Posted on Mar 7, 2006

A group of elementary school students from the city had the unique opportunity to learn about the “new worlds'' created in the theater during a workshop today in the Mandeville Gallery.

Third-graders from Elmer Avenue School toured the exhibit, “Charles Steckler: Stage Design,'' a retrospective of Steckler's work over the past 35 years. Steckler, a professor of theater and designer in residence at Union College, has been involved in more than 100 theatrical productions, ranging from “Waiting for Godot'' to “Tartuffe.''

Steckler's passion for the arts and unique ability to transform a set has been appreciated by the hundreds of students he has mentored over the years. Many have used their experience at the college as a springboard to professional careers.

Steckler talked to the students about stage design and the opportunity to create new worlds for actors to inhabit. Students  also meet with the curator of the exhibit, Rachel Seligman. Afterwards, the students were able to create their own “new world”, using a shoebox and a basic set of ingredients to construct a diorama.

The students are from the Studying Arithmetic in Literature (SAIL) Program, which involves Union volunteers tutoring third-and fourth-graders from several elementary schools in the city in reading and math.

The workshop was sponsored by Time Warner Cable and will be featured in the company's April Education Connection online newsletter, which is distributed to 500 educators in 375 schools across the region. The newsletter includes free educational resources for teachers, students, and parents that are available to videotape and download off the Internet for use in the classroom or at home.

“With a common focus on supporting the arts and education, we're proud to partner with Union College to bring this unique hands-on experience to local area students,'' said Stephen Pagano, president of Time Warner Cable's Albany Division.

Posted on Mar 7, 2006

Documentary evidence that chemistry Nobel Laureate Peter J. W. Debye may have been a Nazi collaborator in Berlin in the 1930s has led a university in the Netherlands to remove his name from its Debye Institute of Physics & Chemistry of Nanomaterials & Interfaces. Another university in Maastricht, the Netherlands, has reportedly stopped distributing a Debye scientific award.

Utrecht University spokesman Ludo Koks says a book about physics Nobel Laureate Albert Einstein, published in January, led to the university's decision to “abandon” the Debye name from its physics and chemistry institute. Evidence in the book, he says, includes a letter that Debye signed in 1938 in which he orders, in the name of the German authorities, Jewish coworkers of the German Physical Society in Berlin to leave the organization.

“The University Board contacted the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) to verify this,” Koks says. “NIOD found it reliable.”

But not everyone at Utrecht University agrees with the decision: “The decision of the Board to abandon the name of Professor Debye is far too premature,” says Gijs van Ginkel, senior managing director of the (former) Debye Institute. “It is not based on sound historical investigations, which also take into account the circumstances in Germany in the period 1938–45. Actually, I consider this decision to be faulty on the basis of our present knowledge, and I am also of the opinion that it damages unnecessarily the reputation of Professor Debye and his family, the interests of the Debye Institute, and those of the scientific community as a whole.”

“Debye can hardly be called a Nazi collaborator just because he accepted the directorship of the then-new Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in 1936,” says historian Mark Walker of Union College, Schenectady, N.Y. Walker has written about the German Physical Society under National Socialism. He continues, “If this was the standard, then almost every scientist who remained in Germany was a collaborator. It is also true that Debye in no way resisted or opposed Nazi policies.”

Debye, who died in 1966, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1936 for his contributions to the study of molecular structure, primarily his work on dipole moments and X-ray diffraction. According to several biographies, Debye left Nazi Germany for the U.S. in 1939 after he refused to become a German citizen. In 1940, he became head of the chemistry department at Cornell University, which became a leader in solid-state research largely due to his influence.

The book, available only in Dutch, is “Einstein in the Netherlands” by Berlin-based science writer Sybe I. Rispens. Rispens tells C&EN that his archival research on Einstein and his relationship with Debye reveals that “Debye showed himself to be an extreme opportunist during the Nazi period.” As in the letter expelling Jews from the physics institute that Debye directed, Rispens says, Debye, in most of his correspondence, “shows himself as a willing helper of the regime, signing dozens of letters with ‘heil Hitler.' There are no signs that he acted involuntarily or was threatened by the Nazis.”

The American Chemical Society presents a Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry sponsored by DuPont. ACS Grants & Awards Chair C. Gordon McCarty says, “The ACS Board Committee on Grants & Awards is aware of the situation and the developing story and is considering what the impact will be on the ACS national award named for Peter Debye.”

At Cornell University, Paul L. Houston, who is Peter J. W. Debye Professor of Chemistry, says, “I find the allegations to be at odds with what I do know about Debye. There are stories here about his anti-Nazi stance–that it caused him to lose being head of the Berlin Institute and convinced him to stay at Cornell after his time as Baker lecturer here. In addition, unlike some of its Ivy League colleagues during that period, Cornell was ahead of the curve in making Jewish faculty appointments. Many of my older Jewish colleagues were here when Debye decided to stay or were even appointed by Debye when he became chair.”

“The University of Utrecht is fully aware of the eminent scientific work of Peter Debye,” Koks says. “Moreover, historical research is needed to fully understand Debye's role before and during the Second World War. Still, the University Board thinks, with due observance of recent knowledge, the name of Debye is no longer compatible with the image of one of our leading research institutes.”

Posted on Mar 7, 2006

If any Union College dorm dwellers are still among the great unwashed, they no longer have any excuse.

Because since January, laundry has been on the house at Union.

Union joined a growing number of campuses taking the coin boxes off washers and dryers — yet one more amenity given to increasingly pampered students. The College of Saint Rose and Siena College are among the schools that have switched. And the University at Albany is considering going to “unlimited laundry,” as one campus official put it.

“The idea is to give the student a convenience which is actually more like a necessity,” said Mark Dembs, president of Statewide Laundry Services in Rochester. His company, which handles Union, Siena and Saint Rose, services 20 campuses; half of those have gone coin-free.

No more hunting for quarters. No more coin slots jammed with slugs or Canadian change. No more worrying about the debit-card reader not accepting students' debit cards. No more paying twice to finish half-dried laundry.

“The first term was a hassle,” said Rebecca Garthwaite, a freshman tending a dryer Friday morning. The “free” laundry at Union isn't quite — students pay a $50 fee for the privilege — but so far, they've backed it wholeheartedly.

Any doubts that elaborate amenities aren't becoming more important in the competitive college landscape are shot down with a walk around almost any campus. “Just go to the fitness center, which is being renovated,” said Tom McEvoy, Union's dean of residential and campus life. Apartment-style dorms, gussied up dining halls and professional-quality performance spaces are just a few of the features colleges offer today.

While schools can spin free laundry into a marketing tool, there's a larger reason to kick the quarter habit: The machines, and those coin slots, take a ton of abuse.

Students try to break into the machines for change. Or they'll get frustrated at a malfunctioning coin slot and do more damage.

“The issue was students vandalizing the coin box. Putting slugs in it,” said Chris Oertel, Saint Rose's director of residential life. Free laundry means no more vandalism. It also means that students, no longer trying to save change by shoehorning three loads' worth of laundry into a single load, don't overwork the machines. That leads to fewer service calls.

All that free laundry isn't leaving campuses awash in runaway utility costs, either.

“To some extent, there is more use,” Dembs said. “But this is not like having free Pepsi on campus and saying it's all-you-can-drink.”

But should that perfect Friday-night outfit be stuck in the hamper, students will strike the laundry while they're hot to iron.

“If I have a pair of jeans that need to be washed, I'll run them through,” said Jessica Adam, another Union freshman who was running a wash on Friday.

The biggest beneficiaries of the change would seem to be parents who are greeted with a bushel of dirty clothes along with their returning students.

Or not.

Even with all the free laundry she can get, Union's Garthwaite admitted she still lugs some back to Connecticut on occasion.

“Mom's laundry always comes out the best,” she said.

Posted on Mar 6, 2006

Raymond Starr, professor of Classics at Wellesley College, will give the Harry Gutman Memorial Lecture in Classics on Tuesday, March 7 at 5 p.m. in the Phi Beta Kappa Room, Schaffer Library. His talk is titled, “Vergil's Aeneid is Required for This Course: What Did Ancient Readers Learn from Studying the Aeneid?”

The Latin epic by Vergil, written in the 1^st century BC, tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans.

Starr has earned numerous awards for his teaching at Wellesley, where he has worked since 1979. His research has been supported by two fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies. He also is former president of the Classical Association of New England.

Posted on Mar 6, 2006

The inauguration for Stephen Ainlay as 18th president of Union College in Schenectady will take place on Saturday, Sept. 16.

An academic procession, fireworks and an alumni parade are among the events planned. A more detailed schedule will be released later. Union officials said the celebration is being planned by William Finlay, as associate professor and director of the Yulman Theater on campus.

The president of Johns Hopkins University, William Brody, will speak prior to Ainlay's official installation.

Ainlay is currently a vice president at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass. Members of the search committee and board of trustees at Union who approved him as president said he has both a strong academic background and an understanding of the educational mission of a college like Union.