Schenectady, NY (January 6, 2004) Union College freshman
Elise Nichols
(Pittsfield, MA) of the women's ice hockey team, has been named ECAC
CO-Rookie of the Week, for the week ending January 4th. Nichols scored
four goals in three road games for the Dutchwomen this past week, and
leads the team in both goals and assists (10-6-16).
Nichols leads the ECAC in freshman scoring, and is second overall in the
conference.
Currently ranked 7th in the nation for rookie scoring among D-I women,
Nichols has already had two, 2 goal games this season for the
Dutchwomen.
The Union College men's basketball team is a heavy favorite to win this weekend's 20th Annual Sig Makofski/Union Invitational. The 7-1 Dutchmen, who head into the event riding the crest of a seven-game win streak, play the 1-7 Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Trailblazers in Friday night's 8 p.m. The tournament will tip-off on Friday night when Brockport State and Clark University open the event in the 6 o'clock contest. Saturday's 3 p.m. championship game will be preceded by the 1 p.m. consolation contest.
“I am pleased to be 7-1 with only two home games in our first eight outings,” said eighth-year head coach Bob Montana, who has led the Dutchmen to winning seasons each of the last five years. “We have had an opportunity to get some wins on the road against teams with good records, which is very important. Winning at Christopher Newport to capture the championship of their tournament was certainly a nice victory for us. They had won 65 of 68 games at home since they had opened their facility. ”
The Dutchmen, who have been to the finals 18 times since their invitational began in 1985, are looking for their sixth title and their first-ever back-to-back championships. Union, which defeated St. Joseph's, 80-62, last year, also captured titles in 1999, 1994, 1987, and in 1985. The 1998 tournament was a round robin even that did not crown a champion. The Dutchmen have been out of the title hunt only once, finishing third in 1986.
Chris Murphy Ryan Fredunlich
Union's win streak includes a pair of victories in last week's Land of Magic Classic in Daytona Beach, Florida. The Dutchmen defeated Ursinus, 86-66, and then defeated Mt. St. Mary, 80-72. Montana's squad opened the 2004 portion of its schedule on Monday by defeating homestanding Plattsburgh, 59-48. Sophomore guard John Cagianello scored 17 points, came up with five steals and pulled down seven rebounds to lead the Dutchmen. Cagianello, who earlier on Monday picked up his second Upstate College Athletic Conference “Guard of the Week” award of the season, was the UCAA's “Rookie of the Year” last season. The Garnet's only loss was a season-opening 55-48 loss at Williams College, which won the 2002-03 national championship. Union trailed by just one with under a minute to play before the Ephs converted from the free throw line.
The Dutchmen, who lost four starters from the 2001-02 NCAA team that posted an overall record of 21-8, finished 17-12 last year and missed participating in their second consecutive NCAA tournament by losing at Hamilton, 74-70, in the championship game of the UCAA postseason event. Union, which lost one starter from last year, is still a relatively young squad. Forwards, captain Imbrie Packard, and Ryan Frendulich are the lone seniors for this Union team which start sophomores Canginaello and Chris Murphy at the guard positions with sophomore Brian Scordato, junior Devon Bruce and Frendulich the starting forwards. Packard, sophomore forward Darcy Bonner, sophomore guard Jim Rahill, and junior guard T.J. Ramey have come off of the bench top play important roles in Union's early-season success.
“I cannot say enough about the leadership and versatility that Imbrie Packard, our senior captain, and Ryan Freundlich, our other senior and starting center, have brought to this team,” said Montana. “Both of them have done an outstanding job with their floor play, and the many intangibles that are necessary to achieve success.”
Devon BruceBrian Scordato
Cagianello leads the Dutchmen with his 18.4 average while Scordato (15.6) and Bruce (12.7) are the other double digit scorers who have helped the Garnet produce a 74.0 scoring average. Cagianello, a 6'3, 165-pounder from Wethersfield, Connecticut, has hit for double digits in his last seven games after opening the season with a nine-point performance against Williams. He netted a career-high 33 points in Union's win over Mt. St. Mary. Cagianello's previous high of 31 points came last January in an 80-72 UCAA victory over Hamilton.
Scordato leads the Dutchmen in both three-point field goals (21) and three-point percentage at 55.3% (21 of 38). Cagianello is second in both categories with 15 three-pointers and a percentage of 38.5% (15 of 39). The Dutchmen have connected on 70.0% of their free throws, hitting 77 of 110 attempts. Bonner, who has connected on 14 of 17 attempts (82.4%), Caginello (16 of 21, 76.2%), and Bruce (17 of 24, 70.8%) lead the squad.
Bruce is the Garnet's top rebounder with his 7.3 average and is closely followed by Scordato's 7.0 standard. Thus far the Dutchmen have out-rebounded the opposition by a 36.3 to 34.6 margin, an improvement overall the last several seasons in which Union has been on the short end of the rebounding statistics. Despite their overall advantage on the boards, Union is on the short end of a 71-58 margin on the offensive boards. Frendulich and Bruce each own 10 caroms.
Union enjoys a 112-87 assist advantage with Murphy (24), Scordato (22) and Packard (21) each averaging 3.0 or more helpers a game. The Dutchmen have also turned the ball over seven fewer times than the opposition and enjoy an 11.9 scoring margin advantage. Union's defense has held the opposition to a 38.0 overall field goal percentage.
“We have received key contributions from many players,” said Montana. “We've had different guys come off the bench to make key plays or big contributions, whatever was necessary, and that has been key to our success in the first seven games. Guys have been willing to fulfill whatever role was necessary to help us win, and that's all you can ask for as a coach.”
The Trailblazers's offense is led by junior guards Chet Columbus (18.0) and Robert Mitchell (17.9) and sophomore Thad Broughton (16.3). Mitchell, who is 6'3, leads the team with his 8.9 rebounding average. Montana had an opportunity to see the Trailblazers, who have been outscored by an 86.8 to 69.9 margin, play in the Christopher Newport Tournament. Massachusetts College, whose only win was a 90-73 victory over Nazarene College in the sixth game of the season, has not played since losing at Norwich, 62-59, on December 9.
Brockport, which takes a three-game win streak and a 3-2 record into Wednesday night's game at St. Lawrence, is led in scoring and rebounding by senior forwards Charlie Croff and Brandon Mills. Croff, who is 6'5 and 215 pounds, averages 22 points and 9.2 rebounds while the 6'7, 205-pound Mills averages 14.8 points and 6.6 boards.
John CagianelloSig Makofski
Clark, which dropped a 91-84 decision to the Dutchmen in the 1999 title game, comes into the tournament with a 4-3 record after beating Scranton in last weekend's University of Scranton Tournament championship. The Cougars boast double digit scorers in 6'4 senior forward Trevor Walker (17.5), 5'10 senior guard Dave McNamara (17.2), 6'6 sophomore forward Tim Dutille (12.3) and 6'3 senior forward Brent Kenneway (11.8). Adam Miller, a 6'8 senior forward, has come off the bench to lead the Cougars with his 5.7 rebounding average. Walker and Dutille are next with average of 4.8 and 4.7, respectively. Clark is averaging 81.3 points while allowing 78.5. The Cougars enjoy a rebounding advantage of 37.0 to 34.5. Head coach Paul Phillips, who is in this 18th season, is two wins shy of his 300th career victory.
“The Makofski Tournament gives us an opportunity to play at home against some good teams,” said Montana. “Mass College is a young team that is very good off the dribble and shoots the three-point field goal very well as a team. SUNY Brockport and Clark University are two programs that have been able to go deep into the NCAA Tournament in recent years. Brockport is a veteran team that has been playing well, and Clark is blending some newcomers with returning players who have gotten to the Final 8 in the NCAA's. Both teams have played very good non-league schedules.
“I'm proud of the fact that Union has been able to sponsor a quality tournament for 20 years,” Montana continued. “This is a tournament that has brought many very good teams to our campus. The fact that the tourney honors Sig Makofski. one of Union's top basketball players and one of the top athletes in our College's history is very fitting. I expect the tourney games to be very competitive, providing spectators an exciting brand of basketball.”
Sig Makofski, a 1926 graduate who died in 1994, was inducted into the initial class of Union's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002 and was the Dutchmen's first basketball player to achieve first-team All-American status and was also recognized for his abilities on the football field by being named as an honorable mention All-American. He played professional basketball with Kingston and Utica in the New York State League, and with the Patterson, New Jersey team in the old American Basketball League, which evolved into the National Basketball Association. Makofski was also a championship-caliber golfer, setting numerous records at local courses.
Makofski taught and coached at his alma mater, Schenectady High School, and then at Mont Pleasant High School, compiling a 26-year career basketball record of 461-35 (a winning percentage of .929). His high school teams produced six undefeated seasons and had winning streaks of 46, 42, 39, and 36 games. During one multi-year stretch, his teams won 98 of 100 games. Makofski also coached Mont Pleasant's football team to four undefeated seasons, finishing with a .700 winning percentage, and guided the Red Raiders' golf team to a pair of New York State championships while compiling an .820 winning percentage.
A former Schenectady City Councilman, Makofski had a plaque honoring his coaching accomplishments in the “High School” section of the old National Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. Makofski was also among the five inductees to the Schenectady City School District Athletic Hall of Fame at their inaugural in September of 1998.
Parking for Union basketball games will be restricted to the parking areas in front of Memorial Fieldhouse via the Nott/Van Vranken entrance for the remainder of the season due to the construction of the Viniar Basketball Pavilion.
The Union Bookshelf regularly features new books written
by (or about) alumni and
other members of the Union community. If you're an author and would like to be included in a future issue, please send
us a copy of the book as well as your publisher's news release. Our address is Office of Communications, Union College, Schenectady, NY 12308.
Milton Schwebel '34
Remaking America's
Three School Systems: Now Separate and Unequal
Scarecrow Press; ISBN: 0810845423
Remaking America's Three School Systems could not have come
at a more propitious time.
Dr. Milton Schwebel's incisive analysis parts the veil of national self-deception regarding education reform and then offers realistic and workable proposals.
Schwebel's resume includes sales clerk, newspaper reporter, radio newscaster, youth counselor, employment counselor, labor market analyst, World War II army veteran, college counseling center director, psychotherapist, professor, dean, and education consultant-impressive credentials for dealing with the real world. He acknowledges his Union academic experience as the bedrock of his intellectual development (he was a philosophy major who also studied politics, labor economics, and drama).
Schwebel says that our
education system is actually three systems, each serving three distinct social/economic classes-the privileged elite; the worker bees (preparation of the future workforce for middle-tier jobs in factories, offices, hospitals and shops); and the largely “custodial” nature of rudimentary education for the poor, which he terms “thoroughly inadequate.”
Schwebel's treatment of the topic is lively and informative. He incorporates a vast array of figures (historical and contemporary), and his meticulous notes and bibliography bolster his blueprint for reform. Every education architect in the country should read this book and summon the courage to begin implementation of its ideas before another generation of children is cheated.
Martin Jay '65
Refractions of Violence
Routledge; ISBN: 0415966655
Martin Jay, a history professor at the University of California at Berkeley, presents Refractions of Violence, a collection of timely essays on topics such as the “visual evidence” of the Holocaust, virtual reality, religious violence, and the art world.
Jay is an acknowledged
cultural critic who invites his readers to examine a variety of issues from unique perspectives. Consider, for example, the behemoth statues of Lenin, Stalin, and Saddam toppled by Lilliputian crowds; then try to imagine the same fate for the Lincoln Memorial or some other sacred American icon-the latter evoking a totally different
visceral reaction. Here he examines just how architecture and monuments become “manifestations of national unity.”
Jay also poses thought-
provoking questions about the popular media and the entertainment industry. “Reality” TV and the viewing public's apparent fascination with “simulated disasters and vicarious traumas” are examined as symptoms of society's growing aggression, insensitivity, and diminution of empathy. The final two essays, based on 9/11, discuss how victims of violence can be memorialized, once more examining the power of visual imagery and architecture in addressing posterity. Jay will have readers thinking and examining issues in ways never before considered.
Raymond Angelo
Belliotti '70
Happiness is Overrated
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; ISBN: 074253362X
In Happiness is Overrated, Raymond Belliotti asserts that happiness is not the greatest personal good, nor is it even
a great good in itself.
Sometimes, he says, happiness is not a good at all. He submits: If we pursue worthwhile, exemplary lives and find happiness along the way, then we are lucky. If we don't, then we can take pride and derive satisfaction from a life well lived. Ultimately, the greatest personal good is realized by leading a robustly meaningful, valuable life.
The book includes a historical overview of the concept of happiness, ranging from Plato to contemporary writers, with special attention to the best scholarship from philosophy, psychology, and sociology.
In our consumer-driven
culture, the book provides much to consider and re-think. Belliotti, Distinguished Teaching Professor and Chair of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Fredonia, is also the author of What Is the Meaning of Human Life, Stalking Nietzsche, Seeking
Identity, Good Sex,and Justifying Law.
Nina Sichel '75
Unrooted Childhoods:
Memoirs of Growing Up Global
Nicholas Brealey Publishing;
ISBN: 1857883381
The kids next door are native-born Americans whose Malaysian parents (who are ethnic Chinese) speak such disparate dialects that English is their lingua franca. With extended family in Malaysia,
Australia, and South Africa, these kids have logged more air miles than Superman.
They shuttle among languages, cultures, and time zones without a second thought. But where do they call home? What culture do they embrace? These are some of the questions examined in Unrooted Childhoods: Memories of Growing Up Global-a collection of essays by authors who have lived their childhoods between cultures, countries, and sometimes races and ethnicities.
Among the contributors is Nina Sichel, daughter of an American mother and German father, who was reared in Venezuela and spent summers in New York. Sichel also collected essays from children of missionaries, international business people, various expatriates, and political refugees whose families leapfrog around the globe. Their essays reflect their struggle for self-identification and definition; the delicate dance (or clash) and, for those of mixed racial backgrounds, where their loyalties should lie.
The old saw is, “Home is where the heart is.” But, as this book shows, for some there are many tugs on the heartstrings.
Michele A. Paludi '76
Academic and Workplace
Sexual Harassment:
A Handbook of Cultural,
Social Science, Management, and Legal Perspectives
Praeger Publishers;
ISBN: 0313325162
Human Development in
Multicultural Contexts:
A Book of Readings
Prentice-Hall; ISBN: 0130195235
Michele Paludi, a respected expert on sexual harassment, has published her twenty-first college textbook, Human Development in Multicultural Contexts: A Book of Readings. It is the first text of its kind to explore life-span development issues from a multicultural perspective, rather than the traditional Eurocentric approach.
Students are introduced to several different theories, research studies, and applications from a multicultural approach. Each chapter opens with “Questions for Reflection,” which serve as a reader's guide, and is followed by Paludi's introductory overview, then a selection of excerpted readings.
Academic and Workplace Sexual Harassment: A Handbook of Cultural, Social Science, Management, and Legal Perspectives provides an overview of sexual harassment in settings as diverse as kindergarten to workplaces. The contributors come from equally diverse backgrounds and disciplines-psychology, sociology, law, English literature and management.
The book offers a number of legal cases and a variety of tools that can help implement sexual harassment policies and procedures as well as training programs for diverse settings such as academic and the workplace.
Tod Dimmick '86
The Complete Idiot's Guide
to 5-Minute Appetizers
Alpha Books; ISBN: 1592571344
He's done it again! Tod
Dimmick, gourmet chef, wine connoisseur, and author, has followed his most recent cookbook for the time-
constrained with The Complete Idiot's Guide to 5-Minute Appetizers. The book is a lifesaver for the culinary-challenged who think “hors-d'oeuvres” is French for chips and dip.
Tod includes more than
300 recipes and even a chapter on wine and appetizer pairing. He explains how to take mundane store-bought staples and dress them up to appear like a culinary extravaganza that took hours to create. His formula?-keep it simple. “Don't get bogged down with complicated, time-consuming recipes,” he advises. “Pick two or three high-quality ingredients that go well together and let them do the work for you.” This newest book is a perfect aperitif to his previous book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to
20-Minute Meals.
Tod is also editor of tastingtimes.com, a web guide to wines at best values.
Melissa Stewart '90
Maggots, Grubs, and More: The Secret Lives of Young Insects
Millbrook Press; ISBN 0761326588; $24.90
Since graduating cum laude in biology and earning an M.A. at New York University's science writing program, Melissa Stewart has shared her lifelong love of science and nature with children and adults through her books, workshops, speaker's programs, and field trips. She is the author of more than fifty children's science books and has contributed articles to such publications as American Forests, National Geographic World, Odyssey, Science World, and Wild Outdoor World.
Her most recent book, Maggots, Grubs, and More: The Secret Lives of Young Insects, tells the amazing stories of young insects' hidden lives (did you know, for example, that many young insects look completely different from the adults they become?). Stewart wrote the book after her nephew, Colin, asked her to show him insects that were still growing up, just as he is. She dedicated the book to Jacob and Justin, the children of classmates Danah Ritter Moore and Jeremy Moore.
As an author, she has received such recognition as the National Science Teachers Association Recommended Title, New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age, and Science Books & Film's Best Books
of the Year and Editor's Choice awards. As an educator, she offers a variety of workshops and programs; one of her
programs, called From Idea
to Book (for grades 3 and older), explains how a book
is created, from concept to finished product.
Tom Pennell, aka Christopher Spirit, is a first-time writer, publisher, and publicist with the creation of Charlie the Tree, a children's book about the New York City Holiday Tree in Rockefeller Center.
Pennell, a technical architect in Colorado, makes regular visits to New York City, especially during the holidays. During one of those forays into the Big Apple, he was walking with colleagues when he suggested they go visit “Charlie.” When met by their quizzical looks, he related the story his mother used to tell him at Christmas time:
As a sapling, Charlie the Tree grew up in a forest surrounded by his friends. Since the
height of a seedling, Charlie heard about the greatest tree of all, the holiday tree in New York City's Rockefeller Center. He grew quickly in the rich soil and sun, dreaming of the day he would become that
legendary tree.
Pennell's friends delighted so in the story that he decided to publish it. The book, geared for ages four and older, offers more than a warm holiday yarn; it also conveys powerful messages-believe in yourself and dreams can come true, and it is important to give back when you have received much.
Pennell is also the book's publisher and publicist. And in keeping with the book's message, ten percent of the book's annual profits will be donated to charity.
Denis Foley
Lemuel Smith and the
Compulsion to Kill: The
Forensic Story of a Multiple-Personality Serial Killer
New Leitrim House Publishing;
ISBN: 0972238301
Denis Foley, a forensic anthropologist and adjunct professor of anthropology at Union College, has written about a killer whose crimes were so monstrous that the facts could have easily lent themselves to “true crime” or tabloid-style sensationalism. Rather, Foley has presented Smith's story in the full light of stark scientific inquiry while maintaining respectful consideration for the survivors of Smith's victims.
Smith was a serial killer who created a “big city” nightmare in the Capital Region. Foley meticulously recounts Smith's killings forensically, and he also provides a comprehensive overview of the political climate during the investigations, the personalities and politics of the key players, and the crimes' aftershocks on the victims' families.
This is a fascinating but difficult read. Foley gives his reader much to think about, not only from a psychological perspective but also in consideration of society as a whole. The question remains: How can we prevent the creation of such monsters?
Sharon B. Gmelch
Tourists and Tourism: A Reader
Waveland Press; ISBN: 1577663063
In Tourists and Tourism: A Reader, Sharon Gmelch, professor of anthropology at Union, examines tourism from a social and economic perspective, asking such questions as, Just why do people travel? What do they hope to find or experience? How does exposure to other cultures affect them (and conversely, native populations and the environment)?
The Reader contains twenty-seven essays by international scholars in a variety of disciplines. The book includes a photographic pastiche and invaluable tourist “code of conduct” lists composed in collaboration with indigenous peoples. If there is an overriding theme throughout the book, it is respect-respect for the people (not everything is “quaint') and the environment. Gmelch stresses this without becoming strident; rather, such appropriate
conduct and attitude is an outgrowth of being a well-mannered “guest” in another's home. She urges prospective travelers to remember, “everything you do while you're away has a consequence for somebody or something else.”
The Saratoga course in 1875, when crews from Union, Amherst, Bowdoin, Brown, Columbia,
Cornell, Dartmouth, Hamilton, Harvard, Princeton, Wesleyan, Williams, and Yale competed in the national championship.
An enduring athletic legend says that the
College got its color at the national championship regatta on Saratoga Lake in 1875.
According to the story, crews from Union and Harvard showed up for the regatta wearing the same color. They immediately disputed each other's choice, the story goes, and by the time the arguing stopped, Union had switched to garnet and Harvard had chosen crimson. (A variation on the story has the two teams racing to choose their colors.)
The real story is a little more complicated.
The Harvard crew began wearing crimson handkerchiefs in 1858, but Harvard's first baseball team, in 1863, sported a magenta “H,” apparently deciding that the color was more fashionable. Its crew switched to magenta in 1864, and in 1873, when the student newspaper began, it was called The Magenta.
Union came to its color officially in 1866, when a committee of three members of each undergraduate class met to select a college color. They chose magenta, and the College's first intercollegiate team, baseball, soon began to wear magenta-trimmed uniforms.
So, if not exactly a dead heat, close enough to say that Union and Harvard came to magenta at about the same time.
In 1875, Union was admitted to the Rowing Association of American Colleges. Recognizing that the two institutions claimed the same color, and wanting to avoid confusion at the regatta, a Union student named Andrew Van Vranken Raymond (later president of the College) sent a letter to Harvard saying that magenta rightfully belonged to Union.
The letter, of course, stirred things up at Harvard. But when alumni pointed out that Harvard had used crimson as early as 1858-and when an alumnus admitted that he had bought magenta headwear for the crew in 1864 only because he could not find crimson-the color turned. The student newspaper immediately changed its name to The Crimson and editorialized that magenta “is not, and never has been, the right color for Harvard.”
Meanwhile, the people at Union, perhaps recognizing that they were not going to have an easy time in the dispute, relinquished their claim and selected garnet as the College's racing color.
All of which still doesn't settle what, exactly, constitutes “garnet” or “crimson.” The ink used on official Union documents is the same color that Lafayette uses for its “maroon” and Colgate uses for its “red.” And the debate at Harvard went on until the early 1990s, when a university committee finally selected the “official” crimson.
In medicine, something “contagious” usually isn't a good thing. But when Dr. Robert Pletman '50 introduced
the idea of establishing a free health clinic in Schenectady, the response was met with an enthusiasm that was, indeed, contagious. Pletman, a board member at St. Clare's Hospital, pitched his idea during a board meeting: Why not establish a free health clinic at Bethesda House, a day shelter for the homeless? In short order,
St. Clare's, the Schenectady County Medical Society, Ellis Hospital, and various individuals all offered their services and/or support.
The clinic, which began seeing its first patients in August, took four years of planning. The Volunteer Practitioner Pilot Project (its formal name) is the first of its kind in New York State, and its leaders had to navigate red tape on such issues as malpractice, room size, and the dispensing of pharmaceuticals.
The project comprises about a dozen physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals, mostly retired. There is a referral system for any case that is beyond the clinic's scope, and both St. Clare's and Ellis Hospitals are offering emergency room and inpatient care as well as free lab and imaging services.
A number of other Union alumni are involved:
Dr. Clifford Tepper '44, an allergist with a background in pediatrics and immunology, conducts retraining courses for the volunteer doctors, many of whom are long-time specialists who now get updated in generalized medicine and family practice.
Dr. James Strosberg '63 is a consulting rheumatologist for the clinic and
also helps by inducing pharmaceutical companies to donate drugs. “This was very easy,” he says. “We had 100 percent cooperation from every drug rep
I asked.”
His brother, Prof. Martin Strosberg '68, chair of the M.B.A. in Health Program at the Graduate College
of Union University, is a board member of the
clinic and helped create management internship projects for students.
One of those students, Steve Weintraub '03, worked with Prof. Strosberg to set up the administrative systems for collecting and distributing donated drugs and is setting up a system to evaluate clinic quality. A volunteer, he acts almost as the clinic's assistant administrator.
Another student, Samuel Park '05, served his healthcare practicum experience at the clinic, creating a manual of
prescription drug policies and procedures. Subsequently, he installed the clinic's database program, which maintains a log of drug samples, and then consolidated the clinic's paperwork by eliminating redundancy and overlap.
The clinic was open only
a few hours a week at its start, and the hope is that hours and services can be extended as the list of
volunteers grows. Fundraising garnered
several thousand dollars, and the state Health Department provided a $100,000 grant.
Tepper is emphatic about the importance of the
clinic's mission: “It is a tragic sin that the richest country in the world still hasn't figured out how
to take care of its people-it is unacceptable,” he says. “Meanwhile, we're doing what we can here
in the community.”
Building a library
As a child in Lagos, Nigeria, Queenie Coker '75-the only girl among five children
-had a special relationship with her mother, who instilled in her a strong work ethic.
That work ethic is now put to use as director of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, which she proudly calls “one of the best, not only in Nigeria, but in Africa, and compares very well with other libraries abroad.”
Coker studied psychology at Union and earned a master's degree in library and information science from the State University of New York at Albany. She then worked with the New York State Library, leaving to join the Albany Public Library as the children's librarian. When she returned to Nigeria, she became senior librarian at the Rivers State University of Science & Technology. In 1983, she joined the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, where she began as a senior librarian in charge of the press library. Through the years, she rose through the ranks-principal librarian, acting deputy directory of the library, and, in 1999, director of the library.
This past summer, during a newspaper interview in Africa, she fondly recalled, “[Union] is an old private school with very top
professors. We had the opportunity of one-to-
one interaction. I am very proud of [Union] and I
am happy I went there.
It instilled a great deal of confidence in me and the zeal to work hard.”
In her present post, she oversees all the departments and their heads.
Her duties are many, including scanning the daily newspapers for important articles; making note of what books and journals have arrived; responding to numerous queries (a great many from other countries);
and making selections from publishers' catalogs to add to the library's
collections. In 1988, she was instrumental in the development of an international affairs section, which she now says “is
the best library on international relations.”
Coker is quick to acknowledge her husband, Dr.
J. Ayodele Coker, a physicist, for their long happy marriage, family life, and for her success. “His impact in my life has been tremendous,” she said.
Her mother's wise advice took root, for when
asked what her goal is,
she responded, “to use
my wealth of experience
in any area that would
be of tremendous help
to humanity.”
Brad Karp ’81
A “legal superstar”
It probably won't surprise his classmates to hear
that summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate Brad Karp '81 was recently profiled by The American Lawyer as one of the forty-five leading lawyers in the United States under age forty-five and one of the new generation of “legal superstars.”
Karp was barely out of Harvard Law School when his mettle was first tested. He was a second-year associate at the litigation powerhouse Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York when he was summoned to represent Pennzoil in its landmark lawsuit with Texaco. The four-year case ended, at the United States Supreme Court, with a $10.5-billion victory for Karp's client.
Karp followed up that
case with high-profile civil and white-collar criminal representations of Dennis Levine, Michael Milken, the National Football League, and several of the nation's leading financial institutions. Currently, Karp is serving as lead counsel for Citigroup in
its Enron-related civil
lawsuits and regulatory matters as well as in the civil litigations arising out of the highly publicized activities of former Salomon Smith Barney research analyst Jack Grubman.
Apart from his client matters, Karp serves as co-chair of Paul, Weiss's securities practice group and is a member of the firm's management committee. A prodigious writer while
at Union, Karp continues to publish; for the past eighteen years, he has written a monthly column for The New York Law
Journal, which analyzes developments in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
David Paine ’79
Giving back one day
With the horror of 9/11 seared into the world's memory, people have struggled to memorialize that
somber date in a meaningful and dignified manner. No different was David Paine '79, the chief executive officer of Paine PR, which has offices in New York and California. That's why he founded One Day's Pay (www.onedayspay.org)-a nonprofit 501c3 organization that honors 9/11 with a day of giving back.
Rather than a day of mourning, participants dedicate part of their day to helping others. Instead of a day
of silence, 9/11 becomes a day of action.
This past year, Paine's organization became nearly a full-time occupation for him, often necessitating almost weekly flights to New York and Washington, D.C., from his California home. His mission, and that of One Day's Pay, is
to turn the date into a “national day of service.”
In 2003, more than 100,000 volunteers visited the One Day's Pay website and pledged to set aside time on or around September 11 to help others in need, with many engaging in community service. “It can't be just talking about service-it's about living it,” he said in a September interview with the Orange County Register. Putting his convictions into action, Paine and sixteen-year-old son, Matt, double-teamed at a Costa Mesa soup kitchen for a few hours.
He also disabused the notion of just sending money to help budget-strapped community
organizations. Certainly, funding is important, but having willing hands to help is often more important. “You shouldn't hide behind your checkbook,” Paine said. “You don't learn anything by doing that. Life is a never-ending journey of learning, and you have to embrace that.”
The Long Island native earned a degree in political science. He and his wife, Laney, have another son, fourteen-year-old Eric, and a thirteen-year-old daughter, Alyssa, in addition to Matt. Paine makes time in his busy life to coach youth baseball, soccer, and roller-hockey teams.
He built his successful national PR business by trusting his instincts. So, too, is he developing One Day's Pay-“You have to stop and be quiet, listen to what your soul is saying,” he said. “I'm an idealist [with] an optimistic worldview and always think things can be made better, and with the right approach, people will want to make the lives of others better.”
Paine is already traversing the country readying for 2004. “We only scratched the surface in 2003,” he says. “This year, we expect that more than one million people will honor the memories of those lost by engaging in service to help others in need.”
Jane Sadler ’73
The universe in a duffel bag
Jane Sadler '73 is president of an unusual family
business. At Learning Technologies, Inc., in Somerville, Mass., she oversees the manufacture of a portable planetarium called STARLAB-the most widely used planetarium in the world.
What began as a project in husband Philip Sadler's middle-school classroom, STARLAB now puts “brilliantly-designed low technology into the hands of thousands of teachers,” says Alan Friedman, director of the New York Hall of Science.
STARLAB can hold thirty students, yet rolls into a duffel bag that fits in the hatchback of a small car and weighs forty pounds. With the help of an accompanying fan, STARLAB inflates in less than five minutes into a 10.5-foot-high circular dome, approximately sixteen feet across. The projectors, simple to use, can project about 3,000 stars inside the dome.
The Sadlers met when both were special education teachers. One day, Philip took his class to Boston's Hayden Planetarium. The students loved their journey into the universe so much, they wanted their own planetarium. Together, they began building prototypes, and he created an entire curriculum out of the project. It wasn't long before Philip left teaching and went into business producing planetariums, starting production in their living room. After a stint as principal of Community Center School, Jane joined the family business, and today she runs the company.
This was not at all the kind of thing she'd thought about doing as a psychology major, although she'd “always been interested
in education.” Now, she finds the psychology background “coming in handy
-a lot of my role is about managing personnel. An understanding of the workings of the human mind helps. I'm always negotiating, mediating.”
Together, the Sadlers have brought the planetarium experience to millions of students around the world. Along the way, their Massachusetts-based company has grown from a two-person operation to a team that has its own manufacturing facility. “We also have US and international sales teams, covering places as far-flung as the Middle East to New Zealand and Australia,” says Jane. “STARLABs are now up and running in over forty-five countries.”
Users can develop their own curricula and send suggestions back to the Sadlers. Some, like an expert on Chinese astronomy who wrote a section of the company's curriculum manual, were hired as consultants. New projection cylinders include a Bird Migration Cylinder, the idea for which came from a teacher who also provided drawings and a complete curriculum. You see a map of the earth as if you were sitting inside, showing the migration patterns of twelve bird species.
“Many educators and
students have contributed to STARLAB over the years, and much of its versatility has come from the suggestions of others,” Jane
says. “They have been very creative, using STARLAB for things we never dreamed of, like bird migration, and light and color experiments, or using the dome as a darkroom. What's made this a great teaching tool is the people who are using it.”
Jane says that STARLAB is not interested in growing big. “It's a niche market-
a subset of science educators who are interested in astronomy. But we've developed a name in the field. We have a very loyal customer base.”
Jane Sadler has just donated a STARLAB system to Union for use in classes, as well as in public outreach to area schools. The gift was unveiled last fall at an open house during Parents Weekend. Professors Jon Marr, Becky Koopmann, and Rebecca Surman plan to use STARLAB in astronomy labs. They also plan significant outreach to area public schools-
Marr, in fact, has already used STARLAB in guest-teaching for fourth- and fifth-grade honor students in a nearby school.
The Sadlers' son, Benjamin, is a first-year student at Union. “He had several schools to choose from and decided on Union. All in all, it's a nice reconnection with Union for me,” Jane says.
New York City's newest school is being built in one of Manhattan's oldest
churches, and leading the effort is Vincent Dotoli '91. The school is the Harlem
Episcopal School, a kindergarten through eighth-grade program for children
of all faiths and socioeconomic means.
Its goal-to provide opportunity to children whose potential could
otherwise go unrealized.
Its eventual location-St. Luke's Episcopal Church, at the corner of 141st Street and Convent Avenue.
Its head of school-Dotoli, a former science and math teacher, counselor, and sometime coach and yearbook advisor at two independent schools.
That Dotoli is a teacher would not surprise his classmates. As a psychology major, he focused on child psychology classes, volunteered at a local day care center, joined Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and spent his summers working at a camp in Maine. During his first year after graduating, he was a residential counselor and teacher at an experiential education program in Maine; that was followed by nine years at independent schools in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
He then entered Teacher's College at Columbia University, with the idea of leading a traditional independent school, but it was here that the seed for a new school was planted. The more he explored New York, the more he was struck by the differences between the education that was available in poor city districts relative to the places he had taught. “I needed to explore bringing the outstanding programs that I knew so well to children in Harlem who currently have so few choices,” he says.
As that realization was growing, the rector of St. Luke's Church, the Rev. Johan Johnson, approached the Teacher's College student. The church had space and the community had a need; would there be interest in helping to start a school?
“We began working with parents, educators, and community leaders to fully understand the educational environment and found that there was a real need for a school that focused on rigorous academics and character development,” Dotoli says. “After I got my master's, I was given a place to stay at another church in Harlem and began bringing the people together to build this school.”
Harlem Episcopal School is scheduled to open this coming fall in a nearby brownstone as funds are raised to build the permanent campus at the church. In its first year, the school will offer only kindergarten. The school will grow by adding one grade level each year; its target is to offer kindergarten through grade eight with an enrollment of about 230.
Although the school will be located in an Episcopal church, it will be supportive of all different faiths, Dotoli says. “We have the opportunity to build an extraordinary campus in a very efficient manner at St. Luke's, and it's so exciting to see a church congregation that wants to open there doors to help serve a vital community need.”
Dotoli has established partnerships at Columbia University and City College for support and advice on everything from admissions to curriculum development, and he says priority will be given to developing programs that includes parents as active, essential partners in the education process.
The school has raised its start-up funds, but Dotoli still is spending a good deal of time building financial and community support. A sliding scale tuition formula will be used, and family contributions are expected to range from $500 to full cost. Consequently, operations will be funded through a partnership between attending families and philanthropists.
“This is going to be one of the most diverse schools in the country, and I think it can serve as a model for both urban education and the creative reuse of space,” Dotoli says.
Extending a hand before they fall through the cracks
Gregory Cohen '77 is executive director of Comprehensive Development, Inc., a nonprofit organization that works in tandem with the Manhattan Comprehensive Night & Day School-often the last hope for many individuals who stand perilously close to the cracks in society's systems.
CDI and the school offer a hand to the hardest of hard cases-the non-English speaking adult learner; the newly-arrived immigrant; the dropout; the newly-sober/clean substance abuser; the young single mother; the homeless. More than ninety percent of them graduate, and sixty percent go on to college.
After graduating with his B.A. in modern languages and political science, Cohen went to New York to work with an organization that developed housing for the homeless. It was here that he got to know the comprehensive school, which was researching the possibility of building a dorm for its homeless students. When his nonprofit went out of business, Cohen “took a deep breath” and established CDI as a coordinating liaison.
“I see all kinds of people and organizations who want to help, but they have a hard time finding the most effective use for their resources,” he says. “I organize these volunteers, benefactors, philanthropic organizations, et al, acting as a broker between those who need help and those who offer it.”
Cohen says he is inspired daily by these young adults (ages seventeen to twenty-one), who have to balance adult responsibilities, such as holding a job and caring for children, with completing their high school education. They are “a little older, wiser, and more mature,” he says. “They know that a diploma is a necessary step to
getting ahead; many of them are willing to earn a Regent's diploma, not just a GED, and many want to go on to college.”
Private funding underlies the program, and CDI and the school have forged a number of partnerships, such as a newly-created intern program that works with such institutions as Rockefeller University, First Boston, Con Edison, and other corporations and institutions. CDI has also attracted funding from a number of “very demanding, Wall Street-based venture philanthropist organizations,” such as the Robin Hood Foundation, Cohen says.
As CDI and the school demonstrate their successes, more and more people and resources come forward to support the programs. The pattern of success is clear-the first graduates went on to two-year colleges. Now, many recent grads are attending some of the country's best colleges and universities-including a “brilliant” engineering student who is heading for Union.
Guiding the Schwarzenegger team
Carrying on a tradition
of alumni in key roles in American government, Patricia Clarey '75 is on the job as California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's chief of staff.
Announcing the appointment, Schwarzenegger said, “I have a great deal
of confidence in her
leadership ability as she works to create a bipartisan relationship between
my new administration and members of the
state legislature.”
Before serving as the
governor's deputy campaign manager, Clarey
was vice president of
government relations at HealthNet, Inc., a major health care company. She served in senior levels for the Department of the Interior during the Reagan Administration and was deputy chief of staff for former California Gov. Pete Wilson. She also has been vice president of public affairs for Transamerica Corp. (as well as president of the TransAmerica Foundation), and she has held government relations posts with Chevron Corp. and Ashland Oil, Inc. She is a former board member of the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy.
A native of Johnson City, N.Y., she started out at Broome Community College in Binghamton before transferring in 1973 to Union, where she majored in psychology. She got her master of public administration degree from
Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government
in 1983.
In addition to President Chester A. Arthur and William Seward, Lincoln's secretary of state, and a half-dozen other Cabinet members, the College's political alumni include
fifteen U.S. senators, more than ninety members of the House of Representatives (including current Congressman Neil Abercrombie '59, D-Hawaii), thirteen governors, and
at least two speakers of the New York State Assembly, Oswald Heck '24 and Stanley Steingut '43.
We'd like to hear your news. Send it to us at Office of Communications, Union College, Schenectady, N.Y. 12308, or to finchm@union.edu.
