Professor of History Stephen M. Berk, widely known for his expertise on the Holocaust, Russia, and the Middle East, has been named the Henry and Sally Schaffer Professor of Holocaust and Jewish Studies.
Creation of the professorship was announced by the H. Schaffer Foundation.
A member of the Union faculty since 1967, Berk has earned an international reputation for his teaching, writing, and research about such topics as Russian and Soviet Jewish history, the Holocaust, the American Jewish experience, and anti-Semitism.
President Roger Hull said, “Steve Berk's lectures, both to his classes and to many organizations and conferences nationally and internationally, are legendary for their eloquence and knowledge.”
Berk said the Holocaust teaches a number of important lessons including the “pernicious impact of racism and demonological thinking in general, the role of personality in history, the need to confront evil, and the meaning of heroism.
“The Holocaust, important though it might be, is not the core of the Jewish religious and historical experience,” he continued. “The Jewish people made remarkable contributions to humanity, and this chair in Holocaust and Jewish Studies will help subsequent generations of Union students to become cognizant both of the Holocaust and the role played by Jews and Judaism in world history.”
Berk, a native of New York City, received his B.A. in history from the University of Pennsylvania, his master's degree from the University of Chicago, and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He teaches a variety of classes, including Russian history, modern history of the Middle East, history of Poland, European history, and Jewish history. He also directs the College's interdepartmental program in Russia and Eastern Europe.
For more than twenty-five years, Berk's annual course on the Holocaust has been one of the College's most popular courses. As a young boy during World War II, he remembers watching film footage of Nazi death camps, and the images contributed to his desire to teach about the subject. “I want students to learn about the Holocaust, in an attempt to make them aware of the evil around them now and what it takes to oppose evil,” he says. “Anti-Semitism made Auschwitz possible; indifference made it almost inevitable.”
In creating the professorship through a $1.5 million gift, H. Schaffer Foundation President Sonya A. Stall said, “It is with pleasure that the H. Schaffer Foundation creates this academic chair for the continuing study of Holocaust and Jewish Studies benefiting all current and future students of Union. There is no more deserving professor worthy of being the first recipient than Dr. Berk.”
The H. Schaffer Foundation is named for Henry Schaffer, a Schenectady businessman and former trustee of Union. Mr. Schaffer, who left school at age fourteen and later became an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa, was well known for his support of higher education in the Capital District and was the principal benefactor of Schaffer Library.
He died in 1982.
In recent years, the H. Schaffer Foundation has supported Union's terms abroad program and the 1998 renovation and expansion of Schaffer Library.
The College's Board of Trustees has approved a 2003-04 balanced budget of $97,014,000 that limits increases in tuition, preserves competitive employee compensation, and meets the challenge of a decline in endowment spending with cost containments and revenue generation.
Included in the budget:
Tuition, room and board rates are to increase five percent to $36,005. Costs are $28,608 for tuition, $3,882 for room, $3,195 for board (fifteen meals), $240 activity fee, and $80 for phase-in of a House System fee.
A commitment to continue to meet the financial need of all students. Financial aid is to increase eight percent over the current year's forecasted expense to $19.8 million, $18.9 million of which will come from restricted and unrestricted institutional funds and the balance from federal and state sources.
In employee compensation,
faculty and staff earning $55,000 or less will receive a permanent increase of two percent. Staff earning more than $55,000 will receive a one-time adjustment of two percent, which will not
be added to their base salaries. Faculty earning more than $55,000 will receive a permanent one percent increase and another one percent as a one-time adjustment.
Following the recommendations of committees established last fall, reductions totaling approximately $1.3 million have been made in financial aid, terms abroad, athletics, printing, and travel expenditures. In addition, an employee benefits committee is at work, and the Board of Trustees will examine the work of the six committees this summer.
In other business:
The trustees authorized the establishment of the Graduate College of Union University as a separate legal entity to conduct graduate programs in business administration, health system administration, educational studies, engineering and computer science. The move is deemed essential to clarifying the mission of Union as an undergraduate institution. The new entity would have its own board of trustees and officers.
The board authorized the purchase of 2 Nott Terrace, the former Pedestrian Café, to be used as an additional building for the U-Start incubator program. A donor has contributed the $125,000 purchase price.
The trustees also authorized improvements at Achilles Rink at an estimated budget of $700,000. Plans call for the replacement of the mechanical ice sheet system and improved heating and dehumidification that will allow for ice time in the summer months, and additional revenue. Work will begin when the funds are raised.
For those who like variety, this year's Founders Day celebration was made to order.
Philip Ball and Roger Hull
The College's 208th birthday party included nanotechnology, Chopin, teaching, mentoring, and more.
Nanotechnology was the subject of remarks from the guest speaker, Philip Ball, a consulting editor of Nature magazine who has published seven books and a number of articles on popular science. Introduced as someone who encourages readers to look beyond traditional boundaries, he began by asking. “What is the scariest thing?”
His own answer: “All writers of thrillers and detective stories would agree-it's the thing we cannot see.”
Ball animatedly described the promise of structures and machines too small to be visible, and predicted that “nanobiology will be the hottest area within nanotechnology, dealing with damaged tissue and even with spinal column injuries. Since it operates on the scale of viruses, it offers all kinds of new possibilities,” he added.
Nanotechnology is still a fledgling science, he said, and, as such, it is almost a technological philosophy, requiring the same creativity of pioneers like an Edison. It brings with it an ethical dimension-and it “wouldn't be a bad thing if this were to become the focus on a debate on all technology,” he said. “The first step is a fully informed public-that's the gap we have to close.”
Ball received an honorary doctor of science degree at the ceremony, with reccognition for “a body of work that fascinates the layman and challenges the expert.” He also visited with a number of faculty and students and spoke to several classes during his two-day visit to campus.
Ball, who also is science writer in residence in the Chemistry Department of University College, London, received a first class honours degree in chemistry from the University of Oxford in 1983 and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Bristol in 1988.
His science books for the lay reader include Designing the Molecular World (1994), which surveyed the frontiers of modem chemistry; Made to Measure (1997), which previewed the future of materials science; The Self-Made Tapestry (1998), which discussed pattern formation in the physical, biological, and geological sciences; Life's Matrix: A Biography of Water (1999), a cross-disciplinary exploration of this vital molecule; and Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color (2002), which argues that the development of artistic color is inseparable from the development of art.
Founders Day also included:
Steve Sargent honored for teaching
A tribute to teaching
Steve Sargent, professor and chair of Union's History Department, was awarded the Stillman Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Sargent began his college studies in electrical engineering, went on for graduate work in operations research, and then started all over again, acquiring a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in history.
“I encourage my students to consider their education as a golden opportunity to seek out and adopt ideas that will aid them in constructing a meaningful life,” he said. “If they are to resist simply becoming products of their culture and to have real choices about how to live their lives, young people must have lots of ideas to choose from.
“In the end, the real joy of teaching comes from helping young people become successful human beings…Long after we retire, our efforts on their behalf will bear fruit in their lives and in those of the people they love. Given the opportunity to produce so much good, who could resist feeling joyful?”
The Stillman Prize was created by David I. Stillman '72, Abbott Stillman '69, and Allan Stillman in honor of Abraham Stillman, father and grandfather, and is awarded to a faculty member to encourage outstanding teaching.
Jim Underwood
An honor for
Jim Underwood
Professor Jim Underwood was installed as the Chauncey H. Winters Professor of Political Science. Underwood has been a Union faculty member since 1963, and has served as dean of the faculty, chair of the Political Science Department, chair of the social sciences division, director of the General Electric program, and adviser to many students in the College's internship program in Albany and Washington, D.C.
“Scholar, teacher, lover of this college,” said President Roger Hull of Underwood, “for 40 years, Jim has shaped what Union is. Political leadership is his academic field. More than a student of leadership, he has led. Feeling for his students is very evident in the classroom. He's been sought after and loved by generations of students. He has served as my mentor, and he knows every tree, every planting, every nook and cranny on this campus.”
Underwood, the longest-serving current faculty member, has had longstanding friendships with a number of alumni who have gone on to distinguished careers in law, politics, and diplomacy. Among his students over the years he counts a half-dozen parent-child pairs.
He is co-author of Governor Rockefeller in
New York: The Apex of Pragmatic Liberalism in the United States, and in 1971 he co-authored “Science/Technology-Related Activities in the Government of the State of New York,” a study funded by the state Office of Science and Technology. He has written and lectured extensively on former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, and has served as an analyst of elections and campaigns and a critic and commentator on matters ranging from college curricula to drug testing to acid rain.
Herbert Taylor and Heather Lockrow ’05
Recognition for a mentor
Herbert Taylor, chair of
the English Department
at Hamburg (N.Y.) High School, beamed as he received the Gideon Hawley Teacher Recognition Award. He was nominated by his former student, Heather Lockrow '05, a “soon-to-be-declared English major.”
In her nominating essay, Lockrow described Taylor as “the epitome of an educator, filled with knowledge, passion, and care, and perhaps more importantly, respect for his students.” She wrote that Taylor “enters the class each day with the willingness and desire to share the joys of English language and literature” and that he “pushed people to do their best…in and out of the classroom.”
The Gideon Hawley Award is named for the 1809 graduate of Union who was New York State's first superintendent of public instruction. It is awarded to secondary school teachers who have had a continuing influence on the academic life of Union students.
Tian Tian '05
Music, maestro
The Hollander Convocation Musician Prize went to Tian Tian '05, who wowed the Founders Day audience with her playing of Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu Op. 66. The award was established and presented by Lawrence J. Hollander, former dean of engineering at the College; the prize will be awarded annually to a musician or ensemble.
The loss of biodiversity that can result from the development of rural countryside appears to be putting humans at increased risk of contracting Lyme disease, according to a paper published this winter in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Kathleen LoGiudice
Kathleen LoGiudice, an assistant professor of biology at the College, and colleagues investigated the relationship between biodiversity and Lyme disease, an illness transmitted between ticks and many vertebrates, including humans.
The researchers captured thirteen species of birds and mammals that host ticks, and tested ticks feeding on the animals for Lyme disease. They then calculated the contribution of each species to the total proportion of infected ticks. The results show that as biodiversity declines, Lyme disease risk increases. This is because in areas with high biodiversity, more ticks feed on species that do not effectively carry or transmit Lyme disease.
However, in degraded areas of low species diversity, the ticks feed mostly on white-footed mice, which transmit Lyme disease to forty to ninety percent of the ticks that feed on them. The authors suggest that because mice are one of the last species to disappear as habitat is degraded, loss of biodiversity increases the chance that ticks will feed on mice and pass on Lyme disease to humans.
The findings could have implications for land use
policy, LoGiudice says-although she cautions that her research is preliminary and the results need to be repeated several times before they could be used as a guide for policy.
But if the same results were found in further research, one conclusion might be that development in rural townships-even those with minimum lot sizes as large as five acres-can cause forest fragmentation that results in less biodiversity and a higher density of mice. The challenge to planners, then, would be to maintain enough continuous forest that can serve as habitat for “dilution hosts” such as squirrels, shrews, opossums, and raccoons that do not as readily transmit the disease.
Lyme disease is spread by ticks that live in wooded and grassy areas. The disease, which is caused by a bacteria and transmitted to humans from the bite of infected black-legged ticks, affects about 17,000 people each year, mostly in the northeast U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control. New York State reported 5,036 cases outside of New York City in 2002, a twenty-six percent increase over 2001. The disease causes fatigue, fevers, and joint pains that can persist for weeks. Some patients develop severe arthritis. If not treated with antibiotics, Lyme disease can severely damage the heart and nervous systems.
LoGiudice was the lead author of the paper titled, “The ecology of infectious disease: Effects of host diversity and community composition on Lyme disease risk.” Her colleagues were Richard Ostfeld of the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y.; Kenneth Schmidt of Texas Tech University; and Felicia Keesing of Bard College. The research was done at the Institute of Ecosystem Studies.
The researchers have received a $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to expand their work over four years in six states-New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
Stephanie Block ’03 interned at the Rensselaer County DA’s office, as a victims’ advocate.
To complement and expand opportunities for Union's students to be involved in direct political action, John Zumbrunnen and colleague Richard Fox, both of the Political Science Department, plan to start a Political Engagement Center.
“Many college students want to be engaged in public service and problem solving in their communities, but they don't know how to do it in a way that might make a difference,” Zumbrunnen says. “The Political Engagement Center is designed to open more opportunities along these lines.”
The Center plans to focus on four modes of civic and political engagement:
Community Problem-Solving-encouraging students to work directly with community leaders and organizations to identify problems and to create and implement solutions.
Political Advocacy-While the Center is nonpartisan and
ideologically neutral, it supports political advocacy by student groups working for or against political change.
Investigative Research-In the tradition of investigative journalism, students will be encouraged to bring to the public's attention social and political issues that need to be addressed by the political system.
Public Policy Research-Students will work closely with political advocacy groups, private organizations, government agencies, and state and local officeholders to gather information, conduct research, and issue reports to be used in ongoing policy debates.
Next academic year, a core group of faculty from various departments will begin to implement political action components in their courses while the Center seeks funding and other support, hoping to establish and maintain links with community organizations and agencies while providing grants and other resources to students for political action projects.
