On Sunday, April 25, a group from Union
will join the March for Women's Lives in Washington,
DC.
Organizers are hoping for a
turnout of one million marchers.
The students received an IEG grant
to pay for their transportation to the March. The bus will leave Union's
campus on Sunday, April 25, at 1 a.m.
and will return to campus at about 11:50 p.m.
A few spots on the bus have been reserved for faculty. If you are interested in
riding on the bus, please contact Zoe Oxley (oxleyz@union.edu)
or Lauren Oleet (oleetl@union.edu).
Faculty members interested in
attending the March, but not able to ride the bus, can obtain up to $100
subsidy toward their trip by applying to the Women's Studies program. Send
an e-mail to Teresa Meade, meadet@union.edu,
for details.
Walter
Hatke, May I.
Baker Professor of Visual Arts, has been elected to the National Academy of
Design, an honorary artists organization that includes many of the most
prominent artists in the country. Hatke, a renowned painter, joins the likes of
Samuel F.B. Morse, Asher B. Durand and Thomas Cole to “promote the fine arts in
America through instruction and exhibition,” according to the organization's
charter. The Academy, at 1083 Fifth Ave.
in New York City, sponsors a program
of exhibitions, a conservation laboratory and an archive. Hatke, who has taught at Union since
1986, earned his bachelor's degree from DePauw University, and his master's and MFA degrees from the University
of Iowa. His works have appeared recently in the John Pence
Gallery, San Francisco; Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa
Fe; and at MB Modern
Gallery in New York.
For more about Hatke, see this
story about a campus exhibit of his works in 2000:
Brenda
Wineapple, a name already familiar in the literary world, was tapped to edit John Greenleaf Whittier: Selected Poems for
the Library of America's “American Poets Project.”
Wineapple's
edition of Whittier's poems has already garnered praise. She
has included a number of his less well-known works. By happenstance, she and
the poet share the same hometown – Haverhill, Mass. Perhaps that connection made Wineapple, Union's Doris Zemurray Stone Professor in
Modern Literary & Historical Studies, the best choice to write about the
poet's surroundings and other New
England
influences that formed his sensibilities.
“His
diction is easy, his detail rich and unassuming, his emotion deep,” she writes
of the poet whose Quaker beliefs bolstered his abolitionist stand. Readers may
be surprised to learn that Whittier – perhaps recalled from middle school
days as the creator of genteel bucolic poems – was also a highly visible,
passionate political activist at the forefront of the anti-slavery movement.
John Greenleaf Whittier
Initiated
in 2003, the project is a series of the “most significant American poetry,
selected and introduced by today's most discerning poets and critics.” Its goal
is to collect a comprehensive range of American poetic achievement in
economical (compact and affordable) volumes that explore a variety of themes,
genres, and eras.
The
LOA declares its “American Poets Project” an “exciting new series [that] takes
a fresh look at America's most enduring poetry.” And Newsweek wrote that the series is “the
most important book-publishing project in the nation's history.” To date, the
series has produced more than 130 volumes.
But
perhaps the highest accolade for Wineapple and all involved in the project is
the fact that all the volumes will be “kept permanently in print.”
Intel's “Most
Unwired College Campuses” survey ranks the top 100 schools for wireless
computing access. The survey reveals a growing number of schools across the
country where students have the freedom to wirelessly access the Internet on
notebook PCs – without a traditional wired connection – and stay connected and
informed whether they're in the dorm room, library or outdoors at the campus
quad.
Arthur Agatston, author of the best-selling South Beach Diet, said that as a
society of “big bellies,” we must change not just what we eat, but the very way
we produce food.
Agatston, whose son Evan is a
freshman at Union, spoke to more than 300 people in the
Nott Memorial on April 22, part of the Perspective on the Nott series.
He touched on the causes of obesity
and what he is doing to change the trend of Americans consuming large portions
of processed foods and chemically farmed meats – what he called the “bad carbs
and bad fats.”
He and his wife, Sari, came from Miami
Beach to visit Evan and give the talk. He also signed
copies of the book after his talk.
Agatston, who grew up on the north
shore of Long Island but has been living and practicing cardiology in Miami
Beach since graduating from N.Y.U. School of Medicine, joked about coming to
Schenectady in April rather than January. “We have thinner skin than you
northerners,” he said.
While walking to the Nott with a
group of students and staff, Sari Agatston admired the tulips in bloom and spoke
highly of Evan's decision to attend Union. “We looked at
many small liberal arts colleges, and Union turned out
to be the perfect match,” she said, noting that one of their first visits was
on “one of those fall days at Union that makes it an
easy decision.”
On the heels of the huge success
of his South Beach Diet, Agatston
said he is collaborating with schools in South Florida
to pilot new breakfast and lunch menus as well as working with food companies
on test recipes for a future line of convenience foods. “The food industry has
the technology to maintain the fibers and use the right ingredients,” he said,
unlike most convenience foods now in stores.
“This success leads me to a unique
opportunity to change the way America
eats,” Agatston said. “The long-term health of our society really is at stake.”
Agatston urged the audience to eliminate
so-called “trans fats,” often listed on labels as hydrogenated or partially
hydrogenated oils and steer clear of the high carb/low fat diets advocated by
the American Heart Association in past years. “We can't afford to continue to
[medically] treat the population of the United
States with a horrible diet,” he said.
