Union in the Media

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.

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.

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).

The Hagen String Quartet performs on Sunday, February 26 at 3:00 p.m. in Memorial Chapel.

The series welcomes the celebrated Hagen String Quartet, which tours the United States infrequently, for its highly-anticipated series debut. The Quartet performs Beethoven’s Quartet in G Major, Op. 18, No. 2, Bartók’s Quartet No. 3, and Dvořák’s Quartet in A-flat Major, Op. 105.

The unprecedented three-decade career of the Hagen Quartet began in 1981. Its early years, marked by a series of prizes in chamber music competitions and an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon that was to produce around forty-five CDs over the following twenty years, enabled the group to work its way through the virtually unlimited quartet repertoire from which the distinctive profile of the Hagens has emerged.

Collaborations with artists such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt and György Kurtág are as important to the Hagen Quartet as its concert appearances with performers including Maurizio Pollini, Mitsuko Uchida, Sabine Meyer, Krystian Zimerman, Heinrich Schiff and Jörg Widmann. The Hagen Quartet also works closely with composers of its own generation, whether by reviving existing works or by commissioning and premiering new pieces. As teachers and mentors at the Salzburg Mozarteum and the Hochschule in Basel, as well as in international master classes, the quartet’s members pass on their wealth of experience to their younger colleagues.

Individual tickets are $30. All students are free. For information, call (518) 388-6080 or visit http://www.unioncollegeconcerts.org.



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.

A course by Rachel Magin '14, a doctoral student in the Psychology Lab at Indiana State University, was recently featured on NPR's All Things Considered. The class, designed for children with high-functioning autism, teaches students about social skills and reading/expressing body language through improvisational theater.

During her time at Union, Magin participated in Steinmetz Symposium, Outing Club, Jewish Student Union-Hillel, and spent a term abroad in Cambodia.

Read more about Magin here.

John Wold ’38, a devoted son of Union whose generosity has transformed the College, and a pioneering geologist whose vision changed the mining industry, died Feb. 19, 2017, in Casper, Wyo. He was 100.

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