In 1859, David Rosell planned to enroll at Union. Though he appeared to be Black to some, Rosell, a transfer student from Central College in Cortland, N.Y., claimed to be of French and American Indian descent.
The College celebrated Founders Day Thursday in Memorial Chapel. The event commemorates the 230th anniversary of the granting of Union’s charter by the state Board of Regents in 1795, regarded as one of the first public calls for higher education.
President Eliphalet Nott, worried about how the College’s Southern students would react to Rosell’s presence on campus, decided to let the Class of 1860 decide his fate. Students voted 34-24 to admit Rosell.
Nott further instructed a Union chemistry professor, Charles Chandler, to microscopically examine Rosell’s hair. Chandler concluded that Rosell did have some Indian heritage
However, Rosell’s time at Union was brief. The College soon learned Rosell had acknowledged being Black at his previous college and Rosell withdrew. While Rosell was believed to be the first Black student to enroll at Union, his departure robbed him of the distinction of being the first Black to graduate from the College.
Yet he ultimately became a successful physician in Brooklyn and Philadelphia.
The extraordinary tale of Rosell was just one of several highlighted by President David Harris at Founders Day Thursday in Memorial Chapel.
The event commemorates the 230th anniversary of the granting of Union’s charter by the state Board of Regents in 1795, regarded as one of the first public calls for higher education.
This was the final Founders Day as president for Harris. In September, he announced he would be stepping down at the end of the academic year after seven years. Elizabeth Kiss, chief executive of the Rhodes Trust and former president of Agnes Scott College, was announced this week as his successor.
As keynote speaker, Harris’s talk focused on the history of African Americans at Union. He was inspired, in part, by the reaction he received when he was introduced as Union’s 19th president in February 2018.
As he walked out on stage in that same Memorial Chapel, the historical significance became apparent to the audience, which included an overrepresentation of students of color: Union had its first Black president. Some in the audience had tears in their eyes.
To understand the emotional reaction that day seven years ago, “you have to go back. You have to understand Union’s history,” Harris said.
The president spent a considerable amount of time recently in the College’s archives familiarizing himself with that history. In his 25-minute Founders address, Harris eloquently shared some of what he learned. He noted the scarcity of Blacks in Schenectady at the time of Union’s founding. Blacks were present on campus, but not as equals and not as members of the community. They were mostly servants, with names such as “black Tom” and “black Betty” as noted in the archives.
He recounted the familiar story of Moses Viney, a runaway slave from Maryland who escaped to Schenectady on the Underground Railroad in 1840. Viney became the longtime servant and companion to President Eliphalet Nott and then with Nott's widow, until 1886.
A portrait of Viney commissioned by the College and completed by Simmie Knox, a renowned African American artist, hangs in the President's Office.
In the twilight of Nott’s 62-year presidency, Viney at night would carry a then-ailing Nott up the steps of his residence to his bedroom.
“Those are the steps of my house to our bedroom,” Harris said. “So, we brought Moses Viney back. We had a high-quality reproduction made of the portrait that hangs in the President’s Office and it's on the first floor of the President’s House.”
Harris noted the contributions of the first Black to be appointed to senior staff, Gretchel Hathaway, in 2008, and the remarkable journey of Twitty J. Styles, professor emeritus of biology, who, in 1971, was the first African American faculty member to earn tenure.
President David Harris was the featured speaker at Founders Day Thursday. He talked about the history of Blacks at Union.
Styles taught at Union from 1965 to 1997. When he arrived in Schenectady in 1965, he and his wife faced rental restrictions against Black families. They lived temporarily in a home outside of the city that used rainwater from a cistern. He brought bottles of drinking water home from Union.
When Styles retired with colleague and close friend Carl George, professor emeritus of biology, the pair launched UNITAS, which Styles described as “a campus-wide organization whose primary mission is to support and encourage diversity, acceptance and the celebration of cultural differences.”
Twitty died in August 2021, at the age of 94. At his service in Memorial Chapel, “there were so many people celebrating Twitty. It was a testament to the impact he had in the community and at this school,” Harris said.
Harris highlighted complicated stories about African Americans, even if the narrative was not always flattering to the College. This included a debate in 1950 on whether to allow Blacks in fraternities.
And in response to a series of racial incidents on campus in 1975, an ad hoc committee was created featuring faculty, administrators and students.
“There was clear evidence of minority students feeling less welcome at Union and discouraging other minority students from attending,” Harris said.
The committee proposed a statement that “Union College aspires to be a community in which no person shall be or feel discriminated against or mistreated, or shall experience pain or embarrassment because of his or her race or national origin.”
Despite progress over the decades, Harris pointed to the election of Barack Obama in 2008 as the nation’s first Black president, as an example of the challenges that remain.
“Many declared the election of President Obama as a turning point in American race relations and a break from our racist past,” Harris said. “But consider where we are now, just 16 years after President Obama took office.”
He cited recent action by the U.S. Department of Education directing institutions, from preschools to colleges, to stop using "racial preferences" in admissions, financial aid, hiring and other areas. He referenced the series of executive orders by the Trump administration targeting DEI programs and initiatives.
Public and private colleges and universities are now renaming or eliminating DEI programming and staff, including those trying to achieve goals consistent with what Union faculty discussed 50 years ago, Harris said.
The Union College Jazz Ensemble performs at Founders Day Thursday.
“We have not made any such changes at Union, and we have no plans to do so,” he said. “We are guided by our values and the law. Thus far, neither have changed.”
He added that President-elect Kiss is committed to those values.
A prominent quote by Martin Luther King Jr. states that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Harris closed by citing former U.S Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr.’s belief that the “arc doesn’t bend on its own, that arc bends when people like you put their hands on that arc and pull it towards justice.”
“I ask you to do all you can to ensure that across your multiple tomorrows and Union’s multiple tomorrows, you do what you can to bend that arc towards justice,” Harris said.
Also at Founders Day, Douglas Farley, a communications technology instructor at Central Columbia School District in Bloomsburg, Pa., received the Gideon Hawley Teacher Recognition Award. Named for the 1809 graduate of Union who was New York State’s first superintendent of public education, the award recognizes a high school teacher who has had a continuing influence on a Union student.
Farley was nominated by Xuan Ho ’28, a studio fine arts major. She said Farley encouraged her to pursue her passion as an artist and encouraged her in her hobbies of music and baking.
“Mr. Farley’s charisma, encouragement and support towards his students pushed me and others to try new things, whether it be behind the cameras or to pursue new interests,” she said.
Founders Day included the premiere of a musical composition by Jeremy Perez ’25, “Gleam.” The event also featured musical performances by the Union College Jazz Ensemble led by Tim Olsen, professor of music; and Paisley Parmenter ’27, Faith Potter ’25 and Max Caplan ’16 performing “Sous le dôme épais from the opera, Lakmé.
The hour-long celebration opened with remarks from Stacie Raucci, College marshal and the Frank Bailey Professor of Classics, and Sage Stinson ‘25, Student Forum president.