Posted on Apr 30, 2009

Posted on Apr 30, 2009

If you can’t get enough of the delectable lunches served up every Friday at Ozone Café, now you can try out the recipes at home. “The Ozone Cookbook,” a collection of 37 of the popular meals created by Executive Chef William Roy of Dining Services, is now available.

The cost is $10, with proceeds benefitting The Global Child in Cambodia, where two of the College’s first Minerva Fellows, Jonathan Hill ’08 and Robbie Flick ’08, spent the last 11 months teaching.

“People are always asking us for the recipes, so we thought a cookbook would be a good idea” said Dan Detora, director of Dining Services, who along with Callie Stacey, operations director, organizes the weekly organic meals in Old Chapel. “The students then decided to use the book as a fundraiser for The Global Child, since we have a connection to the organization.”

Led by Elisabeth Duquette ’11, students worked with Roy to pick the recipes. Students also contributed original artwork. Among the selections are avocado and tomato salad, Caribbean-style vegetable harvest stew and Mum’s macaroni and cheese.

The book is on sale at Reamer Campus Center through next week and will also be available at Ozone Café each week.

Since its launch in May 2006 by students in Ozone House, Ozone Café has grown from a small, intimate lunch for about 50 to a Friday feast feeding for about 300. The cost is $6, featuring an all-vegetarian menu using ingredients either locally grown or organic.

Posted on Apr 30, 2009

Winners of the ninth annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, held Saturday at Union’s Fieldhouse, can proudly say they’ve mastered a skill some people take years to perfect. They can all whistle, or rather, the machines they built can.

This year’s engineering competition challenged 24 teams, made up of 112 middle and high school students, to design overly complicated machines capable of blowing whistles.

And the winners are:

First Place: Goin’ for Goldberg, Granville High School, Advisor Gary Gendron

Second Place: N-Tec, Niskayuna High School, Advisor Jack Gribben

Third Place: Girl Powered, North Warren Central School, Advisor Eric Welch

“Students who participate gain experience in team work, engineering, science, math and building,” said James Hedrick, professor of electrical and computer engineering, who directs the event.

Competitors from past years, he noted, have gone on to become Union students.

The contest is named for the late Rube Goldberg, an engineer and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist. His cartoons, depicting “inventions” that epitomized “man’s capacity for exerting maximum effort to accomplish minimal results,” appeared in thousands of daily newspapers between 1914 and 1964.

In keeping with that theme, the contest involves making simple, ordinary undertakings unnecessarily complex and convoluted. It takes a two or three-step task, like blowing a whistle, and asks participants to create machines to accomplish that task in at least 20 steps.

Event sponsors include GE Volunteers, KAPL, Lockheed Martin and the Schenectady Museum.

The first place machine will be on display at the Schenectady Museum during May. For more information, click here.  

Posted on Apr 30, 2009

After living the last 11 months of their lives half a world away, Union’s Minerva Fellows are headed home.

These members of the Class of 2008 were the first recipients of the Minerva Fellowships, which sent them to Southern Uganda, Cambodia, India, South Africa and Southern Malawi to discover entrepreneurial approaches to social problems and instill on them a lasting commitment to the poor.

Beginning next week, the eight students will spend one month on campus giving presentations in Minerva Houses and guest lectures in classes like Professor Hal Fried’s social entrepreneurship course.

“I’m looking forward to having them back on campus. They’ve surpassed all our expectations in terms of what they’ve given the non-government organizations,” said Associate Dean of Students and Director of Minerva Progams Tom McEvoy.

“I’ve talked with people from the NGOs, and they can’t say enough about our students.”

The Minerva Fellows will give their first presentation to the campus community Thursday, May 7 at 12:50 p.m. during Pizza & Politics in Reamer Auditorium.

They will participate in a panel discussion and multimedia show in the Nott on Monday, May 11 at 4 p.m., and Friday, May 29 at 7:30 p.m. The evening program, held during ReUnion, will feature food from the regions each student visited.

The Minerva Fellows reported to their assigned country in July. All returned recently, though one student, Emily Laing, returned in November due to illness. The Fellows are:

Rebecca Broadwin and Stephen Po-Chedley, Southern Uganda: They worked with Engeye to help improve living conditions and reduce suffering in rural Africa through education and compassionate health care.

Jonathan Hill and Robert Flick, Siem Reap, Cambodia: They teamed with The Global Child, an organization that builds specialty schools and safe houses for gifted street children in developing, war-torn countries around the world.

Alex Butts and Emily Laing, Mumbai, India: They assisted the Welfare Society for Destitute Children in its mission to give orphans, runaways, children of sex workers and those affected by HIV/AIDS access to shelter, food and education.

David Shulman, Southern Malawi: He worked with Partners in Health on medical care, access to clean water, education, nutrition and shelter.

Lara Levine, Capetown, South Africa: She joined Journey Hope South Africa to address HIV/AIDS and education issues.

Posted on Apr 30, 2009

Cosmopolitan Editor-in-Chief Kate White '72 recently named Nicole Beland '96 as executive editor for the magazine. Beland most recently served as the features director of Women's Health magazine and as a contributing editor to Men's Health, where she wrote the popular sex and relationship column "Ask the Girl Next Door."

Prior to her work at the health magazines, Beland served as senior editor at Cosmopolitan and Mademoiselle magazines. She is the author of four books, including Girl Seeks Bliss: Zen and the Art of Modern Life Maintenance (Plume, 2005) and The Cocktail Jungle: A Girl's Guide to Shaking and Stirring (Running Press, 2003).

“Nicole’s energy and editorial experience are a perfect fit for the Cosmopolitan brand,” White said. “We’re thrilled to have her rejoin the magazine as executive editor.”

Beland, who took on her new role at Cosmopolitan in January, will report directly to White. Both Beland and White earned bachelor's degrees in English from Union.

Cosmopolitan, part of Hearst Magazines, is a best-selling young women's magazine and is described as "a bible for fun, fearless females." Cosmopolitan delivers the latest news on men and love, fashion and beauty, women's health and self-improvement, and entertainment.

Click here to read a 2004 story from Union's Accolades magazine White. 

Posted on Apr 29, 2009

Thursday, April 30, 4:30 p.m. / Everest Lounge / Department of Philosophy Speaker Series presents University of Western Ontario’s Charles Weijer on “Ethical Challenges in Knowlefge Translation Research”

Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2 / Campus-wide / Steinmetz Symposium and Prize Day

Friday, May 1, noon / Bailey Field / Women's lacrosse vs. University of Rochester (Liberty League semi-finals)

Friday, May 1, 3:30 p.m. / Alexander Field / Softball vs. RPI (doubleheader)

Friday, May 1, 4 p.m. / Nott Memorial / Steinmetz dance performance

Friday, May 1, 8 p.m. / Memorial Chapel / Steinmetz Concert: Union College and Community Orchestra with Camerata Singers, featuring works by Durufle, Mendelssohn, Kabalevsky and Copland. Orchestra concertmaster is Wesley Pyen '09.

Friday, May 1 – Monday, May 4, 8 and 10 p.m. / Reamer Campus Center Auditorium / Film: “Gran Torino”

Saturday, May 2, 1 p.m. / Taylor Music Center, Emerson Auditorium / Union College Jazz Ensemble

Saturday, May 2, 1 p.m. / Central Park / Baseball vs. Vassar (doubleheader)

Saturday, May 2, 2 p.m. / Bailey Field / Women's lacrosse, Liberty League Championship

Sunday, May 3, 1 p.m. / Alexander Field / Softball vs. St. Lawrence (doubleheader)

Thursday, May 7 and Friday, May 8, 12:45-1:50 p.m. / Phi Beta Kappa Room, Shaffer Library / Ethics Across the Curriculum presents Bernard Gert, Stone Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy at Dartmouth College and author of “Common Morality”; luncheon workshop

Thursday, May 7, 12:50 p.m. / Reamer Campus Center Auditorium / Returning Minerva Fellows give presentation during "Pizza and Politics"

Friday, May 8 – Monday, May 11, 8 and 10 p.m. / Reamer Campus Center Auditorium / “The International”

Saturday, May 9, 6 p.m. / Old Chapel / FaceAIDS presents returning Minerva Fellow David Shulman ’08 and keynote speaker Gregg Cassin, a national HIV/AIDS awareness activist from San Francisco. They will address issues surrounding HIV/AIDS in the United States and Africa; barbecue and music by local bands to follow. 

Monday, May 11, 4 p.m. / Nott Memorial / Returning Minerva Fellows take part in panel discussion and multimedia show