Todd L. Savitt, historian of
medicine, will give a talk titled “Race, Medicine, Scientific Authorship, and
the 'Discovery' of Sickle Cell Anemia” on Monday,
Feb. 16, at 7:30
p.m. in the Nott Memorial.
The
talk, sponsored by the Hewlett Foundation, is free and open to the public.
The first two case histories of
sickle cell anemia appeared in the medical literature within three months of
each other in 1910 and 1911. Circumstances surrounding these cases were
very different. Savitt will identify the physicians and patients and set their
stories in the racial and medical context of early 20th-century America.
Savitt is professor of medical
humanities at Brody School of Medicine, East
Carolina University,
where he specializes in African-American medical history and medical history of
the American West and South. He is coeditor
of Disease and Distinctiveness in the American South.
He is the writer or editor of five
books: Medicine and Slavery: The Diseases and Health Care of Blacks in
Antebellum Virginia;The Dictionary
of American Medical Biography;Science
and Medicine in the Old South;Disease
and Distinctiveness in the American South; and Medical Readers'
Theater: A Guide and Scripts and
articles on the history of sickle-cell anemia, sudden infant death syndrome
(SIDS), use of African Americans for medical experimentation, the entry of
black physicians into the American medical profession, and early
African-American medical schools and medical journals.
A
reception will follow in Hale House.
For more
information, call 388-6233.
(On Tuesday, Feb. 17, at 11:30 a.m. in Reamer Campus Center Auditorium,
Savitt and Union students will be doing a readers'
theater presentation titled “Follow Your Heart,” a story by Dr. Richard Selzer
'48 about the impact of organ donation on the donor's survivors. Readers'
theater offers an opportunity to discuss medical issues of common concern in an
open forum with other citizens and with future physicians. The event is free
and open to the public.)
Environmental advocate Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. will speak on “Our Environmental Destiny” on Wednesday, Feb. 18, at
7 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.
His talk is sponsored by the
College's Environmental Studies Program, the Environmental Awareness Club and
the Minerva Committee.
It is the first in a three-part
lecture series titled “Environmental Science and Public Policy.” Other speakers
are Orrin Pilkey, a shoreline expert from Duke
University, on March 4; and Richard
Bopp, a specialist in contaminant issues from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
on April 22. (see details below)
Kennedy serves as
chief prosecuting attorney for Hudson Riverkeeper, senior attorney for the
Natural Resources Defense Council, and president of the Waterkeeper Alliance.
He is also a clinical professor and supervising attorney at the Environmental
Litigation Clinic at Pace University School of Law. Earlier in his career he
served as assistant district attorney in New York City.
Kennedy is
credited with leading the fight to protect New York City's
water supply. The New York City
watershed agreement, which he negotiated on behalf of environmentalists and the
city's watershed consumers, is regarded as an international model in
stakeholder consensus negotiations and sustainable development. He helped lead
the fight to turn back what he considered anti-environmental legislation during
the 104th Congress.
Kennedy has worked on environmental issues across the Americas,
assisting several indigenous tribes in Latin America and
Canada in
successfully negotiating treaties protecting traditional homelands.
He has published several books, including The Riverkeepers
(1997) with John Cronin. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal, Esquire,
The Village Voice, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, and Pace Environmental Law Review.
Kennedy is a graduate of Harvard
University. He studied at the
London School of Economics and received his law degree from the University of
Virginia Law School. He also received a master's degree in Environmental Law
from Pace University.
Other talks, both at 7 p.m. in the Nott Memorial, are:
March 4: Orrin Pilkey, an expert on shorelines, will speak on “Rising Seas and Shifting Shores: The Mix of Politics and Science at the
Shoreline.”
Pilkey, the James B. Duke
Professor Emeritus at Duke University's
Nicholas School
of the Environment and Earth Sciences, has devoted much of his career to the
study of coastal geology, focusing primarily on the
science and policy issues of rising sea levels on barrier coasts caused by the greenhouse
effect.
As director of Duke's Program for
the Study of Developed Shorelines, he has studied beach replenishment and other
forms of shoreline stabilization, mitigation of hurricane damage on barriers
and principles of barrier island evolution in Colombia,
South America. He also works with the Department of
Marine Science at the University of Puerto Rico and with the U.S. Geological
Survey in Woods Hole, Mass. He has more than 150 technical publications to his
credit.
Pilkey has received numerous
awards for his professional contributions, including the Francis Shepard Medal
for Excellence in Marine Geology and the N.C. Wildlife Federation Conservation
Educator of the Year award. He also has won the George V. Cohee Public Service
Award from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Pilkey is an
honorary member of the Society for the Study of Sediments and has been featured
in The New York Times Magazine, Esquire,
Smithsonian, Chronicle of Higher
Education and National Geographic.
April 22: Richard Bopp, associate professor of earth and
environmental sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will speak on “Mercury Deposition in New York and New Jersey:
From Geochemistry to Policy.”
Bopp studied chemistry as an
undergraduate at MIT, and has a Ph.D. in geology from Columbia
University. For the past 20 years
he has conducted research on various aspects of contaminant geochemistry in the
Hudson River, its tributaries, and other natural waters
of the Hudson Basin.
His research group at RPI uses
analysis of dated sediment cores to study the sources and distribution of PCBs,
pesticides, dioxins, PAHs, and trace metals. They also study atmospheric
deposition of contaminants, and in situ dechlorination of PCBs.
Bopp has been involved in several
major contaminant issues including the PCB problem in the Hudson,
dioxins in Newark Bay,
and disposal of contaminated dredge spoils.
Members of the Planning and
Priorities Committee, at the request of President Roger Hull, will begin a
series of discussions with all members of the campus community to elicit ideas
for maintaining a commitment to excellence in a time of financial constraints,
it was announced to the faculty at their meeting on Tuesday.
Union is in a position of relative
strength with stable enrollment, solid fundraising and distinctive features
such as the House System and Converging Technologies, Hull
said.
The College has faced many of the
same challenges as other institutions, he said, adding that we have been able
to avoid drastic measures such as layoffs and salary freezes.
“The ideas that come to the
Planning and Priorities subcommittees will become an important part of the
College's budget planning,” he said. “With imagination and commitment from
faculty, staff and students, I am convinced we face a challenge we will meet.”
Members of the campus community
will receive background about the College's finances before the meetings.
Diane Blake, vice president for
finance, outlined the 2004-05 budget for the faculty. Key components of the
$103 million plan include:
— enrollment of 560 first-year
students
— a fully operational House
System and renovated Ramada Inn
— a new comprehensive fee
— an endowment spending rate
lowered to 7.37 percent, including management fees
— salary and wage increases of 3
percent
— supplies, services and capital
budgets frozen
— funds for deferred maintenance
reduced by $500,000 to $300,000
Blake noted that the College faces
challenges in escalating costs such as benefits and financial aid, and
diminished revenue from a downturn in the stockmarket and cutbacks in
government support. “We have real challenges, but we will solve them as they
evolve,” Blake said.
Also at the faculty meeting Steve
Leavitt, interim dean of students, and Kimmo Rosenthal, dean of undergraduate
education, urged faculty to reach out to students who have academic problems
and refer them to campus resources.
“In the vast majority of cases
when a student does not perform academically, there are broader problems that
we need to address,” said Leavitt. “The whole ethos [of student outreach] is
something we need to do. As a liberal arts college, it is something we need to
do well.”
The College's Board of Trustees
has approved a 2004-05 balanced budget of $103 million that “maintains the
qualities that define Union and allows for a few new
programs,” it was announced by Stephen J. Ciesinski '70, chairman of the board.
The budget provides a 3 percent
increase in salaries and wages for employees, but freezes supplies, services
and capital budgets.
Total charges for 2004-05 were set
at $38,703. This comprehensive fee (tuition, room, board, and fees rolled into
one) will provide for extended dining hours and allow students to enroll in an
extra course annually for academic enrichment purposes, at no additional
charge, provided that they meet certain academic prerequisites.
The endowment yield generates
about 14.8 percent of the 2004-05 budget, down from
16.8 percent this year. The endowment grew 24 percent for the year ending
September 2003, placing Union in the top 10 percent of
all of its peer institutions. Results for the past three years were nearly as
positive, Ciesinski said.
Enrollment for the first-year
class was set at 560, with the House System and the renovated former Ramada Inn
becoming fully operational by September 2004. Funds for deferred maintenance
were reduced by $500,000.
“Union's
overall financial condition is strong,” Ciesinski reported after the meeting.
“We continue to operate with balanced budgets through careful spending and by
asking more of our talented faculty and staff. Even so, the weak financial markets have had their effect, and we must
be more watchful than ever of the use of proceeds from the endowment.
Therefore, much of our budget discussions centered upon long-range financial
planning.”
Ciesinski also reported that:
— Associate professors Zoe Oxley of political science, and Steven Rice of biology
were approved for tenure.
— The board welcomed David Henle '75 as a term trustee.
— The board learned that a
committee chaired by Prof. John Spinelli would evaluate and recommend changes
to the trimester system.
— The Admissions Office expected
more than 4,000 applications, and a recent survey showed that 80 percent of
those who visit campus say they are much more likely to apply.
— The board was saddened by the
tragic death of two students – Craig LeDuc and Kyle Schrade – who died in a car
accident in December.
— The Union Fund is up in both
dollars and donors (27 percent and 19 percent, respectively) for the year.
Homecoming and Family Weekend attendance increased yet again (up 48 percent
since 2000).
Senior Sean Washington (Dale City, VA) is expected to be one of the top performers for Union in this weekend's Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association Track & Field Championships, which will be held at St. Lawrence.
Washington, who last year earned All-American honors by finishing fifth in the 55 meter championships with a time of 6.47 at the NCAA Indoor Meet, ran a 6.46 in last week's Colgate Invitational to qualify him for this year's national championship meet. Washington is currently ranked third in the country behind Matt Pagel, a sophomore from Wisconsin Lacrosse (6.37) and Nebraska Wesleyan junior Brett Blake (6.43).
Washington is the defending UCAA champion in the 55 meter and finished fourth in last year's 200-meter event.
Union's men finished third of five team last year with 52 points while the women finished third of four with 34 points.