One of the weird features of the trimester calendar that Union runs on is that we get a six-week break between the Fall and Winter terms– classes end before Thanksgiving, and resume after New Year’s. This is neither as restful nor as useful as you might naively expect, but that’s not the point of this post.
Some of our students do manage to make good use of the long break, most notably a group who are in New Orleans helping with the continuing volunteer clean-up effort in the areas devastated by Hurricaine Katrina. The Albany paper has set up a special section covering their trip, including some journal entries written by one of our physics majors (one, two, three). Those links will probably disappear behind a paywall pretty quickly (the Times Union has a really short window), but I do want to acknowledge their efforts with a link, at least.
What a great thing they are doing. Glad to know people haven’t forgotten and are still working to fix what went so terribly wrong. If only those who wield power in this country would do the same.