Posted on Aug 14, 2007

 

Charles T. “Tom” Male Jr. ’36

Charles T. “Tom” Male Jr. ’36, professor emeritus of civil engineering at Union, died July 5, 2007. A lifelong resident of Niskayuna, N.Y., he was 93.

He joined Union in 1942, the first civil engineering professor with a doctorate, then an unusual distinction in a field where a master’s degree and engineering experience were the norm, according to his longtime colleague, Professor H. Gilbert Harlow.

Male retired in 1984, but continued to teach, advise and attend department and campus gatherings long afterward.

Male came from a family with deep ties to the College and its engineering programs. His father, Charles Sr., graduated from Union in 1913 and then taught surveying and engineering mathematics until 1954, when he founded a surveying firm.

He was perhaps most visible on campus as the instructor of a surveying course, which students sometimes referred to as “Fun in the Sun.” In nice weather, a dozen students would be spread around campus, clipboards in hand, as Male checked their progress on what was likely the most surveyed parcel in Schenectady.

Harlow recalled the day that Male’s students, with help from their instructor, lifted the rear end of a car and placed it on blocks so that its owner, a student, would find the wheels spinning in the air as he tried to drive. The next day, again with Male’s help, the students hid the car in the hydraulics laboratory.

Male sometimes cultivated a gruff persona, but it quickly gave way to a warm and jovial side combined with a keen interest in helping his students. As a partner in C.T. Male Associates, the surveying firm founded by his father, he offered internships and employment to a number of students and alumni.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from Union in 1936. He also earned a master’s degree and a doctoral degree from Cornell University.

His wife, Mildred Garrett Male, whom he married in 1937, died in 1997.

Survivors include three children: C. Thomas Male III of Bridgeport, N.Y.; Gary R. Male of Niskayuna; and Judith M. Henerey of Niskayuna.

 

Warren D. Bagatelle ’60

 

Warren D. Bagatelle ’60, a well-known investment banker, ardent supporter of Union College for more than three decades and founding member of Union’s Eliphalet Nott Society, died May 31. He was 69.

Bagatelle, a certified public accountant, was a partner at Loeb Partners Corporation in New York City and served on many corporate and not-for-profit boards. Before joining Loeb, he ran the New York Stock Exchange member firm of Rosenkrantz Ehrenkrantz Lyon & Ross. Prior to his Wall Street career, he ran several publicly traded and privately held companies. He was also a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard.

He earned a master’s degree in accounting from Rutgers University in 1961 and began his career at Arthur Andersen & Co.

“Warren was a very social, active, successful, fair and honest man, with a lot of integrity,” said Charles Roden ’60, Bagatelle’s partner in an investment firm named HSB, after his beloved wife, Hedy.       

“He and I were frat brothers and classmates and we’ve had an investment partnership together for at least 25 years. In business, he was a tiger,” Roden said. “He was also very helpful to Union graduates, hiring many students over the years. Warren was passionate about Union.”

As an undergraduate, Bagatelle was a member of Phi Sigma Delta fraternity and an accomplished athlete involved in football, wrestling and lacrosse.

“Warren was at Union when I played for the junior varsity lacrosse team,” remembered Stephen Zuckerman ’62. “Warren sagaciously advised me that when chasing a loose ball, first go after the opposing player, and once he was out of the way, then go after the ball. When we would meet in later years, he still had the same attitude toward me and others; that he was your big brother here to help you.”

As an alumnus, Bagatelle was chairman and member of the Graduate Management Institute Advisory Council, an Admissions representative and a Friend of Union Athletics. He helped launch the Eliphalet Nott Society more than a decade ago to foster entrepreneurship through the Union community.

A native of Mt. Vernon, N.Y., Bagatelle lived with his wife of more than 44 years, Hedy (Schwartz), in Wayne and then South Orange, N.J. He also is survived by a son, David; daughters Tracy Bagatelle-Black ’89, who earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and philosophy, and Adrien ’92, who holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology; and four grandchildren.

Donations to the Warren D. Bagatelle Scholarship Fund may be sent to the Union Graduate College, Lamont House, 807 Union Street, Schenectady, NY 12308.

 

Robert J. Mielke '60

 

Robert J. Mielke '60, former chairman of Union’s UCALL Steering Committee, treasurer of the Union College Club of Schenectady, and member of the Union Alumni Council and Terrace Council, died on Monday. He was 69.

Mielke, of Schenectady, earned a bachelor’s degree from Union and later received his master’s degree in history from the University of Pennsylvania. Mielke later earned a master’s degree in library science from University at Albany.

He worked as a high school librarian in the Fort Plain Central School District for 27 years before retiring in 2000. In the late 1980s, Mielke helped lead the formation of Union College Academy for Lifelong Learning or UCALL. The academy hosts College professors or others during a series of five weekly classes for Schenectady area adults.

"Bob was a wonderful person who was a dedicated and loyal son of Union,” said Dominick F. Famulare ’92, director of Alumni Relations. “He adored the College and friendships that came with it. He was thrilled and proud to win the Special Appreciation Award during Homecoming in 2005. He will be missed."

He was a lifelong member of Zion Lutheran Church in Schenectady, where following his retirement, he served as the church’s archivist and librarian.

Over the years, Robert had done extensive gardening. He enjoyed listening to music, and attending concerts, musicals and the opera. He especially enjoyed fishing and spending restful, quality time at his camp in the Adirondacks.

He will be remembered for his friendly, kind and gentle nature. Robert is survived by his fiancee, Evelyn Thode; several cousins, and many friends.

 

Willard Roth, professor of biology emeritus

Willard Roth, former chair of the Biology Department and pioneer of Union’s Health Professions Program, died June 20. He was 82.

Roth joined Union College in 1967 as chair of the Biology Department, a position he held until 1981, when he was named associate dean of undergraduate studies. Roth also helped form the Health Professions Program in the 1970s before retiring in 1995.

“He was really the founder of College’s modern Biology Department. He enlarged it and hired professors that formed the basis of this department,” said Biology Department Chair Leo Fleishman.

Beyond his work hiring faculty and as a dynamic classroom lecturer, Roth spent many hours helping students earn admission to medical school, said former biology Professor Twitty J. Styles. Roth frequently phoned medical school admissions deans and conducted mock admissions interviews with students, providing what Styles called “visionary” leadership.   

“His dedication to students who aspired to careers in the health professions was his greatest impact on the department. He developed a national, if not an international network, involving quite close rapport with admissions committees to effectively place our graduates in a very tailored manner,” said longtime colleague and former biology professor Carl George.

Roth helped found Northeast Association of Advisors to the Health Professions (NEAAHP) and was regarded as pioneer of advising pre-med students across the Northeast, said Carol Weisse, director of the Health Professions Program and current president of the advisors association.

Roth was born in Waterloo, Iowa in 1925. After graduating from high school in 1943, he served in the U.S. Army in World War II in both Europe and Asia. He attended Swarthmore College, graduating with high honors, and then did graduate work in biology at Harvard University, receiving a doctoral degree in 1956.

Roth taught pre-clinical sciences at Harvard Medical School from 1955 to 1967, rising to the rank of assistant professor before coming to Union College. His expertise was in histology, the study of minute tissue structure, and his research interest was neuron endocrinology.

Roth became involved in Tibetan Buddhism in 1980, and was named director of the Karma Kagyu Institute, which is concerned with preserving and disseminating Tibetan Arts and Culture. He was associate director of Albany Karma Thegsum Chöling, an upstate New York Tibetan Buddhist Center affiliated with the Karma Triyana Dharmachakra Monastery in Woodstock, N.Y.

Combining his various interests, Roth has been greatly involved in interfaith activities, and also acted as night chaplain at both Ellis Hospital and Albany Medical Center Hospital.

Roth is survived by his wife of 55 years, Laura M. Roth; his brother, Milton Roth of Waterloo, Iowa; his daughter, Karen Roth and her husband Michio Fujita of Albany; his son, Andrew Roth and his wife Andrea and grandsons Eric and Zachary Roth, of Saratoga Springs.

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Posted on Aug 14, 2007

 

WAYNE FRANKLIN ’67

James Fenimore Cooper: The Early Years

Yale University Press

This is the first treatment of the life, until age 36, of James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) that is based on full access to Cooper’s family papers. Cooper’s life is the story of how, as Franklin relates, in literature and countless other endeavors, Americans in his period sought to solidify their political and cultural economic independence from Britain. Cooper invented the key forms of American fiction—the Western, the sea tale, the Revolutionary War romance. Furthermore, Cooper turned novel writing from a polite diversion into a paying career. He influenced Herman Melville, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Francis Parkman, and even Mark Twain—who felt the need to flagellate Cooper for his “literary offenses.” His novels mark the starting point for any history of our environmental conscience. Perhaps no other American writer stands in greater need of a major re-evaluation than Cooper. Wayne Franklin is author of The New World of James Fenimore Cooper and co-editor of the Norton Anthology of American Literature. He is professor of English and director of American studies at the University of Connecticut.

 

RICHARD H.K. VIETOR ’67

How Countries Compete: Strategy, Structure, and Government in the Global Economy

Harvard Business School Press

As the globalization continues, countries compete for the markets, technologies and skills needed to raise their standards of living. These strategies can make – or break – a government's efforts to drive and sustain growth. In How Countries Compete, Vietor sheds light on ways in which governments can best set direction and provide a healthy climate for a nation's economic development and profitable private enterprise. Drawing on history, economic analysis and interviews with executives and officials around the globe, Vietor provides concentrated examinations of different approaches to government facilitation of development. Chapters focus on the unique social, economic, cultural and historical forces that shape governments' approach to economic growth. Countries discussed include: China, India, Japan, Singapore, the United States, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. Vietor challenges the widespread notion that, in market-driven economies such as the United States, a strong government can only hinder business success. A provocative resource, How Countries Compete offers potent insights into how the business environment has evolved in crucial nations and what its trajectory might look like in the future.

 

ARNOLD I. BURNS ’50

Preparing to be Lucky: A Public and Private Life Shaped by Humor

Xlibris

Burns was at first rejected by Union College when he applied in 1946. After receiving the rejection letter, he took a train from Lynnbrook, N.Y. to Schenectady and marched into what was then President Carter Davidson’s office. Burns said: “I am here because I want to go to Union College. I’ve applied for admission and been turned down.” Davidson did not budge. “No, no, I really want to go here,” Burns replied. Davidson agreed to review Burns’ application and granted him admittance. That story is one of hundreds found in Burns new book of humorous vignettes. He has written three other books about humor. A practicing lawyer for more than 45 years, Burns left his law firm in 1999 to become a managing director of Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder, Inc., an international investment banking firm. From 1986 to 1988, he served as deputy attorney general of the U.S. Department of Justice. Burns has served as a College Trustee for more than 30 years and was Chairman of the Board of Trustees from 1982 to 1985. Burns also served as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children and chairman of the National Center for Victims of Crime.

 

ANTONIO F. VIANNA ’66

Hidden Dangers

Authorhouse

Hidden Dangers takes readers into a world of espionage that pits two veteran spies against each other in a cat-and-mouse game of deception. Throw in an unexpected love affair, a troubled paranoid personality, a greedy and manipulative boss, and a young agent who desperately wants to free himself from the spy game. Readers will be surprised when they read the final chapter.

Vianna is the author of several motivational books including Career Management and Employee Portfolio Toll Kit Workbook and Leader Champions: Secrets of Success. His fiction forays include Tale from a Ghost Dance, centering on the visionary powers of a high-powered female executive; Talking Rain, a plot-twisting murder mystery; and The Veil of Ignorance, a suspense novel about a struggling college professor. Vianna, who majored in biology at Union, lives in Carlsbad, Calif.

 

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Posted on Aug 14, 2007

 

THE MANAGEMENT LEARNING CURVE 

Devin Wenig ’88 admits to not doing much but is nonetheless busy all the time. Reuters, the well-known international news and financial information provider, announced in May that after the completion of a $35 billion merger with the Thomson Corporation Wenig would be promoted from chief operating officer to chief executive officer. Wenig’s rise as a top executive at Reuters has made evident an elemental truth of management. 

“What you learn is that the priority moves from you getting things done yourself to being able to enable great teams to get things done. The scale of the tasks gets such that you cannot do things yourself,” Wenig said. “In fact, you get paid to set a strategy, to set priorities and to create great teams.

Wenig joined Reuters in 1993 as a corporate lawyer after a short stint at the high-profile New York City law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Wenig held a number of senior management positions before being appointed president of Reuters Information in January 2001 and by 2003 was named president of the Reuters Business Divisions. Reuters, best known as a news service, was founded in 1861 and has expanded services in the Internet era and now employs about 16,800 people in 89 countries. On the news side, Reuters employs 2,400 journalists, photographers and camera operators based in bureaus around the globe. The company also manages a constantly updated financial information network that monitors millions of stocks, bonds, currency and other financial instruments. The Reuters Group reported $5.2 billion in revenue in 2006.

The leadership skills and creative thinking that Wenig employs are partially rooted in his term in the early 1990s as CEO of a pharmaceutical company, Nastech Pharmaceutical, which was founded in 1983 by his father, Jeffrey Wenig, a Ph.D. and scientist. In 1991, his father died unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 54, leaving the younger Wenig, then a 22-year-old recent Columbia Law School graduate, to take over. Under his leadership, the company restructured its finances, and marketed a number of products that boosted revenue and stabilized the company. Today Nastech is based in Bothell, Wash., employs 140 people and has a market capitalization of approximately $350 million dollars. 

“You learn courage, in a professional sense. Very little can scare you after you go through something like that,” Wenig said of his time at Nastech. “You also learn how capable people are. And how important it is to forge bonds and teams. It was a big growth experience but not one that I would wish on anybody else.”

That courage may prove valuable during the planned merger of the Canadian publishing company, Thomson Corp. and Reuters. The merger’s goal is to form one of the world’s leading news and financial information providers.

“Reuters sits at the middle of media, financial services and the Internet. That makes it complicated and confusing but its also what makes it fun,” Wenig said.

At Reuters, Wenig has helped usher in a group of about 30 Union graduates into company internships. He speaks with each group of young people and shares advice on navigating the early stages of a career. Wenig was a political science major at Union and took classes in a variety of academic disciplines. As an upperclassman, Wenig won the Samuel M. Hesson Prize for a student of high promise and character interested in a law career.

“Students are sometimes very worried about: ‘What job should I have? What school should I go to? Exactly how do I map out my whole career?’ No one I know has been able to map out their whole career. I sure haven’t. I never would have dreamed that I’d be here when I was sitting in Schenectady all those years ago,” Wenig said.

Wenig’s advice for young professionals is simple: experiment. Meet different people, experience different cultures and try to find your passion, Wenig said. Graduates should be prepared for a professional world made more intimately connected by new information technology.

For Wenig, former Union Professor Joe Board provided worldly guidance.

“I thought he was a great guy. He was worldly and he was articulate and I know there are a lot of alumni that feel that Joe made a positive impact on them,” Wenig said. “Joe would often say, ‘The way you learn and grow is witnessing other people behaving in a professional context.’”

A SCHOLAR AND ACTIVIST 

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

Hsia, a history major and political science minor from Shanghai, was back home in the People’s Republic of China helping prepare for the Special Olympics World Summer Games when her name was announced at Commencement. Despite her absence she created the annual Maureen Hsia ’07 Prize for Excellence in Middle Eastern Studies, set to begin in 2008.

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 Professor Stephen Berk, did her senior thesis on the 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.”

This 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 missed 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.”

She has been on Dean’s List each of her three years and is a member of Phi Alpha Theta, the history honor 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.

As Breazzano House Council chair, student representative and a house resident for two years, Hsia worked closely with Professor Byron Nichols, a mentor. Last year, she served as house representative to the presidential inauguration of Stephen C. Ainlay.

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A growing field becomes a nexus joining engineering, biology and the liberal arts 

Union is unique. We hear that about many aspects of Union College such as the Minerva House System and the strong undergraduate research programs. But it is Union’s noted liberal arts curriculum in concert with the strong engineering program that may be the College’s defining feature, according to Cherrice A. Traver, dean of engineering.

“The combination of a liberal arts education and an engineering degree puts Union in a league of its own,” Traver said. “There are just not that many small, selective colleges with accredited engineering programs.”

Union currently has 260 students in electrical, computer and mechanical engineering and is seeking to boost bioengineering from a minor to an academic major. That process began with help from a $1.6 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and has been fueled by a growing demand among students and college-bound high school students. The College has created new bioengineering labs and hired faculty with hopes of establishing an accredited bioengineering major as soon as 2010. The degree would prepare students for careers in the medical industry, research fields and government regulatory agencies.

“We need to broaden our program offerings,” Traver said. “The three that we have are successful and we would love for bioengineering to be the next program we offer. It’s a small field but is growing rapidly.”

In early February The Center for Bioengineering and Computational Biology, located in Butterfield Hall, was christened during a formal ceremony. Professor Leo J. Fleishman, chairman of the Biology Department, cut the ceremonial ribbon to mark the opening. Fleishman was instrumental in securing the $1.6 million grant in 2003 to renovate Butterfield Hall.

“The program is well funded, we have a lot of faculty interest in the field, and several student projects are underway. It’s rewarding to see faculty members from different departments working together,” Fleishman said.

There is a tradition of interaction between engineers and biologists at Union College, according to Steven K. Rice, associate professor of biology. Professors in biology and electrical and computer engineering have worked on collaborative projects that predate the bioengineering program, and several past mechanical engineering senior thesis projects have had a biology component.  

In December 2000 Robert Balmer, who was then dean of Engineering, developed the Converging Technologies Initiative. That initiative has developed interdisciplinary programs between engineering and liberal arts. The plan for Converging Technologies was presented to the Union community early in 2001, and through the next year faculty from biology, engineering and liberal arts departments met to develop courses and programs to support the initiative. Four areas were initially chosen for development: bioengineering, mechatronics, nanotechnology and pervasive computing. In September 2002 Doug Klein was appointed director of the Center for Converging Technologies.

“It’s been very exciting,” Klein said. “We have a great group of people working in these areas and they’re all so enthusiastic. I’m not an engineer, I’m an economist, but one of the things I found attractive about Union when I first came here was the combination of liberal arts and engineering. The Converging Technologies initiative was Union’s first high-level commitment to putting those pieces together, and it’s great to be part of that.”

The interest in bioengineering at Union can also be traced back to Dick Shanebrook, professor of mechanical engineering, who retired in 2001. Shanebrook had taught a biomechanics course and had a long history of working in cardiovascular biomechanics. Rice co-taught the biomechanics course with Shanebrook for one term, and then Rice and Professor Mohammad Mafi turned that course into what is now called Introduction to Bioengineering.

FUNDING FOR BIOENGINEERING

Faculty and students were enthusiastic, but money was – and still is – needed to help support the bioengineering effort. The College secured a grant from the Mellon Foundation to fund interdisciplinary education and in 2002 Klein allocated money from that grant to support each of the four areas covered by the Converging Technologies Initiative.

“This was seed money meant to help develop the initial courses in each area,” Klein explained. “The course Introduction to Bioengineering was developed with this money.”

But more money was needed if the bioengineering program was going to really take off.

In 2003 the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, commonly called HHMI, announced a call for grant proposals that was a perfect fit with Union’s bioengineering effort. At the same time, the National Academies Press published a national report on the future of the biological sciences, entitled BIO2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists.

“Our interest in converging technologies, our intention to bring more quantitative lab exercises into biology courses, and our efforts to form interdisciplinary relationships between departments at Union all matched closely with what the national report suggested as important in biology education,” Fleishman said. “So we tailored our HHMI grant application in that direction, and it turned out to be just what was needed.”

The faculty will submit a second HHMI grant application this fall. 

"It’s very exciting – we have so many good ideas that we hope to keep funded and staffed,” Rice said.

Perhaps the most exciting – and most costly – outcome of this effort was the development of The Center for Bioengineering and Computational Biology, located on the first floor of Butterfield Hall. The Center comprises a teaching studio and lab; a smaller lab that will house the Virtual Bioengineering Center; a research lab for Professor Scott Kirkton, a new faculty member who was hired with grant money; an administrative office; and a design lab. Several other bioengineering faculty, Professors Andy Rapoff (mechanical engineering) and Shane Cotter (electrical and computer engineering) have labs on the second floor of Butterfield that are part of the bioengineering center.

The Bioengineering Design Lab is available to faculty at Union and also to researchers and faculty at other colleges and universities. “One of the goals of the HHMI grant was to develop relationships with other institutions,” Rice said. “One way to do that is to assist other researchers and faculty in implementing engineering approaches to biological problems. With our design lab we can provide that assistance.”

A bioengineering minor was introduced in 2005, and is an option for students majoring in biology, engineering, and some other fields, with slightly different requirements for each group. Students are required to take a minimum of six core courses outside of their major and have a choice of upper-level courses. Rice and Rapoff are co-directors of the program. Bioengineering minors also must do an independent research project during their senior year.

“There are two ways to be interdisciplinary,” Fleishman said. “One is to carve out a narrow area at the intersection of the two disciplines, which is the way most bioengineering programs operate. The other is to draw on the breadth and depth of both fields, to really bridge the two disciplines. That’s where Union is heading.”

Helen Hanson, faculty member who will begin work in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department in fall 2007, works on computer modeling of human speech, which will add to the bioengineering effort. Hanson’s research involves links between speech-producing organs, the speech signal and the cognitive representation of an utterance.

“To understand these relationships, we model things such as the way vocal folds vibrate and the properties of the vocal tract tissues, and we can use electric circuit and transmission line theory to do that,” Hanson explained. “I’m a Union alum – class of 1983 – so joining the faculty is kind of a homecoming for me.”

Electrical and mechanical engineering programs are generally made up of about 10 to 12 percent women, while bioengineering programs have close to 50 percent, according to Ron Bucinell, associate professor and chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department. Bucinell is optimistic about the future of bioengineering at Union.

“Bioengineering is becoming a bona fide discipline within engineering,” Bucinell said. “Before it was a mix of biology and engineering, but we are now really getting engineers involved in working on biological problems. This is particularly important in dealing with the medical issues around an aging population. And it’s a discipline that attracts women. Studies have shown that women are attracted to fields in which the work product benefits people, bioengineering is clearly that type of field.”

SUPPORTING STUDENT RESEARCH

A large part of the bioengineering effort is encouraging students to participate in research projects, an area in which Union’s relationships with other institutions has paid off. Using the HMMI grant, Union sent seven students to labs at other institutions in 2006 for summer research projects and four more were set to go this summer.

"In the original HHMI grant application we had agreements with RPI, Syracuse University, and the Wadsworth Center at the University of Albany to take on summer research students,” Fleishman said. “The students we’ve sent to those places have had great experiences and we have students lined up for summer research at all three again. We’re also branching out, looking for labs at other institutions where students with particular interests might be able to do research. This year we have a student going to the University of Pennsylvania.”

The grant also supports student research at Union, through a team research approach. Faculty teams made up of  professors of biology, engineering, physics, mathematics, or another quantitative field, write a proposal to be submitted to our internal review committee. Their proposal must include two students to work on a project over the summer and through the next school year.

Fleishman has an ongoing project with Professor Mike Rudko in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, which has involved several students over the years. Biology Lecturer Brian Cohen collaborated with Associate Professor Seyffie Maleki in the Physics Department on a project that included two students.

“Several of our students have presented their research at national meetings,” says Cohen. “That’s a great benefit of being at a school like Union.”

Biology Professor Robert Olberg used some HHMI money to have Zohny S. Zohny ’06 work with him during the summer of 2006. The goal of Olberg’s ongoing project is to use what is known about the nervous system of a cockroach to develop an effective means for remote control of locomotion.

“The overall goal of this project is to outfit a cockroach with a small backpack with a transceiver and electrical stimulation circuitry,” explained Olberg. “Then we can remotely control individual cockroaches and use them as ‘intelligent robots.’ For example, we could send a cockroach with the appropriate remote sensors into places that humans, or even small robots, are unable to go – they could be used to locate victims under the rubble of buildings destroyed in earthquakes.” 

Another exciting aspect of the HHMI funding is the newly created position of post-baccalaureate scholar, designed to give a recent Union graduate experience while they plan their next career move. Adam Pallus ’05 was the first scholar.

“We had a very productive year together and got some interesting results. Adam and I traveled to Russia to present the results at an international meeting. It was quite an accomplishment for a recent graduate,” Fleishman said.  

COURSE DEVELOPMENT

Introduction to Bioengineering was the first course in the bioengineering program, and in the winter term of 2007 the second course in Bioinformatics was created. That course was taught by Biology Professor Steve Horton and Computer Science Professor Chris Fernandes. Half of the students in this course were biology majors; the other half were computer science majors.

“I think the course went well for its first term. We didn’t know how it would go teaching students with different backgrounds, but we made it work, and I think it worked well,” Horton said. “During the first few weeks, I met with the engineering students and gave them a mini-course on molecular biology, and Chris met with the biologists for an introduction to computer science, then we joined together for the last half of the term. We also had some guest speakers come in to talk about applications of bioinformatics in the real world.”

This kind of real-world science will help the students after graduation as they further their education or enter the workforce. Bioinformatics in particular is an expanding field, with job openings across the country.

Other lab modules developed to introduce quantitative methods in biology courses include one that introduces students to the basic concepts of geographic information systems, mathematical modeling and landscape ecology; one exploring aquatic ecology and demonstrating computer modeling of complex systems; a module that demonstrates the mathematics associated with the kinetics of biochemical systems; and one looking at the effects of flow on vascular endothelial cells. The flow module was used in Introduction to Bioengineering during the winter 2007 term and students, particularly engineering students, enjoyed the hands-on aspect of learning techniques used in biology research.

All of the lab modules are available on the bioengineering website (http://bioengineering.union.edu) and can be downloaded by teachers at other institutions for use in their classroom.

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Phil Di Sorbo ’71 helps to set up hospice care for AIDS patients in sub-Saharan Africa

Phil Di Sorbo will long remember his 1999 visit to Africa, where he saw scores of people without pain medication suffering through the late-stage symptoms of AIDS.

“Nobody should be in that condition on this planet today,” he recalled thinking.

So Di Sorbo, who over the past 25 years had turned the fledgling Schenectady Hospice and related organizations into national models of palliative care, decided to answer another calling: Bringing hospice care to AIDS-ravaged Africa.

As a co-founder and executive director of the Foundation for Hospices in sub-Saharan Africa (FHSSA), he oversees the daunting challenges of partnering with local hospice organizations to provide care in the far reaches of a land where AIDS claims roughly 7,000 lives a day.

“The global AIDS pandemic and other international tragedies are opportunities to forge our global connectedness,” Di Sorbo said. “And FHSSA is well positioned to make a difference by supporting so many of Africa’s growing hospice programs.”

Di Sorbo co-founded FHSSA with the organization’s first board chair, Dr. Bernice Catherine Harper and hospice directors Peter Sarver and Paul Brenner. The African organization is also part of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, based in Alexandria, Va.

The organization’s top priority, of course, is fundraising from American citizens and organizations. “We have a chance, consistent with our basic hospice work in every community, to engage that community in the global war on AIDS,” Di Sorbo said. “There is no greater challenge and all of us … can take great pride in sharing in the overall response. We can raise millions for palliative care in Africa, where U.S. dollars can go far."

Di Sorbo emphasizes that FHSSA’s mission is in partnering with hospice organizations in Africa, not in imposing a first-world model to solve problems. “We may have the technical expertise and the talent level, but we must rely on our African colleagues to identify needs so that we can mobilize and develop the projects collaboratively.”

Most projects are short term, a week or less, for things like pediatric palliative care training, bereavement care of orphans and care-for-the-caregiver support, Web site development, quality improvement, and strategic planning.

Among the rewards of partnering with the African organizations, Di Sorbo said, is the growing recognition of hospice as a “community service agency” and “social change agent.” Partnering also has taught his organization to “really listen with respect.”

And hospice, though it deals mainly with those at the end of life, can help stop the spread of AIDS. “Prevention requires behavior change,” he said. “We have a teachable moment with every death.”

With his wife, Cynthia, a nurse and hospice caseworker, Di Sorbo spends a bit more than four months per year in Africa. They also spend time in Washington D.C., where FHSSA is based, and their home in Ghent, N.Y.

Last fall at Union’s Homecoming, DiSorbo received the Eliphalet Nott Medal, presented to distinguished alumni who have achieved success in their professional lives. Throughout his career, he has maintained close ties with Union, calling on faculty, staff and students as hospice volunteers.

 

Hospice milestones:

1975    Katherine Woodford, a student in a women in management graduate course offered by Union, begins a feasibility study for Hospice of Schenectady.

1978    Union College, the first hospice board and Katherine Woodford develop New York state legislation creating a hospice demonstration project, which becomes the first hospice legislation in the United States.

1979   New York State Hospice Association incorporated at Union College.

1980    Phil Di Sorbo ’71 hired as first CEO of Hospice of Schenectady.

1983    Hospice of Schenectady becomes the first hospice in the nation to be certified by Medicare and to receive federal reimbursement payments. 

1999    A visit to Africa leads to incorporation (with two other New York hospices) of the Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa.

2006    Di Sorbo named executive director of the sub-Saharan organization.

2007    Di Sorbo helps to launch the Diana Legacy Fund, aimed at supporting hospice care in Africa.

 

The roots of hospice care at Union

The international success of the hospice program that began at Union College in 1975 can be attributed to three key factors:

 

• A motivated team of faculty, students and community members who had been touched by “bad deaths.”

 

• The arrival of a young and ambitious executive director.

 

• Help from inside the federal government during the creation of new laws.

 

Hospice had its beginnings at Union in 1975, a few years after psychiatrist and author Elisabeth Kubler-Ross had popularized the idea of dying with dignity in her 1969 book, On Death and Dying. Katherine Woodford, then a graduate student and nurse, undertook a hospice feasibility study with Adelaide Oppenheim, an adjunct professor who taught a course titled Women in Management in what would become the Union Graduate College. Woodford was in part motivated by her father’s death, which happened at home after weeks of relative comfort.

At the time, Woodford knew of only three hospice programs: one at St. Christopher’s Hospital in her native England and one each in New Haven, Conn. and Buffalo. By the end of her project at Union, she had gathered a team of people that would become a steering committee for the nascent hospice organization. One of them was Rudy Nydegger, professor of psychology at Union.

“Hospice was an idea whose time had come,” said Nydegger, who served as the first president of the organization. “Everyone and their families are touched by death. Everyone has a horror story about people who have died badly and did not need to. One of interesting things I found about Union and Schenectady was the talent pool of highly motivated people who were interested in the hospice movement, knew how to raise money and get things done.”

In 1978, coincidentally the same year Kubler-Ross spoke at Union’s Commencement, Hospice of Schenectady was incorporated. It had a board and an office on the second floor above Old Chapel. A year later, the New York State Hospice Association was incorporated at Union, thanks to the volunteer services of attorney Thomas Hayner.

In 1980, the board decided it was time to hire an executive director. Enter Phil Di Sorbo, a Phi Beta Kappa who had graduated Union in 1971 summa cum laude. After earning a master’s degree in counseling, he took a job at Schenectady Catholic Family and Community Services. He answered the hospice ad, he recalled, because he was intrigued by the write-up about the new program.

“When we hired Phil, we had $5,000 in the bank,” Nydegger says. “His first job was to raise enough money to pay his salary.”

Di Sorbo worked closely with state legislators to introduce hospice legislation in New York. That laid the groundwork for a watershed moment in November of 1983 when Hospice of Schenectady became the first hospice to receive federal Medicare certification and funding. He worked closely with officials in the federal government to negotiate the certification process, and even had input into the initial regulations.

When DiSorbo left to join the Foundation for Hospices in sub-Saharan Africa (FHSSA) in 2007, he was executive director of the largest hospice north of Washington, D.C. Today, Community Hospice is a network of six regional programs covering eight counties that serves over 600 patients each day and has an annual budget of more than $40 million. Employees number about 400.

“Hospice of Schenectady, and later Community Hospice, became a leader in the state and country largely because of Phil’s leadership,” Nydegger said.

The Union connection

Union volunteers have had a strong presence in Community Hospice since it began, with dozens of volunteers serving for long periods. Today, dozens of students, faculty and staff take the 25-hour volunteer training program and in-service training sessions. Most years, Union provides between five and 10 volunteers, according to Sue Conlin, volunteer service coordinator for Community Hospice.

“I trained as a hospice volunteer seven years ago and can honestly say it has been a life-altering experience,” said Carol Weisse, director of Union’s Health Professions Program. “Spending time with people during their last few months, days, and even hours makes you think deeply about your own life and how to live life more fully.”

Karen Williams, research associate professor of biology, a hospice volunteer for 10 years, has worked with Weisse to recruit student hospice volunteers. The experience, she said, is especially valuable to those going into the health care field. “I admire the pre-health students who get involved in hospice,” she said. “What a wonderful opportunity for them to be involved in [end of life issues]. This is something the medical community has not always done well.”

The Williams family used hospice last fall when Karen’s father died, an experience that made her a better volunteer, she said. She kept copious notes in a diary on everything from her father’s condition to a list of therapists – information that comes in handy in answering questions from patients and families.

Williams last year recruited her husband, George, professor of computer science emeritus, as a hospice volunteer for what he called “part of the retirement thing.” Besides visiting patients, the couple delivers medications to homebound patients. “We call ourselves the drug runners,” Karen said. George set up the computers in the hospice’s first office at Union.

Amanda Carpenter ’07, an Obenzinger Scholar (given to promising pre-med students), has taken on some of the hospice’s most challenging cases, including the past year with a 17-year-old boy, Weisse said. Another alumnus, Adam Howe ’05, volunteered for two years at Union before heading off to Albany Medical College.

Jean Underwood (wife of Jim Underwood, professor emeritus) has been an active volunteer for years too, well known at hospice for her ability to deal with the most difficult cases like a family dealing with drug and alcohol abuse.

Among hospice collaborations under way, College officials have met with Di Sorbo to arrange the placement of Union students in FHSSA partner hospices, and plans call for two students to travel to Africa next year. Also, Minerva Houses and other student organizations are planning to raise funds for the Diana Legacy Fund.

“Hospice is a nice organization to work for and they treat their volunteers well,” Karen Williams said. Especially valuable, she said, are the in-service training sessions that cover topics ranging from dementia to massage therapy. Hospice also hosts regular memorial services, a chance for families and caregivers to reconnect, she added.

For Karen Williams, the most rewarding part of hospice is the connection she makes with patients. She recalled visiting a woman at Schenectady’s Kingsway Nursing Home and showing her photos of a recent trip to Alaska. “When I was leaving, she had a smile on her face and said, ‘Thanks for the tour.’ You never know what is going to touch some of these people.”

 

Supporting hospice care in Africa

South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu urged the support of hospice programs across Africa when he spoke at the recent launch of the Diana Legacy Fund, which in part supports the Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“Hospice and palliative care are desperately needed,” Tutu said. “I know we throw figures and statistics at you [but] put the face of someone you know, someone you love, on those statistics.”

The fund is named in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, whose 1987 visits with African AIDS patients stirred worldwide awareness of the crisis. The summer of 2007 marked the 10^th anniversary of Diana’s death. Di Sorbo encourages individuals, churches and businesses to donate to the Diana Legacy Fund, the only charity solely dedicated to hospice and palliative care in Africa. 

For more information, or to give to the Diana Legacy Fund, please visit www.dianalegacyfund.org.

To learn about the work of the Foundation for Hospices in sub-Saharan Africa, please visit www.fhssa.org. 

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