Posted on Apr 4, 2003

The distinguished career of Daniel
Patrick Moynihan, the former four-term U.S. Senator who died March 26, included
a long list of achievements including two honorary degrees from the College (a doctor of civil law in 1983 and doctor of letters in 1995).

But he may also be remembered at Union for delivering
one of the shortest commencement addresses in history.

As foul weather threatened the
1995 ceremony, Moynihan truncated his speech, telling the audience he would
enter the entire speech into the Congressional
Record.

True to his word, the Congressional Record for the next day contains
the following:

“Mr. President, yesterday at Union College
in Schenectady, N.Y.,
I was privileged to deliver the commencement address on the occasion of the
bicentennial anniversary of that institution's charter. The elements, however,
did not cooperate. As the thunder began to rumble, I cut my address short. But
as this morning's Albany Times Union noted, my parting promise
to the gathered was: 'I'll put the rest in the Congressional Record.' Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that
the full text of my address be printed in the Record.”

The entire speech can be read at
this URL:

http://frwebgate5.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate.cgi?WAISdocID=393313128057+1+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve

Posted on Apr 4, 2003

The College announced on Wednesday that it had canceled this
summer's mini-term in China
due to concerns over the spread of the flu-like virus known as Sudden Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that has spread in Asia.

About 10 students, accompanied by Prof. Jianping Feng, were
to have studied traditional Chinese medicine in Tian, near Beijing.

The College is still planning two fall terms abroad, one in China
the other in Vietnam.
“We will continue to monitor the [State Department] travel advisories and share
that information with our students,” said William Thomas, director of
international programs.

Posted on Apr 4, 2003

Two dozen students from five
Capital Region high schools were to become forensic chemists in “CSI: Willow
Creek” on Friday, April 4.

Teams of students were to use
clues – a white powder, pieces of wood and a clear liquid – from a “crime
scene” to match evidence to materials found with three suspects. The exercise
was part of Union's inaugural Irving Langmuir Chemistry
Laboratory Competition, an event designed to expose students in the
Regents-level chemistry courses to the excitement of doing chemistry.

Participating schools were Stillwater,
Saratoga, Ballston Spa, Schalmont
and Niskayuna.

In the make-believe case of
vandalism, the police chief of Willow Creek calls on the students to use their
laboratory skills to help solve the crime. The students will use Union's
laboratories and a variety of chemistry analytical techniques to solve the
mystery. They will be assisted by Union
College chemistry students.

The Irving Langmuir Chemistry
Laboratory Competition was organized by Union's
chemistry department with support from Schenectady International Inc., Albany
Molecular Research Inc., GE Global Research Center and the Dean for
Undergraduate Education's office.

The program was developed by David
Hayes, professor of chemistry, and a number of local and retired high school
science teachers. They will be available for interviews at the event.

“The Langmuir competition is
designed as a fun way to get the high school students to make creative use of
some of the things they have been learning in their Regents chemistry courses,”
said Hayes. “At the same time, this is a great way to introduce them to the fun
of doing chemistry.”

Irving Langmuir, a GE research
chemist who taught at Union, was the first industrial chemist
to win the Nobel Prize. His discoveries included the gas-filled incandescent
light bulb, atomic hydrogen welding and cloud seeding. Langmuir was the
inspiration for Dr. Felix Hoenikker, the central character in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, in which the scientist
developed “Ice-Nine” that turned water into a solid.

Posted on Apr 4, 2003

Dan Lundquist
had just signed letters to about 500 accepted candidates for the Class of 2007
when the war with Iraq
began.

“There was a real disconnect
between the good news of the acceptance letters and what is going on in the
world,” he said, explaining his decision to re-do the letters with an
acknowledgement of world events. “Halfway through signing the admit letters –
just over a ream of paper – I stopped and re-read the acceptance letter and
thought 'what a nice letter; what good news to receive,' as I
listened to NPR recapping the day's events half a world away.”

Lundquist re-wrote the letter,
adding a few sentences to place the good news in
perspective:

“In times like this, there is a
reassuring certainty to this good news,” he wrote in the revised versions. “Yet
today's headlines suggest to me that now, perhaps more than ever, our world
needs good, smart adults. Your educational experience over the next four years
will help prepare you for that role – as an adult – however you choose to
define it.”

Hot link to financial aid

There was something extra this year for
accepted candidates for the Class of 2007: an email with a hot link to a personal,
secure site where they could view the details of their financial aid and get
other financing information.

Less than 24 hours after the first batch
of emails was sent, more than half of the applicants had opened their mail and
visited the site, according to Beth Post, director of financial aid.

“We started receiving emails from excited
families the next afternoon,” she said. “Some of the emails said, 'Thank you so
much for the excellent news!' … 'we look forward to visiting Union
College again in the next few
weeks.'”

Families also have
the ability to link to the Stafford
loan online application and download the Federal Work-study applications
from the site.

“We believe offering this service will
streamline what can be a cumbersome, paper-intensive process and
enable families to benefit from this one-stop-shopping opportunity,” Post said.

Posted on Apr 4, 2003

Bill Schwarz, the College's
director of corporate and government relations, was selected as one of
“40 Under 40,” a program that recognizes the Capital Region's young
area business leaders.

Schwarz, who joined the College in
1998 as director of media and government relations, will be recognized with the
others at a May 1 luncheon at Albany's
Crowne Plaza Hotel.

At Union,
Schwarz has been a key player in the development and oversight of a number of
community outreach programs, including the Union-Schenectady Initiative. The
broad-based community revitalization program for the neighborhood west of
campus has become a national model for college-city partnerships.

Also representing the Union
College community in “40 under
40” is John Ciovacco '87, president of Cyclics Corp.

The program is sponsored by the Business
Review of Albany, Fox 23 News
and Keybank.

For more on the program, and a
list of honorees, visit: http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/networking/events/10095