Posted on Nov 12, 2009

Robert Shalvoy ’11, Austin Cheng ’11 and Gordon Brown ’12 are members of the regional ROTC team that won this year’s 2^nd Brigade North-Ranger Challenge Competition.

Ranger Challenge is the varsity sport of the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, and more than 273 host institutions from across the country form teams to compete in regional groupings of the warrior skills event. In addition to Union, the local team included students from Siena College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the University at Albany and Albany College of Pharmacy.

“Over the past five years, our battalion has finished in second place twice, third place once and fourth place once,” said LTC Andrew Morgado, a professor of military science at Siena College. “This is the first time since our program was formed that we have won the competition.”

Eighteen teams comprised this area’s grouping – the 2^nd Brigade North – which competed in Ft. Devens, Mass., last month.

“Ranger Challenge takes place over 72 continuous hours and requires absurd amounts of mental and physical endurance,” said Brown, who plans to contract for four years of active duty service in infantry or military intelligence after graduation. “It includes a fitness test, a hand grenade assault course, a reconnaissance patrol and a combat medical course, and it ends with a 10-kilometer run with a rucksack, weapon and full combat gear.

“This was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done,” he added. “It was an honor to even make the team, and I’m privileged to have been able to work my butt off with such an outstanding group of people.”

Shalvoy, who intends to commission as a second lieutenant after graduation, feels the same way.

"Our team performed flawlessly, everyone knew their role and gave 110 percent," he said. "This is the best group of girls and guys I've ever worked with. They are some of the best friends I will ever have."

In addition to placing first overall, the team also won the Merrill Division of the competition. Merrill is the upper division, and since the group has done well the last five years, it earned the right to compete at this level.

Cheng attributed the team's top performance to the dedication of its members.

"We arrived to Union before the academic year began and we trained every weekday from 6 a.m. until 8 a.m., up to the day of the competition. We even sacrificed some of our weekends in order to fully prepare ourselves," he said. "It was definitely our preparation that placed us above the other teams."

Morgado agreed and was impressed with the way the young men and women handled the pressures of Ranger Challenge.

“Throughout the event, our team not only bested the competition, it did so in a manner that brought great credit to our program and to our profession,” Morgado said. “I could not be more proud.”

For additional information on the Ranger Challenge team, click here.

Posted on Nov 11, 2009

Projects ranging from a solar-powered water heating system for Achilles Center to increasing campus trolley ridership were selected Wednesday as winners of the Presidential Green Grants. The grant initiative, now in its second year, is aimed at supporting environmentally sustainable projects at Union.

"Sustainability is something we have to be committed to at Union," said President Stephen C. Ainlay, who highlighted seven projects that will share $12,000 in grants. "We have a unique connection with and respect for history. But we are never bound by that. We also pursue innovation and these innovative projects are the type of things that will carry us into the future."

The Green Grants are just one way in which the U Sustain Committee is promoting sustainable operations, increasing environmental awareness, and reducing the College's impact on the environment.

The 2008 Green Grant winners included projects ranging from an innovative way to clean car exhaust to the design of a micro-wind turbine.

"These project have had measurable benefits for Union," said Jeffrey Corbin, professor of biology and leader of the sustainability committee. "These grants support our intellectual endeavours to make contributions to the environment."

The 2009 Green Grant winners and their project goals are:

Paul DeBiase, Printing Center manager: “Reduction of detergent into our sewer systems with the use of a new green product – ‘True Green 2 Laundry Washing Ball’”

Goal: To eliminate the flow of potentially harmful detergent from campus washing machines into sewers.  

Benjamin Engle '12: “Rock beats paper: Replacing a traditional bulletin board”

Goal: Replace the Reamer Center bulletin board near the Post Office with a chalkboard to reduce paper waste. The board lists Minerva House events. 

Kim Plofker '11: Protecting greens, harvesting rain: Sustainability improvements for the Octopus’s Garden organic gardening project”

Goal: To fence in the campus community garden to protect crops from insects and animals.

Paul Herbert '10: “Binding of Perflourochemicals to serum albumin: A mechanistic evaluation of spectroscopic measurements”

Goal: A joint research project with Professor Laura McManus-Spencer aimed at perflourochemicals found in many common consumer goods. Such chemcials bind with human proteins and accumulate in the body. The project aims measure the uptake and accumulation perflourochemicals.  

Isaac Rogers : “Increasing ridership of the Campus Trolley – The Trolley Tracking Project”

Goal: To create a Web-based trolley tracking system that will allow riders to pinpoint the trolley's location using a portable computer or hand-held devices.

Gareth Lewis : “The research, design and production of a sun-tracking solar thermal system for the Union College Achilles Center”

Goal: To study and create a preliminary design for a solar-powered water heater in Achilles Center.

Erin Delman '12 and Jill Falchi '10: “Campus Kitchens Project”

Goal: To package unused Dining Services food and donate food for delivery to area homeless shelters.

Posted on Nov 11, 2009

Sasha Cooke has a way of exposing a song’s soul with her rich, full-bodied voice. On Saturday, Nov. 21 at 8 p.m., the mezzo-soprano brings her gift for singing to Union, where she’ll be accompanied by renowned pianist Ken Noda.

During their upcoming Chamber Concert Series appearance, the pair will present “Three Venetian Songs” from Rossini and “Liederkreis” from Schumann. In addition, Noda and Cooke will also perform “What a Movie” from L. Bernstein’s “Trouble in Tahiti.”

Cooke’s recent musical roles, sung to critical acclaim, include Kitty Oppenheimer in the Metropolitan Opera premiere of “Doctor Atomic” and Mercedes in a National Symphony Orchestra performance of Bizet’s “Carmen.”

Noda is musical assistant to James Levine on the artistic administration of the Metropolitan Opera. He began working there in 1991 after retiring from a full-time career as a concert pianist, and he devotes much of his energy to training young singers in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

Following Cooke and Noda, Boston Camerata will perform Sunday, Dec. 13 at 3 p.m. Founded in 1954, the group plays historically informed compositions from European medieval, Renaissance and Baroque eras. It’s one of the world’s oldest continually functioning early music ensembles.

At Union, Boston Camerata’s distinguished singers and specialists in early instruments will present a Christmas narrative, retold through songs, chants and instrumentals from Spain, Italy, southern France and northern Africa.

After this unique show, concert-goers can look forward to cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han. Always a crowd favorite, they’ll give their 18^th series performance on Sunday, Jan. 3 at 3 p.m.

During their appearance, Finckel and Han, artistic directors of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, will play the complete sonatas of Beethoven.

In addition to their work at Lincoln Center, the duo also has ArtistLed, classical music’s first musician-directed, Internet-based recording company. All 10 recordings released under the label have received critical acclaim. This season, ArtistLed releases its 11th album, a recording of Schubert piano trios featuring Han and Finckel with violinist Philip Setzer. Setzer, like Finckel, is a member of the famed Emerson String Quartet.

All three shows are free to members of the Union community and will be held in Memorial Chapel. For more information call 388-6080 or visit http://www.union.edu/ConcertSeries.

Posted on Nov 10, 2009

Raymond Gilmartin ’63 has a few prescriptions for achieving success.

“First, choose things that you are excited about,” the former chairman, president and CEO of Merck & Co. told about three dozen people, mostly students, over lunch in Hale House Tuesday. “Be sure you are in a setting where you like the people you are with. Learn something and continue to grow and develop. Seek to make a contribution, strive to make a difference. And finally, treat people around you with dignity and respect.”

Gilmartin has leaned on those principles since his days at Union, where he excelled academically as an electrical engineering student and athletically in football, wrestling and lacrosse.

“Union made a big difference in my life,” said Gilmartin, a Long Island native who chose the College because of its small size and commitment to liberal arts and engineering. “I was able to do things here I would not have been able to do in a larger setting.”

After graduating from Union, Gilmartin got his M.B.A. from Harvard. He worked as a development engineer at Eastman Kodak, management consultant at Arthur D. Little and CEO of Becton Dickinson & Co. In 1994, he became the first outsider in 100 years to run Merck, where he was hailed by The Economist as “a role model for the new breed of socially concerned, non-celebrity executives” for his philanthropic work and for being a business leader with a social conscience.

Gilmartin stepped down from Merck in May 2005. Since 2006, he has taught at Harvard Business School. He told the group it may not be his last stop.

“Live your life with sense of potential,” is what he and his wife, Gladys, always remind each other. “No matter what you are doing or how good you feel about it, it’s not the last thing you are going to do.”

During his visit, Gilmartin met with President Stephen C. Ainlay and toured his old campus. At the end of the day, he proudly put on a Union cap presented to him at the luncheon.

“This was the right place for me,” he said.

Posted on Nov 10, 2009

Acclaimed chef Roberto Santibanez shared his culinary skills with Union’s dining staff and chefs from other area schools during a recent two-day visit. The chefs prepared an authentic Mexican lunch for the campus featuring ancient Aztec tortilla soup, Conchinita Pibil and Guajillo marinated chicken breast. Santibanez also lectured on Mexican cuisine and gave a cooking demonstration in Old Chapel.

The visit by Santibanez, the former culinary director of Rosa Mexicano restaurants, comes at a time when the College has been using his “Mex to the Max” recipes since the start of the school year.

To read about the visit in the Times Union, click here.