Posted on Oct 29, 2004

As Shira Mandel '05, this year's
winner of a Barry Goldwater Scholarship, prepares her applications for Ph.D.
programs in chemical engineering, Prof. Ann Anderson seeks nominations for
Union students to follow in her footsteps.

“It's a prestigious award and it's
been nice to have all that comes with it,” said Mandel of the prize that
provides up to $7,500 per year to undergraduates who are destined for doctoral
study. “All that comes with it” includes offers for other scholarships and
instant credibility with the nation's top graduate programs, she said.

Anderson, who advises Mandel in
the Aerogel Lab, said that the College's Goldwater Scholars, numbering four
since 2002, also help the College's recognition among high schoolers who show
promise in mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering.

“This is really the type of award
that helps not just the winners, but all of our students,” she said. “This puts
our programs on the radars of the best graduate schools and it makes Union
an appealing choice for top high school students.” Other recent recipients are
Mark Hoffman '03, Desiree Plata '03, and Will Johnson '02.

The Goldwater puts a premium on
undergraduate research with possible applications, notes Mandel, a double major
in chemistry and mechanical engineering. “They want to see that you've
completed research and that it has applications that you've thought about as
you do the research,” she said.

Mandel, a three-year member of the
College's Aerogel Team, this year is researching the chemical precursors of
aerogels and how altering them can change the properties of the ultra-light
matrix materials that make excellent insulators. Her senior project involves a
process to make aerogels out of aluminum.

The College's Aerogel Team,
directed by Prof. Anderson of mechanical engineering, and Prof. Mary Carroll of
chemistry, has been focused on finding improvements
in the manufacturing process and on characterizing the properties of the
aerogels produced. They have applied for a patent on a process they call a
“Fast Supercritical Extraction Technique for Simplified Aerogel
Fabrication.” The lab is funded by a grant from the National
Science Foundation.

Mandel, a native of Hamden,
Conn., was selected last spring as one of 310
Barry Goldwater Scholars from a nationwide pool of more than 1,100 finalists.

At Union,
she has been a leader of Hillel; a campus tour guide; and a member of  Pi Tau Sigma, the mechanical engineering honor
society, and Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society.

Prof. Anderson, the College's coordinator
of the Goldwater Scholarship Program, asks faculty to nominate sophomores or
juniors of high standing who have experience in undergraduate research and an
interest in careers in mathematics, science or engineering. Pre-medical
students are not eligible. Nominations are due to Prof. Anderson
(andersoa@union.edu) by Nov. 5.

For more on the Goldwater
Scholarships, visit: http://www.act.org/goldwater/

Posted on Oct 29, 2004

Think of Prof. George Gmelch as the Rip Van Winkle of baseball.

After having been absorbed by the sport through his early adulthood, he left it completely in 1969 when he was released by the Detroit Tigers organization.

More than two decades later, at the suggestion of his wife and colleague, Sharon Gmelch, the anthropologist woke up to baseball to do an ethnography of the sport. He talked about his return to the sport in a faculty colloquium titled “The Changing World of Professional Baseball” on Nov. 2.

Gmelch spoke about the changes in professional baseball over the last three decades, from economics to player personalities. If there was a subtext to the talk, it was that baseball, like all major sports, is a microcosm of American society and that changes in baseball reflect changes in the larger society and culture.

Gmelch said he had no interest in baseball after his release. “Often, I didn't even watch the World Series,” he said. “So, when I finally came back to the game in the early nineties, after Sharon convinced me that it could be interesting to do an ethnography of the sport, it was like Rip Winkle waking up after his 20-year sleep in the Catskills.”

Gmelch, the Roger Thayer Stone Professor of Anthropology, joined the College in 1982. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has led Union students on many anthropology terms abroad, perhaps most notably to Barbados.

He has written numerous journal articles on topics ranging from sport to tourism. His books include Inside Pitch: Lives in Professional Baseball; Behind the Smile: The Working Lives of Caribbean Tourism; Ballpark: The Working Lives of Baseball People; The Parish Behind God's Back: The Changing Culture of Rural Barbados (with Sharon Gmelch); and Double Passage: The Lives of Caribbean Migrants, Abroad and Back Home.

Posted on Oct 29, 2004

Nothing unusual appears in the
program for the College's production of Metamorphoses,
opening in Yulman Theater on Nov. 2, until you see the acknowledgement of “water
consultants.”

Donald Birch and Joseph Decowski,
who hold those titles, were instrumental in staging the first show at Union
to feature water – a whole pool of it – as a central “character.”

The two men, who normally hold
down duties on the Facilities staff, helped the Yulman crew design and build
what director Joann Yarrow calls “a magical place”
— a 20- by 20- foot pool of undetermined depth — for the play by Mary
Zimmerman that is based on the myths of the Roman poet Ovid.

The pool, Yarrow says, provides
the medium for human interaction in the play, and indeed the dozen characters in
the ensemble use it continuously. “It is definitely another character in the
play, another 'being' with us,” Yarrow says.

The technical considerations for
staging a play with water were enormous, Yarrow says. “Can the floor take the
weight?” “How do we keep the water out of the basement?” “How do we filter it
and heat it?”

The production also requires some
items not normally found backstage: a large supply of towels (special thanks to
Athletics), a clothes drier, mops and squeegees. Actors have been rehearsing in
bathing suits; costumes, reserved for the production, need a full day to dry.
(“We could never do two shows in a day,” the director quips.)

Also contributing to the project
were Robert Balmer, dean of engineering, and students Victoria MacMullen and
Tim Pulask, who helped design the pool as a special project.

The play relies heavily on the
actors' physicality, Yarrow notes. “This is a movement-based work,” she says.
“The actor is not just a talking head. It's the body which speaks as well.”

Yarrow brought in Louis
Guillemette of the Cirque du Soleil in Montreal
to help the actors to develop the work through a process called contact
improvisation. It was the actors themselves – not a choreographer – who
developed the movements that would become the play.

The play, according to the
program, “juxtaposes the ancient and the contemporary in both language and
image to reflect the variety and persistence of narrative in the face of
inevitable change.” Featured characters include Midas and Silenus, Alcyone,
Orpheus and (naturally, given the reflective medium) Narcissus.

The ensemble is Andrew Burke,
Kassandra Collazo, Phil Chorba, Aneesh Dambreville, Jackie Garrity, Ryan
Schiavone, Carly Hirschberg, Charles Holiday, Becca Hutton, Charles May, Mandee
Moondi and Davin Reed.

Set design is by Prof. Charles
Steckler, lighting by John Miller, costumes by Lloyd
Waiwaiole, and sound by Doris Lo.

Shows are Nov. 2 through 6 at 8 p.m., and Nov. 7 at 2 p.m. For tickets and information, call 388-6545.

Posted on Oct 26, 2004

With playoff positions on the line the last two weeks,
Union's fall student-athletes have risen to the occasion.  The Liberty League has recognized the
efforts of the young women and men in Garnet uniforms and has rewarded those
efforts with league honors.

This week junior soccer forward Cassandra Mariani
(Boonton, NJ/Morris Catholic) picked up her third soccer “Offensive
Performer of the Week” while freshman soccer forward Christopher Poey
(Amherst, MA/Amherst Regional) earned his second-straight “Rookie of the
Week” award.  Junior soccer goaltender Matt
Mayerhofer (Wappinger
Falls, NY/John Jay)
earned the Liberty League's “Defensive Player of the Week” while sophomore football
running back Tom  Arcidicano
(Castleton, NY/Columbia) was named the circuit's “Offensive Player of the
Week.”

Mariani
had two goals in the 5-0 victory over Vassar and two goals, including the
game-winner, in the 6-0 win over RPI. 
She now has team-high 14 goals, which ranks her second in the Liberty
League's overall statistics, including six game-winning tallies (also a Union
high and second in the league).  Her 33
points lead the Dutchwomen and rank third in the conference.

Poey
scored a goal in the Dutchmen's 3-1 win over Vassar and netted the only tally
in a 1-0 double overtime win over Rensselaer. 
He now has a team-high seven goals, including three game-winners.  The twin wins clinched the Dutchmen's
first-ever Liberty League playoff spot and assured the 9-6-0 Dutchmen of a winning
season for the fourth consecutive year.

Mayerhofer,
a converted defensive player who took over in goal after senior Kevin O'Connor
was injured and lost for the year in the seventh game of the season, has played
every minute since and has a 4-2 record with three shutouts.  He had three saves in the win over the
Brewers and three more in the double OT victory over the Red Hawks, the
Dutchmen's fourth-straight win.

Arcidiacono
became the third Dutchman to be recognized by the Liberty League after carrying
the ball 35 times for a career-high 226 yards in Union's 19-7 win over the
United States Coast Guard Academy.  The
victory, the Dutchmen's fourth-straight, improved their league record to 4-0
and their overall standard to 4-2. 
Arcidiacono, who did not have a negative carry, scored on touchdown runs
of one and four yards, and out-gained the Bears' entire offense, which finished
with 209 total yards.

The week of October 18 was also good one for the women and
men student-athletes as all four nominees earned Liberty League honors.

Sophomore forward Jessica Trotter (St. Louis, MO/John
Boroughs) picked up her second field hockey “Offensive Performer of the
Week” helped the Dutchwomen to a 2-0 week by scoring in victories over
Castleton State (6-1) and Elmira (3-2). 
In the game against Elmira Jessica scored her 10th goal of
the season with 4:55 left to rally the Dutchwomen (who had fallen behind
2-0).  Trotter's 10 goals are the most
since Yvonne Turchette scored nine in 2000, and the team's five victories are
the most since posting six in 2001. 
Jessica has four of the Dutchwomen's five game-winning tallies.

Junior forward Mariani picked up her second soccer
“Offensive Performer of the Week” while junior goaltender Julie Gawronski
(Dunkirk, NY/Dunkirk) earned her first “Defensive Performer of the Week”
award. 

Maraini, who earned the award for the first time the week of
September 13 after being named the Most Valuable Offensive Player of the Heron
Cup, helped the Dutchwomen to road victories over Oswego (3-0), Skidmore (2-0)
and Hartwick (6-0).  She contributed
three goals (two of which were game-winners) and an assist.

Gawronski, meanwhile, kicked out all eight shots she faced
in the 3-0 week, including six in the Liberty League victory over Skidmore.

Maraini and Gawronski join senior forward Brittany
Cressman (Duxbury, MA/Duxbury) as the Dutchwomen who have been recognized
by the Liberty League so far this season. 
Cressman has been named the “Offensive Performer of the Week” twice, the
week of September 6 and the week of October 11.

Poey earned the soccer team's first league honor of
the year as he was named the “Rookie of the Week.”  Poey earned the award after picking up
his second game-winning tally in a 1-0 non-league victory over St. Joseph's of
Maine.

NICHOLS NAMED ECAC “PLAYER OF THE WEEK”

Elise Nichols (Pittsfield, MA) was named the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division I women's ice hockey “Player of the Week” after she led Union over the weekend with six goals in two games to help the Dutchwomen win back-to-back games against Sacred Heart. In the first contest, Nichols scored a pair of goals, including a short-handed tally in Union's 7-3 win over the Pioneers. The following day, the sophomore forward had another short-handed goal and the game winner in a four-goal outburst to lead the team to a 7-1 victory. Nichols made Union women's hockey history, becoming the first player to score four goals in a game. It also marked the first time that the Dutchwomen has ever swept a Division I opponent.

The Dutchwomen are now 2-2.

Posted on Oct 26, 2004

Schenectady, NY–Union College is inviting all area children to attend their upcoming
game, October 30th at 1 p.m. against St. Lawrence.  Children
have the opportunity to experience a college football game as the Dutchmen hosts
NCAA Football's seventh annual “Take A Kid to the Game” (TAKG)
program presented by POWERade and other Corporate Champions, Cingular Wireless
and Pontiac.  Kids, ages fourteen and younger, will receive a free ticket
with the purchase of a full-priced adult ticket, to watch the Dutchmen at
Frank Bailey Field.

Union College is one of more than 200 schools across the nation that are taking part
in this campaign focused on allowing youth the opportunity to attend college
football games.  The Take A Kid to the Game program is entering into its
tenth year in the promotion of collegiate athletics.

“We hope that all area youngsters can be
apart of this day and support NCAA Football's Take A Kid to the Game
program,” Ramsey Baker, associate director of athletics at Union
College said.  “Our wish is that all of the young kids in the area
will have the chance to make a memory as they experience the one-of-a-kind
atmosphere that is NCAA Football.”

Tickets for this special game will become
available starting on Monday, October 25, and can be purchased at the Union
College ticket office.  For more information, contact Union College
Athletics Department at 518-388-6284.

The Take A Kid to the Game program is one of the
national promotions of NCAA Football, the marketing arm of college
football.  NCAA Football represents a coalition of the National Collegiate
Athletic Association, the National Association of Collegiate Directors of
Athletics and the Conference Commissioners Association.  Please
visit  www.ncaafootball.net for further information on current
initiatives.

In addition, the College will sponsor a Halloween
Costume Contest with certificate prizes awarded to the top costumes.