Homecoming and Family Weekend is winding down.
On Sunday at 3 p.m., Union’s Department of Music presents “Songs of Hope,” a concert inspired by the events of 9/11, at the Fred L. Emerson Foundation Auditorium in the Taylor Music Center. The concert is timed to coincide with the Daniel Pearl World Music Days, an international network of “Harmony for Humanity” concerts using the power of music to reaffirm a commitment to tolerance.
Phil Alden Robinson ’71, screenwriter and director of the caper film, Sneakers, and the baseball classic, Field of Dreams, capped off the opening day during a Friday night lecture at the Nott Memorial.
Robinson kicked off the second year of “Writers Return: The Alumni Writers Series” and ended a day of lectures, family activities and award ceremonies. About 2,000 alumni, parents and friends are on campus through Sunday for the annual Homecoming & Family Weekend.
The complex but lighthearted Sneakers is laced with visual nods to Union and premiered on campus in 1992, after a nine-year collaborative production process. Robinson’s credits also include the film, The Sum of All Fears, and an episode of HBO’s Band of Brothers. Robinson also held a Q. & A. Brunch Saturday in Wold House.
“It was a chaotic, wild and disorganzied process. It took three of us nine years to write Sneakers,” Robinson told several dozen people at the Nott Memorial, including his former Union College English Professor Bill Murphy.
At a midday event Friday at Sorum House, Dr. Kathy Magliato ’85, one of the few female cardiothoracic transplant surgeons in the world, discussed “Cut to Cure: A Cardiac Surgeon’s Perspective on Heart Disease in Women.” She addressed such topics as the risk factors for heart disease, how symptoms of heart disease in women differ from those in men, and treatment options. Dr. Magliato also spoke Saturday in the Nott Memorial, where she discussed her work and how it all began with the pre-med program at Union.
As Dr. Magliato completed her talk, students and parents gathered in front of the Breazzano House for the Minerva Pumpkin Carving Championship. The best pumpkins from each Minerva House squared off at noon Saturday to win the top prize, an iPhone.
The early evening was highlighted by the annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner, which honored, among others, former Board of Trustees Chairman Stephen J. Ciesinski ’70 and devoted College volunteer Harold Krupa ’69. Ciesinski, an entrprenuer and founder of several technology firms, was given the Distinguished Service Award for his service to the College. Krupa, a ubiquitous presence on campus and in the Schenectady Alumni Club, was given the Special Appreciation Award.
Weeekend event highlights included Stephen Ritterbush ’68, a Union trustee and managing partner at Fairfax Partners in Vienna, Va., a private equity investment firm, on “Creating Companies: Entrepreneurship from the South Pacific to Washington, D.C. (and a Few Stops in Between)” Saturday in the Burns Arts Atrium of the Visual Arts Building. He has founded more than 25 companies including ISR Solutions, the world's largest privately held security systems integration company, and AppNet Systems, Inc., a company that provided a variety of Web-based services ranging from inventory management to Web page design. His talk is part of the Eliphalet Nott Society’s Business Forum.
Tours scheduled throughout the weekend will visit downtown Schenectady, Proctor’s Theater, the Nott Memorial and Schaffer Library. Student Gatekeepers will lead campus walking tours. Today’s departmental open houses include Taylor Music Center, Becker Career Center, Admissions and Olin Observatory.
Music and art are also on tap. “ReView: Five Union Alumni,” at the Mandeville Gallery, features works in a variety of media by Alfred J. Nadel ’56, Stephen Pentak ’73, Linda Fisher ’87, Chester Urban ’93 and Nori Lupfer ’03. Photos of Nepal by noted photographer Kevin Bubriski are on view in the Burns Arts Atrium.
For a full schedule of Homecoming and Family Weekend events, visit: www.union.edu/HFW.