Posted on Sep 19, 2007

On Wednesday, Sept. 19, the College will begin a regular monthly test of its emergency warning siren, which was recently installed on the roof of the Reamer Campus Center.

The tests will be conducted at 1 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month and last no more than a minute. When you hear the siren, please don’t be alarmed. We also urge that you don’t react by placing calls to the Campus Safety Office or local emergency services, such as the Schenectady Police and Fire departments.

In the event of a real emergency, that is an incident which would require us to alert the entire campus community, the siren will sound continuously for up to three minutes. When you hear the siren, if you are in your residence hall or apartment, remain inside and seek information through the College’s Web site (www.union.edu), WRUC (89.7 FM) and UC-TV (Channel 21). If outdoors, seek shelter inside and get further information from the above sources.

Also Wednesday at 1 p.m., we will conduct a test of our new text-message alert system. Since last spring, the College has collected more than 2,300 cell-phone numbers from students, faculty and staff to allow text-message alerts to be sent in the event of an emergency. Only those people who provided their cell-phone numbers will receive the test message. A system will be finalized shortly allowing people to voluntarily update or provide their cell-phone number. Although we will continue to use e-mail alerts in an emergency, we encourage the entire campus community to participate in the text-alert system.

As I stated in my message to the campus community last week, the siren and the text-message alerts are part of our comprehensive Emergency Notification System, which we have been reviewing and refining since last spring.

Thank you for your cooperation during our test periods.

 If you have any questions, please feel free to contact my office at 388-6358. 

Posted on Jun 12, 2007

People in Schenectady got a treat Tuesday morning when a 1914 “Duplex Drive Brougham” Detroit Electric Automobile once owned by Charles Proteus Steinmetz left its temporary home several blocks away and cruised through Union’s main gate.

The vintage car will lead the College’s 213^th Commencement processional Sunday, carrying President Stephen C. Ainlay and featured guests: ABC News anchor Charles Gibson and Richard Sorabji, professor emeritus of philosophy at King’s College in London.

Found in a Glenville field 40 years after Steinmetz’ death, the car was purchased by the College in 1971 and restored for use in campus ceremonies. It has previously been on display at the Saratoga Auto Museum and is currently on loan to the Edison Exploratorium in downtown Schenectady.

“In its day, electric cars were more popular than gasoline-driven cars,” said John Spinelli, associate professor and chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “This car runs on 14, six-volt batteries which aren’t standard and cost about $2,500 to replace.”

John Harnden '50, a General Electric engineer and founder of the Edison Explortorium, funded new, high-capacity batteries for the car last year.

Gene E. Davison, a lab manager in Electrical and Computer Engineering who has maintained the car for 25 years, drove it Tuesday. The all-aluminum vehicle has a top speed of about 25 mph, is driven with a tiller rather than a steering wheel and can drive approximately 50 miles on one battery charge.

Steinmetz, an engineer and inventor, was chair of the Union College Electrical Engineering Department from 1902 to 1913, and a member of the Union faculty until his death in 1923. He became so enamored with electric vehicles that he founded the Steinmetz Electric Car Co. in 1917. 

Posted on Jun 6, 2007

Binyavanga Wainaina, Union’s writer-in-residence, is featured in Vanity Fair’s special issue devoted to Africa, out today.

Wainaina’s piece, “Generation Kenya,” is a deeply personal tale about growing up on the world’s second-largest continent and the media’s insistence on treating Africa’s 53 countries as a “vast, hopeless mass.”

Bono, of the music group U2, served as guest editor for the issue, which has 20 different covers featuring prominent people like Muhammad Ali, Desmond Tutu, Maya Angelou, George W. Bush and Madonna.

Vanity Fair has a circulation of 1.2 million.

This is the second national magazine to feature Wainaina’s writing this spring; he also wrote an essay for the current issue of Harper’s.

In May, Wainaina was a finalist for a National Magazine Award, the magazine industry’s highest honor. Wainaina, 36, was nominated in the Fiction category, which honors the quality of a publication’s literary selections. Wainaina’s piece, “Ships in High Transit,” was selected as part of the entry for The Virginia Quarterly Review. His story had already won the literary journal’s top short fiction prize for 2006.

The Kenyan-born Wainaina is in the second year of a three-year term as visiting writer.

In 2002, he won the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing for his short story, “Discovering Home,” and The Independent, a newspaper in the United Kingdom, recently named him one of the 50 best artists in Africa.

Last January, Wainaina’s satirical piece for Granta, “How to Write about Africa,” became one of the literary magazine’s most widely reprinted stories. It included advice on the collection of stereotypes and clichés authors could fall back on when writing about his homeland.

Wainaina is teaching three classes at Union this term, including Modern African Literature.

Posted on Jan 25, 2007

Joining a growing list of top schools nationwide, Union College announced this fall that it will make the SAT and the ACT optional for high school seniors who apply for admission.

The decision, effective starting with the Class of 2011, comes after months of discussions between campus administrators, faculty and high school guidance counselors, who urged the College to maintain its high standards by emphasizing academic achievement.

“We have learned that the best predictor of academic success is a past record of academic achievement in a demanding, rigorous class roster,” noted Admissions Dean Dan Lundquist. “While always preferring more data rather than less, we are more concerned that many attractive, success-bound students might not be looking at Union.

“By deciding to make SATs optional we hope to continue to broaden our reach, and we will certainly not lower our standards,” he continued. “We want to send the message that admission will still be merit-based and driven by years of academic success, as reflected on the transcript. Union seeks students with excellent academic credentials. That credential is, primarily, the transcript.”

Lundquist said that as the College's recruitment outreach extended to a broader and more diverse audience, it became clear that requiring standardized test scores was sending the wrong message.

Union received a record 4,373 applications for this year's freshman class, with 1,841 accepted. Sixty-four percent of this year's freshman class of 560 students graduated in the top 10 percent of their class. The average SAT score for the class was 1240.

“Many of the most important lessons to be learned in college occur outside of the traditional academic settings,” Lundquist said. “We believe that in all learning environments, the richness of the educational experience is enhanced by breadth, depth and diversity; we seek a talented student body with individuals who will have an educational impact on each other in and out of class. With that in mind, it is our hope that this move encourages more high-achieving students to apply to Union.”

The College will continue to accept standardized test scores from students who believe they strengthen their academic record. The new policy does not affect students who apply for admittance into the College's Leadership in Medicine program.

Union, which has ranked consistently in the top half of U.S. News and World Report's 100 best liberal arts colleges, is the 27th school on that magazine's list to become SAT-optional. Other schools include Middlebury, Hamilton and the College of the Holy Cross.

“Union College's decision to drop its testing requirements for all applicants confirms that highly selective admissions decisions can be made without the distortions from coachable, biased and poorly predictive SAT or ACT scores,” said Bob Schaeffer, public education director, National Center for Fair & Open Testing.

Union has long been a leader in the debate over the value of standardized test scores for prospective students. In 1987, the College was one of the first in the country to no longer require the SAT for admission. Instead, students could submit scores from the College Board's achievement tests or the score on the American College Testing exam.

Posted on Jan 2, 2007

The event had it all: spirited competition, community bonding and a good cause – not to mention some dazzling performances and outfits.

At the end of fall term, some 350 students packed into Old Chapel for the first Mr. Union Pageant, featuring students in formal wear, swimsuit and talent competitions, and a Q&A round. 

When the fun subsided and the crown rested comfortably on the head of Jon Greklek '07, the event had raised $1,450 for Rolling for Autism, an organization launched by Dan Tatar '07 to help children with autism.

“It was fun working on the pageant, but even more enjoyable seeing what a success it to turned out to be for such a good cause,” said Amanda Riitano '08, who organized the event with Lauren Hutchinson '08. Both are co-pledge chairs for Tri Delta.

“It was a big undertaking, with a lot to think about, like lighting, sound, seating, signing out tables to sell tickets in Reamer,” Riitano said. “Thankfully, we had great help from Kerrie Wolf in Student Affairs and Diane Meyers in Special Events.”

The night started with the formal wear round, which culminated in the introduction of a special guest contestant – West Dining Hall Chef Stefan Krul. The swimsuit competition was a showcase of Speedos, including Matt Douglas '09's bright yellow wear with purple butterflies, an audience favorite.

The talent round drew the biggest applause and featured everything from crooners and rappers to Speno's stand-up comedy and Greklek's hip-hop/country/Irish folk dance act.  

Pageant hosts were Sara Wilson '09 and Lindsay Wehrum '09. Judges were Tri Delta President Elizabeth Henry '06, Sigma Delta Tau President Lauren Brickman '07 and Tatar.

Second place (Mr. Almost Union) was awarded to Eddie Speno '08, while third place (Mr. Not Quite Union) went to Krul.

Posted on Oct 17, 2006

Joining a growing list of top schools nationwide, Union College announced today that it will make the SAT and the ACT optional for high school seniors who apply for admission.

The decision, which is effective starting with the Class of 2011, comes after months of discussions between campus administrators, faculty and high school guidance counselors, who urged the College to maintain its high standards by emphasizing academic achievement.

“We have learned that the best predictor of academic success is a past record of academic achievement in a demanding, rigorous class roster,” noted Admissions Dean Dan Lundquist. “While always preferring more data rather than less, we are more concerned that many attractive, success-bound students might not be looking at Union.

“By deciding to make SATs optional we hope to continue to broaden our reach, and we will certainly not lower our standards,” he continued. “We want to send the message that admission will still be merit-based and driven by years of academic success, as reflected on the transcript. Union seeks students with excellent academic credentials. That credential is, primarily, the transcript.”

Lundquist said that as the College's recruitment outreach extended to a broader and more diverse audience, it became clear that requiring standardized test scores was sending the wrong message.

Union received a record 4,373 applications for this year's freshman class, with 1,841 accepted. Sixty-four percent of this year's freshman class of 560 students graduated in the top 10 percent of their class. The average SAT score for the class was 1240.

“Many of the most important lessons to be learned in college occur outside of the traditional academic settings,” Lundquist said. “We believe that in all learning environments, the richness of the educational experience is enhanced by breadth, depth and diversity; we seek a talented student body with individuals who will have an educational impact on each other in and out of class. With that in mind, it is our hope that this move encourages more high-achieving students to apply to Union.”

The College will continue to accept standardized test scores from students who believe they strengthen their academic record. The new policy does not affect students who apply for admittance into the College's Leadership in Medicine program.

Union, which has ranked consistently in the top half of U.S. News and World Report's 100 best liberal arts colleges, is the 27^th school on that magazine's list to become SAT-optional. Other schools include Middlebury, Hamilton and the College of the Holy Cross.

“Union College's decision to drop its testing requirements for all applicants confirms that highly selective admissions decisions can be made without the distortions from coachable, biased and poorly predictive SAT or ACT scores,” said Bob Schaeffer, public education director, National Center for Fair & Open Testing.

Union has long been a leader in the debate over the value of standardized test scores for prospective students. In 1987, the College was one of the first in the country to no longer require the SAT for admission. Instead, students could submit scores from the College Board's achievement tests or the score on the American College Testing exam.

Posted on Aug 28, 2006

When Amy Bass '06 took Professor Kara Doyle's Senior Seminar on Jane Austen, she knew she had found a topic for her senior thesis.

“I read Emma one summer on my own, but taking the Austen seminar with Professor Doyle greatly influenced my decision to write my senior thesis on Austen” says Bass. “My Jane Austen thesis was the most worthwhile experience of my undergraduate career.”

The thesis has also helped Bass get her own work published. The English major from Needham, Mass., recently won first prize in the undergraduate division of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) Essay Contest for a selection of her senior honors thesis titled, “'You Have Shown Yourself Very, Very Different': Mansfield Park's Radically Reserved Heroine.”

The prize includes free membership to JASNA and an all-expenses paid trip to Loew's Canyon Resort in Tucson, Ariz., for the group's annual meeting in October.

“I'm looking forward to meeting one of the speakers at the meeting,” says Bass. “Claudia Johnson was one of the main Austen critics I cited in my senior thesis.”

Founded in 1979, JASNA has approximately 3,000 members. Most are professional scholars or well-read amateurs from across the U.S. and Canada, though Janeites are represented from 13 other countries, stretching from Japan to the Netherlands.

This was the 15^th year for the essay contest, which attracted 75 entries. Judges of the contest include professors and Austen experts. Bass was encouraged to apply by Annette LeClair, associate librarian and head of technical services at Union. LeClair is a member of JASNA and will be attending the conference in October.

Associate Professor of English Kara Doyle served as an advisor on the essay.

“Professor Doyle has a knack for asking the tough questions. She encouraged me to look deeper into the text, the criticism and my own ideas of Austen,” says Bass.

The essay has been published online and can be viewed from JASNA's website, www.jasna.org.

Bass was also the recipient of the College's William F. Allen (1895) Essay Prize this year for her full-length thesis, which offered a critical reassessment of women's roles in the novels of Jane Austen. Her advisor was Professor Bernhard H. Kuhn, director of the honors English thesis. The prize is awarded annually to a senior in any department for a non-fiction essay.

Bass was a writing tutor for three years in the College's Writing Center.

She will soon head to University College London to pursue a graduate degree in English. She plans to become an English professor.

Posted on Jul 28, 2006

“This spring, the College drew more applications-4,373-than at any time in history,” said Dan Lundquist, vice president for admissions. “The Class of 2010 has the largest-ever number of students selecting Union as their first-choice school, and a record 64 percent are in the top 10 percent of their high school class.”

That success is due in no small part to our alumni.

Whether they directly support our alumni admissions programs or demonstrate a Union pride in all that they do, Union alumni matter.

Just ask the Class of 2010.

To be an alumni admissions volunteer, contact Admissions at (518) 388-6112 or email lecceh@union.edu.

Posted on Jun 23, 2006

Robert Howe, Union's 2005 Distinguished Alumni Award winner, had the grades, the smarts and the desire – but not the means – to go to Union. Then Jonathan Pearson III '42, the College's director of admissions, “came traveling up the valley,” to talk to promising high school students in Little Falls, N.Y.

Howe was direct: “I said, ‘You can talk, but I can't afford it.”

Fortunately, he garnered enough in scholarships and grants from the College and other groups to make Union possible. Grateful for that support, Howe has been giving generously to Union since his freshman year – never missing a year.

More recently, he made the College both owner and beneficiary of a $1 million life insurance policy to endow a chair in developmental biology in honor of one of his mentors, Professor Raymond Rappaport.

Now a professor himself, teaching medicine at the University of Minnesota, Howe was a dual biology and chemistry major who thrived on the close-knit relationships he formed in Union's science department.

He was inspired by the faculty, particularly Rappaport and Francis Lambert in biology and Egbert Bacon and the late Howard Sheffer in chemistry. It was Rappaport who encouraged him to attend the Mt. Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Salisbury Cove, Maine, where Howe worked for several summers with cutting-edge biologists such as Fred Berglund from the renowned Karolinska Institute in Sweden, one of Europe's largest medical universities.

At Union, Howe's passion for science, medicine and research grew so strong he applied to medical school after only three years.

“Fortunately, I didn't get in,” he said. “I came back to Union, and it was the best year of my intellectual life. I had only one required course, so I took music, art, history of modern warfare with Professor Bill Dody – just stuff. I read a novel a week. Senior year was an enriching, maturing experience. Without it, I probably would have been a nerd. Maybe I still am, but I would have been a narrower nerd.”

Howe graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1962 and worked for the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., and the U.S. Public Health Service before joining the Minnesota faculty in 1970. In addition to teaching, he is a hematologist who currently is studying etiology and treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).

The former Mohawk Valley student returns to the Union campus regularly.

“I try to go to Homecoming every year,” he said. Next to receiving his alumni award at last year's Homecoming, “the only greater honor was receiving my degree from Union.”

A volunteer's world: Here's Howe he does it

Robert Howe '58 loves giving his time and energy to Union.

He is chairman of the Ramée Circle Society, president of the Minneapolis Alumni Club, a member of the Alumni Physicians Advisory Board and an Annual Fund volunteer.

He also is a former Terrace Council Chair and class representative to the Alumni Council, and, eager to spread the Union word, he has helped Admissions in recruiting students from his home state.

At ReUnion '98, his 40th class year, Howe and his wife, Sondra, a musician and piano educator, captivated audiences with their lecture-demonstration, “Music, Medicine and Mozart.” The program was so successful the Howes reprised it at other alumni gatherings.

Posted on May 3, 2006

Winners of the 6^th annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest were announced recently. Area middle and high school students competed in the April 29 event at Union College's Memorial Fieldhouse.

This year's challenge entailed making a machine that could place a golf ball on a “tee”, swing a putter and tap the ball into a hole.

Students were required to create a machine that can mimic motor skills by completing a simple task. Twenty-five area teams will participated.

Rube Goldberg Contest 2006 winners are the following:

First Place: SAEC-WSWHE BOCES (Southern Adirondack Education Center – Washington Saratoga, Hamilton, Essex, BOCES). Hudson Falls, NY; Advisor: Mike Sgambelluri; Team Name: The Vagabonds; Team members: Dan Elton, Jason Rankins, Nick Cowan, Mackenzie Buck and  Jake D'Acchille.

Second Place: Questar III Troy NY; Advisor: Tammie Borland; Team Name: The Putt-Putt All Stars; Team members: Corey Parks, Stephanie Brooker and Sheila Tilman.

Third Place School: Questar III Troy NY Advisor: Tammie Borland Team Name: Deus Ex Machina; Team members: Kevin Glasser, Ryan Vaughan and Jonathan Marini.

Union College engineering professor James Hedrick oversees the contest each year. Volunteer judges from Knolls Atomic Power Lab (KAPL) and General Electric chose the winners based on effectiveness, complexity, creativity and presentation.

“We really try to get students interested in physics, math and science during the creation of these machines – that's the goal, much more so than the outcome of the competition,” said Hedrick.

The winning machine will be displayed at the Schenectady Museum. The competition was also be videotaped, and visitors to the museum will be able to view the tape.

The competition is named for the late Rube Goldberg, an engineer and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist. His cartoons appeared in thousands of daily newspapers from 1914 to 1964. The “inventions,” he said, symbolized “man's capacity for exerting maximum effort to accomplish minimal results.”

Contest machines had to use at least 20 steps to complete the task and must be no larger than 5 feet in length, depth and height. Each entering team receiveed an honorarium of $100 for supplies to build their machine.

The competition was sponsored by Union's Engineering program; General Electric; Lockheed Martin; KAPL and the Schenectady Museum and Suits-Bueche Planetarium.

For more information, visit http://engineering.union.edu/me_dept/rube/rube.html.