The mask of Dewi Sri, the rice goddess, with commemorative bookplate designed by Prof. Charles Steckler and Rich Mendoza '93.
The late Gail George, a well-traveled adventurer with a passion for Balinese dance and culture, knew well the spiritual power of the masks from her collection that were installed outside the World Music Studio at Taylor Music Center on Friday, Nov. 14, 2008.
So, she would have approved of the deferential treatment afforded to one in particular.
Gail George, wife of Carl George, professor emeritus of biology
Cululuk, a trickster witch found in a number of Balinese tales, is thought to bring bad tidings to those who displease her, said Prof. Jennifer Matsue, who led the dedication ceremony. “She was not happy in the case with the other masks, so she’ll go into the World Music Studio until we can provide a case of her own.”
The collection of sacred masks was donated by Carl George, professor emeritus of biology whose wife, Gail, was a frequent organizer of dance and theater events on campus and in the region. She died Feb. 12, 2008 after a battle with cancer.
“We all wear masks, don’t we?” Prof. George said at the ceremony. “Masks are part of our humanness.” The masks will play an important part in the global education of Union students for years to come, he said.
The audience included a number of Gail’s friends, dressed in colorful sarongs, many of whom accompanied her on a trip to Bali.
“These masks were used in many kinds of dances and have great spiritual value,” Matsue said. “There is a belief that some of the Balinese dances are touched by the gods, and some of the masks hold powerful magic.” All of the pieces were produced by master mask makers and blessed by Balinese Hindu priests, she said.
I read the article “Making the case for engineering as a liberal art” (p. 16, Summer 2008) with great amusement. The logic is fully inverted.
If the goal of a Union education is to prepare students to address the threats and opportunities presented by the technological world, then the primary education required is in the disciplines of science and technology. Science is the principle focus in the context of rational human society, not the other way around.
Summer 2008 Union College magazine cover. Africa in Focus. Photo by Nancy Borowick '07.
The Princeton University gift to “integrate the two disciplines” (engineering into the liberal arts) is a bizarre concept. An academic discipline is a well-defined body of knowledge within a well-bounded scope. Physics is a discipline. Electrical engineering is a discipline. At best, liberal arts is the aggregate domain of non-science. How do you integrate a discipline with a non-discipline?
I attended Union from 1968–72 because the Physics Department and Engineering Department had competent staff who prepared me for graduate school and a career in the world of technology. I was able to use my scientific and engineering knowledge to work a diverse and rewarding career that spanned process automation, environmental engineering, data communications, information management, and corporate IT planning and architecture.
To this day, I can name several Union physics professors who were instrumental in teaching me how to acquire and integrate new facts into hypotheses and working knowledge. I used those skills in every technical and management position I held. I can’t recall a memorable class or faculty member from the Union humanities program.
Study of the humanities can certainly make one’s life experience more pleasurable. Broad improvement in living standards, however, follows the application of science in technology. If you have to ask whether technology or liberal arts contributed more to the overall material wealth and prosperity of human-kind, then you probably need to ask “Who is John Galt?”
Large portions of 20th century history, and the recent financial fiasco of government-encouraged mortgage-backed securities, clearly teach us that we don’t need more “political scientists” or “social engineers.” I suggest Union focus on the core scientific and engineering disciplines that will properly equip students to interact competently in a technological world.
John “Hans” Mentha ’72
Hans Mentha retired as a director of enterprise IT architecture in 2003, lives on 5 acres of woods in rural North Carolina, and describes himself as “purposefully unemployed.”
A PROFESSOR’S GUIDANCE
I was saddened to learn of the death of Charles Swartz, professor emeritus of physics and my academic advisor at Union from 1962–65. Professor Swartz had an incredible influence on my future as an academician.
Professor Swartz was really tough. He always answered my questions by asking a question. At the time, I didn’t like that. I just wanted the answers.
Professor Swartz didn’t give out compliments freely. But, at the end of my sophomore year, I sat in his office and discussed my upcoming junior year program. I had one free elective and thought I should probably enroll in a statistics course. Professor Swartz looked at me for a long moment; perhaps he was thinking that I was finally coming of age. He simply said, “That’s a very good choice, Joe.”
When I was a senior at Union, I took Professor Swartz’s dreaded quantum mechanics class. (I went on to take five more courses in quantum mechanics, and it is still only slightly distinguishable from magic.) One day, Professor Swartz said to this struggling student, “Joe, when you think about a physics problem, think about the general picture. You tend too much toward specifics. I think you’ll do better if you try that.” I have not forgotten that Charles Swartz taught me how to think.
On one warm spring afternoon in 1965, I was sitting in Professor Swartz’s office on the second floor in the old Physics building on campus. I was 21 years old. I was one week from graduation and I was figuring on working for NASA after I completed my doctorate. I was looking out of the window at the spring blossoms, yearning to get out of the office. And then I looked around the office. Here was an incredibly bright man who had a private office filled with books, a blackboard on one wall with various student and professor calculations and a window overlooking the campus. I began to think, this is what I want to do.
Although we wrote to each other when I was in graduate school in the 1960s, Charlie and I had no correspondence for a number of years before I retired in 2005. I was thankful that Ken Schick, professor emeritus of biophysics, was able to provide me with Charlie’s e-mail address at that time. I wrote to him and told him of my upcoming retirement from St. Thomas Aquinas College, where I had taught physics for 34 years. I noted that I was being granted an emeritus professorship. He responded by saying, “Either I am getting very old or emeritus professors are getting that honor at a much younger age.”
In Charles Swartz, I found the enviable characteristics that every outstanding teacher has: a love for young people and a limitless enjoyment of teaching. I shall never forget him.
Joseph A. Keane ’65
Joseph A. Keane was a professor of physics and mathematics at St. Thomas Aquinas College in Rockland County (N.Y.) and now lives Fayetteville, Pa.
Editor’s note: News of Professor Swartz’s death was published on the College Web site in September. His obituary is in the In Memoriam section, located here.
Matt Malatesta '91, Vice President for Admissions, Financial Aid and Enrollment
As a high school senior in Pittsfield, Mass., I focused my college search on some of New England’s best business schools: Bentley College, Babson College and Bryant University. It was the fall of 1986 and my oldest brother, Paul Malatesta ’87, was a senior computer science major at Union. He was having a terrific experience, so my parents asked me to include Union on my list, just in case my plans changed.
Matt Malatesta '91, Vice President for Admissions, Financial Aid and Enrollment
Being the good son (and brother), I scheduled a visit to Schenectady. I remember my Union interview with former Director of Admissions Dianne Crozier as my best college interview because I felt no pressure. I explained in the interview that, while I found the campus beautiful and enjoyed the community feel, business was in my plans and Union wasn’t the right fit.
Dianne took my comments as a challenge. Her ability to explain the philosophy and advantages of a liberal arts education was quite persuasive. That, coupled with my brother’s positive experience, convinced me to shift paths and head off to Schenectady.
And last spring, after several years at Hamilton College, I returned to Union. This time though, I am on the other side of the interview. It is my turn to convince prospective Union students of the value of a liberal arts education and showcase the opportunities available to them on our campus.
It is wonderful to be back at Union, though a bit surprising that my family and I live about 50 yards from the apartment where my wife, Maggie (Brush) Malatesta ’91, lived during our senior year. It is also the same apartment where I picked her up for our first date.
While I am filled with nostalgia, I am also excited to be here now. In short: It is a good time to be at Union College.
Under President Stephen C. Ainlay, the College is building on its long-standing strengths, including: a top-notch faculty; quality resources; a beautiful campus; and a great student body. Add in fresh student programs like the Minerva House System and an economic uptick in downtown Schenectady, and it is not hard to feel a swell of positive energy on campus.
So, I’d like to ask Union’s alumni and friends to help me share that message. Union is too often referred to as a “best kept secret” among top-tier liberal arts colleges. The entire Union family can help alter that perception by projecting a consistent message that reaffirms what makes the College unique: our great history of innovation; the wide degree of student participation in a range of majors; the premium placed on study-abroad, internationalism and interdisciplinary studies; and the closeness of our community, coupled with a diversity of religions, ethnicities, ideas and opportunities.
Whether it is simply by speaking positively of your Union experiences to others or recommending the College to a prospective student, alumni can have a great impact on admissions.
For alumni who wish to get more involved with our regional admissions efforts, particularly those who want to help with interviews in New Hampshire, Vermont or western New York, contact Palmer Fargnoli ’93, director of the Alumni Admissions Program. Palmer can be reached at fargnolp@union.edu.
Also, alumni can help by giving to the Union Fund. A higher rate of alumni giving to the fund is an important factor in marketing Union to prospective students.
I will do my best to lead Union’s admissions and financial aid efforts in the coming years. With your help, I know we can continue to recruit the best and the brightest students and boost Union’s public profile.
Issues of medical outsourcing, ultrasonic teen deterrents and even the treatment of modern day pirates are much on the minds of the Union College Ethics Bowl Team.
Meagan Keenan ’09, Ian Clemente ’10, Lativa Holder ’10, Thanh Mai Bui Duy ’11 and David Leavitt ’12 and have been studiously preparing these and other cases since the beginning of the term.
This weekend, they’ll go head-to-head with other teams at the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl regional tournament at Villanova University. (Team members Andrew Kantor ’09 and Hyma Kavuri ’10 will not be at the event.)
“Our world is full of ethical issues that we often don’t have the time to examine in-depth. Above all, Ethics Bowl has given me a new outlook on the universal laws and ethics that govern this world,” said Keenan. She joined the group as a sophomore after her Freshman Preceptorial professor persuaded her she would enjoy the style of debate that complements philosophy and ethics with rigorous development of arguments.
Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl team, fall 2008
“I've always been interested in law, and I think Ethics Bowl is one of the best preparations I've had for a future career. One of the more important skills the cases test is the ability to convey a logical and reasonable argument, regardless of the actual issue at hand,” Keenan said.
“Our students are confronting a rich variety of issues and developing moral arguments that draw on a wide range of disciplines,” said team advisor Mark Wunderlich, a visiting assistant professor in the Philosophy Department.
“One of the most striking things about it is that it encourages intellectual exploration and risk-taking in a different way than a formal classroom setting and many other activities on campus. It’s a great opportunity for social interaction, independent study and collaborative research.”
Lativa Holder and Meagan Keenan, Ethics Bowl 2008
The group is sponsored by the Philosophy Department, but because of the interdisciplinary nature of the cases, at least a dozen faculty members from a variety of departments, including Economics, Modern Languages, Psychology, Theater and Dance, and Schaffer Library have helped to provide perspectives.
There are 15 cases in play, and each student is responsible for developing the team’s position on three of them.
On a recent Friday afternoon, the team could be found in the Humanities Lounge probing the ethics of poverty tours (“poorism”) in places such as Rio de Janeiro, South Africa and Mumbai.
While critics charge that ogling the poor is more voyeurism than tourism, others claim that such exposure to dismal living conditions can be transformative for visitors.
For Keenan, who spent a term abroad in Rio, “the case is as much about the repression of class war as it is about globalization. Ethics Bowl has allowed us to look at the case in depth for the philosophical principles that undergird the issue, and I've learned so much more about it because of it.”
Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Team, fall 2008
Other cases this year tackle the ethics of surreptitious DNA gathering, babies behind bars, immigrant and soldiers’ rights, and the constitutional rights of Cherokee Freedmen.
Ethics Bowl is known to be one of the more rigorous academic extracurriculars on campus, but for Bui Duy, the extra work is worth it. She enjoys having “the chance to explore different ethical dilemmas while still being myself. I am able to pick the side I want to debate.”
The IEF-funded Union team has received enthusiastic support from the offices of the Dean of Academic Studies and Dean of Academic Departments, as well.
Other teams in the intercollegiate regional this year include the University at Buffalo; Dartmouth College, Franklin Pierce University; Manhattan, Marist and Moravian colleges, University of Notre Dame–Maryland; Wilson College, UMass-Boston; Williams College, Villanova and SUNY-Fredonia.
Nationwide, 120 teams from 10 regions are competing. The top teams will go to the national event in the spring.
Since participating in its first Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl in 2003, Union has distinguished itself as a top contender. In 2006, the Union team placed second at the National Championship.
