Robert B. Rasmussen, former vice president for College Resources
A memorial service for Robert B. Rasmussen, who served 17 years as the College’s chief development officer, is set for Saturday, May 16, at 2 p.m. at the Charlton Freehold Presbyterian Church, Charlton Road, Charlton.
Bob died at his Peaceable Street home April 24. He was 72.
His wife, Lynn, died in 2007. Survivors include two sons, Bruce ’84 and Scott.
Rasmussen joined the College in 1975 as vice president for College Resources, a post he held until he stepped down in 1992. After Union, he served as vice president at Connecticut College and as a consultant for higher education development.
A graduate of Cornell University, he received his MBA from Syracuse University. He was an artillery officer and aviator in the U.S. Army.
Active in the community, he served the town of Charlton in a number of capacities. He was an active member of the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Rotary and treasurer of the Scleroderma Foundation, of which his wife, Lynn, was president. He also was a longtime member of the board for Scholarship America and treasurer of the family-owned Joshua’s Rock Corporation.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Scleroderma Foundation/Tri State, 59 Front St., Binghamton, NY 13905. Arrangements are with the Townley & Wheeler Funeral Home.
A Reappointment Review Committee has been formed for Courtney Seymour, Collection Development librarian at Schaffer Library. Members of the campus community are invited to offer written or oral testimony to committee members. The committee includes Cara Molyneaux, chair (molyneac@union.edu), Ellen Fladger (fladgere@union.edu) and David Fuller (fuller@union.edu).
Ajay Major '12, “From One, Many,” 2009, Primsacolor pencil on Crescent illustration board
Through June 1
Wikoff Student Gallery
Nott Memorial LGBTQ: A Union Perspective
Show broadly explores issues that surround the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community at Union and beyond.
Through June 14
Burns Arts Atrium
Visual Arts Building Senior Shows
May 11-17: Justin Blau, Russell Goldenberg May 18-24: Sarah Mueller, Brace Thompson May 25-31: Brandon McArdle, Ellie Hazelett June 1-7: Alexandra Lindsey, Patrick Wilson June 8-14: Megan Sesil, Katherine Cissel
Through September 2009
Schaffer Library Atrium Union Notables
A rotating show of extraordinary people from the College; features U.S. President Chester Alan Arthur, Class of 1848; hospice leader and advocate Philip DiSorbo, Class of 1971; and Robert Holland Jr., Class of 1962, who has made valuable contributions to sustainability in businesses.
Laura MacManus-Spencer, assistant professor of chemistry, recently received a Single Investigator Cottrell College Science Award in the amount of $43,036 from Research Corporation. The title of her proposal is “A mechanistic investigation of the role of suspended particles on the photochemical degradation of emerging contaminants in surface waters.”
Michael Vineyard, the Frank and Marie Louise Bailey Professor of Physics, is co-author of a recent article in Physical Review Letters, titled “Precise Measurement of the Neutron Magnetic Form Factor GMn in the Few-GeV2 Region.” This paper reports on the results of an experiment performed with the Large Acceptance Spectrometer in Hall B at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Va., that provides important information about the motion of quarks inside the neutron. The experiment was proposed to the Program Advisory Committee at Jefferson Lab by Professor Vineyard and Will Brooks, a research professor at Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María in Chile and formerly a Jefferson Lab staff scientist.
Photo by Marty Benjamin – thoroughbred horse
A photograph by Martin Benjamin, professor of visual arts, was published on the cover of Thoroughbred Times’ Jan. 31 issue. The photo was of 2008 and 2009 Horse of the Year (annual Eclipse Awards) Curlin with his owner after an early morning workout at Saratoga Racetrack’s Okalahoma Training Center. In addition, a three-column wide Benjamin photo of former Senate Majority leader Joseph Bruno was published in the Jan. 24 issue of The New York Daily News. Two of Benjamin’s photographs from the permanent collection of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art in New Paltz were included in an exhibition “All Hot and Bothered,” curated by Ariel Shanberg of the Center for Photography at Woodstock and Brian Wallace, curator at the Dorsky Museum. The exhibition of 35 photographs was held in the museum’s Howard Greenberg Family Gallery.
Seniors Erin Schumaker and Jared Iacolucci weren’t completely prepared for what they saw during their recent mini-term at the Mexican-American border. But that hasn’t prevented them from helping people living in limbo between the two countries.
“We’d talked about everything on the way there,” said Schumaker, an English literature and Spanish student. “But going there, you get perspectives you can’t get in a book or classroom.”
Learning about the fate of some immigrants who are deported from the United States was particularly eye-opening.
2009 Davis Projects for Peace scholars are, from left, seniors Jared Iacolucci, Erin Schumaker and Kaitlyn Evans.
Schumaker and Iacolucci explained that once detained by border patrol, undocumented immigrants can spend lengthy periods of time in ill-equipped centers without enough food or water. Others are dropped off in border towns where, lacking the means to return home, they become stranded.
“This is not something you think happens in the U.S.,” said Iacolucci, a history major. “Seeing it first-hand makes you want to do something to help.”
Iacolucci, Schumaker and another classmate, Kaitlyn Evans ’09, are recent winners of the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Projects for Peace award. The $10,000-prize will support the team’s efforts to research life in border towns and raise awareness of the plight of people there.
In July, the three will fly to Phoenix, where they’ll purchase a used car that will take them to the Migrant Resource Center in Naco, Mexico. The car will be donated to the center, located just south of Tucson, when they return home in September.
During their stay, the students will live at the facility with the migrants. They hope to forge relationships that will make the second part of their project possible.
“We’re going to compile a book of personal stories printed along side the migrants’ own art, photographs and poetry,” said Evans, an English major with a photography background.
“We want to show what the reality of deportation can be like and put a face on this important issue,” Schumaker added.
Evans didn’t participate in the borderlands mini-term, but she’s had similarly powerful international experiences that have prepared her to work there.
“I spent my mini-term in South Africa, where we interviewed prisoners and spent time learning how to get oral histories and how to ask questions,” Evans said. “This, and tutoring children here, has really helped me learn how to relate to people.”
Iacolucci, Evans and Schumaker plan to pursue publication of their book once it’s finished. With a little guidance from Professor Victoria Martinez, who specializes in border studies and inspired the students to work there, they plan to shed new light on the complex immigration situation.
Naco, a border town Erin Schumaker '09 and Jared Iacolucci '09 visited during a recent mini-term
“This is so close to home, but it’s an issue people are not as aware of as they should be,” Iacolucci said. “We really hope our work changes that.”
Davis Projects for Peace, designed to encourage motivated youth to create and implement ideas that promote peace, is now in its third year. It’s also the third year Union students have been named recipients.
Last year, Kara Lightman ’09 received support for her work with women in Cambodia, and in 2007, Karyn Amira ’08 was aided in her efforts to curb landmines in the same country.
To learn more about the program, which supports 100 projects annually, click here.
The Kenney Community Center will host its 13th annual U-Care Day Carnival at Memorial Field House on Sunday, May 17, from noon until 3 p.m. The free event is open to the public and features a variety of fun activities for children, including spin art and other crafts, games and prizes, a puck shoot, a bouncy bounce castle and more.
U-care day
The Union Community Action Reaching Everyone (U-Care) program helps connect undergraduates with community organizations and volunteer services. U-Care Day allows student groups and local families to celebrate their accomplishments.
“Different fraternities, sororities, clubs, teams and organizations get together to provide local children with a day of fun and excitement at the carnival,” said Cybil Tribie ’11, one of the event’s student organizers. “Last year, we had the highest attendance ever with over 300 children from the community and more than 150 volunteers from all over campus.”
Free lunch, ice cream and snacks will be provided for all who attend.
For more information, call 388-6777 or click here.
