Posted on Jul 17, 2003

David Ward of TreeTop Solutions in Schenectady told more than than 70 members of the Chamber of Schenectady County Thursday that things are happening in Schenectady County.

The developer of the chamber's Web site, said a year ago the chamber's Web site only listed about 45 events being held by chamber members. That was for an entire year. This year, Ward said, 1,200 events have been listed.

“We have the most comprehensive calendar of events in Schenectady County.

Ward's comments were part of the chamber's breakfast workshop called “Connect with Schenectady” held at Union College. The event focused on how company leaders could make their businesses grow through use of the Internet and e-commerce.

Ward said the chamber was also in the process of unveiling a new rewards system that would give chamber members points for using various parts of the chamber's Web site. The points would go toward discounts for chamber events or membership.

In a month or so, we will have a unique section on the site for chamber members only, Ward added. The site will also include a new bartering system that will allow chamber members to barter services with one another.

Other scheduled speakers included local business leaders Brian Epstein, founder and owner of WiFiFee, a new wireless Internet service provider, and Clint Orsot, vice president of sales for Achaen Technologies.

Posted on Jul 17, 2003

The new Graduate College is affiliated with Union University federation

Schenectady, N.Y. – Union College's Center for Graduate Education and
Special Programs will become a new and independent college this fall, following
approval of its charter today by the State Board of Regents. The new college
will be called The Graduate College of Union University, with current Union
Dean of Graduate Education Susan Lehrman to serve as president.

The Graduate College sought independence in light of its
continued growth and regional importance, Lehrman noted. “This is an exciting
time for the Capital Region, as the Tech Valley initiative takes flight and there is
more focus on a highly educated workforce. Union College and the new Graduate College will be vital players in this
initiative.”

Lehrman added, “By becoming an
independent college, we can continue to grow our programs, add enrollment,
create more community partnerships, and do more and better marketing and
fundraising.”

The Graduate College will have three schools –
management, engineering and education – and the Center for Bioethics. The
programs offered by the new Graduate College will be similar to those currently
offered and include educational studies, engineering (electrical and
mechanical), computer science, business administration, health administration,
and bioethics.

The Graduate College will have its own board of trustees,
including the president of Union College Roger H. Hull, Alan Goldberg,
president and chief executive officer of First Albany Corp., and Lewis Golub,
chairman of the board of Golub Corporation.

“Building on the fine tradition of Union College, this exciting news comes at the
right time, in the right place,” said Goldberg. “Union's graduate programs have become an
important and vital part of strengthening this region's executive workforce.
This new initiative can only add to that great effort.”

Relationship with Union College

The Graduate College will have a unique academic
relationship with Union College through a lease arrangement in which
faculty and students will continue to have access to Union College facilities and ancillary services.

In addition, The Graduate College
will be affiliated with Union University, a federation of independent
undergraduate and graduate institutions. It currently consists of Union College, Albany Medical College, Albany Law College, Dudley Observatory, and Albany
College of Pharmacy. Established in 1873, Union University has a board of governors comprised
of representatives of the member institutions' boards of trustees. The
president of Union College serves as the chancellor of Union University.

Unique, growing
graduate programs

The College's MBA program, the
largest full-time program in the Capital Region, has seen a 25 percent increase
in students over the last two years. The MBA job placement rate is over 90
percent. The Health Systems MBA is one of only 21 dually accredited programs in
the country, and one of only four accredited programs in the state. The Global
MBA programs attract students from nearly 20 countries.

Educational Studies, one of the few
secondary education teacher programs that requires a full year of student
teaching, has a placement rate of nearly 98 percent in Capital Region schools,
an area that does not have a teacher shortage. The program also has a 78
percent pass rate on the National Teachers Certification Exam, compared to the
48 percent national average.

The Engineering Division, which
features small class sizes and a mix of practical and theoretical curriculum,
has partnered with a consortium of engineering companies to ensure its programs
meet the needs of the changing Capital Region economy. The Center for Bioethics
offers one of the nation's two distance learning programs, a joint venture with
Albany Medical College designed with the flexibility to
serve working healthcare professionals.

The graduate program
currently enrolls some 400 students, about half of which are full time. For
more information, visit http://www.graduatecollege.union.edu/

Posted on Jul 17, 2003

More than 70 Schenectady businesses attended
the event sponsored by Union, the Schenectady Chamber of Commerce, Treetop Solutions, WiFiFee, and Achaean
Technology

Schenectady, N.Y. (July 17, 2003) – More than 70 members of the Schenectady Chamber of Commerce attended
a breakfast workshop July 17 on how to make their businesses grow through the
use of the Internet and e-commerce. The event, at Union's Hale House, was sponsored by the College, the
Chamber, and three up-and-coming Capital Region companies with various
technology specialties – Tree Top Solutions, Inc. of Schenectady, WiFiFee, Inc.
of Albany, and Achaean Technologies, Inc. of Watervliet.

“We are very excited about the 'Connect with Schenectady' event,” said Charles Steiner, president of the Chamber.
“The technology offerings in Schenectady County are developing. This event stresses the viable opportunities that exist
for Chamber members to apply emerging technologies that will aid them in
reducing operating costs and potentially increasing revenue streams from
outside markets. We have an exceptional program and great Chamber membership
deals on technology services that are offered by local member companies.”
Steiner added, “We are also very pleased that Union College hosted this event. Union has been an ardent
supporter and developer of technology programs in Schenectady.”

Presenters:

            David
Ward, co-president of Tree Top Solutions, a high-tech Internet company, gave
an overview of the Chamber's website, including its benefits, new features, and
a new Tech-Tourism initiative. Ward is a 2002 Union
alumni who started Tree Top Solutions as a student in conjunction with the
College's U-Start technology incubator.

            Brian
Epstein, founder and owner of WiFiFee, a new wireless Internet service
provider, discussrf the future of technology in the
Capital Region. Epstein, a 1988 Union graduate, is the former president of
Vision Systems in Albany.

            Clint
C. Orsot, vice president of sales and marketing for Achaean Technologies,
and James Bucci, senior account
executive for Achaean, talked about how companies can improve their rankings in
search engines.

            In addition, Union's Web Director Tom Smith discussed
the basics of getting up and running with a business website. Topics included
choosing the right technology partners and planning a successful site.

For additional Chamber
information, visit its site at http://www.schenectadychamber.org/

Posted on Jul 16, 2003

The work of nearly 40
women printers from around the nation will be showcased beginning Thursday, Aug. 28 through Sunday, Dec. 7 at
Union College's Mandeville Gallery in
the Nott Memorial.

Girl Printers: Talented Women Strut Their Stuff is an invitational show highlighting a sampling of
women printers' ephemeral, printing, and book arts. Gallery hours are Monday to Thursday 9
a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday noon to 5
p.m.; and Sunday noon to 10
p.m. Summer hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

An
artists' reception and talk by the
curator, Carol J. Blinn, will be on Thursday,
Sept. 18, 4:30 to 6
p.m.in the Nott Memorial

Women have been working
with moveable type practically since its invention – a fact that may disabuse
the likely stereotyping of printing or typesetting as male-dominated fields.
The exhibit centers on interviews with women printers that were conducted by
Blinn. For nearly 20 years, she has been proprietor of the Warwick Press in Easthampton, Mass.

Blinn invites women printers
and exhibit visitors alike to “celebrate what we do best … make things by hand
and machine, needle and thread, computer and lead.”

The women discuss their
love for their art; their favorite tools; their individual methodology; the
mentors who have guided them; and their down-and-dirty,
ink-under-the-fingernails, ultimately triumphant mastery of often-recalcitrant
shop machinery.

Posted on Jul 16, 2003

Prof. Jim Hedrick is
admiring a frame of honeycomb in front of a class of 20 students in Summer
Science Workshop. “This is technology coming from our understanding of the way
nature works,” he says.

It was a 19th-century
beekeeper, L.L. Langstroth, who discovered the “bee space,” explains Hedrick,
himself a beekeeper. The discovery meant that bees could be kept in human-built
hives, and that the honey could be harvested without damaging the colony.

Not the kind of lecture you
might expect from a professor who specializes in computer technology. But
Summer Science Workshop is not a curriculum which focuses on a narrow field.
Rather, it takes a wide-ranging, cross-disciplinary route to bring college-level
work to students who show promise in the sciences.

Hedrick, like the other
instructors in SSW, emphasizes the cross-disciplinary nature of learning. When
a visitor enters the classroom, Hedrick stops the lecture and asks him to
describe for the class the importance of developing clear writing skills for
the sciences.

The College's Summer Science
Workshop each year gives high schoolers valuable exposure to college-level study.
And Union gets something valuable too: eager students,
24 and counting.

SSW students will be giving poster presentations on the workshop's theme — HIV/AIDS — on Friday, July 18, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the Olin Atrium.

Besides exposing nearly two dozen
budding scientists to the rigors of scientific research, the two-week
residential program has been something of a boon to the College's minority recruitment
effort.

Since its inception in 1996, 24 students
from the program have enrolled as students at Union.
Several have become counselors for the summer program. Last year, three of the
four counselors were former campers. This year, three of the five counselors
are former campers.

Summer Science Workshop, which
targets minorities who are underrepresented in the health professions and
biological sciences, provides exposure to college-level classroom and
laboratory study, and career guidance for fields in health professions and
scientific research.

“We used to soft sell the
students on Union,” says program coordinator Karen
Williams of the first few years of the workshop. “Now we take them down to
the admissions office for interviews and invite them to a reunion in the
fall.”

The program has HIV/AIDS as its
overarching theme. The students research the scientific, social and political
aspects of AIDS, and give presentations on a variety of topics related to the
epidemic. Beyond classes and labs in immunology, computer technology and
cellular biology, the students attend lectures at Albany
Medical College
and meet HIV-positive people and their families.

Williams and Hedrick are joined by
colleagues including Peter Tobiessen,
director; Twitty Styles, who teaches immunology; and Quynh Chu-LaGraff,
molecular biology.

Now funded entirely by the
College, the program was launched with support from the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute.