Union's alumni, across the generations, are consistent in overall positive feelings about their experience at the College.
Ninety-two percent of the respondents to a recent alumni survey said they were very or somewhat satisfied with their overall experience, and 91 percent said they were very or somewhat satisfied with their academic experience.
Furthermore, 88 percent of the respondents said they are proud to tell others that they went to Union, 77 percent said that Union is a prestigious institution, and 77 percent said they are likely to recommend Union to the children of family and friends.
These and other findings are part of a major research effort undertaken by the College this spring, part of a continuing effort to strengthen alumni relations and communications. The survey effort was led by Trustee Mark Walsh '76.
“This is an exciting time
to be at Union, and we want all alumni to be informed of
College events and plans,” said Tom Gutenberger, vice president for college relations. “The survey gave us an opportunity to reach out to alumni, solicit their opinions, and learn more about how they prefer to receive information.”
The survey, along with an increased number of on- and off-campus events as well as enhancements to electronic and print communications, represents the College's desire to engage alumni and friends in ways that are meaningful
to them, he said.
The effort-the first major survey of alumni opinion since a 1968 questionnaire about coeducation-began with a letter sent to more than 23,000 alumni. That announcement of the web-based survey was followed a week later by a reminder postcard, and then a week after that by an e-mail reminder to alumni for whom the College has addresses. Alumni who preferred to answer by paper were given that choice.
The College received responses from more than 4,500 alumni; the 19.3 percent response rate is considered excellent for a survey of this kind. Twenty-five percent of the respondents graduated within the past 10 years, 20 percent graduated 11 to 20 years ago, 20 percent graduated 21-30 years ago, and 35 percent graduated 31 or more years ago.
A fuller report of the
findings from the survey was included in a letter sent to alumni and is posted on Union's online alumni community, available through www.union.edu/Alumni.
The survey results include:
The number of alumni reporting satisfaction with their social experience at Union was 75 percent, and the number reporting satisfaction with their extracurricular experience was 73 percent.
Eighty-four percent said they have made a gift to the College during the past three years, and 73 percent said it is likely they will do so in the next three years. Eighty percent of the respondents-and 78 percent of the donors-reported visiting the campus within the past ten years. Seventy-six percent said their gifts to Union will help make it stronger.
Twenty-eight percent of respondents said they are very likely to visit the campus over the next three years, a number that rose to 45 percent among recent graduates. Thirty-two percent said it is likely they will volunteer for the College during the next three years.
The most popular alumni activity and service was a
free alumni online directory; 87 percent said they were
very or somewhat interested (the directory is available at www.union.edu/Alumni). Other activities receiving mention were ReUnion, Homecoming, and other specials events
(74 percent); cultural events (66 percent); regional alumni chapters (64 percent); the ability to buy Union merchandise online (62 percent); informal events (62 percent); spectator sports (61 percent); speaker series (53 percent); and free lifetime e-mail (53 percent).
Ninety-seven percent of the respondents said they read Union College magazine, with 28 percent reading it from cover to cover. Class notes are the most popular section, read “always” or “frequently” by 93 percent. Campus news and feature stories are read by 78 and 77 percent, respectively. Readers say they would like to see more articles about Union awards and rankings, alumni achievements, and historical features.
The magazine was the most popular source of news about the College, cited by 64 percent of survey respondents as the way they prefer to receive information. Other sources included e-mail (33 percent), the web (32 percent), personal contact with friends, relatives, and other alumni (28 percent), and the media (17 percent).
Seventy-seven percent of the respondents said Union is not as well known as it should be compared to similar institutions, with that number highest among younger alumni (83 percent of graduates out five years or less). Overall, 65 percent said Union's ranking in U.S. News & World Report was important to them, although there were significant differences depending on class year; the magazine ranking was important to 78 percent of those who graduated in the past five years vs. 60 percent of those who graduated 31 or more years ago.
Nicole Encarnacao chose Union when she was just eight years old, when she was here for one of her older brother's football games.
“I remember taking one look around and saying to my mother, 'Mom, I'm coming here.'”
Ten years later, after being recruited for the women's soccer team, Nicole enrolled as a member of the Scholars Program, which honors students who demonstrated
outstanding academic excellence in high school.
During her four years at Union, Nicole was involved in a variety of activities, from Big Brothers/Big Sisters to Pi Sigma Alpha, the political science honors society. But most notable was her devotion to teaching. In addition to tutoring at the Kenney Community Center, she was the campus coordinator for Teach for America, the national program that encourages outstanding recent college graduates to commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools. Nicole was planning to join Teach for America, but her lifelong dream has taken a slight turn. She will go to Ohio State in the fall to begin work on a Ph.D., the first step toward becoming a college professor.
“I always wanted to be a political science professor. To me, being a professor is more of an avenue to being a constant learner. Professors are also students because they have teaching and research experience and are always learning more.” How does the idea of five more years of school suit this lifelong learner? Perfectly. “It won't be bad at all. I get paid to go to school-to learn!”
Nicole's background played a large role in her interest in political science, her major.
“My family is deeply political. My dad is 'Mr. Politician' in my hometown in Massachusetts. He's been on the town council, and so I've always been around politics. I used to help him campaign when I was in high school, so I've always known that this is
what I was interested in.” At Ohio State she hopes to focus on American politics and education policy in general,
as well as race, gender, and voting behavior.
As a Union Scholar, Nicole was able to take advantage of extra classes. For example, she did a project her sophomore year on women and film, something completely different from what she was learning in class. She also found time to minor in both Spanish and history and went on a term abroad to Seville last winter.
Nicole says she learned more than just academics during her four years at Union. “When I came here, I had an idea of what college was in terms of the social aspects. But what impacted me were the academics, and that's what changed me the most-those academic opportunities. I think I'm a lot more confident now than I was. I was always friendly and enthusiastic, but now I'm more carefree.”
That's not to say she didn't take advantage of the social opportunities. “I made friends from all walks of life here.
I think freshman year I was slightly worried about being in the right crowd when, in reality, none of it matters.”
As for her plans, “I'd really like to teach at a small, liberal arts school much like Union.”
It looks like some things never change.
Chris Roblee
Not only is the title of Chris Roblee's senior thesis a mouthful, so is his list of academic accomplishments at Union.
The thesis title is “Genetic Algorithm Based Design and Implementation of Multiplierless Two-Dimensional Image Filters.”
The academic accomplishments of the computer engineering major/math minor include a 3.97 GPA, making him this year's valedictorian. He made Dean's List since freshman year, was a member of the Tau Beta Pi engineering honors society, and was
secretary of the Eta Kappa
Nu electrical engineering honors society.
Chris's four years also included several hours a week tutoring school children as well as his peers. As a volunteer at the Kenney Community Center, he helped third and fourth graders from local elementary schools with their homework in all subjects. “I have always enjoyed working with the kids; it is incredibly rewarding to be able to make a positive difference. I believe that besides actually helping kids get their work done, the truly profound goal of this program is to get them to respect the importance of education as a whole.”
Chris and the other tutors also played educational and recreational games with the children to give them a fun and educational place to go after school. “This has been a wonderful opportunity for me to reach out and help the community; I feel that we have had a lasting impact on these kids.”
Chris says that his commitment to his grades was not just about working itself, but how he worked.
“As soon as I got to Union, I was committed to working as hard as I could. It was more about work ethic.” Looking back, he says he was perhaps overly concerned. “The most important thing I learned was to work more efficiently, to work smarter-not just to work 'hard.'”
Going on a term abroad to Prague was a great experience, he says, but deepened his appreciation for Union. “School there is very different. In Prague there was no homework, no tests-we hardly ever got feedback. The school we went to had 20,000 students. I came back really appreciating the atmosphere at Union.”
Besides academic evolution, Chris experienced a personal evolution of sorts. “Initially,
I was really opposed to Greek life. But then I joined a fraternity and now am really involved in it. By taking leadership roles there, it thrust
me into other leadership roles on campus.
“I think Union has some shortcomings that reflect some of the social shortcomings in society as a whole. Like in the 'real world,' people here join cliques and sometimes segregate themselves. I know that's an actual human trait, but at least now I'm prepared to face it in the 'real world' and know to be more of an individual.”
With all his accomplishments, Chris remains modest. His success, he says, is not solely his own. “I owe a lot to my teachers. Everyone here has been incredibly open and willing to explain things. Maybe some other people don't take advantage of the willingness of professors, but that's one of the reasons I came here in the first place-when first visiting here, the faculty and small class sizes are what really sold me.”
This fall, Chris plans to attend graduate school at Dartmouth to get his master's degree in computer engineering, with a goal of becoming the chief of technology officer at a major corporation. “I want to be able to use technology in a leadership role, maybe to guide some sort of project. I want to effectively influence the flow of technology.”
After influencing so many young lives, it doesn't seem like a far-off goal.
Eric Meissner
Ask Eric Meissner what he thinks of getting a close-up look at a gunshot wound or a head injury, and he'll reply, “A lot of things look worse than they really are.”
Pre-med student? Absolutely. But also a political science major-a combination that can be traced to his grandfather's influence.
“I remember when I was young, going wherever my grandfather went. He was very outspoken and knew everyone. I wasn't taken to ordinary childhood places but instead saw the world from a unique point of view. I saw the largest pagoda and Buddha in the Western Hemisphere, a Mormon temple, restaurant kitchens, bank vaults, the cockpits of airplanes, Japanese temples, the Polynesian Cultural Center, and many other atypical places. Most importantly, my grandfather introduced me to different cultures and people without ever making a distinction between them-they were all different, but equal.”
Eric has always wanted to be a doctor, although he can't pinpoint the reason. “No one in my family is a physician, and growing up in a lower to middle class neighborhood, medicine is not something most people have careers in. I wasn't sure if I could do it just because I didn't see many people doing it. But then I took an anatomy and physiology class in high school, which fascinated me.
I think being a doctor is a way to apply what I like in science to what I like about people.”
Despite his childhood goal, he was at first discouraged at Union. “My roommate's parents were doctors, and he would always tell me it wasn't something I'd like doing.” He started taking introductory courses in political theory and accumulated enough courses to become a political science major. “Looking back, I'm glad it happened because it encouraged me to learn about all these different areas.”
Eric was an EMT for Union's Emergency Medical Service, providing first response medical care for sporting events, social events, and weekends several times a term. He was also a clinical research assistant last summer at the emergency department at Albany Medical Center, where he saw that many of the problems in the ER were more social problems than medical problems. One result of that observation was his senior thesis on the impact of the Healthcare Reform Act on hospital emergency departments in New York. “I found that while HCRA has failed to meet its objectives and has put increased financial strain on hospitals, ED administrators and other emergency medical professionals report increased services, quality of care, and access at their facilities.”
Eric's Watson Fellowship proposal was to spend a year abroad participating in the delivery of emergency medicine in Honduras, Nicaragua, Holland, and England and to understand how and why the functions of these systems differ. “No one had applied for something like this in so long, and this year one person applied for the same exact thing and won.” Even so, Eric got the opportunity to travel. Last fall, he took a term abroad to Brisbane that focused on biology fieldwork and the society, culture, and ecology of Australia.
Eric says he changed a lot during his four years at Union. “I think Union really challenged me to develop. I found classes that really interested me and great professors who fostered the ambition that I had. I
consider myself much more focused. I've always worked hard, but now I really do because I like to be independent. When I was younger
my mom worked hard to give me what I wanted, and so
I've learned that's what you have to do.”
Eric plans to take the MCAT's this August and hopes to work for Paramedics for Children in Honduras. There, we will train local
people so they can provide their own care.
Lucia Scheckner
Political activist and playwright Lucia Scheckner describes her time at Union as if she were blindfolded in a dark room: “I sort of felt my way through everything.”
For Lucia, it wasn't enough to just learn the readings of dramatic literature; she wanted to understand the theories behind the writings. “I wanted to learn how theater can be used to illustrate political ideas and inspire social change. Theater is a unique medium of art that offers a dialectic analysis of the world within which we live.” It should be no surprise, then, that she became an interdepartmental major in philosophy and literature, pursuing not only her interest in literature but also her ability to interpret literature critically.
Despite her creative energy, Lucia says that writing is not something that has always come easily. “My father was an English professor, so that definitely had an impact on my writing. I struggled with the grammatical aspects of writing. I always had ideas and was enthusiastic about writing, but sometimes felt that my ability to communicate those ideas was hindered.”
Perhaps this explains her motivation to become a Writing Center tutor. “I can really relate to the people I work with.”
Lucia headed Union's Campus Action organization, a group of students devoted to making the College more socially and politically conscious. “At first, I dealt with my political frustration independently, going to protests without being backed by some organization. Then I was given the opportunity to chair Campus Action. Suddenly, when I was 'forced' to organize, it became astoundingly clear that my independent activism had come to an end.”
According to Lucia, this was an enlightening experience for her. “Activism is not something one does alone. Things can only change when we realize our strength, our voice, and use that to send a message together. My grandmother, since the day I can remember, told me that we all must break out of the cages our society puts us in-Black, White, Woman, Man, Rich, Poor.”
Break out she did.
Lucia came up with the idea to publish a campus newsletter that would provide an open forum for the 'alternative voice' on campus. “My initial motivation stemmed from my frustration with the blatant biases of mainstream media, especially at a time when it is so important to be asking questions and challenging what we are told. That's what it means to be an American, to live in a democracy. Condemning people for speaking out seems pretty hypocritical.”
The newsletter, The Campus Activist, was worth the challenge, she says. “Because of this newsletter, we have been able to reach many students, staff, and faculty we were previously isolated from. In addition, we have formed a strong alliance with neighboring Capital District schools. We have recently formed a Capital District student anti-war movement, and we meet once a month to discuss ideas and plans for the future.”
Lucia completed her senior thesis on the work of the playwright Berthold Brecht. “He revolutionized the theater by using Marxism as a definite schema for creating ideological theater. Brecht combined entertainment and instruction in the hope of creating a more critical theater, a theater that was more than simply entertainment for consumption, which to Brecht was self-indulging and only contributed to the bourgeois decadence he abhorred.
My thesis discusses Brecht's creation of epic or didactic theater; its central focus,
however, is socialist feminist analysis of Brecht's female characterizations.”
This spring, Lucia assisted Guest Director Brad Beckman with Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle, doing everything from helping with script analysis to set design. “Working on this production seems like the perfect culmination to these four years, after spending so much time studying Brecht's work.”
Lucia will attend Columbia University's MFA program in dramaturgy to continue her interest in performance, dramatic theory, and education. She's slightly anxious about the theater background of some of her future classmates. But that seems a minor detail when you look at all that she accomplished while at Union.
Recently, as I read Tom Bonner's excellent biography of Abraham Flexner, one passage really struck a chord. Flexner was a man who, among other things, revolutionized medical education in the United States. He had firm opinions about what colleges ought to do, and Bonner quotes him as lamenting the fact that there was no core to what undergraduates were learning at colleges and universities across the land.
That lament came nearly 100 years ago. And if Flexner had cause to lament about the curriculum then, he would have even more cause to do so now. In my opinion, too many colleges and universities have forgotten the importance of a conservative core in the liberal arts.
I realize one interpretation of that statement is to wonder if I'm advocating a return to the trivium of the Middle Ages-grammar, logic, rhetoric-
or to the more “advanced” quadrivium of arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and music. Not at all. Obviously, our knowledge has expanded tremendously, and undergraduates today can dig into subjects that students in my day, much less six decades earlier, could not even contemplate. Witness, for instance, what young people do with computers today-and I am not talking about simply playing computer games.
No, what I am talking about is the sad fact that while high schools are sending to colleges students who are less prepared than past years with a firm grasp of certain basic concepts, some institutions are doing away with all requirements. We run the risk, accordingly, of producing college graduates who simply do not have an understanding of certain basic tenets.
Of course, graduates of a liberal arts college such as Union should have a general and broadly-based foundation for living in a changing world. They should take with them an adherence to such fundamental principles as freedom of inquiry and freedom of speech, and an understanding of the historical roots that gave birth to those principles. Graduates should have a habit of mind eager to know what the truth is and a persistence in attempting to find it.
Furthermore, a liberal arts college also ought to give its students some understanding of the social order and of the contributions of arts and science to the progress of society. It ought to impart a knowledge of the fundamentals and economics of government. It should also expose its students to a range of information which, in my opinion, gives them a firm grasp of Western Civilization, among other things.
We do this at Union with our General Education program which, while avoiding a precise listing
of individual course requirements, does require our students to reach beyond their majors. All of our regular degree students must complete courses in four areas-history, literature, and civilization; social or behavioral science; mathematics and
natural science; and other languages, other cultures, and other disciplines. They must also complete certain Writing Across the Curriculum requirements.
It is, I think, an education that does much to impart in its students an appreciation of the total achievement of the human race. It is, in a sense, a conservative arts education.
Certainly, there are those who say our program is too conservative-too focused on Western Civilization, for example. Yet, as well meaning as proponents of change from our Western-oriented program are, I would hope that they come to understand that the best solution is to demand more of students by asking them to develop an understanding of other peoples and culture through area studies, and to do so after-after-having a better understanding of what the roots
of our civilization are. Important as Africana and East Asian and Latin American studies are,
they should be viewed as a complement to, not a substitute for, a Western Civilization core.
Abraham Flexner was not happy with what he saw nearly 100 years ago. I would like to think
that he would be cheered by Union's approach.
Charles W.J. Scaife, professor emeritus of chemistry, died
of cancer Sunday at his Schenectady home. He was 65.
Scaife, who joined the faculty in 1972 and retired in 2001,
spent much of the last decade with his wife, Priscilla, doing hands-on science
programs for elementary- and middle-school students and their teachers.
In 1994, Scaife used a sabbatical to become what one
newspaper called “a latter-day Merlin” with “Johnny Appleseed wanderings.” With
his wife, a social worker, he hit the road in the family car, doing
demonstrations in youngsters' science classes by day, holding evening science
workshops for parents and children, and sleeping wherever they could get a free
bed.
Starting in the Northeast in 1994, they later expanded their travels to include
the entire country, using additional sabbaticals as well as vacation time.
Prof. Scaife said that his campaign was spurred by the conviction that children
take to science when they are able to work with their hands and experience a
sense of surprise. “The kids realize they are
going to have fun,” he once said. “But they don't always know they
will accidentally learn something along the way.”
In one favorite experiment, someone would hold up a Ziploc
bag filled with water, and Prof. Scaife would push a pencil into it from the
youngster's side. But no one would get wet, the polymer providing an instant
seal.
The Scaifes' school visits had a dual purpose — to permit children and their
parents to experience close up the sense of surprise that is science's
essential excitement and to encourage teachers, some of whom have little
knowledge of science, to be more adventurous in the classroom.
In the schools they visited, the Scaifes trained a team of volunteers to take
over where they left off. Through school visits, teacher workshops, and a web
site (http://www.kids.union.edu), they built a corps of volunteers across the country
dedicated to improved science teaching.
When they tallied their visits in 1999, the Scaifes estimated they had reached
more than 25,000 students.
The couple's exploits also caught the eye of the national
media, inspiring a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal, as well
as subsequent stories in USA Today, the Christian Science Monitor,
and Education Week.
In 1999, Scaife received the
Community Service Award from the Hudson Mohawk Consortium of Colleges and
Universities. He accepted the award by acknowledging all the students “who
wear their enthusiasm right out in front.”
Scaife, who specialized in inorganic chemistry, taught a
range of courses in inorganic chemistry and designed laboratory experiments for
chemistry majors at Union. He published a number of
papers in chemistry journals. He was a member of the American Chemical Society,
a Danforth Associate, and a member of Sigma Xi, an honorary dedicated to
scientific research.
Scaife, with student Rich
Cavoli '87, designed a crystal-growing experiment that was aboard the space shuttle Challenger, and he got to know astronauts Ron McNair and Greg Jarvis, who lost
their lives on the 1986 mission. A guest at the ill-fated launch, Scaife saw the experiment fly on the Discovery two years later.
Charles Scaife received a
BA degree in chemistry from Cornell University
in 1959 and a Ph.D. there in inorganic chemistry in 1965. He was a commissioned
officer in the Navy from 1959 to 1961 and a National Science Foundation
Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of York, England, in 1967. He taught at Middlebury
College before joining Union
in 1972.
Surviving, in addition to Priscilla, are two daughters, Rebecca
Sanders of Lyndon, Vt., (and her husband, James), and Jennifer Craig of
Lakeville, Conn., (and her husband, Ken); a sister, Betty Scorese of
Pennsylvania; and seven grandchildren. He was predeceased by his sister, Laura.
The funeral service is Saturday, Aug. 30, at 10 a.m. at Our Savior's Lutheran
Church, 63
Mountain View Ave., Colonie. The family will be
greeting friends from 9 to 10 a.m. at the church and at a reception after
the service.
Memorial contributions may be made to family and youth
ministry programs at Our Savior's Lutheran
Church, 63
Mountain View Ave., Colonie, N.Y.,
12205; to Community Hospice
of Schenectady, 1411 Union St., Schenectady,
N.Y. 12308; or to City Mission of Schenectady, 425 Hamilton St., Schenectady, N.Y. 12305.
Liz Lax '05, with guitar and a text about the science that inspires her music
Aerogels, those space-age, ultra-light
materials, may hold a lot of promise as insulators. But they are hardly the
stuff of music.
Until now.
Meet Liz Lax '05, a member of this
summer's aerogel research team, who felt so moved by her research experience that
she is setting it to music.
The “Solgel Song” – still a work
in progress – captures the trials and tribulations of this summer's Aerogel
Research Team. (An aerogel is a type of solgel.)
An accomplished musician, Lax has
been playing guitar and singing for eight years. That's when she isn't studying
biochemistry, her major.
On a recent day, the sweet notes
of her guitar (“an old Fender that I drag around”) could be heard wafting down
the hall from a lab where Lax sat plucking out notes, one eye on a computer
program. “It's a great way to pass the time in the lab,” she said. “When you're
doing research, sometimes you have to wait around for results.”
Some of the lyrics are:
“Here
in the bat cave, we play around with chemicals
Give
me TMOS, methanol and ammonium hydroxide
Stir
for ten minutes, don't forget the water
We're
making sol-gels.”
The Aerogel Team (Summer 2003) members are, from left, Prof. Mary Carroll (chemistry); Shira Mandel '05, a mechanical engineering and chemistry major; Bobby Dunton '05, ME and computer science; Elizabeth Lax '05, biochemistry; Jessica Grondin '05, biochem
Other members of this summer's
team were Shira Mandel '05, ME and chemistry; Yadira Briones '04, chemistry and
French; Bobby Dunton '05, ME and computer science; Jessica Grondin '05, biochemistry;
and Jan Konecny, an exchange student from Prague who is majoring in mechanical
engineering.
Project directors are Professors
Ann Anderson, mechanical engineering; and Mary Carroll, chemistry.
The
project had its beginning three years ago when Anderson and a former student,
Ben Gauthier '02 (now at Stanford), began experimenting with the process.
Before long, they were consulting with faculty in chemistry for help in
understanding the chemical processes involved.
Launched
with a grant from the National Science Foundation, the project moved into a new
lab in Science and Engineering this year.
Aerogels
are ultra-light matrix materials that are excellent insulators. The challenge
for the researchers is to devise a manufacturing method that will make
production of the material more cost effective. Current applications are
limited mostly to the space program, where aerogels have been used as an
insulator on the Mars rover and to collect comet dust.
Shira Mandel '05 with an aerogel
The team is producing aerogels in a hydraulic, heated press where they combine a mixture of tetramethylorthosilicate, methanol, water and a catalyst. The mixture gels
and the “wet” gel is then brought to a “supercritical”
phase in which there is no surface tension between the liquids and solids. At that
point, the wet gel can be dried without degrading the solid matrix inherent in
that form of aerogel.
The team
is focusing on finding improvements in the manufacturing process and on
characterizing the properties of the aerogels produced. They have applied for a
patent on a process they call a “Fast Supercritical Extraction Technique
for Simplified Aerogel Fabrication.”
