The Alumni
Council is putting its label – complete with the image of the Nott Memorial – on
bottles of wine from award-winning wineries.
“We hope these wines will help
alumni and friends of the College recapture the magic of days at Union,
and support the Alumni Association,” said Nick Famulare '92, director of alumni
relations.
The wine portfolio,
offered by Signature Wines, includes six different varietals available by the
case or in mixed collections. To order a four-bottle
set or 12-bottle case of Union College Alumni Council wine, visit http://www.signaturewines.com/union or phone
toll free 1-888-968-7946.
The Union College men's swim team will be among the contenders for this year's New York State championship meet, which opens on Thursday, February 26 and runs through Saturday night at Webster High School in Webster, New York.
The Dutchmen finished third last year with 1,079 points, behind Alfred (1,219) and Ithaca (1,127). Hartwick was fourth with 925 points.
“We are looking for a very competitive meet,” said head coach Scott Felix. “We think that we are one of the top teams in the meet and have our goals set very high. Our relay teams should once again be very strong and we are also looking to bring home some individual championships.”
David Hogenkamp
The Dutchmen were dominant in last year's relays, winning state championships in the 50, 200, 400, and 800 freestyle races as well as in the 400 medley event. Junior Elliot Sequin, sophomore David Hogenkamp, sophomore Matt Acciani and junior Andrew Sparkes are four of the six swimmers who brought home titles last year.
Individually, Sequin won the state crown in the 50 and 100 freestyle races and was third in the 200 free. Hogenkamp, meanwhile, took second in both the 100 and 200 backstroke events.
Union's performances in last year's state championships earned the Dutchmen several spots in the NCAA meet where the Garnet finished 14th.
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 (Feb. 26) 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.”
Head Coach Mary Ellen Burt and assistant Jamie Seward earned their second-straight Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association “Coaching Staff of the Year” award it was announced today (February 26) by the conference office.
Burt and Seward led the Dutchwomen to their first-ever UCAA regular-season title with a record of 13-1. Union, which will host the conference's postseason tournament this Friday and Saturday (February 27 & 28), goes into the four-team event at 21-3. Last year Burt and Seward guided the Dutchwomen to a second place finish in the UCAA in both the regular-season (with a record of 11-3) and the tournament. Union was 22-5 overall.
“This is quite a honor for Jamie and I,” said Burt, who is in her eighth year and has a career record of 116-110, all at Union (including a standard of 89-41 overall and 46-22 in the UCAA over the last five years). “Most importantly,” Burt continued, “this is an honor that is shared with, and because of, every single member of the team. “Team” is what we have been about and we are where we are because of everyone's dedication to team goals.”
Jamie Seward
Sophomore guard Erika Eisenhut was named to the All-Conference First Team while junior guard Melissa Marra and junior forward Katlyn Cunningham earned Second Team selections. Eisenhut and Marra earned the UCAA's “Rookie of the Year” awards in 2002 and 2003, respectively.
On the men's side, sophomore guard John Cagianello, last year's UCAA “Rookie of the Year”, was named to the First Team while forwards, junior Devon Bruce and sophomore Brian Scordato earned honorable mention selections. (please click here for the complete team)
This weekend's tournament features Union against 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) at 6 p.m.. The championship will be held Saturday at 4 p.m. There is no admission.
The Dutchwomen swept both William Smith, 67-62, and 64-33 in Memorial Fieldhouse, and Rensselaer, 63-53 at home and 67-63, while splitting with St. Lawrence, 68-61 at home, and 56-45.
Erika Eisenhut
The Dutchwomen finished the regular-season leading in six of the UCAA's 19 conference team statistics including: scoring defense (47.6), three-point field goal percentage (.353), rebounding defense (32.8), steals (12.86), turnover margin (4.79) and three-point field goals made (4.64). Individually, senior point guard Taryn Scinto leads the conference with her free throw percentage of .886 (31 of 35) and is second to teammate Marra in three-point field goal percentage at .442 (15 of 34). Marra goes into the weekend with a percentage of .524 (11 of 21). Eisenhut tops the circuit with her 55 steals, an average of 3.93.
St. Lawrence comes into the weekend as the two-year defending champions and the Saints 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.
UCAA Women's All-Conference Team
Melissa Marra
2004 UCAA Coaching Staff of the Year
Mary Ellen Burt & Jamie Seward Union
2004 UCAA Co-Player of the Year
Aliza Bogdanich St. Lawrence, Senior Forward (Lyme, New Hampshire)
Kaitlyn Saunders Rensselaer, Junior Forward (Windsor, Connecticut)
2004 UCAA Rookie of the Year
Anne Hellebush William Smith, Guard (Pittsford, New York)
2004 UCAA All-Conference First Team
F
Aliza Bogdanich
St. Lawrence
SR
Lyme, NY
G
Erika Eisenhut
Union
SO
Mohawk, NY
F
Holly Erick
Hamilton
SR
Portland, NY
G
Kristin Kaczynski
Rensselaer
SR
Pleasant Valley, CT
F
Kaitlyn Saunders
Rensselaer
JR
Windsor, CT
Katlyn Cunningham
2004 UCAA All-Conference Second Team
F
Katlyn Cunningham
Union
JR
Clarksburg, MA
G
Anne Hellebush
Wm Sm
FR
Pittsford, NY
G
Melissa Marra
Union
JR
Mechanicville, NY
F
Meredith McGair
Vassar
SO
Cranston, RI
F
Caitlin Vestal
Rensselaer
SR
Harvard, MA
Honorable Mention:
Linda Fernandez G (Clarkson),
Jessica Gorman G (Hamilton),
Meredith Pridgen F (St. Lawrence),
Ashley Rodger F (William Smith)
John Cagianello
UCAA Men's All-Conference Team
2004 UCAA Player of the Year
Joe Smith Hamilton, Senior Forward (Sherrill, New York)
2004 UCAA Co-Rookie of the Year
Nick Jones Clarkson, Forward (Washington, D.C.)
Tsakane Ngobeni Hamilton, Forward (Soweto, South Africa)
2004 UCAA Coaching Staff of the Year
Tom Murphy Hamilton
The Binghamton Senators of the American Hockey League called up
former Dutchmen hockey player Nathan Gillies on February 18th from the
ECHL's Trenton Titans. Gillies, a right winger who wore No. 29 for
Union, continues to were that number in the ECHL and AHL. Gillies has
played the last nine games for Binghamton, and recorded his first AHL
point on Sunday, with an assist in a 4-2 loss at Hershey. Through nine
games, Gillies is a +1 with 11 PIM. During his career at Union
(1999-2003), Gillies played in 116 games scoring 78 total points
(33-45-78).
