All Over Albany

The next Union College president is David Harris

Union College announced Tuesday that its next president will be David R. Harris, a 48-year-old sociologist who's currently the provost at Tufts. He'll succeed Stephen Ainlay, who's set to leave the post at the end of the current academic year after 12 years in the role.

Harris's CV includes undergrad and PhD at Northwestern, academic and administrative positions at Cornell, and time spent working for the US Department of Health and Human Services during the Obama admin. Press release blurbage:

In his time at Tufts, Harris has been a transformational leader with an impressive record of achievement. Shortly after joining the administration, he led a year-long effort to create Tufts' first-ever, university-wide strategic plan. From that plan emerged many new initiatives, including 1 + 4, a program to energize civic renewal by providing students an opportunity to engage in a year of international or national service before starting at Tufts. The strategic plan also led to the creation of Bridge Professorships, which span two or more schools to advance research and teaching on complex issues.

At Tufts, Harris also established the new position of chief diversity officer and associate provost, and he launched Bridging Differences, an initiative to empower the Tufts community to develop the skills necessary to engage in informed and civil discussion around some of today's most challenging topics.

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Cornel West at Union College

Cornel West will be at Union College March 3 for a talk titled "Social Justice: The U.S. and Beyond." It's free and open to the public.

West is a scholar whose work has focused on race, gender, and class. He's now a professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and professor emeritus at Princeton University. And he's popped up all over popular culture, from talk shows to spoken word hip hop to an appearance in two of the Matrix films. Recently he's been publicly supporting Bernie Sanders for president.

The talk at Union is Thursday, March 3 at 5 pm in the Nott Memorial. Note: "The talk is free and open to the public. Seating is limited and priority will be given to members of the campus community."

Also speaking at Union College soon: MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle will be there February 25 for a talk about her work into how digital technologies affect people and their relationships with each other. (as mentioned)

photo via Cornel West FB

Sherry Turkle at Union College to talk about conversation in the digital age

MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle is set to appear at Union February 25 for a talk about her work into how digital technologies affect people and their relationships with each other.

Bio blurbage:

Referred to by many as the "Margaret Mead of digital culture," Professor Turkle has investigated the intersection of digital technology and human relationships from the early days of personal computers to our current world of robotics, artificial intelligence, social networking and mobile connectivity. Her New York Times best-seller, "Reclaiming Conversationâ„¢: The Power of Talk in the Digital Age" (Penguin Press, October 2015), focuses on the importance of conversation in digital cultures, including business and the professions. Her previous book, "Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other" (Basic Books, 2011), was a featured talk at TED2012, describing technology's influence on relationships between friends, lovers, parents and children, and new instabilities in how we understand privacy and community, intimacy and solitude.

If you do a quick scan through Turkle's Twitter feed, you'll quickly get a sense of the sorts of topics she's interested in: conversation, the way people use mobiles, dating apps, privacy, robots. Here's an Atlantic interview with Turkle from last fall about her recently published book Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age.

Turkle's talk is the keynote in Union College's Founders Day. It's at 1 pm on Thursday, February 25 in the Memorial Chapel. It's free and open to the public.

The psychology of Frozen

Union College psychologists George Bizer and Erika Wells make an appearance in a New Yorker post this week looking at how Frozen ended up being so popular. A clip from the piece by Maria Konnikova:

They organized an evening of "Frozen" fun--screening and movie-themed dinner--and called it "The Psychology of Frozen." There, they listened to the students' reactions and tried to gauge why they found the film so appealing.

While responses were predictably varied, one theme seemed to resonate: everyone could identify with Elsa. She wasn't your typical princess. She wasn't your typical Disney character. Born with magical powers that she couldn't quite control, she meant well but caused harm, both on a personal scale (hurting her sister, repeatedly) and a global one (cursing her kingdom, by mistake). She was flawed--actually flawed, in a way that resulted in real mistakes and real consequences. Everyone could interpret her in a unique way and find that the arc of her story applied directly to them. For some, it was about emotional repression; for others, about gender and identity; for others still, about broader social acceptance and depression. "The character identification is the driving force," says Wells, whose own research focusses on perception and the visual appeal of film. "It's why people tend to identify with that medium always--it allows them to be put in those roles and experiment through that." She recalls the sheer diversity of the students who joined the discussion: a mixture, split evenly between genders, of representatives of the L.G.B.T. community, artists, scientists. "Here they were, all so different, and they were talking about how it represents them, not ideally but realistically," she told me.

There's also some discussion about the always complicated business of princessification.

Union hockey playing for the national title Saturday

The Union men's hockey team beat Boston College 5-4 in the Frozen Four Thursday in Philadelphia, and it will now play for the national title Saturday night.

The Dutchmen will face #1 seed Minnesota in the championship game at 7:30 pm on Saturday. The game will be on ESPN.

The Gophers advanced to the final by scoring a goal in the final second against North Dakota for a 2-1 victory Thursday night.

This will be Union's first appearance in the final. It was last in the Frozen Four in 2012 when it lost to Ferris State in the semis.

Union vs. Minnesota is in some ways a David vs. Goliath game. The Gophers have won the national title five times, and the size of the school and its athletic budget towers over that of the Dutchmen.

But the two schools were ranked 1-2 in the final polls of the season -- with Union atop one poll, and Minnesota ahead in the other.

Union's headed for the Frozen Four, and much bigger competition

Over the weekend the Union men's hockey team beat Providence 3-1 to advance to the semifinals of the NCAA tournament -- AKA, The Frozen Four. Two more wins and Union takes the national title.

It's the Dutchmen's second trip there in the last three years. They lost to Ferris State in the semis in 2012.

Union topped one of the national polls and was #2 in another just before this year's tournament. It is the tournament's #3 overall seed.

The Dutchmen will face #2 overall seed Boston College April 10 in Philadelphia. The game is scheduled for 5 pm on ESPN2. #1 seed Minnesota takes on North Dakota in the other semifinal.

Union's recent hockey success is remarkable given the size of the school. After the jump, a quick look at how Union stacks up in enrollment and athletics spending against its Frozen Four competitors...

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Cheerful, merry, joyful, and...

This Union College lip dub of the Pharrell song "Happy" is fun. True to the title, it's hard to get through it without smiling.

Also: We were glad to see Stella getting in on the action.

Jeremy Denk at Union College

Pianist -- and newly tabbed MacArthur "genius" -- Jeremy Denk is scheduled to play at Union's Memorial Chapel October 4. Tickets are $25 / $10 students and on sale now.

Blurbage for the Union concert:

Denk offers an innovative program connecting classical works with those influenced by jazz. In between classical works: Mozart's Sonata in F Major, K. 533/494, Schumann's Waldszenen, Op. 82, and Beethoven's "Waldstein" Sonata, Op. 53, Denk will perform a new work written for him by jazz pianist Brad Mehldau along with a series of rags by Bolcom, Hindemith, Stravinsky and others.

As mentioned above, Denk was also one of the new MacArthur Fellows announced this week. From the foundation's profile of him:

Jeremy Denk is a concert pianist enlivening the musical experience for amateurs and aficionados alike through his eloquence with notes and words. As a soloist and in concerti and chamber ensembles, Denk masterfully performs some of the most technically demanding works of iconic masters--Bach, Beethoven, Chopin--as well as compositions of storied twentieth-century artists--Ives and Ligeti--with virtuosic dexterity and imagination. Noted for his unexpected pairings of pieces in recital programs and recordings, he often draws out surprising themes and continuities between historically and stylistically disparate works. His live and recorded duets with violinist Joshua Bell, a longstanding tradition, are critically acclaimed and lauded for their extraordinary balance and original interpretation.

The foundation also praised his (occasionally updated) blog -- Think Denk -- and his writing for outlets such as The New Yorker.

This won't be Denk's first time through here. He played at both Union and Skidmore a few times over the last couple of years.

Another "genius": Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile -- was a MacArthur fellow last year -- is playing at the Massry Center at St. Rose October 27.

"Art or Evidence" at Mandeville Gallery

"First snow in Ardoyne, a Nationalist neighborhood, Belfast, Ireland, 1981" by Gilles Peress

Could be worth a look: the just-opened exhibit "Art or Evidence: The Power of Photojournalism" at the Mandeville Gallery at Union College. Blurbage (link added):

This exhibition features the portfolio, Flashpoints, by international photojournalist Gilles Peress, which includes work from the conflicts in Northern Ireland, Iran, Rwanda and Bosnia. Peress sees his work as "gathering evidence for history" rather than art, though the forensic aspect of his photography is a mere fraction of its meaing. Thirteen additional photojournalists are included, whose work ranges from the battlefield to the social sphere of everyday life.

The exhibit will be up through March 10. On February 10 there will be a talk from Alison Morley, chair of the photojournalism department at the International Center of Photography.

The Mandeville Gallery is open 10 am-6 pm Monday-Sunday. It's in the Nott Memorial (which itself is worth seeing). It's free and open to the public.

Kate Bolick at Union College

Kate Bolick -- the author of the much talked about/circulated/commented/shared "All the Single Ladies" article in The Atlantic a year ago -- is coming to Union College for talk in November.

In that Atlantic piece, Bolick examines the idea of what it means to be a single woman, the changing nature of the "marriage market," and ultimately argues for more flexible attitudes about the way people decide to arrange their lives. Here's a clip:

What my mother could envision was a future in which I made my own choices. I don't think either of us could have predicted what happens when you multiply that sense of agency by an entire generation.

But what transpired next lay well beyond the powers of everybody's imagination: as women have climbed ever higher, men have been falling behind. We've arrived at the top of the staircase, finally ready to start our lives, only to discover a cavernous room at the tail end of a party, most of the men gone already, some having never shown up--and those who remain are leering by the cheese table, or are, you know, the ones you don't want to go out with.

And here's an interview with Bolick at the Hairpin.

Bolick's talk at Union is November 6 (at Tuesday). It's at the Nott and it's free.

Capital Region college president compensation

UAlbany's uptown campus.

When it was announced last week that Robert Jones will become the next UAlbany president, there were a few eyebrows raised about his compensation -- he'll receive a total of $555,000. That includes salary, money from the Research Foundation, and a housing allowance.

That's a lot, no matter what job you're doing. And given that the SUNY system has faced budget cuts recently, it's understandable that the figure would catch attention.

But is it too high? That's a hard question. And people are going to have different answers based on their own perspectives.

To get some context, we pulled data about presidential compensation at UAlbany, RPI, Union, Skidmore, St. Rose, Siena, and the Sage Colleges -- and broke it down to see how it compares across multiple categories.

Here's the result...

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Here's your diploma -- and a payment schedule

One of the interesting things in a recent NYT package about student debt is an interactive listing that includes school-by-school breakdowns of the average student debt for each school.

We were a bit surprised by the numbers from Capital Region schools (above). Even though Skidmore and Union College both have expensive sticker prices (both locally and nationally), their average graduate debt figures were among the smallest in this area -- and they had the lowest percentage of grads carrying student debt.

That result probably speaks to a few things about those schools: a) a not insignificant share of the students attending come from families that can help them cover the price and/or 2) many of the students whose families can't cover the cost probably aren't paying the full sticker price. In fact, Union says more than 60 percent of its students "receive some kind of financial assistance."

Contrast that to St. Rose and UAlbany. CSR had the highest average graduate debt -- with 86 percent of its graduates carrying debt. And UAlbany, though having one of the lower debt numbers probably as a result of its relatively inexpensive tuition, had by far the highest debt-to-tuition ratio.

The NYT interactive feature has more info and is worth checking out.

Noted: Americans now owe more in student debt than they do in credit card debt -- the total amount of outstanding student debt in the country is roughly $1 trillion. [USA Today]

Fine print: All the tuition and debt total numbers are for 2010 and via NYT, with one exception: NYT didn't have a tuition number for Union. So we pulled it from College Grotto's rankings for 2009-2010. It appears NYT pulled the numbers from The Project on Student Debt, from which we pulled the "grads with student debt" percentages. The debt:tuition ratio is our own calculation.

Bob Woodward at Union College

Check it out: Bob Woodward is giving a talk at Union College Thursday night. The topic: "From Nixon to Obama: War Stories from the Reporting Trenches on Eight Presidents." It starts at 7 pm in Memorial Chapel. It's free and open to the public.

It'll be interesting to see if one of those war stories is about Woodward's reporting on the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq during the Bush administration. His latest book is Obama's Wars, which in typical Woodward fashion, is an "intimate and sweeping portrait of Obama at work with his team."

Of course, he's also the Woodward of the Watergate Woodward and Bernstein. For old time's sake, here's a photo of the two back in the day.

[via Nippertown]

photo: Flickr user Miller Center

Union! Syracuse! Madness!

Update update: Union beat UMass-Lowell 4-2! They're going to the Frozen Four!

Update: Union beat Michigan State 3-1, thanks in part to a little luck. [Union athletics] [TU]

The Dutchmen now face UMass-Lowell Saturday at 6:30 pm for a trip to the Frozen Four. The game is on ESPNU.
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The Union College men's hockey team faces off with Michigan State this afternoon in the first round of the NCAA tournament in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The game starts at 3 pm -- it will be on ESPNU and ESPN# (so you can watch it online).

It's been a great season for Union. It's ranked #3 in the nation after going 24-7-7, and winning the ECAC tournament for the first time in school history. The Dutchmen are a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Not too bad for a school that doesn't offer athletic scholarships and only has about 2000 students. There's an interesting article in NYT today about how Union got to this height in hockey.

Also: they're not allowed to have playoff beards. [@PeteIorizzo]

Syracuse

Update: Syracuse lost to Ohio State 77-70. The Orange finish their season 34-3.

The Syracuse men's basketball team beat Wisconsin last night in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament (remarkable because the Badgers apparently couldn't miss from behind the arc). The #1 seeded Orange next face #2 seed Ohio State on Saturday in the regional final for a trip to the Final Four. The game is at 7 pm on CBS.

photo: Union College Athletics

RPI's Jackson stays in top 10 for private college president compensation

RPI president Shirley Ann Jackson's salary is the 7th highest in the nation among private college presidents, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education's annual salary rankings. The Chronicle reports Jackson's 2009 total compensation was $1,771,877, up 7 percent from the year before.

The average professor at RPI gets almost $154k/year in compensation, according to the Chronicle -- giving RPI an 11.5/1 president to professor pay ratio. (A few quick comparisons: the ratio is 4.7/1 at MIT, and 3.7/1 at Cal Tech.)

Said RPI's VP of strategic communications and external relations to the TU about Jackson's salary: "[it is] a reflection of her extraordinary accomplishments, and of the desire of the Board of Trustees to have her continue the comprehensive transformation at Rensselaer."

Jackson topped the Chronicle's chart for the 2007-2008 academic year with reported total compensation of $1,598,247. In March 2009, the school announced she was giving 5 percent of her salary to a student scholarship fund.

There have been a lot of impressive developments at RPI during Jackson's tenure. But there also has been what seems like a not insignificant amount of discontent. The most recent sign was a student senate resolution calling for Jackson's removal if "significant changes" aren't made at the school. And a group calling itself the "Alliance for Responsible Governance" has also been pushing for change. [RPI] [Reddit RPI]

The Chronicle also lists compensation for other local private colleges. Those are after the jump.

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Nick Brenn and the Altoids flashlight

Here's that Altoids tin flashlight that Union College student Nick Brenn talked about on the Anderson Cooper show Monday. [Daily Gazette]

The show has posted a video of Brenn explaining how to do it yourself (it's also embedded after the jump). But you can also buy a kit from Edmunds Scientific for $19.95.

Brenn came up with the idea for the flashlight as a high schooler in Pennsylvania. He seems to be quite the maker -- here are his profiles on Instructables and MAKE. He's on the crew team at Union. He gets up early. We'll all be working for him someday. If we're lucky.

photo: Edmunds Scientific

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Still expensive, but less so (relatively)

Nott as expensive (relatively). (We never get tired of Nott puns.)

The website College Grotto recently released its annual list of the most expensive colleges -- and again Union, Skidmore, and RPI are on the list.

Here's how local schools rank on the list for 2011-2012 (the list for 2010-2011):

Skidmore's ranking has dropped considerably over the last few years -- it was #5 in 2009. RPI has been headed the other direction -- it was ranked #62 in 2009.

Sarah Lawrence topped College Grotto's list this year at $59,170, followed by NYU ($56,787), Columbia ($56,310), Harvey Mudd ($55,998), and The New School ($55,890). Here's Forbes' recently-released list -- it also has Sarah Lawrence #1.

Earlier on AOA:
+ US News ranks for Capital Region colleges 2011
+ Union, RPI in top 20 for "return on investment"

US News ranks for Capital Region colleges

Union will probably Nott be disappointed.

US News released its vaunted college rankings today (not important, of course... unless your school ranked well). Here's how local schools ranked.

(Plus a ranking in which UAlbany tops RPI.)

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"Pulp Fiction Paintings" at the Mandeville Gallery

Action! Sex! Intrigue!

Now open at the Mandeville Gallery at Union College: "Pulp Fiction Paintings
Selections from the Robert Lesser Collection." From the blurbage:

This exhibition contains 37 paintings from the Robert Lesser Collection of Pulp Fiction Art and is on loan from the New Britain Museum of American Art. ... The paintings, roughly 30" x 40", were done as covers to the "pulp fiction" genre of the 1930's and 1940's. The subject matter includes adventure, mystery, science fiction, war, and westerns. Tarzan and the Shadow are two protagonists that are well known today. ...

The influence of pulp fiction is vast, seen in the development of later forms of detective and science fiction literature, super heroes, and film noir. The hyper-American imagery was later taken up by the Pop Artists of the Sixties.

After buying his first painting of the Shadow Lesser says, "I began to realize, my God, for these little ten-cent pulps, they had magnificent oil paintings for the cover art. I was amazed how great some of it was, how well trained these artists were."

Here are a few images from the exhibit. Comments from the curator. And a recent review of works from the collection.

"Pulp Fiction Paintings" is on display until September 25. There are a few events associated with the exhibit, including movie marathons and a talk, "Pulp Fiction and the Modern Reader," by Skidmore's Janet Casey (September 15).

The Mandeville Gallery is in the Nott Memorial at Union.

images from the Robert Lesser Collection, via the Mandeville Gallery

Robert Gibbs at Union, Will Shortz at Skidmore

Two upcoming talks that you might get you going:

Former Obama admin press secretary Robert Gibbs will be giving a talk at Union College Monday evening. Gibbs (that's him on the right) was also the Obama campaign's communications director. The talk is titled: "Inside Washington: What's Next?" It starts at 7 pm in the college's Memorial Chapel.

Also Monday: NYT crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz will be speaking at Skidmore. If the crossword puzzle has rock stars, Shortz is like Bono. He was featured in the doc Wordplay and he appears on the puzzler segment of Weekend Edition Sunday (we're waiting for the day when the puzzle is: "I'm thinking of a number. What is it?"). According to the Facebook event page, the Shortz talk starts at 5 pm in Gannett Auditorium -- but the Skidmore calendar has it pegged at 8 pm. [via Skidmore Unofficial]

photo via Wikipedia

Breakdancing is back at Union College

In the classroom, Union College junior Tri Trang goes by one name: Tri. On the dance floor he goes by another: B-Boy Squirtle.

The biology and economics double-major is the founder of UBreak, a breakdancing club at Union. Yes, breakdancing. The dance form peaked in the 80s -- but for Tri, it never really went out of style.

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Have you caught Union College hockey fever?

Because it's going around, apparently.

The Union College men's hockey team has had a great season. The team is currently ranked #4 -- in the whole country. And the Dutchmen are in action at home this weekend against Colgate in an ECAC tournament best-of-three series. (Colgate beat RPI in the first round. Union had a bye.) The tournament is a step toward the NCAA tournament.

The games are Friday, Saturday, and (if necessary) Sunday night. Individual tickets are $12 for adults / $6 for kids.

If you're new to Union hockey -- or college hockey in general -- the TU's Pete Iorizzo has put together a helpful guide for hopping on the bandwagon.

photo: Union College Athletics

"Weeds and Wildness" at the Nott

The Nott Memorial provides a unique exhibition space. (panorama)

The Nott Memorial at Union College is itself a work of art. If the dramatic circular structure, slate dome, and large windows letting natural light pour in from all sides aren't enough, the second floor hosts the Mandeville Gallery. And the current exhibition is worth checking out.

"Of Weeds and Wildness: Nature in Black & White" brings together 17 nationally and internationally recognized artists working in a variety of media. Kara Jefts, the gallery's interim director, was kind enough to give me an impromptu tour, fielding a few questions about the exhibit itself and the Nott Memorial in general.

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Where Capital Region colleges rank on Princeton Review lists

The Princeton Review released its annual college rankings this week (party schools, reefer madness, etc).

Here are the lists Capital Region schools made it onto...

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Union, RPI in top 20 for "return on investment"

Not(t) a bad deal?

An online service called PayScale has ranked colleges based on "return on investment."

Here are how the schools in the Capital Region stacked up:

Oddly, neither St. Rose nor Russell Sage Colleges were on the list of 852 schools.

Businessweek has the same rankings posted with a few more categories.

Here's the methodology, which is worth skimming. In short: the numbers were calculated using the 30 year median pay for a 2009 grad with a bachelor's degree, in a full time job.

MIT was ranked #1. The highest ranked public school was UC-Berkeley at #16.

(Thank, Fred)

Earlier on AOA:
+ Skidmore, Union, RPI among nation's most expensive
+ Capital Region college tuition