Posted on Sep 14, 2000

The College this fall welcomes 25 new members to the faculty. Some of them
are introduced below. The remainder will be introduced in future editions.

Kevin Crocker, visiting instructor of economics, earned his Ph.D. from
the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His teaching interests include macro
and microeconomics, international trade finance and development, money and
banking, political economy and Marxian economics.

Andy Daitsman, visiting assistant professor of history, holds a masters
in Latin American history from Columbia University and master's and Ph.D.
degrees in the same field from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His
interests include modern and colonial Latin America, specifically political
participation of popular classes in 19th-century Chile.

David Evans, visiting assistant professor of psychology, holds master's
and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Iowa. He has been a research analyst
for Lansing (Mich.) Community College, involved with studies of minority student
success, faculty satisfaction and marketing analysis for a new campus and other
projects.

Ellen Foster, visiting assistant professor of economics, holds a Ph.D.
from the University at Albany, where she has held several teaching posts. She
returns to Union after having taught from 1989 through 1993. She specializes in
international economics, monetary and macroeconomics and economic history.

Thomas Kaeding, visiting assistant professor of physics, earned his
master's and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. He
has done research with the high energy physics group at Oklahoma State
University, where he also held a teaching appointment.

Reina Hayaki, instructor of philosophy, holds a Ph.D. from Princeton
University, and has earned advanced degrees in philosophy and economics from
Oxford University. Areas of interest include philosophical logic, metaphysics,
ethics and epistemology.

Nicholas Krouglicof, assistant professor of mechanical engineeering,
earned his Ph.D. from Concordia University, and has held teaching positions at
the University of Quebec, Montral. his Ph.D. thesis was on “Non-Contact
Position and Orientation Measurement Techniques for Real-Time Systems.”

Posted on Sep 14, 2000

September 4, 2000

1. Minutes of the last meeting (May 29) were approved.
2. The AAC meeting time will be moved to Mondays at 12:10 p.m.
3. Nomination for Chair – Barbara Danowski elected.
4. Agenda items for this year:

— Department Reviews – Mathematics & Political Science
— New format for Freshman Preceptorial
— Revision of Trimester Calendar
— Pass/Fail Policy
— Lunch Hour
— Distance Learning
— Revision in 8-year Med Program
— Requirements for honors
— Advising System

5. The Committee discussed transfer credit for high school courses. Dean
Rosenthal will look into what various schools are doing.

6. The Committee began a discussion on the thesis requirements for ID majors
for honors.

Posted on Sep 14, 2000

Hilary Putnam, Cogan Research Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University,
will speak on “The Collapse of the Fact/Value Dichotomy” on Thursday,
Sept. 21, at 7:30 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.

Putnam, the Spencer-Leavitt Visiting Professor at Union will be in residency
from Sept. 17 through Sept. 23, conducting a series of classes and seminars with
the faculty and students in the philosophy department.

His talk is part of the “Perspectives at the Nott” lecture series.

Putnam continues to revolutionize contemporary philosophical thought with his
work on the nature of consciousness; artificial intelligence; the mind/body
problem; the relation of truth, language and reality; the foundations of
mathematics and logic; and the methods and history of philosophical pragmatism.

He has written extensively on the philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of
natural science, philosophy of language, and the philosophy of the mind. Many of
his papers have been collected in three volumes of Philosophical Papers,
in Realism with a Human Face, and in Words and Life. He is also
the author of a number of books, including most recently Renewing Philosophy
and Pragmatism.

Putnam was born in Chicago in 1926, grew up in France and Philadelphia, and
graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. in 1951
from UCLA. He has taught at Northwestern and Princeton, and was professor of the
philosophy of science at MIT before joining the faculty at Harvard.

He is past president of the American Philosophical Association (Eastern
Division), a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a
corresponding fellow of the British Academy.

Posted on Sep 14, 2000

Ad hoc committees have been formed to consider the tenurability of three
assistant professors: Kristin Fox, chemistry; Joyce Madancy, history; and
Theodore Gilman, political science.

Members of the campus community may offer written or oral testimony
concerning the candidates' teaching, scholarship or service to appropriate
committee members.

For Fox, committee members are Mary Carroll, chemistry; Yu Chang, EE/CS;
Stephen Schmidt, economics; and Peter Tobiessen (committee chair), biology, ext.
6028, tobiessp@union.edu.

For Madancy, members are Mark Walker, history; Sharon Gmelch, anthropology;
Walter Hatke, visual arts; and Barbara Boyer (chair), biology, ext. 6511, boyerb@union.edu.

For Gilman, members are James Underwood, political science; Jordan Smith,
English; Daniel Burns, psychology; and Donald Arnold (chair), Graduate
Management Institute, ext. 6302, arnoldd@union.edu.

Posted on Sep 14, 2000

“One of the perks of being Chair of the Faculty Executive Committee is
greater opportunity to obsess over Union's current challenges,” said Tom
Werner in his remarks at last week's opening convocation.

So, Werner, a chemistry prof with an interest in College history, turned to
President Dixon Ryan Fox's “Union College: An Unfinished history” to
see how the College faced challenge in the past.

Fox described the College in 1900 as having financial problems because too
many students were behind in their bills. So, Treasurer Frank Bailey hired C.B.
Pond, a bill collector who Werner said “had the right stuff.”

Pond was “not burdened with civility or the need to abide by the
prevailing rules of decorum,” Werner said. He was known for verbal abuse
and for placing a gun on the table at registration.

“Pond soon had students paying the fees that they owed and, according to
Fox, some that they didn't,” Werner said.

“Tonight let's reflect on our considerable successes from the recent
past, secure in the knowledge that our batting average in dealing with challenge
is excellent and expecting that, if necessary, a 21st–century version of C. B.
Pond will emerge to do the heavy lifting. Let's hope, at the very least, that
this time we get one of those conservatives with a compassionate streak.”

Initial confusion

In introducing two new members of the admissions staff last week – Kelen
Barr '00 and Kristen Fischer – VP for Admissions Dan Lundquist told fellow
administrators of the growing confusion in Becker Hall caused by first initials,
particularly the letter “K.”

Staffers include Kelen (Barr), Kristen (Fischer), Kris (Gernert-Dott), Kelly
(Herrington), Kerry (Mendez) and Kristen (Morse).

And don't forget the letter “D,” as in Dan (Lundquist), Darryl (Tiggle)
and Dianne (Crozier).