Posted on Apr 22, 2009

Thursday, April 23, 4 p.m. / Tennis courts / Women’s tennis vs. RPI

Thursday, April 23, 7 p.m. / F.W. Olin Auditorium / Darwin at Union: Professor Mark Walker presents his lecture “Charles Darwin and Human Evolution”

Thursday, April 23, 7 p.m. / Old Chapel / Speakers Forum presents: “Diversity According to South Park and Family Guy” with Matt Glowacki

Friday, April 24, 4 p.m. / Octopus’s Garden / Earth Week event: Garden expansion project

Friday, April 24, 4 p.m. / Frank Bailey Field / Women’s lacrosse vs. Hamilton

Friday, April 24, 6 p.m. / Old Chapel / International Culture Week closing ceremonies

Friday, April 24 – Monday, April 27, 8 and 10 p.m. / Reamer Campus Center Auditorium / “Uninvited”

Saturday, April 25, 9:30 a.m. / Memorial Fieldhouse / Rube Goldberg Machine Contest; annual engineering challenge for middle and high school students, with 24 teams, directed by Union faculty. This year's challenge: build a machine that can blow a whistle in at least 20 steps. Judges include teams of local engineers from GE and KAPL, who will look at effectiveness, complexity, creativity, and presentation.

Saturday, April 25, 10 a.m. / Octopus’s Garden / Earth Week event: Garden preparation project

Saturday, April 25, 1 p.m. / Alexander Field / Softball vs. Skidmore (doubleheader)

Saturday, April 25, 7 p.m. / Frank Bailey Field / Women’s lacrosse vs. William Smith

Saturday, April 25, 2 p.m. / Central Park / Baseball vs. St. Lawrence (doubleheader)

Saturday, April 25, 7 p.m. / Frank Bailey Field / Men’s lacrosse vs. RPI

Saturday, April 25, 9 p.m. – 1 a.m. / Schenectady Rock Gym / Spring extravaganza

Sunday, April 26, noon / Central Park / Baseball vs. St. Lawrence (doubleheader)

Monday, April 27, 7 p.m. / Visual Arts Building, Room 215 / Sadock Women and the Arts lecture series presents guest lecture and discussion by political filmmaker Ursula Beimann of Switzerland. Beimann, who is interested in borders, the intersections of identities and the mapping of territories, will show the film, “The Black Sea Files” as part of an East Coast campus tour. Sponsored by Women’s and Gender Studies, East Asian Studies and the departments of Political Science, and Modern Languages

Monday, April 27, 7:30 p.m. / Nott Memorial / 70th Steinmetz Memorial Lecture featuring Lawrence L. Kazmerski, executive director of Science and Technology Partnerships of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., on “Solar Photovoltaics Technology: The Beginning of the Revolution”; free and open to the public.

Tuesday, April 28, 4-6 p.m. / Atrium Gallery, Visual Arts Building / Artist Reception: Steinmetz Student Art Exhibition

Tuesday, April 28, 7 p.m. / Visual Arts Building, Room 215 / Sadock Women and the Arts lecture series presents guest lecture and discussion by political filmmaker Ursula Beimann of Switzerland. Beimann will show the documentary, “X-Mission” as part of an East Coast campus tour. Sponsored by Women’s and Gender Studies, East Asian Studies and the departments of Political Science, and Modern Languages

Tuesday, April 28, 7 p.m. / Nott Memorial / Union College Hillel presents Holocaust survivor Murray Jaros of Niskayuna, who will provide a first-hand account of his disturbing and mesmerizing experience

Wednesday, April 29, 8 p.m. / Memorial Chapel / Chamber Concert Series presents: Julia Fischer, violin, and Milana Chernyavska, piano

Thursday, April 30, 2-3 p.m. / Visual Arts Building, Room 215 / Photographer Shelby Lee Adams, guest artist, will speak and show his work before critiquing student photography.

Thursday, April 30, 4:30 p.m. / Phi Beta Kappa Room, Schaffer Library / Philosophy Speaker Series presents: University of Western Ontario’s Charles Weijer on “Thirty Five Years of Equipoise: Moral Obligation to Research Subjects”

Thursday, April 30, 7 p.m. / Reamer Auditorium / Michael Dolinger presents: “From Fat to Fit”

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

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

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

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

Saturday, May 2, 10 p.m. / Old Chapel / UProgram presents: “Mark Nizer: Expect the Impossible!”

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

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Posted on Apr 21, 2009

When Stephen Schneider ’09 and Greg Fullenkamp ’09 arrived in Kennesaw, Ga. earlier this month, they’d never flown the airplane they were entering in the Society of Automotive Engineers Aero Design competition. They’d watched their 15-pound creation taxi along the Union track, but that was it.

Nevertheless, the mechanical engineering students, coached by Ashok Ramasubramanian, held their own in the three-day event, which drew contenders from schools in Canada, Poland, Mexico, Venezuela, Germany, Brazil and India.

“Not having tested the plane before, it was satisfying to see it take its first flight,” Fullenkamp said. “We didn’t win, but we were able to stand up to the competition – at least most of it.”

It’s been nearly a decade since Union last participated in the contest, according to Ramasubramanian, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. Unfortunately, the College’s radio-controlled plane didn’t get off the ground that year.

Schneider and Fullenkamp faced their own technical hurdle when their engine failed to start. With some diagnostic help from another team, the duo’s aircraft ultimately performed well in flight trials.

“We finished 21st out of 44 teams,” said Ramasubramanian. “If we were scored just on flight performance, we would have finished higher.”

The Union plane, which has a wing-span of about six feet, carried a payload of 13.2 pounds during flight trials. The overall winning team, from Brazil, carried 28 pounds and excelled in the competition’s second crucial challenge.

During the oral presentation portion, each team tried to convince a mock government customer to buy its plane.

“We made rookie mistakes that cost us points,”  Ramasubramanian said. “We’ll have to figure that presentation out.”

Despite these setbacks, Schneider, Fullenkamp and Ramasubramanian consider their performance a great success and a valuable learning experience.

“This was real-life, real-time engineering,” Ramasubramanian said. “Planes that landed usually sustained some damage, so the students would run off to the tent and furiously patch and glue to repair them.”

Schneider and Fullenkamp, who were also coached by Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Frank Wicks, plan to give an advice-filled presentation to juniors interested in competing next year.

Their biggest recommendation?

“Start preparing way early,” Schneider said.

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Posted on Apr 21, 2009

Union is among the top 10 of the most referenced liberal arts schools appearing in the global media, according to a Texas research company.

The Global Language Monitor ranked the schools on how often they appear in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet, blogosphere and social networking sites.

Harvard finished ahead of Columbia for the number one spot among U.S. universities. In the liberal arts category, Colorado College topped Williams. Union was ranked eighth, below Amherst, Wellesley, Oberlin, Middlebury and the University of Richmond, and ahead of Vassar and Bard colleges.

To read a story about the rankings by United Press International, click here.

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Posted on Apr 21, 2009

Stephen Berk, the Henry and Sally Schaffer Professor of Holocaust and Jewish Studies, recently spoke at the Helen and Leon Sperling Holocaust Memorial Lecture in Utica.
 

To read a story about the talk in the Utica Observer-Dispatch, click here (registration may be required). 

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Posted on Apr 21, 2009

The College officially dedicated its new baseball field in Schenectady’s Central Park Friday, April 10, 2009, during a ceremony between games of a doubleheader against Skidmore College.

In a partnership between the College and the city, Union donated $162,000 to renovate “Diamond C,” one of three baseball fields in Central Park. The upgrades include a new infield featuring Kentucky bluegrass sod, new bases and a sprinkler system. Improvements were also made to the dugouts, outfield, bullpen areas and the fencing surrounding the field.

The city’s youth leagues will be able to use the new field when the College season ends in early May.

Several media outlets covered the ceremony. To read the story in the Daily Gazette, click here (registration may be required).

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Posted on Apr 21, 2009

Union is among the top 10 of the most referenced liberal arts schools appearing in the global media, according to a Texas research company.

The Global Language Monitor ranked the schools on how often they appear in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet, blogosphere and social networking sites.

Harvard finished ahead of Columbia for the number one spot among U.S. universities. Colorado College in Colorado Springs topped Williams in the liberal arts category. Union was ranked eighth, below Amherst, Wellesley, Oberlin, Middlebury and the University of Richmond.

To read a story about the rankings by United Press International, click here.

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