Posted on Oct 6, 2010

What better way to greet Homecoming and Family Weekend than to start with a look at the innovative spirit of Union alumni?

That’s the topic of the Entrepreneurial Forum that begins Thursday, Oct. 14 and continues Friday, Oct. 15, the official start of Homecoming.

“Our alumni entrepreneurs are fascinating,” said Don Lang, leadership gifts officer, who organized the event with Les Trachtman ’77, COO of Force3, and Hal Fried, professor of economics. “They’ll be sharing stories on why they decided to start a business and how they became successful.”

Steven Spencer ’80, president of Cayuga Services, will serve as master of ceremonies, and a number of Union faculty and students will participate.

Panels will focus on “Creativity and Entrepreneurship,” “Entrepreneurial Thinking at Union” and “Positioning Union in a Blue Ocean.”

The “Blue Ocean” discussion, set for Friday at 11:15 a.m., will look at the emerging business strategy that encourages entrepreneurs to enter into new business markets rather than competing in existing ones. Participants include Steven Savad ’89, founder of Restaurant.com; Charles Gelber ’73, founder and president of Gelber Television; and David Dussault ’00, managing partner of Davidson-Hill, LLC.

There will be three keynote addresses. Phil Weilerstein, executive director of the National Collegiate Innovation and Invention Alliance, will speak on “Engineering, Entrepreneurship and the Liberal Arts.”

Trachtman will discuss “Making the Intersection of Technology and the Liberal Arts Happen at Union.”

And Jennifer Small ’88, owner of Flying Pigs Organic Farm, will speak on “Green and Sustainable Business.”

The registration deadline for the forum is Friday, Oct. 8. Contact Lang at 388-6375; langd@union.edu.

For a full list of Homecoming events and to register, visit http://www.union.edu/hfw.

Posted on Oct 5, 2010

Hundreds of students, faculty and staff rallied Tuesday afternoon in support of the campus’ gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning community.

Standing on the steps of Schaffer Library, Kerrie Wolf, assistant director of Student Activities and a leader of the LGBTQ Ally program, emphasized that Union is an open-minded campus.

“We won’t tolerate this kind of environment at Union,” Wolf said, noting recent tragedies around the country, including the suicide of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi. The freshman killed himself after his roommate videotaped him having sex with a man and then posted it on the Internet.

Organizers of the rally led participants in a moment of silence for Clementi and others who killed themselves after being bullied because of their sexual orientation.

Marcus Hotaling, director of the Counseling Center, encouraged students who feel harassed or intimidated to seek help.

“You never have to feel alone in dealing with intolerance and bullying,” he said.

Professor of French Charles Batson offered hope to those who may experience harassment.

“This boy here was bullied,” he said pointing to himself, “But I’m living a good life now.” 

Clancy Slack ’11, who has worked extensively on campus with LGBT issues, said he’s proud of the open and accepting environment at Union. “We didn’t need a tragedy to put the support process in motion,” he said.

The Ally program helps provide safe spaces for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning community by identifying individuals who will offer support and information. The program is designed to increase levels of tolerance and acceptance on the Union campus. To get involved, contact Wolf at wolfk@union.edu.

Posted on Oct 5, 2010

Internationally acclaimed violinist Pamela Frank headlines the opening concert of the College’s 39^th International Festival of Chamber Music at Memorial Chapel Saturday, Oct. 9 at 8 p.m.

Joining her are fellow string instrumentalists Andrew Simionescu, Beth Guterman, Dimitri Murrath, Edward Arron and Peter Wiley in a program that includes one of Schoenberg’s most renowned works, “Verklarte Nacht,” and a selection by Brahms.

Frank began violin lessons at 5, ultimately earning her bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 1989. Ten years later, she won the coveted Avery Fisher Prize. She serves on the faculty of the Curtis Institute and the Peabody Conservatory and also plays as a soloist or with such major orchestras as the Baltimore,  San Francisco and Vienna symphonies, and the New York and Berlin philharmonics.

Simionescu, Frank’s husband, is also a celebrated violinist, performing with symphonies around the world and at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the White House and Kennedy Center. A winner of the 1984 Concert Artists Guild International, he is a member of the Raphael Trio and has played at more than 300 concerts with the Bowdoin Trio.

Guterman, a violist, is a graduate of the Julliard School who earned her artist diploma at the New England Conservatory. A member of the International Sejong Soloists, she has toured the U.S. and Asia. She is a winner of the Julliard Viola Competition, the inaugural Apsen Nakamichi Lower Strings Competition and the 1999 Eugene Lehner Chamber Music Award for Excellence from the New England Conservatory.

Violist and artist diploma recipient Dimitri Murrath has performed as a soloist at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, the Kennedy Center, London’s Royal Festival Hall and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. He has won honors at top international competitions.

Described as one of New York’s most exciting young cellists, Arron has appeared as a soloist with orchestras and as a chamber musician in the U.S., Europe and Asia. The Julliard graduate has performed frequently at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the 92^nd Street Y. He is artistic coordinator for the Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert.

Arron’s former teacher and fellow cellist, Peter Wiley, has enjoyed a lifetime of significant accomplishments. Attending the Curtis Institute at age 13, he became the Cincinnati Symphony’s principal cellist at 20. A former member of the Grammy-nominated Beaux Arts Trio and Guarmeri String Quartet, Wiley teaches at the Bard Conservatory and the Curtis Institute.

Concert tickets are free to the Union College community. For tickets and information, call 388-6080 or visit http://www.union.edu/ConcertSeries.

Posted on Oct 5, 2010

Internationally acclaimed violinist Pamela Frank headlines the opening concert of the College’s 39^th International Festival of Chamber Music at Memorial Chapel Saturday, Oct. 9 at 8 p.m.

Joining her are fellow string instrumentalists Andrew Simionescu, Beth Guterman, Dimitri Murrath, Edward Arron and Peter Wiley in a program that includes one of Schoenberg’s most renowned works, “Verklarte Nacht,” and a selection by Brahms.

Frank began violin lessons at 5, ultimately earning her bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 1989. Ten years later, she won the coveted Avery Fisher Prize. She serves on the faculty of the Curtis Institute and the Peabody Conservatory and also plays as a soloist or with such major orchestras as the Baltimore,  San Francisco and Vienna symphonies, and the New York and Berlin philharmonics.

Simionescu, Frank’s husband, is also a celebrated violinist, performing with symphonies around the world and at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the White House and Kennedy Center. A winner of the 1984 Concert Artists Guild International, he is a member of the Raphael Trio and has played at more than 300 concerts with the Bowdoin Trio.

Guterman, a violist, is a graduate of the Julliard School who earned her artist diploma at the New England Conservatory. A member of the International Sejong Soloists, she has toured the U.S. and Asia. She is a winner of the Julliard Viola Competition, the inaugural Apsen Nakamichi Lower Strings Competition and the 1999 Eugene Lehner Chamber Music Award for Excellence from the New England Conservatory.

Violist and artist diploma recipient Dimitri Murrath has performed as a soloist at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, the Kennedy Center, London’s Royal Festival Hall and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. He has won honors at top international competitions.

Described as one of New York’s most exciting young cellists, Arron has appeared as a soloist with orchestras and as a chamber musician in the U.S., Europe and Asia. The Julliard graduate has performed frequently at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the 92^nd Street Y. He is artistic coordinator for the Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert.

Arron’s former teacher and fellow cellist, Peter Wiley, has enjoyed a lifetime of significant accomplishments. Attending the Curtis Institute at age 13, he became the Cincinnati Symphony’s principal cellist at 20. A former member of the Grammy-nominated Beaux Arts Trio and Guarmeri String Quartet, Wiley teaches at the Bard Conservatory and the Curtis Institute.

Concert tickets are free to the Union College community. For more tickets and information, call 388-6080 or visit http://www.union.edu/ConcertSeries.

Posted on Oct 4, 2010

Leading scholars from more than a dozen top colleges and universities will come to campus when Union hosts the 12^th international conference on Ethics Across the Curriculum Thursday, Oct. 7 through Saturday, Oct. 9.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Bioethics and Ethics Across the Curriculum: The Challenges of Teaching, Researching and Publishing across Disciplines.”

Besides Union, other schools represented include the University of Texas, Le Moyne, Hartwick, University of Nebraska and Dartmouth.

At many colleges and universities, faculty in the philosophy department typically teach students about ethics. Since 2006, Union’s approach has been to make ethics a staple of classroom discussion across the board in more than 50 courses, from physics to photography. It is modeled after a pilot project that introduced ethics into the economics curriculum.

Among the classes where students will be exposed to some ethical component this year: Economics of Sin (Economics), Ancient World Mythology (Classics) and American Literature in Historical Context: 19^th Century (English).

At the conference, Robert Baker, chair of the Rapaport Ethics Across the Curriculum and the William D. Williams Professor of Philosophy, will give an overview of Union’s program, along with Amy Bloom, associate director. The program was featured in the Spring 2009 issue of “Teaching Ethics,” the academic journal of the Society for Ethics across the Curriculum.

Also presenting from Union are Anastasia Pease, visiting assistant professor of English (“Teaching Bioethics in Literature Courses”) and engineering professor Ashraf Ghaly (“Teaching Applied Ethics within Technological and Societal Contexts”).

For a complete schedule, click here.

The push for colleges to promote the moral and ethical development of students comes at a time when several national studies suggest colleges have not done a good job in this area.

Also, in a recent survey of more than 300 employers asking which skills colleges should emphasize, three-quarters said they want college graduates who are able to connect choice and actions to ethical decisions.

The seed for a broad-based ethics module at Union was planted by Michael S. Rapaport ’59, a real estate lawyer in White Plains, N.Y. Distressed at the lack of ethical awareness of those caught up in the Enron scandal and other ethical lapses, Rapaport decided to fund the College’s program.

Sponsors of the conference include the Society for Ethics Across the Curriculum, Rapaport Ethics Across the Curriculum Program of Union College, and the Union Graduate College-Mount Sinai School of Medicine Bioethics Program.

Posted on Oct 4, 2010

The Times Union recently profiled Daniel Berkenblit,  the dirving force behind the Union College Chamber Concert Series for nearly four decades.

In 2008, the College presented Berkenblit with the Founders Medal for his efforts in bringing “an extraordinary cultural institution” to the region. To read about the honor, click here.

To read the profile in the Times Union, click here.