A procedure that can make dividing anything fair and envy-free – and which was devised by Alan Taylor, the Marie Louise Bailey Professor of Mathematics, and Steve Brams, a political scientist at New York University-was the subject of an eight-page article in the March
issue of Discover magazine.
The article, titled “Dividing the Spoils,” says the two professors, working together over the past two years, “have figured out an equitable way to divide the world's goods-tangible or not-that's mathematically guaranteed to do everyone justice.”
Taylor and Brams published their procedure in the January 1995 American Mathematical Monthly. Their new book, to be published later this year, explains everything a layperson might need to know about fair division, the article notes.
The magazine article said the book “illustrates various ways to apply this new technique (and several others) to divorce settlements, inheritance squabbles, treaty negotiations, wage disputes, and many other knotty problems, including the fair distribution of 'bads,' such as taxes and household chores.”
Fred Bleakley, a senior writer with The Wall Street Journal, came to campus for two days in February to observe our 200th birthday celebration and to see the Nott Memorial. Reprinted here is his story, which appeared March 21.
Schenectady, N.Y.
If there are ghosts, they would have been soaring with delight over the rededication recently of a High Victorian Gothic masterpiece here at Union College.
Saved from ruin by a $9 million makeover, the Nott Memorial, a giant folly and a National Historic Landmark, captures the spirit of one remarkable educator, two renowned architects and the exuberance of a time when whimsy counted as much as practicality.
The 16-sided, 10-story salute to Eliphalet Nott (Union's president from 1804 to 1866) looms over America's first planned campus. “The Nott,” as it is affectionately known, is a
hot-blooded wonder of colored stone, soaring arches and stained-glass windows sitting majestically apart from Union's neoclassical buildings of cool
gray-and-white stucco. Somehow the disharmony is enchanting-all the way up to the giant slated dome encircled with Hebrew lettering that means: “The work is great, the day short and the master presses the workmen.”
Much of what visitors marvel at has been impossible to see for almost a century. For the first time since 1903, the restoration allows a viewer on the encaustic tiled ground floor to look 106 feet up to the vaulted, cobalt-blue ceiling. The effect is like a planetarium, with literally celestial light filtering through 709 red, yellow, purple and green tiny glass “illuminators” that appear to flicker like stars as you tilt your gaze. Set in from the stone walls are 16 cast-iron columns-a
crystal-palace-like skeleton-that support the dome and second- and third-floor balconies encircling the open center space.
Only hours after workmen had finished clearing construction debris on a recent weekend, historian David McCullough told Nott Memorial fans and alumni donors that
“when every airport, every ketchup bottle, every sitcom and every magazine rack looks the same, how much more important it is to come into a structure where the idea is not to look like anything else.”
Mr. McCullough put the Nott in the same league as the the Roeblings' Brooklyn Bridge and H.H. Richardson's City Hall in Albany, calling all three “distinctive and important examples of 19th-century American public architecture.” It is also a relic of a time when Union was a leader in American education and intellectual life.
In Nott's time, Union, which celebrates its bicentennial this year, was the first nondenominational college (a union of all faiths) in the nation. First also to introduce modern languages, the sciences and engineering to the curriculum, it became an innovator in liberal arts education. Nott, it's said, was the equal of Jefferson in tearing down the walls of education that kept students from changes in society. Nott also pushed New York state to pay Union's tuition for indigent students so higher education was not just for the rich. And he usually accepted students expelled by other colleges.
A Presbyterian minister, he believed students would come to know God better by “embracing the world.” Emphasizing practical education as much as classical studies, Union paved the way for careers in medicine, law, mining and other sciences. Dozens of Nott's students went on to head American colleges and universities. He also invented the Nott stove, which for several decades gave Americans a safe, efficient way to heat their homes.
He was just as innovative when he picked an architect to plan a college campus on a hill overlooking Schenectady, in the Hudson Valley some 170 miles north of New York City. Discarding the tight, medieval-cloister look of America's colleges, the French landscape architect Joseph
Ramee envisaged a sloping plateau opening frontier-like to the West. He planned to have Union's buildings flank a Roman rotunda and a formal garden.
Construction of the North and South colleges (which remain today) began around 1812. That was several years before ground was broken for Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia, even though his plans were already on the drawing board, but without the eventual domed centerpiece.
But: “Evidence shows that a large domed rotunda building being the central focus of a campus, as at the University of Virginia, came from Ramee's plan for
Union College,” says Stanford University professor of architectural history Paul Turner. A Union graduate and U.S. campus expert, he is writing a book on Ramee.
Still, for nearly 50 years Ramee's domed building never got started. Financial stewardship was not Nott's strength and his autocratic style made matters worse as he entered his dotage. But when alumni pledged funds, Nott had the foresight to choose Edward Tuckerman Potter (his grandson) as architect. One of two brothers recognized as leading American architects in the Victorian Gothic style, he immediately discarded the Ramee rotunda as too squat and opted for a grander, more flamboyant look. It was completed in 1878.
Despite Nott's renown for practicality, no one ever quite knew what to do with the 80-foot-round, 100-foot-high space. It failed as a chapel and was ill-suited as a library (though it was used as one for nearly 60 years). For a while, when the rotunda went out of fashion in this century and was considered “vulgar,” there was talk of demolishing it or making it more Union-like.
When Roger Hull became Union's president in 1990, the Nott was a leaky, decrepit giant dropping slabs of granite and roof tiles and buttressed by railroad ties that kept its stony sides from bulging further. On the ground floor was a theater in the round. Upper stories housed an art studio, a dumping ground for old props “and more dead pigeons than I wanted to count,” said Mr. Hull.
Still, it was the symbol and, some say, the soul of a school that has 18,000 graduates and 2000 current students. So
Mr. Hull decided to preserve it for current and future Unionites. As part of an even more ambitious $150 million fund-raising campaign, he set out to raise $9 million to return the Nott to its splendor and $2 million for maintenance. More than 1,700 alumni and friends gave. A surprise gift of $5 million came from Mr. Hull's late mother-in-law
Mrs. Margaret MacGregor Dyson, the mother of New York Deputy Mayor John Dyson.
Getting the money together for it was only the beginning of the job. Finegold Alexander & Associates, the Boston architectural firm that directed the restoration of buildings on Ellis Island, took on the challenge. Under its supervision, contractors ripped out the two floors separating the ground floor from the ceiling, drove 900 steel shafts through four feet of outer walls and bolted the shafts to circular steel hoops, making the Nott stronger than ever. For the leaky dome, the architects kept the horsehair insulation but devised a high-tech rubber membrane that had to be punctured and resealed for each of the tiny new illuminators. And they replaced missing tiles with new ones specially made by Craven Dunnill, the original English supplier.
At a time when colleges are so pressed for funds, it's either something of a feat or a folly to spend so much money restoring a building that does so little. It will now serve as a reception and lecture hall with a study center and college museum on its balconies.
One of Nott's critics over a century ago wrote that the building is “all show, all to catch the vulgar eye, all to be gazed at.” But as Mr. McCullough said at last month's unveiling, “It may be all show, but what a show, what a feast for the eye.”
Mr. Bleakley is a senior writer on economics for the Journal.
Beginning this fall, all students living on campus will participate in the College's meal plan.
The decision to include all resident students will primarily affect about 370 students who live in the fourteen fraternities and sororities that have private meal plans.
In a letter to the campus community, President Roger Hull explained that the College's Planning and Priorities Committee had identified three key priorities-to continue to meet students' financial aid needs, to maintain academic and non-academic programs, and to continue to maintain the College's facilities.
Given the importance of these objectives, and faced with such financial pressures as federal and state budget cuts in higher education programs and the failure of the Schenectady City Council to give Union the use of its Lenox Road properties, the College can no longer justify exempting fraternity and sorority members from the requirements that all other resident students must meet, the letter said.
The meal plan offers three options with costs that ranged from $2,586 to $2,907 in 1994-95.
Appointed: As president and chief executive officer at Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, Robert Holland, Jr. '62, an experienced business consultant with a demonstrated commitment to social causes. The Associated Press said Holland “has spent his career working directly for struggling companies that he helped turn around or for consultants who performed the same tasks.” A Boston Globe profile said, “Holland's many supporters say he possesses the strategic thinking of a management consultant, the hands-on savvy of an entrepreneur, and the conscience of a social activist.”
Appointed: As assistant dean of students, Edgar Letriz '91, most recently assistant dean of admissions at the College of William and Mary. Letriz earned his bachelor's degree in modern languages and has a master's degree in French literature from the University of Wisconsin. He will work closely with student groups whose primary function is cultural awareness and with the College's Terms Abroad program.
Died: Codman Hislop '31, research professor of American civilization and author of the biography Eliphalet Nott, died February 26 at his home in Captiva Island, Fla. He was eighty-nine.
A native of Brooklyn, Professor Hislop earned his bachelor's degree in liberal arts and received an honorary doctor of letters degree from Union in 1972. He held a master's in American literature from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.
As an undergraduate, he was a member of Sigma Phi fraternity, Concordiensis, Garnet, the English
Club, Mountebanks, the choir, Pi Delta Epsilon, and Sigma Phi Society. He was a winner of the Bailey Prize.
In addition to his biography on Nott, which the College plans to publish this year in an abridged form, he wrote The Mohawk and Albany: Dutch, English and American. His writings appeared in a number of scholarly journals, and he had several Union distinctions-in
1932, he discovered the original Ramee plans for the College in an attic in the geology laboratory; in 1942, he was the first Union professor to enter active service in World War II, eventually becoming a major in the Army Air Force; in 1945 he served as the College's Sesquicentennial Poet; and in 1968 he discovered a number of letters written by George Washington which became known as the “W. Wright Hawkes Collection of Revolutionary War Documents.”
His interests included New England and New York State history, American social history, American literature, and English literature. He was active in the Schenectady Civic Theater, playing
roles in a number of productions, and was a founder of the Friends of Union College Library.
Survivors include a stepdaughter, Margaret Hanson, of Atworth, N.H. His wife, Gertrude, died in 1970.
A memorial was held in Florida in April.
Elma Hicks Martin
Died: Elma Hicks Martin, the wife of former President Harold C. Martin, died February 26 at St. Joseph's West Mesa Hospital in Albuquerque, N.M., after a brief illness. She was eighty-five.
Mrs. Martin graduated from Virginia State University and had a master's degree in English from the University of Michigan. She had been a teacher at Webster Springs (W.Va.) High School, Orange County Community College in Middletown, N.Y., and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. She also was a tutor of English.
She was co-editor of a family magazine and published articles in West Virginia School Journal and Massachusetts Teacher.
She was a president of the St. George's Episcopal Church's Board of Women in Schenectady; a member of the Schenectady Public Library's
Friends of the library, for which she did a number of book reviews; and a board member of the Schenectady League of Women Voters, Freedom Forum, and
the Community Welfare Council.
In addition to her husband of fifty-five years, survivors include two sons, Thomas, of Jamaica Plains, Mass., and Joel, of Portland, Maine; two daughters, Ann Martin, of Albuquerque, and Rebecca Evarts, of Arlington, Mass.; and ten grandchildren.
Contributions may be made to the Board of Women, St. George's Episcopal Church, Schenectady.
George Stibitz '27G
Died: George R. Stibitz '27G, whose mathematical calculations and tinkering at the kitchen table led him to invent the first digital computer in 1940, died January 31 at his home in Hanover, N.H. He was ninety.
He earned his master's degree in physics at Union in 1927 and soon
joined the Bell Telephone Laboratories as a research mathematician.
In 1937, he combined some dry cell batteries with metal strips from a tobacco can, flashlight bulbs, and two telephone relays to create what he called a binary adder. The next year, he and a partner created the complex number calculator, a digital computer capable of solving problems faster than 100 people with desk calculators, and in 1940 he became the first person to establish a computer network when he instructed the complex number calculator in New York City to perform computations from a Teletype machine in Hanover.
He held more than thirty patents for inventions ranging from computer systems to a stereophonic organ. In 1983 he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Sophomore Kevin Makarowski became the first Union male swimmer to win a national championship when he captured the 200-meter individual medley at the NCAA Division III championships.
Makarowski's time of 1:52.77 broke the College record set by teammate Scott Bowden last year. His effort helped Union to a fourth-place finish, with 234.5 points-the best finish ever for a Union team.
Coach Susan Bassett took six swimmers to the NCAA meet, and all earned All-American honors by finishing in the top eight.
Freshman Mark Anderson was second in the 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 57.7 and sophomore Mike Humphreys placed third in the 100meter backstroke with a time of 51.2.
Makarowski was fifth in the 400 intermediate medley (4:04.75), Anderson was sixth in the 200 breaststroke (2:06.70), and Humphreys was seventh in the 200 backstroke (1:53.68).
The 200- and 400-meter relay teams, composed of Humphreys, Anderson, Makarowski, and Bowden, each finished second, with times of 1:34.65 and 3:28.20. The 800-meter freestyle relay team of Humphreys, Makarowski, junior Chris Riley, and freshman Mike Derbyshire placed fourth (6:53.35) and
the 200 freestyle team of Bowden, Derbyshire, Makarowski, and Humphreys was sixth (1:24.70).
The national success came shortly after Union won its first state title. Bowden won the 200 intermediate medley, the 200 freestyle, the 100 freestyle, and was a member of all five first place relay teams. He was named “Swimmer of the Meet” Diver Brian Field, a freshman, won both the
one-meter and three-meter championships and was named “Diver of the Meet.”
The women's swimming team also had an excellent year, finishing second in the New York State Meet. Junior Jenn Allaire won both the 200 and 400 intermediate medleys for the third year in a row and also was first in the 100 individual medley, second in the 100 backstroke, and third in the 200 backstroke.
Freshman Megan McCarthy set a meet record in winning the 200 breaststroke (2:24.52). She also won the 100 breaststroke, was second in the 100 and 200 individual medleys, and finished eighth in the 100 butterfly.
At the women's national meet, Union placed nineteenth in a field of seventy-four teams. McCarthy finished seventh in the 200 breaststroke to win All-American honors, and four
other women-Allaire, sophomore Jackie Crane, freshman Sarah Spaulding, and freshman Melissa Pomerleau-earned honorable mention All-American status by finishing ninth through sixteenth. All four relay teams also finished among the top sixteen.
Union's women have a record of 63-10 in the eight seasons Bassett has been head coach, and the men are 42-20 in the seven years she
has coached them. Nineteen women and seven men have become All-Americans, and Julie Benker '93 won the national championship in the 100 backstroke.
Rich Pulver
Several other individuals earned recognition for outstanding efforts:
Rich Pulver, a senior, finished second in the shotput at the NCAA Division III championships with a throw of 54 feet, one inch. Undefeated during the indoor season, Pulver set a Union record with a throw of 54 feet, four inches and nearly matched that when he won the New York State championship.
The Women's Basketball Coaches Association named senior guard Andrea Pagnozzi as its 1995 winner of the Charles T. Stoner Law Scholarship award. Pagnozzi will use the award, presented to a senior woman basketball player who plans to pursue a career in law, at Dickinson School of Law next fall.
Andrea Pagnozzi
Pagnozzi is Union's second leading career scorer, with 1,312 points, and has a 3.85 grade point average. She has been on the Dean's List for four years.
Julie Anderson, a senior, was selected to the New York State Women's Collegiate Athletic Association's first team in tennis. A biology major and a four-year Dean's List student, Anderson had a career singles record of 35-16. The team was 31-12 during her career here and finished sixth in the state tournament in each of the past two seasons.
For Sallie Hume '70, Union College and Memorial Chapel have long had special meaning. So it was natural that she make a $100,000 gift of stock for the restoration of Memorial Chapel.
“As a child, I used to roller-skate with my friend, Jessica Waldron, in front of the chapel steps,” she says. “It was the smoothest place around.”
A few years after childhood, she was one of the few people who looked forward to mandatory Sunday night chapel.
“It was a nice place to meet young gentlemen,” she recalls.
And a few years after that, her son, Bill, was married there.
Hume, one of the College's first women graduates, served on the Board of Trustees during the 1970s. Her parents met on campus during a performance at the Mohawk Drama Festival. Her mother was playing a lead role. Her father was in the audience.
Her gift for the Memorial Chapel restoration was made possible by stock she'd received from her late father, H. Loring Wirt, an engineer with General Electric for forty years.
For Edward Cammarota '37, the decision to apply his giving toward scholarships was easy. “When I was a student at Union, tuition and fees were $350 for a full year,” he recalls. 'Today, students still have to go to College, but it's so expensive.”
Cammarota, who earned a degree in civil engineering, has two brothers, Armand '38 and Alexander '41. During his career, he has been involved with a number of business, financial, and real estate concerns.
He recently made a $130,000 addition to the scholarship that bears his name.
“I like the idea of helping the College, and I like the idea of helping
the students,” he says, recalling meeting a number of “very good kids” who have benefited from his scholarship. “It never hurts to help someone.”
Michael S. Rapaport '59 likes the idea of supporting Schaffer library. So he made a gift of $50,000 toward the renovation and expansion of the building.
Though he says he felt the Nott Memorial may have “served its purpose as a library” while he was a student at Union, he acknowledges that “times have changed” and today's library has become more of a central fixture in the learning process.
Rapaport earned a bachelor's degree from Union in Social Studies and a law degree and M.B.A. from Columbia University. A partner in his family's New York City law firm, he specializes in probate, real property, and estate taxation law.
Rapaport says he has directed his gifts to the College to be used in projects for which other funds are unavailable. His gift to the library also will be used to secure other matching funds.
