B. Sherwood Professor of Physical Sciences (chemistry) and former chair of the NCUR Board of Governors.
NCUR 2003 brings together undergraduates involved in scholarly and artistic activities representing a range of disciplines including creative arts, mathematics, business, social science, humanities, physical and life sciences, natural resources, and engineering. Participants are expected to come from more than 300 colleges and universities representing almost every state in the nation.
NCUR draws about 2,000 undergraduates, faculty, and
administrators to hear and discuss undergraduate creative and scholarly work by means of topical sessions of 15-minute oral presentations, interdisciplinary poster sessions, and artistic performances and visual art exhibits.