Autumn Scene 2009

scene Autumn 2009

News and views for the Colgate community

Gifts of Life, Lessons Learned Shooting Beauty Growing Pains

scene

Autumn 2009

24 Gifts of Life, Lessons Learned

Members of the Class of 2013 shared profound thoughts in their admission essays

30 Shooting Beauty

Courtney Bent ’93 found a way to explore the world of the disabled through their own eyes

36 Growing Pains

Albert A. Bartlett ’44 says society’s mantra of “growth is good” will catch up with us sooner than we think — exponentially

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Message from Chris Clifford ’67, Chair, Board of Trustees

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Letters

6

Work & Play

13

Colgate history, tradition, and spirit

14

Life of the Mind

18

Arts & Culture

20

Go ’gate

22

New, Noted & Quoted

42

The Big Picture

44

Stay Connected

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Class News 77 Marriages & Unions 78 Births & Adoptions 78 In Memoriam

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Salmagundi

DEPARTMENTS

On the cover: Go, ’gate! Colgate’s cheer team roots for football and basketball, and this year has attended field hockey, volleyball, and men’s and women’s soccer games. Facing page: Sunset silhouette of James B. Colgate Hall. Both photos by Andrew Daddio

News and views for the Colgate community

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scene team

Contributors

University of Colorado

Volume XXXIX Number 1 The Scene is published by Colgate University four times a year — in autumn, winter, spring, and summer. The Scene is circulated without charge to alumni, parents, friends, and students.

Freelance illustrator Dan Hubig (“Gifts of Life, Lessons Learned,” pg. 24) is a former San Francisco Chronicle staff artist, art director, and illustration teacher at California College of Arts and Crafts and the Academy of Art College. He has won awards from Communication Arts, Print Magazine, and The Society of Newspaper Design. A collection of his work was included in Illustrator Masters.

Raised by a fashion editor and retail buyer, Courtney Bent ’93 (“Shooting Beauty,” pg.

30) was drawn toward fashion photography, yet she felt like an outsider in that world.

But when she crossed paths with a group who also often find themselves as outsiders, together they, and her filmmaker husband George Kachadorian, broke through barriers — and told their story in an award-winning documentary.

When we heard Albert Allen Bartlett ’44 (“Growing Pains,” pg. 36) deliver his talk, “Why Scientists Succumbed to Political Correctness: Arithmetic, Population, and Energy” at Reunion 2009, we knew we wanted to share his message with a broader Colgate audience. You’ll never look at a percentage sign the same way again.

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scene online

Listen

Colgate Conversations: www.colgate.edu/podcasts G. Bruce Knecht ’80, author and former Wall Street Journal reporter, talks about the problems confronting the newspaper industry. He also discusses his two books that reflect his passion for sailing and that have garnered widespread praise.

Watch

Living Writers: www.colgate.edu/livingwriters You are invited to participate in the Living Writers course, which is bringing 10 top authors to campus this fall. You can watch live webcasts of their public readings and use an interactive chat feature to engage with other alumni.

Get connected

Online Community: www.colgatealumni.org Your class page has the latest news and an RSS feed highlighting classmates who are mentioned in the media. Log on and learn about your class!

Illustrator Linda Davick (“Growing Pains,” pg. 36) also designs websites and is a Flash animator. Among her clients are Amazon.com, Nick Jr., Little Brown, Random House, and Sesame Street. Her first illustrated book, 10 Trick-or-Treaters, was a bestseller on the Independent Bookseller’s List. She has been published in Communication Arts and Print Magazine.

Look

Photo Galleries: www.colgate.edu/photos The university’s first-ever Diversity Week included a wide range of intellectual discussions, workshops, lectures, and a community festival held in the village of Hamilton.

Talk

Story discussion: www.colgatealumni.org/scene In the online edition of the Scene, each feature story includes an easy way to share your thoughts and comments with other alumni. Take part in the conversation!

Vice President for Public Relations and Communications Charles Melichar Managing Editor Rebecca Costello Associate Editor Aleta Mayne Director of Publications Gerald Gall Coordinator of Photographic Services Andrew Daddio Production Assistant Kathy Bridge

Contributing writers and designers: Director of Web Content Timothy O’Keeffe Art Director Karen Luciani Designer Jennifer Kirsteins Assistant Director of Athletic Communications John Gilger Director of Marketing and Public Relations Barbara Brooks Senior Advancement Writer Mark Walden Manager of Media Communications Anthony Adornato

Contact: scene@colgate.edu 315-228-7417 www.colgatealumni.org/scene

Printed and mailed from Lane Press in South Burlington, Vt. If you’re moving... Please clip the address label and send with your new address to: Alumni Records Clerk, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346-1398, call 315-228-7453, or e-mail alumnirecords@colgate.edu.

Opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by the university, the publishers, or the editors.

Notice of Non-Discrimination: Colgate University does not discriminate in its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, citizenship status, sex, pregnancy, religion, creed, physical or mental disability (including AIDS), age, marital status, sexual orientation, status as a disabled veteran of the Vietnam era, or any other category protected under applicable law. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the university’s nondiscrimination policies: Keenan Grenell, Vice President and Dean for Diversity, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346; 315-228-6161.

10%

Cert no. SW-COC-00255 6

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scene: Autumn 2009

Message from Chris Clifford ’67, Chair, Board of Trustees

Among my highest priorities

as board chair is enhancement

of alumni engagement with the university. I believe the institution benefits from substantive interaction with alumni, and that what Colgate offered all of us as 20-year-olds is equally important and compelling at other stages of our lives.

Andrew Daddio

Over the past two years, I have attended events on campus and across the country and communicated with alumni about topics ranging from the search for our 16th president, to the university’s handling of the economic crisis, to rising costs and financial aid. In many of these conversations, I have found that there is a gap in understanding about who is on Colgate’s Board of Trustees, what we do, and how we do it. I would like to provide some context about the board and invite your feedback on how we can better engage alumni in the life of the university.

First, it is important to understand the board’s primary responsibility: stewardship of the university. Perhaps our most comfortable role is that of fiduciary, and to maintain a practice of accountability. Annual evaluation of the president and senior staff, approval of the budget, capital improvement reviews, and promotion of fundraising efforts are just a few of the duties performed by the board in this role.

Beyond legal compliance and financial management, the board shares responsibility with the faculty and administration for shaping Colgate’s future.

The most astutely managed physical plant and endowment are meaningless without a strategic vision for how to best employ those resources for the common good.

Colgate’s board comprises 30 alumni (about 90 percent), three parents of students, and the university president. Six are “alumni trustees” —

members of the Alumni Council who provide council perspective and facilitate communication between the two groups. Two other current trustees originally joined the board as alumni trustees. Additionally, the Alumni Council president sits with the board in a non-voting capacity.

Most importantly, every member’s aim is to help Colgate achieve its mission of offering a top-notch liberal arts education and to advance knowledge and understanding of the world. This is done in an environment that values fact-based decision making, solicits alternative points of view, and discourages the political or ideological — and that demands that trustees act in the best interests of the university, not any single constituency. Over the past 10 years, 40 alumni have been elected to our board. These individuals represent almost every facet of Colgate life, as well as diverse experiences after graduation.

Recent discussion and debate about the board are, I believe, less about alumni representation than how people are selected for board service.

Over the course of any given three-year period, about one-third of the membership turns over due to term limits. This keeps the board fresh and ensures a diversity of perspectives and opinions. It also means that the nominating committee is constantly looking for new candidates. Nominations for board membership are always welcome and can be submitted by anyone.

Typically, those nominated are evaluated over a period of time for relevant experience and service.

The board seeks candidates who bring a deep commitment to Colgate and expertise in an important area of need, such as education, public service, management, finance, construction, or legal affairs. The board approaches its work via a committee structure, with each trustee typically serving on two or more committees. The full board has four regular meetings each year (usually on campus). Formative committee work is done in separate meetings; some committees, such as Endowment Management and Finance or Capital Assets, meet as frequently as 12 to 15 times a year.

Colgate’s model of governance, which undergoes regular internal and external review, has served the university well. Our founders determined in 1819, at a point when popular democracy was at a peak, that a self-selecting board was the best way to ensure strong, effective governance.

In re-accrediting Colgate in 2008, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education studied our practices and said that the university has a “welldefined, formalized governance structure” and “has assembled an effective Board of Trustees who value the rich legacy of the university and who are deeply devoted to its ongoing commitment to excellence.” The report went on to say that the board is “passionate about the mission of Colgate and committed to strong fiduciary oversight and philanthropic support” and commended the university’s leadership at all levels, but particularly the president and the board, for achieving a high level of institutional health.

While our current model creates a strong and effective Board of Trustees, we are always open to constructive recommendations on governance practice. I invite you to visit the board’s website (www.colgate.edu/trustees) to learn more or to submit a nomination. In addition, you can learn more about the Alumni Council at www.colgatealumni.org/alumnicouncil. I hope you will also attend events where you can meet trustees and others working to move Colgate forward, and I invite you to engage in dialogue about our university’s future. To reach me directly, e-mail jcclifford@colgate.edu.

News and views for the Colgate community

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Letters

scene

Great summer issue The new issue: Wow! I am really impressed, as I am sure many other alums are. You can be really proud!

Thanks for such a nice job.

Summer 2009

News and views for the Colgate community

Chip Carlson ’59 Cheyenne, Wyo.

Responses to “A Writer and His Image”

Set Our Feet on Lofty Places 88 Days A Writer and His Image

The Scene welcomes letters. We reserve the right to decide whether a letter is acceptable for publication and to edit for accuracy, clarity, and length. Letters deemed potentially libelous or that malign a person or group will not be published.

Letters should not exceed 250 words. You can reach us by mail, or e-mail sceneletters @colgate.edu. Please include your full name, class year if applicable, address, phone number, and/or e-mail address. If we receive many letters on a given topic, we will print a representative sample of the opinions expressed. On occasion, we may run additional letters online.

As one who teaches G.B. Shaw regularly, I very much enjoyed the article on Shaw (Scene, Summer 2009), and I plan to drive down to Colgate late in October to see the exhibit. Also, it was a delightful surprise to see the list of Shaw productions put on at Colgate over the years. In Russell Speirs’s 1954 production of Candida, performed in-the-round in the chapel basement, I played the insensitive, supercilious Reverend Morell. An attractive, young faculty wife played the heroine, Mrs. Candida Morell, and a handsome undergrad played the young poet whose love for the older, married Candida goes unrequited. (By the way, later on, Russ cast me as Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night with my friend George Economou ’56 as Sir Toby Belch.)

Atlee had a particular affinity for the Shavian style and a wonderful flair for directing high comedy in general. He also directed a marvelous production of The Rivals by R.B. Sheridan during my time at Colgate, with Molly Ramshaw as a delightful Mrs. Malaprop.

Thanks again for the very special connection to Colgate that the Scene continues to provide.

The leading female role went to Molly Ramshaw, whose husband, Warren, taught sociology.

Having taken over drama at Colgate in 1960, the year before I arrived on campus, Atlee Sproul succeeded Russell Speirs (“Rusty” to us), who continued to teach English. Both were exceptionally talented professors back in the antediluvian days before Colgate was coed.

Richard Mogavero ’64 Esopus, N.Y.

Garner Simmons ’65 Woodland Hills, Calif.

Correction: On page 41 of the Shaw article, Sir Robert Ho Tung is misidentified: he was the grandfather of Robert H.N. Ho ’56.

On Newt Gingrich lecture

Sandy Sternlicht MA’55 Syracuse, N.Y. Thanks for the excellent article on G.B. Shaw and his connection to Colgate.

There are some errors in the listing of directing credits for productions of Shaw at Colgate. The three produced in the 1960s were all directed by Atlee Sproul, not Russell Speirs. I particularly remember The Shewing Up of Blanco Posnet because it was Atlee’s first production at Colgate, and I was a very enthusiastic freshman at the time, playing a small part and working as his assistant. We were both new to the Chenango Valley. For my efforts, the next year I was awarded the juicy role of General Burgoyne in The Devil’s Disciple.

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scene: Autumn 2009

Having just read your wonderful piece on George Bernard Shaw and his “connection” to Colgate, I wanted to write to say thanks. The only minor correction I would make is that Atlee Sproul directed the 1961 production of The Devil’s Disciple as well as the 1964 rendition of Arms and The Man, not Russell Speirs. I appeared in a minor role in Devil’s Disciple as one of General Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne’s officers — Charley Veley ’65 and Hugh Foster ’65 played the other two. Dick Mogavero ’64 delivered a hilarious Gentleman Johnny, and Randy Will ’65 played the Rev. Anthony Anderson.

If memory serves, Newt Gingrich referred to Judge Sonia Sotomayor as a “Latina woman racist” and actively propagated the notion that proposed health care reforms would permit government bureaucrats to “pull the plug on grandma.”

I strongly endorse the notion of persons of all political persuasions engaging with Colgate students. But I must admit to some puzzlement by the characterization offered by political science professor Robert Kraynak that Gingrich was “the best person in America today” to lead a respectful but critical discussion of “whether

that [Obama] administration is leading us in the right direction or the wrong direction and whether America is heading for prosperity or decline.”

devoid of facts, it will not stick, and therefore, is not fit to be consumed by informed alumni who want the best for Colgate.

John G. Stewart ’57 Knoxville, Tenn.

Gordon Porter Miller ’56 Orford, N.H.

On “A Better Colgate”

What they’re saying online

I’m in full agreement with Larry Scharbach ’56 taking the A Better Colgate (ABC) group to task (Letters, Spring 2009). I have been active at Colgate over the last three decades, working on the Alumni Council, chairing committees, conducting workshops with departments to generate ideas and future plans, serving as class gift chair, and counseling students about career decisions. All of these efforts, along with family connections (my three children and their spouses are also alumni), have provided me with unique insights as to what Colgate has been and what it has become. The progress made since my graduation has been remarkable in terms of facilities, course offerings, faculty quality, student qualifications and diversity, and administrative leadership.

The misinformation and specious attacks generated by the ABC group are insulting to informed alumni, and they do nothing to contribute to a better Colgate. Early on, this group purported to be the purveyors of truth about Colgate. Unfortunately, their definition of “truth” has amounted to distorted and unfounded charges repeatedly corrected by the university, only to be revisited. I doubt ABC supporters could pass a simple true-false test about the accuracy of their assertions.

While I’m not clear about this group’s real agenda, I do have a sense of their strategy. They appear to be replicating the tried-and-true method of determining if spaghetti is fit for consumption by throwing it against the wall until it sticks. However, since ABC’s “spaghetti” is information

diet, though. Your youth was on your side! You might want to check out www.livelyhealth.com for some concentrated stuff that’s totally science-based, including doubleblind placebo-controlled studies on extreme athletes. In training and on actual future expeditions, it will help to prevent some of the distress you experienced on your long row.

Beth Genly ’77, RN Posted to “88 Days” at www.colgate alumni.org/scene

On Colgate’s Facebook page: Responding to a wall post about Mark Patinkin’s Aug. 22 reminiscence of a 1975 Bruce Springsteen concert at Colgate (Providence Journal online):

About Paul Ridley’s Row for Hope saga Paul, My name is Holli Hadlock and I work in the mail center at Colgate.

Your journey means a lot to me because my daughter was 7 years old when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. That will be three years ago on April 13. She is doing very well now.

The cancer that she had is becoming more frequent in children and they are doing research on why. Your journey must have been long and hard, but nowhere near as long or as hard as the journey that you go through with cancer. Cancer is something that the family goes through as a whole. I just want to thank you and your sister for such noble work.

Thanks, Holli Hadlock Posted to www.colgate.edu Congratulations! What an amazing, amazing achievement! Your endurance and perseverance and faith are extraordinary. I am astonished you were able to do it on such a terrible

Steve Kunzman ’77 I was there, and it was a great show, although, just to correct an insignificant point in the article, the concert was in the hockey rink . . . There were also other amazing shows in the ’70s: Fleetwood Mac, Roger McGuinn, Procol Harum, Return to Forever, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal,

John Sebastian, Deodato, the Dead (unfortunately after I graduated, but available on CD), Freddie Hubbard, Santana, and others I can’t recall . . .

Now to get some 529 money to pay this year’s tuition for my daughter, who will be living in Cutten.

Nina Martin Brackeen ’78 I was there.

Bruce is on the cover of AARP mag this month — still the Boss.

Walter Steinmann ’79: It was Friday, April 9, 1976, at 9:00 p.m.

Reid Athletic Center $5.00 in advance with Colgate ID $7.00 at the door I still have the poster.

Does anyone remember Fleetwood Mac in Oct. 1975 or Billy Joel or the Grateful Dead? You can thank Steve Steigerwald ’78 for those great concerts.

Editor’s note In June, more than 1,500 readers shared their feedback on the Colgate Scene through an online survey administered by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. A sincere thanks to all who took the time to respond.

Some highlights: • 93% read all or most issues of the Scene • 92% said the Scene strengthens their personal connection to the university • Photography came out tops in questions about quality • A number of people indicated a desire for the Scene to be more environmentally friendly, such as offering an opt-out solution on the mailing list for those who wish to read it online.

We are poring over the compiled results, thoughtful comments, suggestions, and constructive criticism, and will be taking the feedback into account in our future planning. Stay tuned for more information!

News and views for the Colgate community

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work & play 6

Campus scrapbook

B

A

A

From old-school classics like Scrabble to newcomers like Rock Band, The Game’s Afoot club advertised their love of play in order to attract new members at the Student Involvement Fair.

B

Astronomy students in Professor Tom Balonek’s class adjust the telescope in the Observatory.

C

Monarch butterflies were released in memory of loved ones during a celebration sponsored by the Hospice and Palliative Care Development Council of Madison County.

D

The towering trees and soft green grass on the Quad served as an inspirational classroom on one of the first days of class.

E

Geology majors Seghan MacDonald ’10 and Christian Rathkopf ’10 finesse the fluxy fluxer machine (yes, that’s what it’s really called!), which melts soil and crushed rock into a glasslike disc in preparation for X-ray analysis.

F

Students were eggstatic at the Konosioni Field Day, in which residence halls competed against each other for prizes and bragging rights.

Photos by Andrew Daddio

scene: Autumn 2009

C

D

E

F

News and views for the Colgate community

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work & play

Yellow Ribbon secures tuition for veterans

Karl Fries ’10 (left) and Will Scheider ’11, members of the Colgate chapter of Theta Chi, accept the Howard R. Alter Jr. Award for Chapter Excellence.

Qualified military veterans can now attend Colgate tuition free, thanks to an agreement between the university and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The university is participating in the new Yellow Ribbon Program, a component of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which makes earning a college degree more affordable for veterans.

“Colgate is committed to helping those who have so selflessly and bravely served our country,” said Lyle Roelofs, interim president. “The university’s involvement in the Yellow Ribbon Program will allow veterans to achieve their educational and career goals without having to worry about the financial burden.”

Currently, the VA pays up to the most expensive tuition at an in-state public institution; however, that’s not enough to cover the cost of many private colleges that veterans may wish to attend. Under the Yellow Ribbon Program, which took effect in August, Colgate will contribute 50 percent of the difference, and the VA will match that amount. In addition, the GI Bill covers the cost of housing, books, and supplies.

To qualify, veterans need to have served for three years on active duty after Sept. 10, 2001, or for at least 30 continuous days before being discharged for service-related injuries.

“Colgate’s participation will be a win-win situation for veterans as well

as the Colgate community,” said Gary Ross, dean of admission. “Their life experiences and unique perspectives that they bring to campus will enrich the learning experience for all of us.”

Colgate earns top spot in salary study

A Colgate education can make a significant difference not only in graduates’ starting pay, but also in salary potential throughout their careers, according to the 2009 College Salary Report.

The study released in July by PayScale, an online site that collects data on salaries for different professions, reveals which colleges offer the best return on investment. Among liberal arts schools, Colgate took the No. 1 spot for salary potential, with alumni earning a mid-career median income of $122,000.

Colgate came in seventh overall, ahead of several Ivy League schools, including Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, the PayScale study shows that graduates of small liberal arts colleges such as Colgate experience the largest increase from starting to mid-career salary. The study surveyed colleges based on the average salary of alumni who have approximately 15 years of work experience.

“Our 2009 report shows that a degree from the right college or university in the right major can have huge and lasting benefits,” said Al Lee, director of quantitative analysis at PayScale. “This is especially important to remember today, when economic fundamentals are so weak and job prospects are so uncertain.”

Theta Chi receives award for excellence

The Colgate chapter of Theta Chi received the fraternity’s highest award in July, being recognized for everything from its successful philanthropic efforts to its robust membership.

The Howard R. Alter Jr. Award for Chapter Excellence followed university recognition as the most outstanding fraternity on campus for the past year.

“We are a multidimensional organization that works hard to emphasize more than just the social aspects of a fraternity,” said Karl Fries ’10, chapter president.

Chapter vice president Michael Carini ’10 cited some of their fundraising efforts, such as collecting $2,300

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scene: Autumn 2009

Views from the hill What are you reading for pleasure?

“You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train by Howard Zinn. The book is autobiographical, reflecting on his involvement in the Civil Rights movement while he taught at Spelman College and later in the Vietnam War protest efforts. It serves as real-life inspiration to live according to one’s standards for the world. The title says it all: the world is going in a certain direction and you have to take a stance because by doing nothing, you’re contributing in some way, good or bad.”

— Hilary McConnaughey ’11, political science and sociology major “I just finished reading Hero by Perry Moore, who came here to speak for Big Gay Weekend.

Otherwise, I read more of Diderot than I should have for a class. I guess that was for pleasure.”

— Ben Pollack ’11, Mandarin Chinese major “In the Woods by Hannah French.

It’s a detective story, and I’m reading it a little bit at a time. I like reading mystery novels — always have since I was little. This is a top-selling novel and was recommended by a woman at the bookstore. It’s a thrill to read; you get invested in it pretty fast.”

— Peter Burchfield ’10, economics major, political science minor

during an event for Row for Hope, a nonprofit organization created by Theta Chi member Paul Ridley ’05, who rowed across the Atlantic Ocean to raise awareness and funds for cancer research.

Theta Chi also partnered on fundraisers and events with Sidekicks, Democracy Matters, Brothers, and other Greek-letter organizations on campus. “We’re looking to expand our collaboration efforts,” said Carini. “We think we can help build bridges across campus.” The fraternity has taken over operation of the Green Bikes program, a Green Summit initiative that makes bicycles available to students in an effort to reduce car emissions and improve the environment. Fries, who is active in the Outdoor Education Program, points out that Theta Chi members are involved in other organizations across campus such as the Center for Outreach, Volunteerism, and Education, which helps them have a wider role on campus.

Shoo, flu!

As schools around the country combat flu season and the novel H1N1 virus, Colgate is emphasizing the importance of good health practices to prevent the spread of flu.

Colorful informational posters and hand sanitizing stations have been hung across campus, particularly in high-traffic areas such as dining halls and the libraries; bottles of hand sanitizer were distributed to residence hall staff and offices across campus. Also, a number of students, faculty, and staff have left their fear of needles at the door, taking advantage of the flu shot clinics held across campus throughout the fall semester. For those who become ill, antiviral medication, masks, and isolation areas are available.

“We continue to work closely with the Madison County Health Department to monitor flu conditions and make decisions about the best steps to take concerning our institution,” Vice President and Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson wrote in an e-mail to the Colgate community.

For more information, visit http:// www.colgate.edu/healthalert.

Taking steps toward cost savings through New York Six

Colgate has joined forces with five other upstate New York liberal arts colleges to explore potential costsaving measures and to share best practices in areas such as student life and staff development. Besides Colgate, the New York Six consortium consists of Hamilton College (Clinton); St. Lawrence University (Canton); Hobart and William Smith Colleges (Geneva); Skidmore College (Saratoga Springs); and Union College (Schenectady).

Officials hope there will be cost advantages in joining together to procure the goods and services necessary to operate a residential undergraduate college. They also see opportunities for collaboration in educational support, student life activities, and sustainability initiatives.

The consortium is funded through a one-year planning grant of $100,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. A project manager will work in consultation with administrators and others on each campus. The New York Six will focus on six broad areas: • Harnessing technology to allow for greater collaboration in all areas, with emphasis on shared human resources, high-end computing collaboration, and advanced computer infrastructure.

• Goods and services acquisition, including benchmarking, joint purchasing, and risk management.

• Promoting sustainable institutional environments, including recycling operations and alternative energy supplies.

• Student engagement, including wellness programming, alcohol and substance abuse intervention strategies, responses to differential learning styles, and collaboration among teaching and learning centers.

• Shaping workforces, including faculty development, staff development, and preparation of future academic leaders.

• Fostering intercultural literacy to ensure that students are prepared to live in a global and diverse world.

Colgate already has in place a campus-based task force that has been investigating options for a strategic realignment of the university’s operating budget. The Economic Environment Working Group (EEG) was formed as a result of the national economic downturn and investment

Back on campus Finding fellowship in Taiwan In September, Jillian Ferris ’08 returned to campus to share her experience as a Fulbright scholar teaching English in Taiwan for a year. She described the highlights of her teaching assistantship and dispensed advice to students considering applying for a Fulbright scholarship.

“As far as applying, put yourself out there, because it doesn’t cost you anything,” Ferris urged. “It might cost you a couple hours and some research, but any research gives you the chance to learn more, so do it.”

When she learned of her acceptance into the highly selective Fulbright program, Ferris was torn between Taiwan and graduate school,

losses sustained by the university’s endowment since the summer of 2008. The EEG has been meeting with members of the Colgate community to gather suggestions and studying actions being taken at other institutions.

“We are working to maintain Colgate’s academic quality while reducing costs,” said David Hale ’84, vice president for administration and finance at the university.

Colgate community thrives under pressure

Last fiscal year, in the face of economic uncertainty, alumni, parents, and friends put new meaning behind the phrase “Colgate community.” Between June 1, 2008, and May 31, 2009, they gave $10.5 million to the Colgate

but she decided to put school on hold for a year. “I realized that this is one of those opportunities that you only get once, maybe twice, and you have to take them.”

Another tip Ferris shared about the application process was to consider not only what students can offer the program, but also what they want to get out of the experience. “This is a student program, so ask, ‘What do I want to learn?’” she suggested.

The audience received a glimpse into Ferris’s year in Taiwan when she presented a slideshow of her photos of the place that she calls “a strangely beautiful country.” Ferris made the most of her experience outside of teaching 20 classes per week. She was part of a dragon boat team, took Chinese classes, volunteered, and interacted with students and colleagues outside of the classroom.

“Some of my favorite times were seeing the kids outside of the English classroom, which is such a limited part of who they are, and building relationships with the other teachers — being a part of the larger school community,” she said.

Ferris was brought back to campus by the Office of National Fellowships and Scholarships, which invites alumni back every year to share their fellowship experiences.

Annual Fund, the third-largest total in university history. More than half of those dollars were unrestricted and will be used wherever the need is greatest. Non-alumni parents increased their unrestricted giving by 55 percent to $1.27 million.

Planned gifts, through life income arrangements, estate provisions, and IRA charitable rollover gifts, provided $22.2 million; the Class of 2009 tied the all-time Senior Class Gift participation record of 94 percent, unlocking additional challenge dollars that will benefit their Donovan’s Pub endowment fund. All told, 12,052 solicitable alumni invested in the university throughout Fiscal Year 2009, holding the line on participation at 46 percent.

“During our fall drive and our spring challenges, every gift made a

News and views for the Colgate community

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Accolades for Colgate communications

34,320 total living 25 with the first, middle, or last name Hamilton 1928 class year of the oldest living alumnus

Colgate’s viewbook has won the 2009 Circle of Excellence silver medal, awarded by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). The viewbook is the primary publication in the suite of materials that Colgate uses to recruit prospective students and market the university. More than 2,800 entries were submitted from institutions in 13 different countries.

Also, Colgate University photographer Andrew Daddio received three awards at the 2009 University Photographers Association of America Print and Publications Competition, including first place in the general publications category for the Scene. Additionally, he received second place in the personal vision category as well as the Annual Fuji New Approach Award.

The competition was open to association members from universities and colleges across the United States and several international members.

(Frederick Hildner ’28)

5 most siblings who graduated from Colgate.

The Langan family: Terry ’78, Tim ’79, John ’84, Maria ’88, and Mike ’92

63 “chips” (alumni children) in the Class of 1959 — the most in one class

1,962 Colgate couples 2 live in Guam, the area of the world least populated by Colgate alumni

16,048 miles traveled from Southbank,

Australia, to Hamilton, N.Y., for Reunion 2009 by the farthest-traveled alumnus (William Higbie ’84)

The sounds of summer

As a quiet settled on campus when most students left for the summer, new programming on WRCU’s airwaves filled the silence. From Mark and Vinny’s Summer Funky Hour to Democracy Matters, a variety of new broadcasts tickled eardrums in

Andrew Daddio

work & play

The traditional greeting for first-year students and their families on arrival day

difference,” said Annual Fund chair Geoffrey Gold ’86. “So we send special thanks to everyone who participated, whether they gave $13, $1,300, or even more. Building on this base, we have high aspirations for 2010.”

While enjoying the impact of alumni engagement, Colgate returned the favor. When markets slumped last September, the university leveraged its career services, alumni programming, and continuing education resources on behalf of graduates.

Colgate also invited the community to join in a series of conversations on the future of the institution as the university implements significant cost-saving measures, embarks on a presidential search, eyes the completion of its fundraising campaign, and focuses on remaining priorities in its strategic plan.

As a result, alumni from coast to coast enjoyed presidential roundtables and town hall meetings, networking receptions, faculty lectures, and hundreds of club events. The university hosted its third Global Leaders Lecture, sponsored by the Parents’ and Grandparents’ Fund, featuring former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

It sponsored a fourth Presidents’ Club auction as well as CEO Conversations with alumni like Green Bay Packers CEO Mark Murphy ’77.

Go figure – Alumni added up

10

scene: Autumn 2009

Hamilton. Students, faculty, and area residents answered the call for DJs — no experience required — to join 90.1 FM’s summer programming, which has been on hiatus for the past three years.

Professor Michael Coyle and his 22-year-old daughter, Deirdre, challenged each other’s musical knowledge with their show, Generational Differences. “We were in this competition to see who could come up with the freshest disc,” explained Coyle, an English professor and WRCU’s faculty adviser. “It was a lot of fun,” he added. Having done a WRCU radio show together since Deirdre was in high school, they took this last chance to spin off of each other before she moved across the country. The fatherdaughter duo’s very last show was the night before they packed all of her belongings into a 1998 Pontiac and took the 5-day drive to Arizona, where she now lives.

A number of brand-new DJs also signed on, including local musicians Ed Vollmer and David Williams, who wowed listeners with Ed and David’s Radio Adventure. “Stacks and stacks of fan mail came in,” said WRCU general manager David Pokorny ’10. Due to its popularity, the show is continuing throughout the fall semester.

Pokorny said WRCU thought it was important to rejuvenate summer broadcasting because the station wanted to get the local community

Volunteers collaborate with CollaborAid

Mike Wenger ’09 is working to bring social networking to the volunteer community. With a team of Colgate students, faculty, and alumni, Wenger is creating www.collaboraid.org, a website that will help volunteers, nonprofit organizations, and indigenous stakeholders collaborate online.

The site is Wenger’s solution to a problem he uncovered when volunteering in Africa over two summers.

He observed that, despite best intentions and proximity, aid organizations don’t always have the means to share information, often leading to a duplication of efforts. “I realized there are a lot of collaborative opportunities missed out on,” Wenger said.

Additionally, he noticed that when short-term volunteers arrive in a country, they spend unnecessary time getting their bearings and trying to ascertain where best to spend their resources. “I saw a lot of projects that failed because they weren’t supported by the local community, and a lot of people reinventing the wheel,” Wenger said.

From talking to other volunteers and members of nonprofit organizations, he learned that others also believe that valuable time and resources are being wasted because of the lack of accessible information on projects and communities.

In the early stages, Wenger wanted to ensure that there wasn’t a similar

site in existence and that people would be interested in participating, so he sent screen shots demonstrating the community’s functionality to various nonprofits and indigenous stakeholders in developing countries.

Based on positive feedback, the site has evolved, and the team is working on such tools as profile pages, mapping, and videoconferencing.

As Wenger and the team work to get the site off the ground, they’re gaining good traction. In July, Collabor Aid won $10,000 in a monthly online voting competition sponsored by IdeaBlob, a site for entrepreneurs and small business owners.

In August, Wenger and co-founder Kaitlyn Godfrey ’09 presented CollaborAid at the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance Conference in Cambridge, Mass., where they received overwhelming support. “People said [this] website would help us overcome some of the barriers to information we have based in the United States; this would be a resource we would use to implement our projects more effectively,” explained Godfrey, CollaborAid’s executive vice president.

While waiting for their 501(c)(3) nonprofit application to be approved, the CollaborAid team is gathering endorsements and spreading the word in order to populate the website before it launches. They plan to reach out to technology partners and ask for in-kind donations to help build the site. And because Internet service can be unreliable in developing countries, Wenger said that they hope to partner with organizations that are providing computer labs and training. The global launch will be within the next year and a half to two years.

Get to know: Beverly Low

Andrew Daddio

more involved. “And, to provide faculty, staff, and students who were here this summer the chance to take a break from their research and do something new for a couple of hours a week,” he added.

Dean of first-year students Hometown: I am from Gloucester, Mass. I live in Hamilton, N.Y., but Gloucester is my home. I was born there, my parents still live there, and all of my family lives there.

Education: BA, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts; MEd, University of South Carolina (home of the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition). I also did a semester of grad work at the University of Florida in between, for journalism and PR. In my next life, I’ll be a writer.

Most memorable Colgate moments: I was very close with the women’s basketball team that won the Patriot League Championship in 2004. I think another would be when I bet the Class of ’07 women’s hockey players — I usually travel with the team to the Dartmouth game, but couldn’t go one year — that if they beat Dartmouth, then they could paint my face for a home game of their choice. And they did; there are pictures to prove it. Really, though, the most memorable moments are the little things. It’s the card I get from a student that says, “Thank you for writing that letter of recommendation,” or, “I got the job,” or, “Thank you for that time you made me cry. I disappointed you and you really read me the Riot Act. It meant a lot to me that you cared.” I have what I call a sunshine file of things like that in my drawer.

Goals for the first-year class: I’d like them to thrive at Colgate, in the broadest sense. I hope they are a curious class, and that they don’t sit back and wait for things to land in their laps.

I hope this class will be intentional about being curious, wanting to learn, and taking those three seconds to step back and absorb everything.

Advice for the senior class: I will be sorry to see the Class of 2010 graduate. I have really connected with many [of them]. Take a minute and reflect on your four years. Have you done all of the things you wanted to do at Colgate? If not, this might be the time to think about what I would call your “senior year bucket list.”

Mike Wenger ’09 (left) consults with the CollaborAid Team.

After work: I golf as much as possible. I’m probably over at Seven Oaks at least three nights a week. Monday nights I golf, and it is mostly ladies’ night, actually: Tracy Ogren, who works in accounting, Denise Upton, who works in CLSI, Sue Kazin from advancement, and Suzie Meres in Greek-letter operations. It’s a good crew. I umpire Little League on occasion; I’m a base umpire. In the fall, I like to hike, and to be outside as much as possible. I also used to play for an intramural hockey team called the Jerry Hat-tricks; I love to skate.

Janna Minehart ’13

Little-known talent: I am a fairly skilled clam digger. I learned how to dig a sand clam at the ripe old age of 2, from my grandfather. I’ve also been known to pull a couple of bluefish from the ocean.

Looking forward to: This year is a big reunion year for me at Colgate. The Class of 2005 was my first class [of first-years] at Colgate. I walked in the door in August of ’01, and so did they. I have a real fondness for that class. I am excited to see many of them come back this year for their 5-year reunion.

— Jason Kammerdiener ’10

News and views for the Colgate community

11

work & play 12

Passion for the Climb Memory of a lullaby

By Kate Gallagher ’03

Through the toilsome process of finding her birth family, Kate Gallagher ’03 (pictured here with her birth mother) has developed an interest in the politics of adoption and gaining more rights for adoptees.

scene: Autumn 2009

Light saturates the room, pouring in from behind me, and I’m in the center of this cozy jewel box. She’s singing, or perhaps humming, to me, as we rock back and forth.

“La la la, La la la la la, La la la laaa...”

Is this a memory, or a fantasy I have comforted myself with these 28 years? Was I ever really in this room, a place where I felt so loved and at peace?

I cannot remember when I was told that I had been adopted. My adoptive parents were open with me, but I also believe I have what I refer to as “nature’s GPS” — a sense of where I came from, a pull to reconnect with my roots.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines family in many contexts. The Latin familia includes all members of a household, servants as well as kin, and the relationship between family members ranges from loose affiliation to shared genetic ancestry depending on the intended usage. One definition of self is, “the union of elements (as body, emotions, thoughts, and sensations) that constitute the individuality and identity of a person.”

I have often contemplated these concepts, which are sometimes at

odds with our society’s vision of family, self, and adoption itself — in concept and in practice. My journey of self-discovery has accelerated in the past few years, and it has opened my eyes and heart in ways I could have never imagined. Having been adopted at three months, I recently located and am getting to know my biological family.

I began my search in early 2008. I had previously hesitated to, for fear of hurting my adoptive family. But I have four parents instead of two, and my desire is to have them all in my life.

The realization that I should make it my priority to do what was right for me did not come easily, and I owe a lot to one good friend who pushed me to decide for myself. I am eternally grateful to him and to all of my friends whose kind words, curiosity, and willingness to help kept me positive when I encountered roadblocks along the way.

I went into the search with an approach that is characteristic of me.

I had no questions, nor expectations.

I simply wanted to know my family, if they were open to getting to know me.

I began by copying every document in a file my adoptive parents kept. I also have always had a letter from my biological mother that indicated that she loved me and did what she felt was best for me.

The search process itself was frustrating and convoluted. I quickly learned that adoptees don’t have clear rights when it comes to obtaining information, and that agency regulations and practices are often in conflict with state laws. It took more than a year of piecing together small tidbits of information, learning the nuances of Massachusetts adoption laws, and creative cajoling with — and paying fees to — the agency through which my adoption was arranged. I found adoptee rights organizations, and a variety of reunion registries and resources, but also lobbyists who believe adoptees have no rights to search for their families. I even found a case where an adoptee with leukemia was denied access to her birth records when medical information could have saved her life. I became more and more incensed.

A stroke of good luck — finding a social worker who was willing to try to contact my biological mother — finally yielded the release of my biological mother’s name to me. I wrote to

her at an address in Key West that I found online, and on Monday, Feb. 9, 2009, at 11 a.m., we first spoke on the phone. We were reunited on February 19, the 28th anniversary of her signing my adoption papers, and over the next few months, I visited with her several times and met more of my newfound family.

In the spring, she decided to move back to the Northeast, so we took a road trip together from Key West to Boston, where I have been living.

Along the way, we visited some of my Colgate classmates: Kelli Wong and her boyfriend, Conrad, in Charleston, S.C.; Laura Simmons Kovacs and her husband, Jeff, in Durham, N.C.; and Melanie Kiechle in New Jersey. It was important to me that my biological mother meet some of my best friends; the support I have gotten from them has been integral to this journey.

We have been back in Boston since early June, and are getting familiar with each other’s patterns and habits.

I love and respect her more each day, and even when we are having a difficult time understanding one another, I am struck by how lucky I am to have her.

I have also since met my biological father, and have spoken with his mother, my one living grandparent.

Perhaps my biggest surprise of all was discovering that I have an older halfbrother.

I asked my biological mother if there was some significance to Valentine’s Day; I had always felt my strongest connection with her then.

She told me that Valentine’s Day 1981 was the last time she saw me. I was in a foster home, and she came to visit me before she would sign the adoption papers. She sat in a rocking chair, holding me and talking to me. She prayed that I would always know how much she loved me. We were in the center of a room, there were no lights on, but it was a bright winter day and light was pouring in from the two windows. And she sang a lullaby her grandfather had sung to her.

“Sleep my child, And peace attend thee, All through the night...”

8

Read more essays from our Passion for the Climb series, or see how you can submit your own essay, at www.colgate.edu/scene/pfcessays

Comic art From 1920 until 1956, the Banter tickled funny bones on campus as Colgate’s humor publication. Seven issues a year — loosely based on relevant themes, such as freshmen, football, holidays, Winter Carnival, exams, and commencement — were written and illustrated entirely by students. The cover art was often striking and showed remarkable artistic skill, rivaling the quality and sophistication of a commercial magazine (and sometimes mimicking their design). These are just some of our favorites.

— The Scene team

1923–24, B.T. Ellis ’25

April 1927, R.W. Lent ’28

Inaugural issue, May 1920, H.H. Cornelius ’20

October 1921, R.B. Crane ’23

October 1929, M.F. Cavallon Jr. ’31

February 1937, Dudley Gifford ’38

Page 13 is the showplace for Colgate tradition,

13

history, and school spirit. What are you interested

The Scene thanks Carl Peterson, head of special collections and university archivist, for his assistance.

October 1940, Richard LaBonte ’43

November 1954, Jim McFarland ’57

in learning about? The Scene wants to know.

Write to us at scene@colgate.edu.

Andrew Daddio

life of the mind 14

Left to right: Vice President and Dean of Diversity Keenan Grenell, Interim President Lyle Roelofs, and artist Brian “Bydeeman” Joseph lead the International Blast Festival parade.

scene: Autumn 2009

Inaugural Diversity Week spurs discussion and celebration

In an effort to build a more inclusive community at Colgate and beyond, the university held its first Diversity Week in September. Events included a lecture by GOP National Chairman Michael Steele, intellectual discussions, workshops, and cultural activities.

“This is our opportunity to examine race and culture in the twentyfirst century and to celebrate it together,” said Interim President Lyle Roelofs in opening remarks.

The week kicked off with a talk by Ernest Adams, author of From Ghetto to Ghetto: An African American Journey to Judaism, who spoke about his multicultural life.

That same night, at the first Diversity Leadership Awards ceremony, two Rebecca S. Chopp Diversity Achievement Awards were given: to Associate Professor of Educational Studies John Palmer and Naledi Semela ’10, a member of the Brothers organization.

The Alumni of Color Distinguished Teacher Award was given to Carolyn Hsu, associate professor of sociology and anthropology.

Midweek, Steele spoke in Memorial Chapel, sharing anecdotes about growing up in Washington, D.C., and the journey that took him first to the Maryland Statehouse and then to the national stage. The first African American chairman of the GOP and a sometimes-controversial figure, Steele mostly avoided politics, focusing on the need for students to confront the racism that exists and to create their own legacies in the civil rights struggle.

Later in the week, students at Hamilton Central School took part in a mural project. Artist Brian “Bydeeman” Joseph created an outline of a mural, and then students let their

imaginations run wild as they took turns painting in colors on the 6' x 6' canvas, which will be permanently displayed in the school.

Capping off the week, members of the campus and local communities filled the Hamilton Village Green on Saturday afternoon for the International Blast Festival: Different Rhythms, Same Drum. The festival featured a Japanese drumming group, eclectic Latin music, arts and crafts vendors, and ethnic food booths.

Hamilton-area children helped jumpstart the celebration by joining in the parade around the Village Green.

President Obama’s book fosters dialogue

An informal townwide book club emerged this fall as people ranging in age from 17 to 70 read Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by President Barack Obama and then gathered to discuss the book in various settings.

Members of the Class of 2013 read the president’s memoir as the first-year book assignment, which traditionally serves as a focus point for discussion during new student orientation and into the fall.

On the third day of orientation, 12 first-year seminar groups met around campus, moderated by professors. In the discussion led by English professor Jennifer Brice, the class was separated into several breakout groups, and each was charged with addressing certain themes, such as community, voice, and identity. “I wanted this exercise to be both about this book and also about this moment when you’re all on the cusp of your college career, which is why I asked you questions about how you navigate between various aspects of your life and communities,” Brice told the class. At the conclusion, one student thanked Brice for the insight she gained from the group discourse. “I had a difficult time reading this book — but I never thought about why I feel the way I feel and that everyone does have a story, so thank you, because I’ll be more understanding when this topic comes up again.”

Almost a month later, members of a different generation gathered at the Hamilton Public Library to share

Syllabus RELG 232: Health and Healing in Asian Religions TTh 9:55-11:10, Lawrence 21 Eliza Kent, Associate Professor of Religion Course description: This course explores Asian medical systems and practices, including yoga, shamanism, Qi Gong, and Chinese medicine. We will begin our investigations of these “exotic” healing traditions by reflecting upon how illness functions as a metaphor in North American culture. We will systematically examine the sophisticated, intricate, and elegant models of the body that people in China and India have used for centuries to heal, maintain good health, and, in some instances, aspire to a super-health state that transcends the limitations of bodily existence.

On the reading list: Freud and Breuer, Studies in Hysteria; Kakar, Shamans, Mystics, and Doctors; Miller, Yoga: Discipline of Freedom; Eisenberg, Encounters with Qi; Ownby, Falun Gong and the Future of China; other selected readings Key assignments and activities: reflective essay, take-home exams, research report, final exam; yoga session (optional), Chinese divination ritual, “What’s your dosha?”

(Ayurvedic body and personality type) quiz The professor says: This course provides an accessible introduction to the transformation of religious traditions as they are transmitted into new cultures and contexts. Students explore this underlying theme in their research projects: How are these practices transformed when they are taken up by people in North America?

They also get to immerse themselves in very different ways of looking at embodiment. The intent, of course, is not to “convert” to those worldviews, but to be able to see how they make sense of reality in all its confusing and sometimes painful complexity. This almost always raises students’ awareness of their own takenfor-granted ideas.

their perspectives during a meeting of the Lifelong Learning Program, a collaboration between Colgate’s Upstate Institute and the community that provides older adults with ongoing education. Program coordinator Rebecca Brenner said that Dreams is an appropriate book for the Lifelong Learners because, as members of a community program, it’s interesting for them to see how Obama used his community development skills.

Also, faculty and staff gathered for “A Community Conversation” about the book in the ALANA Cultural Center during Diversity Week. Part of that conversation included thoughts on how to bridge the gaps on campus and in the Hamilton community by being open to differing perspectives.

“Folks need to speak freely, and gain some common ground,” said Thomas Cruz-Soto, director of the ALANA Cultural Center.

Throughout the semester, faculty members have used Dreams from My Father as a launching point to adopt themes that emphasize exploring differences. For example, mathematics professor and chair of the first-year seminar Ken Valente said that he touched upon the theme of experience as a launching point of understanding in his seminar that looks at the history and philosophy of mathematics. “The idea that experience has a role to play in the way we think about things is a message that’s central to the discussion that I’m having with my students regarding the development and nature of mathe-

matical knowledge,” he explained.

In addition to Diversity Week, programs during the academic year such as gallery exhibitions, the biennial Inductee Commemoration for the Abolitionists Hall of Fame, and lectures have been and will continue to be tied into the messages in Obama’s book.

The workshop, which was organized by religion professor Georgia Frank and Linda Leach, a teacher in the Sherburne-Earlville school district, was a true town-gown collaboration.

“I think it’s a nice thing that the college is nurturing young writers and giving them a chance to see what college life is like,” said Leach. “They can go back to their local schools confident in writing, and that is no small thing.”

Frank said she became interested in the role of writing programs and community service when she recognized a need for more summer programming for young teens in the region. Approximately 40 percent of the participants received scholarships.

Partners and sponsors included the Emerald Foundation, Earlville Opera House, New York State Council on the Arts, the Colgate Bookstore, and several Colgate departments.

Grouped by age, the students worked with the featured artist of each day, assisted by area secondary school teachers and undergraduate interns who had all attended similar workshops. On the final day, the students gave readings of their work.

Among favorite moments shared by students were “writing a poem using one line from a song,” “practicing dialogue and acting it out,” and “sock tag.”

Workshop nurtures young writers

Forty-five area sixth through tenth graders spent five days on Colgate’s campus stretching their imaginations and discovering new ideas. The Young Writers’ Workshop offered a chance for students from eight area school districts to experience writing in a community of peers. The featured artist-instructors included: • Natasha Friend, award-winning author of Bounce, Lush, and Perfect, and a Hamilton native.

• Poet Rachel Guido deVries, also a novelist and children’s book author, who serves as a poet-in-the-schools throughout central and upstate New York. She is author of Teeny Tiny Tino’s Fishing Story.

• Bob Cowser Jr., an Academy of American Poets prizewinner, Pushcart Prize nominee, faculty member at St. Lawrence University, and author of Dream Season.

• Actor and Hamilton native Matt Malloy, who starred with Aaron Eckhart in Neil LaBute’s In the Company of Men and has appeared in Bones, Hawthorne, Desperate Housewives, CSI, Law & Order, and other shows.

Living Writers revived and online

Andrew Daddio

Local youth have fun with sock tag at the Young Writers’ Workshop in August.

The English Department’s Living Writers course has been revived, with Pulitzer Prize–winning authors such as Junot Diaz, Jeffrey Eugenides, and Elizabeth Strout visiting campus. By the end of the semester, 10 writers will have participated, providing the 55 students in the class a unique opportunity to interact with them in several different settings.

In addition to the usual classroom setting, the course is online this semester, enabling people with a passion for literature to interact with top contemporary authors.

A full slate of free public readings, book discussions, and a publishing panel are being streamed live over the Internet and videotaped for future viewing. The webcasts feature an interactive chat, which allows users to discuss the author’s work and to pose questions that moderators will integrate into the Q&As that are part of each session.

English professors Jane Pinchin and Jennifer Brice are teaching the

Live and learn

During summer break, 13 Colgate students took part in a three-week extended study trip through the Deep South, led by Earl Smith and Angela Hattery, visiting professors from Wake Forest University.

Susan Fortkiewicz ’10 reports: “The goal of the trip was to experience Southern culture and gain an understanding of social stratification in the Deep South. To prepare, Colgate students took one of two sociology courses taught by Smith and Hattery. The course I took, Gender, Power, and Violence, gave me an understanding of gendered aspects of life, which I referred back to on the journey through Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

“As we traveled on a bus from city to city, events and lectures broadened my understanding of different ways of life in the South and gave me a chance to ask questions of those living this lifestyle.

We learned about the Selma Civil Rights March and visited the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., to see how hate crimes are being dealt with. I attended a Baptist service in Jackson, Miss., and became part of a movement to refurbish a neighborhood in New Iberia, La. “Many of us, myself included, were born and raised in the Northeast, and we quickly learned that life in the South is different than what we know. I also learned that reading about life in a different region only affords you so much.

“This trip helped me to gain a better understanding of becoming part of a culture I have researched and studied as a sociology major. It took me out of my comfort zone at times to experience firsthand what literature dictates. I know that I will use this knowledge back on the hills of Hamilton, because what I learned needs to be shared with everyone.”

News and views for the Colgate community

15

High school students explore sciences at Colgate camp

Science and Sports Camp students visit a lab where psychology professor Jun Yoshino works on cell samples.

Inquisitive high school students from upstate New York and New York City kept their minds sharp at Colgate’s summer Science and Sports Camp, thanks in part to a Colgate alumna.

Janna Pistiner Ostroff ’01 developed the program three years ago for students at the Renaissance Charter School in New York City, where she is a science teacher. A major grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute,

Jason Kammerdiener ’10

as well as additional support from the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust of Syracuse, provided funds to expand the camp to include upstate New York high school students.

“The camp’s goal is to get motivated, underrepresented students excited about science and the possibility of pursuing science as a field of study and a career,” explained Ostroff. “I really want them to see what is out there and consider schools like Colgate for their futures.”

The youths got a taste of college life by bunking in university residence halls and interacting with studentathletes as well as Colgate faculty members, such as associate professor of biology Kenneth Belanger, who taught a session about stem cells and sea urchins. During another classroom experience, students learned about tissue and cell cultures and later visited the lab of Jun Yoshino, associate professor of psychology.

“This is really a great chance to see the different science fields,” Jonathan Saporito, a junior at Utica’s Proctor High School, told the Observer-Dispatch.

“I don’t know what I want to do yet, but this will help me figure it out.”

Saporito was one of 44 teenagers taking part in the two-week program.

Biology professor Nancy Pruitt and Vickie Cadestin ’12 work in an Olin Hall lab. In addition to research skills, Pruitt taught Cadestin and Wendy Joo ’11 how to knit this summer, which helped them pass the time while waiting for experiment results.

Knitting fills gaps in summer research project

It was a cool summer in Hamilton, but students working in biology professor Nancy Pruitt’s lab were prepared

Andrew Daddio

life of the mind

course. The late Frederick Busch, who taught at Colgate from 1966 to 2003 and wrote more than 25 novels, created the Living Writers course, which he first taught in the fall of 1980.

Tim Mansfield, director of alumni affairs, is hoping alumni across the country will take advantage of this online learning opportunity. “We see this as a great chance for alumni to participate in discussions with each other and with faculty,” said Mansfield, who is moderating the three book club sessions that will include different authors, Brice, Pinchin, and several students. “Alumni describe this Living Writers class as one of their fondest Colgate experiences.”

Featured authors in November and December are Yiyun Li, Emmanuel Dongala, Ladette Randolph, Patrick O’Keeffe, John Gregory Brown, Carrie Brown, and Kim Edwards ’81.

To take part, go to www.colgate. edu/livingwriters.

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scene: Autumn 2009

with handmade hats and scarves after Pruitt introduced them to knitting.

Wendy Joo ’11 and Vickie Cadestin ’12 were investigating whether proteins called dehydrins, produced by many plants to prevent dehydration, might also be produced in the animal kingdom, which had never been proven. Their research focused primarily on the freeze-resistant larvae of the goldenrod gall fly.

“Freezing is a very dehydrating event,” said Pruitt, “so our hypothesis was that these freeze-tolerant insect larvae might also produce dehydrins.”

Preparing the larvae samples for analysis was a time-consuming process. “This kind of work involves, by necessity, a lot of waiting periods,” explained Pruitt. The researchers filled that time working on a poster for their findings, discussing relevant papers, and knitting. “You can knit and talk about the results you got in the last experiment,” said Pruitt.

Both students said that they picked it up quickly. “My friends laugh at me when I tell them I learned to knit this summer,” said Cadestin. “Then they see what I’ve done and ask me to make them a hat!”

While knitting kept the atmosphere in the lab light, the research provided serious results. “We got results that showed that the freeze-

Event is no trivial matter

What do a student, a professor, a mayor, a nurse, and a hotel guest all have in common? Each can be found at the weekly trivia night hosted by the Colgate Inn in Hamilton. The free event, held Wednesday evenings, consistently draws a diverse crowd of more than 100 people.

Doug Chiarello ’98, regional advancement director at Colgate and known to many as the “trivia guy,” founded the event two years ago. He credits the success of trivia night, which he adapted from a similar event he attended with alumni in Boston, to the tight-knit Hamilton community and the university’s affinity for trivia games. “Two Colgate alumni [Ed Werner ’71 and John Haney ’70] had a role in creating the Trivial Pursuit game,” Chiarello explained.

“Trivia is a part of the Colgate fabric.”

Peter Younglove, director of operations at the inn, said the crowd at the first trivia night was nearly too large for the venue, yet “that was the quietest night we’ve ever had!”

Moving to a larger room has allowed the event to grow — although it consistently nears the room’s capacity. The questions compiled each week

by Chiarello run the gamut, from comic books to local history, so it pays to have a team with a wide knowledge base.

Village Mayor Sue McVaugh plays weekly on a team that includes a former mayor, two Colgate faculty members, a nurse, and a librarian.

Students regularly join forces with professors. One night, Colgate Interim President Lyle Roelofs and his wife, Laurie, moved from table to table, mingling with participants.

Opinions vary about why trivia has such a wide appeal. Allison Bush ’09

said that she and her friends “come for the fun and the change of scenery,” while Professor David McCabe believes that trivia pulls people in because “being bad at it is not obvious. When you get a question wrong, another one is coming, but when you get one right, you feel great.”

Almost universally, however, participants stress the camaraderie that extends beyond the inn’s borders.

The winning team of the annual March Madness tournament, the only trivia event that has an entry charge, chooses a local charity to which the registration money is donated. During other nights, contributions for local charities also are collected.

— Jason Kammerdiener ’10

Faculty appointments

Interim President Lyle Roelofs announced the following appointments, which were determined by himself and President Rebecca Chopp prior to her departure and confirmed by the Board of Trustees at their summer meeting.

Kenneth Belanger, associate professor of biology, has been named G. Kirk Raab ’59 Professor of biology through June 30, 2012.

Adam Burnett, professor of geography and presidential scholar, has been named William R. Kenan Jr. Professor.

Constance Harsh, professor of English and director of the Division of University Studies, has been appointed to the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Chair in Liberal Arts Studies through June 30, 2012.

Nina Moore, associate professor of political science, has been appointed to the Arnold A. Sio Chair in Diversity and Community in the Department of Political Science through June 30, 2011.

Judith Oliver, professor of art and art history and medieval and Renaissance studies, has been appointed as a presidential scholar through June 30, 2012.

Lourdes Rojas has been named Charles A. Dana Professor of Romance languages and literatures.

Daniel Saracino, Charles A. Dana Professor of mathematics, has been named Neil R. Grabois Professor of mathematics.

Get to know: Barbara Gorka

Andrew Daddio

tolerant gall flies have dehydrin,” said Joo. Further investigation revealed that the goldenrod plant from which the larvae were taken also contained dehydrin. The researchers are confident that their findings are not a case of contamination, however, because the goldenrod dehydrin had a different molecular weight than that found in the larvae. “It’s a different dehydrin,” said Joo. Now Pruitt and her researchers are working to isolate the DNA sequence of the dehydrin gene. They are also hoping to complete a couple of scarves.

— Jason Kammerdiener ’10

Director of international programs How did you end up at Colgate? I started in 2007. I had been associate director of international programs at Temple University, but I knew I wanted to return to the small school environment. Before that, I was assistant professor of Spanish [at Muhlenberg College], where I also led short-term programs in Costa Rica and Spain.

Do you speak any other languages besides Spanish? I studied French and Russian as an undergraduate. And I try to learn a little bit of the language before I travel to a new country.

Where is your favorite place to travel to? I think you always have a special connection to the first place you studied abroad, so for me, that was Madrid, Spain.

When you travel by yourself, are you an outgoing person? That’s the great thing about traveling alone — you have to be. I have a bad sense of direction, which has served me well when I travel because it makes me have to ask questions, and people engage you in conversation.

What did you do when you went to the Peruvian Amazon? I was, um, getting wet. It was the rainy season. I’m always looking for inexpensive ways to travel, and going off-season is a good way to do that.

What’s the most interesting part of your job? What’s happening in the world has an impact on what we do daily. Big world events and even things that go unnoticed by the average person could completely change what we have to do here in the office.

What are some of your goals with the international program? Our current goal is to make our programs financially sound despite the unpredictable exchange rates. I know it’s a concern for parents and students. I was a fully aided student when I studied abroad, and I know how important [study abroad] was for me — it changed who I am.

Tell us about being a long-distance runner. I’ve been a runner since I was a little girl. My dad was an ultrarunner. He started a tradition of running his age in miles on his birthday, and he did that through his mid-60s. I think I have a genetic disposition to running long distances.

I’ve probably done 13 to 15 marathons, including four Bostons, and two 50-mile races. Last summer, I participated in the Western NY Ultra Series — three races, 30 to 36 miles each.

What do you listen to when you run? I don’t listen to anything. I moved here from Philadelphia, and there, as a safety issue, you don’t listen to anything because you want to know if anyone’s running up behind you. Here, I want to hear if there’s a bear barreling down the trail toward me. But for me, running is a complete escape.

Have you ever seen a bear when running? No, but I was chased by a deer up on the cross country trails. Her babies had just been born, so she was protecting them. I joke that I ran my first 6-minute mile in years when that deer was chasing me.

Tell us about how your study abroad experience influenced your life after graduation. Write to scene@colgate.edu.

News and views for the Colgate community

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Heather Ainsworth

Violinist Bruce Berg coaches the Chenango Players in a public master class during the Chenango Summer MusicFest.

Curtain rises on first-ever Hamilton Film Festival

In true Hollywood style, more than 200 community members walked down the red carpet and into the Hamilton Movie Theater as well as other venues throughout the village for the inaugural Hamilton Film Festival and Awareness Walk in August.

Along with a lineup of first-rate independent films, the two-day festival featured a 2K charity walk that raised several hundred dollars to benefit the Hamilton Food Cupboard.

Grant Slater ’91 and his brothers, Wade and Todd, organized the festival.

They are the sons of the late Colgate men’s hockey coach Terry Slater, and founders of Slater Brothers Entertainment. The trio decided to hold the festival as a means of giving back to their former community.

Chenango Summer MusicFest ends on happy note

Andrew Daddio

arts & culture

Grant Slater ’91 (left) and his brother Todd stand in front of the Hamilton Movie Theater prior to the start of the two-day festival.

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“I grew up watching movies at the Hamilton Movie Theater and have fond memories of my time in the area,” said Grant. “So, to see how many people turned out for the community gathering was amazing.”

Out of the 100 films submitted, the brothers selected five, each with fitting themes for the first Hamilton Film Festival and Awareness Walk: community, friendship, and family.

“I hope the messages in the films resonate with those who watched them, reminding them of the smalltown spirit and charm that makes the Colgate and Hamilton communities so special,” Grant said.

A special screening of Class C, a documentary chronicling five basketball teams from Montana’s smallest schools on their journey to win a championship, was held at Hamilton Central School. Proceeds from that film’s ticket sales went to the school’s athletics department.

Prior to the screening of Class C, the Slater brothers announced plans to make the festival an annual event.

Saudades — meaning “yearning” and “missing deeply” in Portuguese — was the theme of this year’s Chenango Summer MusicFest, and it took on a special significance because this was the last year of the festival. Music professor Laura Klugherz founded the festival in 1997 to highlight the town of Hamilton and the natural beauty of Colgate, and to act as a cultural center for the arts.

“While it has been Colgate’s great pleasure to be the primary source of funding for this event since its inception, the current fiscal challenges have required reallocation of this support to other activities key to sustaining our educational mission,” explained Lyle Roelofs, interim president.

In these 13 seasons, more than 420 events have been offered, from Bach to Bamba, and the sounds of chamber music wafting through the village attracted attendees from the region and beyond.

“As I look back over the years, the festival has become such an attraction because of the accessibility to unique music and the chance for concertgoers to interact with artists from around the world,” said Klugherz.

Students and alumni such as Sophia D’Addio ’06 were among those

Preview

The Katharine Elizabeth Gould Memorial Fund Concert presents:

Jane Monheit November 6, 2009, 7:30 p.m.

Palace Theater, Hamilton, N.Y. From the dreamy innocence of her 2000 debut album Never Never Land to the world-weary delusion of “Something Cool” on her latest release, The Lovers, the Dreamers, and Me (Concord), Jane Monheit has established herself as one of the post-millennial jazz world’s foremost vocalists. Powerfully mature and wide ranging — from standards like Cole Porter’s “Get Out of Town” to Fiona Apple’s “Slow Like Honey” — her new album suggests that the honey-voiced chanteuse is ushering in an artistic era of heightened sagacity and maturity.

Monheit will be joined by Michael Kanan, piano; Neal Miner, bass; Rick Montalbano, drums; and Lee Ethler, tour manager, sound engineer.

8

For information on other arts events, visit www.colgate.edu/arts

benefiting from the opportunity to learn from the musicians who gathered for the festival. D’Addio, who plans on pursuing a doctorate in art history, jumped at the chance to spend the month of June as senior intern for the Chenango Summer MusicFest. “I couldn’t have asked for a better place to refine my skills,” said D’Addio, a viola and violin player.

The music festival proved to be an ideal training ground for the Long Island native, allowing her to collaborate with professional artists and learn how to plan and coordinate events. In addition, D’Addio coached other student-interns as well as a group of young musicians from the community who performed during the five-day musical odyssey.

“Helping plan this festival has given me a different understanding of how the events in the music world can work, because I am not only rehearsing for three hours a day, but also getting hands-on experience in the planning phases,” she said.

Klugherz said she is “proud of how the internship program developed into a real career tool.” As festival director, Klugherz has followed many of her 35 interns as they’ve gone on to leverage their skills in various professional fields, most notably arts management.

Renowned musicians from near and far have taken away many rich memories of the concerts, the intimacy of summer music, and unique qualities of the community, Klugherz said.

“Our final run [was] a chance to remember thirteen years of musical treasures that have become part of the summer experience in our community,” she said.

Flaherty Film Seminar returns to Colgate

Artists, film professionals, and cinephiles from around the world discussed a wide range of documentaries at the recent Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, hosted for the second year in a row at Colgate University.

More than 160 participants from Russia, India, Germany, Syria, Australia, Canada, Europe, and the United States spent six days on campus in June. African filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako couldn’t visit campus but participated from Paris via webcam.

“The Flaherty Film Seminar is really at the cutting edge of documentary cinema,” said Luca Caminati, assistant professor of Italian, who specializes in contemporary Italian film and documentary cinema. “I think this is a great experience for educators, scholars, and filmmakers, and also for our students.”

The seminar focused on film, video, and installation works from the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the United States in order to explore the act of bearing witness — bringing memory, experience, and history into the present.

This year’s programming was

by Irina Leimbacher, former artistic director at San Francisco Cinema-

A cNote image of the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by Erik Rosen ’90

Approximately 1,000 people gathered on the village green on a Thursday evening in early July to enjoy the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra as it kicked off the village of Hamilton’s Summer Concert Series, according to the Observer-Dispatch (Utica).

The two-hour performance included Gershwin’s Cuban Overture, music from The King and I, and the theme from Superman. It was conducted by Grant Cooper, former resident conductor with the symphony, who is currently the artistic director and conductor of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra.

Colgate was one of several sponsors of the free concert, which was the start of a series that continued on Thursday nights throughout the summer.

theque and co-founder and co-curator of kino21, a nonprofit film screening series in San Francisco.

Organizers said Colgate’s idyllic setting and state-of-the-art facilities helped make the seminar a success for a second year in a row.

Financial consultant–turned– synesthetic artist

As Erik Rosen ’90 lay in bed at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital a year ago, he couldn’t hear the Velvet Underground’s “Rock and Roll” coming out of his iPod, but he could see it in a kaleidoscope of colors on the wall.

Rosen’s synesthesia (when a stimulus in one sense involuntarily elicits a sensation in another sense) has been the inspiration for his cNote Art, which he exhibited over the summer at the Conde Nast Building in Times Square, New York City.

Comparing his experience to something out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Rosen said that he’s not sure if the synesthesia that happened to him over the course of a few days was a result of his medical condition, or the pain reliever he was being administered. Lying in a sterile room for 35 days after his second stem cell transplant for Stage IV Hodgkin’s Lym-

phoma, Rosen was at one of his lowest points, he said.

Rosen, a financial consultant, took the synesthesia experience and turned it into a positive by creating a computer platform to produce images that mimic what he saw. Although he doesn’t still experience the synesthesia, Rosen said he believes the platform is an accurate portrayal of his vision. Rectangles of various widths represent note duration, and each musical pitch has a corresponding color.

The resulting pattern of various size and color blocks is a visual representation of the song.

From Beethoven to Eminem, Rosen is able to create a work of art based on any song request. One client’s request that demonstrates Rosen’s range was Notorious B.I.G.’s “Mo Money Mo Problems.”

Rosen, who prefers classic rock such as tunes by Bob Dylan, said an inexplicable phenomenon that has occurred is that people are often attracted to the artworks that represent the songs they like best.

“When people tell me that I have a great sense of color or a great pattern, it’s not me, it’s Bob Dylan,” he said. “I’m just trying to be a conduit between the aural and visual.”

News and views for the Colgate community

19

go ’gate

New coaches in athletics

pic gold medalists Michael Phelps and Peter Vanderkaay.

Over the summer, the Colgate athletic department added some newcomers to its coaching staff list. Jon Coffman accepted the position of assistant men’s basketball coach. Coach Pam Bass filled her women’s basketball coaching staff with the hiring of Kim Foley and Karen Blair. Pat Foley joined the Colgate football coaching staff as a linebackers coach. Shannon Cutting will serve as the Raiders’ new diving coach. Courtney Vernon was recently named the assistant tennis coach.

Kristin Fiorillo is in her first year as the assistant volleyball coach.

Hennessey makes Bills’ practice squad

Former Colgate All-American Nick Hennessey ’09 has landed a spot on the Buffalo Bills’ practice roster.

Named a first team all-Patriot League honoree in 2008, Hennessey also garnered All-American honors on four different teams. A Danvers, Mass., native, Hennessey signed a free agent contract with the Bills in late April.

Under the lights

On September 5, Colgate hosted its first night football game. The Raiders rallied from a halftime deficit and downed Monmouth University 35-23 during the regionally televised game on Time Warner Cable Sports. Nate Eachus ’12 rushed for 139 yards and three touchdowns, while quarterback Greg Sullivan ’ 11 amassed 83 yards on the ground and 136 yards in the air.

New sports information director

Sophomore running back Nate Eachus (#32) rushed 20 times for 139 yards and three touchdowns as Colgate defeated Monmouth 35-23 in the first night football game in school history.

Jeremiah Hergott was promoted to director of athletic communications.

As such, he will manage all publicity and public relations matters concerning the Raider athletic department and will serve as the primary contact for football, men’s basketball, and softball. Prior to being named sports information director, Hergott served as the publicity contact for the Raiders’ volleyball, women’s ice hockey, and men’s lacrosse, as well as the men’s and women’s cross country/track and field programs. Before coming to Colgate, he worked in athletic media relations at the University of Michigan. Hergott developed media strategies for Olym-

2009 NHL amateur draft

In late June, two members of Colgate’s 2009 hockey recruiting class were chosen in the 2009 NHL Amateur Draft at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. Jeremy Price ’13 (Nepean, Ont./Nepean Raiders — CJHL), a 6'1", 195-lb defenseman, was selected with the 22nd pick of the fourth round (113th overall) by the Vancouver Canucks, while Thomas Larkin ’13 (Cocquio Trevisago, Italy/Phillips Exeter Academy), a 6'5", 221-lb defenseman, was the 16th pick of the fifth round (137th overall) by the Washington Capitals.

Rookie training camps

Five members of the Colgate men’s hockey team were invited to Summer Rookie Camps. David McIntyre ’10, Corbin McPherson ’12, and Charles Long ’11 attended the New Jersey Devils’ Camp; Francois Brisebois ’11 checked in with the Ottawa Senators; and Austin Smith ’12 attended camp with the Dallas Stars.

Andrew Daddio

Most improved

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Former Colgate men’s lacrosse standout Chris Eck ’08 was named the 2009 Warrior Most Improved Player by Major League Lacrosse. He played all 12 games for the Boston Cannons and won 55 percent of his face-offs (196 of 359) and tallied 70 ground balls. His 196 face-off wins ranked second in the

league. Eck was the 38th pick by the Cannons in the 2008 Major League Lacrosse Draft.

Hochman earns bronze medal

Lindsey Hochman ’07 earned a bronze medal at the 2009 World Rowing Championships in Poznan, Poland.

Named to the U.S. National team in August, Hochman claimed her third-place finish in the Lightweight Quadruple Sculls boat. She was the first Colgate rower to be named to the Senior National Team.

Hall of honor inductees

Larry Bossidy ’57, Angela Chongris ’98, Andy McDonald ’00, Tara McGoff ’99, Eugene Robinson ’85, and Kelly Tyrrell ’00 were the newest inductees into the Colgate Athletic Hall of Honor.

Bossidy lettered three years in baseball and led the Raiders to a berth in the College World Series in 1955.

Chongris lettered four years in lacrosse. She is the program’s second all-time leading scorer with 149 goals and 55 assists.

McDonald was the first Raider ever to get his name etched into the Stanley Cup as a member of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. During his four-year career at Colgate, the current member of the St. Louis Blues tallied 66 goals and 88 helpers for 155 points in 137 contests.

McGoff was a two-time Patriot League pitcher of the year for the Raider softball team and was named to the League’s All-Decade Team. She was a four-time first team all-league honoree and completed her career with 59 wins, a 1.74 earned run average, 89 complete games, 476 strikeouts, and 16 shutouts, which are all school records.

Robinson, a two-time all-Pro in 1993 and 1998, helped lead the Atlanta Falcons and the Green Bay Packers to the Super Bowl.

Tyrrell was a four-year letterwinner in women’s soccer. The threetime first team all-Patriot League selection and 1999 Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year helped lead Colgate to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.

First-years head to sea for Wilderness Adventure

If college is a 24/7 operation requiring teamwork and venturing into the unknown, then the 16 members

Raider Nation

Fan spotlights with Vicky Chun ’91, senior associate athletic director

Brandon Corp ’09

Hometown: Chittenango, N.Y. Game: Men’s Soccer vs. Syracuse, 9/7/2009. The Raiders beat the Orangemen 2-1!

What are you doing now? I am playing for the Major League Lacrosse team the Boston Cannons. (Corp was the 5th overall draft pick.)

Why did you come to this game? I love to come out and support Colgate teams when I’m in the area. It was great watching them take down the ’Cuse!

What is your greatest Colgate sports moment? I’ll never forget when the men’s lacrosse team gave Syracuse their only loss of the season.

Mary Thomas

Residence: Hamilton, N.Y. Game: Women’s Soccer vs. University of Buffalo, 8/28/09.

The Raiders opened their season by defeating the Bulls 2-0 (in pouring rain).

Ian Helfant

Occupation: Instructor for Colgate Physical Education Boot Camp, Cardio Kick, and Step Aerobics (22 years), as well as elementary and high school physical education teacher at Sherburne-Earlville Left to right: Chelsea Hoffman ’11, Lindsay Schneider ’13, and Katie Rapp ’13 hoist the staysail.

Who is your favorite Raider player? I have two because they are from the local area: women’s soccer players Jillian Arnault ’10 and Ashley Walsh ’13.

of the Class of 2013 who spent four days aboard a working schooner have earned their sea legs. While bonding, blogging, and biding their time until the wind picked up, they took turns in three around-the-clock shifts in order to learn all aspects of running the vessel.

The sailing trip departing from Boston aboard the Spirit of South Carolina, offered in August for the first time, was one of 19 Wilderness Adventure programs that every first-year student had the option to join. Initiated by Matt McDonnell ’06, who had been a student leader with Colgate’s Outdoor Education Program, and served as head educator, the program united students, alumni, faculty, and administrators.

Also among the ship’s staff members was first mate Emily Harwood ’06, who was ably assisted by three current Colgate students who served as Wilderness Adventure leaders: Caroline Callahan ’11, Mike Chamberlain ’12, and Chelsea Hoffman ’11.

Ian Helfant, professor of Russian and chair of Colgate’s Environmental Council, connected with students in a variety of ways, including serving as official trip photographer and leading a discussion of Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father, which all

How would you describe Colgate students? I love them! They are interesting, engaging, and fun to work with.

first-year students were assigned to read.

First-year dean Beverly Low, who typically advises the first-year students on a more individual basis, took the opportunity to spend a concentrated bit of time as part of the group dynamic. “I have always been a strong advocate for adventure-based learning experiences,” wrote Low in her final blog entry reflecting on the trip. “There is really no place to hide on a ninety-foot deck! Spending time in such close proximity forced us to cooperate, communicate, and collaborate while supporting each other through some occasional rough seas.

The pure sense of teamwork shined through very brightly, even through the densest of fog and regardless if it was 2 p.m. or 2 a.m.”

Colgate has offered pre-orientation Wilderness Adventure trips for 19 years. This year, in addition to the schooner trip, there were organized student-led trips for backpacking, canoeing, kayaking, mountain biking, and caving. In all, 150 incoming students participated.

The program was organized over the summer by Outdoor Education student coordinators Alex Krill ’11 and Rebecca Helfer ’10.

— Barbara Brooks

Tell us about Colgate athletics’ involvement in the local community. The students, coaches, and administrators continually volunteer their time, working with and speaking to my students at Sherburne-Earlville.

Ryan Meyers ’09

Hometown: Belle Chasse, La. Game: Football vs. Monmouth, 9/5/2009. The Raiders defeated the Muhawks, 35-23, under the lights in Andy Kerr Stadium.

Occupation: Associate producer for NBC Sports Sunday Night Football What do you think of today’s game? The team looks great. Greg [Sullivan ’11] is an unbelievable quarterback. The atmosphere was fantastic; the students were really into it, fun tailgate, and terrific fireworks.

What other Raider sports do you follow? My second favorite sport is women’s soccer. I go to all of their home games and some away games with my buddy Steve Hansen ’09.

Who is your favorite football player ? Ryan Meyers … ha ha … just kidding (Meyers is a former quarterback at Colgate). There are so many, but I would have to say Pat Simonds ’10. One of the most inspirational was Hansen ’09.

Some say you bleed maroon? I love Colgate! I hope my enthusiasm inspires others to actively support Colgate athletics and Colgate in general.

News and views for the Colgate community

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new, noted , & quoted

Books, music & film Information is provided by publishers, authors, and artists.

Rights, Race, and Recognition Derrick Darby ’88 (Cambridge University Press)

In Rights, Race, and Recognition, Derrick Darby draws on the legacy of race and racism in the United States to argue that all rights are products of social recognition. He challenges readers to rethink the central role assigned to rights in moral, political, and legal theory as well as in everyday evaluative discourse. Darby dedicated the book to his teachers, and wrote a special thank-you to Professors Jerome Balmuth and Anne Ashbaugh in the preface.

Bad Things Happen Harry Dolan ’88 (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

In Harry Dolan’s first novel, main character David Loogan has relocated to Ann Arbor, Mich., to escape his dark past and work as editor of the mystery magazine Gray Streets. The book begins as Loogan is purchasing a shovel to help Tom Kristoll, the publisher of the magazine, dispose of a body. Believing that Kristoll is no killer, Loogan is willing to do anything to help his friend and colleague avoid trouble. But two weeks after disposing of the corpse, Kristoll is dead, too, and the mystery deepens as Loogan realizes he has no idea whose body he helped bury or why. With a detective hot on his trail, Loogan must sift through a twisting and sordid series of clues that reveal the secret behind the murders.

The Organizational Sweet Spot Charles Ehin ’60 (Springer)

In The Organizational Sweet Spot: Engaging the Innovative Dynamics of Your Social Networks, Charles Ehin offers a model to reengage disaffected workers and boost their resolve to advance novel ideas. Ehin applies the latest research from such fields as evolutionary psychology, social neuroscience, organizational behavior, anthropology, and social network analysis. Ehin asserts that the challenge for today’s organizations is to narrow the gap between personal and group identity and formal bureaucracy to find the “sweet spot” that will allow leaders to improve productivity, catalyze innovation, and inspire exceptional performance.

FDR’s Shadow

Julie M. Fenster ’79 (Palgrave Macmillan) In 1921, Franklin Roosevelt had just lost an election as VP candidate with Governor James Cox against Warren Harding.

Roosevelt was overcome by an illness that left him paralyzed from the waist down, and his marriage was on the rocks. He retired to his home in Hyde Park with his wife, Eleanor, and an ever-present adviser, Louis Howe. Julie Fenster presents a behind-the-scenes portrait of the world of the Roosevelts in a critical time. She takes readers inside this arrangement and reveals how his intimate friendship with Howe led to the resurgence of FDR in FDR’s Shadow: Louis Howe, The Force That Shaped Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Perspectives on Marketing

Michael Hand ’94 (co-authored with Jason Miletsky) (Course Technology PTR) Michael Hand and co-author Jason Miletsky offer both the agency and the client points of view on marketing

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in Perspectives on Marketing. While Miletsky provides the agency perspective, Hand gives the client perspective on topics including the dynamics of the client/agency relationship, executing a successful campaign, the best ways to measure results, and more.

Empire of Illusion Chris Hedges ’79 (Nation Books)

Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges charts the dramatic rise of a post-literate society that craves fantasy, ecstasy, and illusion in his new book, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle. He argues that we now live in two societies: One, the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world, which can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other, a growing majority, is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. In this “other society,” serious film and theater, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins, he says.

Hedges navigates this culture, attending WWE wrestling contests as well as Ivy League graduation ceremonies, exposing an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion.

DOMs Need Love Too! Allan D. Moore ’52 (iUniverse)

In Allan Moore’s new novel, DOMs Need Love Too! Adventures of the Day Old Muffins, a Yale psychology professor decides to make a case study out of a small group of male senior citizens whom she encounters at a health club. The professor secretly studies the group, who call themselves the Day Old Muffins, as they

In the media spend much of their meeting time ogling the young women headed to the exercise area in their aerobic outfits. She is taken off guard when her analytical harness is unleashed and she finds herself in a love triangle with two of the men.

The Green Vial

Nicholas Orsini ’52 (Vantage Press) Nicholas Orsini’s new techno-thriller starts with a deadly earthquake in the Iranian desert.

Dr. Roger Rogers, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, and his graduate assistant, Teresa Marchetti, team up to lead an on-site investigation to gather scientific data from the region. All goes well until they are forced to make an emergency landing in a restricted biological-weapons development area and are taken into custody. While in confinement, a disillusioned member of an underground faction tells Rogers about a bioterrorism extortion plot against the United States. With millions of lives at stake, Rogers finds himself confronting unimaginable challenges.

Colgate bestsellers at the Colgate Bookstore •

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Not Just the Best of Upper Valley Girl — Ann Aikens ’84 Armenian Golgotha — co-translated by Peter Balakian (English) When Atheism Becomes Religion: America’s New Fundamentalists — Chris Hedges ’79 Cultivating Science, Harvesting Power — Chris Henke (sociology and anthropology) Woodcuts in Modern China — Joachim

Homann (exhibition catalog, Picker Art Gallery) Crafting Fiction, Poetry, & Memoir —

Matt Leone (director, Colgate Writers’ Conference) Perfectly Imperfect: A Life in Progress — Lee McConaughy Woodruff ’82 The Hill Road — Patrick O’Keeffe (English) Mother and Me: Escape from Warsaw — Julian Padowicz ’54 The Singing Revolution — Priit Vesilind ’64

Faith, Hope & Healing

Bernie Siegel ’53 (co-authored with Jennifer Sander) (Wiley) In Faith, Hope & Healing: Inspiring Lessons Learned from People Living with Cancer, Bernie Siegel offers myriad ways to get through difficult times and discover the gifts that illness can bring into a person’s life. He also shares stories and commentaries intended to help readers develop an attitude and personality that survivors share. A medical doctor, Siegel has explored the powerful role the mind can play in fighting illness, and he believes the power to heal comes from the human mind.

A Happy Life: From Courtroom to Classroom Sidney B. Silverman ’54 (iUniverse)

In his memoir, Sidney Silverman describes the “sturm und drang” of 43 years as a trial attorney — and the joys and rewards. At 68, Silverman opted for a different life.

He writes: “Was there a place populated by gentle people where intellectual activity reigned? I had always had the idea a university was such a place… Why not spend my retirement in a university?” Silverman enrolled in graduate school at Columbia University, where he received a master’s degree in philosophy. Buoyed by his success in graduate school, he then attempted to become a master of chess.

The book addresses a question faced by many retirees: Is there life after work? Silverman says the answer is a resounding “yes.”

Also of Note:

Criminal Law Conversations (Oxford University Press), co-edited by Stephen Garvey ’87 (with Kimberly Ferzan and Paul Robinson), provides an overview of contemporary criminal law debates in the United States. The collection of scholarly papers was assembled using

“It’s an area that’s been somewhat ignored by the general conservation community, for a variety of reasons … people care more about warm fuzzies than they do about invertebrates.”

— Kimberly Russell ’92 discussing her research with bees on National Public Radio’s Pulse of the Planet

“Not many people in show business can write and star in their own movies with their closest friends. It doesn’t really exist and it’s not something that we take lightly.”

— Jay Chandrasekhar ’90 during a Q & A session with Justin Polk ’03, reporting for Vapors Magazine, about working with his Colgate friends in the Broken Lizard comedy troupe

“We felt it was most important to get a working pilot plot up so we could begin exploring these other sustainability issues and expose people in the area to it.”

— Russian professor and environmental council chair Ian Helfant, describing to The Post-Standard (Syracuse) Colgate’s new sustainability effort, the planting of willow crops that will eventually turn into fuel for the university’s wood chip–burning plant

“It is a moral obligation for Colgate to embrace sustainability … we are striving to be a model for sustainability.”

— John Pumilio, sustainability coordinator, discussing Colgate’s efforts to be a “green” leader, on the Environmental News Network

“I love that we’re getting a chance to donate to the community that we’re seeing and learning about.”

— Jane Lee ’10 talking to the Advocate about her experience during a service-learning trip to New Iberia, La.

an interactive method of nominations and commentary by the nation’s top legal scholars.

An online version of A History of Colgate University, 1819–1969 by Howard D. Williams ’30 is now available through the Colgate libraries.

Williams was the university archivist and a professor of history when it was published in 1969. To this day, the book is frequently consulted by local and outside researchers as well as students, faculty, and staff (including the Colgate Scene staff!). To view the online version, visit the Digital Libraries Collections at http://exlibris. colgate.edu.

tion, and Nonviolent Change (Oxford University Press), edited by Nigel Young, Cooley Research Professor of peace and conflict studies, is a fourvolume global reference that brings together the scholarship on peace studies, conflict mediation, and nonviolent alternatives to war. Professor Young has collected materials worldwide for these volumes since 2003.

The encyclopedia includes contributions from hundreds of scholars and a preface by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace: Global Conflict, Transforma-

News and views for the Colgate community

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Illustrations by Dan Hubig 24

scene: Autumn 2009

Gifts of life, lessons learned THE PERSONAL ESSAY IS THE PART OF THE COLLEGE APPLICATION WHERE PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS HAVE A CHANCE TO INTRODUCE THEMSELVES AND SHARE THEIR UNIQUE EXPERIENCES AND PERSPECTIVES — ABOUT EVERYTHING FROM GEESE TO COTTON CANDY TO SNEAKERS. NOW THAT THEY’VE ARRIVED ON CAMPUS, LET’S MEET SOME MEMBERS OF THE LUCKY CLASS OF 2013. THIS CLASS’S APPLICANTS WERE ALSO ASKED TO WRITE ABOUT THE MOST MEANINGFUL ADVICE THEY’D EVER RECEIVED. SOME OF THE TIDBITS THEY SHARED ARE FOOD FOR THOUGHT THAT ANYONE COULD SAVOR.

The Kulfi Vendor

By Shilpa Ahlawat

I rushed ahead, furious at my parents, my small fists clenched with determination. “How dare they not buy me that dress,” I vented silently. I could hear my mom’s sandals behind me, trying to catch up. It only motivated me to run faster in the hot afternoon sun.

It was a few days before Diwali, and the bazaar was packed with rushing people. “Shilpa!” My mom yelled as I plunged into the bustling center of the madness.

Suddenly I was caught up in the pulsating flow of humanity, and the loud roar of arguing people filled my ears. The rich aroma of spices, rainbow hues, and the heat generated by so many people assaulted my senses. I could still hear my parents calling me over the din and I turned to see the vermilion of my mom’s scarf. The idea of running away was already lackluster in my 11-year-old head, but I was stubborn and pushed farther.

The crowd carried me away from my parents to the point where I could no longer see or hear them. Panic rose in my throat, but I forced the emotion down as I was swept

farther down the street. Decorated shops beckoned and merchants yelled out their prices for customers across the street. I wanted to call out, but it would have been pointless over the energized crowd.

“Think!” I fiercely whispered to myself as I scanned the crowd. I looked for a solution and my observant eyes spotted an exit point. I deftly weaved through the sweaty mass, keeping an eye on the opening. “One more and I’m out,” I muttered as I finally burst out of the horrifying sweaty mass.

I did a silent victory jump, but reality was quick to slap me in the face. I had no idea where I was and my parents were nowhere to be seen. This time, my panic wouldn’t be suppressed and it bubbled up in great salty tears. I cried loud and shamefully. It was my fault, after all, that I was in this predicament.

“You all right?” I heard someone ask. I looked up from my tears and saw no one. I quickly checked all around me, and there was a laugh in the same grainy voice. “I’m right here, child.”

The voice was coming from in front of me. I squinted closer and saw an old man perched up against the side of a kulfi stall. His leathery skin blended in with the faded side of the stall. He was shockingly thin, but his clothes were impeccably clean.

“Want a kulfi?” he asked, and he got out one of the homemade popsicles before I could answer. I shook my head and pointed to my empty hands.

“I don’t have any money,” I said.

He cocked his head and laughed at my straightforwardness. “You can have it free; it is the Diwali season, after all.”

It was my fault, after all, that I was in this predicament.

“Then how will you make money?” I asked, taking the popsicle from him.

He gave me another brilliant smile and sighed.

“Diwali is about giving and sharing, dear. It is being with family. All of this,” he spread his arms out, gesturing toward the brightly lit shops and the gaily dressed people, “is just for show.”

“Shilpa!” I heard a familiar voice yell. I turned to see my mom and dad running toward me, looking harried. My mom scooped me up and I nearly dropped my kulfi as she crushed me with a hug.

“Let’s go buy that dress you wanted,” my dad said later as I walked between my two parents. I smiled and looked at the kulfi stick I had kept after I had finished the ice cream on it.

“No,” I said, “let’s go visit Aunty instead, like you wanted. It would be nice to see her after so long.”

My parents exchanged a look as I skipped ahead, happier than any material thing could make me.

It’s always hard to think of the holiday season in modern society without the presents and the colorful holiday decorations. It’s so easy to forget that these events are about family and friends, and all material things should always come second. So every time I feel the urge to whine or complain about something I didn’t get, I can just turn on this memory in my head.

News and views for the Colgate community

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When is it Going to be Done?

By Louia Jelaco

When people talk about the smells of their childhood, they might mention the earthy scent of fresh-cut grass, the salty odor of Play-Doh, and the coconut aroma of sunblock. But for me, it’s the dusty clay scent of plaster, the harsh stench of paint, and the musky air that has been trapped in a wall for a century.

Our house has been continuously under renovation for my entire life. My family and I have done just about everything you could do to a house.

We have lifted it 13 feet off the ground in order to replace the foundation and dig a new basement. We have given it new flooring, new bathrooms, a new kitchen. My dad is the architect, contractor, and carpenter of the project, and my mom is somewhere between the world’s worst client and most patient wife.

My family has become renowned within our circle of friends for having the house that is a “work in progress.” Most of our friends are passively confused by its state of incompleteness. But for some, the situation is just too bizarre. One neighbor cannot let a week pass without asking, “When will your house be done?” Rather than being bothered or becoming self-conscious, I have come to see his persistence as a graciousness. He is merely trying to remind us that it is not yet complete.

One day, our neighbor Andy received a call from his friend John, who hosts a national radio show called Weekend America. John was planning a show on the topic of “The Obsessive Remodeler” and he was wondering whether Andy knew of anyone so obsessed. It wasn’t hard for Andy to make a recommendation as he heard the piercing siren of a tile saw grinding away in our front yard.

Unlike neighbors and friends sympathetic to our mission, John was a reporter looking for a story. As we sat around our living room, I watched John’s eyes scan the mosaic of green and blue paint “brush-outs” on the walls, down to the outlets with sprouting dead wires, and down lower to the baseboard that wasn’t there. I could feel him judging my mom and dad.

As I listened to my dad talking to John, I heard him confess, “Actually, the one thing that gives me the greatest anxiety about the state of our house is the fact that Louisa is now 17 and she’s never lived

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here when it wasn’t a project. I would just like to have it done for her.” Nervously, I wrung my hands as I sensed that I needed to defend my house and a big part of my life. I struggled fruitlessly to find the words to explain that, although it has been under construction for as long as I can remember, I am deeply comforted by the way it is.

I grew more and more uncomfortable throughout the interview as I began to realize that my well-being had become the angle John was working to expose. The interview marked the first time I

John was a reporter looking for a story.

I feel I have earned the right to live in my house.

And I have come to understand life in the same way. It requires investment for which the reward is greater than the sum of the parts. I have learned you cannot simply step into that kind of richness. The value one experiences in life comes not from being, but from becoming. So, when will it be done? It will never be done.

Wild Goose Chase

By Spencer Cavallo

felt defensive and self-conscious about where I live, and I didn’t like it. In retrospect, I never was able to articulate for John the significance of my relationship with my house while under the pressure of his rolling tape recorder and his impersonal and judgmental scrutiny.

Since the interview, I have come to a clearer understanding about my house. Evidently, it took being in that vulnerable position for me to see what is valuable about how I feel. Yes, our house is a “work in progress,” but our constant work fills me with a rare passion for the place in which I live.

What if instead I had been raised in a “perfect” home, one that was “done"? I would never have to navigate through extension cords and power tools or be startled awake by the roar of an air compressor.

But I also wouldn’t have that special connection to my house, that feeling of accomplishment every time I walk through the door, knowing I installed the handle.

As I look into the family room, I see the bookshelves my dad made; walking down the hall, I see the delicate Victorian wallpaper my mom and I hung; on the bathroom floor, I see the black and white tiles we painstakingly laid. And as I step into my bedroom, the yellow paint on the walls matches the freckles on my Chuck Taylors. This appreciation for the work we accomplished pushes out any momentary feelings of regret or self-consciousness.

I was reading a local newspaper, The Observer, one rainy Saturday morning, as I munched on a light breakfast of toast and juice. As I navigated through the mundane stories, I stumbled across a line that caught my attention: “A Canada goose causes concern for residents and shopkeepers of Main Street. The curious fowl has taken up residence in Cow Harbor Park for several weeks and appears unable to fly.” Since I was a regular volunteer at the Wildlife Clinic at Caumsett State Park, I took a particular interest in the local wildlife. I skimmed through the brief, back-page article and reflected on how intolerant people in my community have become of the local wildlife. I laughed to myself when I thought of the ridiculous notion some people held that wild animals don’t belong around people; that they should be off in the wilderness somewhere.

It was that kind of intolerance that led me to encounter the goose in the paper that Saturday.

Although, as I finished my breakfast, I did not expect I would have the privilege of seeing such a notorious celebrity, much less spend the afternoon with him.

It was well past noon when I received an unexpected phone call from Jason, the wildlife clinic supervisor, who asked if I was busy. He always prefaced asking for a favor with that line, so I knew what was coming. Hesitantly, I told him I had nothing planned. He said a man in my village phoned the Wildlife Advisory Telephone (WAT) about an injured goose. He asked if I could pick it up and bring it to the clinic to be examined. Instantly, I thought of the Canada goose in the park and became eager to run this errand on my day off.

The man who called the WAT owned the bakery across from the park where the goose had taken up residence. When I arrived on the scene I was shocked to find the baker, with a pillowcase in hand, chasing a noisy goose around the muddy grass field. I couldn’t help but grin as I stepped outside of my Jeep to shake hands with the man, who was splattered with

mud and out of breath. He didn’t have a box to put the bird in, and I insisted we not use the pillowcase, so we gathered a few towels and recommenced the “wild goose chase.”

After 15 minutes or so, the clever goose made a tactical blunder that cost him his freedom.

He allowed me and the baker to corner him against a wire fence. We tightly wrapped the goose in the towels so he couldn’t flap his wings in resistance, and carried the captive to my car.

All the time, his crane-like neck allowed him to nip at our hands and arms with his beak. We carefully lifted him into the back seat of my Jeep and we both laughed when I asked jokingly if we should buckle him in. I thought the goose might be shy riding with a complete stranger, but he was very sociable. In fact, I couldn’t get him to quiet down. Fearing that the goose might get carsick, I opened the window so he could get some fresh air. Initially, he poked just the tip of his beak out the window, but he quickly grew bolder and stuck out his entire head. I’m sure this bizarre sight shocked many of the people we passed on our way to the clinic. It seemed pretty evident, from his robust

...he quickly grew bolder and stuck out his entire head. squawks and feisty nature, that my companion was a picture of health, and the examination confirmed this. Why had my eccentric friend refused to fly in Cow Harbor Park? I can only guess he enjoyed the recreational area as much as the townspeople do.

It seems silly that a goose would cause such an uproar in my village. In developed areas such as my hometown, it can be easy to forget that underneath the parking lots and shopping centers, and before the native thicket and foliage were hacked away to make room for orderly lawns of green grass, Long Island was the home of many wild animals. It is distressing how estranged the once-harmonious relationship between mankind and nature has become.

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

By Daniel Barabander

“Maybe you will learn something,” my father told me when he instructed me to volunteer at the Daughters of Israel Nursing Home. That was not my idea of how to best spend my afternoons. What did I have to learn at a nursing home, and why didn’t my father tell me what he meant? That was four years ago.

I recall my first grudging visit to the nursing home, where I was introduced to Lucy. When I walked

Queens. She warmed to the task and told me about that life too. The twinkle returned to her eyes, and she called me Daniel.

The next day I was a stranger again. In fact, each day I was a new visitor and had to be reintroduced.

Each day, there was some major discontinuity between that day’s Lucy and the Lucy of every other day. As the weeks wore on, I began to wonder, what bothered me more — Lucy being lost in time, or that she didn’t remember me? I grew determined to be remembered — to be Daniel — yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

She never remembered me. Each visit was a first

The next day I was a stranger again. over and said “Hello,” she stared at me with a sudden gleam of recognition, and greeted me, “Hey, look, it’s the president.” Caught off guard, I responded, “I’m not the president, I’m Daniel.” She grabbed my outstretched hand and said, “I have a son named Daniel.”

I wanted to ask about her son, but some instinct suggested that I let it pass.

Lucy was a lively conversationalist. She shared stories about people she had known and places she had visited throughout her long life. She spun out story after story. We played checkers and cards — she was a bit of a shark.

Most of her stories I could not follow, but a few things became clear. Lucy had been born in Brooklyn and worked in a clothing factory. I told her of my Brooklyn roots, and we made an immediate connection. Lucy had a twinkle in her eyes, and the twinkle welcomed me. I was pleased with myself; one day on the job, and I was already a success.

When I greeted Lucy the following day with an invitation to resume our discussion about her early years in Brooklyn, she looked right through me. “Who are you? What’s this about Brooklyn?” she asked. I checked my memory and, confident in my recollection, I reminded her about the clothing factory and how she had worked as a seamstress in Brooklyn. “I’m a Queens girl,” she said. “I started working when I was twenty at Eagle Electric wiring lamps. Who are you?”

“My name’s Daniel,” I reminded her, “like your son.” She gave me the strangest look, tilting her head to one side and peering at me. I stared at the floor, hesitated, and then asked her about her life in

visit. Each day, there was a moment of wariness and hesitation before the stories began to flow. Each day I began as a stranger and ended as a confidant. The Alzheimer’s had set her adrift in time, but it hadn’t destroyed her high spirits, her delight in checkers, the stories from all her childhoods, real and imagined, and the twinkle in her eyes. Lucy’s stories were like diamonds; each day she happily plucked one from the sky.

One night after I returned home, my father asked me, “So, what did you learn over at that nursing home?” I thought of telling him I learned about Alzheimer’s disease and how it destroys the mind but not the spirit. Oh those diamonds — Lucy’s diamonds. Or did I actually figure out that I could gain satisfaction without it being all about me? I could have made my father’s day by telling him that I was going to become a doctor. In the end, I repeated his question and said, “I learned that when I have a son, I might want him to volunteer at a nursing home, because maybe he could learn something.”

News and views for the Colgate community

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Cotton Candy Ambassador

By Abigail Callahan

Strands of colored sugar fly off the machine, coating my long hair and freckling my face. The longer I work, the older I appear as the fluffy, tinted wisps coalesce to turn my brown hair gray.

Eventually, the sugar melts to form speckles of burned goo that dot my hands and clothes.

Families of tourists line up to gape as I twirl hot, sticky strings of sugar into fluffy masterpieces. As a cotton candy maker and fudge promoter in the shadow of Seattle’s Space Needle, I spend my summers selling overpriced sweets to the clouds of tourists that descend on Seattle.

Before my first summer working as a candy professional, I pushed my mom hard to let me attend an overseas program like many of my classmates at the private school I attend. I always saw traveling as the ultimate challenge and adventure, and thrived on the excitement of new people and places. My mom told me that I needed to realize I could not just travel wherever and whenever I wanted, and that I needed to work. I felt like I had already taken all the adventure out of Seattle, and here I was keeping tourists entertained in my own backyard.

The first few weeks on the job, I would go to any length not to be noticed. Huddled in the cubby of a ’70s-style red popcorn wagon, covered head to toe in melting sugar, I was not in my most attractive state. However, customers seemed to enjoy my sticky costume and I soon became part of the scenery. Their sense of humor coupled with their bright-eyed attitude and their untested knowledge of Seattle began to give me some footing. While I was still the clown, Seattle was my three-ring circus.

I continue to charm customers with a perpetual bright smile, lively small talk, and respectful answers to their questions, including the most common of all, “Could you tell me where I can find the Space Needle?” I hide my amusement as I point straight up at the towering building. My sales often conclude with a few dollars in the tip jar and far

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fewer sweets on the rack.

My customers range from eager day-campers taking a break from splashing in the giant International Fountain, to tourists from around the world seeking an insider’s guide to Seattle. I have even encountered a few short-change artists.

However, out of all my customers, my favorite is Arnold.

Unlike most of my customers, Arnold doesn’t flow through the Seattle Center as part of a daytime excursion. He is always there. Arnold is a mentally challenged janitor at the Seattle Center.

He often comes by my wagon to seek refuge from the chaos created by tourists. Whenever a customer approaches, he always scoots off to the side and never interrupts sales. He’s even chased off a few hungry pigeons for me, saving bunches of cotton candy. Usually, all Arnold wants is someone to talk to, and I am his captive audience.

On the job, friendly chatter isn’t limited to Arnold. Often, in those short moments while I work my sales magic, lost and confused foreigners open up to me about the difficulties they have in American culture. On a blistering summer day, a winded man who recently had arrived from India

Apparently, in Italy, people do not care about it. They look up and are satisfied with whatever happens.

There are many different ways to learn about the world. In my brief exchanges with customers, the nuances of American society, those I had never thought twice about, became clear. I was seeing my city from a tourist’s perspective. I have traveled to other countries — India, Guatemala, Ireland.

Even when not out of the country, I am an armchair adventurer, reading newspapers and magazines and watching the news. Yet now, I simply learned about the world through selling fudge.

Jack Purcells for Life

By Melissa Duncanson

...lost and confused foreigners open up to me about the difficulties they have in American culture. approached my cart to buy some water. Water costs $2.50. He paid with a $100 bill. I let out a brief cry as I stared down at the bill. The man followed my gaze and, quickly realizing his error, he gasped.

He reclaimed his money and continued to fumble through his wallet to retrieve the correct change.

He pulled out each bill and inspected it closely before stuffing it back into his wallet in search of another. I watched, confused as he held the correct bill in his hand, yet continued to fumble through wads of money looking for another. Finally he spoke, letting me in on the secret to his confusion: “Ahh, all your money looks the same!” I helped him sort through his change by pointing out the nuances differentiating each bill and realized for the first time that we are one of the few countries with money of the same size and color.

Customers raised more cultural flags. One day, I overheard a customer ask a man from Italy if he knew the weather forecast for the next day.

In his elegant Italian accent, he described his observation that Americans are obsessed about the weather. He was shocked in an encounter with the Weather Channel at his hotel earlier that day that an entire TV station could be devoted to weather.

I don’t take pictures, pin up remnants of old concert stubs, or save friendship bracelets from camp. Apparently, I’m not the most sentimental of people. Instead, dangling on my wall hangs a pair of tattered Jack Purcell sneakers loosely tied together by their frayed laces. Their metal lace holes are crumpled and rusted; the soles are filthy, stained, and cracked, and the fabric has been hardened into a stiff shell of dried paint, concrete, and the occasional splotch of old blood. To anyone else, my Jack Purcells are hideous, even toxically unsanitary; to me, they are a canvas of my past.

Splattered with mud from the occasional bike ride to breakfast and covered in grass stains from weekly pick-up soccer games, my Jack Purcells take me places and keep me close to home. Looking up at them now, my eyes drift toward globs of dried white paint that dripped from the fresh concrete walls that I built for a monk in Thailand. While white is a bland shade and often represents nothing, the energy that fixed this white textured paint to my shoes has a life of its own.

After three weeks of mastering concrete, painting was easy. Rolling on that last layer of glossy white, my hands were productive and capable. Hard work

requires stable footing, and my Jackson Pollock– patterned sneakers provided just that and more.

While most people can’t seem to look past the flicked specks of paint, I focus on one lonesome pea-sized stain. On the toe of the right shoe, the rusty splotch of burnt copper is simply a disguise for the intense vitality that lay within that drop of blood when it first hit my shoe in a Peruvian operating room.

When I decided to travel on a medical mission, I was reassured that my organizational skills would be put to great use. And at first they were. I organized gloves by size, alphabetized antibiotics, and arranged color-coated suture material. Yet, as numerous

Grey’s Anatomy simply had not prepared me. emergencies unfolded, my role quickly became more than a simple “extra.” I learned how to calmly inform the surgeon mid-surgery that I did not know how to make a sponge stick out of gauze and ring forceps, but that I would try my best. When one of the residents finished the surgery and asked for my help in sewing the skin closed, I did not hesitate. Having never sewn a quilt, let alone an 8-inch incision across a woman’s abdomen, my hands shook like never before.

My mind went blank, my heart rate skyrocketed, and, within a matter of minutes, I felt as though I had suddenly entered a stifling sauna. Grey’s Anatomy simply had not prepared me.

Admiring my Jack Purcells once more, I notice a faint blob of pastel green on each shoe. When I slide them on, lace them up, and stand feet together, a circle is formed between the two halves. I remember dropping an entire scoop of tart green apple gelato onto my shoes at the Umbria Jazz Festival. I spent part of my sophomore summer in Italy on a mother-daughter trip with my three best friends. Initially, the trip was based on the fact that we were all major “foodies,” with a particular love for genuine Italian gelato. But, what came out of the trip was something more than four girls who admired each other’s ability to eat well. Every time I glance down at my shoes, the green stain reminds me of the warm energy and friendships we shared on those humid summer nights. I have an unbelievable bond with these three girls. From one, I’ve learned that it never hurts to smile a little more. From another, I’ve learned how to rack up a long-distance phone bill. And from the last, I’ve learned how to fall for an Italian boy in two days or less, despite a serious language barrier. For all those school days when the four of us are stressed over tests and preoccupied with plans for prom, my Jack Purcells keep my friends close and keep me grounded.

The shoes hanging on my wall make up for the countless photo albums, diary entries, autographs, and souvenirs that I chose not to keep. Colorful and textured, my Jack Purcells never fail to fascinate. I can only hope that, similar to the marks that have been left on my shoes and on my personality, my soles will leave their trace on the many places I walk.

A Baker’s dozen facts on the Class of 2013 7,814 Applied 31.5% Accepted 3.73 Average GPA 1397 Average combined SAT 47% applied early decision 69%/31% From public/private high schools 22% Multicultural students 1 2006 World Open Chess Tournament competitor 1 Lobbied for U.S. action in Darfur with Congressman Rahm Emanuel Peter Williams, son of Don ’79 and Vicky Williams ’79 is the 13th member of his family to attend Colgate, representing the fourth generation 1 Played double bass in the youth philharmonic for the United Nations Ms. Taylor Lake is from Long Valley, N.J. 1 Qualified for the speed skating finals for the Turin Olympics

The most meaningful advice ever received

Try hearing a sunset.

Assume positive intent.

Let confusion be the beginning of understanding.

Going to school is like eating an orange.

If you try to swallow it whole, you will choke on it. Just peel the orange and eat one piece at a time. You’ll actually enjoy each bite.

Be here now.

Be excellent to each other.

Don’t be afraid, because wherever you’re going, there you’ll be.

News and views for the Colgate community

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Shooting Beau Marie DeSanges

Photographer Courtney Bent ’93 went on a simple assignment and discovered a whole new way of looking at the world. In the process, she also helped give voice to some of the world’s voiceless. All it took was handing over her camera.

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scene: Autumn 2009

uty

By Courtney Bent ’93

I was wandering around the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, camera in hand. Three years out of college, I had been working in the fashion industry as a photographer and photographer’s assistant, and that night I was covering a large fundraiser. I was asked to photograph the thousands of people who were part of an event called the AIDS dance-a-thon. On five different floors, I found people doing everything from the two-step to disco.

But when I came across a group of people in wheelchairs, I couldn’t keep my eyes from wandering back to them. Some had interesting computerized boards attached to their wheelchairs. One man was moving his chair around by touching a joystick with his tongue. I was a bit intimidated — I had spent very little time with anyone who had any sort of significant disability. But being curious, and feeling that I needed to confront whatever fears were inside of me, I mustered up some courage and approached the group to ask if I could take some pictures.

To my surprise, almost everyone in the group was completely comfortable with my camera — and wanted to talk with me. I was immediately charmed. I learned that they all spent their days at the United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) Community Experience Day Program in nearby Watertown.

Before the conversation was over, I had been invited to stop by — with my camera. I decided on the spot to take them up on the offer.

Over the next month, I began taking pictures at the UCP program, meeting people with significant cerebral palsy, spina bifida, and other disabilities, and learning about how they communicated, learned, lived, and enjoyed life. But as much as I discovered about the program and the people it served, I think I learned even more about myself. I realized that I had my own hidden preconceptions about people with disabilities: that they wouldn’t be able to relate to me (and vice versa) and that I should in some way feel sorry for them. It was difficult to admit to

Tom Herrick

“When I see pictures come up, it’s like Christmas.”

– Tom Herrick, Shooting Beauty Tom Herrick

Tom Herrick

News and views for the Colgate community

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myself that I harbored these stereotypes. I had always thought of myself as an openminded, compassionate person — so why would I feel this way?

I quickly learned that pity is a word from which the modern disability movement is trying to free itself. These individuals I met weren’t looking for pity at all. They were looking for a chance to have a conversation. Share a laugh.

Maybe find a friend. All the same things I was looking for on a daily basis. None of them described themselves as trapped or tormented by their disability. Instead, they defined themselves by their strengths — just as I did — and I got to know each of them as vibrant, interesting, and wonderfully unique. In many ways, their disabilities gave them a fascinating and beautiful perspective — one that I came to find that I would envy and learn from.

But when my first pictures were developed, I showed them to my boyfriend, George Kachadorian. When his initial reaction was that the images were “kind of creepy” and showed people who were trapped and alone, I realized that my initial stereotypes were coming out in my images. I was missing the true story. How could I capture what was really going on at the program?

As I continued to photograph the individuals at UCP, I began to feel that I shouldn’t be the one trying to tell their stories. That’s when it hit me: what would happen if I gave them the tools to describe themselves, in their own terms? I bought a few cheap plastic cameras, a bunch of duct tape, and with some help from the UCP staff, began trying to create cameras my new friends could use.

Over the next six years, through trial and error, we developed a series of cameras adapted to fit each person’s wheelchair and unique needs: one triggered by stomping on a foot pedal, another by pressing a button with a tongue, and so on. Soon, I was volunteering there two or three times a week.

I gave them an assignment: tell me about your life in one roll of film. Describe what your world is like. Tell me about the things that you like, the things that you think are beautiful or interesting. Give me a day in the life. I want you to photograph everything.

I had no idea what to expect. I wondered, what are these photos going to say?

What they came back with was incredible.

It became much more than just a photography workshop. I started thinking, this has to be an exhibition. We’ve got to blow these photos up. We have to make it happen. The project soon developed into a traveling exhibition called Picture This.

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Tony Knight

Tony Knight

“If I see you staring at me, I’ll say, ‘How you doin’?’ and I’ll break the ice … If I allow you to look at me, stare at me, glare at me, and do all of those things — and come up with your own conclusion, boy, are you going to be wrong about me.”

– Tony Knight, Shooting Beauty Tony Knight

Cathy Culkin

Ernest James

Ernest James

Cheryl Magnusson

Cathy Culkin

Cheryl Magnusson

Cheryl Magnusson

Cheryl Magnusson

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Along the way, George (who’s a filmmaker and now my husband, too), the participants, and I shot video to tell the story of our experiences as we worked toward the first exhibition of the photographs from the project. That footage became the heart and soul of our documentary film, Shooting Beauty. It is no exaggeration to say that this project — and my new friends — have changed my life. Looking back, I am so very thankful that I made that leap into the unknown all those years ago.

About Courtney Bent

An award-winning photographer whose work has taken her from tent revivals in Maine to Masaii Camps in East Africa, Bent teaches photography and produces documentaries. Variety called her first film, Divining Mom, “an impressive non-fiction debut.” In 1997–98, as the project assistant for author Lou Jones, she researched, gained access to, and interviewed Death Row inmates for his book Final Exposure: Portraits From Death Row. Since its world premiere at the Full Frame Film Festival in April 2009, Shooting Beauty has been screened at film festivals worldwide, receiving rave reviews, and garnering awards including four audience awards to date: Best Film of the Festival at Woods Hole Film Fest, Best Documentary at IFF Boston, Best Feature Film at the Phoenix Film Festival, and the Top Rated Documentary at the Maine International Film Festival.

The Creative Visions Foundation selected Bent as a featured activist, and the informational website for the disability community disaboom.com said the film “provides an incredible glimpse into the world of living with a disability . . . It started a conversation about disability with others who might’ve just stared and walked by.”

Bent has been fundraising and searching for a home for the film through broadcasters and distribution partners.

She has also developed a curriculum focusing on disability and diversity awareness, which is based on the documentary and the exhibition and has been tested with positive success in schools throughout the United States. She has also started writing a “how to” book to help others bring similar projects to their own communities.

Bent and Kachadorian live in Durham, N.H., with their children, Lucas and Harley.

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Mary Jo Chaisson

Mary Jo Chaisson

“When people don’t know you, they assume that you can’t do very much because they see the wheelchair.

They don’t see the person.”

– Ernest “E.J.” James, Shooting Beauty

Mary Jo Chaisson

Mary Jo Chaisson

I was born down South in Mississippi. I am 45 years old.

I’m a person who likes to do a lot of different things. Most people who don’t know me personally put a limit on me because they feel that I can’t do stuff because I’m a disabled person.

When people don’t know you, they assume that you can’t do very much because they see the wheelchair — they don’t see the person.

–Ernest James

About the Photographers Portraits by Courtney Bent ’93

My name is Cathy Culkin. I was born with cerebral palsy. I was living at home with my parents and then I moved out when I was 29.

I met a great man. His name is Dana. We fell in love and we were married. In July it was our 15th Anniversary. I am very, very, happy.

I like taking pictures of people. I’ve always wanted to take pictures. To see my pictures come out well makes me feel happy.

–Cathy Culkin

I am 28 years old. People say I have nice blue eyes.

I am in an electric wheelchair and I use a communication board to talk. Photography allows me to take pictures of what I do with my personal life so that I can share them with the UCP day program. I like taking pictures because they show me what I did and who I met and the nice times I have had. I like taking pictures of nice and pretty things. Sometimes I think I see things that other people don’t see.

–Cheryl Magnusson

“Tom was our roommate here for 18 years . . . He had never intermingled in a home, so he had all the emotional issues of a person who hadn’t been socialized . . . He was so alienated . . . The UCP program was very mundane to him — every day nothing new.

“And then he came home one day with a light in his eyes. And he said to me, ‘We took some pictures today.’

His life was never the same. He became somebody. He was no longer a person with a handicap. He was a person with a camera.”

–Charlene Moulaison, talking about Tom Herrick As a person living with a disability, I must compromise both my control and modesty at certain times in order to live independently. When I take a picture, my camera in some ways forces people to sacrifice their modesty and control in the same manner that I do on a daily basis.

–Tony Knight

My name is Marie DeSanges. I’m always active. I like to do stuff like skiing, stuff at the program like sorting coins, and going outdoors. I’m 33 years old. I was young when I came to the United States. I am from Haiti and I speak Haitian. I live in Mattapan with my mother and my grandmother. My cousins, aunt, and uncle live upstairs. I love photography. I love to shoot different sceneries because that’s how I can remember stuff.

–Marie DeSanges

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Learn more about Shooting Beauty at everyonedeservesashot.com

My name is Mary Jo Chaisson. I am 26 years old. I live here in South Boston with my mother and my aunt. My sister comes to visit us. I’m friendly and happy most of the time and I like to meet people. I have a lot of friends.

I like taking pictures of everything. The other day I took a picture of a rainbow. When we get the pictures back, I show them to other people. They always have a surprised look on their faces when I show my pictures because they like the pictures and they are surprised by the amount of pictures I take.

–Mary Jo Chaisson

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For 40 years, Albert Allen Bartlett ’44 has been beating a drum about the energy crisis and sustainability. Using everyday examples and a logical math lesson, he demonstrates why the world’s leaders and scientists will never solve the sustainability problem unless they acknowledge what he calls the elephant in the living room: stopping population growth. With today’s social media, his — admittedly politically incorrect — talk, titled “Arithmetic, Population, and Energy,” is going viral,

Growing Pains

with segments of it on YouTube garnering more than 800,000 views by August 2009. What follows is a condensed adaptation of his talk.

By Albert A. Bartlett ’44

About the author Albert Allen Bartlett enrolled at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, where his father (Willard W. Bartlett, Colgate ’10) was a professor of education. After one year, he dropped out to work as the dishwasher on the large iron ore freighter Pontiac on the Great Lakes. The next year (1942), while he was night cook on the Peter White, he applied to transfer to Colgate. The admissions director, George Werntz ’33, kindly arranged a scholarship for Bartlett, so he left the ship and hitchhiked to Hamilton.

He majored in physics with professors Gleason, Henshaw, Berkey, and Reinwald, graduating in June 1944. Having been deferred from military service because of his physics studies, he had to take a job in war work.

Attracted to an unknown lab with an unknown mission whose address was “Box 1663, Santa Fe, N.M.,” he hitchhiked, drove trucks, and hopped freight trains to get to Santa Fe, where his instructions were to report to 109 East Palace Avenue. This was the receiving office of the remote Los Alamos Laboratory of the Manhattan Project, where he worked until August 1946. Then, he was married in the Hamilton Baptist Church to Eleanor Roberts, daughter of chemistry professor Chet Roberts. After a short wedding trip, they took up residence in Cambridge,

Illustrations by Linda Davick

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Mass., where Al was a graduate student in physics at Harvard. He completed his Ph.D. in September 1950 and took a position as an assistant professor of physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where he received several teaching and service awards. He retired from active teaching in 1988; Eleanor died in 2008. An active member of the American Association of Physics Teachers (he was president in 1978), he received its Distinguished Service Citation in 1970, Robert A. Millikan Award in 1981, and Melba Newell Phillips Award in 1990.

In 1959, he and a professor of mathematics used petitions to force a municipal election to establish the Blue Line west of Boulder, with the city being prohibited from extending city water service west of that line. In 1969, he was one of the leaders in the citizens’ election campaign that earmarked sales tax money to be used to purchase open space. The Boulder Open Space Program now has more than 40,000 acres of recreational open space essentially encircling the city.

Bartlett first gave his talk on the arithmetic of growth in September 1969. He has delivered it more than 1,680 times, including 9 times at Colgate, last at Reunion in May 2009. DVDs of his talk are available from the University of Colorado Bookstore.

L

et me share some thoughts on the major problems that we are facing. Some of these problems are local, some national, and some are global, but they are all tied together by arithmetic. The arithmetic is not very difficult, and what I hope to do is to convince you that:

The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.

So you ask: “What’s the exponential function?” This is the mathematical function that you would use to describe the size of anything that is growing steadily. If you had something that was growing 5 percent per year, you’d write the exponential function to show how large that growing quantity was, year after year. So we’re talking about a situation where the time required for the growing quantity to increase by a fixed fraction is a constant. The 5 percent is the fixed fraction; the per year is the fixed length of time. This is just ordinary, steady growth.

If it takes a fixed length of time to grow 5 percent, it follows that it takes a longer fixed length of time to grow 100 percent. That longer time is called the doubling time. To calculate the doubling time is easy: you take the number 70, and divide it by the percentage growth per unit time. In our example, if you divide the 5 percent into 70, you find that the quantity will double in size every 14 years. (Where did the 70 come from? It’s roughly 100, multiplied by the natural logarithm of 2. If you wanted the time it would take to triple, you’d use the natural logarithm of 3, so it’s all very logical. But you don’t have to remember where it came from. Just remember 70.)

The meaning of exponential growth:

Really big numbers

I wish we could get every person to make this mental calculation every time we see a growth rate of anything in a news story. For example, if an article said something has been growing 7 percent per year for several years, you wouldn’t bat an eyelash. But when you see the headline “Colorado Kid Crime Doubles in a Decade” (Rocky Mountain News, Dec. 27, 1996), you say, “My heavens; what’s happening?” What is happening? Seven percent growth in crime per year!

Divide 7 into 70: the doubling time is 10 years. But if you’re going to write a headline, you’d never write “Crime Growing 7 Percent Per Year” because nobody would know what it means.

So what does 7 percent really mean? Let’s take another example from Colorado. The price of an allday lift ticket to ski at Vail has been growing about 7 percent per year ever since Vail opened in 1963. At that time you paid $5. We know the doubling time for

7 percent growth is 10 years. So the cost 10 years later was $10; 20 years later, $20; 30 years later, $40. What do we have to look forward to, assuming 7 percent growth? In 2033, a ticket would cost $640.

And Vail’s pretty much on schedule: in 2008-2009, a ticket cost $97.

Now let’s look at an example to see the enormous numbers you can get with just a modest number of doublings. Legend has it that the game of chess was invented by a mathematician who worked for a king.

The king said, “I want to reward you.” The mathematician said: “My needs are modest. Please take my new chess board, and on the first square, place one grain of wheat. On the next square, double the one to make two; on the next square, double the two to make four. Just keep doubling until you’ve doubled for every square. That will be an adequate payment.”

The king thought, “Foolish man! I was ready to give him a real reward, and all he asked for is just a few grains of wheat.”

Let’s see what’s involved here. We note that there are 8 grains on the 4th square. This is three twos multiplied together (2 x 2 x 2), one two less than the number of the square. On the last square (the 64th), I’d find the number of grains by multiplying 63 twos together. How do the totals build up? When we have 1 grain on the first square, the total on the board is 1.

We add 2 grains, that makes 3. We put on 4 grains; now the total is 7. Seven is a grain less than 8; it’s a grain less than 3 twos multiplied together. Fifteen is a grain less than 4 twos multiplied together. That continues in each case. When we’re done, the total number of grains will be 1 grain less than the number I get multiplying 64 twos together.

How much wheat is that? Would that be a nice pile in a room? Would it fill a building? Would it cover the county to a depth of 2 meters? The answer: roughly 300 times the current worldwide harvest of wheat. It could be more wheat than humans have harvested in the entire history of the Earth!

An important consequence of

steady growth

We now need to note something else that’s very important. The growth in every doubling time is greater than the total of all of the preceding growth.

When I put 8 grains on the 4th square, the 8 is larger than the 7 that were already on the board. I put 32 grains on the 6th square: the 32 is larger than the total of 31 that were already there.

Let’s translate this into the energy crisis. An advertisement from 1975 asks, “Could America run out of electricity? America’s need for electricity doubles every 10 or 12 years.” This reflects a long history of steady growth in the electric industry — at a rate of about 7 percent per year, which they expected would go on forever. Fortunately, it stopped (not because anyone understood the arithmetic, but for other reasons). But if that growth had continued, we would see what we saw on the chess board. In the 10 years following the ad’s appearance, the amount of electrical energy we would have consumed in this country would have been greater

than the total of all of the electrical energy we had ever previously consumed in the long history of the steady growth of this industry in the United States.

Did you know that something as completely acceptable as 7 percent growth per year could have such an incredible consequence? That’s exactly what President Jimmy Carter was referring to in his famous speech on energy. He said, “and in each of those decades [the 1950s and 1960s], more oil was consumed than in all of mankind’s previous history.”

By itself, that’s a stunning statement, but now you can understand it. The president was telling us a simple consequence of the arithmetic of 7 percent growth each year in world oil consumption. And that was the historic figure, up until the 1970s.

Population growth problems

In the summer of 1986, news reports indicated that the world population had reached 5 billion people, growing at the rate of 1.7 percent per year.

Your reaction to 1.7 percent might be: “that’s so small; nothing bad could ever happen at that rate.”

But calculate the doubling time, and you’ll find it’s only 41 years. By 1999, the world population had increased from 5 billion to 6 billion. The good news is that the growth rate had dropped from 1.7 to 1.3 percent per year. The bad news: despite the drop in the growth rate, the world population in 2009 is growing by something like 75 million people every year!

If this modest 1.3 percent per year could continue, the world population would grow to a density of 1 person per square meter on the dryland surface of the Earth in just 780 years. The mass of people would equal the mass of the Earth in just 2,400 years. We know this couldn’t happen, so there’s a very profound lesson there: zero population growth is going to happen. We can debate whether or not we’d like zero population growth, but it will happen; whether we debate it or not, whether we like it or not, it is certain that people will never live at that density. Therefore, today’s high birth rates will drop, and today’s low death rates will rise, until they have exactly the same numerical value. That will certainly be in less than 780 years.

Maybe you’re wondering: “What options are available if we wanted to deal with the problem?” In my talk, I present a chart of options. In the left-hand column I’ve listed some “good things” that we should encourage if we want to raise the population growth rate, like large families, medicine, public health, sanitation, peace, law and order, and accident prevention.

Anything

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that lowers the death rate makes the problem worse.

Scientific agriculture has lowered the death rate due to famine. It has been widely reported that the 55 mph speed limit saved thousands of lives. These just make the problem worse. Clean air makes the problem worse.

The right-hand column lists “bad things” we should encourage if we want to lower the rate of population growth, and in so doing, help solve the population problem, like small families, violence, stopping immigration, and pollution. Smoking clearly raises the death rate. Now that helps solve the problem! Let’s state our conclusion from the scenario of one person per square meter — that zero population growth is going to happen — in other terms, and it becomes obvious: Nature is going to choose from that list, and we don’t have to do anything except be prepared to live with whatever nature chooses.

Or, we can exercise the one option that’s open to us — we can choose first from the “bad things” list. We’ve got to find something here we can go out and campaign for. Anyone for promoting disease?

Would you like more war? More murder? More famine? More accidents? Here we can see the human dilemma, because everything that we regard as “good” makes the population problem worse.

Everything we regard as “bad” helps solve the problem.

The one remaining question is education. Does it go in the left-hand “good things” column, or the “bad things” right-hand column? I have to say, thus far it has been in the “good things.” It has done very little to reduce ignorance of the problem.

Nature is already choosing from the right-hand list. We have read about the AIDS epidemic in Africa. I had a friend back from Zimbabwe, and he saw people dying on the streets. Nature is making the choice.

So where do we start? Let’s look at my hometown of Boulder, Colo. The average growth rate of population from 1950 to 1970 was 6 percent per year, from 20,000 to about 60,000. With big local efforts, we’ve been able to slow it somewhat, but let’s look at the 2000 census figure of 96,000 and go another 70 years, one more human lifetime, and ask, “what rate of growth would we need so that at the end of the next 70 years, Boulder’s population would equal today’s population of your choice of major American cities?”

Boulder in 70 years would be as big as Boston today (pop. 589,141 in 2000) if we just grew 2.58 percent per year. If we thought Detroit was a better model (pop. 951,270 in 2000) we’d shoot for 3.25 percent. Remember Boulder’s historic figure of 6 percent growth per year. If that could continue for one human lifetime, the population of Boulder would be larger than that of Los Angeles (3,694,820).

You couldn’t put the population of

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Los Angeles in the Boulder Valley. Therefore, it’s obvious: Boulder’s population growth is going to stop. The only question is, will we be able to stop it while there is still some open space, or will we wait until it is wall-to-wall people and we’re all choking to death? Boulder tomorrow can be seen in Los Angeles today. A 1992 headline from Los Angeles reads: “Smog kills 1,600 annually in LA area.” Maybe that has something to do with this 1999 headline about LA: “Levels of carcinogens in air are 426 times the federal standard.”

How are we doing in Colorado? The Denver Post tells us we’re the growth capital of the United States, and proud of it. The Rocky Mountain News tells us to expect another million people in the Front Range in the next 20 years. What are the consequences of all this? We know them all in advance.

Traffic problems are just one of the things that we know will get worse.

Steady growth in a finite

environment

Let’s look now at what happens when we have this kind of steady growth in a finite environment.

Bacteria grow by doubling. One bacterium divides and becomes 2, 2 become 4, the 4 become 8, and so on. Suppose we had bacteria that doubled every minute. We put one in an empty bottle at 11 a.m., and then observed that the bottle was full at noon. This is a case of ordinary steady growth with a doubling time of 1 minute in the finite environment of one bottle. Two questions: 1) At what time was the bottle half full?

Answer: 11:59 a.m.

2) If you were an average bacterium in that bottle, at what time would you first realize that you were running out of space?

Let’s look at the last few minutes in the bottle.

Noon, it’s full. One minute before, it was half full. Two minutes before, a quarter full. Three minutes, an 8th; 4 minutes, a 16th. At just 5 minutes before 12:00, when the bottle is only 3 percent full, and 97 percent open space just yearning for development, how many of you would realize there was a problem?

In the ongoing controversy over growth in Boulder, someone wrote to the newspaper some years ago, “There’s no problem with population growth in Boulder because we have 15 times as much open space as we’ve already used.” So what time was it in Boulder when the open space was 15 times the amount of space

we’ve already used? It was 4 minutes before 12:00.

Suppose that at 2 minutes before 12:00, some of the bacteria realize that they are running out of space. They launch a great search for new bottles.

They search offshore, on the outer continental shelf, and in the Arctic, and they find 3 new bottles — a colossal discovery that is 3 times the amount of resources they ever knew about before. They now have 4 bottles; before the discovery there was only 1. Surely this will give them a sustainable society, won’t it? And here is a third question: 3) How long can the growth continue as a result of this magnificent discovery? At noon, 1 bottle is filled; there are 3 to go. At 12:01, 2 bottles are filled. At 12:02, all 4 are filled, and that’s the end of the line.

You don’t need any more arithmetic than this to evaluate the absolutely contradictory statements that we have all heard and read from experts who tell us in one breath we can go on increasing our rates of consumption of fossil fuels, and in the next say, “Don’t worry, we’ll always be able to make the discovery of new resources that we need to meet the requirements of that growth.”

We can demonstrate that the Earth is overpopulated by noting a self-evident truth: If any fraction of the observed global warming can be attributed to the actions of humans, then this, by itself, constitutes clear and compelling evidence that the human population, living as we do, has exceeded the carrying capacity ofthe Earth, a situation that is clearly not sustainable.

Predicament

We can demonstrate that the United States is overpopulated by noting that in 2008 we imported approximately 60 percent of the petroleum that we consume, around 15 percent of the natural gas that we consume, and about 20 percent of the food we eat. Because the U.S. population increases by more than 3 million per year, all of these fractions are increasing. The annual U.S. production of conventional petroleum peaked in 1970 and is now only a fraction of what it was at the peak. We are drilling hundreds of new natural gas wells annually in an attempt to maintain gas production.

If you would like more detail, in my talk ( (you can find it

on YouTube), I lay out more examples, facts, and figures regarding petroleum production and consumption rates, and projections about reserves.

I also explore the claims of public figures in the debate as they relate to my arguments about finite resources and the exponential function.

But in a nutshell, the United States today is unsustainable. And we’re ignoring the elephant in the room. Why are we in this predicament? Remember the dilemma of that two-column list. We have been doing all of the things in the “good things” list, and this makes the population problem worse. Throughout the world, scientists are prominently involved in trying to find ways to make our society sustainable. They present their writings in newspapers and refereed scientific journals; they identify growing populations as being the cause of our problems, but their recommendations for solving them almost never advocate stopping population growth.

Governments and environmental organizations are producing numerous learned reports, but the entire business, political, and environmental establishment is paralyzed by political correctness. They will not identify population growth as the fundamental, underlying cause of the problem of global warming, just as it is the underlying cause of the energy shortage and the shortages of other resources.

Let’s look at two prominent examples. In former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary film and associated book, An Inconvenient Truth, he says that “the fundamental relationship between our civilization and the ecological system of the Earth has been utterly and radically transformed by the population explosion.” This makes it clear that Gore understands the role of overpopulation in the genesis of global climate change. In the last chapter, titled “So here’s what you, personally, can do to help solve the climate crisis,” he lists 36 specific things, such as: choose energy-efficient lighting, drive smarter, and consume less. He never mentions population!

And in the Clearinghouse Newsletter, we read the statement “Human Impacts on Climate” from the Council of the American Geophysical Union. The last paragraph starts: “With climate change, as with ozone depletion, the human footprint on Earth is apparent.” The rest of the paragraph suggests what must be done, and it’s all the standard boilerplate: “Solutions will necessarily involve all aspects of society. Mitigation strategies and adaptation responses will call for collaborations across science, technology, industry, and government.” There is no mention of addressing overpopulation.

It is an “inconvenient truth” that all proposals or efforts at the local, national, or global level to slow global warming and to achieve sustainability that do not advocate reducing population to sustainable levels are what Mark Twain called “silent lies.”

2) We must educate all of our people to an understanding of the arithmetic and the consequences of growth, especially in terms of population and in terms of the Earth’s finite resources.

3) We must educate people to recognize the First Law of Sustainability:

Population growth and/or growth in the rates of consumption of resources cannot be sustained.

This law is based on arithmetic, so it’s not debatable, unless you want to debate arithmetic.

It’s intellectually dishonest to talk about saving the environment and sustainability without stressing the obvious fact that stopping population growth is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for sustainability.

4) We need to examine carefully the allegations of the technological optimists who assure us that science and technology will always be able to solve all of our problems. Chief among these optimists was the late Julian Simon, who was a professor of economics and business administration at the Universities of Illinois and Maryland. In his book, The Ultimate Resource (Princeton University Press, 1981), he writes about oil from many sources, including biomass: “Clearly there’s no meaningful limit to this source except for the sun’s energy.” He goes on: “Even if our sun were not as vast as it is, there may be other suns elsewhere.” Would you base public policy on the belief that if we need another sun, we’ll go get one and haul it back into our solar system? You cannot laugh. For decades before his

death, Simon was a trusted policy adviser at the highest levels in Washington, D.C.

Facts and arithmetic

To be successful with this experiment of human life on earth, we have to understand the laws of nature as we encounter them in the study of science and mathematics. We should remember the words of Aldous Huxley: “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”

I’m not predicting the future. I’m only reporting facts, and the results of some simple arithmetic. But I do this with confidence that these facts, and our understanding of them, will play a major role in shaping our future. Don’t take my argument blindly or uncritically because of the rhetoric. Check the facts.

Check my arithmetic. If you find errors, please let me know! If you don’t find errors, then I hope you’ll take this very, very seriously. My main message is this:

We cannot let other people do our thinking for us.

So what do we do?

In the words of Winston Churchill, “Sometimes we have to do what is required.”

1) As a nation, we’ve got to get serious about renewable energy.

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39

Here’s a challenge: can you think of any problem

on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted, or advanced by having larger populations?

Can you think of anything that will get better

if we crowd

more students into Colgate University — more people into our counties, our state,

our nation, around

this Earth? Is there anything that will get better in the long run?

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I hope I’ve made a reasonable case in support of my opening statement.

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scene: Autumn 2009

Andrew Daddio

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stay connected

to know: Know:Geoffrey Name Here Get to Gold ’86

Alumni bulletin board Questions? Contact the alumni office at 315-228-7433 or alumni@colgate. edu.

Alumni Council Notes

By Gus P. Coldebella ’91, President

– Alumni Council member since 2005 – Many volunteer roles including Annual Fund Executive Committee chair and Real World; Maroon Citation 2006 – MBA, New York University – Managing Principal, Normandy Hill Capital Tell us about your work.

Normandy Hill Capital is a hedge fund. I’m the portfolio manager.

We invest in distressed debt and companies going through restructuring or other events related to their operations and capital structures. As entrepreneurs who have their own businesses know, it goes from making copies to making significant investment decisions and everything in between. I love that it’s different every day.

The variety of companies and the industries they are in, and the different problems that we get to figure out from an investment perspective are energizing and exciting.

What’s your favorite part of being on the Alumni Council?

The close interaction that we get to have with students, helping them think through career and life choices. That’s a big piece of our roles and responsibilities.

What issues are of interest in your role on the council?

I think it’s extremely important to work on communication and connectedness between alumni, the administration, and students. The council represents all alumni, so we’re working hard to enhance our outreach.

Tell me about your family.

My wife, Vicki, went to Penn State. We try not to argue about football. We have two boys, Nathan, who is 12, and Jason, who’s 10.

There’s a reasonable amount of Colgate history in the family: my dad is Dr. Steven Gold ’63 and my sister is Lauren Gillette ’90.

Do you have any favorite pastimes?

I enjoy fishing and spending time with my family in Chatham on Cape Cod. I grew up fishing with my dad on the Beaver Kill River, and I’ve been fly fishing since I was 12. Atlantic salmon fishing in Iceland is one of my favorites. I was supposed to be there with my dad in July, but I had to cancel. I did catch a 150-pound bluefin tuna off the coast of Cape Cod, which made up for it slightly. The photo almost doesn’t look real, but I can tell you it was. I was sore for about three days after pulling that one in. We ate tuna for lunch and dinner all week.

What would people be surprised to learn about you?

That I could pull in a 150-pound tuna — I’m only 5 foot 6!

The 55 members of the Alumni Council have begun our 2009–2010 year serving Colgate’s more than 30,000 living alumni. Three initiatives I’d like to highlight: Career programs Alumni from all eras are feeling the pinch of a tightening economy. Our career services committee is putting together programs around the country “by alumni, for alumni” to provide relevant advice to job changers and job seekers. Watch your e-mail for one near you.

scene: Autumn 2009

Contact the alumni office to receive club mailings for multiple cities.

LGBTQ alumni and supporters If you are interested in belonging to the distribution list for LGBTQ-related events and issues, please contact the alumni office at alumni@colgate. edu. This private community allows alumni to network together, find support, and learn about the current campus climate. You will also have access to the private “group” page on colgatealumni.org. Please provide an e-mail and mailing address so you can be included on notification of some important programs!

Communication As Colgate alumni, we care deeply about what’s happening on campus, and the council is poised to use all media — from snail mail to Twitter — to get information to you and promote discussion about Colgate issues. In fact, we now blog from our Alumni Council meetings on campus.

Visit www.colgatealumni.org for more.

Feedback Last year’s Gallup survey of alumni is complete, and Alumni Council members have been contacting the 700-plus alumni who asked for more information about what’s going on at Colgate. The presidential transition is top-of-mind for many alumni, as well as questions about Greek life, athletics, and the university’s financial health. To learn more: www.colgate alumni.org/gallup.

Want to discuss Colgate issues? Feel free to reach out directly to any council member: visit www.colgatealumni. org/alumnicouncil for our contact info. Armed with your thoughts, we’ll be better informed when we visit campus in the fall, winter, and spring.

• • •

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Live and/or work in more than one location?

Belize & Guatemala Explorer tour: March 20–25, 2010 Immerse yourself in Mayan history and culture. Enjoy a canoe tour through Barton Creek Cave and visit the ruins of Xunantunich, or hike through the Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve and explore Actun Tunichil Muknal, the Cave of the Stone Sepulchre. Visit Tikal, the greatest of Guatemala’s classic Mayan cities, and Ambergris Caye, a laid-back island protected by the Belize Barrier Reef. Snorkel in the Hol Chan Marine Reserve and spend an afternoon on Caye Caulker. Colgate is partnering with Hamilton and Colby Colleges on this adventure. Visit http:// mt.globaladrenaline.com/Trips/ ColgateBelize2010.html for more information.

salmagundi

Rewind

Puzzle by Puzzability

Grid Play To get the answer to the riddle below, find the six individual pieces in the large photo. Some pieces have been rotated. When you find a piece, fill in the color-matched boxes with the letters from the piece’s original row and column. Then read those letters, in order, to get the answer to the riddle.

What do Raiders football fans do before games that Raiders football opponents do after them?

Slices A pictorial contest, in homage to the nickname of New York Pizzeria, the late-night Village of Hamilton hot spot serving the Colgate community for more than three decades — one plain slice at a time.

Gettin’ wiggy with it. Can you tell us which Colgate theater production this was? Bonus points if you can identify the masters of comedy pictured. Extra bonus points if you can tell us the issue date when this was featured on the cover of the Scene!

Submit your answer about this “slice” of Colgate to scene@colgate.edu or attn: Colgate Scene, 13 Oak Dr., Hamilton, NY 13346. Correct responses received by December 1, 2009, will be put into a drawing for a Slices T-shirt.

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scene: Autumn 2009

Michael Jackson’s death got me thinking about where I was as his songs came out, Thriller having been released the fall of my freshman year.

Soon, my memory conjured his sound on the dance floors of mid-’80s Colgate University: fraternity basements and dining rooms, the Hour Glass, that nightclub somewhere out of town I forget the name of, sometimes the Jug near the women’s bathroom, and small apartment living rooms.

It also summoned a curious assortment of dance partners, the more primal group/communal dances, and solo expeditions.

Colgate sure was a good time. Your education ain’t complete, T-t-teacher’s gonna show you (show you, show you).

Sue Jacoby ’86

Do you have a reminiscence for Rewind? Send your submission of short prose, poetry, or a photograph with a description to scene@colgate. edu.

Slip slidin’ away. At Konosioni Field Day during first-year orientation, residence hall teams compete in various relay race events, a tug of war, and other fun activities on the old golf course. Back cover: Specimens on exhibit in the Ho Science Center’s new Robert M. Linsley Museum, which was officially dedicated on Homecoming Weekend. Both photos by Andrew Daddio

News and views for the Colgate community

scene: News and views for the Colgate community Colgate University 13 Oak Drive Hamilton, NY 13346-1398

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