Union in the Media

Bradley Hays, associate professor of political science, recently read an op-ed about Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch on WAMC, Northeast Public Radio.

Northeast Public Radio is a member of National Public Radio serving parts of seven northeastern states. These include New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.

Baahh-Nazoshnnii Brown-Almaweri ’17 is familiar with the myriad issues facing young people of the Navajo Nation.

The largest Native American territory in the country, the Navajo Nation sprawls across nearly 28,000 square miles and three states: Northwestern New Mexico, Northeastern Arizona and a small part of Utah.

It’s a tribal community where teenage pregnancy, alcoholism, suicide and illness rates eclipse many urban or rural areas.

It’s also a place where many have been stripped of their cultural identity because of forced assimilation by state-run public schools.

Brown-Almaweri wants to change that.

Born on the reservation and raised in Oakland, Calif., she spent her childhood attending cultural programs to get an understanding of her Navajo culture and identity.

Brown-Almaweri is the latest Union student to win a Kathryn Wasserman Davis Projects for Peace award.

Now in its 11th year, the Davis Projects for Peace is an invitation to undergraduates to design grassroots projects that they will implement during the summer. The objective is to encourage and support today's motivated youth to create and try out their ideas for building peace. Each project is funded with a $10,000 grant.

Brown-Almaweri has designed a four-week afterschool program where students ages 11-18 will learn about healthy eating habits, positive body image, Mother Earth and living traditions. She hopes to help the Diné students (“Di Nay,” the name for the Navajo people) progress from a history of surviving to a future of thriving.

“Diné youth are in need of a creative outlet or space that will enable them to evaluate their environment and then promote peace within the community,” she wrote in her proposal, “and learn to affirm their cultural identity and live healthy lifestyles.”

Baahh-Nazoshnnii Brown-Almaweri ’17

Major: Organizing Theme (mechanical engineering, studio fine arts and mathematics)

Minor: French and Francophone studies

Project title: Learning to Thrive as a Nation

Description: “This program will be organized into an afterschool program hosted at Ganado Middle School in Arizona’s Apache country. Students will participate in the program daily for one hour with the exception of a two-hour workshop held once a week. In addition to learning about healthy living habits, youth will pick up a camera or pen to document the growing narrative of the Diné people. Students will be able to research online and share their stories with the use of technology as a means of promoting peace by challenging stigmas and statistics. Laptops, cameras, voice recorders and journals will all be used to document the four-week program and the individual student’s progress. This project proposal is connected to my narrative as well. I was born on the Navajo reservation and raised in the urban city of Oakland, Calif. I spent most of my youth attending cultural programs as a way of understanding my Navajo culture and identity. My experience with talking circles is what empowered me and helped me become more confident in my ability to create change within my communities, both Oakland and the Navajo Reservation. Now as a senior at Union College, I would like to provide the same space and resources to students that want to make a change, as well.”

To learn more about the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Projects for Peace award, click here.

Allison Brant '02 was recently featured in Town & Country magazine. The story focused on her management of her father's (Peter M. Brant) famous contemporary art collection and the Brant Foundation Art Study Center.

At Union, she played field hockey and was a member of Sigma Delta Tau.

Read the magazine story here.

Union College will embark upon an expansion and renovation of its Science and Engineering Center that will transform the school’s historic approach to interdisciplinary engagement by creating a fully unified and integrated complex.

The $100 million project is the most ambitious and largest in the school’s history and when completed, will rank among the finest undergraduate science and engineering facilities in the country.

Click here to read a story in the Daily Gazette (subscription may be required).

Click here to read a story in the Albany Business Review (subscription may be required).

Union College will embark upon an expansion and renovation of its Science and Engineering Center that will transform the school’s historic approach to interdisciplinary engagement by creating a fully unified and integrated complex.

The $100 million project is the most ambitious and largest in the school’s history and when completed, will rank among the finest undergraduate science and engineering facilities in the country.

The news was included on WAMC, Northeast Public Radio. Northeast Public Radio is a member of National Public Radio serving parts of seven northeastern states. These include New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.

Union College will embark upon an expansion and renovation of its Science and Engineering Center that will transform the school’s historic approach to interdisciplinary engagement by creating a fully unified and integrated complex.

The $100 million project is the most ambitious and largest in the school’s history and when completed, will rank among the finest undergraduate science and engineering facilities in the country.

To view a clip on WTEN-10, the local ABC affiliate, click here.

To view a clip on WRGB-6, the local CBS affiliate, click here.

Ashley Johnston '14 was recently featured in the New York Post. The story focused on her professional hockey career with the New York Riveters and her work as a mechanical engineer with a robotics firm outside Albany, N.Y. At Union, she participated in Steinmetz Symposium and played hockey and rugby.

Read the story here.

The campus community gathered in Memorial Chapel for Founders Day to celebrate the 222nd anniversary of the College’s charter. It was also an occasion to celebrate another milestone: the 200th anniversary of Union’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter, Alpha of New York.

The keynote speaker was Frederick M. Lawrence, secretary and CEO of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. A former president of Brandeis University, Lawrence is a leading expert on civil rights, freedom of expression and bias crimes.

To read a story in the Daily Gazette, click here (subscription may be required).

This year’s ADAY4U was another fundraising event for the record books.

While numbers are still being finalized, the day topped 2,403 donors to the College – the most donors in a single day in Union’s history.

For every gift made to the College on Wednesday, trustees matched each gift with an additional $200. Including the trustee match, Union

secured over $1 million for the institution. Gifts during the one-day challenge made without a specific designation benefit Union’s Annual Fund.

“Yet again, the Union community rallied to show their tremendous support,” said Terri Cerveny, vice president of College Relations. “We are so grateful for the many who gave to the College and encouraged their fellow alumni, parents, students, faculty, and staff to join them. This truly shows the strength of our community.”

Support to the College included donations and posts to social media. An event in Reamer Campus Center drew students, faculty and staff to donate and also received giveaways. Also, alumni in three cities – Boston, New York City and Schenectady – held cake and champagne celebrations for ADAY4U.

This is the fourth challenge of its kind. Last year, Union topped 2,200 donors, raising nearly $1.09 million in 24 hours.

For most, it was their first time working in oil. But students in Assistant Professor of Visual Arts Laini Nemett’s Painting in Oil class delved deeply into understanding the centuries-old medium and learning how to manipulate it on canvas.

Painting still life, figures and interior/exterior spaces, they explored basic principles of design and color theory. Their efforts are visible in “Color Principle: Painting in Oil,” on view in the Wikoff Student Gallery at the Nott Memorial.

The artists include Steven Apolo ’18, Hein Htet Aung ’20, Ari Bennett ’18, Emily Dahlstrom ’18, Lauren Elder ’19, Jackie Feingold ’19, Emily Fiore ’18, Yi Ting Paung ’17, Josh Price ’18, Yuhe Zhou ’17 and Yuanqing Zhu ’17.

Looking at historical and contemporary artists as points of reference, this intro-level class exposes students to a range of painting principles focusing on color, including complementary contrast, local versus perceived color, temperature shifts of light and shadow on the human form, and contrasting light from interior and exterior spaces.

“Stylistic differences arose naturally as each artist spent more time with the medium,” Nemett said. “The exciting results of this exploration are as varied as the voices of those who painted them.”

The featured works on canvas are from an assignment based on the concept of collage in which the students were asked to portray space, both real and imagined, using this two-dimensional medium.

“The resulting artworks provide new perspectives and ways to configure space, unique to the frame of reference and frame of mind of the individual artist,” Nemett said.

For instance, Feingold’s illusionistic and surreal composition challenges an ingrained, physical deference for traditional perspectives.

Elder’s long, horizontal piece, “Escaping Oppression,” was created for a final project that focused on the concept of social consciousness.

The work “illustrates the emergence and hopeful resolution of anthropomorphized societal issues, such as sexism, racism and homophobia,” Elder said.

The exhibit runs through April 17.