Gen. Daniel Butterfield, of the Class of 1849, was in forty-three battle actions during the Civil War, suffered two wounds, was chief of staff of the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg, and won the Congressional Medal of Honor.
His most memorable contribution, however, was “Taps,” the beautiful bugle call that in life signals the end of day for the solider and in death is sounded at his or her grave.
“Taps” was composed in July, 1862, while Butterfield and his troops were bivouacked at Harrison's Landing on the banks of the James River near Richmond, Va. At that time, the bugler would play “Extinguish Lights” as the soldiers settled down for the night. Butterfield, however, had never really liked this call, saying it was colorless and not all soothing. He called his brigade bugler, O.W. Norton, and together they worked out a new melody. As Norton wrote later, “He changed it somewhat, lengthening some notes and shortening others, but retaining the melody as he first gave it to me. After getting it to his satisfaction, he directed me to sound that call thereafter in place of the regulation call.”
Norton continued, “The music was beautiful on the still summer night and was heard far beyond the limits of our brigade. The next day I was visited by several buglers from neighboring brigades asking for copies of the music, which I gladly furnished.”
The new call spread though the Union army and was taken up by Confederate buglers. Ten years after the war, “Taps” was officially adopted by the Army.
Butterfield, a native of Utica, N.Y., studied law after graduating but entered business and became an executive with the eastern division of American Express Co. Commissioned a captain in the New York militia, he rose through the ranks quickly and was named a brigadier general in September, 1861. After the war, he served as assistant U.S. treasurer in the administration of President U.S. Grant before resuming his business career. He is buried at West Point. Butterfield Hall, built on campus in 1917-18, was erected as a memorial to him and was made possible by a $100,000 gift from his widow, Julia Lorillard Butterfield.
A few years ago, before coming to Union—before hearing about its plans for a House System, before seeing its theme houses, before looking at the architecture of its gracious fraternity houses—I picked up a book written by a sociologist named Ray Oldenburg. The name of the book was The Great Good Place. I didn’t know it at the time, but this book would have special relevance a couple of years down the line when I would go to work as Dean of Residential and Campus Life at Union.
I liked and agreed with the book’s key premise, and it even made sense when I thought about it in the context of a college campus: Hangouts are important. The actual physical spaces where people (read students, faculty, and staff) are drawn together and can affiliate vastly helps in the establishment of community. Oldenburg wrote that people need spaces separate from where they work and live to relax, unwind, chat, where they can coincidentally bump into others, and where they can “see… and be seen.” Oldenburg called these spaces third places. He lamented there did not seem to be very many good ones in America.
The most successful, he says, are those that are inexpensive, informal, inclusive, highly accessible, and where a number of people will be everyday. The ingredient I liked most of all: people should feel welcome, it should be easy to get into a conversation, and a person who goes there should be able to find old and new friends each time they visit. Think Starbuck’s. Or an Irish pub, an Italian piazza, a French café. Now think about a college freshman!
When I was hired by Union to lead the implementation of the House System, I thought about Oldenburg’s book. I took it off the shelf and brought it along with me on a trip I made, between jobs, through the Southwest. I re-read The Great Good Place in Starbuck’s from San Diego, to Santa Fe, to Tucson. It looked to me that Union was trying to create something a lot like what Oldenburg was describing. The application of the third space idea to Union’s plans for seven Houses was pretty astonishing.
I arrived at Union a few weeks later, and I soon found a couple of good third spaces on campus. The Dutch Hollow area of the Campus Center seemed everything a third space should be—food, drink, newspapers, books, coffee, neutral ground, a place to see and be seen. One student told me she’d ‘stake out a good table’ early in the morning for herself and her friends, almost as if she was grabbing the best picnic table on a summer’s day at a park. Another great third space I discovered was tucked away in the basement of Raymond House. “Coffeehouse” looked like a place Oldenburg could sink his teeth into. The walls were painted with murals, the lighting was dark, and the place gave off an offbeat, bohemian air that seemed just right for listening to acoustic music and hanging out with friends.
In the early days of meeting with the committee charged with getting the House System up and off the ground, I shared with them a few copies of The Great Good Place.
They took to the book and idea: “Yep, first place: house, dorm, fraternity, sorority.”
“Yep, second place: lab, classroom, library.”
Third spaces? “Well, we’ve got the dining halls, Dutch, a few lounges, Coffeehouse, and we could probably throw in the Rathskeller, Chet’s, and a theme house that offers dinner and discussion on Wednesday evenings for the campus community called Symposium.”
This coming September, seven more third spaces—let’s say seven more campus living rooms—will begin to take shape through our new Minerva Houses: Wold, Golub, Red, Yellow, Green, Orange, and Blue. All students and faculty have been assigned their membership, and staff has been invited to join a House as well. Incoming first-year students will receive their memberships over the summer. There will be no lacking at Union for third spaces come fall term.
My suspicion is that each of the Houses will take on its own unique feel over time and eventually feel as comfortable as a well-worn pair of jeans. What may first seem very new, and ‘hotel lobby-like,’ as one student phrased it, will evolve into a lived-in space where members might be seen cooking, playing music, reading from one of the Houses’ own periodical subscriptions, checking e-mail, watching a video, having a coffee, hanging some artwork, checking out intramural standings on a bulletin board, or stopping in to hear a talk in the seminar room.
This is exciting stuff. It is not necessarily unique to Union, but the eventual feel of our Houses will be. We need this; I think we are doing it right. Students hunger for the opportunity to socially and intellectually connect. By offering them seven more areas to gather and engage themselves, along with faculty and staff, we will see Union College at its finest. It’s a great, good place, and it’s going to get even better. Ray Oldenburg will approve.
Students tell faculty: get involved with Minerva Houses
Exterior and interiors of the Inn at College Park, the newest addition to the College’s residential facilities
When students made a pitch for faculty involvement with the Minerva Houses opening this fall, one seemed to sum up the feelings of his peers:
“Students really enjoy having the faculty there,” said Chris Macomber ’05. “It’s really neat to interact with faculty on a different level.”
Macomber, a member of South College’s Green Lab, is one of the ten students on the committee planning the Minerva Houses. Committee members updated the faculty at a meeting in March. Six of seven Minerva Houses will be in operation this fall; the seventh, Orange House (now Sigma Phi) will be in operation in the winter of 2005. (The term “Minerva Houses” has replaced “House System.”)
Sonya Saxena ’06 said the point of the houses is to create “space where you can engage in something that is both fun and intellectual. I’m sure students want that type of interaction.” And just because faculty are involved, she added, it doesn’t have to be serious and intellectual. “I haven’t had any of (the committee faculty members) in class, but I know them better than a lot of professors I have had in class just because we get to talk about things that aren’t always related to school.”
Dale Stoudt ’06 reviewed a number of events held and planned in Yellow Lab in South College—a wine and cheese reception with students and faculty, a sushi and Chinese buffet, a trip to see Les Misérables, and a catered French dinner followed by a trip to a French opera.
Aaron Edelstein ’05 said that “a big push from faculty” would help draw out students. “There are a lot of students…who really need that catalyst, really need that connection with faculty to be able to raise their hands in the classrooms. This is an opportunity to get those students who are almost proactive to get into that proactive side.”
Senior Peter Stein, a member of Sigma Phi fraternity, said he has heard students say they have grown tired of fraternity parties. “The student body is changing to become more intellectual and less party-oriented. Students are embracing [the Minerva Houses] as another option.” And senior
Peter Gorvitz, on the implementation committee since it started fifteen months ago, said, “Students would like to see the intellectualism of their classes pervade their social life.”
Tom McEvoy, dean of residential and campus life, said, “We have everything in place—we have the buildings, we have the resources, we have the people. The only unknown for me is, if you build it, will they come? I think so. We are creating what [Committee member Prof.] Suzie [Benack] calls seven campus living rooms. That’s something we’ve never had before.”
Benack, who has spent the last six years helping to develop the Minerva Houses, said that faculty and students have kept to their own realms—academic and social. “I feel most energized in my job when that separation breaks down, when you are involved with students collaboratively.
I hope that students have that experience of collaborating with us and not viewing us as the scary grown-ups, or the annoying grown-ups, or the idealized grown-ups.”
Concluded Saxena, “Collaboration is important to me, and I know that a lot of students are looking forward to that.”
As the new chair of the New York State Bar Association's Entertainment, Arts & Sports Law (EASL) section, Elissa D. Hecker '95 is taking the lead on defending copyright laws.
It is a task inspired to a great extent by her father.
“I have always been interested in the law,” she says. “I grew up working for my dad, whose primary consideration has almost always been copyright and intellectual property, and his clients were the most interesting people.
“I also danced for more than twenty years, was very active in the performing arts and in the creative world in general, and was fascinated by how the Copyright Act and intellectual property laws could protect the creators and promote the incentive to create,” she says.
Hecker is director and associate counsel for the Harry Fox Agency, Inc., the world's largest music rights organization and licensing affiliate of the National Music Publishers' Association, Inc., the U.S. music publishing trade group. She specializes in legal, educational, and policy matters concerning music rights and publishing. She also is the director of the Fox agency's anti-piracy program.
“We represent the songwriters who often depend on their royalties (currently only 8.5 cents per song) to pay the electric bills, to send their kids to college, and to be able to buy groceries,” she says. “If the financial benefit is taken away by people who feel that, just because they listen to the radio and music is amorphous, that it should be 'free,' who will write the songs? Not the songwriters who have to work several jobs just to help feed their families.”
She says that while the electronic age has not really changed how the Copyright Act is applied, the Internet is an exciting tool for the dissemination of creative works.
“It is crucial to remember that those who are taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the advent of the Internet, that is, file sharing without authorization, are stealing that which does not belong to them, and as a result they are penalizing the very creators who they purport to love,” she says.
“I believe in the Copyright Act and the limited monopoly that it created,” she continues. “Copyright protection is not in perpetuity, and the greater the incentive to create, the more likely that great works will be created, which will benefit the public as a whole.”
Hecker is editor in chief of the EASL section's journal, a founding member of its pro bono committee, and a co-founder of the
Pro Bono Internet Clinic project between the EASL section and the New York Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.
Among her community and professional affiliations, she is a member of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. and chairs its FACE Initiative Website for Children. She was an organizer and executive producer of Musicians on Call “Project Playback,” a singer/songwriter program at Memorial-Sloane Kettering Cancer Center, and is a frequent lecturer on music and entertainment at universities and law schools.
She is married to David Strauss '94, and, at this writing, was expecting their first child.
You can go home again
Thomas Wolfe was wrong-you can go home again. And when Capital Region native James Mann '89 recently returned with his new company, 3N2, in tow, city leaders welcomed him with open arms.
Mann, a former Nike executive and a shoe engineer with the Stride Rite Corp., formed 3N2, an athletic footwear business, a little more than a year ago. Formerly located in Newton, Mass., it now has its world headquarters on upper Union Street in Schenectady. The company designs, manufactures, and sells baseball and softball cleats, bags, mitts, and batting gloves, all of which can be customized with lettering. The company has several partners, with Mann serving as co-president and chief executive officer. Currently, the merchandise is manufactured overseas and imported; Mann hopes to add more employees locally.
So how did Mann, who graduated with a B.A. in political science, get into shoe design? While at Union, Mann was a competitive race walker and worked at the former Road Runner athletic shoe store. After graduation, he competed in professional race walking, but an injury in 1991 ended his racing career and Olympic aspirations. After his professional race walking career, Nike hired him and sent him overseas to its manufacturing base. It was there that Jim really learned the business.
When asked why he chose to return to Schenectady, he replied simply, “It's home-my family is here and I've been away since 1989.” And in this cyber economy, Jim doesn't need to rely exclusively on the area economy (although he is working on establishing business relationships with local high schools and colleges and universities). His website (www.3n2hq.com) allows worldwide exposure and distribution. The company has distributors in Asia and Europe as well as seven in this country.
What is the hot item? Mann didn't hesitate: “turf shoes.” These shoes can be customized to be worn on any surface for either baseball or softball.
Mann wants to remain here, where baseball once played such a prominent role. At one time, there was a baseball factory in Schenectady, and the double-A teams in Albany and Colonie were worth rooting for. Moving his company here lets Mann “embrace something in [that] baseball heritage,” he says. Welcome home.
From the Air Force to bioethics
After an Air Force career chock full of achievements in aerospace medicine,
Dr. Shari Falkenheimer '74
Dr. Shari Falkenheimer '74 is in the midst of a second career that is deeply involved in bioethics.
Falkenheimer is president of Bioethics & Medicine, Inc., of San Antonio, which conducts literature research, produces publications and presentations, and offers medical and bioethical consultation in the preventive medicine specialties.
Although her new role is a departure from her many years with the Air Force, it represents a continuation of her commitment to medicine.
Falkenheimer came to Union as one of the 150 women in the College's first coeducational class. After graduating magna cum laude with a B.S. in biology, she earned her medical degree from the State University of New York Upstate Medical College in Syracuse.
She then entered the Air Force, where she rose to the rank of colonel and saw a variety of duty, including squadron and wing level flight surgeon, chief of aeromedical services for a flying wing, and aeromedical consultant in the research, development, and acquisition of aeromedical and aircrew protective equipment. She also earned a master's degree in public health from the Harvard School of Public Health, and was the sole physician assigned to the Air Force Combat Operations Center at the Pentagon during Operations Desert Shield/Storm.
From 1991-1994, she was deputy director for clinical readiness in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs), for which she was awarded the Defense Meritorious Service Medal. She is a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association and an Academician in the International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine. Upon her retirement in 2000, she was awarded the Legion of Merit Medal.
Although she is retired from the Air Force, she maintains her strong interest in medicine, earning an M.A. in bioethics from Trinity International University in Illinois in 2002. Soon after she was invited to become a Fellow of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity (www.cbhd.org) at the university.
The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services appointed Dr. Falkenheimer to the advisory committee of the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control. She also is an adjunct instructor in aerospace medicine at numerous locations, serves on the adjunct faculty at the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, and is an advisor to the Christian Medical Association in the editing of presentations regarding bioethical issues.
Last spring, President Bush appointed her to the Board of Regents of the Uniformed Services University of Health Services.
The engineering music man
Frank Darmiento '67
Frank Darmiento '67 is one of the lucky few who found left-brain/right-brain middle ground.
A registered professional engineer and manager of the Transportation Research Center for the Arizona Department of Transportation, Darmiento is also a highly respected musician, composer, and conductor. Although he earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering at Union (and went on to earn an M.S. in environmental engineering from Arizona State University), Darmiento studied music composition with Edgar Curtis at Union and was a recipient of the Richmond Prize in Music. In the fall 1967 issue of the Symposium (precursor to Union College magazine), he was profiled as “representative of the student involved in the renaissance of the arts.”
At the time, the Department of the Arts did not exist, so there was no music major. That didn't stop Frank. He played trombone with the College's Brass Choir as well as trombone and guitar in its Creative Jazz Workshop. His original musical composition, Concerto for Jazz Quintet and Orchestra, was premiered by the Workshop and performed by the Student Orchestra on Parents' Weekend.
After serving a two-year stint with the Peace Corps in Bolivia, Darmiento studied music composition with Wendell Margrave and arranging with Ladd McIntosh. Fast forward to today.
Darmiento's compositions and arrangements have been performed by professional, college, student, and community groups. In addition to writing for his jazz quartet, he has composed or arranged for orchestra, concert band, big band, and a variety of jazz ensembles, shows, and an unusual assortment of chamber instrumentations. His chamber works include pieces for brass quintet, piano quartet (violin, viola, cello, and piano), flute and tuba, flute and bassoon, four bassoons, flute-bassoon and sax quartet, and alto flute with four bassoons.
He performs regularly with classical, jazz, and show groups in the Phoenix area, often with his wife, Kathy Jones, a tympanist and percussionist. Their dining room décor features two tympani (or kettledrums) along one wall. Although his principal performance instrument is trombone, he also performs on classical guitar, electric bass, vibraphone, and baritone horn. He is principal trombonist with the San Marcos Symphony (Chandler, Az.); lead trombone for the Glendale (Az.) College big band jazz ensemble; co-leader of the brass quintet, Optima Brass; and a euphonium player and resident composer for the Scottsdale Concert Band. He has been a concert soloist on trombone, baritone horn, and classical guitar, and he has appeared as a guest conductor with orchestras and concert bands. He has also worked as the musical director for shows and television productions.
This past November, his original composition, The Guardian, was performed by the Dallas Wind Symphony brass and percussion sections. His work was one of only seven chosen from a field of 140 in the wind symphony's brass fanfare competition. In January, his new CD, Sudden Impact, was released by Summit Records. The CD features Darmiento on alto and tenor trombones with a three-piece rhythm section. He composed six of the eleven selections on the CD.
Darmiento sees a lot of common ground between being a successful engineering manager and a musician. He notes that “music composition and playing jazz have conditioned me to think creatively. This is great training for solving problems in the business world.” He believes that the two disciplines help keep his mind clear for the challenges of each. “When I'm performing a Brahms symphony, I don't think about the problems of my business day. Similarly, when I'm working on a new composition and am stuck on a section, I sometimes need to clear my mind for a few days. Going to my 'day job' helps me do that.”
Reflecting on his college experience, he says he was “extremely fortunate to spend four years at Union. I was able to study music composition with Edgar Curtis, who left a lasting impression on me, and earn a degree in engineering. And I was on the varsity football and track teams. I can't imagine that I would have been able to have those experiences at any other college.”
The Symposium article reads: “Whether Darmiento continues with his composition, he expects music to remain an integral part of his life and personal education. 'For me,' he says, 'It's an important means of expression.' ”
Happily, Darmiento has been able to stay the course.
John Kelly III '76 gets a 'MIKE'
John E. Kelly III '76
IBM executive John E. Kelly III '76, a leader in promoting technology initiatives at the College and in the upstate region of New York State, received the MIKE award at the 2004 Summit in Tech Valley.
The MIKE, which recognizes “mentoring, inspiration, knowledge, and entrepreneurship,” was given in recognition of his “vision and leadership in elevating Tech Valley's standing in the global high-tech community,” according to the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Kelly, senior vice president and group executive, Technology, Systems and Technology Group at IBM, received the award at a luncheon held in connection with the fourth annual Summit in Tech Valley in Albany.
“Much of the high-tech growth in Tech Valley can be tied directly to the support of Dr. Kelly and IBM,” said Ann Wendth, senior vice president of the chamber of commerce and lead organizer of the summit. Kelly also recently was named to “Tech Valley's Hot 10” list by the chamber, recognizing people who have been influential in the region's increased focus as a high-tech center.
Kelly, a member of Union's Board of Trustees, has been a leader in a collaboration in which IBM is assisting the College with its Converging Technologies initiative. Kelly received a bachelor of science degree in physics in 1976.
Guarding against terrorism
Sean Willman '93
In the continuing battle with terrorism, Sean Willman '93 is on the front line.
While in college, Sean joined the ROTC program. “I knew I wanted to be in the military ever since I was a little kid,” he recalls. “I had no military in my family; it just intrigued me. I participated in Navy ROTC my freshman and sophomore years, commuting to RPI every week. Then I found that I could go to Marine Officer Candidates School (OCS) in Quantico, Va., for two summers during college and get a guaranteed commission as a Marine officer when I graduated. I chose the latter.”
From 1993 to 1998, Willman was an active-duty Marine Signals Intelligence & Electronic Warfare Officer, serving in Washington, Hawaii, Virginia, and Japan. Leaving the Marines, he worked for a year at Lucent Technologies in San Francisco before fulfilling his dream of serving in federal law enforcement, getting a job with the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service.
Today Willman is with the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration & Customs Enforcement Division. As a special agent in the Strategic Investigations Group in New York City, he helps conduct investigations of the illegal exporting of arms and military items (e.g., fighter aircraft parts and stinger missiles to countries such as Iran, North Korea, and Cuba); illegal high-technology exports (e.g., sensitive U.S. technologies); and weapons of mass destruction (e.g., dual-use chemical precursors and dirty bombs).
“Our job duties grow everyday,” he says. “I recently participated in two high-profile cases assisting other agents in my office-the JFK Airport drug case that snared twenty-five airline employees, and Operation Predator, which arrested dozens of sexual predator aliens in the New York City area.”
Willman may also be called on to serve as a federal air marshal or to help the Secret Service when additional agents are required for protection duties of the president, vice president, major candidates, or visiting heads of state. “The most memorable parts of my jobs have been the variety of assignments I have had over the years and the training,” he says. “For example, I protected U.S. and foreign dignitaries during events like the Salt Lake Winter Olympics, during the Infatada in the West Bank and Gaza in Palestine, during the 50th anniversary of the UN General Assembly in New York City, and at the Middle East peace talks at Camp David. I also served at the Special Operations Command Center in Washington, D.C., following the events of September 11. Now, with ICE, I work on long-term criminal cases with strategic implications.”
Before his current job, Willman was a special agent for four years with the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service, where he participated in federal investigations of passport and visa fraud and protected foreign VIPs (mostly visiting foreign ministers) and the U.S. secretary of state. When assigned overseas, he oversaw security and investigations for U.S. embassies. “I served primarily in Washington, D.C., and Tirana, Albania. I've also spent significant time in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and in Jerusalem,” he says.
He still serves with the Marine Corps Reserves and has been promoted to major. He was called up last year to serve as the intelligence collection officer for Marine Forces Europe in Stuttgart, Germany, during Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
“I have been sent to various courses at the Immigration & Customs Academy, U.S. State Department, National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, and Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. But the most fulfilling aspect of my job on a daily basis is building criminal cases and eventually getting a federal prosecution,” he says.
Leading TI
Richard “Rich” Templeton '80
In a world where people often change jobs several times, Richard “Rich” Templeton '80 stands out. He joined Texas Instruments shortly after graduating with a B.S. in electrical engineering, and earlier this year he was named the company's new president and chief executive officer.
Templeton has spent his entire TI career in the company's semiconductor group, where he began in sales and marketing and as leader of several semiconductor business units, including digital signal processing. In 1996 he was elected executive vice president and president of the semiconductor group. He became chief operating officer in April 2000 and joined the company's board of directors last year.
He is credited with helping define and execute TI's strategy to focus on semiconductors for signal processing. Operationally, he guided TI during the worst downturn in semiconductor history while maintaining the company's strategic investments in research and development and advanced manufacturing, helping TI to emerge in a stronger strategic, technological, and product position. “This is an exciting time to lead TI,” he says. “We are in the early stages of an explosion in new functionality that semiconductors and software are bringing to electronics equipment. We can take more advantage of this than many. I look forward to exciting years of innovation and growth.”
In addition to his TI duties, Templeton is a member of the Semiconductor Industry Association board of directors.
In the middle of the story
When Bernard Cohen '68 was a newspaper reporter, he probably couldn't have envisioned a story more horrific than the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Now, a lifetime away from that career, he is an integral player in the 9/11 rebuilding efforts as the newly-appointed director of the Federal Transit Administration's Lower Manhattan Recovery Office.
Cohen earned a bachelor's degree in English and then a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He won a National Endowment for the Humanities journalism fellowship at the University of Michigan and was a journalist in the Northeast, writing for the Associated Press and such publications as the Boston Globe, Boston Phoenix, and the Hartford Courant. In the 1980s, he also taught freshman expository writing at Harvard University and lectured at Boston University's Graduate School of Communications.
Cohen became interested in writing about urban issues and topics such as housing, community and economic development, and transportation. He wrote about the early days of Boston's Central Artery Project (the “Big Dig”). When he received a job offer in 1984 from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, he segued from the press corps into public affairs. For three years, he headed the MBTA's public affairs office, writing about transportation issues and “being involved in the impact of those issues,” he says. Becoming more involved in policy and management issues satisfied his interest in “how places grow, change, and develop over time and how transportation affects regional development.”
Before coming to his current position, he also held senior management positions at the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, where he was in charge of service planning and operations.
When the paralyzing shock of 9/11 began to wane, the nuts-and-bolts reconstruction got underway. Although the media continue to follow the progress on proposed new structures, the winners of design competitions, and how the WTC victims will be memorialized, there are few stories about the complexities of infrastructure and the integral role of transit systems in lower Manhattan-one of the world's busiest crossroads.
Cohen says the 9/11 attacks crippled the major transportation systems serving lower Manhattan. For example, the PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) station was flooded all the way back to the New Jersey side, and service to a temporary station in the World Trade Center pit was restored only last November. Coordinating and integrating the transportation plans will be a huge challenge. Plans are to build a permanent PATH station connection from Newark/Hoboken to lower Manhattan and to make significant improvements to the New York City subway system at a cost of some $2 billion. Two other major transit projects, the Fulton Street transit center (a major interchange point for nine subway lines) and the South Ferry subway station (Manhattan's gateway for Staten Island ferry riders), will cost $1.1 billion, and the roadway along the western edge of the former World Trade Center site must be reconstructed. And all of this must address environmental concerns.
Cohen will play a vital role. He will help streamline project design and construction, provide oversight of federal funds to assure they are properly invested, ensure that project development is consistent with federal law, and expedite the review and approval processes. He anticipates that most of the major transportation construction will be finished by 2007 if projects remain on schedule.
The Nott Memorial, the emotional and architectural centerpiece of Union, is taking center stage in the College's new logo.
“To find a distinctive look for the College, we needed to go no farther than one of the most recognizable symbols in higher education,” said Dan Lundquist, vice president for admissions and financial aid. “Like no other symbol, the Nott — in all its quirky grandeur – captures Union's distinctive mix of tradition and innovation.”
The new logo has been added to the College's website, where it is accompanied by a style guide (available to on-campus users only) that explains various uses and includes downloads of the logo and related typography.
The new logo was a result of work by a committee of students, faculty, and staff with input from a range of constituencies. Committee members, with Lundquist, were Ramsey Baker, associate director of athletics; Peter Blankman, director of communications and publications; Davide Cervone, associate professor of mathematics; Donna Davenport, general merchandise buyer for the College Bookstore; Jeremy Dibbell '04; Tom McFadden, College librarian; and Mike O'Hara, director of development. The committee worked with graphic designer Maria Holdren.
The committee formed about a year ago in response to an earlier design that some said was too abstract to convey the distinctiveness of the Nott Memorial. One of the committee's main goals was to develop a design that conveys the College's distinctive centerpiece in a clean, elegant graphic that would be easy to reproduce. The new logo replaces what some have called “the wavy Nott,” an image adopted as part of the College's Bicentennial Campaign more than a decade ago.
The Nott Memorial, a rare example of Victorian High Gothic architecture, is on the National Register of Historic Landmarks. Restored for the College's Bicentennial in 1995, it incorporates many eclectic elements of architectural styles, religions, and rationalism. The seal of Minerva, the Greek goddess of wisdom, will continue to be used for official College documents such as diplomas, transcripts, and program covers.
Robert Kennedy brings environmental message to campus
In addition to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the campus was host to another prominent political name in February, when Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., spoke on “Our Environmental Destiny.”
Speaking to a standing-room-only audience in the Nott Memorial, Kennedy stressed two themes-that the environment is best protected by the involvement of the people most directly affected by damage to it, and that short-term economic growth can wreak long-term environmental damage.
Kennedy is chief prosecuting attorney for Hudson Riverkeeper, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, and president of the Waterkeeper Alliance. He has been involved in a range of environmental concerns, from helping indigenous tribes in Latin America and Canada negotiate treaties protecting their homelands, to helping negotiate a watershed agreement for New York City.
During his presentation, he linked historical, spiritual, economic, and health-related imperatives for the wise stewardship of the environment. He also emphasized that even the so-called “little people” can successfully fight industrial polluters, as did a community of shad fishermen on the Hudson River.
His appearance was the first in a series that brought outstanding environmentalists to campus. Later speakers were Orrin Pilkey, a professor at Duke University who has done extensive research on coastline geography, and Richard Bopp, an RPI professor who specializes in contaminant issues, such as PCBs in the Hudson River. Sponsors of the series included the Environmental Studies program and the Environmental Awareness Club.
Ethics team finishes sixth of forty
The College's Ethics Bowl team finished sixth out of forty teams at the National Ethics Bowl Competition, held in Cincinnati in February.
The Union team defeated Milliken University, Western Michigan University, and the U.S. Air Force Academy before bowing to the University of Montana in the quarterfinals. Indiana University was the overall winner.
This was the second time Union has participated in the national competition. Last year's team also made it to the quarterfinals.
Representing Union were Nell Alk '06, English major; Nat Brown '06, history and philosophy; Justin Geist '04, psychology and political science; Jason Tucciarone '05, biology and philosophy; and Jaime Wemer '04, political science and philosophy. Other members of the team, who competed in the Northeast regional competition at Williams College, were Noah Eber-Schmid '06, political science and philosophy; Jeff Marshall '05, philosophy; and Heidy Sanchez '07, political science.
The team was sponsored by the College's Philosophy Department and coached by Michael Mathias, visiting assistant professor of philosophy. Union is to host the regional competition next year.
Ethics Bowl combines the excitement of a competitive quiz with an innovative approach to education in practical and professional ethics, Mathias says. A moderator poses questions to teams of three to five students based on cases supplied in advance. One case, for example, asked them to consider the ethical obligation of a photojournalist who takes a picture of a starving child. Another case considered a worldwide ban on DDT, a highly-effective insecticide that has also been shown to threaten some species of birds. Another dealt with the role an employer should take in providing health insurance to employees.
The Ethics Bowl was held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. After competing, students met practitioners, professionals, and scholars for discussion of issues in practical and professional ethics.
“It was great to see the enthusiasm of our students in talking with others from around the country about ethical issues,” Mathias says. “For all the good we did in the competition, the value of the preparation they put into it was just great.”
New faces
Dan Detora joins the College as director of dining services. A native of North Andover, Mass., he earned a bachelor's in management from Roger Williams University. Before joining Union, he was responsible for directing a number of hospital food services, most recently as general manager of food service at Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River, Mass.
Thomas P. Boland, Jr., who joins the College as the new Catholic chaplain, earned his bachelor's degree in political science from Holy Cross and his master's in divinity from Harvard University. He is a Ph.D. candidate in theology at Boston College, writing his dissertation on the development of Catholic social teaching on the death penalty. He also serves as assistant director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty.
Todd Clark, the College's new director of residential life, earned his bachelor's degree in finance and management from Virginia Tech and his master's in college student personnel from Western Illinois University. A native of New Jersey, he has held positions in the residential life programs at Kansas State University, Virginia Tech, and Louisiana State University.
Dan DetoraThomas P. Boland, Jr.Todd ClarkRead More
At its winter meeting in February, the College's Board of Trustees approved a 2004-05 balanced budget of $103 million that “maintains the qualities that define Union and allows for a few new programs,” according to Stephen J. Ciesinski '70, chairman of the board.
Total charges for 2004-05 were set at $38,703. Next year the College will implement a comprehensive fee system (tuition, room, and board rolled into one), which will provide for extended dining hours and allow students to enroll in an extra course annually for academic enrichment purposes, at no additional charge, provided that they meet certain academic prerequisites.
The budget provides a three percent increase in salaries and wages for employees, but freezes supplies, services, and capital budgets.
The yield on the College's endowment of about $275 million will generate about 14.8 percent of the 2004-05 budget, down from 16.8 percent this year. The endowment grew twenty-four percent for the year ending September 2003, placing Union in the top ten percent of all of its peer institutions. Results for the past three years were nearly as positive, Ciesinski said.
Enrollment for the first-year class was set at 560, with the House System and the renovated former Ramada Inn becoming fully operational by September 2004.
“Union's overall financial condition is strong,” Ciesinski reported after the meeting. “We continue to operate with balanced budgets through careful spending and by asking more of our talented faculty and staff. Even so, the weak financial markets have had their effect, and we must be more watchful than ever of the use of proceeds from the endowment. Therefore, much of our budget discussions centered upon long-range financial planning.”
In a letter sent to the parents of students, President Roger Hull noted that the College has taken a number of steps to contain costs. Several campus committees examined cost-saving possibilities in the College's main expenditure areas, and the president said he anticipates savings of about $1.2 million this year from cost-savings programs that were created.
At the annual Founders Day celebration in February, writer Julia Alvarez paid tribute to all the people at Union-visible and invisible, past and present-who have helped students to find and reach their goals.
Alvarez opened her remarks with a Native American story about a woman who reaches the sky: Father Sky asks, “How did you get to be so tall?” And she replies, “I'm standing on a lot of shoulders.”
“Today we honor all those shoulders offered to all those students past and present who come here trying to reach their goals,” Alvarez said. “Or more likely, students who haven't yet seen that full sky of possibility, who don't yet know what to reach for.”
Julia Alvarez
Alvarez, an award-winning novelist, essayist, and poet, teaches English at Middlebury College. She received an honorary doctor of letters degree from President Roger Hull. She was introduced by Professor of English Ruth Stevenson, who taught Alvarez at Abbott Academy in Andover, Mass., and recalled her former student as a “meteor blazing over Andover's often gray landscape.”
Alvarez grew up in the Dominican Republic in the 1950s during a dictatorship when reading was not encouraged and even considered politically dangerous. After she fled with her family to New York City, she said she struggled for seven years with a language and a culture she did not understand. With a scholarship to Abbott, which, she said, had a reputation for “taming wild girls,” the fourteen-year-old found herself in a classroom with Stevenson, “who closed the classroom door and said, 'Ladies, let's have ourselves a hell of a good time.' And we did, reading Austen, Dickinson, Eliot… until we understood that we'd come to train, not tame, the wild girls into the women that would run the world.
“That's why I'm here today, and I don't mean at this podium,” Alvarez said. “I mean as a writer. [Stevenson] was my beloved English teacher. She offered me a pair of shoulders and much more. She taught me by her passion for literature and her generosity of spirit to fall in love with books. Today I honor Ruth Stevenson and, through her, all the teachers who have offered their shoulders to those of us who needed a leg up. Without you we could never have become ourselves.”
Alvarez paid tribute to the founders of Union, who purposefully chose its name to send a message that the College would be a place where people who looked at the world in different ways could come together and learn.
“I didn't go to Union myself, but when I read a description of the founders' vision, I felt deep kinship with that vision,” she said. “The founders were confident, as we are today, that students would be better off for encountering variety, complexity, difference, and ideas that challenged them as they pursued their education. Especially in today's world, full of wars and rumors of wars, we celebrate a place where such a mission is embraced and embodied.”
Alvarez said it is incumbent on “those of us who have received the privilege of shoulders, the amazing privilege of attending the best institutions of learning this world has to offer … to pass this privilege on. 'Many times a day,' Albert Einstein wrote, 'I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of others both living and dead and how earnestly I must exert myself to give and return as much as I have received and am still receiving.'
“Toni Morrison put it another way: 'the function of freedom is to free someone else.' ”
Alvarez closed by urging the audience “to give back, to pass it on, to make places like Union College available and accessible to the many for whom the skies have no star.”
No ordinary term paper for him
Scott Snyder '04 went into his internship in Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Albany office expecting to do the usual intern-type work-answering phones, replying to mail, and so on.
But he took his internship well beyond that, as he organized a conference that featured Sen. Clinton and alerted the city of Schenectady to the fact that it was eligible for millions of dollars through a federal program aimed at revitalizing cities.
Not bad for a political
science major from Pennsylvania whose main interest heretofore had been international politics.
Here's how it came about:
For several years Union students have been stalwart volunteers at Sen. Clinton's regional office in Albany, with each student providing at least twelve hours a week of staff support. In addition to pitching in on the daily routine, the interns are encouraged by Ken Mackintosh, the senator's regional director, to come up with special projects that both satisfy their academic requirements and benefit the area.
Snyder expressed interest in doing a project involving Schenectady. Mackintosh encouraged him to find out the city's status vis-à-vis a federal program called the Renewal Communities Initiative, which through the next decade could mean as much as $22 billion to forty designated communities nationwide, including Schenectady. Snyder discovered that the city was not taking advantage of the program, and he and Mackintosh quickly agreed on an assignment-organize a conference that would get the word out about the federal program.
“When I first started my internship, I thought I was going to end the term by writing a twelve-page paper,” Snyder says. “But Ken asked me to keep working on this. I was really lucky. This taught me so much about dealing with people and how public policy works. But best of all is to think that I might have made a difference to Schenectady.”
The conference, held in the Nott Memorial in mid-February, brought together the mayors of Schenectady, Buffalo, Lackawanna, Jamestown, Niagara Falls, and Rochester as well as officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the State Conference of Mayors, Fannie Mae, and other state and local economic development organizations. The renewal program provides up to $12 million for each community in tax incentives for business expansion and development, and symposium participants exchanged information on successful approaches to using the federal aid.
The event attracted hordes of reporters and photographers, including the wire services and CNN. Although the headlines were not favorable as far as the city was concerned-“Incentives were there; Schenectady didn't act” read one-the city's new mayor and a number of local business people found the conference well worthwhile.
So did Snyder and Mackintosh.
Hilary Clinton
“For two months I did a lot of research and a lot of phoning,” he says. “I talked with representatives of the other renewal cities, and it was great to hear how excited they were that they were helping their cities. And it was a thrill to meet Sen. Clinton and her people in Washington, since I'd talked so often to them.”
Says Mackintosh, “What Scott accomplished was to take a concept, turn it into a significant research effort, and then turn it into a reality that accomplished what it set out to do. He did quite a job.”
Attendance at the symposium was not limited to government officials. A couple of dozen Union students-interns in the senator's office and political science honors students-also were on the invite list. Clinton met briefly with them before the symposium, happily shaking hands and at one point telling them that her Albany office wouldn't be able to function if it weren't for all their help. When the symposium was over, she toured the Nott Memorial briefly and came out to be greeted by students shouting “Hillary! Hillary!”
Wind power wins award
The College has been recognized for its use and support of wind power by two environmental groups, an energy developer, and a state energy agency.
Last fall, Union joined four other colleges as well as ten municipalities and six commercial businesses in New York State to convert a portion of their energy purchases to power derived from windmills. Although wind power costs slightly more than traditional sources (about two cents more per kilowatt hour), there is no pollution produced and no fuel needed in its production. The College is purchasing five percent of its energy from wind at an additional cost of about $17,000 in its annual electric bills. The wind power, which is part of the state's energy grid, is produced at the Fenner Wind Project in Madison County, New York's largest wind farm.
President Roger Hull called the purchase “just another example of Union's commitment to improving the environment.” He added, “It is part of our obligation as an institution of higher education to be ahead of the curve and to help set a community standard. As an emissions-free, natural energy source, wind power clearly must be considered by all energy consumers.”
The award came from Community Energy, Inc., the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Environmental Advocates of New York, and New York Public Interest Research Group.
Leavitt named dean of students
Leavitt
Steve Leavitt, professor of anthropology and interim dean of students since September, is the College's new dean of students.
President Roger Hull, announcing the appointment, said, “Having served very well in the capacity of interim dean for the past eight months, Steve was the clear choice of the search committee and me.
“Not only will Steve bring an unusual academic perspective to the position, but he will also be able to view things in a way that most people in the position cannot,” the president said. “I believe that both of these attributes are of tremendous import at this point in Union's history.”
Leavitt and his wife, Karen Brison, joined the College's Anthropology Department a decade ago. Together, they served as co-directors of the Union Scholars Program and also led several term abroad programs to Fiji.
Leavitt earned his bachelor's degree at Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. at the University of California at San Diego. He has written on religious movements, family relations, sexuality, adolescence, and responses to bereavement. He previously taught at Washington University in St. Louis.
Works in progress
William Thomas, director of international programs and professor of French, was named an honorary fellow of York St. John College in England at graduation ceremonies there recently, honored for his “outstanding contribution to international education.”
The citation read at the York ceremony said Thomas is “committed to ensuring students receive an international experience, forging links for Union College with [higher education] institutes across the globe, to the great benefit of students worldwide. [He] has overseen the exchange of over 400 students from the USA to York alone and has looked after over 200 students from York St. John in America during the 25 years since the start of an exchange program between the two institutes. He has also passed his experience on, advising through his links with the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers and has been awarded a medal for his contribution to international education by the Czech Technical University in Prague.”
The College's International Programs, under Thomas's direction, has consistently been recognized nationally over the years. The Institute for International Education recently ranked the program seventh in the nation in terms of the number of students who study abroad.
Robert Fleischer, research professor of geology, is the author of an article on etching of recoil tracks in solids in the December 2003 issue of Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, the journal of the Geochemical Society. Fleischer writes that isolated places of atomic disorder in minerals, called recoil tracks (caused by radioactive decay of uranium and thorium) are important to a variety of fields, including radiation damage, disposal of nuclear waste, radiometric dating of minerals, ion implantation, isotopic irregularities in nature, disordering of minerals on planetary surfaces, and radon release from the earth.
John Garver, professor of geology, is coauthor of a paper, “Downstream changes of Alpine zircon fission-track ages in the Rhône and Rhine rivers,” in Journal of Sedimentary Research. With former Union student Brandi Molitor, the paper details a new methodology of understanding how mountains grow and erode with time. Garver also is part of an NSF-funded project aimed at understanding the Earth's crust along the San Andreas Fault, and he and A.V. Soloviev, of the Institute of the Lithosphere, Moscow (Russia), have received a grant from the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation for the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union (CRDF) to develop a fission track dating lab at the Institute of the Lithosphere of Marginal Seas (ILMS) in Moscow, and then to embark on several projects with scientific collaborators, including continuing their ongoing work on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.
Ashraf Ghaly, associate professor of civil engineering, has been elected a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), a distinction held by only five percent of ASCE's more than 133,000 members. ASCE fellows are “legally registered engineers who have made significant technical or professional contributions to the profession and who have made notable achievement in responsible charge of engineering activity for at least ten years following election to ASCE,” according to the organization's bylaws.
Christine Henseler, assistant professor of Spanish, has had her book, Contemporary Spanish Women's Narrative and the Publishing Industry (University of Illinois Press), selected as a CHOICE Outstanding Book of the Year. Also, she was editor of a book, En Sus Propias Palabras: Escritoras Españolas Ante El Mercado Literario (Ediciones Torremozas), which has just been published in Spain.
Teresa A. Meade, professor of history and director of the Center for Women's Studies, is co-editor (with Merry Wiesner-Hanks of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) of a new book, A Companion to Gender History (Blackwell Publishing, 2004). The book surveys the history of women around the world, studies their interaction with men in gendered societies, and looks at the role of gender in shaping human behavior over thousands of years. Meade is also the author of “Civilizing” Rio: Reform and Resistance in a Brazilian City (1997) and A Brief History of Brazil (2003). She is working on a project on marriage on the Alta California frontier, 1769–1860.
Daniel O. Mosquera, assistant professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies, has written an article, “Reconstituting Chocó: The Feast of San Pacho and the Afro Question in Colombia,” to be published in Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies. This article is part of an ongoing project examining popular religion, politics, and national identity in the Afro-Colombian region of Chocó. The project includes a video documentary titled “San Pacho, para quién? [St. Pacho, for Whom?].”
Linda Patrik, professor of philosophy, published a paper based on her research work at the Nitartha Institute in E-ASPAC, an electronic journal in Asian Studies sponsored by the East/West Center of the University of Hawaii. The paper, “Transplanting Tibetan Philosophy,” describes three North American schools that translate and teach Tibetan philosophy to westerners. Her paper, “Perilous Sitting: Krishnamurti's Criticisms of Meditation Practice,” is forthcoming in the Krishnamurti Monograph series. This paper discusses the distinction between meditation practice and true meditation, which was drawn by the twentieth-century teacher, Krishnamurti.
Kristin Peterson-Bidoshi, assistant professor of Russian, is co-director (with David Galloway and Kristen Welsh of Hobart and William Smith Colleges) of a project, “A Dynamic Application for Producing Language Exercises,” which has been selected for funding by the Center for Educational Technology, a regional technology center for Mellon-supported colleges in the Mid-Atlantic and New England region (MANE). Reviewers said they selected this project because it explores the creative uses of technology to enhance Russian language learning.
M. Fuat Sener, assistant professor of economics, presented a paper, “Intellectual Property Rights and Rent Protection in a North-South Product Cycle Model,” at the Southern Economic Association Meetings in San Antonio, Texas. Sener also has written a chapter (with Elias Dinopoulos), “New Directions in Schumpeterian Growth Theory,” for an upcoming book, Elgar Companion to Neo-Schumpeterian Economics (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2004).
Carol S. Weisse, director of Health Professions, published a paper in the Journal of Pain with Rachel Dominguez '02 and Dr. Paul Sorum of Albany Medical Center, called “The Influence of Gender and Race on Physicians' Pain Management Decisions.”
Frank Wicks, professor of mechanical engineering, is the author of articles in Mechanical Engineering on the anniversary of two notable achievements in technology. His article “Trial by Flier,” which chronicles the history of human flight, was the lead article in a December special supplement to the magazine. (Wicks was a guest at the celebration of 100 years of flight in Kitty Hawk, N.C., on Dec. 17.) Wicks also wrote “Nuclear Navy” in the January issue of the magazine about the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine.
