Posted on May 15, 2005

Sundays will always be a special day of worship for Erin Kane, she's sure of that. Exactly what church you'll find her in, however, is still to be determined. “I believe very firmly in God, and my faith is very strong,” said Kane, a Union College senior and a native of Southington, Conn. “But I'm still in the process of deciding which community I'm going to belong to. I don't know which denomination I'm going to affiliate myself with.”

A double major in psychology and geology, Kane put together an online survey of Union College students regarding their feelings on spirituality and religion. Last week at the school's Steinmetz Symposium, she presented the findings of her project. “I worked with six or seven faculty and staff members here at the college creating the survey to come up with questions that were really relevant to the students,” said Kane. “I was happily surprised that 50 percent of our students said they would be interested in taking a religious studies class, so there were some encouraging results. But I tried to make sure the questions were easy. I wanted the students to finish the survey after they started it.”

Kane was also happy with the number of responses she got for her survey. “There were two other campus surveys that went out on the Internet that got about 350 responses and that was about music,” said Kane. “I said to myself, 'Well, my religion survey is not going to get that many,' but we had 307 respond so we got pretty close.”

Jason Slater, Web specialist at Union College and a 2002 graduate, assisted Kane with the survey and was also surprised at the large response. “I was a little bit hesitant at first because I thought some of the questions might overwhelm the students,” he said. “She asked about social betterment programs, God and the Holy Scriptures, and how the universe got put into motion, and some of the questions were very open-ended. It's not like the kids could just check a box. It was a long survey, but well thought out. She did a great job.”

PERSONAL QUEST

Kane had started asking questions about her own spirituality during her freshman year at Union. It was not a particularly happy time for her. “I like to believe that everything happens for a reason, but I was pretty miserable my freshman year here,” said Kane. “I was questioning why I was here and whether it was the right place for me, and I didn't have the kind of faith at that point that would be instrumental in giving my life meaning or purpose. I felt thrown into a situation, and I was getting desperate.” Kane was brought up Catholic and did join the choir at St. John the Evangelist on Union Street, right across from the campus, during her freshman year.

“I was a Catholic because it was tradition in my family, but I never was really concerned about the dogma or the ceremonial aspect of the church,” said Kane. “To me what was always more important was the message they were sending, and to me the services at Catholic churches weren't really speaking to younger people or dealing with real-world situations.” Kane made it through her freshman season, but she realized that something was going to have to be different her sophomore year.

“Everything around me was wrong, so I decided I needed to get to know myself better,” said Kane, who spent part of her sophomore year studying in Australia. “Spending a term out of the country, away from Union and more than just two hours from my parents' house, was the best thing I could have done. I was in such a negative frame of mind, I tended to think that circumstances defined my happiness. But

I learned that you can change your circumstances and still be unhappy. What you have to do is change yourself.” Kane came back to Union with a new attitude. “I decided I wasn't going to try to fit in, or camouflage who I was so I could be liked by other people,” she said. “I just relaxed, and became a stronger, more independent person. If your friends like you, then they like you. You have to be yourself.”

CHAPLAIN HELPS

Kane's journey at Union was made easier after she became acquainted with the Rev. Viki Brooks-McDonald, director of the Campus Protestant Ministry and interfaith chaplain at Union. “One of my friends told me about it and I said, 'Oh, I can't go, I'm Catholic. But my friend told me not to worry about it. I went to one of the weekly meetings and they were having an interesting discussion relevant to some of the things I was thinking about. I started going every week, and getting the opportunity to meet and talk to Viki like that really helped me. It was like having a surrogate family.”

For her work with the online survey, Kane received a small stipend in the form of a peer minister grant sponsored by Union's Campus Protestant Ministry and United Ministries in Higher Education, a national group formed in 1960 out of the previously existing United Campus Christian Fellowship. “It's been a joy to watch the unfolding of this wonderful young life,” Brooks-McDonald said of Kane. “Erin is a constant. You can always rely on her. For her grant, she was required to speak to me, theologically, about the project she was engaged in, and you could tell she was hooked on it. She's a bright, inquisitive young woman, and she came up with some very worthy questions.” Kane isn't sure just yet what she'll be doing after she graduates from Union in June.

“I'm a double major, so my interests are diverse,” said Kane. “I seem to like everything. But I'm going to find a job to get me through the summer and then start thinking about grad school for public policy or law.” Kane is hopeful her online survey may help to establish a religious studies program at Union. “You can get a minor in religious studies, but there's no department here at Union,” said Kane. “You have to hope you can fit the classes in your schedule whenever they're offered. But I think the survey showed there is interest. I think students do want to know about other faiths and other religions.”

Posted on May 15, 2005

If globalism were an artistic category, it might be a good fit for local composer Hilary Tann and her music, at least judging by the facts. “I'm a Welsh woman living in America with influences from Japan,'' she says.

But when Tann speaks, it's with a calm, thoughtful centeredness, a quality that also characterizes her music. And so Tann doesn't really bring to mind globalism with zipping and pinging electronic networks, frenzied free trade zones, and all that so much as she evokes the Earth itself.

“I can't write if I don't have the image. That's the seed,” Tann says, and her imagery is almost always nature. For example, her large catalog of works includes orchestra pieces with titles such as “Adirondack Light,” “The Open Field” and “Through the Echoing Timber.”

Tann's latest work in the genre, “From the Feather to the Mountain,” was commissioned and premiered by the Empire State Youth Orchestra in March and will be given an encore performance Saturday night at the Palace Theatre in Albany, where the ESYO performs on a program of the Albany Symphony Orchestra.

“From the Feather to the Mountain” was inspired by pen-and-ink drawings by the late local artist Arnold Bittleman. Both composer and artist communicate a breadth of perspective but also an immediacy of time and place.

“I really like the piece,” says Helen Cha-Pyo, ESYO's music director and conductor, who approached Tann last year with the idea of a concerto for orchestra. “She really captured the essence of what we wanted, but she had enough freedom to imagine what she wanted.”

The ESYO project is one of a series of recent and upcoming events in the Capital Region for Tann, who has been a faculty member of Union College in Schenectady for more than 20 years. Also in March, Max Lifchitz premiered her piano piece “Light from the Cliffs.” And on Thursday May 26, the Meininger Trio of Germany will perform a concert at Union College featuring Tann's “The Gardens of Anna Maria Louisa de Medici” for flute, cello and piano. That concert will mark the release of the trio's new CD featuring four Tann works.

“I can only describe both her and her music as charming, kind and peaceful, and with a soulful inner depth,” says flutist Christiane Meininger, who first approached Tann through her Web site (http://www.hilarytann.com). “I simply felt that a person with such a beautiful home page, a charming picture of herself with her dog, surrounded by nature … could only write beautiful music. This turned out to be absolutely true.”

Handy at haiku

When Tann speaks, she often uses her hands. As she describes the ESYO piece, its landscapes and mountains, she rolls her hands and arms in the space on either side of her body. When she gets to the clouds and mentions Debussy, her arms are extended high and her hands are gently, slowly turning.

“That sound of a single line, the landscaping of a single line,” she says as a hand circles in the air.

Simplicity of expression is a fascination for Tann. It's rooted in her Celtic heritage she was born in a coal-mining village in South Wales and has found fulfillment in the culture of Japan, specifically the shakuhachi, a bamboo flute, and in haiku poetry. Both have become more than mere pastimes.

Tann took up the shakuhachi in 1984, and six years later went to Japan, where she taught traditional Japanese music. “She knows more about it than most Japanese, and that's no hyperbole,” says David Bullard, Tann's husband of three years who is also a longtime student of Japanese language and culture.

As for haiku, the little poems take up a relatively large space in Tann's creativity. For almost 10 years, she has been part of the Route 9 Haiku Group, a collective of four poets that meets monthly at Tai Pan restaurant on Route 9 in Halfmoon. Their leisurely meetings usually last five to six hours; each member brings a dozen or more new haiku, which are read aloud and discussed. Food and fellowship are also part of the mix.

“Simplicity is a strong value in haiku,” says John Stevenson, a member of Upstate Dim Sum, who is also editor of Frogpond , the journal of the Haiku Society of America. “Hilary's clarity of expression is very marked … and she really focuses on the way the poems sound when they're recited,” he says. Stevenson also edits Upstate Dim Sum , the semiannual journal of the Route 9 Haiku Group. (See box on Page XX for information on obtaining a copy.)

“Haiku keeps me in the moment,” says Tann. “With composing, one is always projecting ahead. It pulls me back to the `a-ha!' of the day.”

Predates United States

In her office at Union College, Tann's desk and piano are covered in scores, recordings, student assignments and administrative paperwork. That's where she does business. But Tann's composition studio, located in the “Apple Cottage” behind her home in Schuylerville, Washington County, is a model of order.

On the music rack of her upright piano where she composes are a half-dozen snapshots and postcards of Welsh landscapes and coastlines. The room is decorated with a mix of traditional Japanese and early American furnishings.

The swirl of nationalistic flavors continues in the property's main building. Known as the Marshall House, it was built in 1763 and is the vicinity's only surviving building that predates the Revolutionary War.

It's been in the family of Tann's husband since 1930.

“The living room was a field hospital for the British during the revolution,” says Tann. “As a Brit, I come over and have this idea that I know history … but this house predates what we know of as America, and I have a sense of belonging to this house.”

As she speaks, Tann perches on the bench of a small pipe organ in the living room. Displayed on the mantel are three fist-sized cannon balls that hit the house in battle. Bloodstains from wounded soldiers are said to be hidden by the rug.

“I think of the people that came over with hope and vision. … When prayerful people wanted to establish a new land. … I like being here. This land. This house,” she says as she jabs her finger at the space in front of her.

Posted on May 13, 2005

Cherrice Traver, director of computer engineering at Union College, has been named Dean of Engineering and Computer Science, effective July 1. Current Dean Robert Balmer is retiring.

Traver came to Union in 1986 and has been director of computer engineering for the past eight years. She received a bachelor of science degree in physics from the State University of New York at Albany and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Virginia.

“Cherrice has a broad knowledge of the campus that will allow her to further the goals not only of the division she will lead but the Converging Technologies initiative as well,” said Dean of Faculty Christina Sorum. “She also has a wonderful combination of vision that I'm sure will lead Engineering to new heights.”

Traver is described by her peers as organized and goal-oriented. She is known by her students as a fair and even-tempered teacher. She is faculty advisor for Union's Robotics Club and director of Robot Camp, a summer program for middle and high school students.

Traver has conducted research in the field of asynchronous digital circuits and systems. She has participated in and received grant funding for numerous projects, including a $146,000 grant from the National Science Foundation in 1994 and a $30,000 grant from the Microelectronics Design Center in 2002.

Traver has authored more than 30 articles for research journals and industry publications and presented at national engineering conferences. She has served as a consultant for the General Electric Global Research Center, the Capital Region Technology Development Council and Sandia National Laboratories.

Posted on May 13, 2005

President Roger H. Hull received a special commendation from the Board of Governors of the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research at Prize Day on May 7.

The Board cited Hull as a national leader in supporting undergraduate research, scholarly and creative activity who has made Union a prominent participant at NCUR. It lauded Hull for initiating the Steinmetz Symposium, based on the NCUR model, and for encouraging three faculty members to serve on NCUR's Board of Governors. Hull made Union's hosting of NCUR in 1995 a signature event of the College's Bicentennial Celebration, the commendation said.

Sandra Gregerman, director of Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program at the University of Michigan and chair of the NCUR Board of Governors, signed the commendation for Hull.

Undergraduate research is a hallmark of the Union experience. Union, a charter member of NCUR, consistently sends one of the largest contingents to the national conferences. It has twice hosted NCUR, in 1990 and 1995.

Posted on May 13, 2005

Through May 29
Wikoff Student Gallery, third floor, Nott Memorial
“Visions and Revisions: Recycled and Environmental Art” sponsored by the College's Environmental Club. Exhibit of 25 environmentally themed artistic works include sculpture, painting, photography, collage, and other mixed media.

Through spring term
Humanities Gallery
“Silk Spaces” by Arlene Baker. Opening reception on Wednesday, April 6, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Through spring term
Burns Arts Atrium Gallery
Senior art exhibits

Through spring term
Grant Hall (Admissions)
“Imaging China,” photography by Jeff Roffman and Annemarie Mica.