The Office of Admissions will host fall Open Houses for prospective students on Monday, Oct. 12 and Monday, Oct. 26, starting at 8:45 a.m. both days.
Fall 2006 Foliage
Visitors will have the opportunity to tour campus grounds and facilities; attend sessions on financial aid, housing and career planning; meet faculty and students; discuss varsity, club and intramural athletic options; and learn about undergraduate research and international programs.
Prospective students and their parents can register for the Open Houses and view a complete schedule of activities here. Advance notice is appreciated, and all families are advised to arrive by 8 a.m. for check-in and a continental breakfast. For more information, contact the Admissions Office at (888) 843-6688.
In addition, personal interviews are a key element of evaluating a student’s application and are highly recommended. Interviews are offered Monday through Friday at 9:30 and 11:30 a.m., and 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. To schedule an on-campus interview, please call the Admissions Office.
Union recently welcomed the Class of 2013, the most diverse in the College’s history. Its 525 members, with average SAT scores of 1920 (out of 2400), were chosen from 4,825 applicants. These students represent 22 states and 13 countries, with individuals of color comprising 20 percent of the class. Four percent of the class is international students.
These beaded birds are part of the “North by Northeast” exhibit.
Viewers will get a unique glimpse into the traditional arts of New York’s Akwesasne Mohawk and Tuscarora tribes when “North by Northeast: Baskets and Beadwork from the Akwesasne Mohawk and Tuscarora” opens Friday, Sept. 25 in the Mandeville Gallery.
The selected pieces were chosen from a larger traveling exhibition curated by Kathleen Mundell, folklorist and director of Cultural Resources, a nonprofit organization that helps communities sustain local culture.
The show runs through Saturday, Oct. 24. An opening reception will be held Friday, Oct. 2, 5-8 p.m. in the Nott Memorial, in conjunction with the opening reception for a second show, “Reimagining the Distaff Toolkit.”
This traveling exhibit, curated by New Paltz, N.Y., independent curator and historian Rickie Solinger, features 36 works by 28 contemporary artists.
Each work incorporates a tool that was important for women’s domestic labor in the past. Many of these tools, including a washboard, a dressmaker’s figure, cooking pans, rug-beaters and mason jars, facilitated hard, repetitive labor. They evoke various histories – European American, African-American, Asian American – of women’s unpaid and often diminished and disrespected status within the household and society.
The show’s title aptly includes the distaff, a tool attached to a spinning wheel that’s designed to hold un-spun fibers. Over time, the word came to refer to matters and objects in the domestic or women’s sphere, and then, to women in general.
Solinger will give a lecture in conjunction with the show on Thursday, Oct. 1 at 4 p.m. in Reamer Campus Center Auditorium. Her talk is entitled “Becoming a Curator: Seeing Race, Class, Gender and History in Objects and Images.”
“Reimagining the Distaff” runs through Sunday, Dec. 20.
Thousands of spectators gathered in New Ulm, Minn. recently to see the calendar turned back 2,000 years to a battle that help shape Europe for centuries to come. An army of re-enactors led by Arminius, also known as "Hermann the German," defeated the Roman legions of Quintilus Varus.
As part of the Hermann Victory Celebration, a symposium at Martin Luther College examined the historical impact of the battle. One of the featured speakers was Hans-Friedrich Mueller, Professor of Classics at Union.
To read an account in the St. Cloud Times, click here.
Hilary Tann, music professor. pyramid in Central Park. 1983. Frank Griggs
In the early 1980s, Hilary Tann was walking her dog in Schenectady’s Central Park when she noticed the remnants of a geological treasure: a pyramid chronicling the history of the area's rocks.
Originally intended as a Boy Scout memorial, the pyramid was built in 1934 as part of a Public Works Administration project in the city park, off Fehr Avenue near Oregon Avenue. It was designed by E.W. Allen with the assistance of E.S.C. Smith, a longtime geology professor at Union.
Standing 10 feet high and measuring 10 square feet at its base, the pyramid was arranged in 14 layers. The top denoted the youngest (Mohawk conglomerate from the Pleistocene era), and the bottom represented the oldest (Pre-Cambrian gneiss, schist and quartzite).
When Tann discovered the pyramid, age, vandals and neglect had taken its toll. Pieces of the pyramid were missing and the surrounding area was unkempt.
“There were cigarette butts and empty beer cans everywhere,” said Tann, the John Howard Payne Professor of Music.
At the time, Tann was a relatively new faculty member who didn’t want to rock the boat. Still, she approached Frank Griggs, the chairman of the Department of Civil Engineering, at a cocktail party after convocation.
“I really think you should do something about this pyramid,” she told Griggs.
Frank Griggs, former professor of geology talks about a rock pyramid he helped move from Schenectady's Central Park. Fanning.
Griggs took it from there, convincing city officials to allow students to disassemble the pyramid and move it to campus. With a boost from Psi Upsilon, who donated $1,000 toward the project, the pyramid was completely rebuilt by the spring of 1984 near the Whipple Bridge by Achilles Rink. The group even buried a time capsule in the top of the structure, though Griggs isn’t quite sure what’s inside.
With no detailed marker to explain its significance, the pyramid has been pushed into the shadows of campus life. But Griggs remains hopeful the monument will assume a higher profile.
“I’d like to see it cleaned up and maintained, and have something to tell people what it is,” he said. “Otherwise, it’s just a pile of rocks.”
A gelogical pyramid on campus. Moved from Schenectady's Central Park in 1983. Fanning.
Interest in the pyramid is building again, after a man who remembered it as a youngster in Central Park wrote a letter to the local newspaper asking about its whereabouts.
That excites Tann, a “closet geologist” who has “loved rocks all my life.” That passion is captured in some of her musical pieces, like “Here, the Cliffs” and a three-movement piece, “Sarsen,” which is a rock that stands alone.
“To think, this all came about because Frank Griggs listened to a short Welsh woman who writes 'rock music.'”
This term’s LGBTQ Ally training will be held Thursday, Sept. 24, 5–6:30 p.m. Those interested in attending should e-mail Assistant Director of Student Activities Kerrie Wolf (wolfk@union.edu) or Director of the Counseling Center Marcus Hotaling (hotalinm@union.edu) by Wednesday, Sept. 23.
The training is open to faculty, administrators and staff.
The Ally program helps provide safe spaces for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning community by identifying individuals who will offer support and information.
