Union College News Archives

News story archive

Navigation Menu

Zolner Returns to Alma Mater as GMI Director

Posted on May 30, 1997

Joseph P. Zolner '76 has been named director of the Graduate Management Institute, it was announced by President Roger Hull.

Zolner is special projects consultant at Harvard University's Institutes for Higher Education. From 1988 to 1992, he was director of the Graduate School
of Business Administration at Northeastern University. He also has extensive experience as a management consultant to a number of organizations, and as an educational administrator.

An active alumnus of Union, he received the Alumni Council's Gold
Medal in recognition of his outstanding service in 1996. He also served as president of
the Alumni Council.

Read More

McFadden Named Library Director

Posted on May 30, 1997

Thomas G. McFadden has been named director of Schaffer Library, it was announced by President Roger Hull.

McFadden, associate university librarian at Northern Arizona
University's Cline Library, also has held librarian and teaching posts at University
of California at Davis, Brown University, RIT and Worcester College of Oxford University.

He holds an M.L.S. from the University of Pittsburgh, A.B.D. and M.A.
degrees from Brown, and a B.A. from College of Idaho. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford
from 1968 to 1970.

Read More

Gifts From Auer, Hellmich And Newcomer Announced

Posted on May 30, 1997

Among recent gifts to the College, the estate of Laura Auer has donated $530,000 for a scholarship fund in mechanical engineering in memory of Christian
Steenstrup.

A bequest of $322,000 has been received from the estate of Eugene W. Hellmich '23. The gift is to endow a math prize given in memory of Prof. Charles F.F.
Garis.

Paul E. Newcomer '47 has donated nearly $55,000 to establish a two-life unrestricted gift annuity. Newcomer, of York, Penn., made the gift in honor of
his 50th ReUnion.

Read More

For the Record

Posted on May 30, 1997

Robert Baker, professor of philosophy, was a guest on Fresh
Air
with host Terry Gross for a discussion on medical ethics, the challenge of managed
care and the role of alternative medicines. He was joined by Art Caplan of the Center for
Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania (where Baker is visiting scholar). The two
were interviewed as co-organizers of an American Medical Association conference
celebrating the sesquicentennial of the 1847 Code of Ethics, the first to be adopted by a
national medical society. Fresh Air is broadcast nationally over a number of public
radio stations.

Chemistry major Lamyaa Hassib '98 under the direction of Prof.
James C. Adrian Jr.,
assistant professor of chemistry, has been named a winner of both
a GlaxoWellcome Summer Fellowship and a Pfizer Summer Fellowship to conduct research this
Summer in the chemistry department. The title of their winning project is: “Catalytic
Enantioselective Addition of Silyl Enolates to Imines with Chiral, C2-Symmetric
2,6-Diiminopyridyl-Metal Complex Lewis Acids.” The project proposes a novel synthesis
of chiral b(beta)-amino acids, compounds which have found an important role in the
pharmaceutical industry.

Martha Huggins, Roger Thayer Stone Professor of Sociology, has
been featured recently in a number of articles in the international press about her book Political
Policing
and her research (and upcoming book) on Brazilian torturers. Articles
appeared in Estado de Sáo Paulo one of Brazil's largest newspapers, the
German magazine Focus, and the Swiss newspaper Neve Züricher Zeitung.

Paul Gremillion, assistant professor of civil engineering,
presented a paper titled, “An Undergraduate Course that Integrates Faculty Research
and Practical Environmental Field and Laboratory Methods” recently at the Zone I
meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education. The meeting included faculty
from colleges and universities from the mid-Atlantic and New England regions and from
southeastern Canada.

Martin Benjamin, professor of art, and Charles Steckler, associate
professor of theater, are presenting works at the 1997 Photography Invitational, an
exhibition of winners from past Photography Regional Exhibitions. The show runs through
June 11 at RCCA: The Arts Center in Troy. For details, call 273-0552.

Hilary Tann, professor of music, has released two compositions on
a CD titled Celtic Connections, which features three contemporary composers with
links to Ireland and Wales. The music is performed by Ireland's leading contemporary
music ensemble, Concorde. Of Erthe and Air for mixed trio, was composed while Tann
was resident faculty member for the term abroad in Japan in the fall of 1990; The
Cresset Stone
is a meditative work for solo violin, completed in 1994. The CD was
produced by Capstone Records (CPS-8640) and is available through Albany Music Distributors
(800-752-1951).

Randolph Quaye, assistant professor of sociology and Africana
studies, is to give a talk titled “Health Care in Black America: Perceptions of
Health Care Providers” this summer at the 12th International Interdisciplinary
Conference on Hypertension in Blacks, to be held in London. His presentation focuses on a
year-long study at two Schenectady County clinics in which providers recommend greater
efforts toward preventative medicine and the inclusion of transportation services in
outreach departments.

Donna Burton, associate professor in Schaffer Library, has
published two book reviews in Journal of Government Information from Pergamon
Press. She reviewed The United Nations and Human Rights, 1945-1995 (U.N. Dept. of
Public Information), part of the U.N. “Blue Book Series.” This publication has
compiled the text of 100 documents generated or approved by the U.N. on human rights
issues and was praised by Burton for the multiplicity of access points to the material and
the affordable price. Her second review treated a bibliographic tool designed to assist
documents librarians and users of the early federal censuses up through 1945. Author Kevin
Cook's Dubester's U.S. Census Bibliography with SuDocs Class Numbers
and Indexes
(Libraries Unlimited), an update and expansion of an earlier work, has
added indexing, documents numbers and annotations that make this a valuable addition for
those with heavily used retrospective census collections, Burton wrote.

Rudy Nydegger, associate professor of psychology, is president
elect of the Psychological Association of Northeastern New York. He will assume a one-year
term as president next year.

Terry Weiner, professor of political science and sociology,
delivered a paper titled “Medicine, Medicaid and Managed Care: A Broken
Covenant?” at the Southern Sociological Society meetings this spring. The paper
examines the policy of placing the elderly and the poor in managed care programs and
questions whether this policy is consistent with legislation in 1965.

David Gerhan, head of public services and of reference, has
written bibliographic entries for the 1997 biennial Bibliographie intemationale de la
demographic
. Gerhan identified, selected, classified, and annotated 174 citations to
the literature of historical demography, published in books, journal articles, papers, and
other special studies in the U. S. in 1993-1994. The B.I.D.H is published at the
Université de Liège, Belgium, under the auspices of the International Union for the
Scientific Study of Population, the International commission of Historical Demography, and
the Société française de la démographie historique and serves as the bibliographical
record for historical demographers. Gerhan serves as correspondent for the United States,
among 27 other contributors for various nations.

James T. McWhirter, assistant professor of physics, has received
a Cottrell Science Award of $32,000 to support his research in “Point Defects and
Their Application to Solid State Lasers.” The Cottrell College Science Program is
supported by Research Corporation of Tucson, Ariz. It supports research in chemistry,
physics and astronomy at undergraduate colleges.

Read More

Class of 2001 at 540 Students; On Target for Budgeted Enrollment

Posted on May 16, 1997

Paid deposits for the Class of 2001 stood at 540 the morning of May 13, according to Dan Lundquist, vice president for admissions and financial aid.

The number — while down from last year's high of 626 at this point— is “right on” compared with other years and on target for a budgeted
fall enrollment of 520, Lundquist noted. The number could top out as high as 560 before summer melt, he added.

About 15 students from the wait list have said they plan to deposit.
“We have been trying to find students who emerged at the end of the process with a
sharpened interest in Union,” Lundquist said. Like Union, many colleges and
universities have made “surgical use” of their wait lists, he said.

The Class of 2001 is under budget for financial aid with about 270 of
the budgeted 290 on grant aid, Lundquist noted.

The College this year received 3,475 applications, accepting just fewer
than 50 percent. Last year, when the College had about the same number of applications,
the acceptance rate was about 54 percent.

The Class has the largest percentage of women – at 51 percent
– and is the most geographically diverse. Of the latter, Lundquist noted that 46
percent come from New York State, compared with 50 percent last year, and 60 percent eight
years ago.

Union Scholars this year number 61 — up from 18 in last year's
inaugural effort — perhaps due in part to an overnight program for candidates of the
honors track. Minority enrollment is close to last year's 12 percent. International
students are up “a bit” in number from the low teens to the high teens.

Among peer institutions, there were no reports of “huge classes
like last year and nearly every one used the wait list,” Lundquist said. “Union
could be the poster child for this admissions market.”

Read More

Robert Holland ’62 to Speak at Commencement

Posted on May 16, 1997

Independent acquisition consultant Robert Holland Jr. '62 will be honorary chancellor and deliver the main address at the College's Commencement on Sunday, June 15, at 10 a.m. in Library Plaza. Holland will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree.

Paul LeClerc, president of the New York Public Library and former associate professor of French at Union, will receive an honorary doctor of letters degree.
Bryn Mawr College President Mary Patterson McPherson will receive an honorary doctor of
letters.

A mechanical engineering major at Union, Holland has since gained an
international reputation for turning around the fortunes of troubled companies. He began
his career with an international management consulting firm, helping struggling companies
to thrive, and went on to lead a range of companies, from an automotive parts manufacturer
to Ben and Jerry's Homemade, the Vermont ice cream maker.

Read More