Posted on Mar 17, 2004

This week's edition of “Headliners features: Sean Washington; Sydnie Wells; DJ Hogenkamp; Women's lacrosse and softball earn pre-season rankings; Bill Carmody ('74) earns Big 10 “Coach of the Year” honors; Dutchmen soccer team opens 2004 season in Europe; Coast Guard, WPI and Kings Point join the UCAA in football.

Senior sprinter Sean Washington picked up his second
indoor All-American award the weekend of March 12-13 when he finished seventh
in the 55-meter dash at the NCAA Division III championships. 

Washington, who has been a career leader for the indoor and
outdoor track teams as well as a starter for the football squad, earned his
All-American status by running the event in 6.53 seconds.  As a junior Washington picked up
All-American status by finishing fifth with a time of 6.47.

The Dale City, Virginia, earned the “Sophomore Athletic
Prize” and also won the “William A. Pike Award” as Union's junior male athlete
of the year.

Swimming

Freshman swimmer Sydnie Wells was the only Dutchwoman to
qualify for the NCAA Division III championship meet, which was also held the
weekend of March 12-13. While she missed her personal goals of finishing in the
top 16 for the 400 IM (she was 26th) and the 200 butterfly (she was
21st), head coach Scott Felix was very excited about her opportunity
to see what it is like to compete at the national level.

“It was a great experience for her to be able to compete and
to see the quality of the competition at the national level,” explained
Felix.  “The experience she gained will
help her to be successful in the future.”

Sophomore D.J. Hogenkamp will be at the NCAA Championship
Meet this weekend (March 19-10). He qualified to compete in the 100 and 200
backstrokes and is also eligible to compete in the 200 IM. Hogenkamp finished
second at the state meet in the 100 and 200 backstroke events as well as in the
100 butterfly.

Women's lacrosse, softball earn pre-season recognition

The Dutchwomen lacrosse and softball teams were each ranked
20th in their respective pre-season national polls.

The lacrosse team, which opened its season on March 11 with
an 11-3 victory over visiting Oswego, also had three of its players named to
the preseason All-American team.  Junior
attackwoman Molly Flanagan was a first-team selection, senior midfielder
Corinne Hennessy was a second-team pick and junior defensive-midfielder Liz
Flanagan earned third-team honors.

.

Head coach Linda Bevelander entered her seventh season at
the helm with an overall record of 65-32 (a winning percentage of .747) while
taking her team to five post-season tournaments.  Bevelander, a three-time “Coach of the Year” selection, has
guided the Dutchwomen to a pair of NYSWCAA championships and has led her team
into two NCAA National Championship Tournaments.

The Dutchwomen return 14 players from last year's 11-5 team
that won the New York State Women's Collegiate Athletic Association
championship.

Softball

The softball team, under seventh-year head coach Pete Brown,
participated in the program's first-ever NCAA tournament last year (advancing
to the championship game of the Eastern Regionals).  Brown, who enters the 2004 campaign with a career record of
130-72-1, has guided his team to four 20-win seasons and into post-season
tournaments in each of the last five years. 
The 2001 team captured the program's first-ever New York State Women's
Collegiate Athletic Association championship.

Twelve players return from last year's 26-7 team.

Carmody (Union '74) named Big 10 “Coach of the Year”

Northwestern head basketball coach Bill Carmody (Union,
1974), was recently named the Big Ten's “Coach of the Year” by the media
voters.  It marked the first time that a
Wildcat basketball coach has received the honor.

Carmody led a young squad (which started just
one senior, three sophomores and a freshman) to an 8-8 Big Ten record, the best
by a Northwestern team since 1968. The eight wins came against seven different
teams, one shy of the school record (the 1944 team defeated eight different Big
Ten opponents). In addition, the 'Cats also had their best finish in the
conference standings since 1969, tying for fifth place with Michigan.

Men's soccer team opens 2004 campaign in
Holland.

This year, the Dutchman soccer season will begin
early with an international flavor. The Garnet's returning players will
compete in matches in Holland, Belgium. and Germany from August 13 to 22.  The team will return to campus for the
traditional pre-season workouts before scrimmaging with junior college
powerhouse Ulster Community College. 
The 2004 campaign begins on September 4th with the four-team
Union-Rensselaer Classic.

“The team should be more match-ready and
experienced than any other time in my eight seasons here,” said head coach Jeff
Guinn, who has guided the Dutchmen to three consecutive winning seasons.  “My hope is that it will translate into our
most successful year yet.”

Union is 28-21-7 over the last three years
including last season's record of 9-7-1.

Coast Guard, WPI and Kings Point join the UCAA
in football (only)

Coast Guard, Worcester Poly and Kings Point join
Union, Rensselaer, Hobart, St. Lawrence and Rochester as participating members
of the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association's football conference giving the
league enough teams to qualify for an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.  The idea for the football league began
during the 1996-97 academic year by Dick Sakala, Union's long-time director of
athletics who retired in 2000.

The 2004 schedule offers a couple of other
interesting twists.  The Dutchmen will
play a nine-game schedule for the first time since 1998 season.  Two of the games, the September 11
season-opener at Springfield and the September 18 home opener, are scheduled to
kickoff at 7:00 p.m.

Posted on Mar 17, 2004

Union College and three other
upstate New York institutions – Skidmore College, Hamilton College and Colgate
University – will share a $600,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
to support faculty career enhancement.

Over the next two to three years,
the grant will help fund an assortment of new initiatives, including an
innovative process for post-tenure faculty development to assist faculty at
mid-career with their teaching and research; a program of faculty exchanges
among the schools in the Mellon grant group; and the chance to implement other
collaborative programs, including a speakers bureau.

“The funding provided to the Four
College Consortium not only offers Union faculty the opportunity to work with
their peers at sister institutions but also enables us to initiate a unique
program for senior faculty development that will further enrich both the
teaching and the scholarship of Union's greatest resource: our faculty,” said
Christina Sorum, Union's dean of faculty.

The $600,000 grant follows an
$80,000 Mellon Foundation gift awarded in 2002. The earlier grant funded a
yearlong study by the four schools in which a number of common concerns were
identified. The new grant will help fund some of the key goals arising from
that study including planning and support for research and teaching after faculty
receive tenure, typically at the start of their seventh year at a college or
university.

The grant will also fund a faculty
exchange initiative designed to revitalize faculty by allowing them exposure to
a different set of colleagues and a different academic and institutional
culture. Each year, two faculty members from each of the four schools will be
able to teach a course at one of the other schools. Visiting faculty will offer
new perspectives and perhaps a new course to the host institution, and will be
expected to share their experiences with their home school upon returning.

Additionally, funds will be
available for smaller-scale collaborations among the campuses, such as a
four-college speakers bureau, seminars, and conferences.

Posted on Mar 16, 2004

What do 50 students from St.
Anthony's School do during one of the coldest of Schenectady's
winters?

Go swimming, of course.

The students, in grades one
through five, were guests of the Union College Swimming and Diving Team. Fifteen
team members, under the guidance of Head Coach Scott Felix, helped the
youngsters master the swimming basics and enjoy the sport over the course of
the six-week program.

The Union athletes worked with
groups of up to four (beginners got one-on-one lessons), teaching the strokes,
diving and mock racing.

Scott Doig, physical education
teacher at St. Anthony's, said he called the College hoping to arrange a
one-day program. “The swim team far exceeded my expectations by offering a
program that was over a month long, and gave an almost
one-to-one student-teacher ratio.

“In my
classes, I try to give each child the opportunity to try new things and gain
some basic skill in a wide variety of activities,” he said. “Not everyone is
interested in participating in football, baseball or basketball.” 

The
youngsters quickly took to the Union swimmers and the pool, despite a tentative
start. Recalling the youngsters' first visit to the pool at Alumni Gymnasium,
Doig said, “There was an excitement felt by everyone in the room that day. The
students … were fidgeting and gaping at the large building that surrounded
them, anxiously awaiting what lay ahead.”

Union's Campus Safety
provided transportation for the students to and from St. Anthony's. “The
kids thoroughly enjoyed the ride to the pool in our own Union College Bus,”
Doig said.

Union's
swimmer-instructors included Heather Bernstein, Tara Campbell, Carolyn Castagna,
Colleen Donlan, Christine Dunn, Elizabeth Henry, Brianne Phillips, Sydnie
Wells, Chuck Kinnett, Andrew Lockwood, Aaron Phillips, Drew Rand, Andrew
Sparkes, Grant Van Der Beken and Steve LaPlante.

Posted on Mar 15, 2004

Messa Rink at Achilles Center will host the top four ECAC Women's teams
this weekend for the ECAC Championship. Possibly three of the competing
teams may land a spot in the NCAA Women's Frozen Four, to be held at
the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island March 26-28.

The first semi-final game will take place Saturday at 1:00pm with fourth
seed BROWN taking on the top seed HARVARD. Semi-final No. 2 will follow,
starting at 4:15pm, with third seeded DARTMOUTH taking on second seed
ST. LAWRENCE.

The Championship game will be played at 12:00pm on Sunday. All-session
passes begin at just $15 for this exciting event in Women's Hockey. You
can purchase tickets by stopping by the Achilles Center Box office or by
calling 388-6134.

It will be a “Mini Frozen-Four” this weekend at Messa Rink as three of
the top four teams in the nation will compete. Currently, Harvard
(27-3-1) is the No. 2 team in the nation. Dartmouth (24-5-2) is
the No. 3 team. St. Lawrence (26-8-1) is ranked No. 4 in the nation, and
Brown (18-10-2) is the No. 9 team nationally.

The ECAC could possibly fill two or three of the four spots in the
Women's Frozen Four. Which will make for one of the most exciting
Women's tournaments ever. Come out and be a part of the best that
Women's NCAA Hockey has to offer this weekend at Union College!

Posted on Mar 12, 2004

Union College and three other
upstate New York institutions – Skidmore College, Hamilton College and Colgate
University – will share a $600,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
to support faculty career enhancement.

Over the next two to three years,
the grant will help fund an assortment of new initiatives, including an
innovative process for post-tenure faculty development to assist faculty at
mid-career with their teaching and research; a program of faculty exchanges
among the schools in the Mellon grant group; and the chance to implement other
collaborative programs, including a speakers bureau.

“The funding provided to the Four
College Consortium not only offers Union faculty the opportunity to work with
their peers at sister institutions but also enables us to initiate a unique
program for senior faculty development that will further enrich both the
teaching and the scholarship of Union's greatest resource: our faculty,” said
Christina Sorum Union's dean of faculty.

The $600,000 grant follows an
$80,000 Mellon Foundation gift awarded in 2002. The earlier grant funded a
yearlong study by the four schools in which a number of common concerns were
identified. The new grant will help fund some of the key goals arising from
that study including planning and support for research and teaching after faculty
receive tenure, typically at the start of their seventh year at a college or
university.

The grant will also fund a faculty
exchange initiative designed to revitalize faculty by allowing them exposure to
a different set of colleagues and a different academic and institutional
culture. Each year, two faculty members from each of the four schools will be
able to teach a course at one of the other schools. Visiting faculty will offer
new perspectives and perhaps a new course to the host institution, and will be
expected to share their experiences with their home school upon returning.

Additionally, funds will be
available for smaller-scale collaborations among the campuses, such as a
four-college speakers bureau, seminars, and conferences.