Letters

Recalling a year of challenge, success and joy

This spring and summer, as I have happily resumed my travel to meet alumni and friends of the College, I have heard one question more than all others: How did Union fare during the pandemic? The answer I often give: I have never been more proud to be the president of Union College. But there is a longer answer to the question. Throughout the pandemic, I asserted repeatedly that Union must not just survive but find new and creative ways to thrive and emerge stronger than before. Indeed, we have. Our success is directly attributable to the simple fact that everyone in the Union community—on campus and beyond—sacrificed this year in ways large and small and stayed focused on the big picture. Thank you. Here are a few of our accomplishments: First, we reinvented a 226-year-old institution to operate remotely for a term, and then in a hybrid mode for a year during a global pandemic. We celebrated excellence among students, faculty and staff. We honored students in two traditional—though still virtual—events: Prize Day and Steinmetz Symposium. I was proud to present the Daggett and Bailey Prizes to Sarah Vanasse '21 and Ty Eddington '21, respectively. Steinmetz featured a pair of synchronous webinars, one on race, power and privilege. The other was a research seminar on nanomaterials in memory of Prof. Michael

Hagerman, a popular champion of undergraduate research who sadly passed away in December. Among our faculty accomplishments, Shena

McAuliffe, assistant professor of English, received the Pushcart Prize for an essay in her collection,

Glass, Light, Electricity. Mark Dallas, associate professor of political science and director of Asian

Studies, received a prestigious one-year fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations. Five outstanding faculty members received tenure:

Ellen Gasparovic, Mathematics; Jennifer Mitchell ’04,

English and Gender, Sexuality and Women’s

Studies; Nelia Mann, Physics and Astronomy; Laini

Nemett, Visual Arts; and Heather Watson, Physics and Astronomy.

Without our annual recognition luncheon, we honored our employees in a fun new way: by delivering treats and lawn signs to their homes and offices.

We considered challenging issues. As our nation reckoned with racial, social and economic injustice, our community was engaged through programs like our Forum on Constructive Engagement and Congress to Campus. We explored police reform, racial justice, voter participation, gun control, activism and student leadership.

We made significant progress in our efforts to enhance diversity and inclusion. A four-member Diversity Leadership Team and a committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has employed a broad-based approach to enhancing our initiatives to build a more inclusive campus culture. Among those, the History and Symbols Committee is examining how our spaces, symbols and monuments reflect who we are. The committee, senior staff and trustees have endorsed a proposal to restore and relocate the Idol, an ancient Chinese statue that is part of our permanent collection. In consultation with student leaders, another object is being installed to allow the painting tradition to continue.

We devoted our annual Feigenbaum Forum on Innovation and Creativity to lessons learned in higher ed’s response to the pandemic. Our Planning for Multiple Tomorrows (PMT21) working group has surveyed the campus to find ways that Union can be more flexible and agile. For example, we are developing policies for new technologies as a complement to our residential model, and have implemented a new flexible work policy for appropriate staff roles.

To face significant challenges that affect admissions, giving and budgets, we launched the Administrative Excellence Project to address substantial, long-term challenges associated with the effectiveness and efficiency of our administrative processes and systems.

As always, we were buoyed by the many alumni and friends who share a passion for our mission. Thanks in large part to the generous response of our donors during the ADay4U one-day giving challenge this spring, the Annual Fund surpassed $7 million. We stand at over $255 million toward the $300 million goal for the Powering Union campaign. We raised more than $25 million in total gifts over the last year, including $3.4 million in unrestricted gifts to the Union Fund. Every year, and especially this one, the support of every member of the Union family is critical to our success.

We return to campus this fall with much to anticipate. We will begin the search for the inaugural director of the Templeton Institute for Engineering and Computer Science. Made possible by the generosity of 1980 graduates Rich and Mary Templeton, the institute will promote campus-wide and community access to engineering and computer science.

Faculty will consider a new model for General Education that will include a first-year course on critical thinking, inquiry and analysis. Other courses will emphasize Race, Power and Privilege; and Global Challenges.

A new residential curriculum will help students gain competencies outside the classroom including well-being and life skills, cross-cultural competencies, decision making skills, a sense of community involvement and an ability to reflect on their life’s journey.

We ended last year with not one, but two Commencement ceremonies—one for the Class of 2021, another for the Class of 2020. Both events were filled with joy and thankfulness. They served as poignant reminders that together we can meet any challenge.

As we start a new year, I’ll say it again: I have never been more proud to be the president of Union College.

DAVID R. HARRIS, P h .D.

LETTERS

Coffee for Dr. Howe

The passing of Dr. Bob Howe ‘58 brings back the memory, in 2014, of the delight with which he reported to the Alumni Council of the number of free coffees he had won from his faculty colleagues at the University of Minnesota Medical School on the occasion of Union defeating Minnesota in the Frozen Four.

BILL ALLEN ’59

Reflections on the global pandemic

March 12, 2021, marked a full year of masks, social distancing, quarantining, regular testing and no large in-person gatherings on campus. It’s been challenging, but this COVID-19 year has also been one of resilience.

We asked members of the Union community to reflect on their experiences since the start of the global pandemic.

Read their responses at www.union.edu/covid-reflections