Posted on Aug 1, 1999

When Beth Wierzbieniec '99 was a high school student looking at colleges, she knew that a small college “was a place I could become involved in.”

Wierzbieniec has gone beyond being involved; she has been an integral part of the student body, and this spring she was awarded the Bailey Cup, presented to the senior who rendered the greatest service to the College. Her list of activities includes Big Brothers/Big Sisters, tour guide for the Admissions Office, tutor at Elmer Elementary School, orientation advisor, member of the Multi-Cultural Advisory Group, and president of the Student Forum.

One of her most rewarding experiences was her leadership of a project titled “Dialogues on Race.” For a month in the spring of 1998, twenty-one student organizations, dozens of faculty and staff, and the College's athletic teams hosted more than thirty events and activities designed to foster an exchange of ideas, information, and concerns regarding diversity at Union. The Schenectady County Human Rights Commission recognized Wierzbieniec's by awarding her the 1998 Human Rights Youth Achievement Award. She was received the 1998 Hudson Mohawk Association of Colleges and Universities' “Creating a More Welcoming Community” student award.

Wierzbieniec will be in Baltimore with the Teach for America program for at least two years, likely teaching middle school social studies. After that, she says she may go back to school to study public administration or public law.

In addition to the Bailey Cup, she received the Alan Lake Chidsey Citizenship Award for distinctive contributions to the advancement of responsible government in student affairs and a Meritorious Service Award.

“Union has meant so much to me, and it's really nice to know that I have meant a lot to Union,” she said.

Posted on Aug 1, 1999

Professor of Economics Peter Prosper (whose name seems particularly fitting for an economist) knew little about economics when he chose his major as an undergraduate at Pennsylvania State University after serving in the Korean War.

He knew that he did not want to study science, math, or the humanities, and that he did not want to be an insurance salesman or a real estate agent. “It seemed to me that a good academic topic would be economics,” Prosper says.

Indeed, he loved it. “It's good stuff. It's all good stuff,” says Prosper about economics.

Prosper got into teaching much the same way he happened upon economics. During his senior year at Penn State, a professor had to leave his post to be with his mother, who was ill, and the department chair asked Prosper to take over his classes. Prosper agreed, and he discovered that he liked teaching. In graduate school the same thing happened — a professor had to leave the university temporarily and Prosper took over, this time leading upper-level classes.

“It must have been fate,” he says.

After earning his Ph.D. from Cornell University's School of Arts and Sciences, Prosper taught at Harpur College for two years before the college became the large university center that it is today (the State University of New York at Binghamton). Since he had decided he wanted to teach at a small college that allowed closer interaction with students, Prosper came to Union in 1964. This June, after thirty-four years at the College, he retired from teaching.

Prosper's teaching specialization — labor — also seems to have fate written all over it. All of the research that he completed as an undergraduate and graduate student was related to labor economics, and he especially loved teaching his labor courses at Union — “Labor and Industrial Relations,” “Labor Economics,” and his upper-level seminar in labor. He also directed the Economics Department's internship program and oversaw industrial economics majors.

In addition to his teaching and scholarship, Prosper worked as an arbitrator, mediator, and fact-finder in labor disputes throughout New York State and the Northeast. He became involved as a fact-finder and mediator in the late 1960s, when the law allowing New York State public employees to unionize was passed. Several years later, he became an arbitrator (arbitrators, unlike mediators or fact-finders, have the power to issue decisions that are final and binding to the case that they investigate).

Prosper says that he became involved in mediation and arbitration because it involved the labor issues that he loves and also gave him new information to use in his classes, which he did frequently. “I just love everything about the cases that I do. I love labor,” he says.

After managing hundreds of cases as an arbitrator, mediator, and fact-finder, Prosper has no plans to cut back after retirement. Instead, he welcomes the flexibility that retirement from teaching will allow him. And, of course, he plans to play as much golf as possible.

Posted on Aug 1, 1999

Barry Smith, associate professor of theater, says that he will not retire until he dies, but this year he brought to a close twenty-eight years of teaching at the College.

Smith arrived at Union in 1971, when he and Charles Steckler, associate professor of theater, were hired to transform Union's theater program from one with an emphasis on history to one that focused on performance. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Smith brought to theater a passion for the arts as not only a form of expression but also as a form of awakening.

“Theater is about finding out about what you love,” he says. “It's not about making an impression, but communicating what is heartfelt. Theater becomes the place where students can struggle with these issues.”

Smith became interested in theater as a student at Westminster College. “I had never seen a play in my life, but I was inspired by my theater professor who asked the question, 'What is beauty?' ”

After graduation, Smith went to Thailand for eight years as a fraternal worker with the Presbyterian Church. There, he taught English as a Second Language — and rediscovered theater. Within a short time he was using theater in his classes, and he then began to teach at universities in Bangkok, Thailand.

After returning to the United States, Smith earned his master of fine arts degree at Yale and accepted the position at Union because of the opportunity to create a community of theater. Intrigued and inspired by the Nott Memorial, Smith based much of his teaching on the circular themes of the building, directing shows that took advantage of the unique space. For Madman and the Nun, his first production at the College, he and Steckler turned the entire building into an operating theater with life-sized plastic statues watching the proceedings. For JB, which retells the story of Job, they turned the Nott into a huge circus tent. For Oedipus, the Nott Memorial became a temple.

“I learned the power of the circle from the Nott Memorial,” Smith says.

Smith loves theater because of its involvement with people, he says. “The heart of the theater experience is to work with people. The contribution which theater can make to future doctors, lawyers, dentists, surgeons, engineers, business executives, and teachers goes far beyond polishing the external techniques of presentation. It is the process of touching their humanity, their core. This process helps students to struggle with things they care about, work as a team, and develop a sense of community.”

Smith left Union this summer to accompany his partner, Diane Sadak '85, as she begins a theater teaching position at Towson University in Baltimore, Md. He plans to take care of the couple's two young children, Noel Kendall and Sage Noelle. He also plans to continue to explore his teaching in theater as an adjunct professor at Towson University and other universities in the area.

Posted on Aug 1, 1999

Looking to reminisce about old times at Union? Share news of your new business with friends? Send a Union postcard to a neighbor? Create your own web page?

Union's new alumni online community allows alumni to do all these things and more. Features include free web-based e-mail for all alumni as well as information on alumni events, alumni forums, a business card exchange, web postcards, and the opportunity for alumni to create their own web pages.

“The online community allows alumni to keep in touch with one another and with the College,” says Saul Morse, the College's webmaster. “And it's all free for alumni.”

To join the community, alumni should point their Internet browsers to http://www.union.onlinecommunity.com and follow instructions to register for a user name and password. Once obtained, this will give alumni access to other features of the site, which include:

Lifetime e-mail
Web-based lifetime e-mail is available for free to all alumni. New addresses will be a user name of your choice followed by alumni.union.edu. E-mail can be checked from anywhere that alumni have access to a Web browser, and mail can be forwarded to another e-mail account. Using this new account, alumni can send and receive mail with attachments, change passwords, and create multiple mailboxes.

Information on special events
Information about Union events such as ReUnion and Homecoming will be highlighted in the online community, and alumni will be able to register and pay for these events online.

Alumni Forums
Alumni Forums will provide for threaded discussion boards with real-time posting. A job board/networking forum is also included in this feature.

Business card exchange
Alumni may post information about their businesses in a searchable database that will be available only to other registered alumni.

Web postcards
Union electronic postcards will be available for alumni to e-mail to friends and family.

Build your own Web page
The College is offering space and page building tools for alumni web pages. Alumni are encouraged to develop their own pages and then register for a link from one of Union's main pages.

Posted on Aug 1, 1999

In 1995, David S. Kaplan '82 was shot and killed near his Arlington, Va., apartment. The Congressional Quarterly, where David worked, a number of its employees, and members of David's family created an endowment fund, with income used to support the College's annual Term in Washington.

Commencement Weekend this year saw a gathering of several individuals involved in the Washington term — Phil Duncan, an editor of Congressional Quarterly; four Washington interns (Suzanne Dougherty '98, Evan Morris '99, Stephanie Slobotkin '99, and Brooke Barylick '00), and Professor of Political Science Byron Nichols.

The following letters offer a warm testimonial to David, still remembered by Congressional Quarterly as “one of the most meticulous, accurate, and at times visionary political reporters in the history of CQ.”

From: Prof. Byron Nichols
Phil Duncan was responsible for setting up the David Kaplan Internship program for a Union student participating in our Term in Washington program. David had been extremely successful at CQ, not just professionally but also in the manner in which his personality had connected him to virtually the entire staff. His death was an emotional blow to many at CQ, particularly Phil Duncan, who had been his mentor.

Phil took it upon himself to promote an internship at CQ for a student at David's alma mater and then to help raise almost $20,000 for an endowed fund whose annual interest would provide an unusual journalistic opportunity for the Kaplan intern.

The first Kaplan intern was Suzanne Dougherty '98 in the spring of 1996. She was followed by Evan Morris '99 in 1997 and Stephanie Slobotkin '99 in 1998. This year's Kaplan intern has been Brooke Barylick '00. The interest from the endowed fund was used to send Brooke to Louisiana for a three-day coverage of the run-off to fill the Congressional seat vacated by Robert Livingston early this year. Out of that trip came two pieces over Brooke's byline in CQ publications in late May.

Phil's primary responsibility is the publication of Politics in America every two years, probably the most used reference work on members of Congress in the United States. He has also been instrumental in helping expand CQ's publication efforts, in hard copy and on-line. Phil is coming to Union this week because all four of the first Kaplan interns will be at this year's Commencement, and he wants to wish them all well. Stephanie and Evan are in the graduating class, Suzanne is returning to campus for the graduation of a close friend (Suzanne is now a full-time employee at CQ), and Brooke is back on campus following the Term in Washington program.

From: Phil Duncan
I'm back from my trip to graduation weekend at Union, where we had a wonderful gathering of all four Kaplan Washington interns.

On Saturday the Political Science Department put on a reception for the Kaplan interns that was attended by faculty and the parents, grandparents, siblings, etc. on hand to see Evan and Stephanie graduate. Byron spoke about Dave and what he meant to CQ, and he praised Dave's family, friends, and work colleagues for launching an internship program that has offered a great Washington journalism experience to Union students. I brought greeting from Bob Benenson, Amy Stern, and Brian Nutting, the people at CQ who are most involved with the Kaplan internship. I said it meant a lot to Dave's family and to us that we've been able to develop something positive out of a tragic loss.

It was a great experience for me to walk the campus paths that Dave knew well, to see all the interns and many of their family members together, and to visit with Byron and his wife. Four years ago, when we first conceived of the Kaplan intern program, I never could have imagined the significant place it would achieve in the life of Union College, and the number of lives it would touch.

Posted on Aug 1, 1999

John Donne was right. No man is an island.

Since I believe in putting words to action, I spent part of my vacation in the Balkans. Tired of watching on television people driven from their homes to camps (or worse) and wanting to do something, anything, I tried first to work in a refugee camp. Not being a doctor, though, I hit a wall. However, that was just as well, since the camps were largely disbanded by the time I got to Macedonia.

Next I found myself being told that I could be helpful interviewing refugees about war crimes for the international tribunal. Given my background as a lawyer who has written extensively in this field, I was delighted. The “assignment” changed prior to departure, though.

I was instead asked to help with the Albanian universities in Macedonia and Kosovo. For a college president, the work was certainly relevant; for an American, it turned out to be deja vu all over again.

Why? Because the Serbs in 1990 purged Kosovars of Albanian descent from the ranks of the University of Pristina. Combined with the fact that Albanians in Macedonia comprise officially twenty-three percent of the population (they feel that the real number is forty percent) and had but 435 graduates from Macedonia's two universities in the preceding fifty years, the picture is clear. Jim Crow is alive and well in the Balkans. A case in point: A young woman of Albanian descent, who is in her first year at Macedonia's university, was given a failing mark by her professor. The professor, who had campaigned against Albanians attending the university in Macedonia, flunked her even though she answered all the questions correctly because “she did not understand the final exam.”

Albanians are persistent. In Kosovo, they continued “their” University of Pristina in private homes, with each of the ten faculties taking up residence throughout the city; in Macedonia, Albanians founded a university, also located in donated residencies, in Tetova, but only after the rector and head of the faculty senate served ten- and six-month jail terms, respectively.

Degrees from Macedonia's Albanian university are not recognized by the government, which affects career possibilities, although there is hope for change among Albanians with the formation of a new government. There is also hope for change in Kosovo with NATO firmly entrenched and the Serb forces having pulled out of the province.

For the time being though, Kosovo Albanians wait. Yes, there are immediate issues that the United Nations must address from food to water to electrical and phone service. But the university, untouched by the war, remains sealed to all. Why?

When the Kosovo Parliament created the University of Pristina in 1970, it clearly had the legal right to do so. When the Serbian Parliament forced Albanians out of the university in 1990 – although some argue that Albanians boycotted the university together with other Serbian-controlled institutions –it did so without any more legal basis than the U.S. Congress would have in overthrowing a local or state initiative. And when the Serbs pulled out of the province, the university's legal status reverted to the Kosovars — all of the Kosovars.

At a meeting with Tejnel Kelmenli, rector of the University of Pristina, I was given a wish list, not unlike the one I received from the rector of the University of Tetova. I was also asked plaintively what I could do to help get him back into the sealed facilities of the university that he and other Albanians had been forced from two decades ago. Opening the university would give a major morale boost to the people in the province, because it would signal a return to the pre-1990 situation and provide the intellectual and economic stimulus that any viable community requires. With the law so clear, why not put politics aside and move the situation forward?

I will do what I can with the wish lists, and I will try to bring back some students who will benefit from a college education in the United States. As for getting the United Nations to reopen the university, I can't answer his question or produce the result that the rector wants. But the law is clear, and so should the results be.

No, no man is an island. We are all a part of the continent, a piece of the main, and we should all do what we can, since everyone's death diminishes us all.