WINTER 2018
Welcome to the Winter 2018 KAC Newsletter. If you have not been to the Center, or not recently, please come by. I want to personally thank three great KAC leaders who left after last academic year: Hallie Bond, Caleb Northrop and Rob Kelly. Hallie was the inaugural Director of the Kelly Adirondack Center, and left to work as curator of the Chippewa Bay Maritime Museum, on the Northern New York Quilt Project book, and two other, smaller, historic research projects. Caleb left his job as Special Assistant to the President’s Office and the Kelly Adirondack Center to earn his Masters in Environmental Management at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He remains engaged with the production of the Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies, with which he has done an outstanding job. Look for the latest issue to be released this winter. Finally, President Ainlay’s Chief of Staff, Rob Kelly, who played a key leadership role in the life of the Center, has also departed Union to become Vice President & Special Assistant to the President at Loyola University in Baltimore. Thanks to their work, they have left the Center in a strong position. Through regular active interdisciplinary lectures, exhibitions and other Adirondack-themed events such as the annual Adirondack Week, and its growing support of student and faculty research, the Center is becoming an integral part of the College. The full list of recent and future events, posted at the KAC website, is indeed impressive. This fall I began the role of Faculty Director of the KAC. As such, I work with students, faculty, staff, administration, and members of the wider upstate community to further integrate the Adirondacks and the Center into the curricular and extra-curricular life of the College. Together we will review the strategic and academic vision of the Center and foster relationships within and outside Union. I look forward to working with Margie Amodeo, KAC Programming and Event Coordinator, and Darcy Czajka, who has succeeded Rob Kelly as the President’s Chief of Staff. I look forward to seeing you at upcoming KAC events, and to continuing to help raise the Center’s profile. Whether you are a regular at the Center or have yet to make your first visit, I encourage you to stop by to enjoy our events, the library collection, the exhibitions, and the grounds and the neighboring Reist Wildlife Sanctuary. Sincerely,
Doug Klein Kenneth B. Sharpe Professor of Economics Faculty Director of the Kelly Adirondack Center
T H E K E L L Y A D I R O N D A C K C E N T E R at U N I O N C O L L E G E
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UNION RECEIVES MAJOR GRANT FROM THE MELLON FOUNDATION FOR ADIRONDACK STUDIES
WE ARE TREMENDOUSLY EXCITED ABOUT WHAT THIS GRANT WILL ENABLE US TO DO IN OUR ADIRONDACK STUDIES INITIATIVE. TROM THACKER, THE STEPHEN J. AND DIANE K. CIESINSKI S DEAN OF FACULTY AND VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
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Union has been awarded a $250,000 presidential leadership grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to strengthen our Adirondack Studies initiative.
These pilot mini-terms will be offered to students free of the fees normally associated with a mini-term. The grant will also support opportunities for broad faculty development. This includes an Adirondack Study Group composed of participating faculty members and the faculty leader for the mini-term. This group will present and share ideas to inspire discussion and intellectual exploration of the Adirondacks, place identity and regional issues. A Faculty Development Institute will offer training for interested faculty on how to incorporate the resources of the Adirondack Research Library into their teaching. The Study Group and Faculty Development Institute will promote multidisciplinary perspectives on the Adirondacks and material from library collections into course content with a particular emphasis on the arts and humanities. For example, a course with the theme “Place Identity” could include The Birth of the Adirondack Environmental Movement and its Continuing Influence, or Landscape Painting and Nature Writing in the 19th Century. Faculty and students will also contribute articles to the Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies, published by The Adirondack Research Consortium and the Kelly Adirondack Center. “We are tremendously excited about what this grant will enable us to do in our Adirondack Studies initiative,” said Strom Thacker, the Stephen J. and Diane K. Ciesinski Dean of Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs. “We will be able to build on an existing strength and offer novel programming and research opportunities for students and faculty alike.”
In addition, the grant will support efforts to process and publicize collections within the Adirondack Research Library to make them more accessible to scholars. A key element will be the hiring of an archivist for the library to catalogue the material. The archivist and librarians will be significant contributors to the faculty Adirondack Study Group, participating in shared readings, lectures and other activities using the resources of the research library and Schaffer Library’s Special Collections. Faculty will also be encouraged to use the collection to develop exhibits and class assignments. President Ainlay noted the Mellon grant supports a key component of Union’s strategic plan, which encourages the College to leverage its location in upstate New York, including its proximity to Adirondack Park. “We are grateful for the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in helping us advance our Adirondack Studies initiative,” Ainlay said. “Enhancements to Kelly Adirondack Center and the Adirondack Research Library collection that is housed there will benefit our entire region. The award will also enrich a multidisciplinary understanding of this remarkable part of New York.” Since Ainlay became president in 2006, this is the third grant from the Mellon Foundation in support of presidential initiatives. In 2007, Union received a $50,000 discretionary grant that was used to support the integration of liberal arts and engineering. This included the creation of an annual symposium in the spring, which has attracted national attention, including a feature in the Chronicle of Higher Education. In 2014, Union received a $150,000 grant to enhance the curriculum through cross-disciplinary global experiences for faculty with trips to China and Berlin.
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The three-year grant will develop a new Adirondack miniterm, which will combine classroom work with experiential learning though guided trips to local communities, historic sites and places that will educate students about a region that has influenced writers, artists and philosophers. It will also help provide greater accessibility to the Adirondack Research Library, which is housed here at the College’s Kelly Adirondack Center.
HEADER HERE “ As society becomes more and more mechanized, it will be more and more difficult to stand the nervous strain, the high pressure, and the drabness of their lives. To escape these abominations, constantly growing numbers will seek the primitive for the finest features of life.”
This was the prediction of Robert Marshall in 1933 when he published The People’s Forests. He quotes the biometrics of his time predicting the “saturation” of the U.S. population at between 145 and 185 million people. From this perspective, he warned of the future overuse of our parks. He could not have foreseen, however, what challenges a population of 300 million could pose to the preservation of wilderness in America. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the 46er challenge. In 1918, Bob and George Marshall, led by their guide Herb Clark, set to climb all 46 peaks over 4,000 feet in the Adirondacks. Their achievement would inspire others to follow. Over the course of the 20th century, the movement that began as only a few dedicated hikers climbing trailless peaks grew to a flood of visitors to the mountains. In October 2016 the 10,000th climber completed the undertaking. At the Kelly Adirondack Center we’ve chosen to mark this anniversary with a series of lectures and exhibits studying the Marshalls, 46ers, and their impact on the history and future of the Adirondacks.
In October, we began our lecture series with a talk on Bob Marshall given by writer and editor, Phil Brown. Beginning in January we will exhibit the contemporary High Peaks photography of Manuel Palacios. On February 15th, Elizabeth Vidon will speak at Union College in Old Chapel on the ethical challenges of high adventure and ecotourism. During Adirondack Week in May, we’ll welcome Blake Cortright with a special screening of his film, The 46ers followed by a panel discussion by prominent 46ers. We’ll also display an exhibit of books once belonging to Grace Hudowalski along with the mid-20th century High Peaks photography of Kay Flickinger Dockstader from the collection of the Adirondack Research Library. The series examines the changing nature of hiking in the Adirondacks over the last 100 years as we strive for a balance between elements and forces in our omodern lives and the appreciation and preservation of a more primitive wilderness.
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FOR DETAILS ABOUT THESE AND OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS GO TO OUR WEBSITE, MUSE.UNION.EDU/ADIRONDACK/.
Faculty Director of the Kelly Adirondack Center
Kelly Adirondack Center Coordinator
Doug Klein kleind@union.edu
Margie Amodeo amodeom@union.edu
THE KELLY ADIRONDACK CENTER 897 Saint David’s Lane Niskayuna, NY 12309
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PHONE: 518.388.6305 union.edu/adirondacks