Posted on Sep 10, 2008

The College is mourning the loss of Charles Dana Swartz, the Frank and Marie Louise Bailey Professor of Physics Emeritus. He died on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008. He was 93.

He taught at Union from 1956 until his retirement in 1979.

He lived a long, full life that encompassed a wide range of interests and rich experiences. The youngest of five brothers, he was born in Baltimore, Md., in 1915 to Charles and Elizabeth Swartz. He remained in Baltimore through his education at Johns Hopkins University, earning a Ph.D. in physics in 1943. He worked on the Manhattan Project before embarking on a long career in academia.

He married Katherine Hunt Swartz in 1949. After beginning a family in Baltimore, they moved in 1956 to Schenectady and Union College. His tenure was punctuated by sabbaticals at Ankara University (Turkey), Oxford University (England) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y. He also taught summer courses to science teachers in India in 1965 and 1968.

The child of a geology professor, he developed at an early age the curiosity and careful observation he would always rely on and encourage in others. He was a lifelong learner, largely self-taught in photography, botany, gardening, sailing, investing and many other fields. He could make or fix most anything he set out to do. He was a voracious reader. Coupled with a liberal education and extensive travel in the United States and internationally, he could speak with authority on many topics. He was a formidable foe in any game that involved words.

Three years into their marriage, Kay contracted polio. Undaunted by her resulting disability, the couple developed into a resilient and self-sufficient team, allowing them to maintain their active, independent, adventurous lifestyle. They raised three children, traveled internationally and vacationed every summer at their beloved, rustic family camp on Kinneho Island, N.H. Their shared life was an inspiring example right up until Kay’s death in 2007.

Charlie and Kay remained devoted to their broad community of friends in the Schenectady area. In 2001, they were among the first residents of the Glen Eddy retirement community in Niskayuna. This provided an independent yet supportive base for their final years.

Survivors include three children, Timothy (Merry Shernock) of Northfield Falls, Vt.; Douglas (Karen Spencer) of Fort Collins, Colo.; and Christina (Mike O'Brien) of Boise, Idaho.

A memorial service is set for Saturday, Sept. 20, at 2 p.m. in Memorial Chapel.

Memorial contributions may be made to American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry St, Philadelphia, Pa. 19102; or Planned Parenthood, 1040 State St., Schenectady, N.Y. 12305.

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Posted on Sep 10, 2008

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Posted on Sep 9, 2008

The following individuals have joined the Union community since September 2007.

Donald Austin, Community Outreach Coordinator,  Kenney Center Programs & STEP         

Kevin Barhydt, Information Technology Services, Academic Technology Specialist            

Michael Bartlett Jr., Dining Services, Dining Service Worker           

George Beaudoin,  Facilities Services, Day Cleaner                           

Anthony  Bucci, Campus Safety Officer                    

Joanna Butler , Facilities Services, Night Cleaner                         

Da’Sean Callaway, Dining Services – West College Dining Service Worker           

Sandra Campana, Facilities Services, Day Cleaner                           

Katherine Cartmell, Residential Life Office, Residence Director                 

Peter Cotier, Intercollegiate Athletics, Facilities/Financial Assistant  

Matthew Dalo, Dining Services – West Dining Service Worker           

Stephen Dare, College Relations, VP for College Relations        

Mark Dean, Dining Services – West, Dining Service Worker           

Alicia DeNicola, Anthropology, Visiting Assistant Professor    

Joseph Domino, Environmental Health, EHS Technician                     

Timothy Dunn, Student Affairs, Dir. of Fraternity & Sorority Life

Krista Eason, Schaffer Library, Library Assoc. Specialist – Periodical

Lyndsay Ferguson, Becker Career Center, Associate Director, Employer Relations

Karen Ferrer-Muniz, Office of Campus Diversity, Director, Multicultural Affairs

Patrick Finazzo, Campus Safety Officer                    

Amber Flavin, Facilities Services Day Cleaner                           

Benjamin Foster, Minerva Programs, Minerva Assistant  

Jane Franze,  Facilities Services Day Cleaner                           

Debra Geer, Leadership Gifts Campaign Manager                

Vincent Giglia, Dining Services – Rath Dining Service Worker           

Nicolina Gordon, Facilities Services Night Cleaner                         

Alex Gottesman, Classics, Visiting Assistant Professor    

John Greklek, Dining Services – Office Dining Service Lead               

Lisa Hall, Facilities Services Night Cleaner                         

Barbara Halliday, Bookstore, Cashier/Clerk                         

Bradley Hays,  Political Science, Assistant Professor                 

Christopher Herrmann, Intercollegiate Athletics,  Asst. Athletic Trainer             

Joanne Higgins, Registrar’s Office, Registration Assistant             

Timothy Hoff, Campus Safety    Officer                    

Elizabeth Hoppe, Schaffer Library  Assistant Librarian                 

Keith Howell, Dining Services – Hale  Dining Service Worker           

Daniel Johnson, Campus SafetySecurity & Safety Systems Technician

Rebecca Kennedy, Classics  Visiting Assistant Professor    

DeeAnn Lichorat-Fusco, Dining Services – West     Dining Service Specialist        

Joseph Macaluso, Finance, Financial Analyst                   

Matthew  Malatesta, Admissions VP, Admissions, Fin. Aid, Enrollment

Delon McAllister, Admissions, Admissions Counselor           

Joseph Melendez, Residential Life Offic Residence Director                 

Steven Michalek, Theatre & Dance Vis. Asst. Prof./Tech. Dir., Yulman

Anna Mihaly, Records Records Coordinator              

Wayne Mitchel, Facilities ServicesNight Cleaner                         

Laura Moffitt, Sociology Visiting Assistant Professor    

Jill Murphy, English Visiting Assistant Professor    

Carlos Nieves, Information Technology Services, Lead Computer Hardware Technician

Sarah Nunan, Residential Life Office, Interim Residence Director    

Shailaja Paik, History, Visiting Assistant Professor    

Linda Parker, Financial Aid, Director, Fin. Aid & Family Financing

Kristin Pitt,  Schaffer Library, Visiting Assistant Librarian    

Philip Poczik, AOP/HEOP, Director                  

Blair Raymond, Grant Support, Dir., Foundation & Corp. Relations

Daniel Richardson, Campus Safety, Officer                    

Pamela Ritter, Parents Program, Director of Family Leadership Giving

Teresa Robbins, Psychology, Visiting Assistant Professor    

Nicole Robles, Dining Services – DHR, Dining Service Worker           

Christopher Rochow, Dining Services – UC , Dining Service Specialist        

Marcus Rogers, Theatre & Dance,  Assistant Director of Dance   

Aida Sanabria, Dining Services – West, Dining Service Worker           

Jeannette Sargent, English, Visiting Assistant Professor    

Christos Shiamptanis, Economics, Visiting Instructor                  

Serogeni Singh, Dining Services – DHR,  Dining Service Worker           

Patti Solosky, Alumni Relations, Program Assistant                  

Robert Soules, Becker Career Center, Director                  

Pamela Stuart, Dining Services – West Dining Service Worker           

Janet Sweeney, Kenney Community Center,  Administrative Assistant        

Hui Er Tang, Dining Services – DHR, Dining Service Worker           

Amanda Tommell, Counseling Center, Health Educator                     

Meredith Tower,  Financial Aid, Asst. Director of Financial Aid

Stacey Triplette,  Modern Languages, Visiting Instructor                  

Jocelyn Tunney, Bookstore, Administrative Assistant        

Bunkong Tuon, English, Assistant Professor                 

Jeffrey Witsoe, Anthropology, Visiting Assistant Professor    

Mark Wunderlich, Philosophy, Visiting Assistant Professor    

Kevin Zalaznik, Intercollegiate Athletics, Assistant Sports Information Director                  

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Posted on Sep 9, 2008

Union welcomed 21 new faculty members this week. For a list of employees in all departments who have joined the Union College community since last fall, click here. 

New faculty members, by department, are:

ANTHROPOLOGY: Alicia DeNicola, visiting assistant professor, earned her Ph.D. from Syracuse University. She is currently researching logging and fishing communities in the Pacific Northwest and has written several articles for the Society for the Anthropology of Work Review. She has taught at Syracuse, Willamette University, Skidmore College and Brandeis University. Jeffrey Witsoe, visiting assistant professor, received his Ph.D. in Social and Cultural Anthropology from University of Cambridge with the thesis, “Democracy Against Development: The Politics of Caste Empowerment and the Postcolonial State.” Previously, he taught at the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania.

CLASSICS: Alex Gottesman, visiting assistant professor, earned his Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Chicago. He has given presentations to colleges and universities throughout the country and is completing a manuscript titled “Supplication in Ancient Athens: Spectacle, Politics, Economics.” He is skilled in numerous languages, including ancient and modern Greek, Latin, German, Italian and French. Rebecca Kennedy, visiting assistant professor, earned her Ph.D. in Greek and Latin from The Ohio State University. She has held teaching positions at George Washington University and Howard University. She is the author of “Justice, Geography and Empire in Aeschylus’ Eumenides Classical Antiquity.”

ENGLISH: Bunkong Tuon, assistant professor, holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from University of Massachusetts with a dissertation titled, “Specters of War: Reclamation, Recovery and Return in Southeast Asian-American Literature and History.” He has published numerous articles, four of which are included in the Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Literature. His research interests include 20^th century U.S. ethnic literature, Asian-American studies, diasporic studies and trauma studies. Jillmarie Murphy, visiting assistant professor, earned her Ph.D. from the University at Albany. Her “Hawthorne in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life: Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by His Family, Friends, and Associates” (University of Iowa Press) was published in 2007. Murphy received the State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Jeannette Sargent, visiting assistant professor, received her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College with a dissertation titled “Ovid’s Heroides: Libretti for Pantomime.” She has taught classes in classics, Latin, Greek and English at Union. Her areas of teaching interest include the Latin language, translation in ancient epic, classical mythology and ancient drama.

ECONOMICS: Muhammad Asali, visiting assistant professor, holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University. His teaching and research fields include applied microeconomics, labor economics, econometrics and international economics. He has taught at Columbia and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

HISTORY: Shailaja Paik, visiting assistant professor, received a Ph.D. from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. She has presented and published various articles about Dalit women and is currently working on a paper titled, “Dalit Patriarchy Disinterred.” She is a representative of the Ambedkar Center for Justice and Peace in Pennsylvania and is a founding member of the Institute of Social Engineering in Pune, India, which organized an education center for children in the village of Ujire, Karnataka.

MODERN LANGUAGES: Stacey Triplette, visiting assistant professor of Spanish, received her Ph.D. in philosophy with a focus on Romance languages and literatures from the University of California Berkeley, where she has taught various levels of Spanish and courses in comparative literature. She is also skilled in French, Italian and Latin. She recently presented her paper, “How to be a Good Moor: The Representation of Islam in Guerras Civiles de Granada.”

PHILOSOPHY: Mark Wunderlich, visiting assistant professor, holds a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. His published papers include “Noncomparabilism in Epistemology” and “Vector Reliability and the Generality Problem.” Previously, he taught at  the University at Albany, Iowa State University and the University of Arkansas.

POLITICAL SCIENCE: Bradley Hays, assistant professor, earned his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. Formerly a professor at the University of Nevada, Hays earned the CSUN Student Government Outstanding Faculty in the College of Liberal Arts Award and has presented at conferences around the country. Darius Watson, visiting instructor, holds a Ph.D. in international relations from the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy of the University at Albany. He has taught a wide range of courses, including in international organizations, U.S. defense policy, American imperialism and global politics, at Union and Rockefeller College. 

PSYCHOLOGY: Teresa Robbins, visiting assistant professor, received her Ph. D. from Claremont Graduate University. Her paper, “Changing Minds But Not Politics: The Influence of Intergroup Interactions on Racial Policy Attitudes and Attributions about African Americans” was published in 2006. She has presented throughout the country on an extensive list of topics. 

SCHAFFER LIBRARY: Elizabeth Hoppe, assistant librarian I/shared resource librarian, received her M.S. degree from Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science in Boston. Hoppe has held various library positions including reference and information literacy librarian and access services coordinator at Whitman College and library assistant at Harvard University Chemistry and Chemical Biology Library. Kristin Pitt, visiting assistant librarian, earned her M.S. degree from the University at Albany. She began interning with Shaffer Library in early 2008, having previously provided reference assistance at the University Library at the University at Albany.

SOCIOLOGY: Laura Moffitt, visiting assistant professor, earned her M.S.W. from the University at Buffalo. She has lectured at various colleges and universities. In 2006-2007, she taught a course at Union on Social Work and Human Services.

THEATRE & DANCE: Steven Michalek, visiting assistant professor and technical director/lighting designer, holds an M.F.A. from University of Connecticut, where he also lectured on stagecraft. He has held acting, master electrician, technical director, lighting designer, sound designer, scenic designer and director positions in numerous productions. 

 

In addition to these faculty members, Mason Stokes (English), Matthew Hockenos (History) and Shirley Smith (Modern Languages) are Skidmore faculty who are here for one term on a Mellon Faculty Exchange.  

Stokes, associate professor and associate chair of the English Department at Skidmore, holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. His teaching interests include African-American literature and culture, theories of race and ethnicity, lesbian and gay literature and queer theory, and American literature from the Civil War to the present.

Hockenos, associate professor of history, holds a Ph.D. from New York University and has a wide range of teaching, publishing and service experience. His many fields of interest include modern European history, 19^th and 20^th century German history and Jewish-Christian relations.

Smith, associate professor of Italian languages and literatures, holds a Ph.D. from Harvard with a dissertation titled, “D’Annunzio: The Mauve Decade.” She is the author of numerous scholarly book and journal articles and has developed courses that examine Sicily today; Italy, Fascism and Jews; contemporary Italian women; and Italian Renaissance women.

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Posted on Sep 9, 2008

The boxes are unpacked. Family members have left. Books have been bought and classes have begun.

Two days after members of the Class of 2012 moved into their dorm rooms, President Stephen C. Ainlay officially welcomed students, faculty and staff to campus during Union’s Opening Convocation Monday, the start of the College’s 214th year.

In his address in Memorial Chapel, he touched on some of the College’s recent accomplishments and also urged the campus community “to continue to imagine, continue to reach, continue to pursue the things that will make Union a stronger institution.”

With 581 students, the Class of 2012 is one of the largest in recent years, said Matthew Malatesta, vice president for Admissions, Financial Aid and Enrollment. 

“Our incoming students should be proud of their accomplishments, gaining admittance to Union during our most competitive admissions year in 20 years,” he said.         

During Saturday’s orientation for first-years, Malatesta offered some advice to the new students, courtesy of his two children, ages 6 and 4: “Be nice, tell the truth, try your best, be safe and have fun.”

Ainlay, who was welcoming families in front of West College Saturday, later told students assembled in Memorial Chapel that they should enjoy the opportunity to “bask in the life of the mind” over the next four years and to enjoy the friendships and relationships that are certain to endure, a treasured part of a Union education.  

Union received a record 5,271 applications last year. The Class of 2012 includes 289 women and 292 men, and 23 international students from 12 countries, from Bulgaria to Swaziland.

Two students, Noch Srey Chin of Cambodia and Yiran Zhang of China, already were availing themselves of Union’s hospitality the first week by attending a first-year luncheon in Beuth House. The Minervas are sponsoring regular free lunches to help the new students get to know each other and faculty and staff better.

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Posted on Sep 8, 2008

President Stephen C. Ainlay welcomed students, faculty, staff and parents to campus during Union's opening convocation on Monday.

In his address in Memorial Chapel to celebrate the College’s 214^th year, Ainlay touched on some of Union’s recent accomplishments, and reminded the campus community of the work that lies ahead.

“We all must continue to imagine, continue to reach, continue to pursue the things that will make Union a stronger institution and ensure that it takes a leadership role in areas that we believe make us who and what we are,” Ainlay said.

“We have the opportunity, just as much as our predecessors, to craft a remarkable environment in which all our members thrive, to truly make a difference in the lives of the students who come here to work, live and study, and to become a beacon for those seeking an education well-honed to the needs and demands of the 21^st century.”

The convocation opened with welcoming remarks from Frank L. Messa ’73, chair of the Board of Trustees; Prof. Linda N. Stanhope, chair of the Faculty Executive Committee; and Jillian P. Bannister ’09, president of the Student Forum.

Therese A. McCarty, the Stephen J. and Diane K. Ciesinski Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs, announced the Stillman Prize for Excellence in Teaching, which was awarded to Harold Fried. Fried, the David L. '39 and Beverly B. Yunich Professor of Business Ethics, has been a member of the faculty since 1983. He is on sabbatical and will receive his award  at a faculty dinner in June.

The prize was created by David I. Stillman ’72, Abbott Stillman ’69 and Allan Stillman in honor of Abraham Stillman, father and grandfather. It is presented annually to a faculty member to encourage outstanding teaching.

McCarty also recognized the 689 students who made the Dean’s List last year. Their names are on a plaque that will be displayed in Reamer Campus Center.

Monday’s ceremony also featured the debut of The Eliphalets, an a capella ensemble featuring Bonnie Campbell ’11, Alex Handin ’10, Shabana Hoosein ’11, Kara McCabe ’09, Patrick O’Hern ’11, Ashley Polihronakis ’11, Kevin Stefani ’10 and Gregory Wyman ’11. The group is named for Elphalet Nott, Union’s president from 1804 to 1866.

Following the convocation, a reception was held in Hale House and Old Chapel.

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