Posted on Jun 7, 2010

One of the most successful and influential men in the movie industry told Union’s newest graduates to take risks without fear of failure. 

“Sometimes, even with all the pieces in place, you will fail,” said alumnus Alan Horn, president and chief operating officer of Warner Bros.

“Be open to change, be adaptable. You must take risks and if you fail, it’s embarrassing, but you will recover, so just go for it. Failure will be, and should be, a part of your story.”

Approximately 500 students in the Class of 2010 received their degrees during the College’s 216th commencement on Hull Plaza Sunday under a light, steady drizzle.

Horn, who received an honorary doctor of fine arts degree, grew up on Long Island and graduated from Union with a degree in economics in 1964. He had switched his major from electrical engineering after a professor not-so-gently suggested he find something that would better suit his talents.  

He went on to head one of the world's most successful movie studios. Warner Bros. is responsible for blockbusters such as “The Dark Knight” and all six films in the Harry Potter franchise. In 2009, the studio’s domestic box office soared to an industry record $2.13 billion, and overseas receipts reached $1.88 billion.

The path to success, Horn said, comes from being “in the right place doing the right work with the right people.”

He stressed, “Pick a career for which you have passion. If your work environment doesn’t feel right, get out. When you find something you love to do, don’t worry about your salary. The money will come later as a by-product of productive work.”

Other advice to students from the movie mogul: Work hard. Find a mentor. Cherish your family and friendships. And do the right thing.

“Be a person of character. Integrity and honor are everything. Actions define your character, and your character will define the kind of life you have. Character requires courage.

“Your generation is more connected, more committed, more diverse than any other that has preceded it,” he observed. “Embrace these qualities. They will serve you for the rest of your life.”

The College also awarded an honorary doctor of science degree to Mildred Dresselhaus, one of the nation’s top experts in physics and a leading advocate for women in science and engineering. Dresselhaus, who has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for more than 40 years, was nominated for the honor by Palma Catravas and Helen Hanson, assistant professors in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Cherrice Traver, dean of engineering.

During her brief remarks, Dresselhaus noted that doing research with students was one of the most enjoyable aspects of her career.

In his charge to the graduates, President Stephen C. Ainlay praised the Class of 2010 members “for the difference you have made in the world beyond our campus.”

He singled out their work in feeding the hungry through projects like Campus Kitchens and Octopus’s Garden; building playgrounds for local children; and raising money for myriad causes, from earthquake recovery to cancer research.   

In praising the graduates’ academic achievements, he cited the many awards, fellowships and prestigious prizes garnered this year and pointed to a range of artistic, athletic and research accomplishments.

“I hope your time at Union has deepened your love of learning and provided you with intellectual and social tools that will allow you to be successful in whatever you choose to be and do,” Ainlay said.

Calling Union “one of the most unique undergraduate institutions around,” student speaker Nikhil Kothari of Garden City, N.Y. said “students here display an eclectic range of interests and abilities. We’re constantly encouraged to take some sort of initiative, and in a small community such as this, it’s inevitable that each and every student will create a niche for him or herself.”

A biology major who will travel to Ecuador this summer as a Minerva Fellow, Kothari said, “Union molds its students into worldly individuals, intrinsically motivated and intensely concerned with disasters such as those in Haiti and Chile.”

Class valedictorian was Paul C. Hebert, a chemistry major from West Hartford, Conn., and salutatorian was Emily Feld, a biology and sociology major from Centerport, N.Y.

Commencement also featured the graduation of Union’s first group of Posse Scholars.

Since 2006, the College has partnered with the Boston branch of the Posse Foundation, which also has sites in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Washington, D.C. Now celebrating its 20th year, the Posse Foundation selects extraordinary young people with leadership potential who excel academically, but may be overlooked by the traditional college selection process, and send them in multicultural teams – or posses – to top schools like Union.

Earlier, Union honored two members of the Class of 2010 at Prize Day. Lativa Holder was the recipient of the Josephine Daggett Prize, awarded to a senior for conduct and character; while Jillian Falchi was named winner of the Frank Bailey Prize, awarded to the senior who has rendered the greatest service to the College in any field.

Posted on Jun 4, 2010

Ever wonder what a rock band eats before a big show?

When the hugely popular Dave Matthews Band drops into Saratoga for sellout performances Friday and Saturday, two of Union’s student environmental leaders will get the behind-the-scenes lowdown on the chow line for the pre and post-concert spreads.

The students have been tapped to haul away the band’s food waste and leftovers, and to bring them back to campus to be composted. For several years, Dining Services and Facilities have composted food scraps collected across campus. The scraps are dropped into an Earth Tub in West College Dining Hall and the compost is then used as organic fertilizer for Union’s grounds.

DMB has long been a proponent of environmental responsibility, so when representatives for the band were scouting around for a way to compost the food waste and leftovers, they turned to the College.

“We’re one of the few colleges around here who do this sort of thing,” said Dan Detora, director of Dining Services.

Detora will drive a department van to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center and park it there for the two shows. Jill Falchi ‘10 and Erin Delman ’12 will collect the food waste before it is transported to West to be composted. Falchi is the winner of this year’s Frank Bailey Prize, awarded to the senior who has rendered the greatest service to the College in any field, primarily for her sustainability efforts. Delman recently was named a 2010 Udall Scholar, a prestigious national award that recognizes student leadership in environmental, health care or tribal public policy issues.

In return for their work, both students will get passes for the shows.

“This is a pretty cool opportunity,” said Delman. “Dave Matthews is a spectacular musician, and it should be a great show. But I’m really excited Union is being recognized for its composting efforts.”

Falchi and Delman are likely to bump into some fellow Union students at SPAC. A number of them, mostly from Ozone House, are volunteers for another DMB sustainability effort: reducing disposable bottled water waste.

Posted on Jun 4, 2010

The Chronicle of Higher Education published an opinion piece by Assistant Psychology Professor Christopher Chabris and Daniel J. Simons, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois.

The two recently released their new book, “The Invisible Gorilla, And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us.” 

Published by Crown, the book tackles “six everyday illusions that profoundly influence our lives,” the authors write: “the illusions of attention, memory, confidence, knowledge, cause, and potential.”

To read the article, click here.

Posted on Jun 4, 2010

The Union College Ethics Bowl team placed eighth in the nation after losing an extraordinarily close quarterfinals round of competition – by one point on a 180 point scale – to Carleton College in the 17^th Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl in Cincinnati recently.  

Union was undefeated in the three preliminary rounds. The University of Alabama at Birmingham went on to win the national championship. 

Union was one of 32 colleges and universities, all of whom qualified in a regional bowl, invited to enter. Union won the North East Regional Ethics Bowl in the fall.

This was the team’s fourth year competing.

Five of team members are graduating seniors: Ian Clemente ’10 (majoring in English and philosophy), Lativa Holder ’10 (philosophy, with a math minor), David Kanaan ’10 (philosophy), Hyma Kavuri ’10 (philosophy and biology) and Adam Koslin ’10 (history).

Also on the roster are David Leavitt ’12, Jacob Pet ’12 , Ryan Semerad ’13, Benjamin Setel ’13 and Ryan Vineyard ’12.

Their coach is Mark Wunderlich, visiting assistant professor of philosophy.

The Ethics Bowl tests students’ skills in communications, debating and integration of diverse information.

Teams receive 15 case studies, which they are given 10 weeks to analyze. The Union team argued eight cases before a panel of judges, which delved into issues ranging from school security and divorce litigation to loan payments.

“Making it to nationals this year was a real achievement. The experience will always remain on my top 10 list of favorite moments in college,” said Holder.

“The team is my family. I was never good at sports, so joining Ethics Bowl was my first real team experience,” she added.

“Ethics Bowl gave me an avenue to develop my public speaking, not to mention my ability to adapt to difficult situations quickly,” said Clemente. “Being part of the team as it has developed into a national contender is one of the Union experiences I’m most proud of.”  

In addition to the heated debates, the competition also hosts the annual meeting for the Association of Practical and Professional Ethics.

“Several team members attended sessions that were relevant to their senior thesis projects or to their plans after graduation,” noted Wunderlich. “Ian, for instance, found a session on using fiction in teaching that helped him with his thesis, and Lativa found one on teaching in inner-city schools, which is useful since she’ll be joining Teach for America next year.”

Posted on Jun 3, 2010

On May 1, 1797, Union held its first commencement when three men received diplomas during a ceremony in the Dutch Reformed church. The students were the featured speakers and that ceremony, like the 127 that followed, was held in a city church because the College lacked a formal space large enough on campus.

Commencement finally moved to campus in 1925 with the opening of Memorial Chapel, where it stayed until it outgrew the space in 1947. The ceremony then alternated between a number of places both on and off campus over the next couple of decades, according to the invaluable College encyclopedia by Wayne Somers.

On Sunday, June 13^th at 10 a.m., nearly 500 students in the Class of 2010 will receive their degrees during the College’s 216^th commencement ceremony on Hull Plaza, a space that has hosted Commencement since 1969. Well, except for a handful forced inside to Achilles Rink because of rain.

The ceremony features a splash of Hollywood, the speaker being Alan Horn '64, president and chief operating officer of Warner Bros., which is responsible for blockbusters such as “The Dark Knight” and all six films in the Harry Potter franchise. No word on whether Horn, who will receive an honorary doctor of fine arts degree from Union, will read from a script.

“Under Alan Horn's leadership, Warner Brothers has become one of Hollywood’s most influential and successful movie studios,” said President Stephen C. Ainlay. “He has often been celebrated for his creativity, business acumen and insights into popular culture, and we are delighted he will return to the College to share his perspectives with our Class of 2010."

The College will also award an honorary doctor of science degree to Mildred Dresselhaus, one of the country’s top experts in physics and a leading advocate for women in science and engineering.

Dresselhaus was nominated for the honor by Palma Catravas and Helen Hanson, assistant professors in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Cherrice Traver, dean of engineering.

Once dubbed the “Queen of Carbon Science” for her widely recognized research on carbon science and carbon nanonstructures, Dresselhaus has spent more than 40 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Finally, this year’s Commencement does have something in common with that first ceremony in 1797. The number of featured students in this year’s class – student speaker Nikhil Kothari; valedictorian Paul C. Hebert; and salutatorian Emily Feld – matches the total size of that first class.