Posted on Mar 31, 2009

The Office of Admissions has invited potential members of the Class of 2013 to participate in Accepted Student Days on Monday, April 6 and Monday, April 20.

“We have accepted a strong and diverse group with students representing 41 states and 41 countries,” said Matthew Malatesta, Vice President for Admissions, Financial Aid and Enrollment. “We have already decided these students are a wonderful fit for our community; these programs give them the opportunity to see if we are a good fit for them.”

On both days, a wide range of activities are available to accepted students and their families. Students can sit in on classes, take campus tours, attend information sessions, meet with faculty and much more. About 1,000 visitors are expected over the two days.

Despite the ailing economy, the applicant pool was 4,811 – Union’s third largest. The College pledges to meet the full financial needs of all admitted students. Approximately 60 percent of Union students receive scholarship assistance, with the average scholarship totaling over $20,000.

Malatesta ultimately expects to enroll 565 students in the Class of 2013.

For an Accepted Student Days schedule and more information, click here.

Posted on Mar 30, 2009

The College hosted the first conference on the physical aspects of the Mohawk River watershed on Friday, March 27, in the Olin Center.

The daylong symposium featured about 30 presentations on topics including flooding, ecosystem analysis, water quality, sediment yield, watershed management and the future of the watershed. More than 100 participants attended, including registered scientists, engineers and other professionals and students.

The conference was organized by John Garver, Geology Department chair, and Jaclyn Cockburn, visiting assistant professor of Geology.

The Daily Gazette did a news story on the conference; in addition, the paper's outdoor columnist wrote a piece.

The conference also received coverage in the Times Union.

Posted on Mar 29, 2009

Former Vermont governor and Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean will speak Monday, April 13, at 7 p.m. in Memorial Chapel.

Dean’s lecture is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6 p.m. Seating is limited and priority will be given to members of the campus community.

In January, Dean stepped down after four years as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Dean was the architect of the “50-state strategy,” in which Democrats compete for votes in traditionally Republican states. The strategy played a role in helping Barack Obama to a landslide win in November.

Dean recently joined the Washington law and lobbying firm, McKenna Long & Aldridge, as a consultant. He will serve as a strategic adviser to its health care and energy clients.

He also returned to Democracy for America, the political action committee he founded nearly five years ago.

The former governor sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004. But many experts believe his campaign was derailed, in part, by his infamous “scream speech” after the Iowa caucuses. Dean insists the speech did not cost him the nomination.

“The scream speech is not why I didn't win the presidency,” he recently told an audience at Brown University. “I didn't win the presidency because I came in third (in the Iowa caucuses) when I was supposed to come in first.”

Dean’s name continues to surface for a possible Cabinet position in the Obama administration.

This is the second straight year the Speakers Forum has sponsored a lecture featuring a former presidential candidate. Exactly one year before Dean’s scheduled talk, Mike Huckabee addressed a packed house in Memorial Chapel. Huckabee had sought the 2008 Republican nomination.

Posted on Mar 27, 2009

The Albers siblings have been making music together since they were toddlers studying violin with their mother, Ellie LeRoux. On Friday, April 3 at 8 p.m., The Albers Trio returns to Memorial Chapel for its second Chamber Concert Series performance.

General admission tickets cost $20, though area students may attend for $10. The concert is free to the Union community.

The group, which features three sisters, includes violinist Laura Albers, violist Rebecca Albers and cellist Julie Albers. At their upcoming performance, the three women will present portions of Beethoven’s Serenade in D, Hindemith’s Trio No. 2, and Mozart’s Divertimento in E flat.

Laura received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from The Cleveland Institute of Music and The Julliard School. She is the associate concertmaster of the San Francisco Opera.

Rebecca also attended Julliard, earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music there. She currently resides in Ann Arbor, Mich. as a member of the Phoenix Quartet.

Julie studied at The Cleveland Institute of Music and made her orchestral debut at age 17 with the Cleveland Orchestra. She has received various awards, including the grand prize in South Korea’s Gyeongnam International Music Competition and second prize in Munich’s Internationaler Musikwettbewerbes der ARD.

Posted on Mar 24, 2009

The College will host the first conference on the physical aspects of the Mohawk River watershed on Friday, March 27, in the Olin Center.

The daylong symposium features about 30 presentations on topics including flooding, ecosystem analysis, water quality, sediment yield, watershed management and the future of the watershed. More than 100 participants are expected, including registered scientists, engineers and other professionals and students. The conference is not open to the public.

The Mohawk River watershed is a unique and distinctive drainage basin that has major tributaries that empty part of the Adirondacks to the north and part of the Catskill Mountains to the south. The main trunk of the river occupies a natural topographic gap in the Appalachian mountain chain, which provides a unique and distinctive link between Atlantic and the interior of the continent. This aspect of the geography of the river played a crucial role in the westward expansion by early settlers and eventually was the primary reason the Erie Canal was positioned, in part, along the spine of this key waterway.

Flooding on the Mohawk and its tributaries has been a major concern. A number of talks will address recent flooding and advances in monitoring and understanding flood processes. There will also be an overview of the dynamics of ice jamming in the lower Mohawk River, which dramatically affects the Stockade neighborhood in Schenectady.

The keynote address, “Drums and Bums along the Mohawk,” will be given by Robert H. Boyle of Cooperstown, founder of Riverkeeper and the Hudson River Foundation for Science and Environmental Research. Boyle, named by Audubon Magazine as one of the 100 Champions of Conservation for the 20th century, will discuss using science and the law to protect the natural resources of the watershed from predatory interests.

The conference was organized by John Garver, Geology Department chair, and Jaclyn Cockburn, visiting assistant professor of Geology.

For more information, including a schedule of presentations, click here.