Hundreds of members of Union community attend vigil for victims of Virginia Tech shootings
Hundreds of members of the Union community participated in a candlelight vigil outside the Nott Memorial Tuesday to offer prayers and support to the community at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, where 33 people were killed in the worst shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.
The vigil was coordinated by Student Forum and Viki Brooks-McDonald, the College’s interfaith chaplain.
Todd Clark, Director of Residential Life at vigil for Virginia Tech
Students and staff offered prayers and other words of support for those killed Monday at the Blacksburg, Va. campus. Among those who spoke was Todd Clark, Union's Director of Residential Life and 1995 graduate of Virginia Tech.
Members of the Union community also are responding to the tragedy in other ways. Orange and maroon ribbons are being distributed at the Reamer Campus Center, and Brooks-McDonald is encouraging the college community to send cards and letters to the Blacksburg, Va. school as a way of “communicating our care campus to campus.”
Students attend candelight vigil for Virginia Tech shootings
"As part of the undergraduate student culture in America, many Union students were strongly impacted by the tragedy that occurred at Virginia Tech," said Brian Gulack, president of student forum. "Although many miles away, the killing of fellow students hit many members of our community very powerfully. As part of a small community, it is very easy for us to band together to help show our support to fellow students at other institutions."
Peter Ross Bedford, associate professor of Religious Studies and History at Edith Cowan University in Australia, has been named the first John and Jane Wold Professor of Religious Studies at Union College.
Bedford, 49, will direct an interdisciplinary program in Religious Studies, teaching a variety of courses. Union has had a minor in religious studies for 15 years, and Bedford’s hiring is a key step toward eventually elevating the program to a major in hopes of enabling students to understand and appreciate religious diversity in the modern world.
“I am very pleased that Peter Bedford will be joining the Union College faculty,” said President Stephen C. Ainlay. “He is broadly educated and understands well the study of religion in a liberal arts context. His ability to teach about religions of the world and his commitment to interdisciplinarity will undoubtedly serve Union well. I am also extraordinarily grateful to the Wold family for its continued generosity to Union.”
A search committee chaired by Mathematics Professor Julius B. Barbanel selected Bedford from among 115 applicants. Bedford will officially join Union Sept. 1.
“Peter Bedford's appointment marks a very important step in the development of our Religious Studies program,” said Therese McCarty, interim vice president for Academic Affairs and dean of the faculty. “He is a world-class scholar, an experienced administrator and a dedicated teacher. He will offer a broad range of courses that certainly will be of interest to many of our students.”
Bedford received his B.A. in 1981 from the University of Sydney and his M.A. in 1985 and Ph.D in 1992 from the University of Chicago’s Department of Near East Languages and Civilizations. His specialization was the History of Ancient Syria-Palestine.
Bedford has been at Edith Cowan University since 1990. Among the classes he has taught there were Judaism/Christianity/Islam; Islamic Society (an overview from the seventh century CE to the present); and History and Archaeology of Ancient Egypt.
He is a prolific scholar, authoring dozens of book chapters, articles and technical reports.
“The academic study of religion finds a natural home at Union. It is integral to the liberal arts curriculum since religion is pervasive in human societies, currently and historically,” said Bedford.
“The study of religion allows us to examine matters that people hold to be of greatest import. It promotes a conversation about religion and between religions. ‘How can I relate to my neighbors, both at home and abroad, if I do not understand how religion informs their values and identity? How can communication begin without first grasping the central tenets of each other’s religion?’ To study religion is therefore to study ‘meaning’ and ‘difference’ and with that comes the opportunity to understand others better, as well as ourselves.”
Hans-Friedrich Mueller, professor and chair of Classics and interim chair of Modern Languages and Literatures, said Bedford will bring a new dimension to course offerings not only in Religious Studies, but across the curriculum.
“His courses on Judaism, Christianity and Islam may, for example, be of interest to students in history and political science,” said Mueller, a member of the search committee. “His courses in Egyptian history and religion may be of interest to Africana Studies. Globalism is a new word, but an ancient fact. Professor Bedford may not teach every single subject in Religious Studies, but almost everything he does teach will fill gaps in our curriculum and help build interdisciplinary bridges among the areas we already cover.”
Bedford’s wife, Kerry, will join the College’s Schaffer Library as public services librarian.
Funding for the position comes from John Wold ’38, a geologist and former U.S. congressman from Casper, Wyo., and his wife, Jane, who pledged $20 million in 2002, the largest gift to the College.
J. David Velleman, professor of philosophy at New York University discusses “Artificial Agency.”
Will 21st century outsourcing require batteries? Will machines replace the blue-collar workforce by 2010? Can a robot outperform a human in both simple and complex tasks? Will your company’s entire workforce be artificial within your lifetime?
J. David Velleman, professor of philosophy at New York University, will address these issues in “Artificial Agency” Thursday, April 26, at 4:30 p.m. in the Schaffer Library Phi Beta Kappa Room.
The lecture is free and open to the public.
Velleman received his doctorate from Princeton in 1983 and his areas of research include ethics and moral psychology. He has authored several books on the philosophy of action including Practical Reflection and a series of papers entitled "The Possibility of Practical Reason." Velleman has also published papers on the right to die and metaphysics of color and a collection of his papers on the self will be published by Cambridge University Press entitled “Self to Self.”
Velleman has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Guggenheim Foundation. He currently serves as the founding co-Editor of Philosopher's Imprint.
The May 10 lecture features CUNY Professor Steven Ross presenting “When Worlds Collide: Mental State Naturalism and Normative Attribution.” Funding for the Series is provided by the Spencer-Leavitt Foundation.
For further information, contact Raymond Martin, department chair at (518) 388-6376 or martinr@union.edu.
A memorial service will be Friday, April 13, at 4 p.m. in Memorial Chapel for Hedda Hainebach, of Niskayuna, N.Y..
Hainebach, longtime coordinator of the College’s language lab and an ardent supporter of the Union College Chamber Music Series, died Friday, Jan. 5, 2007. She was 92.
She was born in 1914 in Vienna, Austria, the daughter of Max and Dora Sternberg. She came to the U.S. in 1950 and was first married to Heinrich Wagner, an engineer with the General Electric Company, until his death in 1958. A year later, she married Hans Hainebach, professor of foreign languages at Union, until she was widowed in 1966. Soon after, she joined the College as coordinator of the language lab, a position she held until her retirement in 1989.
An aficionado of chamber music, she rarely missed a concert at Memorial Chapel, or an opportunity to promote the renowned series. She had an encyclopedic knowledge of the music, and she was a consummate hostess to the musicians, many of whom she had known for decades. She regularly traveled to concerts at the Marlboro (Vt.) Music Festival.
Survivors include her sister, Ewelyn Khittel; a niece, Andrea (Alexander) Zilberzsac; and a grandnephew, Robert; and a grandniece, Nicole, all of Austria.
Contributions may be made to the Hans and Hedda Hainebach Humanities and Arts Scholarship Fund, Office of Gift Planning, Union College, Schenectady, NY 12308.
The U-Sustain Environmental Club will host a rally to promote awareness of global warming Saturday, April 14, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the West lawn.
ReTree Schenectady L-R: Reed Olsen ’09; Alex Krickx ’07; Nathali Neal ’07; Andrew Maryniuk ’07; Katie Matho ’07; John Levene ’07; Allison Phelan ’08; Kaitlyn Tagarelli ’07; Ryan Laddey ’06; Ian Kennedy ’07; Prof. Andrew Morris
The rally is among more than 1,300 events planned in 50 states for Step It Up 2007. The campaign was created by noted environmentalist Bill McKibben, an author and activist who spoke at Union in February. McKibben predicts the nationwide event will be the largest environmental protest since the original Earth Day in 1970.
The event is free and open to the public.
Numerous groups on campus are expected to participate in the rally, which will advocate for an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emission by 2050.
Stephen Po-Chedley '08,URecycle
The groups have worked together to create 14-foot-by-40-foot banner that will be displayed at the rally. Students, faculty and staff will be invited to sign the banner and a photograph of the participants will be taken with the banner and sent to Congress.
Additional festivities for the day include an organic barbecue, compliments of Dining Services; music from WRUC and a speaker on environmental issues. Following the rally, at 2:30 p.m. the campus community will join the Schenectady Coalition Against Global Warming at the downtown Amtrak Station for additional speakers and entertainment.
The U-Sustain Environmental Club is a student-run organization that sponsors speakers, raises environmental awareness and money for ecological organizations and organizes and participates in area service projects. The club works with U Recycle, Ozone House and Ozone Café and coordinates with the college to promote sound environmental policies.
In the event of inclement weather, both events will be moved to the Union College Fieldhouse. For more information, contact Nathali Neal at nealn@union.edu.
