— President Stephen C. Ainlay addressed nearly 100 business and local leaders at the Business @ Breakfast meeting held on campus this week by the Chamber of Schenectady County. Among the topics he discussed were alliances with local buisinesses, the College-city partnership and Union's commitment to helping the region.
— As North American Section Head of the International Plutarch Society, Hans-Friedrich Mueller, professor and chair of Classics and interim chair of Modern Languages and Literatures, organized a panel at the annual meeting of the American Philological Association in San Diego on the theme of reading Roman history through the lens of Greek history (Plutarch's usual method). The panel, “Roma Chaeroneana: Plutarch's Reception of Rome,” included David Baum, senior lecturer in the Department of History, who read a paper titled, “Plutarch's Caesar in Fifteenth-Century Italy: Poggio and Guarino's Readings of the Vita Caesaris.” Also participating were scholars from the University of Oxford, England, the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and the University of Perugia, Italy.
— “The Rise and Fall of Soul and Self: An Intellectual History of Personal Identity.” (Columbia University Press, 2006), by Raymond Martin, chair and professor of Philosophy, and John Barresi, is being translated into Korean, to be republished later this year by Younglim Cardinal, Inc.
— Loren Rucinski, director of Facilities and Planning, graduated from the Association of Physical Plant Administrators (APPA) Facilities Management Institute in Orlando, Fla., in January. The Institute is offered twice a year, and the curriculum consists of four core areas: general administration; maintenance and operations; energy and utilities; and planning, design and construction. Students must complete all four, week-long core tracks to graduate from the program. Paul Matarazzo, capital projects administrator, and Richard Patierne, manager of building services, completed their second core track at the institute in January.
— Harry Marten, the Edward E.Hale, Jr., Professor of English and chair of the English Department, has published a memoir, But That Didn't Happen To You: Recollections and Inventions (XOXOX Press). Set in New York City neighborhoods of 50-100 years ago, the book offers reflections on the nature of memory, the immigrant experience, storytelling, old age and family relationships. Marten's “Shadowlands,” a portrait of dementia in old age, appeared in the August 2006 issue of the on-line literary journal Inertia Magazine (www.inertiamagazine.com).
— Pilar Moyano, professor of Spanish, has published “Mujer, religión y mito en la obra del pintor Julio Romero de Torres,” in Jaén: Cruce de caminos, encuentro de culturas (Juan Fernández Jiménez, Jesús López Peláez and Encarnación Medina Arjona, editors; Jaén: Universidad de Jaén, 2006).
— Robert Olberg, the Florence B. Sherwood Professor of Life Sciences, will deliver the DuPont Lecture at the University of Arizona's Neurobiology Department in March. The title of the lecture is, “The Elegant Precision of Dragonfly Prey Interception: From Neurons to Behavior.”
— Two former faculty members, Frank Gado and Ed Pavlic, have literary news to share. Gado, who taught American Literature, recently published a book on the life and work of American poet William Cullen Bryant. William Cullen Bryant: An American Voice grew out of an idea from former Union student Dan Wells. Former English Professor Pavlic, associate professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Center at University of Georgia, has authored Labors Lost Left Unfinished, a collection of poems.