Posted on May 10, 2007

Nine students and one faculty member took part in the recent Hudson River Undergraduate Mathematics Conference, which drew hundreds of participants from colleges and universities throughout New York and New England. The annual conference was founded in 1994 by Union, Siena, Skidmore and Williams colleges to give undergraduates a professional mathematics meeting experience.

This year’s participants were Susan Beckhardt ’07, Laura Hutchinson ’08, Tom Mazur’07, Jacqueline Palermo’07, Jaclyn Siedlecki ’07, Daniel Stevenson ’07, Sydnie Wells ’07, Peter Wright’07, Leah Ziamandanis ’07 and Brenda Johnson, chair of Mathematics.

Posted on May 10, 2007

The Committee on Teaching (COT), with the support and sponsorship of the Michael S. Rappaport Ethics Across the Curriculum Initiative and UNITAS, invites faculty and administrators to attend two events.

Bonnie TuSmith, associate professor of English at Northeastern University, will discuss “Humor, Pathos and the Face of Difference,” Tuesday, May 15, at 5:15 p.m. in Reamer Auditorium. 

An author and editor, TuSmith collaborated on an award-winning collection of essays titled Race in the College Classroom: Pedagogy and Politics and is completing a monograph, “Beyond Binaries: Color Symbolism in Literature and Culture.” She will address the challenges, rewards and responsibilities of teaching sensitive subjects. A question-and-answer session will follow. Refreshments will be served at 4:45 p.m.

“Teaching and Learning Difference at Union College ….and Other Sensitive Subjects,” a COT faculty panel with Andrew Feffer (History), Cheikh Ndiaye (Modern Languages), and Deidre Hill-Butler and Janel Leone (Sociology), is slated for Thursday, May 17, 12:50-1:50 p.m. in Everest Lounge. Pizza and salad will be available at noon.

Posted on May 10, 2007

Andrew Rapoff, assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering, recently presented “Curved Beam Model of Mandibular Symphyseal Bending including Heterogeneous Elasticity” at the annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Philadelphia. Co-authors of the work are Ronald Bucinell, the Thomas J. Watson Sr. and Emma Watson Day Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Scott McGraw of the Ohio State University and David Daegling of the University of Florida. 

An article by Professor of Computer Science David Hemmendinger, titled “The ACM and IEEE-CS Guidelines for Undergraduate CS Education,” has been published in the May issue of the Communications of the ACM, in a special section on the 60th anniversary of the Association for Computing Machinery.

Pilar Moyano, professor of Spanish, presented a paper titled “El Regreso de Medea: Trasgresión y Locura en el Teatro de Luz Méndez de la Vega” at the XV International Conference on Central American Literature, held in Antigua, Guatemala, in April.

Janet Grigsby, visiting associate professor of Sociology, is facilitating a panel discussion by the Coalition for the Protection of Reproductive Health in Schenectady, titled, “When Religion Compromises Health Care,” Monday, May 14 at 7 p.m., in F.W. Olin Center 115. The discussion will deal with the impending merger between Ellis Hospital and St. Clare’s Hospital and the closure of Bellevue Women’s Hospital. 

Posted on May 10, 2007

Wondering about your blood pressure? Concerned about your smoking or your body fat? Need more fitness in your life?

Get some valuable information at the annual College Health Fair next Thursday, May 17, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Old Chapel.

Sponsored by Health Services and the Wellness Committee, the fair is an opportunity to meet with area health and wellness representatives. Among those on hand will be AIDS Council of Northeastern New York, American Cancer Society, Capital District Chiropractic, the Center for Sports Medicine, STOP DWI and yoga instructor Sigrid Kellenter. Also learn about allergies, AIDS, eating disorders and smoking cessation programs.

Union’s nurse practitioners will offer tips on women’s health, and volunteers from the Union College Emergency Medical Services (UCEMS) will check blood pressure. There will be more than 20 vendors in all, plenty of advice and many raffles and giveaways, too.

 In addition, watch for the Medivac Helicopter Landing at noon, coordinated by UCEMS (May 14 – 18 is EMT Week). 

Posted on May 10, 2007

IEF proposals

Thursday, May 17, is the deadline for proposals for the Internal Education Foundation in two categories. Proposals for student-initiated research projects must have the written approval of a faculty advisor. Submit them to Mary K. Carroll, director of Undergraduate Research (Science & Engineering, S100). Application forms are available there, or on the Web at http://www.union.edu/Academics/AcademicAffairs.  Direct all questions to Carroll at carrollm@union.edu.

Those with educationally innovative proposals should submit them to David Hayes, interim dean of Arts & Sciences (S&E, S100) on forms available there or at http://www.union.edu/Academics/AcademicAffairs. Direct questions to Hayes at hayesd@union.edu.

FRF, HDF proposals

The Research and Grants Committee is soliciting proposals for faculty research and scholarship proposals, also by May 17. Applications and guidelines are available in the Office of Dean of Arts and Sciences (S&E, S-100) or at http://www.union.edu/Academics/AcademicAffairs.  Questions about the Faculty Research Fund and the Humanities Development Fund go to Dean Hayes.

All research that includes work with human subjects must have preliminary approval from the Human Subjects Research Committee.