Outside Information: A Site-Specific Sound Installation by Stephan Moore
Moore, a composer, audio artist and sound designer in New York City, uses the complex acoustics inside the Nott Memorial to transform the building’s interior into a dense wilderness of small, shifting sounds. Says Rachel Seligman, director and curator, Mandeville Gallery, “This wonderful piece is a subtle blanket of shifting, tantalizing sounds, which engages the careful listener with its mysterious and delicate textures.”
Through Dec. 1
Burns Atrium Art Gallery
Visual Arts Building
Knackers Yard
Visiting Assistant Professor of Visual Arts Anthony Cafritz’s recent installation of seemingly disparate materials that “attempts to describe the current state of things.”
Charlotte Keenan worked alongside SAFER volunteers and Union students at her New Orleans house. Before Hurricane Katrina hit, Keenan evacuated to Tunica, Mississippi. When she and her husband returned in October 2005, they were only able to salvage about
Through Dec. 19
Wikoff Student Gallery
Nott Memorial
“Southern Louisiana: Hurricane Recovery”
This is a photographic documentary by Alex Handin ’10. Says Handin: “In 2005, hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated Southern Louisiana, claiming lives and destroying homes. In December 2007, I accompanied Union College's community service mini-term to New Orleans and Dulac, La. This project seeks to share experiences of hurricane survivors with members of the Union community.” An artists’ reception will be held Thursday, Nov. 13, 4:30–6 p.m.
Francisco Verástegui” Parabolas Mexicanas – Mandeville Gallery Oct. 2008
Through Feb. 8
Mandeville Gallery
Nott Memorial
“Parabolas Mexicanas: Paintings, Prints and Drawings by Bernardo González and Francisco Verástegui”
This exhibition features some 50 paintings, prints and drawings by Mexican artists Bernardo González and Francisco Verástegui. The College is hosting a series of events in connection with the show, including events with the artists, a film series, performances and lectures during fall and winter terms.
Through March 24
Schaffer Library Atrium
Union Notables
The third Union Notables exhibit, a rotating show of extraordinary people from the College, features John Bigelow, Class of 1835; Sue J. Goldie, ’84; and Charles Proteus Steinmetz, Union faculty member from 1902 to 1923.
Projects ranging from an innovative way to clean car exhaust to the design of a micro-wind turbine received the first Presidential Green Grants this week. The new initiative is aimed at supporting environmentally sustainable projects at Union.
“These grants should help us find the mechanisms by which we can improve the world,” said President Stephen C. Ainlay, who highlighted 10 projects that will share $16,000 in grants.
In Old Chapel on Nov. 10, 2008, President Stephen C. Ainlay with winners of the inaugural Presidential Green Grants.
Each project will receive between $500 to $2,000, and plans call for similar grants to be awarded over the next two years.
“We are actually asking the Union community, 'How are we going to do this? What are the new ideas?’,” Ainlay said in making the announcement at Old Chapel. “Over the next couple of years, I hope we see even more good ideas that could become part of the way we do business at Union College.”
The grants are part of wave of sustainable and environmentally friendly efforts at Union. All of these projects, including the student-driven U Recycle program, which covers the whole campus, are monitored by the U Sustain Committee.
The committee is made up of about 70 students, faculty and staff.
“At an institution like Union, one person can make a really big difference," said Jeffrey Corbin, professor of biology and leader of the sustainability committee. "The grants let us harness the creativity across the Union community by giving a little bit of startup money to get these ideas off the ground."
The Green grant winners and their project goals are:
Michael Bono '09:“Fabrication of an aerogel composite catalytic converter”
Goal: Develop composite aerogel catalysts capable of converting the pollutants in automobile exhaust into less environmentally harmful compounds.
Kevin Donovan '09 and Malysa Cheng '09: “Design and implementation of a micro-wind turbine to assess wind power generation on the Union College campus”
Goal: A joint senior project among engineering students to design and manufacture a vertical axis micro-wind turbine with which to test the feasibility of turbine locations and applications on campus.
Kimberly Floeser '11: “Canvas bags for U”
Goal: To replace plastic bags on campus with reusable canvas bags made out of recycled materials by making such bags available at various locations across campus.
Cathy Griffin '09: “The Union Exchange Web site”
Goal: To create an online forum for Union students, faculty and staff to exchange used items and help the College community reuse goods.
Edward Hancock '09 and Malcolm T. Dennison '09:“Examination of ocean wave energy through the method of a point absorber wave energy buoy”
Goal: To build or design an ocean wave energy buoy to better harvest ocean wave energy at a cost-efficient level.
Hugh Jenkins, professor of English:“Octopus’s Garden Organic Garden expansion”
Goal: To double the size of Octopus’s Garden, an organic garden run by students, faculty and staff that provides fresh food to local food shelters, campus Dining Services and the Ozone Café.
Tom McEvoy, associate dean of students, Minerva Programs director: “Mugs for Minervas”
Goal: To buy 1,200 reusable coffee mugs for most Minerva houses to replace disposable plastic cups.
David L. Sanders '09
“Eco-Friendly Potting Shed”
Goal: To build a shed made entirely of environmentally friendly materials that will operate off the electricity grid, provide Octopus’s Garden with a storage facility for tools and educate the Union community about the possibilities of building green.
Jordan Silletti ’09: “Energy audit of Golub House and Fox Hall”
Goal: To use data loggers that measure the kilowatt usage of lights in Golub House and Fox Hall and to determine the percentage of power used to light each building. After the analysis is complete, Silletti will propose lighting projects to decrease energy usage in these buildings.
Tyler Willey '11: “Lighting the way to a more environmentally friendly campus”
Goal: To cut down Union’s energy usage through the installation of motion sensor lights in the showers and bathrooms in Davidson, Fox, West and Richmond dormitories. By installing motion sensors, the lights in these facilities will be running only when the facility is in use.
One of the new surveillance cameras, located at Nott Street and Van Vranken Avenue
Union will donate up to 10 public surveillance cameras to help deter crime in the surrounding neighborhood under a partnership with the Schenectady County District Attorney’s Office and the city of Schenectady, officials announced at a press conference Wednesday.
Three cameras were recently installed along Nott Street; the others will be added in the coming months.
Union College President Stephen C. Ainlay speaks about surveillance cameras.
“We are committed to providing a safe and secure environment for our students, employees and staff, and these cameras will greatly assist our efforts,” said President Stephen C. Ainlay. “They create a buffer on our perimeter and provide law enforcement with an extra set of eyes to watch for criminal activity.”
The College is contributing more than $81,000 to pay for the cameras, part of a project launched by District Attorney Robert Carney. Since 2004, dozens of cameras have been installed on public streets and parking lots throughout the city. Attached to light poles, they can be controlled remotely and have the ability to pan, zoom and tilt to observe activity on the street. The live footage is monitored by trained individuals, including retired police officers, at police headquarters.
“We thank Union College for joining with us in expanding our public safety camera project to its current size of 40 cameras and to committing funding to do more,” Carney said. “Evidence captured by network cameras has helped police solve crimes and district attorneys convict offenders. In some locations our cameras have had measurable impacts in deterring crime, and we hope these cameras will make the Union campus a safer place.”
Schenectday Mayor Brian Stratton speaks about surveillance cameras.
Last month, the first three cameras became operational along Nott Street at Seward Place and at Van Vranken and Foster avenues. More cameras are planned for Seward Place (at Roger Hull Place, Union Street and South Avenue); Union Avenue (at University Place and Union Street) and the South Avenue/Park Place and Lenox Road/Nott Street intersections.
In other measures to address campus safety, the College added a second off-duty Schenectady police officer to bolster security patrols at night.
“We are grateful for the continued partnership with Union College to improve the safety and vitality of the community we share,” said Schenectady Mayor Brian U. Stratton.
Recent surveys have shown that cameras can be an effective deterrent against crime, and many colleges across the country have added them on campus and in surrounding neighborhoods. Union has 30 strategically placed campus cameras that are monitored regularly by the Campus Safety Department.
Campus Safety Director William Sickinger stressed that any information obtained through video monitoring is used exclusively for security and law enforcement purposes.
Robert Baker, lead author of the report to the American Medical Association on African Americans and organized medicine, which led the association to apologize for past segregationist policies, joined with co-authors Eddie Hoover and Todd Savitt this week to present a panel discussion on the report to the AMA House of Delegates in Orlando, Fla. Baker is the William D. Williams Professor of Philosophy, chair of the Rapaport Ethics Across the Curriculum Initiative and director of the Union Graduate College-Mount Sinai School of Medicine Bioethics Program.
Hans-Friedrich Mueller, professor and chair of the Classics Department, offered a workshop on Roman law for state high school teachers in Saratoga Springs at the annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Empire State. In light of the financial crisis on Wall Street, he focused on debt-bondage and ancient alternatives to repayment, which included hard labor, slavery and sex work. The latter, according to Cicero, eventually led to a complete overthrow of archaic Rome’s personal finance industry.
An article by George Gmelch, “An Anthropologist on the Team: Studying One’s Former Profession,” was published in the October issue of Anthropology Today. Gmelch’s “The Marketing of the Aluminum Baseball Bat” is included in the fall issue of Nine: The Journal of Baseball History and Culture. Gmelch is the Roger Thayer Stone Professor of Anthropology.
Mary Olushoga '06 was selected to serve as a 2009 Women and Public Policy Fellow at the Center for Women in Government & Civil Society. The premier women’s leadership development program is designed to promote equity and excellence in public service and encourage government to be more responsive to the needs of women, children, families and communities in New York state.
Biology major Rachel Fitz ’09 peered into a small, plastic terrarium housing a plump, rough-skinned amphibian about the size of a baseball.
Rachel Fitz '09 and Matt Adams '09 use a high-tech camera system to study a marine toad's heart during a simulated heart attack.
“This is a big one,” she said as the marine toad blinked and shifted its weight. “What are we going to name him?”
Inside a Butterfield Hall lab, Fitz and her research partner, Matt Adams ’09, have been studying how toad hearts respond to simulated heart attacks.
“In order for us to study the heart, it has to be beating normally in clear view. The intermediate steps required to get to this state aren’t exactly enjoyable, but they are necessary,” said Adams, a mechanical engineering and bioengineering student. “We hope we can learn how to limit the damage a heart attack does through this research.”
A poster outside the students’ lab is a constant reminder of just how critical the desire to minimize cardiovascular damage is. According to the American Heart Association, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States.
The toad’s heart attack was induced after its brain was clinically dead, Fitz explained as she carefully opened the toad’s underside.
Rachel Fitz '09 carefully works to reveal the still-beating heart of a toad. She and Matt Adams '09 are studying how the toad's heart responds to a simulated heart attack.
Once the heart was sufficiently exposed, Fitz tapped a tiny portion of the still-functioning organ with liquid nitrogen. The nitrogen caused certain heart cells to freeze, simulating a localized heart attack.
Adams then used a small pipette to dust the heart with white and black powder. This created a speckled pattern of crucial importance to the next step of the experiment.
Gently, Adams placed the toad under a high-speed, high-tech camera that is capable of taking hundreds of pictures a second. These pictures were then fed into a computer that analyzed the changes in the speckled pattern created by the movement of the heart.
“The computer tracks the movement in order to calculate the strain on the heart,” Adams said. “We also use a pressure transducer, which is basically a little catheter that we insert into the heart to measure pressure.”
As Adams and Fitz continue this research, their sights are set beyond the hearts of the toads in their lab. Someday, the pair said, they hope their work will help protect human hearts from the devastating changes in pressure and tension caused by cardiovascular attacks.
