Rudy Nydegger, associate professor of psychology, had an article, “Explaining
War to Children,” published in the May 7 edition of New York State Teacher. He was also recently quoted on CNN about
children and grief following an airplane crash in which three children survived,
but their parents were killed.
Ten named to German honorary society
The German program at Union College has reopened a chapter of
Delta Phi Alpha, the German National Honor Society. This year, 10 students of
German Studies from Union College were accepted into the society
due to their excellent academic credentials. The students are: Joshua Dubs,
Christina de Gersdorff, Xilong
He, Anna Hurst, Michael Jessup, Nicole McConvery,
Joseph Salamone, Christopher Sponsler,
Karla Strobel and Allison Sturma.
Owls Head to Prize Day, Maher leaves her mark
Julia Maher '03 is another one of
those prodigious achievers with a small-town New England
background. She hails from Owls Head, Maine
– population 1,600. Maybe it's the benefits of growing up breathing sea air or
living where the pace is a bit slower – whatever it is, Julia has certainly
left her imprimatur on Union.
Maher, an English major, minored in
East Asian Studies and was a tutor at the Writing
Center. She also performed with
Idol Minds improv group. She wrote a commentary on Allen Ginsberg's Tear Gas Rag during a “Deadheads”
seminar and is a contributing writer for the Concordiensis.
At Prize Day, Maher walked away
with an armful. She is the 2003 recipient of the William F. Allen Essay Prize;
William H. Bloom, M.D., and Jonathan R. Bloom Poetry Prize; the David Brind
Memorial Prize in English; and the Phi Beta Kappa Award.
Maher said the most enduring impact
of her four years at Union will be the relationships she
cultivated with her professors. She said that since Union
is a small college, she had opportunities to work closely with her professors
and get the personal attention she desired, unlike her friends who attended
large universities. “They [the faculty] are amazing people,” she said.
Her immediate post-graduation plans
are on hold due to SARS – she hoped to teach English in China
and attend Nanjing Normal
University to study Chinese.
Ultimately, she plans to earn a doctorate so she can teach English and comparative
literature on the college level.
Maher's love of literature is
rivaled only by her love of writing – critical writing for the intellectual
stimulation and challenge; and poetry, an outlet for her creative energies.
Perhaps most telling is her senior
honors thesis, “The Overpassing Marriage of Speaking and Hearing within William
Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and Absalom! Absalom!” In Faulkner's richly
textured works, Maher explored dialect and the basic need for communication – a
concept she herself has mastered very well indeed.
Alumni online community re-launched
As part of
its ongoing efforts to provide alumni with essential online services, Union has re-launched an expanded online
alumni community. The new community (available at http://www.union.edu/Alumni) provides a more
useful and secure online alumni directory, free lifetime email accounts, online
class notes, and a number of other services.
More than
5,000 alumni have already signed up for the new community, and feedback has
been positive, according to Nick Famulare, director of alumni relations.
“Online
services are the next step in the ongoing evolution of alumni relations at Union. As more alumni get online, the web
is becoming a great way for alumni to keep in touch with each other and with Union,” said Famulare.
To become a
member of the online community, alumni can simply request an account online.
Some areas of the community, such as the alumni directory, are
password-protected for security purposes. Alumni can also control how much of
their contact information is displayed through the directory.
At ReUnion, alumni get a home of their own
The more than 1,400 alumni and guests returning to campus
for ReUnion this weekend will find something new: a home
of their own at 1128 Lenox Rd.
The College will dedicate the historic Parker-Rice estate as
Abbe Hall, the new Alumni Center
and home of College Relations. Built in 1900 by Edwin W. Rice, former president
of General Electric Co. and trustee of the College from 1906 to 1935, the
building was donated to the College by the Parker-Rice family in 1976. The
restoration was made possible by a gift from Robert T. '49 and Virginia O.
Abbe.
The building dedication will be Friday, May 30, at 4:30 p.m.
With registrations running about 31 percent ahead of last
year, ReUnion is on pace to be one of the largest in the College's history,
second only to the Bicentennial event in 1995, according to Nick Famulare '92,
director of alumni relations.
“Between a record-high 100 alumni volunteers and a strong
and varied program, there is tremendous interest in this year's ReUnion,”
he said. “We have alumni from the Classes of 1935 through 2002 and from as far
away as Sweden
and Singapore.”
The weekend, which celebrates the traditions of the College,
will have some of the traditional events: barbecues, tours, class dinners, the
alumni parade and convocation
Other highlights include the annual Alumni Golf Outing with
golf tips from Greg Midland '96, associate editor of Golf magazine (Friday, 8 a.m., Edison Club); “Forecasting the 2004 Presidential
Election” with Prof. Richard Fox (Friday, 11:15 a.m., Becker Career Center);
The American Locomotive Co. – A Centennial Remembrance with Dick Steinbrenner '58, who has written a book on ALCO (Friday, 3 p.m., Olin 106); and the dedication of a memorial from the V-5/V-12 unit to alumni lost in the Civil War (Saturday, 3 p.m., Memorial Chapel).
For more details, visit: http://www.union.edu/reunion
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