Music Department Staff: Prof. Tim Olsen, Chair; Prof. Dianne McMullen; Kathie Herrington, Administrative Program Assistant;
Prof. Victor Klimash; Prof. Jennifer Matsue and Prof. Hilary Tann
The Union College Music Department wraps up its fall musical performances beginning Sunday, Nov. 11 , with a concert by the Union College and Community Orchestra at 3 p.m. in Memorial Chapel. The concert is entitled "There will always be an England" and features works by composers who either hail from the British Isles, or are currently performing there.
Visiting Associate Professor Victor Klimash will conduct the orchestra’s performance of Sullivan’s "Overture to The Pirates of Penzance,” Professor Hillary Tann’s “Sarsen,” Peter Warlock's "Capriol Suite" and George Frideric Handel's suite of "Music for the Royal Fireworks."
A reception for the Orchestra and audience will immediately follow the concert in Hale House.
The final performance of the fall term features a student recital in the Fred L. Emerson Foundation Auditorium Monday, Nov. 12, at 5 p.m. Performers include pianists Peter Bonventre ’11 and Heidi Ching ’10, and vocalists Ben Bauer ’08, Yu Chen '10, Alexandra Gallagher ’09, Kara McCabe ’09 and Elizabeth Ruddle ’08.
Selections include Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Whither Must I Wander” and “Bright is the Ring of Words” featuring Bauer, bass. Bauer will also sing bass along with McCabe, soprano, for the duet “Là ci darem la mano” from Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.” Both numbers will be accompanied by Elinore Farnum on piano.
The Community Orchestra and Student Recital concerts are free and open to the public.
For additional information, contact the Music Department at (518) 388-6785 or visit http://www.union.edu/music.
Union is among a number of schools who are working to rejuvenate computing education in the U.S., thanks to a major grant from the National Science Foundation.
The College joins some 50 institutions who were awarded grants totaling $13 million from the NSF’s Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and its program, “CISE Pathways to Revitalized Undergraduate Computing Education (CPATH).”
Computer Science Professor Valerie Barr at the computer with two students in the classroom.
CPATH awarded $1.15 million to Union and Lafayette colleges for the joint five-year “Campus Wide Computation Initiative – A New Model for Computing Education.”
With a steep decline – 60 percent – in undergraduate computing enrollments in recent years, “it’s important to figure out how to get these kids back in as majors, or at least to learn about computing,” said Computer Science Chair Valerie Barr.
Barr prepared the grant application a year ago and is leading the project with Lafayette’s department chair, Chun Wai Liew. Their work, along with the work of other grant recipients, is aimed at ensuring the talent needed to address computing challenges of the 21st century workplace.
With the push to capture students’ interest in computer science early, the NSF grant dovetails with other changes to that effect already under way in Union’s CS Department.
There are now five introductory courses that focus on a range of areas, including computational science, artificial intelligence, robotics, game development and media computation.
“Our goal is to get more students involved by creating a curriculum that works across disciplines. Students in various fields, from biology to psychology, would take a computation course and go back to their home departments prepared to do discipline-specific, computationally intensive work.”
Barr noted that Union has interdisciplinary majors who are pairing Computer Science with Visual Arts, Music, Philosophy, Psychology, Economics, Biology and Math. This focus on making connections between and across disciplinary boundaries corresponds with key academic components of the Strategic Plan.
Barr, who came to Union in 2004 after nine years at Hofstra University, holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University. She helps coordinate Union’s Digital Arts Program, which includes a new introductory CS course, several Visual Arts courses, and classes in gaming and Web programming.
In addition to funding course and module development, the NSF CPATH grant will help support faculty travel to conferences and supervision of summer research. Other schools that received grants include Trinity College; Ohio State, Wake Forest, Penn State, Washington and Purdue universities; and the University of California at Berkeley.
Social robotics grant
The Union-Lafayette collaboration follows on the heels of another CPATH grant aimed at studying and revitalizing undergraduate computer science education.
The College has joined with researchers from the University at Albany, RPI, Schenectady County Community College and the Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium to study the field using interactive social robots. A social robotics curriculum typically incorporates elements of design, psychology, cognitive science, communication and philosophy in addition teaching to key computer science and engineering principles.
Through workshops for academics, students, industry leaders and others, the group will create a multi-disciplinary program in social robotics that would appeal to non-traditional computer science and engineering majors.
Union’s share of the two-year $330,000 grant is $40,000.
“We are going to lay the foundation for social robotics to help bring more students into the computer science field,” Barr said.
FRATS FOR CHARITY: Members of Sigma Phi and Delta Kappa Epsilon co-sponsored the Capital Region Monopoly Tournament.
The fourth annual “Get Your Game On” Monopoly Tournament kicks off Sunday, Nov. 11 at noon at College Park Hall on Nott Street. Proceeds benefit Family & Child Service of Schenectady.
The entrance fee is $5 for adults and $2 for children under 12. Doors open at 11: 30 a.m. and walk-in players are welcome.
The event, sponsored by Union fraternities Sigma Phi and Delta Kappa Epsilon, features a top prize of a weekend getaway to Montreal and a second prize of four round-trip Amtrak tickets to New York City.
Union athletes will also compete in a team tournament against athletes from Siena, Skidmore and the University at Albany, with the winning team receiving $100 in Dick’s Sporting Goods gift certificates.
Last year, 150 players helped to raise $9,500 for Family & Child Service programs. The year before, the tournament raised $12,000. Corporate sponsors include Northwoods Health System, Fenimore Asset Management and Saratoga Gaming and Raceway.
“Our goal is to raise $12,000 again this year,” said Mary Conklin, development director at Family & Child Service. “The money enables us to expand existing programs such as providing grants to families to pay for utilities or to purchase adaptive equipment.”
Prizes will be awarded to the person or team with the most money after one hour of play. All players will compete using traditional Monopoly game boards, which were donated by Parker Brothers. Children will play Monopoly Jr.
All participants get a free t-shirt and refreshments will be provided.
Tickets are available at the Student Activities Office in the Reamer Campus Center, or by calling Family & Child Service of Schenectady at (518) 393-1369.
Union is among a number of schools who are working to rejuvenate computing education in the United States, thanks to a major grant from the National Science Foundation.
The College joins some 50 institutions who were awarded grants totaling $13 million from the NSF’s Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and its program, “CISE Pathways to Revitalized Undergraduate Computing Education (CPATH).”
Compuster Science Chair Valiere Barr works with a student.
CPATH awarded $1.15 million to Union and Lafayette colleges for the joint five-year “Campus Wide Computation Initiative – A New Model for Computing Education.”
With a steep decline – 60 percent – in undergraduate computing enrollments in recent years, “it’s important to figure out how to get these kids back in as majors, or at least to learn about computing,” said Computer Science Chair Valerie Barr.
Barr prepared the grant application a year ago and is leading the project with Lafayette’s department chair, Chun Wai Liew. Their work, along with the work of other grant recipients, is aimed at ensuring the talent needed to address computing challenges of the 21st century workplace.
With the push to capture students’ interest in computer science early, the NSF grant dovetails with other changes to that effect already under way in Union’s CS Department.
There are now five introductory courses that focus on a range of areas, including computational science, artificial intelligence, robotics, game development and media computation.
“Our goal is to get more students involved by creating a curriculum that works across disciplines. Students in various fields, from biology to psychology, would take a computation course and go back to their home departments prepared to do discipline-specific, computationally intensive work.”
Barr noted that Union has interdisciplinary majors who are pairing Computer Science with Visual Arts, Music, Philosophy, Psychology, Economics, Biology and Math. This focus on making connections between and across disciplinary boundaries corresponds with key academic components of the Strategic Plan.
Barr, who came to Union in 2004 after nine years at Hofstra University, holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University. She helps coordinate Union’s Digital Arts Program, which includes a new introductory CS course, several Visual Arts courses, and classes in gaming and Web programming.
In addition to funding course and module development, the NSF CPATH grant will help support faculty travel to conferences and supervision of summer research. Other schools that received grants include Trinity College, Ohio State, Wake Forest, Penn State, Washington and Purdue universities, and the University of California at Berkeley.
Social robotics grant
The Union-Lafayette collaboration follows on the heels of another CPATH grant aimed at studying and revitalizing undergraduate computer science education.
The College has joined with researchers from the University at Albany, RPI, Schenectady County Community College and the Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium to study the field using interactive social robots. A social robotics curriculum typically incorporates elements of design, psychology, cognitive science, communication and philosophy in addition teaching to key computer science and engineering principles.
Through workshops for academics, students, industry leaders and others, the group will create a multi-disciplinary program in social robotics that would appeal to non-traditional computer science and engineering majors.
Union’s share of the two-year $330,000 grant is $40,000.
“We are going to lay the foundation for social robotics to help bring more students into the computer science field,” Barr said.
FRANK WARREN SWACKER, Class of 1947, Author of Who Murdered Mom? Fall 2007 Union College magazine
James A. Rock & Co. Publishers
FRANK WARREN SWACKER ’47
Who Murdered Mom?
James A. Rock & Co. Publishers
Margaret Largostern (Mom), is the owner of a Washington, D.C. public relations firm that specializes in the export of espionage and political corruption across continents. Her husband, Edward, a five-time widower is the sole beneficiary of Margaret’s $2 million life insurance policy. Between final university exams, daughter Cynthia, is dragged deeper into her parents’ shady pasts. Edward’s effort to claim the money turns up an ever-accelerating cascade of evidence, which uncovers the nefarious, the humorous and the unexpected. The author is a second-generation Wall Street lawyer. He served for a decade as the international counsel of a multibillion dollar conglomerate and as director of both private and public corporations.
GEORGE W. FELLENDORF, Class of 1947, Author of My Problems, God’s Solutions. Fall 2007 Union College magazine bookshelf.
GEORGE W. FELLENDORF ’47
My Problems, God’s Solutions
Pleasant Word
Fellendorf gives readers a unique and practical system of bringing problems to God, and how that has led him to more than 50 years of finding solutions. He candidly discusses his successes and failures as he teaches how problems and solution cards, combined with prayer and scripture, can help readers discover solutions. The 100-page paperback is available from www.pleasantwordbooks.com and www.amazon.com. Fellendorf lives in Keene, N.H.
DAVID MARKSON, Class of 1950, author of The Last Novel. Published by Shoemaker & Hoard. Fall 2007 Union College magazine bookeshelf.
DAVID MARKSON ’50
The Last Novel
Shoemaker & Hoard
In recent novels, which have been called “hypnotic,” “stunning” and “exhilarating,” Markson has created his own personal genre. In this new work, The Last Novel, an elderly author (referred to only as “Novelist”) announces that since this will be his final effort, he has “carte blanche to do anything he damned well pleases.” Pressed by solitude and age, Novelist's preoccupations inevitably turn to the stories of other artists — their genius, their lack of recognition, and their deaths. Keeping his personal history out of the story as much as possible, Novelist creates an incantatory stream of fascinating triumphs and failures from the lives of famous and not-so-famous painters, writers, musicians, sports figures and scientists. As Novelist moves through his last years, a minimalist self-portrait emerges, becoming an intricate masterpiece from Markson's astonishing imagination. Through these startling, sometimes comic, but often tragic anecdotes we unexpectedly discern the entire shape of a man's life.
ELMER H. ANTONSEN ’51
Elements of German: Phonology and Morphology
The University of Alabama Press
This textbook will help students improve their knowledge and command of grammatically correct German. It introduces students to methods and tools of linguistic analysis in the areas of phonology and morphology. Elements of German fills a gap in the advanced study of the German language by presenting high-level concepts of the language in a light intended for practical use. Antonsen is professor emeritus of linguistics and Germanic languages at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
JOHN SWIFT, JR., Class of 1986, editor of ASHRAE Green Guide: Designing, Constructing and Operating Sustainable Buildings. Fall 2007 Union College magazine bookshelf.
JOHN SWIFT, JR. ’86
ASHRAE Green Guide: Designing, Constructing and Operating Sustainable Buildings
Butterworth-Heinemann/Elsevier
The ASHRAE Green Guide is a design guide that helps engineers and others create integrated and environmentally responsible heating and air conditioning systems. ASHRAE is the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. This is the second edition of the society’s Green Guide, the primary reference for mechanical engineers working on high-performance building projects. Swift is a senior editor and contributing author.
Bookshelf submission guidelines
The Union Bookshelf features new books written by or about alumni and other members of the Union community. We also highlight books edited by Union alumni, faculty or administrators.
To be included in Bookshelf:
Send the book and the publisher’s press release to:
Office of Communications
Union College
Schenectady, NY 12308
or
Send publisher’s press release and a high-resolution book cover image to magazine@union.edu.
