Posted on Apr 26, 2007

How does Hollywood treat the ancient world of Greeks and Romans?

Directors, writers and producers of some of the most popular films and television series will tackle this question and more when they visit campus April 27-28 for a conference on “Recreating the Classics: Hollywood and Ancient Empires.”

They will be joined by some of the top Classics scholars in the country to examine how the ancient world has enjoyed resurgence in film, television and popular culture, in part because of “Gladiator,” “300” and “Rome,” and why many scholars and students of antiquity vilify these productions, assailing them for their historical inaccuracies.

“It will be an opportunity for the campus community to engage in an intellectual discussion about how the past intersects with and is reflected in the present,” said Stacie Raucci, assistant professor of Classics and conference organizer, who is teaching “The Ancient World in Film and Literature” this term.

Hollywood representatives expected to participate include Brad Silberling, Jonathan A. Zimbert and Niels Mueller. Mueller, the writer and director of “The Assassination of Richard Nixon,” is the brother of Hans-Friedrich Mueller, professor and chair of Classics and interim chair of Modern Languages and Literatures at Union.

Zimbert, executive producer of “The Presidio,” “American Outlaws” and “Narrow Margin,” also has ties to the College. His son, Max, is set to graduate in June.

Among the films directed by Silberling are “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” and the upcoming “The Lost Boys of the Sudan.”

Also scheduled to speak are Emmy-award winner Jonathan Stamp, historical consultant and co-producer (“Rome”); Kevin Kennedy, writer and producer (“The Assassination of Richard Nixon”); and cinematographer Nate Goodman (“Heroes,” “Grey’s Anatomy”).

Scholars will come from the University of New Mexico, University of Maryland, University of the South, Barnard College, University of Illinois and George Mason University.

Members of the Union community are invited to a wine and cheese hour with the conference speakers on Friday, April 27, 5:30-6:30 p.m. in Milano Lounge, Hale House.

Conference funding was provided by the Ahmanson Foundation and the Office of the Dean of Faculty at Union. For a schedule on roundtable discussions and presentations, go to http://www.union.edu/News/RecreatingtheClassics_prog.pdf.

Posted on Apr 25, 2007

The annual Thruway concert featuring a cappella groups and local performers is Friday, April 27, at 8 p.m. in Memorial Chapel.

The event, free and open to the public, is sponsored by U-Program, the Garnet Minstrels and Dutch Pipers.

The concert includes performances by the all-female a cappella group the Garnet Minstrels, the male a cappella Dutch Pipers and Union’s co-ed a capella group Eliphalets, named after former longtime College President Eliphalet Nott.

The evening will also include performances by the Trinity College Dischords, Albany Medical College’s Keystones and SUNY College at Oneonta's Hooked on Tonics.

A new CD from the Dutch Pipers and Garnet Minstrels will be on sale for $10.

For further information, contact the Union College Music Department at (518) 388-8344.

Posted on Apr 25, 2007

If you describe how to build it, can they make it? Some 140 students from across the region will find out Saturday, April 28, during the seventh annual Rube Goldberg Engineering Competition from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Memorial Fieldhouse.

This year’s competition pits 28 teams representing area middle and high schools in an engineering challenge to invent a machine no larger than 5 feet in length, width and depth that can open an ordinary umbrella.

The national competition is named for the late Rube Goldberg, an engineer and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist. His cartoons appeared in thousands of daily newspapers from 1914 to 1964 depicting “inventions” which epitomized “man’s capacity for exerting maximum effort to accomplish minimal results.”

In keeping with that theme, the competition involves making simple, ordinary tasks unnecessarily complex, cumbersome and convoluted by taking a two or three-step task and creating a machine to accomplish it in least 20 steps.

“Having a good time is paramount so we try to minimize the contest and competitiveness of the event,” said James N. Hedrick, contest chair and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “What’s important is working together as a team on science and math-related projects and having fun in the process.”

The competition is sponsored by GE Volunteers, Lockheed Martin, KAPL Nova, the Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium and the Union College Admissions Office and Engineering program. 

Last year’s winning team—Southern Adirondack Education Center representing Washington, Saratoga, Hamilton and Essex counties BOCES — have sponsored three separate teams competing in this year’s event. The challenge was to create a machine that could putt a golf ball. 

“Many teams come back each year and the number continues to increase, which is a double-edged sword,” said Hedrick. “We’ve never turned away any teams, but funding is limited to sponsor contributions. And, we’re committed to providing the $100 to each team to allow schools that couldn’t normally purchase supplies to be able to participate.”

When the competition was started at Union in 2000 by former Dean of Engineering Robert T. Balmer (now Emeritus), they borrowed the format of the national competition, but deviated in the tasks they assigned. In prior years, high school teams have even suggested tasks that have been used in the competitions.

Past challenges have included sharpening a pencil, toasting a slice of bread, screwing a light bulb into a socket , putting toothpaste on a toothbrush and making a bologna sandwich.

The winning machine will be displayed at the Schenectady museum, along with a film of the competition.

For detailed information about the contest and a complete schedule of events visit: http://engineering.union.edu/me_dept/rube/. 

Posted on Apr 25, 2007

Increasingly, the public face of International Business Machines Corp. is that of Steve Mills.

Mr. Mills heads IBM's rich and acquisition-hungry software unit, which has buoyed results in recent quarters. He frequently represents the company at investor conferences and software-customer gatherings, and his rising profile reflects a new reality at the technology giant.

IBM still gets most of its reputation from its computers and most of its revenue from services, but most of its profit growth comes from software. After 44 software acquisitions since 2000 for about $9.5 billion, the company is trolling for more.

Mr. Mills says his group is likely to become increasingly visible because more than half of its revenue is finally coming from fast-growing software areas, offsetting declines in old mainframe-related software.

"I've been doing off-Broadway for years," says Mr. Mills. "Now, it's like I have a hit series."

On a stand-alone basis, IBM would have had the second-highest revenue of any software company after Microsoft Corp. Software revenue grew 14.4% in the fourth quarter and reached $18.2 billion last year. Software accounts for only 20% of total revenue — but 40% of earnings. Fast-growing IBM brands include WebSphere, a variety of Internet tools for business, which gained 23% last year; Tivoli, which manages computer systems, up 26%; and Lotus, which makes email software, up 12%.

Mr. Mills is credited with helping to persuade the company to emphasize software, and with taking a disciplined approach to making and integrating acquisitions. IBM buys smaller, often closely held, companies with arcane products and little reputation outside the tech community. The most it has paid for a company in the past six years is the $2.1 billion it laid out in 2002 for Rational Software, a maker of tools used by software developers.

The idea, Mr. Mills explains, is to buy companies with unique products that can grow faster when sold by IBM's giant sales force. Mr. Mills says he won't buy a company just to get more salespeople or new customers, since IBM already sells some products to virtually all large enterprises. Instead, he tries to make sure they "can accelerate their revenue two or even three times" as fast as part of IBM.

Once acquired, companies are put through an integration process that was initiated in 2000 at Mr. Mills's instigation.

John Patrick, a former software group executive, says that one of the keys to IBM's success in software was Mr. Mills's recognition in 1995 that the Internet would be used by big business for more than advertising. That led Mr. Mills to order programmers to develop its WebSphere software using open standards that other companies could easily link up with — a risky decision because it could have made it easy to replace it, Mr. Patrick says.

John Swainson, chief executive of rival CA Inc., who used to work for Mr. Mills at IBM, says his former boss "fought the battles when it wasn't popular to say that IBM had to be in software."

Mr. Mills, 55 years old, is the same age as IBM Chairman Samuel Palmisano, so he's not regarded internally as a candidate for the top job. Both are likely to retire in five years at IBM's normal retirement age of 60.

Mr. Mills, one of just two of IBM's top executive team who hasn't been replaced or moved since Mr. Palmisano became CEO, is an IBM lifer. He started as a mainframe salesman on the AT&T account in New York City after graduation from Union College and worked in finance for several years before taking over management of one of IBM's software labs. His total compensation was $6 million last year.

Today, he says he still spends a number of hours each week with customers. He jokes: "I was a psychology major. Unlike most IBM executives, I use my degree every day."

IBM's ever-expanding suite of software touches some unexpected corners of corporate activity. Franklin Alvarez, manager of construction services for Consolidated Edison Inc., says that software made by Filenet, a 2006 IBM acquisition, allows the New York utility's construction workers to use wireless hand-held devices to confirm they have signed permits from the city before they open up a street, something that used to require couriers physically bringing the documents.

After acquiring a company, Mr. Mills's 5,000-person sales force has to move fast to get trained in the acquired software, and to pitch it to their customers. IBM says companies acquired from 2002 to 2004 averaged 25% revenue growth the year after they were acquired — including closely held Candle Corp., which IBM bought for $430 million in June 2004 and saw its revenue surge to $300 million the subsequent year.

Six years ago, while acquiring database maker Informix, Mr. Mills ordered executives to keep a record of what worked and what didn't in order to standardize the way acquisitions are integrated. He also started IBM's sophisticated "signature selling system" that categorizes and tracks sales opportunities on a weekly basis. Some salesmen groused about the paperwork, but IBM later adopted the system for its entire sales force.

As soon as an acquisition is completed, IBM sends in a transition team. "Every employee gets an IBM employee as a buddy," Mr. Mills says. On the very day IBM completed its acquisition of Las Vegas-based SRD Inc. in 2005, founder Steve Jonas says the new owner renamed all SRD products. "There's a process called blue-washing," he says.

SRD specialized in software that helps casinos comb public and private databases to check whether a job applicant might be living at the same address as someone Nevada regulators had banned, or if a contractor had an arrest record. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security adopted the software after 2001 to check on suspected terrorists. Last year, Mr. Mills asked Mr. Jonas to speak about the products' uses at a presentation he made to IBM's top customers on Wall Street, opening up another potential market.

The road to such a successful transition started before the acquisition, Mr. Jonas says, when Mr. Mills spent time with him discussing the technology and how it fit with IBM products. He was, Mr. Jonas says, "paying attention."

Posted on Apr 24, 2007

Lori Robinson, author of "I Will Survive: The African-American Guide to Healing from Sexual Assault and Abuse," will speak at the second annual Domestic Violence and Rape Awareness Banquet Saturday, April 28 from 6 to 10 p.m. in the College Park Hall Ballroom.

This event is free for the Union College community. Tickets for the general public are $18 per person or $30 per couple.

This year’s banquet “Surviving to Thriving: A Day at a Time” culminates an annual weeklong series of events, organized by the sisters of Latinas Promoviendo Comunidad/Lambda Pi Chi Sorority, to promote awareness of women’s issues. The series kicked off Monday with a talk in the Breazzano House titled “Is America Ready? A Discussion about Gender and Racial Politics in the U.S.: Barack vs. Hillary.”

“These issues were near and dear to the hearts of the founding pledge class of Lambda Pi Chi,” said recent President Jazmin Puicon ’07 a double major in Latin American Studies and Spanish. “This is the second year we focused on highlighting women’s empowerment for Pi Chi Week.”

Robinson’s book and her Web site,  www.lorirobinson.com, tackle the difficult issues that black women face dealing with sexual assault including a higher prevalence toward victimization. Pi Chi members are also planning to share their own personal experiences surrounding these subjects at the event.

“This banquet enables the entire campus community to come together to honor victims and survivors of both domestic violence and rape,” said Puicon.

Proceeds gathered from the banquet will be donated to a domestic violence support group and a rape support group.

Additional free activities planned for the week include:

Tuesday, April 24, 2007 – 6 p.m. in Reamer Campus Center 305

Las Mujeres de la Revolucion

Women of the Revolution in Latin America and their role in promoting freedom in the Americas; co-sponsored with Phi Iota Alpha Fraternity, Inc. 

Wednesday, April 25, 2007 – 5 p.m. in Reamer Campus Center 305

Goodies Galore: Craft Day II

Decorate crafts and make gifts for friends and roommates.

Thursday April 26, 2007 – 5 p.m. in Sorum House Great Room

Mean Girls II: Pyschology of Gossip

Join several guest professors in a discussion about why girls and guys gossip and the pyschology behind it. 

Friday, April 27, 2007 – 5 p.m. at Language House A (207 Seward Place)

Merengue 202

Learn how to dance the merengue. Free classes, open to the Union College campus community