A new “News and Events” website incorporates on one page many of the features formerly found on multiple pages, including headline news, campus events, College publications and press releases.
“This redesign gives us a great opportunity to showcase all of the interesting and unique people and programs of Union in one location, providing ease of use for visitors new to the College as well as our students, alumni and staff,” said Lisa Stratton, director of media and public relations, who had oversight of the redesign and is maintaining the new website within the College's Office of Communications.
The site also features a new “Spotlight on U” section of rotating human-interest stories on a student, alumni and faculty member. In addition, Union's “five pillars” – Converging Technologies, the Minerva House System, undergraduate research, international study and community service are more prominently displayed on the left side of the webpage.
Links to the main sections of the website appear at the top and bottom of the page. A news search box is in the lower right hand corner, and the day's sports scores are listed on the left side.
Tim Olsen, associate professor of music, has been awarded an artist grant from the 2005 Saratoga County Program for Arts Funding. Olsen, a composer and performer, will write a jazz-flavored piece for wind ensemble which will be performed by school and community groups throughout Saratoga County in Fall 2005.
Hilary Tann, professor of music, has premiered a piano piece, “Light from The Cliffs,” at the University at Albany. The Empire State Youth Orchestra performed her composition, “From the Feather to the Mountain,” on March 20. The piece, commissioned by ESYO for their 25th anniversary, refers in the title to a statement by artist and former Union colleague Arnie Bittleman (“I found a feather while walking down a road. The feather, if you look closely, has a landscape, a cloudscape in it.”) In connection with the concert, WAMC's Paul Elisha interviewed Tann for the show “Roundtable.” The Trinity Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh recently hosted the premiere of Tann's organ piece, “Pinnae Ventorum.”
Andrew Rapoff, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and colleagues Ruxandra Marinescu and David Daegling of the University of Florida, recently published a paper, “Finite Element Modeling of the Anthropoid Mandible: The Effects of Altered Boundary Conditions” in the April issue of The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology (Vol. 283A, Issue 2, pp. 300-309). This was an invited paper in a special issue on computational modeling in vertebrate biomechanics. By validating their computer model with experimental tests, the authors found that teeth do not contribute to the structural stiffness of the lower jaw.
Senior Adam Grode plans to study the lute the way he has approached Chinese, Russian and French: through total immersion.
Grode has received a Watson Fellowship to study “Long-necked Lutes from Baku to Bishkek: A Musical Journey in Central Asia.”
He will travel along the Silk Road in the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, a route not just of commerce but of musical styles and instruments developed from centuries of cultural syncretism. He plans to live in cities and learn from local masters to play the instrument indigenous to each. The experience, he says, will help lay a foundation for understanding the region's rich culture and musical heritage.
“When you play music, you embody what is going on,” he said. “It's a different experience. It's internalized.”
Grode, a native of Philadelphia, is the 44th Union student to receive the prestigious travel-study grant from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation since the program started in 1969. He is one of 50 students nationwide to receive the $22,000 fellowship this year.
Grode is near-fluent in French and Russian (and progressing in Chinese and Arabic) in part through programs in which he takes a pledge to speak no English. He took a similar pledge at Union's radio station, WRUC, and this year is doing weekly shows, featuring one language each term in Russian, Chinese and French. A former co-president of Coffeehouse, he is a regular organizer and performer, often singing songs in something other than English.
Being fluent in other languages allows him to communicate widely. “I always get off on the fact that I could speak to most of the people in the world,” he said.
Grode is quick to admit that he is no musical prodigy but a passionate musician. He grew up playing the bass, just as his late father did, and music consumed most of his free time. As a freshman at Union, he sought to become the “musical godson” of classical guitar genius Andres Segovia. He corresponded with Segovia protégé Eliot Fisk, who would invite him to study for a week in Siena, Italy. His mother intervened, however, pointing out that he did not have enough experience to study with the virtuoso.
He realized he may not have a career as a performance artist, but the experience steered him in a new direction. He combines his language skills and his passion for music to develop connections with other cultures. In trips to China and Russia, his pursuit of traditional music gained him access to aspects of those cultures not available to western tourists.
Grode has a knack for finding a way to study something that interests him, patching together travel and study grants from Union and outside sources. “I've been called resourceful before, but it's more about persistence,” he said. “If it's something I really want, I know how to get things done.” For example, he founded the Arabic Workshop and hired a teacher for 20 Union students interested in studying the language. He also created his own major in Eurasian Studies.
Mostly, he says, getting things done means proving his commitment. “When you put your chips on the table, people have a confidence in you. If you're not all in, no one will take a chance on you.”
Faculty who have worked with Grode note that “if anyone can have a successful year in the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia, he will.” Of his Watson destinations, Grode says, “They are some of the most landlocked, dilapidated and impoverished places in the world. I can't wait to go.”
The campus Watson committee consists of Joyce Madancy, history; Charles Batson, modern languages; Ann Anderson, mechanical engineering; and Davide Cervone, mathematics (committee chair). Grode also credits his advisor, Nixi Cura, East Asian Studies; Jennifer Matsue, performing arts; and Tom Ross, music, for helping him to refine his proposal.
Other campus finalists were Erin Kane of Southington, Conn., with a proposal titled “Environmentalism Abroad: The Natural World in the Global Community;” and Maximillian Seel of Houghton, Mich., who proposed “A Modern Epic Journey through the Ancient Lands of Classical Myth.”
The College's last Watson Fellow, Nori Lupfer '03, pursued “Circuses and Stunts: Photography of Entertainment in Motion.” The West Lebanon, N.H., native was an accomplished aerial freestyle skier who competed at the international level and performed on three tours with the Ringling Brothers-Barnum & Bailey Circus. Her Watson adventure took her to Brazil, Switzerland, France, Slovenia, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Czech Republic and Russia.
