Works by Brooklyn-based sculptors Wendy Klemperer and Steven Brower.
Jacobson, digital art show
Through March 23
Wikoff Student Gallery
The Nott Memorial
Digital Art: 7 Union Students
Works by Michael Bono ’09, Sarah Jacobson ’10, Steven Leung ’10, Rob Shirley ’09, Kathrin Burschyk ’11, Justin Blau ’08 and Emily Burgess ’10 in the fall Digital Art class taught by Assistant Professor of Visual Arts Fernando Orellana.
Orange Leg, Fernando Orellana
Through May 11
Mandeville Gallery
Nott Memorial
Fernando Orellana – Recent Work
Professor Orellana’s 14 paintings, four sculpture pieces and one video installation explore issues of consumer culture and our relationship with war. Orellana, who has exhibited nationally and internationally, is one of a growing number of artists worldwide who are creating works of art intimately connected to mechanics and technology.
Thursday, March 6, 4:30 p.m. / Hale House, Everest Lounge / English Prof. Harry Marten in “If the Sun is Up, It’s the Day,” reading from his writings on memory loss, dementia and caregiving. Geared toward those who are caregivers for parents or relatives with dementia or age-related infirmities. Sponsored by the Catholic Chaplaincy and Human Resources Employee Wellness Program
Thursday, March 6, 4:30 p.m. / Schaffer Library, Phi Beta Kappa Room / Philosophy Speakers Series present Kati Balog of Yale University on “Zombies, Conceivability Arguments and the Phenomenal Concept Strategy”
Thursday, March 6, 6 p.m. / Taylor Music Center, Emerson Auditorium / Union College Taiko Ensemble in “A Celebration of Winter”
Thursday, March 6 and Friday, March 7, 8 p.m. / Yulman Theatre / Winter Dance Concert: “Whirled in Flux”
Friday, March 7, 10 a.m. / F.W. Olin Center Rotunda / Faculty Media Fair featuring more than 20 participants
Friday, March 7 – Monday, March 10, 8 and 10 p.m. / Reamer Campus Center Auditorium / Film: No Country for Old Men
Saturday, March 8, 1 p.m. / Frank Bailey Field / Men’s lacrosse vs. RIT
Saturday, March 8, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. / Yulman Theatre / Winter Dance Concert: “Whirled in Flux”; featuring choreography to Pink Floyd
Saturday, March 8, 6 p.m. / Language House B, 209 Seward Ave., Schenectady / International Women's Day Celebration hosted by Russian and East European Club, featuring homemade Russian blyni (panckaes) and a skit, "Snowflake," a contemporary interpretation of the Russian fairytale
Monday, March 10, 2:30 p.m. / F.W. Olin Center Rotunda / Volcanology class poster presentation
Monday, March 10, 5 p.m. / Taylor Music Center, Emerson Auditorium / Student Recital, sponsored by Department of Music
Tuesday, March 11, 12:45-1:45 p.m. / Nott Memorial / Joint poster session highlighting student research from Sophomore Research Seminars taught by David Cotter, Sociology, and Andy Morris, Melinda Lawson and Joyce Madancy, History
Tuesday, March 11, 5 p.m. / Memorial Chapel / Union College Madrigal Singers
Wednesday, March 12, 7-8 p.m. / Yulman Theatre, Actor’s Studio / “Kabarett Stromausfall,” musical and dramatic revue of German cabaret throughout the 20th century, from the Roaring ‘20s through the Nazi period; in German with English supertitles. Sponsored by German Section, Modern Languages & Literatures. Free and open to the public, but seating is limited. A reception will follow.
Wednesday, March 12, 8 p.m. / Taylor Music Center, Emerson Auditorium / Union College Jazz Ensemble
Wednesday, March 12, 10 p.m. / Old Chapel / Comedian, John Bush
Friday, March 14 – Saturday, March 15, 8 p.m. / Breazzano House / The Mountebanks in “A Night of the Absurd,” featuring two free Samuel Beckett plays
Friday, March 14 – Monday, March 17, 8 and 10 p.m. / Reamer Campus Center Auditorium / Film: I am Legend
Saturday, March 15, 4 p.m. / Buck Ewing Field, Central Park / Men’s baseball vs. Oneonta
Saturday, March 15, 8 p.m. / Memorial Chapel / Chamber Concert Series presents Florestan Piano Trio; fourth Union visit by outstanding British ensemble
Sunday, March 16, 3 p.m. / Memorial Chapel / Union College Choir presents “Bach to Bacharach”
Stephen Berk, the Henry and Sally Schaffer Professor of Holocaust & Jewish Studies, is giving several lectures at Congregation Beth Emeth to help commemorate the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel and the 170th anniversary of the Albany synagogue. Lecture topics include “2008 Election Fever: Remembering the Strangest Election in American History 60 Years Ago in 1948”; “Israel at the Crossroads: Peace, War or Stalemate in 2008”; and “Jewish Contributions to American Society.”
Book cover for Zoe Oxley, March 2008
Assistant Professor of Sociology Deidre Hill Butler was the invited guest speaker for the Federal Bureau of Investigation Albany division’s annual Black History Month Program. Hill Butler’s talk was titled “Dr. Carter G. Woodson and The Origins of Multiculturalism and Connections to Black History Month.” This is also the 2008 National Black History Month theme for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, of which Butler is a longtime member.
Zoe Oxley, associate professor and chair of the Department of Political Science, has co-authored “Public Opinion: Democratic Ideals, Democratic Practice” with Rosie Clawson of Purdue University. The book, published last week by CQ Press, provides an overview of public opinion in the United States, with a particular emphasis on linking the empirical scholarship on public opinion to normative theories of democracy.
The students in Mary O’Keeffe’s economics course on income tax policy and practice are wrapping up six weeks of learning and service – and they’ve hit a milestone in a growing College program that continues to reap dividends for all involved.
Eight seniors have been spending their evenings helping working families and senior citizens file their tax returns free of charge through the state Volunteer Income Tax Assistant Program (VITA).
Since its launch in 2005, the VITA program at Union has secured some $1.4 million in cumulative tax refunds for local residents.
“This year’s students are a great group. They’re building on the tremendous work and good will built up by three previous years’ teams of VITA students,” said O’Keeffe, who teaches the course that includes running the VITA site at the Kenney Community Center.
Ashley Braniecki, VITA tax program
“This is much more than a class – it’s a way of giving back to the Schenectady community,” said student Ashley Braniecki. “Because the majority of our clients have very low incomes, they are eligible for an array of credits, and their tax refunds are usually very large. Most clients are very surprised and full of gratitude.”
“It’s been a fantastic experience,” said Steve Walker. “It’s been incredible to have the chance to apply what we learn in class to help the clients. Many of them depend on our work to get through the year, so we have to make sure we take care of everything well. It’s a very satisfying job.”
In addition to Braniecki and Walker, those involved this year include Fengguan Chen, Allison Dantus, Sarah Ehle, Thomas Haynes, Christopher Walkley and Alexander Zani. All passed the Intermediate Level in the IRS Basic Certification Exam when the VITA site opened its doors at the end of January, one of the first in the county to kick off the 2008 season.
Allison Dantus VITA tax program
This winter, the students e-filed 180 tax returns, securing roughly $500,000 in federal and New York state refunds for their clients while also saving them tens of thousands of dollars in preparer fees.
Helping coordinate the program is Angela Blair, assistant director for community outreach at the Kenney Center. And a number of former students have stayed in contact with the program, offering advice and encouragement to their successors.
The Union VITA site partners with the IRS, Schenectady County Department of Social Services, Schenectady County United Way and state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. Last spring, the Schenectady County Legislature issued a special resolution honoring VITA’s efforts.
For Union’s neighbors, it all adds up. Recounting stories of high fees and questionable advice from paid preparers, they’re sold on VITA.
“People refer their friends,” O’Keeffe said. “We were swamped this season, and we have already gotten many calls from satisfied customers requesting appointments to come in for their 2008 taxes.”
Mickey Bradley '87 and Dan Gordon '87 team up to write Haunted Baseball
Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon met as freshman, became friends as sophomores, and really got to know each other their junior year, when Bradley was Gordon’s dorm R.A. But other than the occasional run-in over hall sports, there was little talk of baseball, let alone writing a book together.
Mickey Bradley '87 and Dan Gordon '87 team up to write Haunted Baseball. Union College magazine. Winter 2008.
“Mickey’s a Yankees fan, named after Mantle,” Gordon said. “And I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Red Sox fan. So I think we felt the less said about baseball, the better.”
After graduation, Bradley moved on to graduate school and embarked on a career as a freelance corporate writer. Gordon won a Watson Fellowship and spent a year studying baseball culture in Japan, Cuba, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. When they reconnected at their 10th ReUnion in 1997, they talked about their current writing projects and, eventually, the prospect of working on a book together. That conversation eventually led to Haunted Baseball: Ghosts, Curses, Legends, and Eerie Events, published by Lyons Press in September 2007.
The two began researching the book in earnest at spring training in 2005, eventually interviewing more than 800 major league baseball players, managers and coaches, as well as stadium personnel and fans. They wrote three chapters, outlined about 30 others and, with a literary agent, presented the book proposal to several publishers.
The pair accepted an offer from Lyons Press in January 2006. They continued their research and writing for the next year and submitted a manuscript on Jan. 1, 2007. The book was released on Sept. 1 and, as of December, was headed toward a fourth printing.
“We liked the idea of ghost stories as a way of capturing baseball’s tradition and past,” Bradley said. “And catching some of the behind-the-scenes stories that players share with each other, but fans don’t always hear.”
Tales from the Vinoy Hotel fit the latter category. Players from many teams had first- or second-hand stories about ghostly goings-on in the Tampa Bay landmark. Other stories the authors heard included accounts of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig haunting a St. Petersburg ballpark, Yankee outfielder Johnny Damon being held down by a ghost in his home, numerous team curse legends, Roberto Clemente’s premonitions of his own tragic death in a plane crash, and ghosts running wild in Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Wrigley Field and Dodger Stadium.
Bradley and Gordon aren’t the only Unionites connected to the book. Anthropology Professor George Gmelch, a former minor leaguer who has published several books on the culture of baseball, introduced the pair to his agent and offered helpful tips on research.
“He even shared his own story about spreading his father’s ashes on the San Francisco Giant’s home field,” Gordon said.
In so doing, Gmelch joins major leaguers including Derek Jeter, Willie Mays, Coco Crisp, Alex Rodriguez, Jim Thome, Derrek Lee, Mike Piazza, Michael Young, and dozens of other famous athletes whose stories and perspectives are included in Haunted Baseball. Some are strong believers while others are more skeptical. As for the authors, they maintain a neutral tone throughout the book.
“We’re not looking to endorse or debunk,” Bradley said. “We’re just sharing these great stories that can be enjoyed as fact or lore. Readers can decide for themselves.”
EXCERPT: From Chapter 5, "Stompin' at the Vinoy"
Embedded in Washingtonian palms and crowned by an octagonal tower festooned with archways and intricate ornamental plasterwork, the Renaissance Vinoy Hotel is a landmark on the St. Petersburg waterfront. The plush rooms and postcard-perfect vistas have always attracted the rich and famous, including Babe Ruth, who is known to have lived a lavish existence in the hotel during numerous Spring Trainings. Today the Vinoy is the visiting team hotel for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Mickey Bradley '87 and Dan Gordon '87 team up to write Haunted Baseball. Book cover. Union College magazine, Winter 2008.
But movie stars and ball players are not the most famous guests at the Vinoy—ghosts are.
Relief pitcher Scott Williamson had never heard of the Vinoy being haunted when he stayed in an old section of the hotel with the Cincinnati Reds in mid-June 2003. But he ended up with an experience he says he’ll never forget. “I turned the lights out and I saw this faint light coming from the pool area. And I got this tingling sensation going through my body like someone was watching me, you know? I was getting a little paranoid.
“Then I roll over to my stomach. And all of the sudden it felt like someone was just pushing down, like this pressure, and I was having trouble breathing. So I rolled back over. I thought, ‘That’s weird.’ I did it again, rolled back on my stomach. All of a sudden, it’s like I just couldn’t breathe. It felt like someone was sitting on me or something.”
This time when Williamson rolled onto his back, he opened his eyes. “I looked, and someone was standing right where the curtains were. A guy with a coat. And it looked like he was from the '40s, or '50s, or '30s—somewhere around that era.”
“ESPN caught onto the story the next day,” adds Williamson. “And then a buddy of mine went and did research on it. He came back and told me, ‘You’re not gonna believe this! There’s a guy who died in that hotel. His name was [Benjamin] Williamson. He actually owned the hotel property before it was a hotel.’ I’m like, ‘What’s his last name?’ He goes ‘Williamson.’ I was like, ‘You gotta be kidding me!’ ”
Former Toronto Blue Jays reliever John Frascatore heard for years that the Vinoy was haunted, and his family’s first stay at the hotel vindicated the stories. Midway into the Jays batting practice, Frascatore got an urgent phone call from his wife. “You get the travel secretary on the phone!” she told him. “I’m not staying in that room anymore! That room is haunted!”
The kids had just brushed their teeth when five-year-old Gavin reported something strange. “Mom, the water keeps turning back on.” Kandria headed into the bathroom to find that indeed, the water was on. She shut it, turning the knob tight. Moments later, water was again flowing from the tap. Again she shut it off. Over the next couple of minutes, the faucet turned on by itself repeatedly and the toilet flushed three or four times. Thoroughly spooked, the family fled without their luggage. When they transferred to a room in the new wing of the hotel, front desk staff told them “that stuff happens all the time” in the old wing.
When Frascatore mentioned the incident to his teammates, several chimed in with their own Vinoy ghost stories – flickering lights, locked doors that opened themselves, and strange noises in the night.
Given the huge role of travel in professional baseball, it’s not surprising that hotels like the Vinoy come to occupy a good deal of ballplayers’ imaginations. Life on the road can be as empty and lonely as Wrigley Field in the postseason. Players—many of whom are superstitious about the game to begin with—pass the time by telling each other stories. But that still doesn’t explain why so many players claim firsthand experiences at the Vinoy, or why these experiences are often similar, or just plain inexplicable.
Jay Gibbons’s encounter there still gives him the chills. In town with the Baltimore Orioles one summer, the right fielder made a beeline for his room to catch some rest. He set the alarm clock on the bedside table, then washed up and prepared for bed. As he reached for the lamp, he noticed the clock he’d just set was now off. He sat up to reset it and discovered the cord draped over the dresser with the prong resting over the clock. “It kind of freaked me out,” says Gibbons, “because the outlet was near the floor. How the hell did the plug get from down there to the top of the dresser and just stay there? Because I didn’t even move the clock.” It’s an incident Gibbons hasn’t forgotten. “I haven’t turned the lights off since at that hotel!”
Devil Ray pitcher Jon Switzer had an alarming experience of his own the first night he stayed at the Vinoy. He and his wife Dana were staying on the fifth floor of the hotel when they awoke from a sound sleep to what sounded like a rat scratching from within the wall. The noise continued for a few minutes, then stopped suddenly. Fifteen minutes later, the scratching returned, so loudly that they sprung out of bed and turned on the bedside lamps.
It was at that moment Jon and Dana saw the artwork hanging above their bed come to life. The painting depicted a garden scene with a woman in Victorian dress holding a basket with her right hand. According to Jon, her left hand, which had been by her chin, was now scratching the glass desperately to get out. The couple stared in disbelief for about three seconds, then raced out the door.
Vinoy stories have become so legendary that it seems every player in the majors has one to relate. Infielder Geoff Blum describes ghosts hovering above players’ beds and personal belongings moving around in the room. Outfielder Mike Cameron knows of players getting “locked out of their rooms and seeing things that they normally don’t see.” “Almost every team I go to,” says veteran closer Todd Jones, “when they stay at the Vinoy, they say it’s haunted. I’ve heard that the walls breathe in and out.”
Why would the Vinoy be haunted? Stories abound of tragic fires, mysterious deaths, and lonely-hearts suicides, all alleged to have taken place in the hotel decades ago. Oakland A’s star Eric Chávez heard the hotel was “an old hospital back in the war days.” Gift shop workers told Kandria Frascatore a Romeo-and-Juliet-type saga of star-crossed young lovers whose romance was forbidden by the adults around them. They killed each other at the hotel and now haunt its hallways and rooms.
But according to hotel historian Elaine Normaille, none of these events actually happened. Nor could she substantiate any record of Benjamin Williamson dying on the property after he sold it, or staying there after he transferred ownership. Although a skeptic herself, Normaille recognizes that the place has become a magnet for paranormal groups who believe that the hotel is full of ghosts.
Just as the visiting team clubhouse at Tropicana Field is full of jumpy, bleary-eyed ballplayers in need of a good night’s sleep.
