In the wake of a recent
sexual assault on University Place, Safe Space is urging
students to use the organization for confidential reporting and to follow some
safety guidelines.
“I would like to remind the
student body that help is out there,” said Sarah Kidder, Safe Space president,
in a letter to campus. “If you are a victim of rape or sexual assault, you can
confidentially contact Safe Space by paging us at 518-349-6669 or go to our
website:
“Safe Space members are here
to help you if you need immediate help or advice, if you need a ride to and
support at the hospital, if you need advice on contacting Union's administration or the
police, or if you need help finding resources. I want to remind you that you
are not alone — there are people who will help you.
“Second, I would like all
students to be pro-active:
— use the buddy-system when walking around
at night
— use the trolley (518-248-5111) or a
Campus Safety escort (388-6911)
— never leave your friends alone at a party
“And remember, it is NEVER
your fault if you are raped or sexually assaulted. We are here to support you.
If you need help, please don't hesitate to contact us.”
Christia Flores, left, as
“Elmire” and Cooper Braun-Enos as “Tartuffe” rehearsing the famous
seduction scene from Moliere's Tartuffe, which opens this week in Yulman Theater.
As timeless as the vagaries of
human nature (and possibly as topical), Moliere's Tartuffe remains as relevant today as when it was first performed
in 1664 Versailles.
The cast of Tartuffe.
The Yulman Theater will stage its
production of the 17th-century comedy on Tuesday, March 2, through
Saturday, March 6, at 8 p.m.; and on
Sunday, March 7, at 2 p.m.
Admission is $7, $5 for Union
students with ID.
The production is under the
direction of Lloyd Waiwaiole, guest artist in costuming in the College's
Department of Performing Arts.
The play is a satire aimed at
religious hypocrisy. Tartuffe, the protagonist, is a 17th-century
Elmer Gantry whose personal struggle with sin, the world, and the devil is
entirely rhetorical. When he makes his way into the home and lives of a wealthy
Parisian family, the women of the household decide it is time to unmask the
“saint's” true nature.
Kelsey Allen-Dicker and Davin Reed fill cream puffs while
Jackie Garrity looks on during French Cuisine Night dinner at
Upperclass Dining on March 25 to promote the opening of Tartuffe.
Members of the cast recently promoted the production by offering French cuisine at Upperclass Dining.
Eighth-year head coach Mary Ellen Burt and
her Dutchwomen will reap the rewards of winning Union's first-ever Upstate
Collegiate Athletic Association women's basketball championship as they host
the conference's four-team postseason tournament Friday night and Saturday
afternoon. The winner of the event will receive the UCAA's automatic berth in
the NCAA event.
Union will play No.
4 William Smith (8-6 // 13-11) Friday at 8 p.m. with No. 2 St.
Lawrence (11-3 // 20-5) meeting No.
3 Rensselaer (11-3 // 19-5). The
championship will be held Saturday at 4 p.m.
There is no admission charge.
“The only advantage we have as the home
team is that our players will be able to sleep in their own beds and that our
fans will not have to travel,” said Burt, whose Dutchwomen posted a 13-1
conference record and an overall standard of 21-3. “As for an advantage on the court,
there really isn't one. All of these teams are capable of winning the
tournament,” she continued. “St. Lawrence comes into the weekend as the two-year
defending champions and they have won three of the four titles. Rensselaer
won the 2001 crown by beating St. Lawrence, and William
Smith was in the tournament championship game in 2000 and again in 2002.”
Sen. Clinton talks inside Union's historic Nott Memorial.
It isn't everyday that we get a
visit from a U.S.
Senator and former First Lady.
So it was a special treat when
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the Nott Memorial on Wednesday, Feb. 18, to
host a Community Renewal Leadership Symposium with upstate New
York mayors to talk about how cities can obtain
grants through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Renewal.
After arriving in a small motorcade at the east door of
the Nott, Clinton
met with students, at one point remarking that her office has benefited from a
number of interns from Union College.
She also was taken with the architecture of the Nott Memorial.
After the event, Clinton
was interviewed in the Nott for a segment on CNN's The Dobbs Report.
And later that day, the Nott was
the setting for a talk by environmental advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who made
his case for the stewardship of the environment and the fight against
polluters.
Said one student after Kennedy's
talk, “In my four years here, this is the best program I've seen.”
What only a few knew was that the
College nearly scored what one staffer called a “Democratic trifecta.”
Presidential hopeful John Edwards considered a campaign stop on
campus earlier this week. Instead, he visited a Green
Island manufacturing plant.
Writer Julia Alvarez paid tribute
to all the people at Union College
– visible and invisible, past and present – who have helped students to find
and reach their goals.
Speaking Thursday at the Founders Day
convocation in observance of the 209th anniversary of the College, Alvarez opened her remarks with a Native American story about a woman
who reaches the sky: Father Sky asks, “How did you get to be so tall?” And she
replies, “I'm standing on a lot of shoulders,” Alvarez said.
“Today we honor all those
shoulders offered to all those students past and present who come here trying
to reach their goals. Or more likely, students who haven't yet seen that full
sky of possibility, who don't yet know what to reach for.”
Alvarez, an award-winning
novelist, essayist and poet, teaches English at Middlebury
College. She received an honorary
doctor of letters degree from President Roger Hull. She was introduced by
College Marshall and Professor of English Ruth Stevenson, who taught Alvarez at
Abbott Academy
in Andover, Mass.,
and recalled her former student as a “meteor blazing over Andover's
often gray landscape.”
Alvarez grew up in the Dominican
Republic during a 1950's dictatorship when reading was not encouraged and considered politically dangerous. After
she fled with her family to New York City,
she “struggled for seven years with a language and a culture I did not
understand.”
Honoring Prof. Stevenson
With a scholarship to Abbott, which
she said had a reputation for “taming wild girls,” the 14-year-old found herself
in a classroom with Stevenson, “who closed the classroom door and said, 'Ladies,
let's have ourselves a hell of a good time.' And we did, reading
Austin, Dickinson, Elliot … until
we understood that we'd come to train, not tame, the wild girls into the women
that would run the world.
“That's why I'm here today – Ruth Stevenson
– and I don't mean at this podium,” Alvarez said. “I mean as a writer.
“Professor of English here at Union
College, lucky you, [Stevenson] was
my beloved English teacher. She offered me a pair of shoulders and much more.
She taught me by her passion for literature and her generosity of spirit to
fall in love with books.
“Today I honor Ruth Stevenson and
through her all the teachers who have offered their shoulders to those of use
who needed a leg up. Without you we could never have become ourselves.”
Behind the scenes
Alvarez said she often considers “how
much goes on behind the scenes to make any institution run smoothly.
“Early and late here on this
campus there is a crew of helpers, I bet, from staff people in offices to
cleaning crews and grounds crews who work behind the scenes to allow for the
magic of Union College to happen.”
Alvarez said it is incumbent on “those
of us who have received the privilege of shoulders, the amazing privilege of
attending the best institutions of learning this world has to offer … to pass
this privilege on.”
Citing U.N. statistics that
portray Americans as huge consumers of energy relative to other populations,
she noted that “we represent such a miniscule percentage of the population of this
planet.
“'Many times a day,' Albert Einstein
wrote, 'I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors
of others both living and dead and how earnestly I must exert myself to give and
return as much as I have received and am still receiving.'
“Toni Morrison put it another way:
'the function of freedom is to free someone else.'”
Alvarez closed by urging the
audience “to give back, to pass it on, to make places like Union College available
and accessible to the many for whom the skies have no star.”
