Union’s Founders Day 2009 was one of the most inspiring days in my nearly 30 years working in higher education. Memorial Chapel was packed when James M. McPherson, professor emeritus at Princeton University and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom, took the stage and described in rich detail the impressive role that Union played in the abolitionist movement. He described the early abolitionist sermon preached by Union’s second president, Jonathan Edwards, Jr. He talked in detail of President Eliphalet Nott’s abolitionist sympathies and his influence on the likes of William Seward. In turn, he talked about Seward’s influence on Lincoln’s views of slavery. McPherson concluded by noting, Union can be “rightfully proud” of its record of service.
Founders Day also provided a venue for the unveiling of a portrait of Moses Viney. Viney was an escaped slave who fled from Maryland and found a new life at Union, working for President Nott and his wife, Urania. In his Founders Day talk, McPherson described Viney and Nott as having a relationship more like a son and father than an employee and employer. Indeed it was Nott who secured Viney’s freedom and it was Viney who carried Nott – incapacitated in his later years by strokes – in his arms. The portrait was painted by renowned artist Simmie Knox and adds to the College’s collection of works by distinguished artists, including works by Henry Inman, Ezra James and Thomas Sully. When the portrait was unveiled, Knox received a spontaneous and sustained standing ovation. So moving and inspiring was the entire event that faculty, staff, and students as well as our guest speakers clustered around the portrait of Viney long after the ceremony had ended to share feelings that the talks and portrait had evoked.
In his remarks at Founders Day, Jared Gourrier, Class of 2012, said that his efforts to recover the history of Nott and Viney had been a source of inspiration. He noted that “every day that we roam this campus we are walking in history” and spoke of how “making history” should be part of every Union student’s future.
There is little doubt that members of the Union family have heeded this call. We recently held the inaugural celebration of volunteer activities, sponsored by the Union’s Kenney Center. From tutoring to after-school programs for Schenectady school children, from maintaining historic Vale Cemetery to helping build Habitat for Humanity homes, from preparing free tax returns to improving literacy, the Union campus community has committed thousands of hours of community service over the past year.
Union students have also made a difference around the world. Our returning Minerva Fellows spent the better part of the last year working with nonprofit organizations in areas of the world where needs are acute. Our Engineers Without Borders chapter spent spring break assessing the water needs of an Ethiopian village and are currently making plans to return and help the village reclaim their well.
This issue of the magazine is filled with other examples of Union making a difference and changing the course of history: The Karp family’s support of the Posse students ensures that these remarkable young men and women will continue to enrich our campus life; The Lippman family’s support of the renovation of our Social Science building ensures that they and others will have the facilities in which they will grow and thrive; And the obituaries of those departed members of our Union family – such as Rear Admiral Stevenson and his efforts to improve the lives of Native American and Alaska Native people – remind us of the character of the Union graduate and the difference people committed to service can make.
I am reminded every day of Union’s remarkable contributions. In celebrating accomplishments, service, and generous gifts of Union family members, this issue of Union College magazine makes it clear that we are still leaving our mark. James M. McPherson is undoubtedly right: Union can be rightfully proud of its record of service. Jared Gourrier is undoubtedly right: Union’s record of service should spur all of us to make a difference and to make history.