Posted on Apr 2, 2004

Thursday, April 1
3 p.m. –
Alexander Field – Softball vs. Mount Saint Mary (2).

Friday, April 2
9
to 11:30 a.m. — F.W. Olin Center and Science and Engineering — Second
annual Irving Langmuir Chemistry Laboratory Competition for local high school
students. Organized by Union's chemistry department with support from
Albany Molecular Research Inc., GE Global Research Center, and Schenectady
International Inc.
4 p.m. – Tennis courts — Men's tennis vs. St. Lawrence.
4 p.m.
– Frank Bailey Field –
Women's lacrosse vs. St. Lawrence.
5 p.m.
–Dutch Hollow — Karaoke
Night

Friday, April 2 to Monday, April 5
8 & 10 p.m. – Reamer Campus Center Auditorium –
movie: Paycheck

Saturday, April 3
9 a.m. – Union College
Boathouse – Men's & Women's crew vs. Rensselaer.
11 a.m.
– Frank Bailey Athletic
Field – Women's lacrosse vs. Clarkson.
1 p.m – Central Park ball field – Baseball vs. RIT (2)
2 p.m. – Frank Bailey Field – Men's lacrosse
vs. Skidmore.

Sunday, April 4
Noon – Central Park ball field – Baseball vs. St. John
Fisher (2)

Monday, April 5
Kosher Kitchen, West
College — Passover Seder

Wednesday, April 7
1 p.m. – Central Park ball field – Baseball vs. Oneonta (2)
3 p.m. – Alexander Field – Softball vs. New
Paltz (2).
7 p.m. – Frank Bailey Athletic Field – Men's
lacrosse vs. Western New England College.

Thursday, April 8
4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
— Mandeville Gallery, Nott Memorial – Reception for “China/Cuba/Vietnam:
Recent Photographs by Martin
Benjamin.”
Show runs through May 23.
7 p.m. — Yulman
Theater — Staged reading of  Background by Lauren Gunderson, a play
about the life and career of cosmologist Ralph Alpher, Union distinguished
research professor of physics emeritus. Alpher and the playwright will
participate in a panel discussion after the reading. Sponsored by the Hewlett
Foundation.
7 p.m.
– Humanities Lounge –
Philosophical Café with guest speaker Bill Vitek of Clarkson University. His topic will be “Limits.”
8 p.m. – Memorial Chapel – Union Concert series presents pianist Arnaldo Cohen. Free to Union College students w/ ID.

Friday, April 9, to Monday, April 12
8 & 10:30 p.m. – Reamer Campus Center Auditorium –
movie: Mystic
River

Friday, April 9
4 p.m. – Men's tennis vs. Clarkson.
8 p.m. – Memorial Chapel – The Chinese
“Bruce Springsteen,” rock star Cui Jian, in concert. Free.
8 p.m. – Old Chapel – Sex and the City marathon.

Saturday, April 10
9 a.m. –
Boathouse – Men's & Women's crew vs. Skidmore/Lafayette
1 p.m. – Frank Bailey Athletic Field – Men's lacrosse vs. RIT.

Posted on Apr 2, 2004

Wilfried Wilms, assistant professor of German, presented a paper at
a conference on Literature, Film and War, organized by SUNY Binghamton's
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. The paper, “'They asked for
it' – Allied War Reporting in the Aftermath of the Dresden Bombing”
investigated Allied war reporting on the raid on Dresden.
Specifically, the paper focused on the evoked principle of retribution that
curtailed discourse on the moral legitimacy of the raids.

Posted on Apr 2, 2004

Robert
Hislope,
assistant professor of political science, will have an article, “Crime and
Honor in a Weak State:
Paramilitary Forces and Violence in Macedonia,”
published in the May/June issue of Problems
of Post-Communism. Also, Hislope served as a section organizer for the
Midwest Political Science Association's Annual Meeting in Chicago,
where he is to deliver a paper on April 15.

Posted on Apr 2, 2004

Recent
photographs by Prof. Martin
Benjamin from
China, Cuba and Vietnam are featured in a show in the Mandeville
Gallery at the Nott Memorial.

“China/Cuba/Vietnam:
Recent Photographs by Martin Benjamin” runs through Sunday, May 23. It is free
and open to the public. A reception is set for Thursday, April 8, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Benjamin,
professor of visual arts at the College, grew up in a simple pre-Internet world
when “Main
Street,
the corner store, and trout streams” were his primary sources of amusement and
wonder. He is part of a generation who witnessed some of the nation's most
psychically traumatic events in the 20th century – political
assassinations, atomic bomb tests, the Cuban missile crisis, and the Vietnam
War. As a budding photographer in college he realized what Diane Arbus meant
when she said, “Photographing is not about being comfortable, either for the
photographer or the subject.”

Benjamin's
photos capture what engages him, but that doesn't mean exclusively what is
beautiful. This collection was taken during his forays to China, Cuba, and Vietnam (often at his peril). These photos range
aesthetically from the beauty of the landscape and people to the gritty
realities of the street market and daily life. Along with evoking a range of
reactions, they also tell a between-the-lines story of the photographer and his
subjects.

Gallery
hours are daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

For
more information, call 388-8344.

Posted on Apr 2, 2004

He is an 83-year-old cosmologist whose pioneering work on
the Big Bang theory went largely unrecognized.

She is a young, prolific playwright who wanted
to create a play about a scientist who never received due credit.

Soon, they will meet for a staged reading of Background,
a one-act play about the life and career of Ralph Alpher, Union's distinguished
research professor of physics emeritus, written by Lauren Gunderson, 22, whose
acclaimed play took form in a freshman seminar at Emory University.

Directed by William Finlay, the play will
be read by professional actors on Thursday, April 8, at 7 p.m. in Union's Yulman Theater. Tickets are free. The
performance is sponsored by the Hewlett Foundation.

Fifty-six years ago, as a young doctoral
student, Alpher wrote the first mathematical model for the creation of the
universe and predicted the discovery of cosmic background radiation that proves
the Big Bang theory.

Though his work was celebrated at the time – 300
people, including reporters, packed the hall at George Washington University for his dissertation
defense – it was largely forgotten afterward. Decades later, two radio
astronomers tuning their equipment stumbled on proof of Alpher's background
radiation. They got the credit – and the Nobel Prize.

Fascinated by an article on Alpher in Discover
magazine (July 1999), Gunderson asked her professor if she could write a play
instead of a term paper. The result is an award-winning play about Alpher's
life and his quest for scientific credit. Using sparse dialogue, pauses and
metaphor, the play moves backward in time to mimic the study of cosmology.
There are four characters – Alpher, his wife, his daughter and a narrator who
also portrays minor characters.

While doing research, Gunderson called Alpher to
ask him the main question she had on her mind in developing the play:
“Would you have done anything differently?”

“Yes,” he said. “I would have
worked harder to get the credit I deserved.”

To Gunderson, she said, “it would be like
having my play go to Broadway and seeing someone else's name in the
program.”

Gunderson said that just talking to Alpher
helped her to understand his character: “It was mainly the directness of
his voice,” she recalls. “He is very clear and very concise. You can
tell a lot about a person by how they speak and what they communicate.”

The reading of Background on April 8 will
be the first time the scientist and playwright have met.

Alpher, who retired as research professor at Union and administrator of
Dudley Observatory, is a regular visitor at Union's physics department,
where his former colleagues recently gave him a birthday party. Last fall, he
read his own part in a staged reading of Background at the retirement
community where he lives with his wife, Louise, and a number of retired area
scientists.

Gunderson's early success has included
performances of her work on high-profile stages. In 2002, her play Parts They
Call Deep was a winner in the national Young Playwrights Festival competition
founded by Stephen Sondheim and was one of only three winners selected for full
productions off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theater as part of the
festival. Gunderson has had other plays produced, including short plays at
PushPush Theatre in Atlanta and as part of the New York 10-Minute Play Fest.
One of her plays is a finalist for the Heidemann Award for 10-minute plays at
Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Background has just won the 2004 Essential
Theatre Playwriting Award, making Gunderson the first two-time winner of the
award. (Her play, Parts They Call Deep, was a recipient in 2001). The new play
was produced as part of Essential Theatre's 2004 Festival of New American
Theatre in February. It was performed at City University of New York last year.

Staged reading of Background, Thursday,
April 8, 7 p.m., Yulman Theater. Free.
Sponsored by Hewlett Foundation. For more information, call 388-6131.