Feisty, fiery Irshad Manji doesn't
fit the stereotype of the quiet, veiled Muslim woman. The Toronto-based
journalist/author/TV personality will speak on Wednesday, May 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Memorial Chapel. A
reception will follow in the Hale House Dining Room. The event is free and open
to the public.
Her presentation, “Not My Father's
Islam: Empowering Women and Reform in the Islamic World,” is this year's
Frederick E. Miller Lecture Series in Honor of Anwar Sadat.
Ms. magazine named her a “Feminist for the 21st
Century”; and the New York Times wrote
that she was “Osama bin Laden's worst nightmare,” a moniker she wears with
pride.
Manji is president of VERB, a
youth-focused TV channel in development; host of “Big Ideas,” a weekly show
aimed at college students; and host/senior producer of Citytv's Queer
Television. Her most recent book is The
Trouble with Islam.
At age 23, she was the national
affairs editorial writer for the Ottawa
Citizen – the youngest editorial board member at any major Canadian
newspaper. At one time, she was the press secretary for the Ontario Minister of
Women's Issues. She is writer-in-residence at the University
of Toronto's Hart House.
The phrase “Walk This Way” has
special meaning for students from 19 colleges and universities from across the U.S.,
Canada and Mexico
arriving on campus for the Society of Automotive
Engineers' annual Walking Robot Challenge, starting on Friday.
This is the first time the College
has hosted the prestigious international event, and Union's
hopes are riding on “Dutchbot” a six-legged competitor under the tutelage of seniors Adam Retersdorf, Jason Cook and Craig Johnson. Their advisor and contest director is Prof. Nick Krouglicof.
During the competition, which will
span two days — Friday and Saturday, April 30 and May 1 — the machines will perform
in six events that will challenge student designers to think creatively. The events range from a simple
“dash” to autonomously traversing an obstacle course.
Student teams designed and built their
robots, which operate by a self-contained power source.
All events are in Memorial
Fieldhouse. Awards are in Reamer Campus Center Auditorium on Saturday evening.
(See schedule below.)
A panel of judges will score the
machines on their components, construction and “intelligence,” as well as
performance during the tasks.
The contest is funded through
support from General Motors and Honda Motors. Last year the contest was hosted
by La Salle University
in Mexico City.
Kevin Rampe '88, president of Lower Manhattan Development Corp.
Kevin M. Rampe '88,
president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the agency overseeing the
reconstruction of the site of New York City's World Trade Center, will deliver the main address at Union College's Commencement.
The ceremony is set Sunday, June 13, at 10 a.m. in Library Plaza.
Rampe will receive an honorary degree from the College. The College will also award an
honorary degree to artist Wolf Kahn, whose intensely colored paintings have put
him in the forefront of American representational art.
“I am proud and honored to have the opportunity to address Union
College's Class of 2004, their
families and their friends on this very important day,” Rampe said. “Union
College prepared me for my greatest
professional challenge — coordinating the redevelopment of the World
Trade Center
site — and instilled in me a devotion to public service that has driven my
career. I look forward to returning to my alma mater and sharing my experiences
of moving from the classroom to the boardroom.”
Rampe spoke May 11 at a Union alumni event in the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center in lower Manhattan.
As lower Manhattan rebuilds in
the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack, Rampe
holds one of the most important posts – president of the Lower Manhattan
Development Corporation (LMDC), which is overseeing reconstruction. He was
named to the post last year by New York Gov. George Pataki and New York
City Mayor Michael Bloomberg after serving as the development corporation's
executive vice president and general counsel. Before joining the LMDC, he was
first deputy superintendent and chief operating officer of the New York State
Insurance Department, managing the leading insurance regulatory agency in the
country. He had joined the insurance department after serving as the governor's
senior legal advisor on insurance, banking, civil justice, worker's compensation,
and labor matters. A native of Warwick, New York, he is a cum
laude graduate of Union with a B.A. in political science and psychology. He earned his
law degree magna cum laude from Albany Law School in 1991 and
became a litigator at the law firm of Sherman & Sterling. As part of
his practice he was involved in domestic and international securities,
antitrust, and contract litigation. He also lived in Kuwait, and in 1994-1995 he was involved in the firm's representation of
the government of Kuwait and its preparation of environmental claims against the
government of Iraq arising after the Gulf War.
About Wolf Kahn
“Saltbox Barn” by Wolf KahnWolf Kahn
Kahn is one of the United States' most esteemed painters, one whose intensely colored and yet
meditative landscapes evoke a visceral experience of color and light. Born in Stuttgart, Germany, where his father was an orchestra conductor, he fled Nazi
Germany as an eleven-year-old refugee, traveling first to England and then a year later to the United States. After graduating from New York City's High School of Music and Art, he served in the U.S. Navy and then studied with the
well-known teacher and abstract expressionist, Hans Hofmann. Two years later,
Kahn relocated to Chicago, where he earned a B.A. from the University of Chicago. Influenced by Hofmann's practice of using nature as the starting
point for a painting, Kahn's work encompasses both pictorial landscape and
painterly abstraction. His use of color has made him one of the most highly-regarded
colorists working in America today. He has received Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowships and
an Award in Art from the American Academy and Institute for Arts and Letters. His work has been exhibited
in galleries and museums throughout the world and is included in the
collections of such major museums as the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Kahn has
taught in many art schools, including Cooper Union in New York, and is the subject of a number of books.
Questar III's 'Mass Construction' team placed second in the Rube Goldberg Contest on April 24. Members are, from left, Kevin Chavin, East Greenbush; Josh Jordan, Green Island; and Brian Adriance, Taconic Hills. Missing from photo is Nicole Wilson of Averi
Van Antwerp Middle School's team — “The Pie's the Limit” — took the title in the College's 2004
Rube Goldberg competition on Saturday, April 24.
Their machine was judged the best at removing a small pie
from a box, placing it on a plate and topping it with a dollop of whipped
cream.
A team from Questar III, which
called itself “Mass Construction,” placed second.
There was a two-way tie for third between Questar III's “Team Kobra” and Niskayuna
High School's “TEC Club.”
The teams were among the dozen who competed in the contest. Now in its fourth year at Union, the “Olympics of complexity and redundancy” was sponsored by Union's Engineering program, Knolls Atomic Power Lab, GE Elfun Society, and the Schenectady Museum.
GE employees served as judges.
The contest director is James
Hedrick, professor of engineering at Union. “The
Rube Goldberg contest, quite simply, makes engineering fun,” Hedrick said.
“Students will have the opportunity to put their creativity to work and design wild contraptions to perform what is usually a very
simple task. The only limits on machine design are their own imaginations. It's
a great way for students to showcase their design talents and inspire an
interest in engineering at the same time.”
In past years, the tasks have
included sticking a stamp on a letter, sharpening a pencil, making a baloney
sandwich, and opening a bag of M&Ms and putting toothpaste on a toothbrush.
The contest pays tribute to Rube
Goldberg, an engineer and cartoonist whose works appeared in thousands of
newspapers from 1914 to 1964. His inventions, he said, symbolized “man's
capacity for exerting maximum effort to accomplish minimal results.” His
name has become eponymous for anything that is unnecessarily complex,
cumbersome, or convoluted.
After the game, members of the Harlem Wizards sign autographs
You could see it coming a mile away.
But you still had to laugh when players from both teams broke out in full-court
dancing late in the second half of the game between the Union College Alumni
All Stars and the Harlem Wizards.
Except for a few stretches in each
half where players on both sides played some serious basketball, Sunday's contest
lived up to its billing as an afternoon of fun. As for the score,
well, the Wizards won despite some help from a pro-Union scorekeeper.
Harlem Wizards Eric
“Broadway” Jones and James “Speedy” Williams,
well known for their performances in a Nike ad, seemed to instigate most of the
on-court mayhem, halting opposing foul shooters mid-shot to fix their shorts,
tackling a threatening outside shooter, and feigning serious injury after an
inadvertent bump. Most of the Wizards' plays were punctuated by alley oops and thundering
dunks that brought gasps from the crowd.
But the alumni team had their
moments too. Ken Evans '94 used a fading jump shot to show he has lost nothing
since finishing his Union career at sixth of the all-time scoring list (1,233
points). Gerry Brescia '90 sank back-to-back three pointers late in the second
half. And Katie Smith '02 and Union Hall of Famer Robin (Romer) Chudy '93
showed the same quickness, passing and shooting prowess that made them Union
sensations.
Harlem Wizards
The halftime show featured a
passing game in which Jones tried to get members of the audience to drop the
ball. In the end, down to two youngsters, it was Jones who bobbled, drawing a
crowd response, “You Are Out!”
The bleachers of Memorial Fieldhouse
were nearly filled with hundreds of local kids, many of whom were attending the
game with their Big Brother or Big Sister. Sponsored by the College's chapter
of Big Brothers-Big Sisters, the game was planned not just as a fun outing. “We
wanted to use this event to let people know how fun it is to be a Big,” said
Doug Bush, a Union College
junior who is president of the College's chapter of Big Brothers and Big
Sisters. “With a small investment of time, a 'Big' can make a huge difference
in the life of a 'Little.'”
The alumni 'Dream Team' included Ramsey
Baker '93, Kevin Bartlett '85, Gerry Brescia '90, Robin (Romer) Chudy '92,
Brendan Chudy '93, Ken Evans '94, Kurt Fox '88, Kim Mangino '86, Pete Melito
'00, Ron Prior '92, Katie Smith '02 and George Tiggle '98. The team was coached
by Bob Pezzano '72 and Jim Tedisco '72.
Union's Big
Brothers-Big Sisters program, with more than 65 matches, is one of the largest
college programs in the country. The game was made possible by funding from Union's Social Enrichment Grant and the President's
Office.
