Philip T. Reeker, deputy spokesman
of the U.S. Department of State, will speak on “US Foreign Policy: Public Diplomacy and the Role of the Spokesman” in a conversation with students on Monday, May 3, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.
in Social Sciences 104.
The event is part of the
Department of Political Science's “Pizza and Politics” series.
Reeker served as spokesman for
both Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary Madeleine Albright. Since
September 2003, Reeker has been “Spokesman at Large” for the Department,
speaking extensively on U.S.
foreign policy and public diplomacy.
As Deputy Assistant Secretary
under Ambassador Richard Boucher in the Bureau of Public Affairs, Reeker
oversaw the Press Office, Media Outreach, and the Foreign
Press centers.
Previously, he was Director of Press Relations within the Bureau of Public
Affairs. In July 2004, he is to take up duty as Deputy Chief of Mission
at the American Embassy in Budapest, Hungary.
Reeker joined the Foreign Service
in March of 1992. His first overseas assignment was as Assistant Information
Officer in Budapest from 1993 to
1996. He moved on to be Public Affairs Officer at the American Embassy in Skopje,
Macedonia, from 1997
through June 1999, and was spokesman for Ambassador Christopher Hill in his
dual role as Ambassador to Macedonia
and U.S. Special Envoy for Kosovo.
Born in Pennsylvania,
Reeker grew up in several U.S.
cities and spent his high school years in Brisbane,
Australia. He received a
B.A. in history from Yale University
and a Master of International Management from the American Graduate School of
International Management known as “Thunderbird” in Arizona.
In 2003, Reeker received the
Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Public Diplomacy.
Feisty, fiery Irshad Manji doesn't
fit the stereotype of the quiet, veiled Muslim woman. The Toronto-based
journalist/author/TV personality will speak on Wednesday, May 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Memorial Chapel. A
reception will follow in the Hale House Dining Room. The event is free and open
to the public.
Her presentation, “Not My Father's
Islam: Empowering Women and Reform in the Islamic World,” is this year's
Frederick E. Miller Lecture Series in Honor of Anwar Sadat.
Ms. magazine named her a “Feminist for the 21st
Century”; and the New York Times wrote
that she was “Osama bin Laden's worst nightmare,” a moniker she wears with
pride.
Manji is president of VERB, a
youth-focused TV channel in development; host of “Big Ideas,” a weekly show
aimed at college students; and host/senior producer of Citytv's Queer
Television. Her most recent book is The
Trouble with Islam.
At age 23, she was the national
affairs editorial writer for the Ottawa
Citizen – the youngest editorial board member at any major Canadian
newspaper. At one time, she was the press secretary for the Ontario Minister of
Women's Issues. She is writer-in-residence at the University
of Toronto's Hart House.
The phrase “Walk This Way” has
special meaning for students from 19 colleges and universities from across the U.S.,
Canada and Mexico
arriving on campus for the Society of Automotive
Engineers' annual Walking Robot Challenge, starting on Friday.
This is the first time the College
has hosted the prestigious international event, and Union's
hopes are riding on “Dutchbot” a six-legged competitor under the tutelage of seniors Adam Retersdorf, Jason Cook and Craig Johnson. Their advisor and contest director is Prof. Nick Krouglicof.
During the competition, which will
span two days — Friday and Saturday, April 30 and May 1 — the machines will perform
in six events that will challenge student designers to think creatively. The events range from a simple
“dash” to autonomously traversing an obstacle course.
Student teams designed and built their
robots, which operate by a self-contained power source.
All events are in Memorial
Fieldhouse. Awards are in Reamer Campus Center Auditorium on Saturday evening.
(See schedule below.)
A panel of judges will score the
machines on their components, construction and “intelligence,” as well as
performance during the tasks.
The contest is funded through
support from General Motors and Honda Motors. Last year the contest was hosted
by La Salle University
in Mexico City.
Kevin Rampe '88, president of Lower Manhattan Development Corp.
Kevin M. Rampe '88,
president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the agency overseeing the
reconstruction of the site of New York City's World Trade Center, will deliver the main address at Union College's Commencement.
The ceremony is set Sunday, June 13, at 10 a.m. in Library Plaza.
Rampe will receive an honorary degree from the College. The College will also award an
honorary degree to artist Wolf Kahn, whose intensely colored paintings have put
him in the forefront of American representational art.
“I am proud and honored to have the opportunity to address Union
College's Class of 2004, their
families and their friends on this very important day,” Rampe said. “Union
College prepared me for my greatest
professional challenge — coordinating the redevelopment of the World
Trade Center
site — and instilled in me a devotion to public service that has driven my
career. I look forward to returning to my alma mater and sharing my experiences
of moving from the classroom to the boardroom.”
Rampe spoke May 11 at a Union alumni event in the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center in lower Manhattan.
As lower Manhattan rebuilds in
the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack, Rampe
holds one of the most important posts – president of the Lower Manhattan
Development Corporation (LMDC), which is overseeing reconstruction. He was
named to the post last year by New York Gov. George Pataki and New York
City Mayor Michael Bloomberg after serving as the development corporation's
executive vice president and general counsel. Before joining the LMDC, he was
first deputy superintendent and chief operating officer of the New York State
Insurance Department, managing the leading insurance regulatory agency in the
country. He had joined the insurance department after serving as the governor's
senior legal advisor on insurance, banking, civil justice, worker's compensation,
and labor matters. A native of Warwick, New York, he is a cum
laude graduate of Union with a B.A. in political science and psychology. He earned his
law degree magna cum laude from Albany Law School in 1991 and
became a litigator at the law firm of Sherman & Sterling. As part of
his practice he was involved in domestic and international securities,
antitrust, and contract litigation. He also lived in Kuwait, and in 1994-1995 he was involved in the firm's representation of
the government of Kuwait and its preparation of environmental claims against the
government of Iraq arising after the Gulf War.
About Wolf Kahn
“Saltbox Barn” by Wolf KahnWolf Kahn
Kahn is one of the United States' most esteemed painters, one whose intensely colored and yet
meditative landscapes evoke a visceral experience of color and light. Born in Stuttgart, Germany, where his father was an orchestra conductor, he fled Nazi
Germany as an eleven-year-old refugee, traveling first to England and then a year later to the United States. After graduating from New York City's High School of Music and Art, he served in the U.S. Navy and then studied with the
well-known teacher and abstract expressionist, Hans Hofmann. Two years later,
Kahn relocated to Chicago, where he earned a B.A. from the University of Chicago. Influenced by Hofmann's practice of using nature as the starting
point for a painting, Kahn's work encompasses both pictorial landscape and
painterly abstraction. His use of color has made him one of the most highly-regarded
colorists working in America today. He has received Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowships and
an Award in Art from the American Academy and Institute for Arts and Letters. His work has been exhibited
in galleries and museums throughout the world and is included in the
collections of such major museums as the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Kahn has
taught in many art schools, including Cooper Union in New York, and is the subject of a number of books.
Questar III's 'Mass Construction' team placed second in the Rube Goldberg Contest on April 24. Members are, from left, Kevin Chavin, East Greenbush; Josh Jordan, Green Island; and Brian Adriance, Taconic Hills. Missing from photo is Nicole Wilson of Averi
Van Antwerp Middle School's team — “The Pie's the Limit” — took the title in the College's 2004
Rube Goldberg competition on Saturday, April 24.
Their machine was judged the best at removing a small pie
from a box, placing it on a plate and topping it with a dollop of whipped
cream.
A team from Questar III, which
called itself “Mass Construction,” placed second.
There was a two-way tie for third between Questar III's “Team Kobra” and Niskayuna
High School's “TEC Club.”
The teams were among the dozen who competed in the contest. Now in its fourth year at Union, the “Olympics of complexity and redundancy” was sponsored by Union's Engineering program, Knolls Atomic Power Lab, GE Elfun Society, and the Schenectady Museum.
GE employees served as judges.
The contest director is James
Hedrick, professor of engineering at Union. “The
Rube Goldberg contest, quite simply, makes engineering fun,” Hedrick said.
“Students will have the opportunity to put their creativity to work and design wild contraptions to perform what is usually a very
simple task. The only limits on machine design are their own imaginations. It's
a great way for students to showcase their design talents and inspire an
interest in engineering at the same time.”
In past years, the tasks have
included sticking a stamp on a letter, sharpening a pencil, making a baloney
sandwich, and opening a bag of M&Ms and putting toothpaste on a toothbrush.
The contest pays tribute to Rube
Goldberg, an engineer and cartoonist whose works appeared in thousands of
newspapers from 1914 to 1964. His inventions, he said, symbolized “man's
capacity for exerting maximum effort to accomplish minimal results.” His
name has become eponymous for anything that is unnecessarily complex,
cumbersome, or convoluted.
