Posted on Sep 11, 2007

Amelie Rorty, honorary lecturer in social medicine at Harvard University, kicks off this year’s Philosophy Speaker Series with a talk Thursday, Sept. 20, “Imaginative Practical Reason.” The discussion begins at 4:30 p.m. in the Schaffer Library Phi Beta Kappa Room and is free and open to the public.

Rorty’s teaching career includes posts at Rutgers University, Mount Holyoke College, Harvard Graduate School and at Brandeis College, where, from 1995 to 2003, she was professor of the history of ideas. She is the author of Mind in Action (1988) and the editor of numerous books on the concepts of identity and emotion as well as studies on Descartes and Aristotle. In summer 2005, she worked with the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown. Mass. The project was a study of Rogier van der Weyden’s “Saint Luke Painting the Virgin” (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) as a meditation on the history of devotional painting and the painter’s role.

Following is the rest of the schedule of the speaker series, which is sponsored by the Philosophy Department. All talks will be held in the Schaffer Library Phi Beta Kappa Room at 4:30 p.m. Funding is provided by the Ichabod Spencer Foundation. Questions may be directed to Department Chair Raymond Martin (ext. 6376, martinr@union.edu).

Oct. 3: Robert Holmes, University of Rochester, “The Nature of Evil”

Oct. 18: Russell Hardin, New York University, “Deliberate Democracy”

Nov. 1: Sharon Street, New York University, “Objectivity and Truth: You’d Better Rethink It”

Jan. 24: Susan Haack, University of Miami, “Irreconcilable Differences; The Uneasy Marriage of Science and the Law”

Feb. 7: Linda Martin-Alcoff, Syracuse University, “Social Identity, Rationality, and Epistemic Agency”

Feb. 21: Sean Kelley, Harvard University, “The Normative Nature of Perceptual Experience”

March 6: Katalin Balog, Yale University, “Libertarian Freedom and the Experience of Agency”

April 17: Michael Williams, Johns Hopkins University, “The Structure of Epistemic Justification”

May 1: Karl Ameriks, University of Notre Dame, ‘Kant’s First Historical Thesis”

May 15: Ernest Sosa, Brown University, “Epistemology Unified”

May 29: Michael Morreau, University of Maryland, “The Straw and the Camel’s Back: Contextual Solutions to the paradox of the Heap.”

Posted on Sep 11, 2007

Ad hoc committees are reviewing the tenure of nine professors: Bradford Bruno, Mechanical Engineering; Andrew Rapoff, Mechanical Engineering; Joanne Kehlbeck, Chemistry; Anupama Jain, English; Younghwan Song, Economics; Lorraine Cox, Visual Arts; Kathleen LoGiudice, Biology; Cheikh Ndaiye, Modern Languages; and Jay Carlson, Union Graduate College. Members of the Union community may submit written comments on their teaching, service or scholarship to committee members. Committees (with chairs listed first) are:

Bruno: Valerie Barr, Computer Science (ext. 8361, barrv@union.edu); Richard Wilk (ME); Steven Rice, Biology; Steven Sargent, History.

Rapoff: Raymond Martin, Philosophy (ext. 8011, martinr@union.edu); Ronald Bucinell, ME; Michael Rudko, Electrical and Computer Engineering; John Boyer, Biology.

Kehlbeck: Terry Weiner, Political Science (ext. 6066, weinert@union.edu); Kristin Fox, Chemistry; Robert Lauzon, Biology; David Hannay, Computer Science.  

Jain: David Cotter, Sociology (ext. 6457, cotterd@union.edu); Hugh Jenkins, English; Christine Henseler, Modern Languages; Julius Barbanel, Mathematics.

Song: Michael Vineyard, Physics & Astronomy (ext. 8353, vineyarm@union.edu); Bradley Lewis, Economics; Melinda Goldner, Sociology; Junko Ueno, Modern Languages.

Cox: Joyce Madancy, History (ext. 6221, madancyj@union.edu); Walter Hatke, Visual Arts; Bruce Connolly, Schaffer Library; Michael Hagerman, Chemistry.

LoGiudice: Mark Walker, History (ext. 6994, walkerm@union.edu); Barbara Danowski, Biology; Seyfollah Maleki, Physics & Astronomy; Ekram Hassib, Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Ndaiye: Kurt Hollocher, Geology (ext. 6518, hollochk@union.edu); Daniel Mosquera, Modern Languages; Chris Duncan, Visual Arts; Eshragh Motahar, Economics.  

Carlson: Suthathip Yaisawarng, Economics (ext. 6606 yaisawas@union.edu); Donald Arnold, UGC; William Finlay, Theater and Dance; Gary Reich, Physics & Astronomy.

Posted on Sep 11, 2007

Union begins the new academic year with a number of important campus safety measures in effect.

The College routinely examines its Emergency Response Plan, which includes procedures that strive to ensure a rapid response to an unanticipated emergency or threatening situation. In the aftermath of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, a core group of the Emergency Response Committee, made up of senior College administrators, members of Campus Safety and others spent the summer reviewing and assessing the College’s emergency plan and communication strategies.

“In the event of an emergency, an effective College-wide communications process is critical to provide the greatest safety possible for our students, faculty and staff,” said Director of Campus Safety Bill Sickinger.

The newest policies and procedures include:

Text messaging: The College has collected more than 2,300 cell-phone numbers from students, faculty and staff to allow text-message alerts to be sent during an emergency. A system will be finalized shortly, allowing people to update or voluntarily provide their cell-phone number if they wish to receive the alerts. “Although we will continue to use e-mail alerts in an emergency, we encourage the entire campus community to participate in the text-alert system,” Sickinger said.

Emergency siren: A new emergency siren has been installed on the roof of the Reamer Campus Center. In the event of a serious incident, the siren will alert members of the campus community to seek additional information through the College Web site (www.union.edu), WRUC (89.7 FM) and UC-TV (Channel 21).

Web site: The home page will be modified in an emergency to post critical information.

Public address system: A new public address system has been purchased, with plans to install loudspeakers on 20 campus buildings. In addition, seven campus safety vehicles have been equipped with loudspeakers. As part of the review of the Emergency Response Plan, the committee participated in a tabletop exercise. A second exercise will be conducted this fall, and a full-scale drill involving local emergency responders is planned for spring. The College will be testing the emergency communications and notification system on a quarterly basis or more frequently, if necessary.

Other steps taken to enhance security include:

Surveillance cameras: Seven additional cameras have been installed around campus, with plans to add three more. That would bring the number of surveillance cameras on and around campus to 32.

Landscaping and lighting: Facilities Services has removed low hanging branches, bushes and trees, and it has installed higher wattage lamps in lights around campus. The city of Schenectady recently installed two stop signs on Seward Place to provide safer access to campus for students from College Park Hall.

“The College is committed to providing a safe and secure environment for its students, employees and staff,” said Sickinger. Those with questions or concerns are encouraged to contact him at ext. 6358.

Posted on Sep 11, 2007

The College’s Aerogel Team, directed by Prof. Ann Anderson of Mechanical Engineering with Mary Carroll of Chemistry, has received a third grant from the National Science Foundation.

The three-year instrumentation grant from the Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation Division, “Collaborative Facility for Research on Aerogel Materials,” is for $172,574. It also includes Prof. William D. Keat of Mechanical Engineering.  

The aerogel team, which includes six or more students from a range of disciplines, seeks improvements in the manufacturing process and on characterizing the properties of the aerogels, ultra-light matrix materials that make excellent insulators.

Another NSF grant, “RUI: Aerogel-Platform Optical Sensors” from the Division of Chemistry, with Carroll and Anderson, goes through August 2008.

Carroll’s American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (ACS PRF) grant, “Spectroscopic Investigation of Aerogel Structure and Suitability for Sensor Platforms,” ended last month.   
                                                                                         
Summer 2007 aerogel research students included:

— Christopher Backlund ’09, Chemistry major; funding from NSF RUI grant

— Shazia Baig ’09, Chemistry; funding from ACS PRF grant

— Michael Bono ’09, Mechanical Engineering; Scholars Summer Research Fellowship

— Emily Green ’08, Mechanical Engineering and Chemistry; Davenport Summer Research Fellowship

— Ondrej Nikel, exchange student from Czech Republic, Mechanical Engineering; summer funding from NSF RUI grant

— Caleb Wattley ’08, Mechanical Engineering; funding from NSF RUI grant

Total funding of the aerogel lab is more than $750,000 over the past five years. To date, more than 40 students have been involved in aerogel research at Union.

Posted on Sep 10, 2007

Welcome back to the start of the fall trimester. I want to provide you with an update on a number of important changes related to campus safety.

The College routinely examines its Emergency Response Plan, which includes procedures to strive to ensure a rapid response to an unanticipated emergency or threatening situation.

In the aftermath of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, a core group of the Emergency Response Committee, made up of senior College administrators, members of Campus Safety and others, spent the summer reviewing and assessing our emergency plan, particularly as it relates to our communication strategies.

In the event of an emergency, an effective College-wide communications process is critical in order to provide the greatest safety possible for our students, faculty and staff.

To that end, the committee has introduced new policies and procedures to ensure quick and reliable communication during a campus emergency. These include:

Text messaging

Since last spring, the College has collected more than 2,300 cell-phone numbers from students, faculty and staff to allow text-message alerts to be sent in the event of an emergency. A system will be finalized shortly, allowing people to update or voluntarily provide their cell-phone number if they wish to receive the alerts. Although we will continue to use e-mail alerts in an emergency, we encourage the entire campus community to participate in the text-alert system.

Emergency siren

A new emergency siren was recently installed on the roof of the Reamer Campus Center. In the event of a serious incident on campus, that is an incident which would require us to alert the entire campus, the siren will alert members of the campus community to seek additional information through the College’s Web site (www.union.edu), WRUC (89.7 FM) and UC-TV (Channel 21).

Web site

The home page will be modified in an emergency to post critical information.

Public address system

A new public address system has been purchased, with plans to install loudspeakers on 20 campus buildings. In addition, seven campus safety vehicles have been equipped with loudspeakers.

As part of the review of the Emergency Response Plan, the committee participated in a tabletop exercise. A second exercise will be conducted this fall, with a full-scale drill involving local emergency responders planned for spring.

The College will be testing the emergency communications and notification system on a quarterly basis or more frequently if necessary.

We have taken other steps to enhance security:

Surveillance cameras

Seven additional cameras have been installed around campus, with plans to add three more. That would bring to 32 the number of surveillance cameras on and around the perimeter of the campus.

Landscaping and lighting

The Facilities Service Department has removed low hanging branches, bushes and trees, and it has installed higher wattage lamps in lights around campus.

In addition, the City of Schenectady recently installed two stop signs on Seward Place to provide safer access to campus for students from College Park Hall.

The College is committed to providing a safe and secure environment for its students, faculty and staff. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact my office at 388-6358.