History of Union

About Union College

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A Brief History

Union 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 16 years until, in 1795, Union became the first college chartered by the Regents of the State of New York. The first trustees consciously attempted to bring their new college into the mainstream of their world. The very name, Union, carried echoes of the new national union. More immediately and directly, it recognized the fact that the College was an outgrowth of a new sense of community among the several religious and national groups in the local population. Union’s founders were determined to avoid the narrow sectarianism characteristic of earlier American colleges; today, Union is one of the oldest nondenominational colleges in the country.

Union did not share the heavily classical bias of most colleges of the day. Its motto (“Sous les lois de Minerve nous devenons tous freres,” or “We all become brothers under the laws of Minerva”) is significantly of French rather than Latin origin. Union was among the first to introduce French on an equal level with Greek and Latin. In the 1820s, when the classical curriculum was the most widely accepted field of study, Union introduced a bachelor’s degree with greater emphasis on history, science, modern languages, and mathematics. This liberality of educational vision characterized Union during the early years of the term of Eliphalet Nott, president from 1804 to 1866. Science and technology became important concerns; chemistry was taught before 1809, a degree in scientific studies was added, and in 1845 Union became the first liberal arts college to offer engineering. The College was one of the first to offer work in American history and constitutional government and did pioneer work in the elective system of study.

By about 1830, Union was graduating as many students as any other college in America. Along with Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, it was spoken of as one of the big four. Students came from the South and West as well as the East. Among them were the father of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the grandfather of Winston Churchill, a president of the United States (Chester A. Arthur, Class of 1848), seven cabinet secretaries, 15 United States senators, 91 members of the House of Representatives, 13 governors, 50 important diplomats, more than 200 judges, 40 missionaries, 16 generals, and 90 college presidents, including the first presidents of the University of Illinois, the University of Iowa, the University of Michigan, Vassar College, Smith College, and Elmira College.

Nott’s ingenious schemes for financing higher education, including a statewide lottery, also were instrumental in building Union’s reputation. Innovations under the leadership of Andrew Van Vranken Raymond, president from 1894 to 1907 include the establishment of a Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics, headed by the “electrical wizard” of the General Electric Company, Charles P. Steinmetz. The new department gave impetus to the development of strong programs in science and technology and attracted attention and applications to the College.

The 20th century brought other changes to Union. In 1970, the College adopted co-education and welcomed the first class of two dozen women transfer students. The group celebrated the 35th anniversary of their graduation at ReUnion 2007. Today, roughly half of Union’s students are women. More recently, the College has added programs in Bioengineering, East Asian Studies, Nanotechnology, and Neuroscience.

Perhaps the most dramatic change in student life began in 2004 with the Minervas, created to broaden the educational experience for students, faculty and staff. Every incoming student is assigned to one of seven Minerva Houses, joining upperclass students, faculty and staff in a house affiliation. Each Minerva, with its own budget and governing council, is a center for intellectual and social activity. Union’s fraternities and sororities continue a proud tradition of service. Theme Houses are a popular option for students who seek residential affiliation with others who are committed to themes such as community service, environmental awareness, art, music and language.

The College has done important experimental work in interdepartmental studies, which is reflected in a number of programs that cut across the lines of academic disciplines. Organized interdepartmental majors are offered in numerous areas, and the College has also developed programs that enable students to work toward both a bachelor’s degree and an advanced degree. The General Education Curriculum has received national recognition, and the College has an innovative program of Writing Across the Curriculum. Efforts to renew and enhance the College’s academic programs and curricula continue to be supported by major foundations.

The College Grounds

The Union College campus, officially known as the College Grounds, occupies 100 acres in Schenectady, a city of 60,000 founded by the Dutch in 1661. The Grounds are the College’s third home. In 1813, shortly after the College decided to move to the new location, the French architect and landscape planner Joseph Ramée laid out the new campus — the first unified campus plan in America. He designed a great central court, flanked on three sides by buildings and open to the west, with a round pantheon as the focus of the court.

The distinctive Ramée style, with its arches and pilasters in white, remains the dominant motif in Union College architecture. Recent additions to the campus include the Science-Engineering Center; Achilles Rink; Frank Bailey Field, an all-weather athletic field; the Morton and Helen Yulman Theater; and the F.W. Olin Center, a high-technology classroom and laboratory building. Alumni Gymnasium, the Murray and Ruth Reamer Campus Center, and Schaffer Library have received major renovations and expansion, the historic Nott Memorial has been restored to become a display and discussion center, and a $25 million project revitalized the neighborhood to the immediate west of campus by creating apartment-style housing for 160 students, a community center, and a residence hall for 230 students. The College recently dedicated the Viniar Athletic Center, home of women’s and men’s basketball; the Taylor Music Center, a state-of-the art classroom, rehearsal and performance facility; Breazzano Fitness Center in Alumni Gymnasium; the new Center for Bioengineering and Computational Biology; and Breazzano House, one of the seven Minervas.

North of the central campus lie the eight acres of formal gardens and woodland known as Jackson’s Garden, begun in the 1830s by Captain Isaac Jackson of the Mathematics Department. Through the garden runs Hans Groot’s Kill, the brook that bounds through Union’s Grounds in the College song. A durable local legend, never confirmed by historians, holds that the villagers of Schenectady burned a local maiden at the stake there in 1672, and that the ghost of the dead girl has haunted Jackson’s Garden ever since.

At the center of the Grounds, on the spot designated by Ramée for his pantheon, stands Union’s most unusual building, the distinctive, 16-sided Nott Memorial. Begun in the 1850s and completed in 1875, it has been hailed by architectural historians as an important example of American Victorian architecture and is a National Historic Landmark. Facing the Nott Memorial is Memorial Chapel, built in 1925 as a monument to the Union College graduates who lost their lives in World War I. Along its walls hang portraits of the former presidents of the College.

Also near the center of campus is Schaffer Library, which houses more than 600,000 volumes, 1,600 current periodical subscriptions, together with a periodicals reading room, faculty studies, and more than 500 individual study spaces. It operates on the open stack plan and offers bibliographic instruction, interlibrary loan, online bibliographic retrieval services, electronic document delivery, and Internet workstations for access to indexes, abstracts, and full-text journals online. Automated circulation of books and other library materials as well as the online catalog are in place. The library has been a depository for federal government documents since 1901. Professional reference service is offered during most of the hours that the library is open. Within the library are several of the College’s most prized possessions, including an elephant folio edition of Audubon’s Birds of America, which the College purchased directly from the artist; the original Ramée drawings for the campus; the Trianon editions of William Blake’s works; the first books bought for the library in 1795; and the original College charter.

Flanking the library and connected to it by a curved colonnade are the Humanities and Social Sciences Buildings. The Humanities Building is the home for the Departments of Classics, English, Modern Languages, and Philosophy. In the Social Sciences Building are the Departments of Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, and Sociology. Filling the area in front of the library and between the two classroom buildings is Roger Hull Plaza (named for the former Union president), an open space with benches and flower beds. This campus crossroads was furnished and landscaped in part with gifts from parents of Union College students. It serves as the site for such formal ceremonies as Commencement and for informal meetings and conversation.

The focal point of the Murray and Ruth Reamer Campus Center is a commons area, part of a multi-level atrium looking out over Jackson’s Garden. The building also houses an auditorium, a dining hall and a restaurant, a two-level bookstore, and a variety of office and activity rooms for student organizations such as Concordiensis, the student newspaper; WRUC, the first radio station to offer regularly scheduled broadcasts; The Garnet, the yearbook; the literary magazine, Idol; and the student activities office.

Alumni Gymnasium recently added the Breazzano Fitness Center, made possible by a gift from David Breazzano ’78, a spacious facility with an extensive assortment of equipment for cardio fitness and weight training. The building also has an eight-lane swimming pool with seating and a diving area; racquetball/squash courts; and multi-use rooms for dance, aerobics and yoga programs.

Old Chapel, the former chapel and student meeting hall, is still used for many meetings.

The largest of Union’s buildings, the Science and Engineering Center, is the home of the Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Physics and Psychology. Located here, and available for student use, are such research tools as a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, a Pelletron accelerator, X-ray diffraction equipment, a centrifuge, and a scanning electron microscope capable of examining a surface area 200,000 times smaller than what can be seen with a conventional light microscope.

The nearby F.W. Olin Center’s interactive computerization capabilities make the building adaptable for use by nearly every academic department and student. The Geology Department is located here, and, in addition to a variety of collaborative computer classrooms and laboratories, the center has a multi-media auditorium and a 20-inch, remote-controlled telescope.

The Arts Building is located in North Collonade in the former Philosophical Hall, which held the first analytical chemistry laboratory specifically opened for college students. West of the Arts Building is the new Taylor Music Center, completed in 2007. It includes the Fred L. Emerson Auditorium, a performance and teaching space with state-of-the-art recording technology. Surrounding the performance hall are practice rooms, high-tech classrooms and faculty offices.

The College’s student residences include South College, built in 1814 and renovated in 1936. Its counterpart on the other side of Library Field is North College. Other residence halls are Davidson and Fox Houses; West College, home for many freshmen; Richmond House; Raymond House; Potter House; College Park Hall; and apartments along Seward Place to the west of campus.

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About Union Mission Statement History of Union Office of the President Board of Trustees Presidents of Union College Union Notables Exhibit Traditions of Union What to do AroundU? The Union Campus Great Grads of Union	About Union College Union College archives and special collections Email archives & special collections A Brief History Union 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 16 years until, in 1795, Union became the first college chartered by the Regents of the State of New York. The first trustees consciously attempted to bring their new college into the mainstream of their world. The very name, Union, carried echoes of the new national union. More immediately and directly, it recognized the fact that the College was an outgrowth of a new sense of community among the several religious and national groups in the local population. Union’s founders were determined to avoid the narrow sectarianism characteristic of earlier American colleges; today, Union is one of the oldest nondenominational colleges in the country. Union did not share the heavily classical bias of most colleges of the day. Its motto (“Sous les lois de Minerve nous devenons tous freres,” or “We all become brothers under the laws of Minerva”) is significantly of French rather than Latin origin. Union was among the first to introduce French on an equal level with Greek and Latin. In the 1820s, when the classical curriculum was the most widely accepted field of study, Union introduced a bachelor’s degree with greater emphasis on history, science, modern languages, and mathematics. This liberality of educational vision characterized Union during the early years of the term of Eliphalet Nott, president from 1804 to 1866. Science and technology became important concerns; chemistry was taught before 1809, a degree in scientific studies was added, and in 1845 Union became the first liberal arts college to offer engineering. The College was one of the first to offer work in American history and constitutional government and did pioneer work in the elective system of study. By about 1830, Union was graduating as many students as any other college in America. Along with Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, it was spoken of as one of the big four. Students came from the South and West as well as the East. Among them were the father of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the grandfather of Winston Churchill, a president of the United States (Chester A. Arthur, Class of 1848), seven cabinet secretaries, 15 United States senators, 91 members of the House of Representatives, 13 governors, 50 important diplomats, more than 200 judges, 40 missionaries, 16 generals, and 90 college presidents, including the first presidents of the University of Illinois, the University of Iowa, the University of Michigan, Vassar College, Smith College, and Elmira College. Nott’s ingenious schemes for financing higher education, including a statewide lottery, also were instrumental in building Union’s reputation. Innovations under the leadership of Andrew Van Vranken Raymond, president from 1894 to 1907 include the establishment of a Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics, headed by the “electrical wizard” of the General Electric Company, Charles P. Steinmetz. The new department gave impetus to the development of strong programs in science and technology and attracted attention and applications to the College. The 20th century brought other changes to Union. In 1970, the College adopted co-education and welcomed the first class of two dozen women transfer students. The group celebrated the 35th anniversary of their graduation at ReUnion 2007. Today, roughly half of Union’s students are women. More recently, the College has added programs in Bioengineering, East Asian Studies, Nanotechnology, and Neuroscience. Perhaps the most dramatic change in student life began in 2004 with the Minervas, created to broaden the educational experience for students, faculty and staff. Every incoming student is assigned to one of seven Minerva Houses, joining upperclass students, faculty and staff in a house affiliation. Each Minerva, with its own budget and governing council, is a center for intellectual and social activity. Union’s fraternities and sororities continue a proud tradition of service. Theme Houses are a popular option for students who seek residential affiliation with others who are committed to themes such as community service, environmental awareness, art, music and language. The College has done important experimental work in interdepartmental studies, which is reflected in a number of programs that cut across the lines of academic disciplines. Organized interdepartmental majors are offered in numerous areas, and the College has also developed programs that enable students to work toward both a bachelor’s degree and an advanced degree. The General Education Curriculum has received national recognition, and the College has an innovative program of Writing Across the Curriculum. Efforts to renew and enhance the College’s academic programs and curricula continue to be supported by major foundations. The College Grounds The Union College campus, officially known as the College Grounds, occupies 100 acres in Schenectady, a city of 60,000 founded by the Dutch in 1661. The Grounds are the College’s third home. In 1813, shortly after the College decided to move to the new location, the French architect and landscape planner Joseph Ramée laid out the new campus — the first unified campus plan in America. He designed a great central court, flanked on three sides by buildings and open to the west, with a round pantheon as the focus of the court. The distinctive Ramée style, with its arches and pilasters in white, remains the dominant motif in Union College architecture. Recent additions to the campus include the Science-Engineering Center; Achilles Rink; Frank Bailey Field, an all-weather athletic field; the Morton and Helen Yulman Theater; and the F.W. Olin Center, a high-technology classroom and laboratory building. Alumni Gymnasium, the Murray and Ruth Reamer Campus Center, and Schaffer Library have received major renovations and expansion, the historic Nott Memorial has been restored to become a display and discussion center, and a $25 million project revitalized the neighborhood to the immediate west of campus by creating apartment-style housing for 160 students, a community center, and a residence hall for 230 students. The College recently dedicated the Viniar Athletic Center, home of women’s and men’s basketball; the Taylor Music Center, a state-of-the art classroom, rehearsal and performance facility; Breazzano Fitness Center in Alumni Gymnasium; the new Center for Bioengineering and Computational Biology; and Breazzano House, one of the seven Minervas. North of the central campus lie the eight acres of formal gardens and woodland known as Jackson’s Garden, begun in the 1830s by Captain Isaac Jackson of the Mathematics Department. Through the garden runs Hans Groot’s Kill, the brook that bounds through Union’s Grounds in the College song. A durable local legend, never confirmed by historians, holds that the villagers of Schenectady burned a local maiden at the stake there in 1672, and that the ghost of the dead girl has haunted Jackson’s Garden ever since. At the center of the Grounds, on the spot designated by Ramée for his pantheon, stands Union’s most unusual building, the distinctive, 16-sided Nott Memorial. Begun in the 1850s and completed in 1875, it has been hailed by architectural historians as an important example of American Victorian architecture and is a National Historic Landmark. Facing the Nott Memorial is Memorial Chapel, built in 1925 as a monument to the Union College graduates who lost their lives in World War I. Along its walls hang portraits of the former presidents of the College. Also near the center of campus is Schaffer Library, which houses more than 600,000 volumes, 1,600 current periodical subscriptions, together with a periodicals reading room, faculty studies, and more than 500 individual study spaces. It operates on the open stack plan and offers bibliographic instruction, interlibrary loan, online bibliographic retrieval services, electronic document delivery, and Internet workstations for access to indexes, abstracts, and full-text journals online. Automated circulation of books and other library materials as well as the online catalog are in place. The library has been a depository for federal government documents since 1901. Professional reference service is offered during most of the hours that the library is open. Within the library are several of the College’s most prized possessions, including an elephant folio edition of Audubon’s Birds of America, which the College purchased directly from the artist; the original Ramée drawings for the campus; the Trianon editions of William Blake’s works; the first books bought for the library in 1795; and the original College charter. Flanking the library and connected to it by a curved colonnade are the Humanities and Social Sciences Buildings. The Humanities Building is the home for the Departments of Classics, English, Modern Languages, and Philosophy. In the Social Sciences Building are the Departments of Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, and Sociology. Filling the area in front of the library and between the two classroom buildings is Roger Hull Plaza (named for the former Union president), an open space with benches and flower beds. This campus crossroads was furnished and landscaped in part with gifts from parents of Union College students. It serves as the site for such formal ceremonies as Commencement and for informal meetings and conversation. The focal point of the Murray and Ruth Reamer Campus Center is a commons area, part of a multi-level atrium looking out over Jackson’s Garden. The building also houses an auditorium, a dining hall and a restaurant, a two-level bookstore, and a variety of office and activity rooms for student organizations such as Concordiensis, the student newspaper; WRUC, the first radio station to offer regularly scheduled broadcasts; The Garnet, the yearbook; the literary magazine, Idol; and the student activities office. Alumni Gymnasium recently added the Breazzano Fitness Center, made possible by a gift from David Breazzano ’78, a spacious facility with an extensive assortment of equipment for cardio fitness and weight training. The building also has an eight-lane swimming pool with seating and a diving area; racquetball/squash courts; and multi-use rooms for dance, aerobics and yoga programs. Old Chapel, the former chapel and student meeting hall, is still used for many meetings. The largest of Union’s buildings, the Science and Engineering Center, is the home of the Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Physics and Psychology. Located here, and available for student use, are such research tools as a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, a Pelletron accelerator, X-ray diffraction equipment, a centrifuge, and a scanning electron microscope capable of examining a surface area 200,000 times smaller than what can be seen with a conventional light microscope. The nearby F.W. Olin Center’s interactive computerization capabilities make the building adaptable for use by nearly every academic department and student. The Geology Department is located here, and, in addition to a variety of collaborative computer classrooms and laboratories, the center has a multi-media auditorium and a 20-inch, remote-controlled telescope. The Arts Building is located in North Collonade in the former Philosophical Hall, which held the first analytical chemistry laboratory specifically opened for college students. West of the Arts Building is the new Taylor Music Center, completed in 2007. It includes the Fred L. Emerson Auditorium, a performance and teaching space with state-of-the-art recording technology. Surrounding the performance hall are practice rooms, high-tech classrooms and faculty offices. The College’s student residences include South College, built in 1814 and renovated in 1936. Its counterpart on the other side of Library Field is North College. Other residence halls are Davidson and Fox Houses; West College, home for many freshmen; Richmond House; Raymond House; Potter House; College Park Hall; and apartments along Seward Place to the west of campus.
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