Posted on Jun 15, 2007

ABC anchor Charles Gibson is coming to his father's hometown to address Union College's graduating class Sunday, in part to repay a debt he says can't be settled in full.

The debt, more than two decades old, is owed to Phil Beuth, a Union trustee and benefactor. It was Beuth, then an ABC executive, who unexpectedly gave Gibson a shot hosting "Good Morning America."

In very circuitous and thoroughly unexpected ways, that decision led to where Gibson sits today, anchoring ABC's top-rated "World News with Charles Gibson."

"It's funny how life takes turns you don't expect," Gibson said. "This is a total unexpected turn of events that I'm in this job."

A twisted path

Gibson's career has been built on a series of happenstances both tragic and lucky. He's certainly deserving to be sitting in the top anchorman chair at ABC News — his broadcast has catapulted to No. 1 in his one year on the job — but that ascent was certainly unforeseen.

In fact, nothing really has gone as planned for the 64-year-old ABC veteran.

He didn't plan on being a co-host on "Good Morning America." He would always be that backup to Peter Jennings. Passed over after the untimely death of Jennings, Gibson planned on retiring — on June 22, 2007, to be exact.

Instead, Bob Woodruff was wounded in Iraq and Elizabeth Vargas got pregnant. Gibson expected to soon be traveling with his wife to Australia and down the coast of Canada and spending time with his only grandchild. Instead, he's off to the Middle East or interviewing world leaders while serving as the face of a network news division.

"Maybe sometimes when things come to you unexpectedly, you appreciate them more, and maybe it takes some of the pressure off you in some ways," Gibson said.

As Beuth said: "He was always the right guy at the right time. … Once you release the brake on Charlie, it's going to work."

Schenectady connection

Gibson will be the keynote speaker at Union College's 213th commencement. The ceremony is slated to begin at 10 a.m. on Hull Plaza on the Schenectady campus.

 The anchorman is coming to Union this Father's Day to honor his father, Burdett, and namesake uncle, Charles, Schenectady natives who attended the college. He's also here to pay back Beuth for a cup of coffee 21 years ago.

It was over coffee in the ABC cafeteria that Beuth first talked to Gibson about co-anchoring "Good Morning America."

Gibson was covering the House of Representatives in 1986 when he first sat down with Beuth, then an executive with Capital Cities/ABC. He shocked Gibson with an offer to co-anchor "GMA" with Joan Lunden.

"I had to talk him into the job," Beuth recalled. "We were trying to replace David Hartman. We interviewed many people. … Charlie, for us, he always appealed to us with his curiosity and his ability to get along with people and be interesting."

Gibson, stunned by the offer, would have turned it down and stayed in Washington, D.C., had his wife, Arlene, gotten a job she was up for there. Instead, Gibson headed to New York.

Connections

The anchorman is a fan of the writer John Irving, who maintains there are X number of people you come across who unexpectedly alter your life's direction. Gibson counts Beuth among them.

"You changed my life, and there is no way to thank you for that," Gibson said of his former boss. "One of the ways is when they ask you to give a graduation speech, you give it."

Unexpected, everything, being here and sitting in that chair in New York. Gibson references a line from John Lennon's song "Beautiful Boy:" Life is just what happens to you/While you're busy making other plans.

When speaking to television critics last summer via satellite from Cyprus, Gibson intimated that viewers care little if anything about ratings and the internal machinations of network news. He was wrong; they do. He is still confused as to why.

An example: Before being interviewed Wednesday for this story, Gibson was working, interviewing Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the multinational force in Iraq. While setting up for the interview, the two men chatted; Petraeus congratulated Gibson on his recent ratings success. Once again, Gibson was stunned.

"Now, he is in Iraq, and he is in Baghdad, and he has really important things to do," Gibson said. "Noticing the television ratings is not one of them — and yet he does. What is it that interests people?"

Ratings mystique

 In his early days in the top chair, Gibson dismissed the cultural significance of ratings. He still does, even though his show is No. 1.

 "Does it affect quality of a news show? … No," he said. Gibson granted high ratings make for a nice affirmation, but quickly adds, "I don't believe in any of them."

 Here's a warning to those planning to attend Sunday's ceremonies: As of midweek, Gibson had yet to finish — well, start — his speech, the only commencement address he'll deliver this year. "I am busted, actually," he said. "I'll think of something."

It's not like Gibson worries about planning ahead.

Posted on Jun 14, 2007

Maureen Hsia is graduating a year early, but Union won’t soon forget her.

Hsia, a History major and Political Science minor from Shanghai, will be back home in the People’s Republic of China when her name is announced at Sunday’s Commencement. But she has created the annual Maureen Hsia ’07 Prize for Excellence in Middle Eastern Studies, to begin next year.

Hsia’s unusual step of creating a senior gift before she’s officially an alumna embodies her passion for Middle Eastern culture while underscoring her appreciation for Union’s small, personal liberal arts community.

Hsia, 21, is the daughter of Eric Li-Chyun Hsia and Dah-Wei Hsia. She pinpoints her interest in Middle Eastern history to her high school reading of “The Chosen,” Chaim Potok’s novel about the friendship between two Jewish teens from different worlds set against the backdrop of World War II and the Holocaust.

That spurred her to study Israel-U.S. relations, “and from there my interest grew, to the entire Middle East.” She created her own concentration in Middle Eastern history and, working with Prof. Stephen Berk, did her senior thesis on “History of Judeo-Persian Relations.”

Hsia traveled to Turkey and Israel this winter for research and subsequently exhibited her photos of people and marketplaces in the exhibit, “Wandering the Souk,” at the Nott Memorial. More than the beauty of those two countries, she said in her artist’s statement, “I hope to share some insight on my perception of social and cultural realities in the Middle East.”

In the fall, Hsia will have an opportunity to expand those insights when she travels throughout the Mideast.

“My goal is to learn Arabic and immerse myself in the culture,” she said. “There’s so much going on there that needs to be fixed. Finding a solution is something I want to do. I’m ready to go out into the world and do extraordinary things.”

Hsia will be missing Commencement to work at the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai as they prepare for their October opening. Some 7,500 athletes will compete in 25 different sports, from aquatics to volleyball.

A graduate of the American Shanghai School and member of the Union Scholars Program, Hsia said leaving a metropolis of more than 20 million people for a city of 61,000 “was a shock at first, but it was good. I really like Schenectady, especially with the new developments changing State Street and events like Art Night. I love Proctors and I like the Schenectady Public Library a lot; it has such a great movie collection.”

Hsia came to Union in the Class of 2008 but is able to graduate with the Class of 2007 because of AP credits she earned in high school and extra courses she took “just because I could.”

She has been on Dean’s List each of her three years and is a member of Phi Alpha Theta, the history honors society. She served as captain of the Ultimate Frisbee team, co-chaired the Student Alumni Association, tutored at the Writing Center and was a member of the Ballroom Dancing Club. She worked at the Rathskeller, was an Orientation advisor and volunteered at Habitat for Humanity.

Her time at Union also has been marked by leadership in the Minerva House System. As Breazzano (formerly Orange) House Council chair, student representative and a house resident for two years, Hsia worked closely with Prof. Byron Nichols, a mentor. Last year, she served as house representative to the presidential inauguration of Stephen C. Ainlay.

“I’m a big fan of the Minervas. I got involved my freshman year, the first year it was implemented,” Hsia said.

Posted on Jun 13, 2007

The little black buggy looked like it was being pulled by ghost horses, silently moving Tuesday morning down Broadway with seemingly nothing propelling it. But the tiny vehicle, with deep historical roots in Schenectady, has an electric engine, its sound lost in the noise of the city. The car, made by the Anderson Electric Company of Detroit, was owned by scientifi c genius Charles Steinmetz, who helped form, chaired and taught in the electrical engineering department at Union College. 

The college owns the car and helped restore it. The black buggy will be used Sunday at graduation to carry Union President Stephen Ainlay in the procession. Steinmetz’ car was transported Tuesday from the Edison Exploratorium to a storage garage owned by the college.

The vehicle wasn’t running in December when it came to the Exploratorium, located on North Broadway near State Street. It is now functioning well.

The car was in storage the past five years and it is not known when it was last running. It had been found in a field in rural Sche- nectady County and restored in the 1970s by a Union College professor and used in ceremonies. Its body lasted because it’s made of aluminum.

John Spinelli, Union’s electrical engineering chair, said the car is important because it celebrates the college’s history.

“It connects Union to its past,” he said. “Steinmetz represented what Union engineering is all about. Steinmetz believed in a liberal education. . . . He was the embodiment of an involved professor.”

The car has been part of a program at the Exploratorium on the roots and evolution of the electric car. A new entrance had to be built on the front of the building, at a cost of $6,000, to fit the car into the building. It’s been parked in the front window and new batteries have been installed.

John Harnden, the founder of the Exploratorium and a Union alumnus, said Steinmetz’ car is a symbol of the early growth of technology in the area.

Steinmetz, who worked closely with Thomas Edison, is best known for his theories and analyses of alternating current as well as hysteresis, the phenomenon through which power is lost through magnetic resistance. Alternating current can reduce the power loss, and many believe it is Steinmetz’ work that made commercial electric power possible.

Harnden also points to others, such as Joseph Henry, a scientist raised in Galway who invented the first electric motor, for helping to make the region known for engineering.

“This area should be known as the original Tech Valley,” Harnden said. “So many things were incubated here.” 

 In 1914, when Steinmetz bought the car for $3,000, electrical cars were the only kind allowed in Schenectady. Gas-powered engines were banned for fear of pollution from exhaust and noise.

Steinmetz never drove the electric car or any car. The scientist, who had physical disabilities, once crashed a Stanley Steamer in the early 1900s. He never drove after that, but he did design electric cars.

Steinmetz was born in Prussia, now a part of Poland, in 1865. He died in 1923 and is buried in Vale Cemetery.

He came to the U.S. in 1893 and was hired by an electric company in Yonkers that would later become part of General Electric. Steinmetz worked for GE for 31 years and mostly resided in Schenectady.

The buggy is one of his most treasured possessions left, said Gene Davison, a lab technician at Union College who has been working on the car since the early 1980s.

Davison drove the car through campus — he’s the only one who knows how. It utilizes a tiller steering system, which uses a bar instead of a wheel. Pushing the bar forward turns the car left; backward turns it right.

The acceleration is also controlled by a handle. Pedals on the floor are for the brake and an emergency switch that cuts power to the engine.

Because there’s no clutch, the car gets off to a jerky start. But Davison says it’s a good ride.

“It’s kind of springy and rocks from side to side like a carriage,” he said. “Once it gets going, it’s a smooth ride.”

Posted on Jun 13, 2007

SCHENECTADY — A 1914 electric car once owned by General Electric's engineering wizard Charles P. Steinmetz is headed for this weekend's Union College commencement.

The aluminum-frame Detroit Electric sedan, which has 14 batteries, is capable of reaching 40 mph. On Tuesday morning, the operating car was practically silent — except for the screeching of its wheels — with Gene Davison, a technician at the college's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in the driver's seat.

"This car connects with our history and history of Charles Steinmetz," said John Spinelli, who accompanied Davison. Spinelli is associate professor and chair of the engineering department that Steinmetz founded at Union. "He believed in a liberal arts education for engineers (and) we still offer it today."

Steinmetz, a renowned General Electric inventor, helped Thomas Edison develop the company's alternating current system, which permitted long-distance transmission of electrical power. The car, which has rechargeable lead-acid batteries, was bought for Steinmetz in 1914. After his death in 1923, the vehicle was found in a field at a West Glenville farm. In the 1970s, it was restored at Union College. The car found a home in the '90s at the Saratoga Auto Museum and later was moved to a warehouse in Gloversville. In 2005, the vehicle was on display at the Edison Exploratorium, a Broadway gallery of GE memorabilia founded by John Harnden. There, the car was equipped with new batteries.

"We wanted it back into use for the community," Davison said.

The car will be on the road Sunday in a parade preceding the graduation and arrive on campus for the ceremonies.

Thurston Sack, president of the Exploratorium, thinks the car's appearance will spark enthusiasm in a city that once boomed with GE workers and business.

"People like Einstein … went to Steinmetz," said Sack. "He drew people to work around him and we're trying to wake up the genius of the city."

James Hedrick, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, hopes that Steinmetz's car at Sunday's graduation will inspire students by recognizing technological history.

"It is a full cycle," he said. "Everyone talks about electric cars as if it's a new idea, and it will be interesting for students to see this may be the way of the future and not just a way of the past."  

Posted on Jun 12, 2007

Trustees endorse a strategic plan aimed at keeping Union at the forefront of selective colleges

Name three overarching themes that embody Union College and set it apart from peer institutions. Then define three separate foundational concepts that support those overarching themes.

You have 15 minutes to answer this question.

That’s not an easy quiz yet finding a consensus answer is critically important to the future of Union College. Taken together, the answers comprise a vision for the College and create a specific list of Union’s top goals. The answers drafted over the last 18 months by the Strategic Planning Group comprise the backbone of College’s recently endorsed strategic plan. The group, led by College Trustee John E. Kelly III ’76 and Therese McCarty, interim vice president for Academic Affairs and dean of the faculty, was made up of about 40 members who collected surveys, synthesized data and completed about 80 interviews.

“The strategic plan lays out a vision for the College. It describes where we want the College to go, what we want the College to be over the next five to 10 years. And it describes strategies for fulfilling that vision,” McCarty said. “Students will come to realize that we really want to imagine the world being a different place. And to realize they have the skills and ability to bring about beneficial change in the world and that we want to help them with that project.”

As major decisions are made by College leaders, they should help advance the plan’s foundational themes and differentiators. College leaders can use more the more specific goals like improving the Minerva House System to assess progress towards overarching goals such as creating a healthier learning environment. That’s the essential differences between the strategic plan and previous College-wide plans. The Plan for Union approved in 2001 is still in place but focuses more on fundraising campaign goals.

Also, the College must be reaccredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education every 10 years. The nonprofit membership group evaluates colleges and universities across the United States. That group assures that institutions maintain academic quality and progress toward strategic goals. So, The Plan for Union and periodic reaccreditation intersect with strategic plan but are not the same.

The groundwork for the strategic plan was done by former Interim President James Underwood. The completion of the plan was also a critical part of the search for a new president, Ainlay said.

What is titled “A Strategic Plan for Union College” is being presented to alumni groups around the country by President Stephen C. Ainlay. Ainlay and his staff are refining priorities and setting a blueprint for implementing the plan. 

The plan also outlines a strategy that Ainlay says will more succinctly articulate the College’s role in molding students, a defining aspect of the mission at Union since the mid 1800s, when then-President Eliphalet Nott introduced engineering courses on equal footing with liberal arts offerings. The Balanced College Concept remains a hallmark of Union’s 19^th-century innovations.  

“I believe we are at a similar place in history. This world is changing faster than anyone could have imagined in the 19^th century. Technology has changed the way we do our work and the world our students will live in,” Ainlay told faculty and staff in February. “We have to design a Union College that speaks to that world just like they did in the 1800s.”

In late 2006 the strategic planning group was divided into five groups, each tasked with creating strategies to help the College plan for five separate areas: demographics, campus culture, vision and strategic elements, resources, and student development. That work was collected in January 2007 and recast as a nearly complete plan in February.

"We used a very open process, involving all the key stakeholders in Union College,” John E. Kelly III said. “We gathered data about our environment and our competitors before developing strategic alternatives."