The 27,000 Schenectady County residents who found surveys in their mailboxes this winter were answering to a trio of Union students.
The Schenectady County Chamber of Commerce wanted to know what residents thought about perceived strengths and weaknesses and to solicit ideas for improvement.
That's where P.J. Lee '93, Deborah Murray '94, and Nishan Nadaraja '94 came in.
The students began putting the survey together last spring. They refined it over the summer and saw it go into the mail in November. Residents were asked to rate government and community services, shopping, recreation, and entertainment. They also were asked to comment on safety, their reasons for living in the county, and where they prefer to spend their free time.
More than 3,500 surveys were filled out and returned, and tabulation was underway as the magazine went to press. The results of the survey also will be presented to organizers of Schenectady 2000, the revitalization plan for the city of Schenectady.
Senior point guard Steve Evans (20) was in the top five in the country in assists per game, with an average of 7.5. He was on tract to break the College's single-season assist record.
The success of the fall sports season rubbed off on the College's winter teams.
Perhaps the biggest success story came in hockey, where the team had several Division I wins by February and an overall victory total that exceeded the past two seasons combined.
Swimming continued its winning ways, men's basketball was well above .500, women's basketball was close, and track had seen several outstanding individual performances.
HOCKEY
As of early February, the Skating Dutchmen were in tenth place in the ECAC standings-good enough for a playoff spot. Overall, the Dutchmen were 89-2.
Reid Simonton
Union got out of last place on January 7, beating Cornell 6-2 while Dartmouth lost. After a disheartening 82 loss to RPI, the Dutchmen came right back the next night to play RPI hard, losing 5-3. Then came wins over Yale, Dartmouth, and St. Lawrence.
There have been numerous individual highlights:
Sophomore Reid Simonton, of Calgary, Alberta, became the first player since 1991 to have a five-point game, with a goal and four assists in Union's first-round win in the Concordia Tournament. Union won the tournament the next night, and Simonton was named the most valuable player.
Forwards Chris Albert, of Nepean, Ont., Chris Ford, of Rochester, N.Y., and Troy Stevens, of Coon Rapids, Minn., had scored twenty points each by
February notable since
Albert was the only player to reach twenty in all of 1992-1993. As a team, the Dutchmen have scored more than twice as many goals as last year.
Goalie Mike Gallant, of Hamilton, Ont., not only broke his winless streak but was named to the ECAC weekly honor roll four times.
MEN'S BASKETBALL
At the end of the 1993 part of the season, the team was 3-3 and coming off a tough four-point loss to Ithaca. By early February, the team was 11-7.
In January, though, the Dutchmen rallied to beat Williams, which came into the game 7-0 and ranked number one in New England. After a win over Swarthmore, Union did it again, this time beating undefeated New York University, which was ranked number one in New York.
Coach Bill Scanlon said it was the first time in his twenty-one years of
coaching that he his team had faced two undefeated and top-ranked teams.
Individual honors for the season were going to Ken Evans, of Ballston Spa, N.Y., who became the tenth Union player to score more than 1,000 points in his career, and senior guard Steve Evans, of Rome, N.Y., who was on track to establish a new Union single-season record for assists.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Andrea Pagnozzi
After an 0-5 start, the Union team went in the other direction, winning seven of their next twelve on their way to a 7-10 record by early February.
The catalyst has been junior guard Andrea Pagnozzi, of Cresskill, N.J., who averaged more than eighteen points a game. Twice she was named to the ECAC weekly honor roll and once she was named upstate New York's player of the week.
She has been supported in scoring by freshmen forwards Amy Dougherty, of Glassboro, N.J., and Amy Hitz, of Acton, Mass., and in rebounding by senior forward Michelle Kleinhaus, of Woodmere, N.Y.
SWIMMING
The highlight of the men's season was a 128114 victory over Hartwick, the defending New York state champions. By February the Dutchmen
were 81 in dual meets and preparing for the state championships in late February, to be held on campus.
Freshman Kevin Makarowski, of Washington Mills, N.Y., set a number of Union
freestyle and individual medley records, lowering the 400-intermediate
standard by more than eight seconds at one point. Equally successful was the women's team, which was 8-0 in dual meets by early February. Freshman Jackie Crane, of Danville, Pa., set several freestyle records as she qualified for the NCAA “B” cut; also qualifying was senior Kelly Bevan in the breaststroke.
TRACK
Senior Rich Pulver, of Fort Edward, N.Y., qualified for the NCAA meet when he finished third in the shotput at the Dartmouth Relays. On the women's side, junior sprinter Nadine Filosi, of Stoneham, Mass., did well in events ranging from the 55-meter hurdles to the 300 meters.
The Nikki Stone you saw doing double back flips at the Olympics in February is the same young woman who majors in psychology at the College.
Stone, a junior from Westborough, Mass., was ranked third in World Cup aerial freestyle skiing and was the top American. She was one of three women representing the United States.
Stone visited the campus briefly in early February before leaving for Sweden for more World Cup competition. There are twelve stops on the World Cup tour, which ended two weeks after the Olympics.
This is Stone's third winter in the World Cup (she takes a leave during the winter term to compete). In 1992, she won her fourth World Cup event, in Japan, and finished ninth in the series, earning Rookie of the Year honors. Last year, she finished third overall, was fourth in the world championships, and won the national championship.
Stone transferred to Union from the University of Vermont, partly because the College's three-term calendar means she loses less class time than under a two-semester system. Another reason for choosing Union-she is a descendant of Eliphalet Nott, and her mother's maiden name was Nott.
She got into the sport as a teenager, when she happened to watch a television show with freestyle skiers practicing inverted aerials. Since she was growing too big for gymnastics, and since what the skiers were doing looked like fun, she decided to give the sport a try.
“It takes a lot of nerve,” she says. “Each time I go to a new site or a new aerial jump it gets my nerves pumping. It's scary, but it keeps you on your toes and it makes it more exciting because the fear factor is involved.”
After two years of ski lessons, she won the junior ballet title and finished third in the combined competition at the national championships. In 1991 she won the aerial title on the Nor Am developmental circuit, placed third in the ballet, and was second in the combined standings. From there it was on to the World Cup.
“My psychology major has helped me a lot in the sport,” she says. “It helps to be able to visualize the jumps.” The Olympic aerial team works with sports psychologists to help them visualize their jumps, she says.
Sigmund “Sig” Makofski '26, one of the outstanding athletes in the history of the College and a high school coaching legend, died January 15. He was eighty-nine.
A native of Schenectady, Makofski was a first-team All American in basketball in 1925-26 and an honorable mention in football in 1925. He was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa and also played baseball.
He began coaching basketball at Schenectady High School after his graduation, and moved to Mont Pleasant High School when it opened in 1931. By the time he retired from coaching in 1952, his teams had compiled a record of 461-35, with six undefeated seasons.
Makofski was known for his inventiveness, competitive drive, and insistence that his players conduct themselves in a sportsmanlike manner. His record and his coaching innovations earned him induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.
He also coached Mont Pleasant football teams, leaving with a record of 418-3, and was the school's golf coach for thirty years. An avid golfer, he at one time or another held fourteen local course records and won the New York State Senior Tournament in 1961. He retired as Mont Pleasant's athletic director in 1963.
He served one term on the Schenectady City Council and also was a member of the city's Municipal Housing Authority, Recreation Commission, and Golfing Commission.
In 1981, the College awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Pedagogy. The Sigmund Makofski Scholarship Fund was established by friends and admirers of the renowned coach; the scholarship is presented annually to a Union student from Schenectady County who has displayed outstanding character and established a record of achievement in extracurricular activities. Contributions may be made to the scholarship fund.
He is survived by his wife, Barbara, of Clearwater, Fla.
Mary Jack Wald and her son Lem Lloyd. The presence of Lem and his sister, Danis, made Mary Jack a most unusual student at Union in the '60s.
Americans love their myths just look at how long Abner Doubleday's invention of baseball in rural Cooperstown has persisted.
But Mary Jack Wald '67 wants to let the truth out about one myth-women were enrolled at Union long before 1971, generally considered the start of coeducation.
Wald arrived on campus in the mid-1960s with her first husband, who was stationed by the ROTC to teach military history. Since the College allowed faculty spouses to enroll as full-time students, Wald spent four years as the only woman in her classes before she graduated and the Air Force moved her husband to Germany.
“I got married when L was eighteen,” Wald recalls, “and so L used to attend college wherever my husband was stationed. First L went to Boston University, then to the University of Tampa, and finally Union. The problem was, each college threw out the credit I'd earned at my previous schools.” Today, as president of her own literary agency, Mary Jack Wald Literary Associates,
this Union alumna puts her degree in English to good use. In fact, she has been using her English education for more than a quarter century, having worked as an English teacher, a book product manager in charge of mail order distribution and catalog copywriting, and a managing editor at Western Publishing.
After Western scaled back its operations in 1984 and Wald found herself out of job, she began thinking about becoming a literary agent. Her husband, Alvin Wald, a professor in the Anesthesiology Department at Columbia University, lent support.
In her first year Wald followed the formula of all aspiring literary agents: go to the American Booksellers Association convention and try to get a small hardcover publisher to retain her as a freelance subsidiary rights director who would sell the publisher's reprint and film rights. While she was at the convention, she used her Union background in an unexpected fashion.
“I recognized Paul Kurtz, who had been my logic professor before he became the publisher of Prometheus Books. So L reintroduced myself, gave him my business card, and offered my hard-working services. He responded by pulling out two pocketfuls of agents' business cards, promptly threw them all in the garbage can, and told me L had the job.”
Working with such prominent Prometheus authors as Isaac Asimov and Martin Gardiner gave Wald the foundation to build her reputation. Today, Wald's eclectic client fist includes Winifred Milius Lube, an author and artist whose Metamorphosis of Baubo, consisting of both original
drawings and text representing the historical embodiments of women's sexual energy, will be published by the Vanderbilt University Press; the literary fiction writers Eileen Pollack, whose latest story collection Rabbi in the Attic was reviewed prominently last winter by the New York Times Book Review, and Patricia MacInnes, author of The View From KWAJ, a collection of related stories set in the Bikini Islands during the nuclear tests there in the 1940s; Star Trek and horror writer John Peel; and Baxter Black, known nationwide as the “Cowboy Poet.”
Recently, Wald tracked down the essayist and photographer Robert Crum, whose work she had read in nature and science magazines. Working with Wald, Crum has created a children's book, Eagle Drum: The Story of a Native American Boy Learning to Dance.
“I like to try to show people their potential,” says Wald.
Finding new avenues for writers and artists has become essential in today's shrinking publishing market. With fewer publishing houses, disappearing imprints, and smaller lists, it has become harder for writers and agents to sell their work, especially literary fiction. As a result, Wald says, university presses are going to have to take up the slack for the larger corporate pubfishing companies that no longer seem interested in developing a writer.
Given the state of the publishing world in the nineties, Wald is working even harder to cultivate new projects and develop the careers of her clients. There's certainly reason to believe her business will continue to thrive, though. After all, when you've played a part in overturning a myth, the publishing world should feel like just another ordinary challenge.
On his first night at Union, Jeffrey Wisoff '74 sat in his room in Davidson Hall and talked with his roommate about what each of them would do upon graduation.
“I'm going to be a brain surgeon,” he stated confidently. “Four years of college, four years of medical school, then a five or six-year residency, and when you speak to me in fourteen years, I'll be a neurosurgeon.”
Wisoff recalls the moment as he sits in his office at the New York University Medical Center. “My father (Hugh '49) is a brain surgeon, and it seemed like he had a very nice, gratifying, intellectually-stimulating life.”
But Wisoff is not just another brain surgeon (if such a thing exists). A quick glance around the rooms surrounding his office reveals a tricycle here, a puff basketball net there, an adjustable hoop for dunking in one room, and lots of soft cushioned mats and nerf and rubber balls.
The toys are a vital part of Wisoff's pediatric neurosurgery practice. When a six-year-old comes to Wisoff to have a tumor removed from his brain-an operation that may result in months of rehabilitation-chances are the child is going to need some fun and some nurturing whenever possible.
As he sets off on his evening rounds, Wisoff says, “When I decide to go ahead with surgery on patient, it's really a commitment for life. Some of these kids are going to need several operations and various other treatments, like radiation and chemotherapy, and you're with them through the whole process. You really become a part of their lives.”
We meet Christopher, a two-year-old who lies on a baby-sized gurney in the intensive care unit, gauze bandages wrapped three inches thick around the top and front of his head. Just
twenty-four hours ago, Wisoff removed a tumor three centimeters in diameter from just underneath the pituitary gland at the front of Christopher's brain.
Wisoff leans down and in a light voice says hello to Christopher as he takes his tiny hand between his thumb and forefinger. “How we doing tonight?” he asks softly.
A nervous father, already relieved to see his son's surgeon, answers for Christopher. He tells Wisoff his son is shaking somewhat, but Wisoff assures him this is just a nervous reaction. Normal, nothing to worry about.
“I got to tell you, doctor, you're a godsend,” the father says.
Then there is Boris, a thirteen-year old Russian immigrant who had a golfball sized tumor at the base of his brain stem. Only five days after surgery, Wisoff tells Boris to hold his arms out straight with his palms up. Boris's eyes close slightly, becoming serious with concentration that increases when Wisoff asks him to touch his forefingers to his nose. With a forced steadiness, Boris succeeds. And the joy on his face when Wisoff tells him simply and with a smile, “Very good,” is a sight to behold.
The joy is eclipsed by the way Boris rubs his hands together and flares his eyebrows at his mother when he overhears Wisoff tell a relative over the phone that Boris will begin school again, through tutors in the NYU rehabilitation center, in just a few weeks. If all goes well, Boris will be a full-time student once again in the fall.
Wisoff can't save every child he sees-no surgeon could possibly do
that. On his rounds he visits Sammy, not even two. Born with spina-bifida-a condition in which the upper part of the spinal column is exposed at
birth Sammy has now developed hydrocephalus-the gathering of water in the cerebral cavity.
Though Wisoff has done all he can for the spinal column and has surgically inserted a shunt-a tube to drain the fluid-Sammy has now developed an infection. As Wisoff moves away from where Sammy lies with tubes emerging from his mouth and the back of his neck in every direction, he says soberly, “Sammy's in some trouble.”
“I use diabetes and Mary Tyler Moore as a model for the kids and their parents,” Wisoff says. “Here's a woman who has had diabetes for twenty-five years and has been under the constant care of a physician, yet she's had an incredibly successful life. And that's what these kids can have.
“Seventy percent of kids with brain tumors survive, and we have a seventy to eighty percent success rate with our hydrocephalus patients. Even if the brain tumor happens to be a malignancy, radiation and chemotherapy work on fifty percent of children whereas only twenty-five percent of adults are cured.
“I think you have to have a different philosophy when you're dealing with neurological disorders in kids,” Wisoff continues. “For an adult with a malignant brain tumor, if you buy three months, six months, a year, that's tremendous. Each of us clings to every moment. But in the case of a three- or four-year old child, I don't know what you've done if you've bought a few months. When you treat a child you have to be planning for the next sixty or seventy years.
“With adults you're concerned with winning little battles. In a child's case, you have to win the war.”
