Union College

Union College of Schenectady, New York, is a non-denominational, independent, selective liberal arts college in New York's Capital District. It was chartered in 1795, though the college can trace its beginnings to 1779. Several hundred residents of northern New York, certain that Burgoyne's defeat at Saratoga two years before would mean a new nation, began the first popular demand for higher education in America. These residents pursued that dream for sixteen years until, in 1795, Union became the first college chartered by the Regents of the State of New York. It was also a founding member of the NESCAC, before withdrawing its membership in the late 1970s. Additionally, the college did not allow women admission until 1970. The college, along with every Ivy League and NESCAC university or college at the time had a quota on the number of blacks, Jews, and Catholics granted admission.

During the third quarter of the 19th century there was a loss in student enrollment. Union College had to rebuild and redefine itself after that period. Today, Union College offers many programs encompassing the liberal arts and sciences as well as engineering. Nearly fifty percent of the students are enrolled in science or engineering. The current student body is about 2200, almost evenly split between males and females.

The College is referred to as 'the mother of fraternities' because many fraternities, including the first three in America, as well as three other national fraternities, were founded there. More fraternities have been founded at Union than at any other college or university. The Union Triad is a name given to the first three Greek letter social fraternities with a continuing record founded in America. They were the Kappa Alpha Society (1825) (the oldest fraternity in the nation), Sigma Phi (1827) and Delta Phi (1827).

In recent years however, the fraternity system has declined as many old fraternity houses were taken over by the College in order to create the Minerva House system (named for the Roman goddess of wisdom who appears on the college's shield). Each incoming freshman is randomly placed in a Minerva House for their time at Union. Each Minerva House has a yearly entertainment budget, and can plan activities and events for its members (Students from any Minerva House can attend events at any other house as well). Upperclassmen also have the option of living in their Minerva.

Students may also elect to join Theme Houses. Currently, there are 12 active Theme Houses, including Wells House, dedicated to community service, Symposium House, which hosts discussions with faculty and students, and Arts House, Music/Culture House, two Language Houses, and Ozone House.

Albany College of Pharmacy, Albany Law School, Albany Medical College, Dudley Observatory, Graduate College of Union University, and Union College together form Union University, a historic linkage dating back to 1873. Each member institution has its own governing board, is fiscally independent and is responsible for its own programs. See also: Union College's description of Union University.

Seven cabinet secretaries, fifteen United States senators, ninety-one members of the House of Representatives, thirteen governors, fifty important diplomats, more than 200 judges, forty missionaries, sixteen generals, and ninety college presidents, including the first presidents of the University of Illinois, the University of Iowa, the University of Michigan, Vassar College, Smith College, Elmira College, and one United States President (Chester A. Arthur) have graduated from Union.

Additionally, Union holds a rather unique honor: two of its alumni, William H. Seward and Robert Toombs, held the title of Secretary of State at the same time, albeit for different parts of the country. Seward was the Secretary of State for the United States of America and Toombs was the Secretary of State for the Confederate States of America. Portraits of both currently hang side-by-side in the President’s House.

Notable professors, alumni and former students

• Neil Abercrombie, congressman from Hawaii
• Thomas Allen, Union College, 1832. U.S. Representative from Missouri, 2nd District, 1881-1882 (Died in office).
• Ralph Asher Alpher, U.S Cosmologist best known for his prediction of the background radiation from the big bang in 1948.
• Chester A. Arthur, former President of the United States
• Leander Babcock, Union College, 1828. U.S. Representative from New York, 23rd District, 1851-1853.
• Charles Lewis Beale, Union College, 1842. U.S. Representative from New York, 12th District, 1859-1861.
• T. Romeyn Beck (1791-1855), forensic medicine pioneer.
• Edward Bellamy, Notable 19th century author of "Looking Backward," and was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, although he did not graduate.
• Gabriel Bouck, Union College, 1846. Wisconsin State Attorney General, 1858-1860. U.S. Representative from Wisconsin, 6th District, 1877-1881.
• Charles Calvin Bowman, Union College, 1875. U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania, 11th District, 1911-1912.
• Daniel Butterfield, Union College, 1849. Union Army General in the American Civil War, is credited with composing the bugle call Taps.
• John M. Carroll, Union College, 1845. U.S. Representative from New York, 18th District, 1871-1873.
• Jimmy Carter, former President of the United States (While stationed nearby in the Navy, Carter took an extension course taught by the College for the Navy. He never entered, or graduated from, the college. The college has no record of his attendance, but did not keep records for nonmatriculated students at the time.)
• Thomas Dick, recipient of an honorary degree of LL.D.
• Dixon Ryan Fox, social historian and president of the college, 1934-45.
• George Washington Gale, founder of Knox College and namesake of Galesburg, Illinois
• Addison Gardiner, one of the first judges elected to the New York State Court of Appeals in 1847.
• Raymond Gilmartin, former CEO of Merck & Co., Inc.
• Gordon Gould, Inventor of the laser.
• Clare W. Graves, Notable 20th century psychology theorist
• William L. Greenly and Austin Blair, 19th century governors of Michigan
• Ward Hunt, Union College, 1828. Founder of the New York Republican Party, 1856. Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1872-1882.
• Henry James Sr. 1811-1882, American theologian and Swedenborgian, best known as the father of the philosopher William James, novelist Henry James, and diarist Alice James.
• Martin Jay, Intellectual Historian, Marxist Scholar, and the Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor of History at University of California, Berkeley
• Leonard Jerome, 1817-1891, New York entrepreneur and grandfather of Sir Winston Churchill.
• Preston King, former U.S. Senator from New York
• Patrick O. Haskell, Head of North American Interest Rate Sales & Trading, HSBC
• Fitz Hugh Ludlow, 19th century author and explorer, wrote college Alma Mater: "Ode to Old Union"
• Levi A. Mackey, Union College, 1835. U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania, 20th District, 1875-1879.
• Lewis Henry Morgan, father of American anthropology
• Charles Edward Pearce, Union College, 1861. U.S. Representative from Missouri, 12th District, 1897-1901.
• Rufus Wheeler Peckham (1809-1873), Union College, 1826. U.S. Representative from New York, 14th District, 1853-1855; Justice of the New York Supreme Court, 1861-1869; Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, 1870-1873 (died in office).
• Wheeler Hazard Peckham1833-1905 was an American lawyer from New York and a failed nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States
• Phil Alden Robinson, Film Director and Screenwriter; Field of Dreams, Sneakers, The Sum Of All Fears
• Akin Sawyerr, Co-Founder of Thurston House
• Frederick W. Seward, United States Assistant Secretary of State (1861-1869, 1877-1879)
• William H. Seward, Governor of New York, U.S. Secretary of State, Lincoln and A. Johnson Administration
• Philip Spencer, co-founder of the Chi Psi fraternity, son of John C. Spencer, Secretary of War in U.S. President John Tyler's administration, and midshipman on board the USS Somers, whose hanging without court-martial on-board the USS Somers is believed to have formed the basis for Herman Melville's novella, Billy Budd (Spencer attended but did not graduate from Union College).
• Jonathan R. Spicehandler(1948-2006), President and Chairman of the Schering Plough Research Institute. Dr. Spicehandler is credited with the development of several pharmaceuticals including Claritan, Clarinex, Temador, Rocepherin and Inteferon. He was also a great philanthropist dedicating great deals of time and monies to Union College, Kessler Institute of Rehabilitation and Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke Medical Center.
• Charles Steinmetz, Notable 19th-20th century Electrical Engineer
• John Converse Starkweather, Brigadier General in Civil War, Washington DC lawyer
• Robert Toombs, 19th century Georgia senator; Secretary of State of the Confederacy.
• Mark Walsh, 21st century entrepreneur and venture capitalist
• George Westinghouse, founder of Westinghouse Electric Corporation, studied briefly at Union.
• David A. Viniar, Chief Financial Officer, Goldman Sachs
• Joseph Christopher Yates (1768-1837), founder of Union College, American lawyer, statesman and politician. Yates catapulted himself up the ranks of his day, becoming first the mayor of Schenectady (1798), then a state Senator (1805), followed by a State Supreme Court Justice (1808) and finally the fourth Governor of New York (1823–1824); also the namesake of Yates County, New York.

George Cochrane Hazelton (January 3, 1832 - September 4, 1922) was a United States Representative from Wisconsin

See also

• Union Triad
• Union College Cycling

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