BURTON SACKS, a consummate Board of Education insider who retired last week after 33 years, has a new boss: RANDI WEINGARTEN, president of the United Federation of Teachers. Mr. Sacks, a liaison to the community school districts and a troubleshooter for five chancellors, will be a senior adviser to Ms. Weingarten, doing the same kind of crisis control he was known for in the New York City public schools system. Education officials said Mr. Sacks would be a valuable addition to the union's staff because he is well connected and is an expert at easing tensions. ÿHe's another set of antennae for Randi,ÿ one official said.þAbby GoodnoughþþAlumnus Gives Union College $20 MillionþþUnion College in Schenectady has received $20 million from JOHN WOLD, a 1938 graduate, and his wife, JANE. The gift is Union's largest, surpassing a $9 million donation from the F. W. Olin Foundation in 1996 for a classroom and laboratory building. Mr. Wold, 86, is a former United States representative from Wyoming, a geologist and the president of the Wold Minerals Company in Casper, Wyo., and other energy-mineral-development companies. He is a former trustee of Union College, where his father, PETER WOLD, led the physics department from 1919 to 1945. With part of the gift, the college will create Wold House, one of seven houses on campus that are being built in an effort to reduce the traditional dominance of fraternities and sororities on campus. The money will also support scholarships, a professorship in religious studies and scientific and technical equipment.þþTown School Names a New LeaderþþThe Town School, a private school on the Upper East Side for children from preschool to eighth grade, has appointed CHRISTOPHER MARBLO, 42, as its new head of school. He will take over on July 1, 2003, from JOYCE GREGORY EVANS, who is retiring after 10 years. Mr. Marblo has worked as an educator for 18 years and is head of the Kent School in Chestertown, Md.þþ Lia MillerþþProfessor Wins Engineering AwardþþGEORGE MYLONAKIS, 34, a professor of civil engineering at City College, has won the 2002 Shamsher Prakash Research Award for young researchers in geotechnical engineering and geotechnical earthquake engineering. He is the youngest person to win the award, which includes a cash prize of $1,100. Professor Mylonakis is a 1993 graduate of the National Technical University of Athens, and he received his doctorate in 1995 from the State University of New York at Buffalo.þþGroup Seeks Minority Graduate StudentsþþThree upstate New York universities have formed an alliance with the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez to enroll more minority students in graduate programs and to produce more minority professors. The alliance, which involves Cornell University in Ithaca, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy and Syracuse University, is supported by a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The universities will jointly recruit graduate students from predominantly minority colleges, offer summer programs for prospective graduate students and offer multiyear aid packages to minority students interested in science, mathematics and engineering. The goal is to recruit 75 to 100 doctoral candidates in science, mathematics and engineering annually to each of the four universities, starting next fall. þþþ
Source: NY Times
