Posted on Aug 1, 1999

For Greg Angus '90, a Watson fellowship spent studying how people use toys in education confirmed his true calling: teaching.

“I don't remember deciding to become a teacher. By the end of my fellowship, I realized I was going to be a teacher,” says Angus, now a third-grade teacher at Arlington Elementary School in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

As an undergraduate, Angus went on a term abroad in China and was struck by the way in which Chinese children played together, the toys they played with, and the ways that their play seemed in a way to mirror national identity. “I couldn't help but notice the objects that were available to children in China,” he says. There were great differences in toys available in the countryside and the city, and he recognized a difference in the way that children played in these areas due in part to the toys that were available to them.

At the urging of Byron Nichols, professor of political science, and Bill Thomas, professor of French and director of international programs, Angus applied for a Watson Fellowship, which supports one year of research outside of the U.S. Traveling to the United Kingdom, Zimbabwe, and China, he observed hundreds of children at play with their toys. Though he began with a focus on toys as tools for passing on cultural ideas and values, he eventually began to concentrate on how toys are used in education and physical therapy, especially for special needs children.

He was particularly struck by the ways in which toys were used in rehabilitation. For example, an art project for children in a burn unit at a hospital in Scotland required “every possible modification to a paintbrush so that the children could paint,” he says. “The best part was that whole ceiling was covered with the paintings so that the children could see them from their beds,” he says. “If that's not a child-centered approach, I don't know what is.”

Angus was similarly impressed with a toy library in Zimbabwe where children could sign out toys like books in a library. The toys were categorized by what skills they foster in children, such as hand-eye coordination or problem-solving, so that they would be both entertaining and educational for each child.

The challenge Angus found in working with children convinced him to become a teacher. He went to graduate school and began teaching in Boston before moving to his current position in the Hudson Valley.

“It's very exciting to be able to teach someone how to learn,” he says. “The content, though interesting, is really secondary.” What drives him is seeing his students understand — seeing the lightbulb go off in their heads, so to speak. “You can see on their faces when they understand,” he says. “I strive to have them become aware of their own learning process and how to recognize the moment of understanding. Even the kids refer to it as 'the lightbulb.' ”

Angus also serves as the arts in education coordinator at his school, working with artists, storytellers, songwriters, and authors to bring the arts into the classrooms. In the summer he directs the music program at Camp Hillcroft, a nearby summer camp. “Kids don't realize until later that creating lyrics teaches language arts through music. They're usually too busy laughing.”

After having studied a world of toys, Angus praises perennial favorites such as Legos, Etch-a-Sketch, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, and other open-ended toys because they encourage creativity, but he is troubled by the increasing popularity of toys such as movie and television action figures, which call for simple reenactment rather than imaginative play.

“The amount of creative control and risk-taking involved in play is diminishing,” Angus explains. “As a teacher I see how that translates into their work and problem-solving at school. I often see students who are frustrated if they don't know exactly how to do something immediately. Personally, I believe that this is related to how much practice children have being creative. When a family limits their child's play by choosing only one-dimensional toys, they limit the practice.”

Angus is limited in his use of toys in his classroom by the requirements of a state curriculum, but he does encourage play as a learning experience. He uses block play to teach math skills and has discovered that many of his third-graders this year are interested in chess (last year it was origami). “We also tend to do a lot of things where you create your own game,” he says. And it's not rare that he sees the same kind of imaginative play in his classroom that he observed in Zimbabwe, China, and Scotland.

Posted on Aug 1, 1999

When Michael Roban '88 was at Union, there was almost no information about how to get involved in the film industry.

The independent film lawyer now is making sure that the situation is different for current students.

After reading an article in Union College magazine about film director George Hickenlooper's visit to campus, Roban contacted Charlotte Eyerman, assistant professor of visual arts, who sponsored Hickenlooper's visit. “I have wanted for some time to get involved with Union on some basis to establish more awareness with undergraduates about career opportunities in the motion picture business,” he says. “The article about George Hickenlooper turned the lights on, so to speak.”

Working with Eyerman and other faculty members who incorporate film into their curricula, Roban hopes to begin to provide the contacts that are necessary for students who hope to break into the film world. The first step came this spring, when Roban spent a day on campus talking with students. He advised them about getting screenplays read, whether or not to go to film school, and how to further their education in film while still at Union.

A political science major, Roban knew that (1) he liked film and (2) he wanted to become a lawyer. Once he discovered that he could become a film lawyer, he was determined to succeed. “When you have a passion for doing something, you have no choice but to do it,” he says. “It wasn't easy, but I did it.”

He attended the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University and learned about entertainment law by poring through legal volumes in the library and studying industry contracts. He then began providing free services for struggling filmmakers through the nonprofit organization Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts while working as a real estate lawyer. “I liked being a lawyer and dealing with clients, but I wasn't interested in the basic business of the firm. But then I got lucky, and a studio executive friend of mine eventually threw me a film.”

That was the key to his entry into the film world, and today he represents writers, directors, producers, actors, and cinematographers. He describes what he does as “basically dirty, roll-up-your-sleeves work. But I love dealing with creative people and being able to bridge the business aspects of the film world with the creative. I am good at being a lawyer, but I also understand the creative process.”

Roban's Manhattan office sums up what his work is all about. It is filled with legal volumes and videotapes of his favorite films (“I'm one-half lawyer and one-half film geek”), and he attends or screens, on the average, five or six films a week. “I've always enjoyed stories, and film is just a great story-telling medium,” he says.

Roban is working with faculty to plan a symposium on independent film in the fall of 2000 that will include several days of screenings as well as numerous opportunities for students to interact with professionals in the film world. “I've always thought that Union would be a great place for a film arts program to thrive,” Roban says. “I hope that this might be a good first step.”

Alumni interested in getting involved are encouraged to contact Roban via e-mail at mroban@sprynet.com.

Posted on Aug 1, 1999

In a span of ten days this spring, Ellen (Sheehan) Smith '80 traveled to London, Madrid, Florence, Cairo, Dubai, and Bombay.

But this was no world tour vacation — it was work. Smith, vice president for GE Power Systems Energy Services Sales, travels frequently for her job, and it is not unusual for her to visit several of the world's cities in the span of a few days or weeks.

Smith came to Union intending to become a pharmacist, but was intrigued by engineering and graduated a mechanical engineering major. She then entered General Electric's Technical Marketing Program, a three-year program that allowed her to sample a variety of assignments. “GE offered me a lot of choices and a lot of flexibility,” she says. “At that point I really didn't know what I wanted to do.”

Working at GE during the day, Smith took evening courses at Union, earned her master's degree in engineering, and became an electrical engineer in GE's Power Plant Systems. Four years later she was appointed the head engineer for a $110-million gas turbine power station in Cairo, Egypt, serving as a liaison between design engineering and sales.

She continued to move into management roles, moving up through the ranks of GE management. “I always was able to pick hard jobs that made a difference in the business,” she says. “I like to be in the middle of something important to the business.”

Within GE Power Systems, Smith has held management positions in maintenance and operations, parts and product services, and global services engineering. In 1996, she was named to head Power System's Six Sigma Quality Initiative, and in 1998 she was named to her current position, where she works with customers around the world.

“I really do a lot of problem solving, which my engineering background has prepared me for,” she says.

Smith must deal with Power Systems' enormous size while keeping the entire division moving forward, a feat that takes a great deal of leadership. “I think management and leadership skills are learned through life,” she says. “I had a lot of opportunities for leadership through my early years in high school and college, so I had a lot of practice. You have to work at being a leader to be good at it.”

Recently, she has begun mentoring young women early in their careers at General Electric. “I think that this is important to do,” she says. “I hope that I can teach these women some of the lessons that I have learned so that they don't make some of the mistakes that I did.”

Smith says that what she likes best about her job is the people that she works with — both her colleagues at GE and her customers. Yet it is still clear that she loves the travel her job allows — a love affair that began on her term abroad at Union on socialized medicine. “That was the best summer of my life,” she says. It was a summer that she had the chance to relive, albeit briefly, this spring when wandering through the streets of London and spotting the dormitory she stayed in while a student. “It's just the same,” she says.

Posted on Aug 1, 1999

The 1998-99 athletic season was clearly the year that the women's programs took a step into the limelight.

The success started last fall with soccer, tennis, field hockey, and volleyball; continued through the winter with basketball; and was capped in the spring with lacrosse and softball.

Overall, the twelve women's teams had a record of 102-66-1 (.607). Three — soccer, lacrosse, and softball — won Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association (UCAA) championships, and three — field hockey, softball, and lacrosse — qualified for New York State Women's Collegiate Athletic Association postseason tournaments.

Lacrosse was also invited to the NCAA tournament, the first time a women's team sport had qualified for the national championship tournament.

The success came three years after a campus committee suggested that all of Union's coaches have just one head responsibility to go along with one season as an assistant. The new system means that coaches can focus on recruiting, professional growth clinics, and scouting of the opposition, and can work with players one-to-one outside of the traditional practice time.

Dick Sakala, director of athletics, says that the College has gone beyond the minimum compliance with the gender equity mandates of Title IX, which called for a more equal division of funding and opportunity between men's and women's sports.

“The recommendations that came out of the gender equity committee pointed us in the right direction and gave the programs additional support that we needed to move to the next level,” Sakala says. “We've made a commitment to be in full compliance, as far as the proportion of numbers in participation and in introducing and developing new programs.”

The fall
The soccer team kicked off the year with a record-setting 13-1-1 season. While the team was disappointed that it wasn't selected for the NCAA tournament, it did beat William Smith and tie Williams, both of which went to the NCAA event. Union finished the year ranked second in New York State and sixteenth in the country.

The field hockey team had an 8-6 regular season record and qualified for the state tournament for the sixth time during the 1990s. The tennis team finished third in the state tournament (Union's previous high was sixth) and third in the UCAA event. The Dutchwomen tied the College record for wins in a season with their 9-2 mark, equaling the 1982 and 1994 seasons.

The volleyball team just missed the state tournament when it lost its season finale. Still, the Dutchwomen rebounded from last year's 10-24 season to post a 20-14 mark and finish third in the UCAA tournament.

The winter
While the swim team slipped during the dual-meet phase of the season, it still finished a respectable fourth (out of sixteen) in the state tournament. And the basketball squad won nine games for its best season in the last six years. Happily, the Dutchwomen did not have a single senior on the squad.

The spring
Softball tied Rensselaer for the first UCAA championship, and its 26-11 final record was a Union record. Crew, which is in its second season as a varsity sport, had a 2-2 regular season record. The junior varsity women were third in the state meet, and the varsity women finished tenth (out of thirty) in the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia.

The best performance of the year belonged to the lacrosse team. Not only did the 1999 team establish a Union record for wins in a season (fourteen), it won its first UCAA championship and became the first women's team ever to qualify for the NCAA tournament. The team won a Union-record ten consecutive games while finishing the year ranked second in New York State and thirteenth in the country. Over the past two seasons, the Dutchwomen are 24-11 with two state tournament appearances to go with the NCAA invitation.

The team success also meant individual recognition for coaches and students.

UCAA “Coach of the Year” honors went to Brian Speck in soccer and Linda Bevelander in lacrosse. Katie Smith earned UCAA “Rookie of the Year” honors in soccer, Sarah Moss was named “Player of the Year” by the lacrosse coaches, Julie Cardettino was “Player of the Year” in softball, and Melissa Colon was the “Rookie of the Year” in softball. Numerous others earned All-Conference and state honors, and Moss, Abby Harris, and Samantha Ryall of lacrosse were named All-Americans.

Sakala says that the College has added personnel and recruiting dollars to the women's program without taking anything away from the men's program. “I think we're poised to see most of our programs on both the men's and women's sides be very competitive for many years to come,” he says.

The College will celebrate twenty-five years of women's athletics in 1999-2000, and it is obvious that a strong foundation has been established for success.

Posted on Aug 1, 1999

John Donne was right. No man is an island.

Since I believe in putting words to action, I spent part of my vacation in the Balkans. Tired of watching on television people driven from their homes to camps (or worse) and wanting to do something, anything, I tried first to work in a refugee camp. Not being a doctor, though, I hit a wall. However, that was just as well, since the camps were largely disbanded by the time I got to Macedonia.

Next I found myself being told that I could be helpful interviewing refugees about war crimes for the international tribunal. Given my background as a lawyer who has written extensively in this field, I was delighted. The “assignment” changed prior to departure, though.

I was instead asked to help with the Albanian universities in Macedonia and Kosovo. For a college president, the work was certainly relevant; for an American, it turned out to be deja vu all over again.

Why? Because the Serbs in 1990 purged Kosovars of Albanian descent from the ranks of the University of Pristina. Combined with the fact that Albanians in Macedonia comprise officially twenty-three percent of the population (they feel that the real number is forty percent) and had but 435 graduates from Macedonia's two universities in the preceding fifty years, the picture is clear. Jim Crow is alive and well in the Balkans. A case in point: A young woman of Albanian descent, who is in her first year at Macedonia's university, was given a failing mark by her professor. The professor, who had campaigned against Albanians attending the university in Macedonia, flunked her even though she answered all the questions correctly because “she did not understand the final exam.”

Albanians are persistent. In Kosovo, they continued “their” University of Pristina in private homes, with each of the ten faculties taking up residence throughout the city; in Macedonia, Albanians founded a university, also located in donated residencies, in Tetova, but only after the rector and head of the faculty senate served ten- and six-month jail terms, respectively.

Degrees from Macedonia's Albanian university are not recognized by the government, which affects career possibilities, although there is hope for change among Albanians with the formation of a new government. There is also hope for change in Kosovo with NATO firmly entrenched and the Serb forces having pulled out of the province.

For the time being though, Kosovo Albanians wait. Yes, there are immediate issues that the United Nations must address from food to water to electrical and phone service. But the university, untouched by the war, remains sealed to all. Why?

When the Kosovo Parliament created the University of Pristina in 1970, it clearly had the legal right to do so. When the Serbian Parliament forced Albanians out of the university in 1990 – although some argue that Albanians boycotted the university together with other Serbian-controlled institutions –it did so without any more legal basis than the U.S. Congress would have in overthrowing a local or state initiative. And when the Serbs pulled out of the province, the university's legal status reverted to the Kosovars — all of the Kosovars.

At a meeting with Tejnel Kelmenli, rector of the University of Pristina, I was given a wish list, not unlike the one I received from the rector of the University of Tetova. I was also asked plaintively what I could do to help get him back into the sealed facilities of the university that he and other Albanians had been forced from two decades ago. Opening the university would give a major morale boost to the people in the province, because it would signal a return to the pre-1990 situation and provide the intellectual and economic stimulus that any viable community requires. With the law so clear, why not put politics aside and move the situation forward?

I will do what I can with the wish lists, and I will try to bring back some students who will benefit from a college education in the United States. As for getting the United Nations to reopen the university, I can't answer his question or produce the result that the rector wants. But the law is clear, and so should the results be.

No, no man is an island. We are all a part of the continent, a piece of the main, and we should all do what we can, since everyone's death diminishes us all.