Posted on Apr 30, 1999

John Miller, theater technical director, did the lighting design
for the play, The Shadow Box, which runs for three weekends through May 9 at
Siena's Foy Theater.

Amanda Leamon, associate professor of French, presented a paper titled
“Resurrecting Fantomas: The Genius of Evil in Cendrars' Moravagine,”
at the Kentucky Foreign Language Conference in Lexington, Ky.

Martha Huggins, Roger Thayer Stone Professor of Sociology, delivered lectures on
her book, Political Policing: the United States and Latin America (Duke 1998) in
the University of San Diego's TransBorder Institute's spring lecture series and
in the University of California at San Diego's Latin American and Pacific
Study's Center spring lecture series. She was also a guest on a one-hour Pacifica
Radio interview and call-in program about Political Policing. In Brazil, her book
was the subect of two published interviews, one in Época, a national news weekly,
the other in the Brazilian Communist Party's Princípios. Her work on Tortured
Consciousness, a book in progress, was featured at the University of Chicago
conference on torture. It was also presented at a Siena College Peace Studies conference.

A.G. Davis Philip, research professor of physics, has published De favoriete
'opname' van … (My favorite picture …) in the March issue of the Dutch
astronomy journal Zenit. He gave lectures at the University of Mexico in Mexico
City and to a consortium of institutions in Jackson, Miss., under the Shapley Visiting
Lecture Program, which he directs. He also recently had a week of observation time at the
Vatican Observatory on Mt. Graham, Ariz. Philip also is the editor of The Third
Conference on Faint Blue Stars, the proceedings of a conference he chaired at Union in
1996. He is author of five papers in the volume. Co-editors are Rex Saffer of Villanova
University, and James Leibert of the University of Arizona.

Posted on Apr 30, 1999

Robert D. Richardson Jr., author of acclaimed books on Emerson and Thoreau and on
American literature and myth, will speak on “Sinking Ships, Erupting Volcanos, and
the Writing of Literary Biography” on Wednesday, May 5, at 7:30 p.m. in Everest
Lounge.

He is the author of Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind (1986) and Emerson: The
Mind on Fire (1995), for which he won the Bancroft Award in History.

His talk is sponsored by the English department.

Posted on Apr 30, 1999

President Roger H. Hull and Schenectady Mayor Albert Jurczynski will
examine “The Union-Schenectady Relationship: Tomorrow” on Monday, May 3, at 7
p.m. in the Nott Memorial.

The leaders will discuss current and future initiatives aimed at improving the college
and the city.

Their talk will cap a three-part series that began April 21 on the Union-Schenectady
relationship.

Ed Lallier was coordinator of the series, sponsored by Wells House.

Posted on Apr 27, 1999

Schenectady, N.Y. (April 27, 1999) – Union College's field house will look more like a kids' house when it becomes the setting for the second annual U-Care Kids Carnival on Saturday, May 1, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event is free and open to children 12 and under (adults should accompany all children).

Coordinated by Union student groups from across campus, the carnival features such attractions as “Mr. Bouncy Bounce, Flag Acres Petting Zoo, a dunk tank, soccer and hockey shoot, face painting, big wheel races, and, of course, food — cotton candy, snow cones and BBQ are all on the house. Kids are encouraged to bring T-shirts to be tie-dyed, and a non-perishable food items for the College's Kosovo food drive.

Emily Simon, a Union senior from Armonk, NY co-chair of the event, hopes to build on the success of Carnival '98. “We were excited to see about 700 children come out last year, I'm hoping for even more this weekend,” she said. “This is a great way to give something back to the community, and I hope it's an event that continues long after I graduate.”

In addition to the College and a number of its Greek Society members, participating sponsors for Carnival '99 include Price Chopper Supermarkets, K-Mart, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Schenectady, and United Greek, a college apparel store in Albany.

For more information, call 388-5723.

Posted on Apr 27, 1999

Schenectady, N.Y. (April 27, 1999) – Mikhail Iossel, writer-in-residence at Union College, joins a distinguished group of Union faculty as a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

He is one of eight Guggenheim Fellows in fiction this year.

Iossel is nearing completion of a book of two novellas linked by common characters. One, written in the past, is set in Russia. The other, written in the present, is set in the United States.

Iossel also has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Minnesota Arts Board, the Wallace Stegner Foundation, and the Henfield Foundation/Transatlantic Review Board.

Two of this works – “Bologoye” and “Every Hunter Wants to Know” – were selected for the Best American Short Stories anthology in 1991.

Iossel received his master's in creative writing from the University of New Hampshire at Durham and served as the Wallace Stegner Fellow in fiction writing at Stanford University. At native of St. Petersburg, Russia, he received his bachelor's degree and his master's in engineering from the Leningrad Institute of Shipbuilding, and received a certificate in journalism, writing, theory and translation from Leningrad State University.

He has also held teaching posts at the University of Minnesota, the New School for Social Research, New York University and St. Lawrence University. He is organizer this summer of the Summer Literary Seminars, an advanced writing workshop in St. Petersburg.

Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to give blocks of time to fellows to pursue their work with creative freedom. Other Union faculty members who have been Guggenheim Fellows include Chris Duncan and the late Daniel Robbins, visual arts; Jordan Smith, English; Robert Wells, history; and Brenda Wineapple, English.

Posted on Apr 26, 1999

Schenectady, N.Y. (April 26, 1999) – New York State per pupil expenditures are the second highest in the nation, but achievement scores still rank below the U.S. average. New York has responded with changes in educational standards and with legislation to allow charter schools. Will that be enough?

On Thursday, May 6, from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Nott Memorial, a panel will meet to discuss “Education in New York State: What Really Needs Reform?” The discussion will be taped for broadcast on New York State public television beginning in June.

Seating is reserved. For information and reservations, call 388-6238.

Panelists will include state and local school officials, teachers, school reform advocates, union leaders and representatives of academia. (See complete list below.) Moderator will be Ed Dague, anchor of NewsChannel 13, the area NBC affiliate.

Among the questions to be discussed:

Are the real educational problems within New York restricted to inner city schools?
How can the New York Department of Education maintain achievement standards?

Are proposed changes in teacher education and certification adequate?
Are charter schools an invigorating force or a diversion of limited resources?

Panelists are:

Dale Ballou, professor of economics, University of Massachusetts, whose research has focused on regulation and incentives of education reform, particularly as they affect training, recruitment, retention and compensation of teachers.
Eleanor Bartlett, Regent, State of New York, was elected to her post in March, after serving 27 years in Albany city schools as special education teacher, principal, interim and deputy superintendent.
John J. Faso, Republican minority leader of the state Assembly, has sponsored Charter School legislation and supported funding of abstinence-based education programs.

Sy Fliegel, President, Center for Educational Innovation, was director of alternative education for Community School District Four in Queens, where he began the transformation of New York City public schools that he describes in his book, Miracle in East Harlem.

Gail Foster, executive director, Toussaint Institute, known as a resource for parents trying to find a school to match their child and for educators interested in Charter Schools and other trends.
Lewis Golub, chairman, New York State Business Council, serves on college and community boards, and is CEO of Golub Corp., parent company of Price Chopper Supermarkets.

Clifford Janey, superintendent, Rochester City Schools, whose performance benchmarks and community partnerships have set a national standard.
Richard P. Mills, commissioner, state Education Department, serves as CEO of the board of regents, which oversees the most comprehensive state educational system in the nation.

Terry Weiner, professor of political science and sociology at Union College, has done extensive research on problems disabled children face in public schools. He has served nine years, including president, of the Niskayuna School Board, and was a founder of Union's MAT program.
Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers which represents more than 130,000 educators in New York City public schools, and has taken a lead role in contract negotiations for teachers.