Posted on Jan 18, 2006

Portraits of William H. Seward and Chester A. Arthur hanging in the President's Office were joined this week by a Thomas Sully portrait of Urania Sheldon Nott, the third wife of Union's long-serving president, Eliphalet Nott.

The 1853 portrait may be the first of a woman to hang in the office, said Interim President James Underwood at an unveiling on Tuesday. Underwood said he saw a photograph of the portrait on the cover of a brochure for the Williamstown Art Conservation Center, where it had been restored. “When I saw that, I knew we had to have this for the President's Office,” he said.

Colleagues have described Urania's likeness as “striking” and “formidable,” Underwood said of the three- by four-foot portrait that hangs in an intricate gilded frame behind Underwood's desk (which belonged to Arthur) in the southeast corner of the office.

As a work of art, “Sully's fluid brushstrokes create a gentle, soft composition and the warm pinks of her flesh contrast beautifully with the grays of the spare and simple background,” according to notes by Rachel Seligman, curator of the College's collection. Prof. Louisa Matthew, an art historian, pointed to Sully's skill at creating a “slick” canvas with a minimum of brush strokes, his use of pink coral and pale blue, and his mastery at capturing the intricacy of Urania's veil and fur wrap.

Sully was a prominent painter of the 19^th century, perhaps best known for his portraits of women. During his 71-year career, he did some 2,600 paintings, 2,000 of which were portraits.

Urania Sheldon Nott's “power behind the throne” grew stronger as her husband was incapacitated by a series of strokes that began in 1860. Archivist Ellen Fladger reports the annals of Union history reveal little of Urania Nott's role as wife of the president, or her views of life at Union. Most of what we know about her appears in the Encyclopedia of Union College History, edited and compiled by Wayne Somers.

Urania had been operating women's schools in Utica and Schenectady when she met Nott. They married in 1842, a year and a half after the death of his second wife, Gertrude. He was 69, she 35.

Diarist Jonathan Pearson, professor and treasurer, wrote in 1860 that Nott “is completely under ‘Uranie's' thumb now, and has to do just as she says.” After a debilitating stroke in 1863 until his death three years later, she answered his correspondence and served as his spokesperson.

Her role galled some in the Union community. There was dissension over whether Vice President Laurens Perseus Hickok should succeed the incapacitated president. Some maintained that Mrs. Nott was overly involved in College finances; she was a guardian of the Nott Trust Fund, created after a state investigation of Nott's practice of co-mingling the College's assets with his own. She also wanted a location other than Vale Cemetery as a College burial ground, but her husband and Pearson supported the Vale idea, which was adopted.

After Nott's death in 1866, the Trustees granted Mrs. Nott, not yet 60, a stipend of $1,800 and agreed to pay for all repairs to her residence. She continued to live in the President's House – a right guaranteed her when it was finished in 1861 – until her death in 1886.

Urania Nott spent the rest of her life doing community service in Schenectady. She was president of the Ladies Benevolent Society, and first director of the Home for the Friendless (today known as the Heritage Home for Women). A memorial booklet said of her passing, “Seldom, as in her case, does a whole city feel itself bereaved by a common loss, and while it mourns her departure, unite to call her memory blessed.”

Posted on Jan 18, 2006

The students from Union College didn't know one another before traveling to New Orleans during winter break to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. They slept on floors in two homes, prepared their own meals and rose with the sun each day to work in devastated neighborhoods.

Their encounters with residents who lost nearly all their possessions in the massive flooding often prompted tears at nightly meetings when they shared the day's experiences. The students bonded. Three romantic relationships blossomed.

Since returning to Union at the beginning of this month, the students have kept in touch by meeting for meals and hanging out together at night. Just bumping into one another on campus reminds them of the intense, emotional experience they shared.

“It picks up your day seeing someone who understands,” said Todd Clark, a Union staff member and trip supervisor.

Clark told the 29 students before the trip that it could be life-changing. Corinne Simisky scoffed. But at a reunion of the students Tuesday at the Schenectady college, Simisky told Clark he'd been right. A sophomore from Shrewsbury, Mass., Simisky is replotting the path of her life, changing her major so she can work as an administrator in international relief organizations.

“You helped me figure out what I want to do with my life,” Simisky said.

The school-sponsored trip, which took place Nov. 29 to Dec. 6, also inspired four of the students to return to New Orleans. Within days of flying home they boarded planes and flew back, at their own expense, to continue helping residents haul out ruined possessions and schools prepare for reopening.

Clark, director of residential life at Union, organized Tuesday's reunion to coincide with the reopening of two New Orleans schools where the students cleaned, painted and rebuilt a library. Lusher Elementary School and Benjamin Franklin High School are open again nearly five months after being flooded during Hurricane Katrina.

Of the many groups and individuals who helped at Lusher, “we will most remember the students of Union College,” wrote Lusher officials in a letter Clark read to the students. “Union students worked tirelessly at Lusher for several days preparing and painting eight classrooms. But more than that, they uplifted our spirits with their youthful joy and exuberance. … We know that there is a lot wrong with our country and its educational system, but the students of Union give us hope.”

Clark also read a letter from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton lauding the students' “commitment and compassion.” Clinton wrote: “I hope you all will continue to be involved in events both local and national. You can make a difference.”

The students plan to. They have been pushing Union officials to let them form a club that would plan trips during winter break to places in need of help. The students are already talking about trying to return to New Orleans in December.

“We need to emphasize the point that people there still need help,” Simisky said. “There's still a lot more to be done.”

Jake Lebowitz, a sophomore from Rochester, organized the return trip to New Orleans. He and three others — Jessie Lovdal, Jerome DeSheers and Josh DeBartolo — spent nearly two weeks before Christmas back at schools and neighborhoods.

Whenever Lebowitz saw people outside a destroyed home he gave them his cellphone number. If they need help, he told them, just give him a call; he and his colleagues from Union were offering help for free.

By the first night my phone was ringing off the hook,” Lebowitz said. “In fact, it's still ringing. People are still calling asking if we can help.”

Lebowitz, who plans to join the Marine Corps after graduation, said he believes the experience in New Orleans has changed him forever.

“I'm not exactly sure how,” he said. “I don't know exactly what lies ahead. But this is always going to be part of me.”

Posted on Jan 16, 2006

Jon Lemelin is stepping down as director of Union College's U-Start incubator in Schenectady.

Lemelin, 43, will be chief technology officer at the Graduate College of Union University, a part-time position. No replacement has been named at U-Start.

Lemelin said he is making the move to simplify his life. That was why he moved to Niskayuna from Sacramento two years ago. At the time, he worked with Deloitte Consulting and was frequently on the road. He moved to the Albany, N.Y., region to open a Deloitte branch here and cut down on his traveling.

“I decided to stop that kind of rat race,” he said.

Not long after setting up Deloitte's office, Lemelin left the company to start his own consulting firm, JCL Consulting LLC and took the 20-hour position as U-Start's director.

He also took on work for the Graduate College.

“I slowly got busier and busier and doing more and more things,” Lemelin said. “I ended up last month realizing I had three half-time jobs. It started taking a toll on my ability to be with my family and enjoy my time on earth.”

Lemelin and his wife Christina have three children, Christopher, 9, Sydney, 7 and 2 1/2-year-old Grace, whom they adopted from China.

Under Lemelin's tenure, U-Start has grown from having four tenant companies to six. And he created a virtual incubator program where clients can receive some of the same services resident companies receive, such as access to business mentors and supplies. There are five companies participating in that program.

“I love what I was doing at the incubator and I think I was really good at it,” he said.

Simon Balint, executive director of the Watervliet Incubator Center at the Watervliet Arsenal and former interim director at RPI's incubator, said Lemelin played a key roll in linking the area incubators together to form a group called the Tech Valley Incubator Network.

“He helped Union and U-Start to connect to other resources around the region,” Balint said.

Lemelin's not just simplifying his work life. He sold his new home for $750,000 and moved into a $400,000 30-year-old house down the street.

“The mortgage and taxes on my new house are less than the taxes on my old house,” he said.

Lemelin said despite the job shift, he will still be working with entrepreneurs and start-up companies. He is starting an entrepreneurship club for graduate students.

Posted on Jan 16, 2006

Martin Luther King III, the son of the slain civil rights leader, will speak about the life and teachings of his father as part of the College's plans to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

King will speak on “My Father's Dream, My Mission” on Wednesday, Jan. 18 at 7 p.m. in Memorial Chapel and meet with audience members at a reception at the Nott Memorial following his talk. ***Due to space considerations, this event will be open to the Union College campus community only, and not be open to the public.

“It is most meaningful this time of year to have someone as distinguished as Martin Luther King III on campus,'' said Gretchel Tyson, director of affirmative action for the college. “The entire campus will not only benefit from what he has to say that night, but will use his teachings in their daily lives.''

The second oldest child of the civil rights leader and Coretta Scott King, King has spoken around the world about the need for equality and justice for all people. He is the former host of  “The Wisdom of Dreams,'' on the Wisdom Network, which profiled people who achieved extraordinary feats by following their dreams.

From 1998 to 2003, King served as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization his father helped create in 1957. He has also served on the board of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, which his mother founded shortly after her husband was killed in 1968.

The campus will celebrate the life and dream of Dr. King in several other ways, as well. On Monday, Jan. 16, through Wednesday, Jan. 18, students will be on hand at the Reamer Campus Center from noon to 1 p.m. to offer MLK Jr. peace buttons. The $2 donation will benefit the tutoring program at the Kenney Community Center.

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Orange House held an open mic at 6 p.m., titled “In Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr… An Evening of Reflection, Music and Poetry.” Performances and readings by the Gospel Choir, Shakti, Dutch Pipers and others were accompanied by a video of a Martin Luther King Jr. speech. 

Posted on Jan 12, 2006

At Union College, it's $100 million down, $100 million to go.

The school's $200 million “You Are Union” fundraising campaign has passed the halfway point, said Tom Gutenberger, Union's vice president of college relations.

The campaign, announced in October 2004, was scheduled to wrap up in June 2009. “They'll probably want us to expand it,” Gutenberger said, now that it's doing so well. The total currently stands at $103 million.

Assuming the college reaches its goal, most of the money, $135 million, is earmarked for the school's endowment.

John Wold, a 1938 alumnus and former congressman, gave $20 million to the campaign in 2002, Union's largest gift ever.

“At this point, we're in very, very good shape,” Gutenberger said.