Posted on Jan 1, 2004

Three faculty members have been named to endowed professorships-one of the College's principal ways of honoring and supporting outstanding teachers and scholars. Honored during a ceremony this fall were: Clifford W. Brown, Jr., installed as the Robert Porter Patterson Professor of Government; Michael Rudko, installed as the Horace E. Dodge III Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and Terry S. Weiner, installed as the Chauncey H. Winters Professor of Comparative Social Analysis.

Clifford W. Brown, Jr., graduated magna cum laude in 1964 from Harvard, where
he later earned his master's degree and Ph.D. After teaching at the State University of New York at Albany and Siena College, he joined the Union faculty in 1978.

A political science generalist, he has taught a range of courses, from contemporary American politics to Western Europe in world affairs, has led the College's Internship Program in Washington, D.C., and set the standard for exhibits in the Mandeville Gallery with both the Erie Canal and Solomon Northup exhibits. He has also worked in the field as a political
consultant, and he served as issues director for John Anderson's presidential
campaign in 1980. He is the author (with Lynda Powell and Clyde Wilcox) of Serious Money: Fundraising and
Contributing in Presidential Nomination Campaigns (Cambridge University Press, 1996), in which he noted that the presidential nominating system works to keep some
of the best candidates on
the sidelines.

The Robert Porter Patterson Professorship in Government was established in 1956 by friends of Mr. Patterson,
a member of the Class of
1912 and a prominent lawyer, soldier, jurist, and statesman. He was appointed Secretary of War by President
Harry Truman.

Michael Rudko received his bachelor's degree, master's degree, and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Syracuse University. After working for the Syracuse University Research Corp. and the General Electric Co., he began teaching at the Université de Sherbrooke in Quebec. He joined the Union faculty in 1984 and has taught courses ranging from the Freshman Preceptorial to advanced topics in digital signal processing. His college service included ten years as chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering.

A strong proponent of study abroad for engineers,
he created the exchange with Rouen as well as finding other study abroad opportunities for engineers, and for many years he has been a mentor for foreign students. He has been an invited professor at the Université du Littoral
and the Université de Lille,
in France. His research interests are in the areas of
artificial intelligence and
bioengineering applications.

The Horace E. Dodge III Professorship in Electrical and Computer Engineering was created by a gift from Horace E. Dodge III, of the Class of 1946. A former
engineer with the General Electric Co., Mr. Dodge was a philanthropist at his death in 1996. He received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Union in 1986.

Terry S. Weiner has the unusual distinction of chairing two academic departments at Union, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology (1978-1986) and the Department of Political Science
(currently). After receiving his undergraduate degree in sociology and history from the University of Illinois at Chicago, he went on to earn his master's degree and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of North Carolina. He joined the Union faculty in 1974 and has developed courses in such areas as health care politics, the sociology of medicine, political sociology, and issues in American elections.

He also has published in the major journals of both political science and sociology and health, including the
Journal of Politics, the American Journal of Sociology, and the American Journal of Public Health. He was associate dean of the faculty for seven years and acting dean of the faculty for one year; he started the College's M.A.T. program and, as dean and department chair, has increased the presence of women on the faculty.

The Chauncey H. Winters Professorship in Comparative Social Analysis was established through a bequest from Chauncey H. Winters, of
the Class of 1912. The professorship is one of three created at the College through the support of Mr. Winters.

Posted on Jan 1, 2004

They are separated by nearly 70 years and some 3,000 miles, but when they got together at Homecoming and Family Weekend, they made music.

David Stone '06 and Ed Moulton '37, of California, were together for the first time, working the levers of the "chimola" in the belfry of Memorial Chapel to ring out the Alma Mater, Ode to Joy, America the Beautiful, and other college and patriotic tunes.

Stone, an economics major and music minor, plays the chimes on Mondays and Wednesdays between 12:20 and 12:50 p.m. and on Friday afternoons; Moulton was paid $150 in 1937 for a year of service at the chimes, and his support has made possible Stone's thrice-weekly concerts.

Though the chapel bells toll automatically on the quarter hour, it has been more than thirty years since there has been a regular chime player on campus. Sheets of music suggest there were a few players in the late 1980s, but it may have been Peter Smith '70 who was the last regular player. Smith, who has performed chimes concerts at a number of alumni events, showed Stone the ropes last year.

Stone, who makes extra money by playing the piano at weddings and parties, became interested in the chimes when he heard "First Watch," a composition by Professor of Music Hilary Tann, performed on the carillon at Albany City Hall. He began researching the rarely-heard instrument and learned about the College's chimes and Moulton. Stone already has received some fifty tunes—including eight college songs—that Moulton has transposed in the scale of F just for the Union chimes. Moulton says more are on the way.

Moulton recalls hearing the 9:45 bells and racing to the belfry in time to play a few tunes to call students to 10 a.m. chapel. "I must have missed it a few times, or been late due to snow, but nobody ever called me on it," recalls Moulton, who went on to a career as an accountant and a lifelong hobby as a musician, including the directorship of the Schenectady Light Opera.

Moulton played the Union chimes again at his 65th ReUnion in 2002. "The stairs were steeper than I remember and at the end of the day, the palms of my hands were sore," he says. "But it was such fun." Afterward, he contacted Tann about starting a fund to support student chime players. Stone is putting his stipend toward jazz piano lessons.

Moulton has become something of a mentor to the College's newest chime ringer, and they have talked regularly by phone over the past year. They also share transcriptions through the mail. As for advice, Moulton says, "I told him not to spend so much time on this that it infringes on his studies."

Stone says that he is discovering the joy that Moulton recalls from his days in the belfry—there's nothing like the sound of chimes rolling across the campus.

Posted on Jan 1, 2004

For many Union students who enter the health care field, the summer study of national health systems is part of their path. But some students enter the field in unexpected ways.
Leah Nero '02 is one of them, and here she describes her path:

“One year after receiving my bachelor's degree in political science and Spanish, I returned to Union for graduation weekend. A familiar face emerged from the crowd of proud graduates and families-Professor Byron Nichols, my former political science advisor. When I told him
I had decided to go into nursing, he said, with his usual graciousness, “I never would have guessed it, but it fits with how much you care about people.”

“As an undergraduate, my desire to seek to assuage suffering and spread hope drew me to issues of injustice and human rights, and I initially was determined to be a lawyer. Yet somewhere in my passion for human rights, the strictly legal course began to feel unsettling. It become increasingly evident to me that the marginalized populations I was studying were hindered, if not obstructed, from a range of life opportunities beginning in utero by inadequate access to health care or improper and outdated practices and facilities. A person who is not well cannot learn, live, work, play, dream, or participate in their environment with the same vigor as a healthy individual. Healthcare is the nucleus, the center, the core for all matters regardless of one's race, ethnicity, legal or economic status, sexual preference, or religion.

“So, rather than head for law school after graduation, I redirected my efforts and became a research associate on a project investigating HIV/AIDS disease progression. As I began to get to know my patients, I found myself confronting familiar feelings of frustration with injustice. In my master's level public health course on substance abuse theories and interventions, I couldn't reconcile myself to dwell merely within the realm of ideas anymore. After meeting with real people in dire situations, I wanted action and interaction. Being a part of the fortunate 'us' discussing 'them' made me irritated and impatient. I realized that I would much rather talk to 'them' than listen to 'us.'

“I have decided to become a Nurse Practitioner. I want to help people like Donald (not his real name), who used to call me once a week just to let me know that he was 'doing all right' because he didn't have anyone else, and people like Barbara (not her real name), who told me about her heart surgery and how she was mistreated and ignored because she is black and poor. I want a career where I will be constantly challenged, intrigued, impassioned, and even frustrated on an intellectual and an interpersonal level so that I do not grow too comfortable, cynical, or complacent. Nursing is that fit for me.

“I know that law is a profession in which you can help people in a systematic way, diagnose impediments, and compel change. The core of law is justice, and I have great admiration and respect for justice. Yet I can't help but feel that health is a prerequisite to gaining equality of opportunities. I love the refreshingly simple idea of health care-to undertake healing where there is hurt. What could be more immediate, or more rewarding?

“There are people out there who will make good lawyers, and educators, and future presidents of these United States, but I do not count myself among them. It turns out that I have an ardor and a gift for patient care, and particularly an affinity for the mission and social obligation of the nursing profession and its role in shaping communities. I still have ambitious goals, fierce optimism, and a political and personal agenda to provide better care to those who need it the most, and one day I might even run for political office with the hope of effecting change on healthcare policies. But for now, I am content to start right here today, riding the bus to Roxbury.”

Leah J. Nero lives in Arlington, Mass., and works as a research associate at Boston Medical Center. She intends to pursue her master's degree in nursing beginning in September 2004.

Posted on Jan 1, 2004

For a liberal arts college with no formal premed program, Union has sent an impressive number of alumni into the health professions.

The first came in 1798, when John Nash Smith, one of six men in the second graduating class, went on for his M.D.

During World War I, the requirements for medical school increased to two years of college, and Union responded by creating a special “pre-medical year,” which consisted of science, English, and modern languages. After medical schools increased their requirements to three years of college, Union discontinued its “pre-med” course in 1924. Formally speaking, the College never reestablished a pre-med curriculum, although pre-med students customarily take science-laden course loads in preparation for the MCATs.

In the early 1960s, the College's Biology Department expanded to help undergrads prepare for medical careers. The name change to Department of Biological Sciences reflected the field's growing diversification and burgeoning complexity. To the present day, pre-med students dominate the ranks of biology majors.

In 1977, Union accepted Albany Medical College's invitation to participate in a joint program, now called the Leadership in Medicine program. The eight-year program leads to a B.S. degree from Union, an M.S. or M.B.A. from the Graduate College of Union University, and an M.D. from the medical college. Admission to the program leads automatically to entrance into the medical college after successful completion of four years of work at Union and the graduate college.

Posted on Jan 1, 2004

The summer health program gives students a chance to see what lies ahead.

In the early 1970s, while doing research in Great Britain on a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, Professor of Philosophy Robert Baker had an experience that would lead to an innovative academic program.

The experience was witnessing his daughter's birth within the National Health Program-an experience that was the genesis for the College's Summer Health Care Systems Term Abroad, the first program of its kind in the country.

Baker envisioned a program in which students would visit Great Britain, Poland, and Sweden to observe and compare the different health care delivery systems. The summer term, he felt, would give valuable first-hand insights to these pre-med and health professions students. He summarized the differences in the British and American systems like this:

“The notion of the contract is alive in the U.S. The doctor perceives himself as supplying a service the customer has bought. In England, it's a public service, and the doctor acts, not for the individual, but in the interest of society. The ideal is to treat everyone exactly the same.”

The program began in 1975, and students who took the term observed phenomena previously unknown to them. On the one hand were long waiting lists for hip surgeries and similar procedures in the British National Health Service; on the other hand, every British citizen had access to basic health care, with no financial barriers.

Initially, the program offered a sample of four health care systems-regulated market (U.S.), national health service (United Kingdom), national health insurance (Sweden), and a Soviet-style centralized system (Poland/Hungary). In the early 1980s, the program moved from Poland to other East European countries after the U.S. government broke relations with Communist Poland over suppression of the Solidarity union, eventually settling on Hungary.

The program also moved from Sweden to the Netherlands because of the differences between national health insurance systems and national health services.
(In national health insurance systems, the government
subsidizes universal health insurance, but health providers typically remain independent of the government. In national health services, governments pay for health care directly, and physicians and nurses are employees of the government.)

“With the implementation of the 1982 Health Reform Act, the Swedish National Health Service moved from a national health insurance system to a national health service model,” Baker says. “This left us with two examples of national health services (Britain and Sweden) and no example of a national health insurance system (the most common type of system in Europe). We switched from Sweden to Netherlands so that the students could examine a typical national health insurance type of system.”

Today's program

Today's summer health program is still coordinated by Baker, with different faculty acting as resident directors. One recent director was Professor of Psychology Carol Silvia Weisse, who also directs the College's Health Professions Program.

Weisse specializes in medical psychology and psychobiology, which she combines with her enthusiastic mentoring of students. She says the summer program is an ideal opportunity for students to “try it out” for themselves and see if a career in medicine is really for them.

“I think for college students to grapple with these issues in such an extensive manner-and in an international manner-is really preparing them for being leaders in the health care arena,” she says. “The goal of the program is to help them figure out, 'Can we give health care to everyone in this country without compromising quality?' I don't know if that is even a question they can answer when they come back, but at least the program allows them to see how different countries struggle with different issues.”

The tour begins in the U.S., where students tour a rehabilitation center, a nursing home, a psychiatric facility, and a major medical center. In Great Britain, Hungary, and the Netherlands, they tour the counterparts to compare the four different healthcare delivery systems. The students also attend lectures and participate in debates with medical professionals, always keeping in mind the differences in culture and medical ethics (in the Netherlands, for example, they find that drug addiction is viewed and treated as a public health problem, not as criminal behavior, as it is in the U.S.).

The students also study each country's historical evolution of medicine. “To understand the history of medicine,” Weisse says, “will hopefully prevent them from making the same medical mistakes in the future.”

Not only did the students have a rich cultural and academic experience, they also earned credits in history and healthcare courses. Upon their return to the classroom in the fall, they write papers based on their experiences and impressions. “Once [medical schools] read about our students, I think they are very impressed by their well-roundedness, their leadership abilities, and their undergraduate experiences, particularly for those who have traveled abroad,” Weisse says.

Past participant, current professional

Denise Saunders '92 was on the fence trying to decide whether or not to participate in the Summer Study of National Health Systems program. However, her mother prevailed, encouraging Denise to go “because she realized the impact it would have on my life,”

After her experience in the program, Saunders knew that a healthcare career was for her after all. “I was particularly moved by the intimate interaction between healthcare providers and patients, which I observed in the U.K. upon our visit to a general practitioner's office,” she recalls.

Saunders is a senior research specialist at Emory University Medical School's Department of Neurology, where she is researching the sleep patterns of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's patients and conducting drug trials. She is also taking public health graduate courses toward a career in promoting sleep hygiene in a public health venue.

Perhaps the most lasting impression of her trip is the European lifestyle. “From
my perception, they seemed to have a more simple way
of living. They were more laid-back. They were not consumed with fast-food eateries, and most people were lean and healthy looking,” she says. “Many people commuted on bicycles, especially in
Holland. I thought they had
a healthier lifestyle, both physically and mentally.”

This lifestyle made such
an impression that Saunders has adopted it as her own healthy regimen.

Saunders said the summer term challenged her and to discuss the pros and cons in American and European healthcare systems. “It was
a challenge to discern for myself which system I preferred in light of the issues and to determine which system, in regard to European and American cultures, works best and why,” she says.

Advantages to both

Elizabeth Hutchison '04,
who participated in the 2002 summer program, says it
was “by far the best experience I have had at Union. I was thoroughly impressed
by the instructors who taught us in London and Utrecht, and they made us see how various healthcare systems adapt to suit the needs of
their specific cultures.”

She remembers learning about the effectiveness and efficiency of the U.S., British, Dutch, and Hungarian health care systems and, like many of the students who go on the trip, she says, “I did not come to a conclusion about what is the best type of health care system. Each country's health care system has its unique pros and cons.”

Hutchison's particular focus was on methadone maintenance treatment, and she conducted a comparative analysis on the use of methadone in Hungary vs. the U.S.