Posted on Aug 18, 2006

Union College is included in the top tier of the country's leading liberal arts colleges, according to U.S. News and World Report's annual rankings.

The College is ranked 39^th out of 215 schools in the 2007 edition of America's Best Colleges (issued Monday, Aug. 21). Highlights of the rankings are also included in the magazine's Aug. 28 issue.

The College was ranked 36^th last year and 40^th two years ago.

“We are pleased, of course, to once again be listed among the best national liberal arts colleges,'' said Union President Stephen C. Ainlay. “Even a cursory review of the list should impress upon readers the vast array of educational opportunities available to today's students.

“Small movement, either up or down, within the list says more about the tight clustering of schools than actual differences between them,'' Ainlay said.

Schools were ranked based on such key measures of quality as peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources and student selectivity.

The only other liberal arts school in the region to be included among the top 50 was Skidmore.

But as is true of other listings, Ainlay observed, “some component measures in the U.S. News and World Report scoring system provide us with useful comparative guideposts that help us gauge our educational programs. 

“Every institution must weigh the significance of each composite measure to its educational mission,'' he said.

U.S. News also singled out Union's engineering program this year, placing it 20^th among undergraduate institutions accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. Last year, the program ranked 21^st.

The first liberal arts college to introduce engineering in 1845, Union today leads the way in making sure its graduates are at home in both worlds under its Converging Technologies program.

The College is setting itself apart in other ways. The school does not offer a business major, yet students get a crash course in how the principles of entrepreneurship are at home in disciplines such as the Classics, Engineering and English. And this fall, the College will weave ethics lessons into existing courses across the curriculum.

This also marks the third year of the College's innovative Minerva system, in which all students are assigned to one of seven houses to live, learn, interact with faculty and enjoy a range of social activities together.

The recognition from U.S. News follows other publications that recently have lauded Union's academic quality.

The 2007 Kaplan/Newsweek “How to Get into College” guide includes Union among “America's 369 Most Interesting Schools,'' and in July, the New York Times included the College in its list of 20 “hidden gems” in the higher education landscape. The current issue of Washington Monthly also ranks Union in the top half of best liberal arts schools in the country.

The latest honors come at a time when Union enjoyed a record-breaking year in Admissions, including the largest number of applicants in the College's 211-year history. Nearly 4,400 students applied for 563 spots in the Class of 2010. In addition, more students than in years past selected Union as their first choice.

“We are proud that many of the nation's best and brightest are choosing Union more than ever before,'' said Union Dean of Admissions Dan Lundquist. “Union is pleased to continue to be one of the top-ranked colleges in the country, in the company of many superb schools.”

Union College, founded in 1795 as the first college chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, offers programs in the liberal arts and engineering to 2,100 undergraduates.

Posted on Aug 15, 2006

Two Union College professors led a panel discussion on “Feminism and Ambition: Obstacles to Women's Achievement,” as part of a special visit Thursday by C-SPAN2's Book TV bus tour.

More than two dozen people participated in the event, which was held in the Sadock Women's and Gender Studies Center, Room 301, Reamer Campus Center.

Political science professors Richard L. Fox and Lori Jo Marso discussed their recent books on the topic and took questions from the audience.

Fox is the author of “It Takes a Candidate: Why Women Don't Run for Office,'' (Cambridge University Press), co-authored by Jennifer L. Lawless, a Union alum and professor at Brown University who is also seeking a Congressional seat in Rhode Island. The book uses a national survey of 3,800 “potential candidates” to conclude that despite a number of high-profile women in office, including Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, there remains a wide gender gap in political ambition.

The authors demonstrate that women's attitudes about seeking political office are not determined by strategic opportunities, but instead by other factors, including early socialization and the role of family members. The result is that women are less likely than men to run for office, to be recruited to run for office and think they are even qualified to run for office.

Marso is the author of the just-published “Feminist Thinkers and the Demands of Femininity: The Lives and Work of Intellectual Women,” (Routledge). Her book examines the lives and works of historical and contemporary feminists, including Simone de Beauvoir and Ana Castillo, and how these thinkers have strived to balance politics, intellectual work and the material conditions of femininity.

Marso, who also directs the Women's and Gender Studies program at Union, argues that the theories of these feminists should not be divorced from the struggles and contradictions of their actual lives. The book also analyzes the memoirs of contemporary feminist thinkers to show that feminists struggle with the same difficulties today that were encountered by the women who came before.

Thursday's discussion coincided with an appearance by C-SPAN2's Book TV Bus, which was parked outside the Reamer Campus Center. Visitors were allowed to tour the studio inside the 45-foot long bus, participate in an interactive demonstration about Book TV programming and learn how a television show is produced.

Book TV features non-fiction programming each weekend, including author interviews, readings and coverage of panels at bookstores, libraries and college campuses across the country.

Book TV is carried by Time Warner Cable on Channel 52.

Posted on Jul 30, 2006

Union College is among 20 ''hidden gems'' singled out to be on insiders' short lists in a story featured in the New York Times on Sunday, July 30.

The story appears in Education Life, which is published quarterly by the newspaper. The list is divided geographically, with Union included in the Northeast, along with SUNY Geneseo and Wheaton College in Norton, Mass.

The article highlights colleges considered to be solid alternatives to better-known schools such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford.

The list was compiled with help from a dozen higher education experts and counselors.

Here is the text of what was printed about the College:

''That's Union as in the union of science, particularly engineering, and the humanities. Consider this year's valedictorian, Mark Weston, who majored in computer science with a minor in classics. The salutatorian, Marisa Zarchy, was a biology major with a double minor in chemistry and art.

More than 150 years ago, Union was one of the big four – right up there with Harvard, Yale and Princeton – before losing ground amid a scandal over college finances. Union began a revival in the early 1900's with the addition of an electrical engineering program, tapping a relatively new technology.

Three years ago, Union embarked on another experiment. Worried that Greek life was dominating campus (the country's three oldest fraternities were founded at Union), administrators created the Minerva houses, after the Roman goddess of wisdom. Students, about 300 each, and professors are assigned to one of seven houses, where they study, hold discussion groups and just hang out; upperclassmen can live in the houses. Mr. Herndon-Brown lauds the new social climate for letting Union's “academic richness” shine through.''

Visit “Off the Beaten Path” to read the complete article (registration may be required).

The website of the Times also features a slide show of the 20 schools, including a picture of the Nott Memorial taken by Jason Slater '02.

The New York Times has a circulation of 1.6 million on Sundays.

Posted on Jul 28, 2006

Your charitable gift can guarantee you a secure fixed income and ensure a quality education for generations of Union College students.

A charitable gift annuity can provide:

• Supplemental income payments for your lifetime (and the lifetime of your spouse)

• Significant tax breaks

• Satisfaction that comes from financially supporting Union

Find out how your gift can secure two futures.

Contact:
Jacqueline Cavalier, Director, Gift Planning
(518) 388-6156, or toll free at (888) 843-4365 ext. 6156
cavaliej@union.edu

Posted on Jul 28, 2006

We have just completed another wonderful year at Union and have a moment to breathe before we dive in to get ready for next year.

As director of the Parents Program, I say a special thank you to Lori and Peter Nicholson, our Parents Association co-chairs for the past three years. (I also thank Kate '06 for sharing her parents.) Lori and Peter have been great “partners in parents.”

Union parents need to know about what is happening on campus, and the Nicholsons have been great liaisons. They have hosted events, sent email newsletters, responded to emails and talked with parents at events or on the phone. My thanks to them for their effort, their optimism, and their sense of fun.

I join the Nicholsons in thanking Interim President Jim Underwood for his support during the past year. Jim started off at Freshman Sendoffs, a great surprise and honor for incoming students and their families. Parents were also pleased to see Jim at Parent Association and Parent Committee events. Jim has always made time for members of the Union family.

Here are a few important dates to get on your calendar now:

September 3 Residence halls open at 9 a.m. (First year students only)
September 3-5 First-year student orientation
September 4 Residence halls open for returning students
September 5 First-year student advising and registration
September 6 Fall term classes begin
September 6-7 Fall term registration confirmation
September 19 Last day for changes in fall schedule
October 13-15 Homecoming and Family Weekend '06
October 14 Parents Association Meeting

If you would like to volunteer or have any questions, please email me at Parents_Program@union.edu.

Posted on Jul 28, 2006

This spring, Jeff Carano, chief operating officer for Jeff Babicz Guitars and father of Vincent Carano '07, presented two of his company's unique instruments to the College. Inspired by the Taylor family donors, the elder Carano wanted to make his own contribution to the arts at Union.

The guitars will be available for students and faculty who would like to take a lesson or to spend some time strumming in the practice rooms, said Associate Professor of Music Tim Olsen.

The Babicz line, founded by Carano and luthier Jeff Babicz in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in 2003, has been making headlines for its revolutionary technology in the often traditional world of acoustic guitars.

Its trademark is the visually striking fan of strings below the bridge, which increases the resonance and durability of the instrument.

The guitars also feature an adjustable neck joint that allows musicians to raise and lower string height.

“They're unique,” said Olsen. “The bridge is moveable and adjustable, you can move the neck back and forth for certain kinds of picking, and with the fanned strings, the tension is spread out across the entire top of the guitar.”

In many ways, the company is bringing technology more often associated with electric guitars to the acoustic or acoustic-electric realm. Rockers are taking notice, with Todd Rundgren, Pat Travers and K.K. Dowling from Judas Priest a few of the string-bending legends who play the Babicz line.

“It's been really great getting to talk with these established artists at backstage events or at national guitar shows,” says Vincent Carano, an experienced guitarist.