Union College President Stephen C. Ainlay gave a short history lesson Wednesday morning.
“We have a 200-year history of innovative education and of producing people who are innovators in their fields,” he told a group of print and TV reporters who gathered in Feigenbaum Hall to hear Ainlay's vision on where he wants to take the College.
He cited Lewis Henry Morgan, Class of 1840, the father of American anthropology; Franklin Henry Giddings, Class of 1877, Columbia University professor known as the father of American sociology; and R. Gordon Gould '41, inventor of the laser.
Ainlay was selected as the College's 18th president last October, but didn't officially assume his duties until July 1. He was previously vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. At Union, he succeeds Roger Hull, who stepped down in 2005. James Underwood, a longtime professor of political science, served as interim president over the last year.
Ainlay described to reporters his first visit to Union last fall when he “fell in love” with the beauty of the campus. Union, he reminded, was the first planned campus in the U.S.
He also described meeting students at the grocery store and being invited to a barbecue at Beuth House. That experience, he said, gave him a sense for what it means to be part of the Union community and working closely with students.
“I went into higher education to work with students,” he said, “and I look forward to doing that as president.”
Ainlay stressed the importance of Union's role in shaping the landscape of American higher education, particularly with initiatives such as the Minervas — a national-model housing system that integrates the intellectual, social and residential spheres – and Converging Technologies, which focuses on learning at the intersection of traditional disciplines. “We have an obligation to share,” he said.
The Capital Region is an exciting area for higher education, he said, adding that he will work hard to promote partnerships with the local business community and with government.
“There is an attitude of openness to new ideas, and that has brought a real renaissance to the region.”
Ainlay will be inaugurated Sept. 16. The two-day event begins Friday with a symposium in the Nott Memorial on “Bridging the Academic – Social Gap.” The keynote address, “Making the Most of College,'' will be given by Richard Light, Walter H. Gale Professor of Education and director of the Harvard Seminar on Assessment at Harvard University.