Posted on Jun 12, 2005

Brian Lindenberg of Avon, Conn., gave the student address at the Union College Commencement on June 12.

Student commencement speakers are chosen annually by a committee chaired by the dean of faculty. Juniors and seniors on the committee seek submissions from the student body, hold auditions for finalists, then select the speaker based on speech content and delivery.

A 2001 graduate of Avon High School, Lindenberg is the son of Robert and Andrea Lindenberg. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics and geology.

Following Commencement, he plans to work in the finance field or for an energy company and eventually pursue a master's degree in business administration.

At Union, Lindenberg was vice president of finance for the Student Forum, Union's student government body. Lindenberg also participated in the Economics Club, Geology Club, Entrepreneurship Club and Junior Achievement.

He is a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon (the Economics Honor Society) and last was accepted as a member of the Delphic Honor Society in May at the College's Prize Day. The Delphic Honor Society is awarded to eight juniors and eight seniors every year for their service to the school.

His address to the student body focused on “Achieving Success Together.”   

Following is the complete text of the student address:

I have a lot of “Why's?” to ask. Why did you come to Union? Why did you decide to major in English, geology, economics, philosophy, or civil engineering? Why did you become a member of the Swim Team? Why did you take Professor Berk's Holocaust class? Why did you join Tri-Delt? Why did you decide to run around the Nott naked at 2 in the morning? But most importantly, why are we here today? Why are our parents, family members, professors, administrators, alumni, and friends here today? Why is today special?

There are many answers to these questions, and today is special for each of us, for many reasons. Today we make history as we mark the 211th graduating class from Union College set to embark on a new chapter in our lives.

Together we can accomplish much more than by working alone. Together we can achieve. We must always remember that we usually do not accomplish greatness working alone. At some point, we need to come together with others collaboratively. President Hull has not worked alone. He has worked together with not only faculty, administrators, and students, but also with individuals from all walks of life in the city of Schenectady. He has been doing this for 15 years, and I would like to extend my thanks on behalf of our class to you, President Hull, for your leadership, service, and dedication to Union College. We wish you all the best as you embark on the next phase of your life and as you continue to bring people together.

Together, we share ideas and push the envelope of invention, thought, and explanation to expand our minds in ways we never thought possible. Sadly, at times, what we never thought possible was possible. Together we can achieve and unfortunately together we can destroy. Together, we witnessed the death of more than 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001. We were here at Union only 13 days after our Freshmen Orientation when this tragedy occurred. We hardly knew one another. Many of us probably recall this day as the most unforgettable day at Union.Together we experienced misfortune and together we coped. Why stop now after June 12, 2005, when we will soon expand our endless possibilities? Our destinations may physically keep us apart, but the bonds we forged at Union will inevitably draw us back together again. It is this union of Unions that makes graduating from this institution a gift and a reward.

In a few moments, we will be accepting our degrees. Traditionally, Dean Sorum would read our names. I did not know her, but I wish I had. As a tribute to her memory since her passing a few weeks ago, I learned how much Union meant to her and how much she gave back to this college. When our names are called today, let us receive our degrees with the joy she would have had in reciting our names. The degrees we receive today are not only what Union is giving us today, but it reminds us of what we gave to Union during our time here.

Giving back to our community, and especially to Union, is something that is often spoken about at graduations. But this can only be accomplished when working together. For those of us who have the passion … may we inspire others to join our collaborative effort in bettering the world. So why are we here today? Is this the pinnacle of our success, or is this just the commencement of greater things to come?

Let's face it: we accomplished a lot together while we were at Union! We took our freshmen preceptorial class, and the required two-course history sequence. We knew which professors to take to get by, how to plan our schedules so we could have Tuesdays and Thursdays off and still not start class before noon! And let us not forget some of the more traditional accomplishments while at Union, such as pledging TDChi, and successfully drinking beer at every fraternity on campus during Campus Crawl. The bottom line, we knew what we had to do to get to Union and graduate. Now we will embark on life's experiences where there are no formal tests except for those that we create for ourselves. There are no formal requirements except for those that are created by the choices we make.

Fellow classmates, friends: leave here today and follow your passion. Find something you love and do it well. Together, as Union alumni, we should take the gift of our education and give back to society the gifts of knowledge, service, leadership, and compassion.

As we come together at this graduation, listen to what a great American industrialist had to say 100 years ago: Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.

As we leave Union, let us continue what we began here and work together to define our success. Congratulations, Class of 2005. Good luck and Godspeed.

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Posted on Jun 12, 2005

Piano virtuoso Tian Tian, a student from Beijing, China, and 2000 graduate of the high school affiliated with the People's University of China, is valedictorian of Union College's Class of 2005.

She is the daughter of Haiyan Wang and Xiaorong Tian.

She earned a bachelor's degree with a major in biochemistry and a minor in economics.

Tian said she chose to study in America “since the United States has the most advanced technology and cutting-edge knowledge in the field of biology.”

As for choosing Union, she cited the College's reputation in biology and chemistry. “My guidance counselor highly recommended it for its small size and close student-professor relationship,” she said.

Celebrated as a pianist virtuoso by both faculty and students, Tian was awarded the Hollander Convocation Musician Prize at Founders Day this year. She played Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu Op. 66. The award was established and presented by Lawrence J. Hollander, former dean of engineering at the College. The prize is awarded annually to a musician or ensemble.

Tian is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and Omicron Delta Epsilon, the National Honor Society for Economics. In May 2005, she received the Robert M. Fuller Prize for the senior in chemistry who has shown unusual ability in original experimental work.  

She earned the Union College Summer Research Fellowship; the Division of Analytical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society Award; the Pfizer Summer Undergraduate Chemistry Research Fellowship; and the Robert M. Fuller Prize for the sophomore whose work for the first two years in the Chemistry Department has given the greatest promise for a successful career. She was runner-up of the second annual Chopin Piano Competition (Master Chopin Level) at the Blessed Virgin Mary of Czestochowa Church (Latham), and she received the Seward Interdisciplinary Fellowship.

Tian will pursue her Ph.D. in molecular cellular biology at Harvard University this fall.

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Posted on Jun 12, 2005

The 488 students in Union's Class of 2005 include eight from the City of Schenectady, 19 from Schenectady County, 79 from the Capital Region, and 14 international students from 10 countries.

They also include a doctor-entrepreneur in training, a legacy student with a flair for student government, and a lute-playing linguist who has won a travel fellowship in Central Asia.

Christopher Macomber: Doctor-entrepreneur to be
Albany native and entrepreneur Christopher Macomber doesn't need much sleep. Good thing, since along with spending the last four years in Union's eight-year Leadership in Medicine Program, he is founder and CEO of Exousia Health Inc., a healthcare software start-up located in the U-Start Incubator. He is also director of the College's a capella musical group and is working on a master's degree.

Macomber, who earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Union, will receive an MBA in August from the Graduate College of Union University before heading to Albany Medical College this fall.

He has served as director and manager of the Dutch Pipers a capella group and co-chair of Union's Student Alumni Association. A graduate of The Albany Academy, he is on the school's Alumni Association Board of Directors and is active in the Albany Chamber's GenNEXT Council.

This spring, Chris won the Josephine Daggett Prize given annually to the senior exhibiting the best conduct and character.

Adam Grode: Lute-playing linguist
Philadelphia native 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 to Central Asia.”

Grode 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.

He will travel along the Silk Road in the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, a route not only 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.

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 did 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.

Carl Paulsen, M.D.: First a medical career, now a college degree

One graduate of the Class of 2005 hasn't seen the inside of a Union classroom in more than 50 years.

The College awarded a bachelor's degree to Dr. Carl Paulsen, an area orthopedic surgeon, who left the College in 1954 just shy of completing his graduation requirements to attend Albany Medical College.

The Colonie native, who lives in Schenectady, earned his medical degree from AMC in 1958. His medical practice has included a working as team doctor for a number of Union's athletic teams.

He and his wife, Joann, have four children: Cindy Keegan of New Haven, Conn.; Peter of Buffalo; Suzanne Atkinson of Aspen, Colo.; and Janice Schriefer of Rochester.

Christina Muir: Restoring Frederic Church's murals
A couple of years ago, if you had told art history major Christina Muir that she would be studying physics and chemistry and operating high-tech lasers and microscopes, she might have looked skeptical. But these days, those are just the sort of things she is doing as part of a Union project with the State Historic Site at Olana.

Muir and Physics Professor Seyfollah Maleki have been working with staff from the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to test, clean and restore intricately painted stencils at Olana using laser technology. The Persian-style house, built between 1870 and 1891 as the home of renowned landscape painter Frederic Church, was purchased by the state in 1966 and designated a State Historic Site and National Historic Landmark. 

The stenciled walls of Olana's Court Hall have become stained and dirty over the years, and traditional cleaning and restoration techniques are not working. Maleki, who has been researching the use of lasers for cleaning art for the past four years, learned of the Olana quandary from Joyce Zucker, a painting conservator with the State Parks office on Peebles Island in Waterford.

Maleki looked to his art historian colleagues at Union for students interested in an independent study project using laser ablation for art restoration and found Muir an able and inquisitive student. 

The melding of the arts, sciences and technology is something increasingly familiar and useful to Union College students like Muir. The initiative, officially dubbed “Converging Technologies,” is providing students with experience in emerging, cross-disciplinary fields of study such as bioengineering, nanotechnology, digital art, and neuroscience.

For Muir, a native of Barre,Vt., Union's focus on bridging the arts and technology has given her future a clear direction. She plans to continue working in the field and is applying to the few graduate schools that offer advanced degrees in art conservation. 

She will spend this summer at Union continuing work on the project.

Gillian McCabe: All in the Union family
Park Ridge, N.J., native Gillian McCabe knew about Union College almost from the time she learned to walk and talk.

She is from a long line of Union grads that stretches back to her great, great grandfather. Also included on that list are a grandfather, great uncle, both parents, and a brother who graduated in 2003.

And she isn't the last. Her sister Kara will be joining the Class of 2009.

However, the political science and Spanish major paved her own road at Union. McCabe was president of Student Forum her senior year, a member of the Minerva Council and House Implementation Committee, vice president of her junior class, and a member of the Presidential Search Committee and the Student Alumni Association.

A dean's list student who did a term in Seville, Spain, she has received a number of other distinctions: Sigma Delta Pi, the national collegiate Hispanic honor society; Junior Class Citizen of the Year; the Calvin G. Schmidt Prize to the junior who has contributed the most to the betterment of student life; and Delphic Honor Society for service to the College.

This spring, she received the Frank Bailey Prize given annually to the senior who has rendered the greatest service to the College. After a break this summer, she may pursue marketing or continue to study Spanish and teach abroad.

Doug Bush: Brotherly connections
Doug Bush of East Islip, N.Y., the middle child of three boys, animatedly talks of growing up and having fun with his siblings. So it's only natural that when he arrived at Union, Doug decided to pursue another “brotherly” relationship with a Schenectady boy through Union's Big Brothers Big Sisters Club.

For four years, he has spent a few hours each week with Larrell, a sixth grader at a Schenectady middle school, playing sports, swimming in the Union pool, and sharing milk shakes at Union's Skellar.

This year, Doug, who is graduating with a bachelor's degree in biology, served as president of the BBBS Club and has been praised for his commitment and creativity as a leader. He led many outings that benefited not only his own “little” but the 100 or so others whom Union students serve. Among the activities were an apple-picking field trip, a Halloween party, a Thanksgiving feast, and a movie day. 

As a member of the Alpha Beta fraternity, Doug's “brothers” on campus were called on occasionally to host the children at their house.

Doug's plans after Union include volunteering at a hospital and attending graduate school with the hopes of pursuing a career in medicine.

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Posted on Jun 12, 2005

Roger Hull, president of Union College, took the stage at his last Commencement to advocate for a mandatory two-year national service program. But until Congress passes such a measure, he said, Americans should serve voluntarily.

Hull, who steps down June 30 after 15 years as Union's president, received an honorary doctor of civil laws degree and gave the main address at a ceremony in which 488 Union students received their diplomas.

“It is time for Congress to put a mandatory service program in place, a program that would allow each person to decide how he or she would serve for a two-year period,” Hull said. “In the interim, it is time for more Americans to serve voluntarily.”

Hull told the graduates he traces his conviction for community service to his grandfather, Ludwig Stern, a political refugee of Nazi Germany. Stern, a co-founder of a small political party and leader of a paramilitary group that fought the Nazis, wrote in 1959, “To love father and mother is not enough. To have a wife and children is not enough. In addition, every man must love his country, work for his community in one way or another. Be a politician, but an honorable one. Then and only then have you the right to be proud.”

“I have sought to make the communities of which I have been a part better,” Hull said. “And, whenever possible, I have encouraged the same attitude in my sons and in the young men and women at the colleges I have served.

“Make a pact with yourself to serve your community, state, and nation and tackle the next stage of your journey with passion, accountability, compassion, and truthfulness. Then and only then, as my grandfather said, will you have the right to be proud.”

Hull, who often worked side-by-side with Union student-volunteers, leaves a legacy of community service at Union. In the last academic year, more than 1,200 students volunteered for 18,883 hours and raised $78,225 for non-profit programs and events including tsunami relief, Relay for Life (a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society), and the annual fall John Calvin Toll Day of Community Service, which Hull started in 1991.

Union's Kenney Community Center coordinates 11 programs, including Big Brothers Big Sisters, Girls Inc., America Reads, Homework Center and Skills Development Program, Rotaract Club, Union Community Action Reaching Everyone (U-CARE), and Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP).

A native of New York City, Hull earned his B.A. degree from Dartmouth College, his law degree from Yale Law School, and his master's degree in law and his doctor of juridical science degree from the University of Virginia.

From 1967 to 1971, he was an attorney with White & Case in New York City. In 1971, he became special counsel to Gov. Linwood Holton of Virginia, responsible for the administration's legislative program. Three years later, he joined the National Security Council's Interagency Task Force on the Law of the Sea as a special assistant to the chairman and deputy staff director.

In 1976, Hull joined Syracuse University, where he served as vice president for development and planning and as adjunct professor of international law. He served as president of Beloit College for nine years and was inaugurated as the 17th president of Union College in the fall of 1990.

Hull will be remembered by the Union College community for his commitment to five key areas:
— integrating the liberal arts and technology;
— enhancing academic, social and residential life;
— increasing international education;
— expanding undergraduate research;
— encouraging community service.

Click here to read the complete text of Hull's address.

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Posted on Jun 9, 2005

Schenectady, NY (June 9, 2005) – A return trip to Colorado Springs will kick off the 2005-06 schedule for the Union men's hockey team. Head coach Nate Leaman and the Dutchmen will begin their 36-game campaign against 2004 Frozen Four participant Colorado College in the IceBreaker Invitational on October 7. “We are looking forward to playing one of the nation's best programs for our first game,” said Leaman. “Being that they lose very few players and have two Hobey Baker finalists returning they will be a very good test for us early on.” They will face Air Force in the second game of the IceBreaker. Union will also take part in the Mariucci Classic at Minnesota and will battle Ohio State on the road in December. Fans will have plenty of chances to catch the Dutchmen at home as well with 18 games slated at Messa Rink beginning with the home-opener against Atlantic Hockey member Sacred Heart on October 14.

Union will get its fill of the Atlantic Hockey League during the season. In addition to facing Sacred Heart, Union will host Connecticut and Bentley, and will renew an old rivalry against RIT, who will play its first season of Division I hockey as an independent before joining Atlantic Hockey for the 2006-07 season. Additional non-league games include a trip to Lowell, MA to face Hockey East opponent UMass-Lowell and a pair of home games against CHA member Wayne State.

Union will make its second appearance in the Mariucci Classic when they play the host Gophers on December 30. The Dutchmen will close out 2005 against either Canisius or UMass-Lowell in the second game of the tournament.

The Dutchmen will face the usual suspects Brown, Clarkson, Colgate, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence, and Yale in their 15^th season as a member of the ECAC Hockey League. “Every year we try to make our schedule as challenging as possible to improve our players,” stated Leaman. “The league will be extremely tough as it is every year and we believe we have put together a schedule that will get us prepared for the ECACHL season.”

There will also be a new face in the crowd with league newcomer Quinnipiac, who replaced Vermont after the Catamounts moved over to Hockey East. Union will get its first look at the Bobcats in a home contest on November 12. “Quinnipiac entering the league is great for the ECACHL,” commented Leaman. “They have the opportunity to be very competitive in our league. The school has made a commitment to putting a winning product on the ice and will be an exciting addition.”

Union begins league play with a trip to the North Country November 4-5 to take on St. Lawrence and Clarkson. The homestretch of the schedule includes the most storied rivalry in college athletics on February 3-4 with a home and away series against Rensselaer.

For single game and season ticket information contact the Achilles Center Ticket Office at 518-388-6134.

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