Posted on Apr 19, 2004

For more than thirty-five years, Union art students have had two remarkable teachers-Walter Hatke and Arnold Bittleman.

Hatke, a Kansas native with master's degrees from the University of Iowa, joined the Union faculty in 1987 and is now the May I. Baker Professor of Fine Arts.

Bittleman, a native of the Bronx, started to draw at age five, copying drawings in books. After beginning college at the Rhode Island School of Design, he earned his B.F.A. and M.F.A. from Yale. After teaching at the Yale School of Art and Architecture, the Parsons School of Design, the Minneapolis School of Art, and Skidmore, he joined the Union faculty in 1966. He was artist-in-residence and lecturer in the arts when he died in 1985, at the age of fifty-one. This spring a show of his work will open at Gallery 100 in Saratoga Springs; the show will come to the Mandeville Gallery in the Nott Memorial in the fall.The show's catalogue is being designed by Jill Korostoff '77, with financial support from Andy '71 and Abby '74 Crisses and Harris Suzuki '77.

Bittleman was a nationally-known artist, and his works were in the collections of such major museums as the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn and Whitney Museums in New York City, the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. After a one-man show in New York City, The New York Times called his work “remarkable, disquieting, and many-layered.”

Jim Lowe '69, one of the owners of Gallery 100, says he got the idea for the show in a dream. “I was back at Union, and Arnie was leading the charge against the Vietnam War. Although I wasn't an art major, Arnie and I connected on this issue and many others. He was an exceptional teacher, a true friend to his students, and a brilliant artist.”

Bittleman once said that drawing is “a celebration of human seeing, of the sensuous joy of sight itself. It enables me to experience my most personal thoughts, visions, my hopes, dreams, fears, my humanity and my kinship to generations past and future.”

In December 1983, Alexander F. Milliken, of the Alexander F. Milliken Gallery in New York City, visited Bittleman's studio in Cambridge, N.Y., to pick up work for an exhibition. He later wrote about the thrill of discovering some new Bittleman work:

“…I didn't really know what I was looking for. I think I hoped something would just hit me. It didn't for more than four hours and probably over 300 drawings.

“They were in the fourth drawer of a cabinet-folded. Arnie does lots of drawings of thickets and underbrush. They are all quite wonderful and intense, and I thought that I was looking at another one, when a face emerged from the center of a thicket. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the crown of thorns and recognized the head of Jesus. I unfolded another and saw numerous faces, not obvious ones, but clear. Arnie said there were a group of them he'd done some years ago during a 'demonic' period when he'd been actively upset about the Vietnam War. He'd been thinking about putting them in book form-thus the folds….

“I didn't realize until I was on [my train] that my adrenalin was still pumping and that the thrill of discovering what I had was the cause. I now had in my possession a collection of drawings, unified in theme, and originally intended to be together. They not only evidenced extraordinary draughtsmanship, but were packed with meaning. And I wanted to exhibit them immediately.”

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Posted on Apr 19, 2004

The 2003-04 basketball season was the last to be played in Memorial Fieldhouse, and the men's and women's teams did their part to give the forty-eight-year-old building a royal sendoff. To wit:

• A combined record of 44-11.
• The first Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association's regular-season and tournament championships for the women's team.
• The first NCAA tournament appearance by the women's team.
• Another ECAC Upstate New York tournament appearance by the men's team.
• And, for the first time in the same year, the fieldhouse was the host site for both the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament and the ECAC Upstate New York Tournament.

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Constructed in 1955 as a tribute to America's war veterans, Memorial Fieldhouse's dirt floor was covered in the early 1970s with a Tartan surface, allowing the men's basketball team to move from Alumni Gym. Under construction, to be ready for the 2004-05 season, is the two-story Viniar Pavilion, made possible by gifts from the Viniar Family Foundation and David Viniar '76. The new building will include two basketball practice courts and one performance court, with spectator seating for 1,000. It will be located southeast of Memorial Fieldhouse, with connections to the fieldhouse's locker rooms and equipment facilities. The fieldhouse will continue to be the home of the indoor track teams and the spring teams, which begin their preseason practices in February.

“There are a lot of great memories in this building,” said former coach Bill Scanlon, whose 300 victories are the most in the men's basketball program's history. “There were a lot of great games, a lot of great teams, and most importantly, a lot of great individuals who played in Memorial Fieldhouse. The Tartan surface and the atmosphere of the field house certainly gave us a true home- court advantage. But it is time to move on. Union is one of the last schools to play on a court other than wood.”

Current head coaches Bob Montana and Mary Ellen Burt agree that they are looking forward to moving into the Viniar Pavilion.

“I am very appreciative of Dave Viniar for his generosity and continued support of the men's basketball program and his major gift of the Viniar Pavilion,” Montana says. “I know the kids are impressed with the gift of the Viniar family and are excited to be able to play on a wood surface next year.”

“I'm excited about moving into the Viniar Pavilion next year,” adds Burt. “Not only will it be a great place to play, it will be an outstanding recruiting tool for our program and for the College as a whole.

“It was nice to have won the last game we played here,” she continues. “Since Union is my first head coaching job, this building holds some good memories for me.”

This year certainly is one of them. The Dutchwomen enjoyed the best season in their twenty-nine-year history with a record of 24-4. In addition to winning league regular season and tournament championships, the team hosted Mount Saint Mary in the first women's national tournament game in the fieldhouse, beating the Knights 78-47. The year capped a string of five-straight .500 or above seasons that have produced a record of 92-42.

The men's team enjoyed a 20-7 season and was the top seed for the ECAC Upstate New York tournament. This year's winning record marked the third time that the Dutchmen have enjoyed at least six consecutive winning seasons. Montana, who just completed his eighth year as head coach, has a career record of 121-94 and led his team to an NCAA berth in 2001-02.

Montana recalls two games that stand out among the many he has been a part of in Memorial Fieldhouse.

“My second game, which was my first year with Bill (Scanlon), as his assistant, was winning the Capital District tournament against Albany State in triple overtime. It was a great win for us. I remember the Albany State pep band playing our fieldhouse, which I thought was strange. That win seemed to give our kids confidence, and they went on to our first NCAA bid.

“The other game that comes to mind,” Montana continues, “was when we hosted our first NCAA game on Feb. 28, 2002. Seeing Memorial Fieldhouse packed, seeing our players get our first NCAA win against Lasell-it was a great reward for the kids to play in that environment and have that crowd support them.”

The memories of Memorial Fieldhouse, and the anticipation of basketball in a new home, were summed up by Montana when he said, “It always comes back to the people. Our new facility will be the same; it will be the people who make the facility special.”

Improved sports web site debuts

Thanks to a new web site, all the Union scores and sports stories are just a few mouse clicks away.

The site (http://www.union.edu/Athletics) was the result of a months-long redesign by the Office of Communications and the Department of Athletics.

With a garnet background and topped with regularly-changing photos of Union student-athletes, the site has a convenient summary of recent scores with links to game recaps, a schedule of upcoming events, feature stories, links to team pages, and a fan poll.

“This new site gives our many fans a front-row seat to all the action by providing up-to-date results, news, features, and photos in an attractive and user-friendly format,” said Val Belmonte, director of athletics. “I'm thrilled to have this new site represent the College's programs and our student-athletes. It combines the proud tradition of Union athletics with the bells and whistles of the web.”Jim Feck, the College's web director, said that what may be most exciting is what visitors won't see. “The site displays scores, stories, and photos from a database, speeding the process by which information is entered and making it possible to share the very latest news-even in-game scores and recaps from road games.”

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Posted on Apr 19, 2004

After Jim Underwood retired last year as the longest-serving current faculty member, the Board of Trustees invited him to share his thoughts on more than forty years at Union. With his long experience, which included service as both a teacher and an administrator (e.g., dean of the faculty), he had accumulated lots of opinions. Here is some of what he said to the trustees:

Some things have not changed much in the forty years-the Ramée buildings, Jackson's Garden, two dozen walnut and several honey locust trees planted by Eliphalet Nott in the 1820s, commencement, the Memorial Chapel chimes, faculty and student suspicion of the administration, a collection of eccentric faculty who are in sufficient control of their eccentricities to allow them to function effectively in the classroom, to name just a few.

Obvious and important changes would include:

• Growth in the student body from about 1,250 to about 2,000 and the rise in the proportion of women from zero to about fifty percent;
• Growth in the size of the permanent faculty;
• Growth in the size of the administration, illustrated by a seeming plethora of vice presidents as opposed to exactly none in 1963;
• An across the board increase in staff, including explosive growth in areas such as security, development, and student life.
• Despite the loss of most elms, the campus looks much better: Campus plan-tings and lawns are lush, automobiles are gone from center campus, and most new and restored buildings are eye catching, witness especially the “new” Nott Memorial.

The nature of decision making is a second way in which the College has substantially changed. We are now far more bureaucratic in the sense of having decision- making processes that are more formal, “rational,” transparent, and bound by rules. Good examples can be seen in faculty evaluation processes, the budget process, and the process for making decisions regarding student discipline and academic dishonesty.

Curricular changes, some dramatic, have helped make Union a very different place-new departments (computer science, anthropology, and classics, for example), new interdepartmental programs (biochemistry and East Asian studies, for example), and several truly substantial College-wide programs (General Education, Writing Across the

Curriculum, vastly expanded study abroad opportunities, an honors program, greatly expanded opportunities for undergraduate research, for example). In addition, faculty were added in areas in which the College was embarrassingly shorthanded, most notably, the arts and modern languages.

One result of some of these changes is that the College became for the first time a genuinely balanced college, a state that had been a goal for seventy years or more.

Some of the more dramatic and positive changes are those in teaching methods and the intensity of the “professional” relationship between faculty and students.

There has been a general but by no means complete move away from the lecture toward various forms of so-called “active learning,” including, for example, simulations (such as a course on Congress in which students become the House of Representatives) and the use of electronic classrooms in imaginative ways to fully engage students in learning a variety of subjects. Many of these changes would not have occurred had it not been for a virtual revolution in which faculty, for the first time, began to come together in productive conversations and workshops on teaching, most sponsored by a committee on teaching created in the early 1990s.

Although there were examples of students and faculty working closely together when I came to Union, both the frequency and the intensity of such relationships began to steadily increase beginning in the 1970s. I believe that one very important factor is the increasing emphasis that the College began to place on independent undergraduate research and other forms of scholarly and artistic endeavor. Senior thesis and senior project requirements in many departments include such endeavors, and the National Conference on Undergraduate Research and our own Steinmetz Symposium provide opportunities at which students and their faculty mentors can aim.

Nothing pleases me more at retirement than the quality of the students I have taught for the last several years. Although we have always had good students, what I see is a higher proportion who are fully committed to learning than at any previous time-provided that they are challenged by faculty willing to demand their very best.

The quality of work that students have produced for me and many other faculty is truly impressive. One example comes from my “Civil Rights and Civil Liberties” course, in which students play Supreme Court Justices and Counsel. In a class of the most engaged, best prepared, and most aggressive questioners I had ever seen, one student serving as counsel managed a truly extraordinary performance, never hesitating, never wavering in the face of a seemingly endless volley of incisive and tough questions. She performed in a highly-articulate and convincing manner, not equaled in some tapes I have viewed of experienced lawyers before appellate courts, and I am confident could not be equaled even by many Union faculty. (To my regret, this student, an economics major, did not go to law school. She is a bond trader with a leading firm in New York City.)

I would be remiss not to include some observations on the administrations I have seen.

Harold Martin (president 1965-1974) should be credited with four substantial accomplishments:

• He maintained a remarkably stable and civil campus in a very troubled time.
• He created expectations that faculty should be published scholars as well as good teachers. (This deserves to be labeled an important turning point in the recent history of the College.)
• He managed to add a badly-needed science and engineering building and a library addition to the campus.
• He gave to his presidency the highest level of integrity and dignity.

The administration of Tom Bonner (1974-1978) saw the decision to leave the New England Small College Athletic Conference. Done under a cloud of suspicion, that decision was a turning point; NESCAC was, and is, as much a club as an athletic conference, and membership translates almost directly to academic reputation.

The administration of John Morris (1979-1990) saw some significant achievements:

• Calm was restored and the College's financial situation was stabilized.
• The Reamer Campus Center was created.
• The Alumni Gym was expanded.
• There were also major additions to the academic program, including a substantial and innovative General Education Program and a Writing Across the Curriculum Program.
• Finally, at Morris's initiative, a dozen tenure-track additions to the faculty were approved, thus allowing an overdue reduction in the number of visiting faculty. Roger Hull (1990-today ) brought the sort of energy and ambition for the College that is rare, and the result has been an effort to move Union forward despite the challenge of relatively limited financial resources. Perhaps the most obvious accomplishments in the past dozen or so years are:
• An improvement in student quality, commitment, and energy that has been both steady and substantial.
• The astonishing number of new buildings, expanded buildings, restored buildings, and, most recently, acquisitions of buildings in “Seward Park” and the Ramada Inn property for conversion to student housing and social space.
• The academic area has seen rapid expansions in two endeavors central to the College's mission-study abroad and undergraduate research-and creation of the College's Honors Program.
• Finally, the House System that will be fully in place next year is an initiative that has the potential to transform student life in fundamental ways.

In summary, where do we stand? We are well led; a faculty of generally high quality brings intelligence and high competence to the research and artistic enterprises and energy and imagination appropriate for practicing teaching as a calling; students are the best I have seen in their commitment to learning-when properly challenged; student life is more vital than ever; our academic program has exceptionally strong elements, such as study abroad and undergraduate research (my own strongly-held view is that the senior project required or available in many departments is the single most valuable opportunity that we offer students).

This does not mean that we do not face problems and challenges. In my opinion, the biggest problem we face is that the degree to which we challenge students is not uniformly high. The most important lesson I learned in 40 years of teaching is that the higher one sets the bar, the better students perform. My personal preference is that Union set a goal of becoming the most challenging college in the Northeast.

The task of maintaining the College's hard-won momentum in the face of relatively limited resources is a formidable one. The demands on those resources are increasing. For example, providing financial aid sufficient to continue the improvement in the quality of the student body will be extremely difficult, and increasing or even maintaining the proportion of our students who study abroad will be very difficult. My one great fear, unfounded, I hope, is that in the face of limited financial resources we will grow faint-hearted and draw back just at the time we are poised to reach a new level. While we work to increase our resources, I believe that we can use the full force of our ingenuity and commitment to take carefully-considered initiatives that will continue to advance the College and its reputation.

A last word. Union is a warm and spirited place with a magnificent campus, dedicated and committed people at all levels, and students distinguished by their energy, their lack of pretension and cynicism, and their eagerness to learn when challenged. If that were not enough, I have been privileged to be at a place with faculty colleagues distinguished not only by their intellect and scholarship but by their committed practice of teaching as a calling. I consider myself blessed to have been part of this place.

Although retired, Jim Underwood teaches one course each year and, with his long-time colleague Bob Sharlet, holds an appointment as the Chauncey H. Winters Research Professor of Political Science.

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Posted on Apr 19, 2004

Sixty years after their surveying class, Ben Jakobowski '42 and a handful of classmates collaborated on a different kind of ReUnion project and a unique memento.

Their project – a bound set of first-person narratives with photos – gives insight into an era, and is an unusual volunteer effort that makes a valuable addition to the College archives. It's also proof that the connections people make at Union can last a lifetime.

Jakobowski, of Dayton, Ohio, took it upon himself to compile the collection. It was “a labor of love,” he says.

What gave him the idea? “I was looking through my copy of the 1942 yearbook, and I found a print of the photo of this group of civil engineering students that I had taken in June 1940, when we were at Prof. Warren C. Taylor's farm, continuing our instruction in surveying. This was a standard exercise for sophomore CEs before they left campus for summer vacation.”

He sent a copy of the photo to Ben Leland, of Huntington Beach, Calif., and together they identified the others. He invited those they were able to track down to write about themselves and send photos. Nine alumni agreed to contribute to the “Life After Union” collection (in addition to Leland and Jakobowski): Don Brockwehl, of Loudonville, N.Y.; Frank Kilcoin, of Fort Wayne, Ind.; Fred Longe, of Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; Beal Marks, of Morehead City, N.C.; Bob Muther, of Needham, Mass; Mike Stanco, of Schenectady; and Henry Weisheit, of Lansdale, Pa. (Mike Stanco and Bob Muther have since died.)

A few tidbits from the collection:

Longe and Brockwehl began working together in 1947, as partners in McManus, Longe, Brochwehl, Inc., General Contractors (they still sit on the company's board). They built the first structures on the State University at Albany campus (Brockwehl helped architect Edward Durell Stone's office set up review procedures) and the cafeteria building at the State Office Campus in Albany. And in the 1970s and '80s, the firm handled several projects for Disney World.

Looking back on Union days, Brockwehl writes, “I was surprised at the number in the group picture who started as EE's – seven including myself. I had switched to CE after Freshman Electric Lab, when my team pulled a dead short, throwing all the breakers, reversing polarity, etc., with a huge BANG. Scared the – out of us!”

Fred Longe enlisted in the Navy as an ensign in 1942, attending Officers Indoctrination School at Dartmouth. Assigned to the USS Wilkes, a destroyer, as the anti-submarine warfare officer, Longe went to Sicily “to do shore bombardment prior to and during the invasion. Unfortunately (and for me, perhaps fortunately), when the Wilkes went into the channel at Bizerte under the guidance of a local harbormaster, we struck a ship that the Germans had sunk in the channel, damaging one of our props. The Wilkes was ordered to return to New York following the invasion.”

Jakobowski kept in touch with Beal Marks over the years because of a common interest in aviation and model airplanes. During World War II, Marks was air ordnance officer on the USS Guadalcanal, and, as officer of the deck on June 4, 1944, he reports, “I was on the bridge when our task group attacked and captured the German Sub U-505 on the high seas. This was the first capture of an enemy ship by the U.S. Navy since the War of 1812!”

During peacetime, he served as an installation engineer for IBM “in the military products division for Bomb/Nav systems in the B-47, B-52, B-58, B-70, and several of our test airplanes. Lots of formidable problems, as I recall. Now I keep life simple and fly radio control models only.”

Drafted into the Army in 1943, Stanco was transferred the following year to Columbia University to work with civilians as a physics lab assistant in the Manhattan Project for atomic bomb research. In peacetime, he served as Rotterdam (N.Y.) assistant town engineer, then formed his own engineering company, then retired though he continued to draw house plans for two local builders.

Weisheit reports that he retired after forty-two years at the Budd Co., “except for two years spent in the USNR on LST 397 during the invasions of the Philippine Islands.”

Jakobowski, a civil engineering major, comments, “Although I didn't use a lot of civil engineering in my career, I will always remember Professor Sayre telling us that an engineering training gives one the groundwork for taking a problem apart, down to its basic elements, and attacking each part to finally address the whole. I treasure the experiences I had in aerial reconnaissance and think often of Professor Sayre's teaching.”

Right after graduation, Jakobowski arrived in Dayton in response to a call for engineers for the war effort. “Since Wright Field was the nerve center of Army aviation, that's where I wanted to be.”

Eight years later, he was named chief of the specifications branch in the Aerial Photographic Lab. “In those early days, this lab was headed by General George Goddard, regarded as the father of aerial photography and who was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1976.” The lab had its own “air force” of seven aircraft and pilots to conduct flight tests, its own engineers and labs, its own wood and machine shops, all processing facilities, and everything to carry operational engineering projects to completion.

One of the most significant accomplishments, Jakobowski says, was the development of the aerial strip camera, and he was involved in installing three of these cameras in an RF-101 aircraft in October 1962. “This was the aircraft that took detailed high-speed, low-altitude (620 knots at 500 feet) pictures of the Russian missile sites in Cuba – pictures that President Kennedy confronted Khrushchev with at the UN, forcing the Russians to withdraw all missile equipment and installations.”

He is still into photography, putting together slide shows for various communities of his travels with his wife, Peggy, and offering photography seminars.

Concludes Jakobowski, “It was a lot of fun contacting the men and reading about their lives after Union. They have been involved in so many things, and all have done well. It makes me proud to have chosen Union.”

Note: We'd like to hear from other Garnet Guard folks who might be interested in taking on a similar project for their own class!

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Posted on Apr 19, 2004

Boston

The Union Club of Boston welcomed many new members this year who help support a local book award at the Lyndon School and enjoy discounts to club events. Over the past year, club members have enjoyed a wide range of events. Last May, the club shared an evening of cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at the Boston Pops, an event that included a discussion with the Pops' manager, Tony Beadle. After a summer hiatus, the fall season included a family apple-picking event at Honey Pot Hill Orchards and a wine-tasting event at the Living Room in downtown Boston. Approximately 100 alumni gathered to cheer the Dutchmen at the annual Union vs. Harvard hockey game and reception in February, and a young alumni enjoyed a St. Patrick's Day event. Area alumni interested in becoming club members should contact Kelly Schrade '99 at schradek@mail.alumni.union.edu or Elyse Topp-Poirer '01 at elysemtp@yahoo.com.

Chicago

The Alumni Office seeks volunteers to help coordinate a variety of alumni events in the Chicago area. If you would like to help, please contact Lisa Tesarik '93 at lisa_tesarik@bankone.com or 773-975-9839.

Connecticut

Last spring the Union College Club of Connecticut, along with Charles Roden '60, hosted fifty Stamford area alumni, parents, and guests for President Hull's “Union Today” presentation at the Rockrimmon Country Club. A special thanks to Charles for hosting this event. Please contact Alissa Mayo '96 at Alissa.mayo@alumni.union.edu or 203-912-5983 if you would like to help plan events in this area.

Dallas

In November the Union College Club of Dallas enjoyed a performance of the opera “Queen of Spades.” Prior to the opera, alumni enjoyed dinner at the music hall and a talk with Helena Binder '76, the assistant director and choreographer for “Queen of Spades.” If you would like to help coordinate events in the Dallas area, please contact Nelson Weil '76 at nlw72@comcast.net

Kansas City

The Kansas City Club is underway, with its opening held at Kansas City's recently revitalized Union Station. Called “Union at Union Station,” the event featured more than fifteen alumni and parents, all of whom reside in Kansas City's bi-state region. Alden Davis '37 attended with his family all the way from Wichita, Kansas. Club members set out to begin an active series of events and networking gatherings to serve the more than fifty alumni in greater Kansas City. If you're in the Kansas City region and would like to join the Union Club of Kansas City, please contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 1-888-THE-IDOL, extension 6168.

If you can't come to Union. Union will come to you! The Union College Club of Kansas City was able to watch a Union football game from the comforts of Dan and Robin Ryan's '82 home. The gang requested one of the Union games (previously taped) and elected to watch it in Kansas City! The group had an old- fashioned tailgate, where they enjoyed tons of food and drink. Union even managed to give them a victory: 19-6 over WPI.

Los Angeles

The Union College Club of Los Angeles gathered at the Center Club in Costa Mesa to hear an update on the state of Union from President Roger Hull. Jim McGhee '88 welcomed the group, the president took questions from all who attended. Alumni and guests were thrilled to see President Hull in Orange County. The next evening, the club gathered at the Peninsula in Beverly Hills to hear President Hull speak; the club range is so extensive we needed two event locations to serve all constituents! Ronald Crowell '66 welcomed more than fifty alumni and guests. Again, President Hull took questions, which focused on the House System and fraternities, converging technologies, admissions percentages and financial aid, the economic stability of the Schenectady area, and the position Union will hold in relation to Sematech. Alumni and guests were pleased with the news brought to them that evening and are eager to gather again.

On July 9, the Union College Club of Los Angeles gathered for “Blues Night at the Bowl.” The group had a wonderful time picnicking in the Camrose Garden while chatting and catching up prior to the event. After the summer picnic al fresco, the blues fans entered the arena and enjoyed the entertainment courtesy of Etta James and The Roots Band. The performance was fabulous!

Minneapolis

The Union College Club of Minneapolis is official! The first club event was held December 11, 2003. The group feasted on the delicious display made specially for the club by The Capital Grille in downtown Minneapolis. After the reception, club members were entertained by the Guthrie Theater's performance of “A Christmas Carol.” Everyone left the Guthrie in great holiday spirit; it was a wonderful event! The group plans to host another event during the summer months.

New York City

Union events have been keeping New York City alumni, parents, and friends busy for the last several months. President Hull visited Long Island last spring to talk about the exciting changes happening at Union. A few months later, in Manhattan, alumni gathered after work to mingle at T.G. Whitney's. This fall the club welcomed the class of 2003 to the New York City area with a young alumni scavenger hunt, in which Union's newest graduates explored the East Village by solving Union clues and trivia. Alumni, parents, and friends then celebrated the holiday season with Professors Tom Werner, James Underwood, Richard Fox, Sharon Gmelch, George Gmelch, and Dean of the Faculty Christie Sorum at a gathering at the Cornell Club. Most recently, Union's New Yorkers welcomed another faculty member to the city when they gathered at the Gerald Peters Gallery to see an exhibit of breathtaking paintings by Professor Walter Hatke.

Visit with old friends and meet other alumni while helping the New York City Alumni Club plan social gatherings to bring the alumni of greater New York together for several different events throughout the year. Minimal time commitment is necessary, and alumni of all years are welcome. Please contact Kristen Zadourian '01 at kristenzadourian@hotmail.com if you are interested.

Philadelphia

Last fall, members of the Union community gathered to enjoy a performance of the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Christoph Eschenbach, one of the most sought-after conductors in the world. Before the performance, Union's guests enjoyed dinner at Toto's restaurant and a talk by Simon Woods, the vice president for artistic planning at the orchestra, who selects the musical programs. For more information on the Philadelphia Club or to help plan events, please contact Dina Stonberg '95 at dinas@att.net

San Diego

The Union College Club of San Diego gathered in beautiful downtown San Diego at the University Club as President Roger Hull addressed the enthusiastic group. Alumni volunteer Kevin Harkenrider '77 welcomed more than twenty-five alumni and guests. With a fantastic 360-degreee view of downtown, President Hull spoke of the College's four special areas – converging technologies, undergraduate research, terms abroad, and community service. Attendees had a wonderful time catching up on Union news and with one another.

Last May, the San Diego Club met at the world-famous San Diego Zoo and welcomed Professor George Butterstein, who spoke on his research and work in the Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species (CRES), where he is one of the few scientists studying blood samples from endangered animals. When the sun finally came out after lunch, we enjoyed a fun-filled afternoon of exploration around the zoo. A great time was had by all.

San Francisco

On Feb. 19, 2004, the Northern California Chapter held its third annual President's Day celebration in honor of Chester Arthur. The club felt it was important to recognize the twenty-third president of the United States, in addition to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Alumni enjoyed tasty appetizers and Union-worthy drinks while sharing in some fun trivia about President Arthur.

On June 14, 2003, the Northern California Club held its second annual “spring cleaning” day. This year Dolores Park was the chosen location. This beautification project was part of a larger effort of the San Francisco Parks Department to restore and maintain its parks for all to enjoy. The group enjoyed coffee, juice, and bagels and quickly burned off those calories cleaning! To extend community reach, the club was joined by local San Francisco Bay area alumni from both Hamilton College and Colgate University. After the event, the group feasted on a wonderful lunch and reveled in the fruits of their labor.

In July, the club gathered for a good old-fashioned summer day at the ball park. The group feasted on a delicious lunch right in Pac Bell Park. George Gmelch, professor of anthropology, spoke to the avid baseball fans about the history and culture of baseball, drawing on his recently-published book, Inside Pitch: Life in Professional Baseball. Gmelch went on the road with a busload of players to record the details of life around the diamond. Drawing on more than 100 interviews with major and minor league players, coaches, and managers, he explored players' experiences throughout their careers. Everyone was thrilled with the information George was able to give and thoroughly enjoyed the Giants' win over the San Diego Padres.

Later in the year, the club gathered at the opera to enjoy “The Mother of Us All,” choreographed by Helena Binder '76. The group connected with Helena before the performance for a short reception. Club members thoroughly enjoyed the reception and the opera.

On December 9, the club celebrated another fine year with a holiday party at Jade Bar in San Francisco. Vintage wines and delicious hors d'oeuvres complemented snappy tunes as the club members mingled and shared in the festive spirit.

Schenectady

On September 18, more than fifty members of the Union family gathered in Albany at the Bomber's Burrito Bar, owned by Matt Baumgartner '95. Many young alumni ended their workday networking and having casual conversation with fellow graduates. The next day, more than 100 met at the Mohawk Golf Club for dinner. President Hull spoke on “Union Today and Tomorrow.”

On October 21, about fifty people attended a luncheon at the Mohawk Golf Club. Philip Morris, chief executive officer of Schenectady's Proctor's Theater, spoke about the proposed expansion of the theater and about Schenectady revitalization.

On November 18, Professor Clifford Brown of the Political Science Department spoke about the 2004 Presidential election. He gave several scenarios of major turning points in campaigning that could affect the outcome. The group of about seventy enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving menu.

On December 9, seventy members and friends of the club came to Union's Old Chapel for a holiday luncheon. The Niskayuna High School Studio Singers, led by Paula Brinkman, performed popular and holiday favorites. More than sixty people enjoyed a delicious luncheon.

Seattle

On July 28, 2003, the Union College Club of Seattle gathered for an evening at SAFECO Field. Twenty-five eager Mariners fans enjoyed a picnic dinner at the Pyramid Alehouse and Brewery directly across from the field and listened intently to George Gmelch, professor of anthropology, discuss the history and culture of baseball from his recently-published book, Inside Pitch: Life in Professional Baseball. The group cheered and cheered for the Mariners, but to no avail, as the Mariners lost to the Texas Rangers. Still, the fans had a wonderful time and enjoyed the evening.

Washington, D.C.

The Union College Alumni Club of D.C. has 150 dues-paying members and sponsors six events per year, including a reception on Capitol Hill for Union students spending their spring semester in Washington. The club financially subsidizes those students, who, because they are in Washington, are unable to work part-time on campus. A tour of the Old Dominion Brewery drew an appreciative crowd. Fifty Union alumni joined Hamilton and Skidmore alumni for the annual holiday party at the DACOR Bacon House. Nearly 100 Union alumni and guests took part in a tour of the Smithsonian's new National Air and Space Museum at the edge of Dulles Airport. For information about the club and its events, check its web site: www.union.edu/alumni/events.

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