Posted on Apr 14, 2009

The second annual “LGBTQ: A Union Perspective” exhibit opens today in the Nott Memorial’s Wikoff Student Gallery.

The exhibit runs through Monday, June 1 and broadly explores issues that surround the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community at Union and beyond.

Artists include Visual Arts Professor Martin Benjamin, Eric A. Brooks ‘11, Bui-Duy Thanh Mai ‘11, Ajay Major ‘12, Michael Montesano ‘09, Emmaline Payette ‘09, Alex Porter ‘12, Juneui Soh ‘10 and Lisa Vallee ‘10.

An opening reception will be held Friday in the Wikoff Gallery from 4-6 p.m. Prizes will be awarded for “Best of Show,” “Juror’s Choice,” and “Honorable Mention.” Clancy Slack ’11, manager of Iris House, will be the featured speaker.

Posted on Apr 14, 2009

Anthony Rapp, star of the acclaimed musical, “Rent,” and an advocate for AIDS, LGBT and poverty issues, will speak Monday, April 20, at 7 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.

Rapp will speak on “Diversity and Being True to Yourself.” The talk, part of the Presidential Forum on Diversity series, is free and open to the public.

Rapp is best known for originating the role of Mark Cohen in the Tony Award-winning rock opera “Rent,” which tells the story of struggling young artists and musicians in New York City during the early days of the AIDS crisis. The play was inspired by Puccini’s opera, “La Bohème.”

He is also the author of the 2006 bestseller, “Without You: a Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical “Rent.” The novel details Rapp’s experiences during Rent’s original run and  his personal struggle with losing his mother to cancer.

At Union, Rapp will explore the role that the 12-year Broadway hit has played in bringing LGBT, AIDS and poverty issues into the national spotlight. He also will describe the loss of his friend and “Rent” playwright, Jonathan Larson, and his mother’s struggles.

Rapp’s other credits include numerous Broadway, shows, major motion pictures and television series. He serves on the board of the non-profit organization “Friends In Deed,” which provides emotional support for anyone dealing with a diagnosis of AIDS, cancer or other life-threatening physical illnesses.

A reception and book signing will follow Rapp’s talk.

After his appearance at Union, Rapp is scheduled to return to Schenectady later this summer during “Rent’s” run at Proctors Theatre July 28 to Aug. 2. Tickets for those shows go on sale Friday, May 1.

For ticket information, call (518) 346-6204.

Posted on Apr 10, 2009

Shlomo Molla, the sole Ethiopian Jewish member of the Israeli Knesset, will speak at Union Sunday, April 19, at 11:30 a.m. in the Nott Memorial.

Molla will discuss his rise to international power against considerable odds, the state of the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel today and his visions for the future of his people. 

Molla became a member of the Israeli Parliament affiliated with the Kadima party in February 2008. He retained his seat in the 2009 elections.

One of 11 children, he was born in a small rural Jewish village in Ethiopia's Gondar province, where neighboring non-Jews believed that the Jews were “devils who had tails” and bullied them. Molla’s father, the village judge, farmed a small plot of land. Their home had no electricity or running water but Molla was religious, studying Torah on a daily basis while yearning to be in Jerusalem. 

Molla attended a Jewish high school run by the American Joint Distribution Committee. In 1983, at 16, he learned that Jews from the Tigre province, 700 kilometers away, were being taken, in secret, to Israel via Sudan. 

He departed with 15 friends on a terrifying journey to Israel, where he was taken to an absorption center in Tzfat. He attended high school in Haifa and became an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces. He later graduated from the Bar Ilan University School of Social Work and obtained an LLB degree from Ono Academic College.

In 1991, Mossa volunteered with the Jewish Agency during Operation Solomon.  He also served as director of the Tiberius Absorption Center, supervisor for the Absorption Centers and Ulpanim in the northern kibbutzim and director for the Unit for Ethiopian Immigration and Absorption for the Jewish Agency.

Mossa is married and has three children. The family lives in Rishon Letzion.

Sunday’s event is sponsored by Hillel, the President's Office, AEPi and the departments of History, Political Science and Sociology.  

Posted on Apr 10, 2009

The College last year recycled more than 38 tons of paper, much of it through the efforts of students like Meghan Haley-Quigley ’11 and Erin Delman ’12.

The two students – members of U Sustain and the Environmental Club – were responsible for organizing the College’s new cardboard recycling program.

They were on hand for an April 2 ceremony at which Jody Paige, paper manager for Schenectady recycling firm D.A. Predel, presented President Stephen C. Ainlay with an award and certificate to recognize the College’s efforts.

“This initiative would not have been possible without our students,” Ainlay said. “This is a wonderful project that is a win-win for everyone.”

Paige presented some encouraging statistics. In the last year, Union’s paper recycling program saved 267,190 gallons of water from the manufacture of new paper, he said. It also spared 114.5 cubic yards of landfill space. The College received about $1,100 for the paper, and saved $3,245 in disposal costs.

Union’s paper recycling effort places it in the top 20^th percentile of American colleges, according to Jeffrey Corbin, an assistant professor of biology and leader of U Sustain.

The paper recycling effort is coordinated by Terry Miltner, assistant manager for Cleaning Services. With help from the students, he installed cardboard recycling bins in residential buildings.

Haley-Quigley, Delman and others marshaled their fellow students to use the bins, an effort that increased cardboard recycling by about 50 percent.

“It’s fun to walk down the hall on cardboard day,” Delman said. “And we’re amazed to see that we could make such a difference as students.”

Posted on Apr 10, 2009

Through May 4
Burns Arts Atrium
Visual Arts Building
Steinmetz Student Exhibition

Features 114 works in a variety of media by 55 studio arts students. Reception set for Tuesday, April 28, 4-6 p.m. at the Atrium gallery.

Through May 10
Mandeville Gallery
Nott Memorial
Dynamic Equilibrium

Show explores the intersection of art and science and features artists who explore science and scientists who explore art. Related event: Monday, April 20, 6 p.m., lecture by Ken Rinaldo and Amy Youngs, “Parasite to Symbiont,” F.W. Olin Center Auditorium; reception to follow.

Through May 10
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 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.

Posted on Apr 10, 2009

Deidre Hill Butler, assistant professor of sociology, recently gave an invited talk, titled “The Many Meanings of Michelle Obama,” for the Mandela-Parks Lecture Series sponsored by the College of Interdisciplinary Studies, African and African American Studies Program, Liberal Studies, and Women and Gender Studies at Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan.

Scott Kirkton, assistant professor of biology, will lead a symposium, “Respiratory Control in Insects: Integration from the Gene to the Organism," Sunday, April 29 at the American Physiology Society annual meeting at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. 

Pilar Moyano, professor of Spanish, has published “Mujeres que se descubren: Wallada Bint al-Mustafki en la biografía novelada de Matilde Cabello,” refereed Proceedings of the XXVI Conference of ALDEEU, Penn State Erie, the Behrend College, 2006. The article examines Matilde Cabello’s historical novel on the famed poet Wallada bint al-Mustakfi, daughter of the Umayyad Caliph al-Mustakfi in 11th century Moorish Spain. In addition, the article discusses how this book charts Arab-Andalusian women’s contribution and indelible mark in the masculine, public sphere of the period.

Andrew Rapoff, associate professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Scott McGraw of Ohio State University, and David Daegling and Jennifer Hotzman of the University of Florida, recently published a paper in the Journal of Morphology entitled “Material Property Variation of Mandibular Symphyseal Bone in Colobine Monkeys.” They found that bone becomes less stiff but tougher in the mid-chin region of the lower jaws in this subfamily of Old World monkeys when their diet consists of predominately harder foods.

In addition, Rapoff, McGraw and Daegling recently presented their research, “Isostress Analysis of Maxillary Canines in Cercopithecoid Monkeys,” at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Chicago, giving evidence that canines in a wide variety of genera of Old World monkeys are tapered to provide maximum strength with minimum mass given their observed feeding behavior.  This work was supported in part by an NSF grant awarded to Rapoff.
 

Gail Golderman, Schaffer Library Digital Services librarian, and Bruce Connolly, head of Public Services, have completed their eighth year as contributing editors of Library Journal’s netConnect, publishing review articles on electronic resources in the areas of business, health care, the environment and eBook collections.