Posted on Jun 22, 2006

As the 2005-06 school year came to a close, one hidden spot on campus was celebrating a beginning.

In a shady spot near Jackson's Garden and alongside Hans Groot's Kill, Union's new Asian garden now grows.

Built by students in the spring-term Asian Garden Design seminar (AAH480) taught by Prof. Nixi Cura, it was unveiled earlier this month with a celebration that included music by Union's own Taiko (Japanese drums) Ensemble.

Nine students built the garden from a plan submitted by one of two competing student teams. It differs from previous gardens devised by seminar students because of its concealed location in a wooded area.

“This is my favorite area,” said winning design team member Guy Corey '08. “It's tucked away.” Other team members included Andrew Cody '09, Alex Mossman '06 and Greta Murphy '09.

The winning proposal uses the creek to incorporate water, one of the four basic themes of Japanese gardens (the others are plants, rocks and architecture). It features a three-piece archway to signal “that one is entering into an enclosed garden paradise, separate from the normal world.”

Viewers who meander along the stone path also will find a teardrop space that lines the semicircular stone wall, spruce shrubs and ground cover, a rock garden and a hosta pond filled with white cobble to mimic a pool. The hidden bench under the dogwood tree is intended to “incite curiosity in the viewer to look for the mysterious perspective from above.”

The garden design seminar is a good example of Union's Converging Technologies approach, which brings together engineering and the sciences with liberal arts programs in exciting, innovative ways.

The garden construction and reception received support from the East Asian Studies Program and the Department of Visual Arts, and students in the seminar worked collaboratively using engineering design principles with their art history background to tackle an aesthetic challenge.

“They learn something about how art is made, and they learn something about how to work with other people,” Cura said.

Posted on Jun 20, 2006

It seems only fitting that 1912 was a leap year.

That's the year the Union Fund was created, representing a leap of faith in the College's supporters and their willingness to generously support Union's people, programs and special campus places.

Now in its 94^th year, the Union Fund reigns as the oldest continuously operating annual fund in the country.

Consider: Each year, thousands of alumni, parents, students, employees, local businesses and friends of Union College show their support by making gifts to The Union Fund.

The Fund allows even those who aren't on campus every day to be involved, in ways that really count, throughout the year. In fact, the name was changed from Annual Fund to Union Fund some years ago precisely to reflect that giving occurs all year long.

For the most part, Union Fund gifts are “unrestricted.” They're used to support the College's highest priorities and overall goals and to cover the most pressing operating budget needs.

But it's also possible to make a “restricted” gift toward a particular program, event or department you remember fondly, have ties to or just plain love (there's a lot of that at Union).

 “The Fund is the foundation for everything happening at Union today. That includes new programs as well as faculty, campus speakers, scholarships, lab equipment and lawn care,” notes Gail Dexter, director of Annual Giving. “Every donation, big and small, makes an immediate and lasting impact.”  

This year, the College is seeking $4.3 million in gifts to continue to make Union even stronger than it already is.

“We hope to count as many people as possible in this year's donor roll,” Dexter says. “While we always appreciate our donors' generosity, now is an especially good time to give because it's a great way to welcome our new president.”

And speaking of leaps in time, the end to this year's Union Fund is rapidly approaching. June 30 is just days away.

So don't delay. Click here to make a gift on our secure server. Or visit https://www.union.edu/Giving  

Posted on Jun 20, 2006

Clarence Francis Goodheart, an award-winning Electrical Engineering professor and department chair who taught at Union for more than 30 years, passed away earlier this month, on June 4, following a long illness. He was 90.

A Californian who came to campus in 1947, Goodheart taught at Union from 1947 to1981. During that time, he was instrumental in establishing a five-year program in which undergraduates could earn dual degrees, a B.A. and a B.S. in Engineering.

He served as department chair from 1955 to1965 and again from 1974 to 1977.  He earned a number of awards for classroom excellence, including plaudits from the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. 

“Clarence Goodheart was an outstanding teacher who will be remembered by all his colleagues and students for his teaching, service to the College and exceptional qualities as a person,” said Interim President Jim Underwood.

 Goodheart was born in 1916 in Porterville, Calif., and grew up in Sun Valley, a part of Los Angeles. Excelling in mathematics, he graduated from North Hollywood High School in 1932. He graduated with a B.S. in Engineering with honors from the California Institute of Technology in 1936 and earned a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Ohio State University in 1938.

He taught at Texas A&M University for four years before joining the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in Washington, D. C., where he was a project engineer and section head until 1947.

That year, Goodheart and his wife, Margaret Alice Barr, a registered nurse, moved to Schenectady with their son, Lawrence. Later they had a daughter, Carol. Margaret died in 1960, and Goodheart was married to Carolyn Petroske Rakoske of Schenectady from 1961 until her death in 1998. 

Goodheart co-authored, with Walter Lewis, Basic Electric Circuit Theory (1958), which was translated into Japanese. He retired from Union in 1981 as professor emeritus of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. In addition, from 1947 to 1991, he taught the Advanced Circuits class in the General Electrical Power Systems Engineering Course. 

 “Union has always had great teachers in electrical engineering. But Goodheart would probably be considered the best by most students,” wrote Prof. EdwardCraig in his 1994 book, EE at Union 1895-1995.

In the video, A Union of People, Goodheart reflected that “students were…like children of mine.”

Goodheart was a devoted gardener and traveler who led his family on adventuresome tenting trips across the country in the 1950s. In his later years, he and Carolyn spent winters in Tierra Verde, Fla.

In January 2004, Goodheart moved from Schenectady to Falmouth House at Ocean View in Falmouth, Maine. He was predeceased by Russell, a brother, and Alice Goodheart Taylor, a sister.

He is survived by a brother, Leland, his wife and family in Sacramento; son Lawrence Barr Goodheart, his wife Ellen Embardo, and daughter Anna of Hampton, Conn.; his daughter, Carol Frances Allen of Portland, Maine, her son, James N. Allen, and his wife Jaime of Seattle; and a stepson, Paul Rakoske, of Esperance, N.Y., and his children.  

The Goodheart family announced that contributions in his memory be made to Union College for student scholarships in the Department of Electrical Engineering. The family held a memorial reception for the Union community in Hale House on June 9.

Posted on Jun 19, 2006

Watching black clouds gather over Storm King Mountain is an awe-inspiring spectacle from any vantage point. The hunk of rock juts up from the Hudson River near Cornwall, where the river funnels out of Newburgh Bay and begins to slither through the Highlands.

Under a dark sky, it is one mean mountain on a fickle river.

Watching a thunderstorm roll in over Storm King from the deck of the Half Moon – now that's a lesson in history.

The Half Moon was the Dutch ship that Henry Hudson, in 1609, sailed up the river that now bears his name. A replica – true in color, size and rigging, but built in 1989 – now plies the water, and passed our region about a week ago.

You can appreciate the danger that came with exploring a river whose changing moods can overturn even modern boats with real-time forecasts – let alone crossing the Atlantic in such a “jacht.”

The Half Moon replica was built for just that kind of insight.

Its mission is education about the Dutch colony of New Netherlands, and it offers an experiential and multi-disciplinary curriculum consistent with New York's education standards, especially for fourth- and seventh-graders.

Currently, no local teachers use the vessel – but Capt. William “Chip” Reynolds extended an eager invitation to any fourth- or seventh-grade teacher who is willing to spend a week aboard with a group of students, learning history, science, sailing and more.

Rolling on the rivers

He and his mostly volunteer crew are in the midst of a three-week “Voyage of Discovery” that is taking Union College students from Albany, down the Hudson by Long Island, to the Connecticut River, and then down the coast to the Delaware River.

That's Beverwijck (for its abundant beavers) down the North River by Lange Eylandt, and up the Versche (fresh) River, and then down the coast to the South River. If they're on schedule, they should be approaching the South River today.

New Netherlands is getting a second look in recent years, courtesy of the New Netherlands Project, which is translating 17th century Dutch documents, so history better reflects the influence the Netherlands had on our region.

“The nature of New Netherlands was diverse. Plymouth, Jamestown, French and Spanish colonies – they were all the same. One language, one race, one religion,” Reynolds said.

Not so New Netherlands, which – unlike New England – wasn't founded by the persecuted seeking religious asylum, but by businessmen. Hudson, after all, was an Englishman on a Dutch ship seeking passage to China. His jacht was built for commerce, with a cargo hold that dwarfed its living quarters.

“They were here to conduct business,” Reynolds said. “In essence, that created a meritocracy.”

He looks to recreate the same spirit on board, with diverse students who may or may not excel in traditional classrooms. The unique venue is just right for some kids.

“You see a kid who's been failing his whole life suddenly succeed,” Reynolds said.

That too is awe-inspiring.

Posted on Jun 19, 2006

Elite students don't wait anxiously around the mailbox at college admissions time these days, says Kenneth Durgans. Admissions officers do.

The best and brightest, especially if they happen to be members of racial minorities, are so much in demand that colleges have had to become aggressive about recruiting and winning the most coveted students.

“No longer can institutions of higher education just sort of wait for students to get to their senior years and to apply,” said Durgans, vice provost for institute diversity at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “We are losing too many students, not just minorities, but students in general, to other fields. They are not going into science. We have to catch up as an institution.”

People like Durgans, who has been coordinating minority student recruitment and retention at Rensselaer since 2003, are becoming more common on college campuses both in the Capital Region and the rest of the United States.

With the supply of children produced by white baby boomers leveling off, and the numbers of Hispanics and other minority groups growing, the future pool of college-age Americans promises to be more racially diverse than ever.

“We have a new strategic plan, which has a very strong diversity goal,” said Anita Steigerwald, associate dean of student affairs at Skidmore College. “We want to become a more diverse institution–racially, socially and culturally. We know that we need to become more racially diverse in this global community we are now living in.”

To that end, Skidmore is currently searching for a director of student diversity programs, an administrative position, and a faculty post called director of intercultural studies. Both jobs are aimed at making Skidmore's student body and curriculum more culturally diverse and the Saratoga Springs campus more welcoming to students of differing race, ethnicity and cultures.

Not only for minorities
“We also know that we have to engage our white students a lot more in these [diversity] dialogues and conversations and learning activities,” Steigerwald said. “We think we have to do a lot more in helping them understand what diversity means. Many of our students who come from the upper socioeconomic backgrounds have gone to white schools all of their lives.”

Albany Law School is also in the midst of a search for a director of diversity. Dean Thomas Guernsey said it is part of his overall strategy of making the college more selective by accepting fewer students from a wider geographic area.

“Hiring a diversity coordinator would help in attracting the students … and would help us retain those students,” Guernsey said.

About 17 percent of Albany Law's students are minorities. When the percentage of minorities in last year's freshman class dipped to 15, Guernsey said warning flags began to go up about the need to diversify the college.

Admissions officers sought out minority students. They were identified in various ways, including their checking of a box indicating their race on the LSAT examination.

The school also checked the mailing addresses of its applicants and if they were from zip codes of traditionally black colleges, Albany Law redoubled its recruitment efforts with more direct mailings. They included a personal letter from Guernsey.

Of the students who have sent in deposits for the incoming fall 2006 class at Albany Law, Guernsey said 24 percent are minorities.

Casting a wider net
Skidmore's recruiters have also tried to zero in on minority candidates. Now, when visiting high schools, recruiters will often also go to community groups in hopes of finding prospective students, said Mary Lou Bates, Skidmore's dean of admissions.

She said the college has also had luck with a program where Skidmore pays the expenses of all accepted students to come to Saratoga Springs to live on campus for a few days each April before they commit to the school.

Skidmore's incoming freshman classes had been averaging about 13 percent minorities in recent years until the college started focusing on improving its numbers.

Last year, minorities comprised 17 percent of the freshman class. For incoming freshmen this fall, the school expects to hit the 20 percent mark for the first time.

Steigerwald said that number is particularly important.

“From what I am hearing, 20 percent is kind of a tipping point,” she said. “If you have 20 percent, then you have a visible, diverse population and students are more likely to think they are learning and living in a diverse atmosphere.”

At Rensselaer, Durgans said his job is doubly tough. Past getting qualified minorities into an expensive school with stringent admissions standards, Durgans said he's also working against a traditional shortage of black and Hispanic youngsters gravitating to math, science and technology.

Rensselaer is the oldest technological college in the United States.

“There is no question that the pool available is not what we'd like it to be,” he said. “It is a challenge. But as an institution, we have chosen to be a part of trying to improve on all levels the pipeline, the number of students who would be academically eligible. We spend a lot of time with pipeline initiatives on campus. We reach all the way down to elementary school.”

Twenty-one percent of Rensselaer's students are minorities.

Hector Leon, director of multicultural recruitment for Union College, said he works closely with Union's financial aid office to try to defray the $43,000-a-year costs of the Schenectady school.

Minority students will typically get a somewhat better aid package offer than other students, he said.

“You have to go out a lot, you have to create different [cultural] programs and you have to spend a lot of money,” Leon said of recruiting minority students. “We are doing all those things.”

The University at Albany brought James Anderson on board last fall as vice provost for institutional assessment and diversity.