Union in the Media

The Environmental Science, Policy and Engineering (ESPE) Winter Seminar Series will conclude on Wednesday, March 4 with Dr. Anthony Leiserowitz, director for the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, at 7:30 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.

Considered an expert on American and international public opinion on global warming, his talk, “Climate change in the American Mind,” will discuss recent trends in Americans’ climate change knowledge, attitudes, policy support and behavior and strategies for more effective public engagement.

The Yale Project on Climate Change Communication works to empower educators with more knowledge and tools to better engage audiences, conduct research and design and test new strategies to educate the public.

Leiserowitz and his project have led some of the most careful studies of public opinion related to climate change science and policy. Their reports on the "Global Warming's Six Americas" have fascinating implications for effective environmental communication.

The University of America Press published a book by Peter Heinegg, professor of English. “Dim and Dimmer: Prospects for a New Enlightenment” is a collection of essays on the global environmental crisis. Free copies are available upon request.

Ruwimbo Makoni ’15, Yilun Zhang ’15 and Mary Grace Wajda ’15 were selected as student fellows for the New York Six Think Tank. Students will research and create multimedia projects, studying a project of their choice. The goal of the program is to explore the surprising ways in which the arts and humanities play a part in the lives of today’s students. The Union students will be supervised by Christine Henseler, professor of Spanish.

Submit your People in the news items to gowanc@union.edu.

Morgan Clark ’17 is the Kenney Community Center’s Volunteer of the Week.

As the co-philanthropy chair for Alpha Delta Lambda sorority, Clark is responsible for planning all of the organization’s philanthropy work. For example, she has helped organize the campus-wide Random Acts of Kindness Week, as well as help raise money for cancer research and international charities.

Originally from Webster, N.Y., Clark is a member of the volleyball team and is majoring in physics, with minors in studio arts and astrophysics. She is also a Union Scholar, and in her free time volunteers regularly at the Kenney Center, planning programs and tutoring local children.

Associate Psychology Professor Christopher Chabris and Daniel J. Simons, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois, wrote a piece for Slate about the recent controversy involving NBC News anchor Brian Williams.

Chabris and Simons are co-authors of The Invisible Gorilla, And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us.

To read the piece, click here.

A new study suggests that people who are generally insecure in their relationships are more actively engaged on the social media site – frequently posting on walls, commenting, updating their status or “liking” something - in hopes of getting attention.

Published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, the study was conducted by Joshua Hart, associate professor of psychology, along with George Bizer, professor of psychology, and former students Elizabeth Nailling '14 and Caitlyn Collins '14.

Dozens of media outlets both national and international have reported on the study.

Read a story in the U.K.'s Daily Mail

Christopher Chabris, associate professor of psychology, is quoted in the Well column of the New York Times about the recent controversy surrounding NBC News anchor Brian Williams.

Williams has come under fire for claiming he was in a helicopter hit by a rocket-propelled grenade during a reporting assignment in Iraq.

To read the column, click here.

An 87-year-old film unspooled with 600-year-old music will open the Union College Concert Series' 44th season, underscoring the freshness of old artworks brought to life in new ways, in new settings with new juxtapositions.

Read more on the Times Union website. [subscription may be required]

The Student Diversity Leadership Award is given each year to a senior who demonstrates an active dedication to activities on campus that support multicultural enrichment. Students must be nominated by a current faculty or staff member, administrator or student.

The Community-Building Award goes to a student, administrator, faculty or staff member who best demonstrates outstanding leadership by creating events that bring together as many segments as possible of the campus community or maintaining an organization dedicated to bringing together many campus segments in some common cause.

Nominations for both awards much be received by March 8 (end of the day). Email your nominations, with supporting reasons, to David Gerhan at gerhand@union.edu.

Derek Delaney, artistic director of the Union College Concert Series, was featured on WAMC's The Roundtable.

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

Manson Publishing recently released a book by Kurt Hollocher, professor of geology. “A Pictorial Guide to Metamorphic Rocks in the Field” is an illustrative introduction to metamorphic rocks as seen in the field, designed for advanced high school to graduate-level earth science and geology students. The book includes photographs from the field, line diagrams and examples to help students jump start their observational skills.

A book review by Kristin Bidoshi, associate professor of Russian and director of the Russian and East European Studies program, was published in Slavic and East European Journal. Her piece focused on “The Sacrificed Body: Balkan Community Building and the Fear of Freedom” by Tatjana Aleksić. She also presented “Re-fashioning Dracula: Psychic Vampires in Postwar American Culture” at the New England Region of the American Conference for Irish Studies in December. She recently presented “The Wind Horse: Tradition and Practice in Contemporary Buryatia” at the American Association for Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures Conference in Vancouver, Canada. That paper is based on research she conducted while directing Union’s term abroad in Irkutsk, Russia.

Carol Weisse, professor of psychology and director of the Health Professions program, Kathryn Martin ’16, and Dr. Geri Aitken ’88 co-authored a piece, “Cultivating a Community of Compassionate Caregivers: A Community Based Learning Curriculum on Palliative Care.” The document outlines a summer program for eight Union students to explore palliative care as they conduct end-of-life care at the Joan Nicole Prince Home in Glenville.

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