As the external scaffolding came down from the Nott Memorial, it went up around Memorial Chapel as work began on a wide range of improvements.
The first projects came at the top of the building. The slate roof was repaired, the brick and stucco walls were
repainted, and the cupola, with its clock and carillon, underwent a complete renovation.
Still ahead are such projects as repairing the discoloration and damage to the ceiling from roof leaks, adding a new sound system and better lighting, and improving the heating, ventilation, and electrical systems.
Helping with the Memorial Chapel improvements were a number of gifts, including:
$100,018 from Sallie Hume, a former trustee.
$75,000 from Kenneth J. Whalen '49, also a former trustee.
$25,000 from Aline Burgess, widow of Roger N. Burgess '38.
$20,000 from William H. Milton 111 '50.
Dr. James W. Haviland '32 has established a $85,625 charitable gift annuity with the College. The annutiy provides income to Dr. Haviland for his life. Upon his death, the remainder will go into an endowment that will provide funds for the continuing maintenance and upkeep of the chapel.
The chapel will celebrate its seventieth birthday next October. Designed by McKim, Mead & White, it was dedicated as a memorial to the Union College graduates who lost their lives in World War I.
Edward Villella receiving an honorary degree in 1991
The dance program at the College has been paired with one of the leading names in American
dance – Edward Villella – thanks to a gift of $100,000 from Charles Lothridge '44.
Lothridge's gift will endow the Edward Villella Prize, a scholarship for a promising dance student; provide a current spendable fund supporting the Union dance program; and provide a permanent endowment for the dance program after Lothridge's death.
The Villella Prize will be awarded through a juried competition, with the prize to be determined or awarded by Villella himself. The prize includes a cash stipend to study with the Miami (Fla.) City Ballet, of which
Villella is founder and artistic director.
President Roger Hull, announcing the gift, said, “Union is indeed honored to have its dance program connected with Edward Villella through the generosity of Charles Lothridge. Both men
share our vision to further strengthen this important program.”
Lothridge said his goal “is to enhance Union's reputation in the performing arts, particularly dance, by making it
a magnet for people interested in this area.”
Viillella received an honorary doctor of humane letters from Union in 1991, the year his son, Rodney, received a bachelor's degree from the College.
One of the most celebrated dancers in the country, Villella has done much to popularize the role of the male in dance. He is a graduate of the New York Maritime Academy, where he earned a B.S. in marine transportation, lettered in baseball, and was a championship boxer.
After college, he resumed his dance training at the American School of Ballet, and in 1957 he was invited to join the New York City Ballet. As soloist and principal dancer for the company, he came to be identified with roles in George Balanchine's Tarantella, Jewels, Midsummer Night's Dream, and Prodigal Son.
He has performed for four U.S. presidents, danced at the Royal Danish Ballet and the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, and won an Emmy award for his television production of Harlequin. The Miami City Ballet, which he founded in 1986, has gained worldwide acclaim.
Lothridge, of Pipersville, Pa., retired as a psychologist from the General Electric Company.
Villella and four dancers from the Miami City Ballet will come to Union on May 6 to give a public lecture-performance and to conduct a master's class for students. Villella is not scheduled to dance during the appearance.
Union's dance program is a full-credit course that incorporates lectures and experimentation. At least four practical classes in modern dance and ballet technique are offered each term. Classes are taught by three instructors: Darlene Myers, Ellen Sinopoli, and Toni Smith. Students have a number of performing opportunities through Dance Ensemble, a student-organized group.
The College has received a grant of $1 million from the Schaffer Foundation of Schenectady for the renovation and expansion of Schaffer Library.
The Schaffer Foundation is the legacy of the late Henry Schaffer, a former member of the College's Board of Trustees. He was the founder and president of Empire Super Markets, one of the state's largest
independently owned food chains. The company was acquired by the Grand Union Company.
“This gift represents an important step in modernizing our library to make it the intellectual center of the campus,” said President Roger Hull.
The new library will dramatically improve student and faculty access to sources of knowledge beyond the classroom and the laboratory. Included will be:
A bibliographic instruction room, a fully-electronic classroom where students and faculty will receive whatever help they need to track down information. Nearby will be an electronic reference resource center, which will have computer workstations and CD-ROM and on-line access for the entire library.
Expanded space for traditional printed sources ranging from 2,000 journals to the primary sources available in the Special Collections;
Group study rooms, in recognition that collaborative learning is an important part of the College's mission, as well as improved individual spaces for independent study;
An expanded language laboratory with personal computers for interactive use with microcomputers, VCR's, CD players, video disc players;
A video distribution system to receive satellite and cable programming, including foreign language satellite broadcasts;
An enhanced mix of private and cooperative spaces for the Writing Center;
Access to the libraries and archives of the world through Internet.
Total cost of the project, which will add about 50,000 square feet of new floor space, is estimated at
about $17 million-$15 million for construction and $2 million to establish an endowment to support maintenance of the building.
The new library will combine the renovation of the 1960 Schaffer library with new construction. The 1974 annex-which is structurally unsound and cannot support the open stacks for which it was built will be dismantled and a new three-story facility will be built.
Space also will be added to the north and south sides of the original 1960 library, and most of the interior will be rebuilt with reinforced floor space, conduits for electronic data and communication distribution, and energy-efficient lighting and climate control.
It's the time of the year when the College's sports information director, George Cuttita, keeps extra busy racing from a football game to a hockey game, with a basketball game or swimming meet thrown in for good measure.
This year, the overlap season was a good one, as the football team won a championship game and the hockey team got off to a winning start.
The football championship was the ECAC Northwest game, in which Union overwhelmed the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, 34-14.
It was the ninth postseason appearance for the Dutchmen in the past twelve years. Union had hoped to receive one of four bids to the NCAA regional games, but the Dutchmen finished fifth in the polling. A midseason loss to unranked Coast Guard undoubtedly played a major role in the decision.
“We were very disappointed at being overlooked,” said John Audino, the head coach. “I give our players a lot of credit for playing hard against UMass. We showed great pride and tradition.”
The star of the championship game was senior tailback Chris Irving, who rushed for 159 yards and scored three touchdowns. His effort earned him the game's most valuable player award and a spot on the ECAC weekly honor roll for the fifth time this season. Later, he was named to the ECAC Upstate
All Star team.
Irving finished his career with 3,408 yards rushing (he is Union's only 3,000yard player) and scored thirty-three touchdowns, another Union record.
Another outstanding fall record came in volleyball, with Union setting a school record for wins in a season (twenty-four). The team's winning percentage of .750, on a record of 24-8, was the second-best in the history of the sport at Union.
Senior Jen Ahrens finished with 533 of the team's 680 assists. She also had 195 service aces. Sophomore Gretchen Voegler led the team with 290 kills, 243 digs, and 135 blocked shots.
The field hockey team concluded with a record of 8-7, including an appearance in the state tournament. Senior forward Missy Lombardoni was selected to the College Field Hockey Coaches Association All-American third team and the state All-Star first team. A four-year starter, she had five goals and five assists this year and eighteen goals and twenty-five assists during her career.
The hockey team opened with a loss at Providence, went undefeated for the next five games, and then lost Thanksgiving weekend games to Harvard and Brown. The streak included a win over traditional power St. Lawrence (6-2) and a tie with Clarkson (3-3).
Both the men's and women's swimming teams began with two dual meet wins and championships at the Union Relays. College Sports magazine, the only national publication devoted to college sports, picked the men's team number six and the women's team number eight in its preseason rankings.
At 6'2 and 210 pounds, Kojo Attah looks as if he's played football all of his life. In fact, he's a former soccer player.
Attah comes from Ghana, West Africa (his name means “Born on Monday”). He came to the United States in March, 1985, when his father, Martin, a diplomat, was transferred to the United Nations for a four-year term. Kojo attended St. Joseph's grammar school in Manhattan and then Cardinal Hayes High School, where he first donned a football uniform.
It was there that head coach John Audino saw him play.
“He could only practice a few days a week in high school because he also had a job,” Audino says. “He wasn't polished, but I was impressed with his size, speed, strength, and dedication. The talent was there, and we were lucky enough to get him.”
Kojo hasn't seen his parents and two of his four sisters since 1988, when they left New York City for a four-year stint in West Ghana. They are now in Zimbobway.
“It's hard being away from them,” says Kojo, who lives with an uncle and his other two sisters in the Bronx. “But being from Africa, I was taught to be independent at an early age.”
Attah began his career at Union as a fullback for the junior varsity team before moving to tailback. Last year he gained 511 yards with six touchdowns, and this season he had 632 yards with eight scores. A punishing runner, Kojo has the strength to run over tacklers on the inside and the speed to run around them on sweeps to the outside. He is also an excellent blocker as well as pass-catcher.
“Kojo's game is multidimensional, and that makes him a very special player,” says Audino.
Multidimensional also describes Attah's interests outside football. A psychology and women's studies major, Kojo is also president of Alpha Phi Alpha, a resident advisor, vice president for campus life, and a disc jockey for the College radio station, WRUC.
Last fall, the Albany Times Union did a feature on Attah. The article was seen by Diane Micelli, a sixth-grade teacher for School 27 in Albany, whose class
was studying Africa. She called Audino to see if Kojo would be interested in
talking to her class. He was, and he spent more than an hour with Micelli's students answering questions regarding the language, the culture, the clothes, the geography, and the differences between Africa and the United States as seen through his experiences.
For the next half hour, Kojo delighted the class by answering football questions, signing autographs for each student, and posing with them for a class picture.
“That was fun,” he said of his trip to School 27. “They asked some very good questions. I enjoyed that.”
Kojo's goal is to earn his masters in teaching at Union and then to go to law school; he wants to practice immigration law.
He also looks forward to being the featured back next season after spending the last two years behind Chris Irving, who set records with his 3,408 career rushing yards and thirty-three rushing touchdowns.
“You have to pay your dues and wait your turn,” he says sincerely.
“He has improved tremendously over the last three years,”
Audino says. “If Kojo was playing someplace else, he might get thirty or thirty-five carries a game. But he hasn't complained about anything and he does whatever we ask of him. He's a team player and a leader.”
