Posted on Jul 24, 2007

Endowed professorships help enrich the life of the mind

An endowed professorship is one of the most prestigious academic honors given to a faculty member. It's a living, lasting testimonial to the donor's belief in the importance of sustaining the vibrant intellectual community that is at the core of a strong liberal arts institution.

That vibrancy can't happen without great faculty.

"Endowed professorships recognize outstanding scholar-teachers, faculty members who inspire their classes through exemplary teaching, which includes working closely with students on research projects," observes Therese McCarty, interim dean of faculty. "They also are accomplished scholars in their fields, which is an essential foundation for their excellence."

Endowed professors touch the lives of not only their students, but their colleagues, as well, and help cultivate a campus climate of academic integrity, engagement, innovation and creativity.

On the following pages, Accolades celebrates the gifts that have created new professorships during the You are Union campaign and the faculty who are reaping the benefits of their donors' vision and generosity.

Dwane W. Crichton Professor of Philosophy: Raymond Martin

Dwane Crichton '33, a native of Canastota, N.Y., earned a B.A. in English at Union where he was manager of the swim team and a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He spent three years as a U.S. Army corporal during World War II and was an industrial relations manager at the American Can Co. in Fairport, N.Y., from which he retired in 1970. An avid golfer, he and his wife, Mary Elizabeth (Sill), lived in New Smyrna Beach, Fla. He died in 1996, followed by his wife in 2000. This professorship was established with proceeds from separate trusts established by the Crichtons; both gifts were unrestricted. Over the years, the couple gave a total of $4 million to the College.

Raymond Martin, Philosophy Department chair, holds a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester and was a professor and director of graduate studies in the Philosophy Department at the University of Maryland for many years before joining Union in 2002. The author and editor of several books, including "Self-Concern: An Experiential Approach to What Matters in Survival," he has focused his research on personal identity theory and the philosophy of history. He is the co-author of "The Rise and Fall of the Soul and Self: An Intellectual History of Personal Identity" (Columbia University Press, 2006), an interdisciplinary exploration of theories of self and personal identity from the ancient Greeks to present day.

Joseph C. Driscoll Professor of Sociology and Marine Policy: Ilene Kaplan

A native of Wilmington, Del., Joseph Driscoll graduated from Union with a B.A. in 1932 and earned his M.D. at Albany Medical College in 1935. He entered private practice in Schenectady in 1938. He was awarded the Bronze Star for heroism and five battle stars during the Battle of the Bulge for his U.S. Army service in World War II (1942-45). Driscoll returned to private practice in Schenectady until his retirement in 1978 and then served as the examining physician for the Workers Compensation Board.

Ilene Kaplan, who holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton, is chair of the Sociology Department and a guest investigator at the Marine Policy Center of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, Mass. Her recent research includes a longitudinal study on marine policy, co-management and socio-economic trends in New England's fishing communities. She has received many prestigious research grants and appointments, presented at international and national conferences, and published in leading journals in her field. She helped develop the Marine Studies Term Abroad.

William D. Williams Professor of Classics: Hans-Friedrich O. Mueller

William D. Williams '32 earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering at Union, where he was a member of the national honor society Eta Kappa Nu. An accomplished violinist and longtime resident of Scotia, N.Y., he also studied at Duke and Cornell universities. After graduating from Union, he joined General Electric, where he was manager of the Magnetics Section and worked in the engineering lab. He retired in 1954. Williams was a loyal donor to the College, contributing annually, and in 1987, he donated a copy of Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Men of Our Times" to Schaffer Library. Williams died in October 2005 at 95, leaving behind a $20 million estate. His unrestricted gift of more than $7 million to Union is one of the College's largest individual gifts.

Hans-Friedrich Mueller (Molinarius), Classics Department chair, holds a Ph.D. in classical philology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich, Germany, where he contributed articles (in Latin) to the "Thesaurus Linguae Latinae." He is the author of "Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus" (Routledge) and has edited a new abridgment of Edward Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (Random House). His research interests are Greek and Latin literature and Roman history and religion.

William D. Williams Professor of Mathematics: William Zwicker

William Zwicker holds a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His fields of interest and research include mathematical logic, especially set theory, applications to political science, game theory, voting and political power, social choice theory and fair division. He is the author, with Mathematics Professor Alan Taylor, of "Simple Games: Desirability Relations, Trading Pseudoweightings" (Princeton University Press, 1999).

William D. Williams Professor of Philosophy: Robert B. Baker

Robert B. Baker, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, is chair of the Alden March Bioethics Institute and director of the Center of Bioethics and Clinical Leadership in Albany, N.Y. A consultant on ethics and medical ethics, he recently worked with archivists on a documentary history of American medical ethics for Georgetown University Press. He is the author of "The American Medical Ethics Revolution" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), and chair of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities Affinity Group on the History of Medical Ethics.

Henry and Sally Schaffer Professor of Holocaust and Jewish Studies: Stephen Berk

Henry Schaffer was a self-made businessman, philanthropist and Union Trustee (1953-82). He left school at 13 to help support his family and later became an honorary member of Union's Phi Beta Kappa chapter. During the Great Depression, he opened the first self-service store in Schenectady, which grew into the Empire chain of 31 supermarkets. He retired in 1958. Though not a Union alumnus, he was the principal benefactor of Schaffer Library, and he funded a scholarship in memory of his younger brother, Morris Schaffer '14, as well as several College fellowships. The College also has received several grants from the Schaffer Foundation. Schaffer received the Founders Medal in 1974. He died in 1982.

Stephen Berk, a member of the faculty since 1967, has earned an international reputation for his teaching, writing and research on Russian and Soviet Jewish history, the Holocaust, the American Jewish experience, anti-Semitism and the Middle East. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University and teaching awards from the organization, Holocaust Survivors and Friends. He has published extensively and is the author of "Year of Crisis, Year of Hope: Russian Jewry and the Pogroms of 1881-1882" (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1985).

David L. '39 and Beverly B. Yunich Professorship of Business Ethics: Harold (Hal) Fried

Albany, N.Y., native David Yunich, who died in 2001 at age 84, was a longtime R.H. Macy & Co. executive. He earned his A.B. in Economics in 1939 and an M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1941, with an honorary LL.D. from Union in 1964. Yunich was president of Student Council; managing editor of the Garnet; and a member of Kappa Nu, the Debating Club, International Relations Club and the varsity baseball team. He won the Bailey Cup for distinguished service. From 1939-40, he played professional baseball for the Cincinnati Reds farm system. A former Union Trustee, he and his wife, artist Beverly F. Blickman, lived in Scarsdale and Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Hal Fried holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His areas of expertise include efficiency measurement and productivity, and applied microeconomics. In 2004, he created a class on "The Mind of the Entrepreneur," focusing on entrepreneurship from a liberal arts perspective, including entrepreneurial thinking, resource allocation in a market economy and the contributions entrepreneurs make to the economy. He and Philosophy Professor Robert Baker also expanded a pilot project on ethics into a college-wide initiative, making ethics a staple of classroom discussion across disciplines.

John '38 and Jane Wold Professorship in Religious Studies: Peter Ross Bedford

Union benefactor John Wold, geologist and former U.S. Congressman from Casper, Wyo., made his fortune through mineral and oil discoveries. The president of World Trona Company and Gastech Inc., he and his wife, Schenectady native Jane (Pearson) Wold, gave $20 million to the College in 2003, an endowment commitment that includes support for numerous programs, including the Religious Studies professorship. A Trustee Emeritus and Eliphalet Nott Medal winner, Wold is the son of former Physics Chair Peter Wold. As an undergraduate, he was a St. Andrews University Exchange Scholar and member of the varsity hockey team and Sigma Xi, the national honorary society for scientific research. He earned an A.B. degree in geology from Union and an M.S. from Cornell University. He is honorary co-chair of the $200 million You are Union campaign.

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. He officially joins Union Sept. 1. Bedford, who has taught classes in Christianity, Islam and Judaism, will direct an interdisciplinary program in Religious Studies, teaching a broad range of courses. He holds a B.A. from the University of Sydney and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago's Department of Near East Languages and Civilizations, where he specialized in the history of ancient Syria-Palestine. A prolific scholar, he has authored dozens of book chapters, articles and technical reports.

Read More

Posted on Jul 23, 2007

Research at Union is a year-round experience. Students from every class year are eligible to pursue individual research projects with a faculty mentor, or assist with faculty research projects to acquire analytical skills and see the breadth of their fields in action.

Bilal Mahmood ‘08

Major: Math and Physics

Faculty Advisor: Jay E. Newman, the R. Gordon Gould ’41 Professor of Physics

“Dynamic Light Scattering of Bovine Insulin”

Physics and math major Bilal Mahmood ’08 prefers to spend his summers in a basement laboratory rather than in the sun. This summer, he’s using dynamic light scattering to study the aggregates of bovine insulin.

“During my first two summers at Union, I worked on reducing raw data for an astronomy survey and database,” said Mahmood. “Now that I’ve taken courses in biology and chemistry, I wanted to work on a project that combines what I’ve learned in my studies.”

In some patients with diabetes, insoluble, fibrous proteins combine to form aggregates called amyloids. When light is applied to these proteins, it will scatter in a random pattern. Measuring the scattered light tells you how fast the aggregate particles move, which is relative to their size (i.e., larger particles move more slowly).

Scattered light isn’t new technology, and similar experiments are taking place around the world. Since protein aggregation is present in diseases such as Alzheimer’s and diabetes, understanding the kinetics of insulin aggregation can help lead researchers to find a cure.

Why bovine insulin?

“In humans, 51 amino acid proteins make insulin,” explained Mahmood. “There is only a three-amino-acid difference between humans and bovine, so they were the logical choice.”

Mahmood chose to major in math because he always loved numbers, but it was program size that influenced his major in physics.

“The physics was a natural extension of math when I realized numbers could be applied to logical thinking and be helpful in any field,” said Mahmood. “Union had the added advantage of having a small physics program [approximately 10 majors accepted annually]. You get to know your professors quickly, and can participate in more exciting research that way.”

In addition to his physics thesis, which he will complete during winter term 2008, Mahmood is also doing a math thesis on Islamic tile art with a new math professor, Kim Plofken, from Brown University. He hopes to begin work on that in November when he travels to Egypt for a mini term abroad.

Mahmood is also a Resident Advisor and works in the Physics Help Center tutoring students in introductory physics courses. In 2005, he received the 2006 James Henry Turnbull 1929 Prize for an outstanding sophomore physics major. He is currently applying to medical school.

Wendy C. Beatty ’09

Major: Mechanical Engineering

Faculty advisor: William D. Keat

“Development of an Undergraduate Engineering Design Textbook”

While most students take a break from textbooks during summer, Mechanical Engineering major Wendy Beatty has been spending her time writing one.

“I’ve always scored much higher in English than in math, so my professor thought I would be a good guinea pig,” said Beatty, explaining how her writing skills reinforced her interest in developing an undergraduate textbook.

Beatty, whose passion for engineering lies on the humanistic side of the spectrum, hopes that her research with Prof. William Keat will give her new insights into career options.

“I plan to expand upon the creative process of engineering as opposed to the numeric process,” she says.

Beatty’s notebook is brimming with designs and sketches of different textbook diagrams and ideas. One such idea was the ping-pong launcher game, where students are given the task of designing a machine capable of launching a ping pong ball into a small basketball hoop. Although this has been done before in different ways, Beatty has devised several new solutions and is hoping to incorporate those into diagrams for the textbook.

Beatty says the textbooks she used her first two years were vague and “left the students depending too much on the professor.”

With its emphasis on hands-on learning, the new manual is designed to help students work more independently. For instance, Beatty intends to include a section on tools, showing techniques that will help students who have never used a saw before.

“I’m hoping my work will motivate first and second year students as well as support them in establishing good design and research habits that will serve them later in life.”

Beatty, who is from Saratoga Springs, is an active member of the Union community. She is a Union Scholar as well as a Commended National Merit Scholar.

Natalie Bernardi ’09

Major: Psychology

Faculty advisor: Professor Cheryl Dickter

"Confronting Prejudices"

Imagine you’re with a group of good friends and someone makes a joke that implies prejudice toward a certain race. How would you react?

Natalie Bernardi ’09 has been studying these kinds of reactions for her summer research fellowship with Professor Cheryl Dickter; and the nearly 30 articles she’s read so far have opened her eyes to how widespread racism is.

“This is something the nation is plagued by,” says Bernardi, who became intrigued with the topic after studying the effects of racism in her Social Psychology course with Dickter last fall. “Working with Professor Dickter has been an amazing inspiration and eye-opener to this subject area.”

Bernardi’s summer research—a study she calls the “first” to examine behavior in a real-world setting—involves coordinating surveys using volunteers from the campus and local communities. She has created her own rating system and organizes the data using a statistical analysis survey program.

Still, she is astonished at some of her findings.

“There are some people who care about prejudice only when it affects them. I find that hypocritical, because we need to be fighting all prejudice,” said Bernardi. “People say racist or sexist comments every day,” she continued, “and sometimes people confront them, but more often they don’t.”

Noting that hate crimes affect all college campuses today, Bernardi hopes to publish her research “to heighten sensitivity to the subject, and make people increasingly aware of the negative impact of racism.”

A native of Altamont, N.Y., Bernardi is vice president of the Debate Club, a Green House Council member and coordinator and active in the Women’s Union. She plans to pursue her doctorate in psychology with a focus on counseling psychology.

Read More

Posted on Jul 23, 2007

Now that the Class of 2011 is set, the Office of Admissions is preparing to welcome more than 400 prospective students and their parents to the summer Open House Friday, Aug. 10, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The summer program features a more leisurely schedule with campus tours departing every hour and workshops that prepare students for applying to college. Sessions will focus on having a phenomenal campus interview, writing a great essay, making your application stand out and Q&A opportunities about the admissions and financial aid processes.

“Students who consider Union are bright, engaged, busy students,” said Ann Fleming Brown, interim vice president for admissions and financial aid. “The summer Open House works well for their schedules, allowing them time to explore the campus and introducing them to college life and Union’s diverse academic programs.”

Afternoon sessions include “Liberal Arts and Technology: Learn More about Engineering, Computer Science and Converging Technologies” and “An Introduction to the Leadership in Medicine Program.”

The day wraps with a closing reception featuring refreshments at Grant Hall.

 

Prospective students and their parents should register online at http://www.union.edu/Admissions. Advance notice is appreciated.

For more information, contact Lilia Tiemann, coordinator of event planning for admissions, at (518) 388-6586.

Open Houses are also scheduled for Columbus Day, Monday, Oct. 8, and Veterans Day, Monday, Nov. 12.

Read More

Posted on Jul 23, 2007

To look into the future of Union College, college president Stephen C. Ainlay only needs to look to its past. 

Maintaining the traditions of the 212-year-old college is important to Ainlay, who recently completed his first year on the job. And while his desire to fi nd innovative ways to prepare students for the world of the 21st century may seem contradictory, it is in fact one of Union’s traditions. 

That balance of tradition and innovation is already apparent in many ways at Union, and Ainlay said it is fundamental to a new strategic plan for the college that was completed during his first year.

His vision is one that has met with overwhelming approval from the college’s Board of Trustees, as well as students, staff and alumni, according to Frank L. Messa, president of the Board of Trustees and chairman of the committee that recruited Ainlay to succeed Roger Hull, who retired in June 2006 after 15 years as college president. 

“You’re looking for a world class academician — it is an academic institution — but also someone who can connect with faculty, students, alumni and staff, interact well with the community, and above all that be skilled as a fundraiser and also be an excellent administrator,” Messa said. “It’s difficult to find someone who brings that full package to the job, but we felt that President Ainlay was the right person and, after a year, we are absolutely convinced he is the right person.”

Ainlay, who came to Union after spending his entire career as an instructor and administrator at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., said he has been equally pleased with the reception he has received both on campus and in the community.

“When you come in from outside, you never know precisely how you’re going to be received,” he said, “but this is part of the character of the area. This is an extraordinarily friendly and welcoming place.”

GOOD TIMING

As daunting a task as it may have seemed, Ainlay said taking over the presidency in the midst of developing a long-range plan for the college actually worked to his benefi t.

“All that was extraordinarily helpful to a first-year president, both getting to know the lay of the land and also beginning to think fairly carefully and systematically about where we wanted to prioritize our efforts over the next decade,” he explained.

Ainlay pointed out that Union has been innovative right from the day it first started accepting students in 1795. At a time when most colleges were being built as religious institutions, Union was founded by area residents and three churches that agreed the city needed a college of its own, Ainlay explained.

That partnership between the college and the community continues to this day, with Union recognized among 25 urban colleges for their contributions to the community on a list compiled by Dr. Evan Dobelle, president of the New England Board of Higher Education.

“What’s become so abundantly clear to me is the way in which the history of the city and the college are tied,” Ainlay said. “What’s also clear is that to do the work on campus means that you have to be involved with the community.”

That involvement has ranged in the past from Union students volunteering with local organizations and working with children in area schools to the college spending more than $26 million to buy and renovate more than three dozen buildings on Seward Place and Nott and Huron streets, including the former Ramada Inn.

“Union and Schenectady have something very special that not a lot of other cities have,” Ainlay said.

The relationship has also garnered attention around the state, as Ainlay and Schenectady Mayor Brian U. Stratton recently appeared together at a meeting of the New York Conference of Mayors to discuss ways colleges can contribute to their communities.

" think that Stephen and I have really developed a personal connection,” Stratton said, “and I think that that’s going to help to pay dividends for the city and the college working together. We have a common interest in doing what we can to make this city stronger.”

Both Ainlay and Stratton speak of the important role the college can play in the ongoing effort to revitalize the city’s downtown.

“Part of our effort to identify and to map out what we want our new downtown to be is to be one that is used and is appealing to the Union College student community,” Stratton said. “So we’re working on ways that we can help bring more students into downtown so they feel that it’s something that’s appealing to them.”

THE RIGHT BALANCE

Balancing tradition and innovation is also a priority as the college looks to maintain and upgrade its historic campus, Ainlay said. The main campus was the first in the U.S. to be designed by an architect, he pointed out, but the 200-yearold buildings pose challenges both in terms of maintenance and in offering the newest technology for students.

Ainlay points to the college’s Taylor Music Center as an example of serving both the past and the future, however. The center, largely funded by brothers James and John Taylor, Union graduates who own Gloversville’s Taylor Made Group, is in the renovated North Colonnade and includes a new music hall and high-tech classrooms and recording facilities.

“If you look at it from the outside, it still appears to be what it was in the early part of the 19th century, but inside it’s a state-ofthe-art music facility,” Ainlay said. “That’s what we’re going to be doing with the entire campus, making sure that students who come here have the sense of being in an old, historic place but a state-of-the-art facility.”

That philosophy appeals to Naazia Husain, who is entering her senior year and is a member and former president of the Muslim Students Association and current chairwoman of the Interfaith Council.

"I think the student body in general likes the concept of maintaining tradition,” Husain said. “There’s a lot of things at Union that have been going on for years that we really don’t want to see changed but, at the same time, there’s a lot of potential that Union needs to start using.”

And Husain said Ainlay has been very open to her thoughts and those of her fellow students on the college’s future.

“I think he’s an amazing leader for Union College,” she said. “It seems like he fits right in. He already seems like part of the community, even though he technically was coming from the outside. He’s definitely Union.”

THE MONEY THING

Of course, the future of the college is also dictated by the financial support it can solicit, and Messa, the Board of Trustees president, said Ainlay has also had a positive impact there, as well. The college is in the midst of a $200 million capital campaign to fund much of what is included in the strategic plan, Messa said, and has met with such success that it will likely raise its fundraising goal.

“We feel that his presence and his energy will allow us to actually expand our capital campaign,” Messa said of Ainlay. “There aren’t a lot of schools out there that announce a capital campaign and decide when they’re two-thirds of the way through that they’re going to increase it. That’s how confi dent we are and that’s how pleased we are with his performance in his fi rst year.”

Ainlay is quick to spread the credit for the enthusiasm he said he has seen throughout the college community.

“That attitude — which seems to permeate campus and even the alumni base at this point — is one of the things I’m most pleased about,” he said. “That’s not just me; that’s the whole of what everybody is doing here. We’ve tried to … create an atmosphere of a community working for a common purpose, and I think that’s succeeding.”

But Ainlay’s leadership has been a significant factor in spreading the excitement about the college’s future, Messa said.

"If we were grading, since this is an academic institution, we’d give him a solid A. He’s been everything we’ve hoped for.”

Read More

Posted on Jul 16, 2007

With women comprising less than 20 percent of the engineering enrollment population nationwide, experts have tried different approaches to boost participation.

Since 2002, Union has hosted a two-week residential summer camp, “Educating Girls for Engineering” (EDGE), as one way to inspire high school girls to consider careers in engineering.

This year's program wrapped up Friday, July 27.

“The low percentages of women entering the engineering field causes a problem for the profession and the nation,” said Cherrice A. Traver, dean of engineering. “The EDGE program was developed to introduce young women to the exciting opportunities and career options that engineering offers, and to plant seeds at a time when students are considering paths for their future.”

During the two weeks, 20 students from area high schools designed, built and adapted toys for children with disabilities from the Northwoods Health System in Niskayuna.

The re-engineered toys were presented to the children at Northwoods on the camp's final day.

“Northwoods Health System’s medical professionals will share their expertise to help young women understand and value the ways in which the field of engineering can enhance the lives of children with various medical complexities,” said Michelle Durling, a registered nurse and pediatric unit nurse manager. 

Linda G. Almstead, computer science lecturer, and James N. Hedrick, lecturer in electrical and computer engineering, taught a robotics course, while Gale H. Keraga, academic counselor and dean for undergraduate education, instructed students on communication and public speaking. Student volunteers from the College assisted with the camp, along with teachers from Shenendehowa, Burnt Hills and South Colonie High School.

Participants also took field trips to Extreme Molding LLC and Plug Power, and attended a networking dinner featuring local women engineers.

“EDGE does more than introduce young women to the variety of disciplines engineering offers,” said Jenny L. Moon ’03, design engineer at John M. McDonald Engineering and coordinator of EDGE. “The activities and networking opportunities demonstrate the impact students can have on society and in people’s daily lives.”

EDGE is supported by a grant from the Northrop Grumman Foundation.

For more information, contact Traver at (518) 388-6530 or Moon at (518) 382-1774, or visit http://engineering.union.edu/edge/.

 

WTEN Coverage

Read More