Posted on Jan 17, 2008

Thursday, Jan. 31 is the deadline for proposals for the Internal Education Foundation in two categories.

Proposals for student-initiated research projects must have the written approval of a faculty advisor who has agreed to supervise the project. Submit them to Mary K. Carroll, the director of Undergraduate Research (Science & Engineering, S-100). Application forms are available there, or on the Web at http://www.union.edu/Academics/AcademicAffairs. Questions should be directed to Prof. Carroll at carrollm@union.edu.

Similarly, members of the College community who have educationally innovative proposals should submit them to David Hayes, dean of Academic Departments (Science and Engineering, S-100) on forms available there, or at http://www.union.edu/Academics/AcademicAffairs. Direct questions to Dean Hayes at hayesd@union.edu.

The Faculty Research Fund Committee is seeking proposals for faculty scholarship activities, also by Jan. 31.  Applications and guidelines are available at http://www.union.edu/Academics/AcademicAffairs. The next request for proposals for the Humanities Development Fund will be during spring term. Contact  Hayes with questions.

Posted on Jan 17, 2008

The Emerson String Quartet returns for a record 24th Concert Series performance Sunday, Jan. 27 at 3 p.m. in Memorial Chapel.

The quartet – Philip Setzer and Eugene Drucker, violins, Lawrence Dutton, viola, and David Finckel, cello – will be joined by special guests Paul Neubauer, viola, and Colin Carr, cello, for an evening of music from Johannes Brahms.

The program features Brahms’ Sextet for Strings No. 1 in B-flat Major, op. 18 and Sextet for Strings No. 2 in G Major, op. 36, “Agathe.”

In 2006-07, the Emerson String Quartet released an all-Brahms disc comprising the three Brahms Quartets, and the Piano Quintet with Leon Fleischer. In addition, an eight-concert anniversary “Perspectives Series” at Carnegie Hall featured Beethoven’s quartet repertoire spanning three centuries.

The ensemble has won seven Grammy Awards, including two for Best Classical Album and three Gramophone Awards. In 2004, the Quartet was named the 18th recipient of the Avery Fisher Prize—a first for a chamber ensemble. This season marks the Quartet’s third educational collaboration with Carnegie Hall and its 27th sold-out season in residency at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Formed in 1976, the Emerson String Quartet took its name from the American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson.

When he was 21, violist Paul Neubauer became the youngest principal string player in the history of the New York Philharmonic. He has appeared with more than 100 orchestras throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, including the New York, Los Angeles, Helsinki and Royal Liverpool Philharmonics as well as the St. Louis, Detroit and San Francisco Symphonies.

Neubauer collaborates with the Emerson Quartet in the United States and Europe and performs in recital with pianist Vladimir Feltsman. He is the orchestra and chamber music director of the OK Mozart Festival in Bartlesville, Okla., and is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and Mannes College.

Colin Carr first played the cello at the age of five; three years later he went to the Yehudi Menuhin School, where he studied with Maurice Gendron and later William Pleeth. Carr appears throughout the world as soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and teacher where he regularly performs in London, New York and Boston. He recorded and toured extensively for 20 years with the Golub-Kaplan-Carr Trio, and is a frequent visitor to international chamber music festivals worldwide.

Carr has won many prestigious international awards including Young Concert Artists, First Prize in the Naumburg Competition, the Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Award and Second Prize in the Rostropovich International Cello Competition. His cello was made by Matteo Gofriller in Venice in 1730.

The concert is free for the Union College community, $25 for general admission and $10 for area students. For tickets, call (518) 388-6080; for more information on the Series, call (518) 372-3651 or visit http://www.union.edu/ConcertSeries.

Posted on Jan 17, 2008

Sundance, the glitzy winter marketplace for independent movies, opens today in Park, City, Utah, and one filmmaker who will be front and center is Rawson Marshall Thurber ’97.

Thurber, who wrote and directed the 2004 hit comedy, “Dodgeball,” is getting considerable buzz for his new movie, “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.” The film, based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon, stars Jon Foster, Siena Miller, Nick Nolte, Peter Sarsgaard and Mena Suvari.

It chronicles the post-college exploits of Foster’s Art Bechstein, the son of a gangster, played by Nolte. Saarsgard is a drug-addled thief named Cleveland, and Miller plays his girlfriend, Jane. Suvari is Foster’s sometime girlfriend, a beautiful librarian named Phlox.

“Some people might be intrigued by the idea that the guy who did ‘Dodgeball’ is doing this film,” Thurber told Hollywood Reporter this week. ‘But I don’t think it’s necessarily that there are indie directors or studio directors anymore but that there’s subject and subject matter, and some are aligned to indies and some to studios.”

Thurber fell in love with Chabon’s novel when he read it in 1995: “I kind of knew I wanted to make the movie of the book pretty much before I knew I wanted to make movies,” he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"There’s a sense of beauty to the novel, a sense of fun, an overwhelming sense of nostalgia at play, of memory, and it’s a great summertime novel in the same way that “The Great Gatsby’ was a great summertime novel,” he said. “So I think it’s a classic American story, it’s a coming-of-age story, it’s the story about that last true summer of your life.”

On Wednesday, the film was named one of “10 Movies to Check Out at Sundance” by USA Today.

One of the producers of Thurber’s latest project is another Union graduate, Thor Benander ’95. And while in the Beehive State, if Thurber wants to reminisce about his alma mater, he can chat up Jackson’s Garden and the Nott Memorial with Sundance chief Robert Redford. The iconic actor/director spent several weeks on campus back in the fall and winter of 1972-73 filming scenes for “The Way We Were,” co-starring Barbra Streisand.

Thurber holds bachelor's degrees in English and Theater Arts from Union and an MFA in producing from the University of Southern California. He credits his liberal arts background at Union with giving him a good foundation for his Hollywood career.

His next planned big-screen project is an adaptation of the hit television series, “Magnum PI.”

And while Union’s at the movies, “The Bucket List,” starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, debuted at number one last weekend. What’s the connection? Director Rob Reiner, in a recent New York Times interview, said he tried to get the film made for several years, but had no luck until Alan Horn ’64, the president of Warner Bros. Entertainment, finally gave the project the go-ahead. Horn, Reiner and others co-founded Castle Rock Entertainment in 1987.

Thurber and Horn both live in California.

Posted on Jan 17, 2008

Friday, Jan. 18, 5–9 p.m. / Mandeville Gallery, Nott Memorial / reception for "Selections from the 7^th National Sunnyview Exhibition for Artists with Disabilities" exhibit, in conjunction with Art Night Schenectady 

Friday, Jan. 18, 7 p.m. / Messa Rink at Achilles Center / Men’s hockey vs. RPI

Saturday, Jan. 19, 3 p.m. / Messa Rink at Achilles Center / Women’s hockey vs. Sacred Heart

Saturday, Jan. 19, 5:15 p.m. / Messa Rink at Achilles Center / Union club hockey vs. Fordham University

Sunday, Jan. 20, 3 p.m. / Messa Rink at Achilles Center / Women’s hockey vs. Sacred Heart

Monday, Jan. 21, 8 p.m. / Fred L. Emerson Foundation Auditorium / Pianist Marcel Worms presents “New Blues for Piano”

Tuesday, Jan. 22, 12:50 p.m. / Phi Beta Kappa Room, Shaffer Library / ScienceDirect Lunch and Learn session

Tuesday, Jan. 22, 4 p.m. / Reamer Campus Center Auditorium / "Bringing Career to Life" with Nicole Williams

Wednesday, Jan. 23, 11:30 a.m. / Old Chapel / Sigma Chi blood drive

Wednesday, Jan. 23, 10 p.m. / Old Chapel / Comedian John Bush

Thursday, Jan. 24, 12:40 p.m. / Science and Engineering Room N304 / Physics and Astronomy Colloquium Series presents a talk by Kim M. Lewis, RPI: “Development of Single Electron Devices & Hybrid Nanostructures”

Thursday, Jan. 24, 4:30 p.m. / Phi Beta Kappa Room, Schafer Library / Philosophy Speaker Series presents “The Growth of Meaning and the Limits of Formalism: In Science, in Law”

Thursday, Jan. 24, 4-6 p.m. / TBD / The President’s Commission on the Status of Women presents talk by Assistant Prof. of History Kenneth Aslakson, “The Power of Weakness: Free Women of African Descent in the New Orleans City Court, 1806-1813”; jaina@union,edu for details

Thursday, Jan. 24, 6 p.m. / Alumni Gymnasium / Men’s and women’s swimming vs. Amherst

Friday, Jan. 25 – Monday, Jan. 28, 8 and 10 p.m. /Reamer Campus Center Auditorium / Film: “We Own the Night”

Friday, Jan. 25, 6 p.m. / Viniar Athletic Center / Women’s basketball vs. Hamilton

Friday, Jan. 25, 7 p.m. / Messa Rink at Achilles Center / Women’s hockey vs. Clarkson

Friday, Jan. 25, 8 p.m. / Viniar Athletic Center / Men’s basketball vs. Hamilton

Saturday, Jan. 26, 2 p.m / Viniar Athletic Center / Women’s basketball vs. William Smith

Saturday, Jan. 26, 4 p.m. / Messa Rink at Achilles Center / Women’s hockey vs. St. Lawrence

Saturday, Jan. 26, 4 p.m. / Viniar Athletic Center / Men’s basketball vs. Hobart

Saturday, Jan. 26, 7:45 p.m. / Messa Rink at Achilles Center / Union club hockey vs. University at Albany

Sunday, Jan. 27, 3 p.m. / Memorial Chapel / Chamber Concert Series presents Emerson String Quartet  

Posted on Jan 17, 2008

Hello Union Parents!

I hope your holidays were wonderful and that you enjoyed having the opportunity to get caught up with your Union student. It’s hard to believe how quickly this second term has arrived! Students are back and the campus is buzzing with activity! 

Just a reminder, Homecoming and Family Weekend ’08 is October 17-19. Be sure to get those dates on your calendar and hotel accommodations reserved. I’ll look forward to seeing you here!

 For parents of seniors, here is an important link for Commencement information. http://www.union.edu/Commencement/ If you have any questions, please contact Judy Ludwig in Academic Affairs via email at ludwigja@union.edu

And now messages from the Campus…

  Health Services
Just a reminder to parents…when sending those care packages from home, please remember to include items such as a new toothbrush, antibacterial soaps, tissues, cough drops, tea bags, hot chocolate and quick energy bars. Although our temperatures may be warmer than usual at the moment, it is cold and flu season.

 Student Activities
It might be cold outside, but Winter Term is heating up with Student Activities!  The term is packed full of great events!  The extremely popular Winter Comedy Series, 10 – 10 @ 10 (10 comedians, 10 weeks, at 10:00 p.m.) is back and will have your students laughing all term!  They will be in awe as Mentalist Chris Carter reads their minds.  Who doesn't want a free X-Box or Wii gaming system?  Well, students can win one by participating in an X-Box & Wii Tournament!  How about a little education and culture?  There will be a great program for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  Additionally Asian Student Union and UProgram will be sponsoring the Annual Lunar New Year Festival in February.  Ballroom Dance Lessons are held every Tuesday and Kendo Club will be practicing every Thursday and Sunday.  Club Hockey will be on the ice all term competing and practicing.  And let's not forget about the FREE weekly movie series, with titles such as "American Gangster" and "I am Legend".  All of this and so much more is happening!       

Parents of Seniors:  Encourage your student to have his/her Senior photo taken for FREE by Carlyn Studios from January 14th-18th.  All students who have their photo taken will receive a 2008 Garnet Yearbook for FREE.  Sign-ups are located outside of the Office of Student Activities, 404 Reamer Campus Center. 

Hillel Program
Fourteen Union students have just returned from a free 10-day Taglit-Birthright Israel Hillel Explore Israel trip and are scheduled to have a debriefing next week.  Registration for our spring trip will open on February 12th at 9 AM.  It is imperative that students who are interested in going on this trip register online immediately thereafter at www.freeisraeltrip.org.  They will receive an email to this effect in a few weeks.

 Applications have just gone out for our ROAR volunteer mentoring program for this term.  Other Hillel members are beginning to plan for the popular annual Hillel Snowball for area senior citizens that is scheduled for Feb. 10th.  Still others are busy thinking about menus to prepare for Friday night dinners that will be exciting and tantalizing.  Hillel has also committed one morning to helping construct Union's Habitat for Humanity house.  Weekly Torah study, conducted by Rabbi Shmuli Rubin will take place over lunch hour on Thursdays in the College Center.  And a series of monthly Rosh Chodesh women's programs is being planned jointly by Hillel and Chabad. 

 If you have any ideas that you think might be worth it for us to pursue or would like to serve on an advisory board for Union College Hillel, please email us back at strosbm2@union.edu.  And if we can answer any questions or be of help in any other way, please be in touch.    Margo Strosberg, Union College Hillel Director/Jewish Chaplain                                                                                                          

Becker Career Center
In its simplest form, the Becker Career Center is about helping students develop their goal attainment skills so that they’ll be able to secure opportunities for which they are well suited and manage their career for a lifetime in a dynamic, diverse and global environment.

 Now, when I say “secure opportunities for which they are well suited,” I mean opportunities that stir their passion – that drives their natural curiosity. I believe that if they secure such opportunities, they will perform better and the rewards will take care of themselves.

 For students who don’t know what they want to do, we encourage them to get to know themselves through self-assessment and exploration. With a better understanding of who they are, students will be in a better position to align who they are with their course of study, practical experience, and employment pursuits.

 By having the courage to get out of their comfort zones and engage in activities, courses, events, etc. that peak their interests, your student will have many positive and some negative experiences. Both experiences, however, are very important in helping them better understand themselves.

 At the end of the day, by knowing themselves better, they will be much more likely to make decisions that will put them in situations where they are more likely to succeed – however they define success.

 So, if your son or daughter doesn’t know what they want to do, have them call us at 518.388.6176 or stop in for some assistance.

 If your son or daughter wants an internship or full-time job this summer, now is the time for them to prepare to secure their opportunity. Some of the preparation includes:

 ·         Developing a resume
·         Having the ability to write a cover letter
·         Understanding the importance of networking and having the skills to conduct informational interviews
·         Interviewing practice

 Again, we can help your student with all of this.  All your son or daughter needs to do is call us at 518.388.6176 or stop in for some assistance.

 Finally parents, we will be having a Career Fair on Tuesday, February 19, from 4-7pm. If you (your employer) would like to participate, just let us know. The Career Fair is limited to 50 employers and participation will be on a first come first served basis.

Winter Workshops
·         Lab Sciences, 1/17 @ 7:00 p.m. in Green
·         Writing Papers/Essays; Week 3 in Sorum (date TBD)
·         Test Taking; Week 4 in Beuth (date TBD)
·         Pre-Registration; 2/4, 2/5, 2/7 from 7:00-9:00 p.m. in West, Davidson, and Richmond
·         Memory Techniques; Week 6 in Bailey (date and room number TBD)

 Office Hours

Stephanie         Wold                Sundays; 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Marti                Sorum              Mondays; 5:00-7:00 p.m.
Shane               Golub               Mondays; 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Dave                Green               Tuesdays; 5:00-7:00 p.m.
Andy                Breazzano        Wednesdays; 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Steve                Blue                 Wednesday; 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Jackie               Beuth               Thursdays; 6:00-8:00 p.m.

 Minerva Dessert and Discussion Speaker Series
January 24 – Summer Rayne Oaks:  Cornell grad, model and very active in Green Movement
February 7 – Regan Hoffman, Editor of A Poz Magazine, published for people with HIV / AIDS
February 19 – Darra Goldstein, Professor and Chef, winner of Julia Child Cookbook of Year
TBA (probably in April) – David Zaminski, Families of September 11
May 5 –  George Daley, M.D. Ph.D, stem cell researcher
May 6 –  Rob Caughlin, Speaker on Environmental Politics and Coastal Protection

News from The Parent Fund
ChairpersonVivian Falco (Peter ’09), is looking for volunteers to contact parents to share the message “A gift to The Parent Fund is a Vote of Confidence. “ Volunteers will be asking parents to support Union with a gift to The Parents Fund, at any giving level. The time commitment is small and provides another opportunity to be connected with Union College.

 The Parent Fund thanks you for your support. As parents, we understand the financial commitment parents make to send their children to Union College.  As tuition fees do not cover all of the necessary expenses, the College seeks support from alumni, friends, businesses, foundations and parents. Union College appreciates and values everything our parents do through their volunteer efforts, supporting their child's activities, attending campus events and entrusting the College to educate their children.

 If you would like more volunteering information, please email Vivian Falco at vivian.falco@gmail.com  or Elizabeth Epstein, Parent Fund Manager at Union College, epsteine@union.edu. Or send a message to Parents_Association@union.edu  

 Finally, I hope that your student is off to a good start for the term! As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. I look forward to talking with you soon.

Happy 2008,

Karen Dumonet (Vanessa ’07, Sebastian ’09)
Parents Association Chairperson