Colgate Magazine — Summer 2021 by Colgate University

SUMMER 2021

THE MIDDLE CAMPUS: Uniting arts, digital creativity, and entrepreneurship P.32

Discover

Infrastructure and social structures P.30 Voices

Capturing Joy in Times of Adversity P.12 Endeavor

Designing post-pandemic workplaces P.64

look

Mark DiOrio

Symmetry in the name of safety. Colgate arranged for an in-person commencement at Andy Kerr Stadium, which provided space for physical distancing in accordance with New York State guidelines in May. Nearly 700 members of the Class of 2021 graduated; each was allowed two guests, and everyone submitted negative COVID-19 tests or proof of vaccination. To read more about Commencement 2021, see p. 14.

Read this issue and all previous issues at colgate.edu/magazine.

Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 1

look A sense of calmness settled on Colgate’s campus following a year of pandemic-related stress.

2 Colgate Magazine Summer 2021

Mark DiOrio

Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 3

Contents

SUMMER 2021 Discover

President’s Message

Letters

Voices

A rendering showing the proposed Middle Campus quad

There but for the Grace The news often highlights public figures apologizing for their indiscretions. But then society deems who is deserving of a second chance.

Breaking Open A daughter’s love letter to her dad, Chris Fagan ’77

What Does Serotonin Do?

Professor Ann Jane Tierney examines the mysteries and misconceptions of this well-known neurotransmitter.

The Nuclear Sleuth 28

Capturing Joy in Times of Adversity Emily Mohn-Slate ’01 dives into the complexity of emotions in her book The Falls, winner of the New American Poetry Prize.

Making Headway Researchers study a new tool for improving concussion diagnosis.

Power to the People From bridges to broadband, Professor Chris Henke looks at infrastructure and how it affects social structures.

Do You Want to Know a Secret? Scene

Colgate News 14

4 Colgate Magazine Summer 2021

Learn little-known facts about the Beatles from Professor Marietta Cheng, who teaches a music course on the band that changed rock.

The Nexus: Innovation, Creation, and Hands-on Exploration What do technology and theater have in common? At Colgate, more than you’d think. Plans for developing the Middle Campus are underway; find out what’s coming. And see how students spent their spring semester in theater and dance, film and media studies, computer science, TIA, and studio art.

illustrationS: TOBY TRIUMph (scene) and mercedes debellard (voices); photography: Brenna Merritt

Gary Eppich ’06 keeps the world’s radioactive material safe with his detective work.

Vice President for Communications Laura H. Jack Managing Editor Aleta Mayne Assistant Editor Rebecca Docter Senior Director, Communications and Strategic Initiatives Mark Walden Chief Creative Director Tim Horn Art Director Karen Luciani

RAMSA/Alliedworks

Endeavor

Reimagining the Great Indoors As people return to the office, David Schwarz ’99 and his design firm HUSH are thinking about the future of workspaces.

Big Men Off Campus Providing a platform that enables students to visit campuses virtually, the alumni founders of CampusReel increased its user base 500% during the height of the pandemic.

Designer Katriel Pritts University Photographer Mark DiOrio Communications Specialist Kathy Jipson Contributors: Gordon Brillon, web content specialist; Daniel DeVries, media relations director; Sara Furlong, advancement communications manager; Katherine Laube, art director; Brian Ness, video journalism coordinator; Kristin Putman, social media strategist Printed and mailed from Lane Press in South Burlington, Vt.

Sea Change

Colgate Magazine Volume L Number 4

In Denmark, a digital marketplace developed by Christine Hebert ’12 disrupts the seafood supply chain.

Colgate Magazine is a quarterly publication of Colgate University. Online: colgate.edu/magazine Email: magazine@colgate.edu Telephone: 315-228-7407

Two Men, 13 Minutes

Gregory Volk ’81

Nominated for an Academy Award and executive produced by Jane Solomon ’83, A Concerto Is a Conversation explores race relations and family lineage.

Alumni News

Charting His Course

Salmagundi

Matt Shirley ’04 maps out the ups and downs of adulting in his humorous self-help guide.

112

Laura Barisonzi

Cover: Illustration by Dan Page. See “The Nexus: Innovation, Creation, and Hands-on Exploration” on p. 32.

Change of Address: Alumni Records Clerk, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346-1398 Telephone: 315-228-7453 Opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by the University, the publishers, or the editors. Colgate University does not discriminate in its programs and activities because of race, color, sex, pregnancy, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, age, marital status, sexual orientation, veteran or military status, predisposing genetic characteristics, domestic violence victim status, or any other protected category under applicable local, state, or federal law. For inquiries regarding the University’s non‑discrimination policies, contact Marilyn Rugg, Associate Provost for Equity and Diversity, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346; 315-228-7288.

Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 5

President’s Message

didn’t turn my phone off for 20 months. It is not unusual for any college president to stay near his or her phone every day, and to rarely have it off. But for 20 months, beginning in March of 2020 when Colgate closed, I never allowed my phone’s battery to drop to zero. Nearly every day I would be in constant touch with the Dean of the College, or the Associate Vice President for the Campus Safety Department, or a member of our health and planning teams and task forces to see where we were, learn what events had occurred, and hear about another change in CDC or state guidance. We’d wait every night for news from the most recent COVID-19 testing cycle. What were the numbers? How many close contacts have been identified? How many quarantine and isolation rooms at the Wendt Inn did we have still available? A text on your phone could mean everything. We all were looking at our phones. It sometimes felt as random as the lottery. But these numbers were our students and staff members. And the numbers were telling us if we could stay open. Our phones were like oracles, telling us of the fate of Colgate, and we couldn’t let them shut down.

Arrival Day at Colgate is usually a loud, boisterous affair. The SUVs and packed sedans suddenly appear on Whitnall Field as first-year students arrive with their parents. Typically, I walk around to say hello to as many

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students as possible those mornings. The parents are thrilled to say hello, and they are all too ready to tell me stories about their child. The new students rarely say anything, though they wish their parents would simply let me walk away without any more reports from their childhoods. Their eyes are like darts, aimed at their talkative fathers. On most move-in days, I walk about the residence halls as the day unfolds to see how it is all going. West Hall and East Hall, with their narrow corridors, seem to be bursting at the seams. How could these students have brought this much stuff? Parents are barking orders and swearing at the weight of things, and the students are shyly walking around the halls to see their new classmates. When they are all settled into their new rooms, parents and students gather for speeches under tents. At the end of the speeches the parents cry when they hug their children goodbye, and the students walk back to their residence halls for the first of their orientation events. The year usually begins with a crowded outburst of activity. This year, our pandemic year, first-year students arrived on Whitnall Field again in crowded cars, but they didn’t walk up the Hill with their parents. Only students and employees were allowed onto the core of the campus. Other students, and a lot of athletics staff, loaded the new students’ gear onto trucks that morning and brought everything up the Hill for them. The students said goodbye to their parents on

Visit colgate.edu/ president

mark diorio

Notes From a Pandemic Year

Whitnall Field after the quick unloading and then walked into the Hall of Presidents to register formally as Colgate students. Then they walked up the Hill, typically alone. They carried a boxed lunch that was given to them because the dining halls were closed, and the 14+ days of food being delivered to them was about to begin. I was on top of the Hill that morning, in the residential quadrangle, when I began to see the students walking up the Hill, arriving one by one in masks. I have never felt so much emotion for students as I did on that day, seeing them walk up Colgate’s Hill. I didn’t want to tell them this because I wanted to let them think this was all somewhat usual, but I thought they were the bravest group of young people I had ever seen.

The year, at some point, did establish its own rhythms and patterns. And, sometimes, it all seemed somewhat normal. But then you would be struck by the differences. It wasn’t the masks we all wore, or the signs all over the campus alerting everyone to social distancing requirements that struck you. It was the things you never knew were important that were absent. It was the lack of music. Until this year, I never realized how musical campuses typically are. There are a cappella groups, which we hear at large events. When I walk by the chapel in the evenings, you can hear these groups practice, or you hear the orchestra warming up. You hear the music from the various religious services through the chapel’s open windows. On Saturdays you hear music floating up from Broad Street parties or from the windows of the residential quad. But this year, with all musical groups suspended and no large gatherings, there was essentially no music on the campus. Until this year, I never knew how important music was.

By far the hardest part of the year was enforcing new rules. There were rules about classroom spacing, social distancing, and visiting friends from different residence halls. There were prohibitions against large parties and traveling. And like everyone across the country, no one liked these new rules, even if everyone could see they were needed. There are, of course, rules that govern student behavior in any typical year, but these COVID-19 regulations were new and more challenging. The students had to navigate between their sense that these rules were necessary and their sense that

they were too hard. Asking staff members to enforce these rules, and the students to abide by them, was the hardest thing for everyone. It was exhausting, for everyone. It will take a while to recover from this.

The University progressed through each of the four main “Gates” of rules (as the infection numbers went down, greater levels of mobility and gathering possibilities — Gates — were announced). By the time we reached a later Gate, students could gather in groups of 25. This meant that — with a number of modifications — sports teams could practice in groups again. In fall we had moved to a more lenient Gate; every athletics field was suddenly covered with teams, and students were walking to practices and other workouts. And they were incredibly loud when they did so. These days could not replace the excitement of crowded game days, but the days when the student-athletes were practicing seemed to take on new importance. They become necessary. In the spring, Easter weekend proved to be one of our greatest challenges. The students had been in various forms of restrictions for weeks, and there was no spring break to look forward to for relief. We in the administration had a sense that this was

I have never felt so much emotion for students as I did on that day, seeing them walk up Colgate’s Hill.

the weekend when large gatherings might break out, or when traveling to and from the campus might occur. And this came to pass. In a few days’ time, Colgate suddenly had to move back a few Gates, with old restrictions put into place in response to the seemingly inevitable spike in infections. The students went back to their residence halls, the dining halls went back to pick-up service only, and new restrictions were placed on practices and gatherings. Those were the days when I wondered whether we could just make it to the end of the semester. But we did.

As I told the seniors this year at commencement, we all developed new habits this year, habits we formed when we weren’t even looking. Mine was the habit of walking out of the house, late at night before going to sleep, and looking at the campus. It is a great feature of the president’s house at Colgate and its setting that you can see essentially all of the campus from the top of the Hill, and you can see miles down the Chenango Valley. But it was the campus I would focus on each night, with the chapel, the towers on the dorms, and the academic buildings all lit up. I could see the athletics fields to the south, and Broad Street ahead. When the lights were up on Willow Path, I could see them as well — and they would reflect off of the snow or, in the spring, the water of Taylor Lake. On those nights, I would think that we were all here, in this unusual and sometimes scary time, and that I was here, and that I had to keep remembering that I was here for a reason. I had work to do, and somehow, for the sake of everyone in those dorms, townhouses, and buildings on Broad Street, and for all those in the library late at night, we had to go on, that 200 years of this University could not stop.

Throughout the year, when I would see the students on campus, I could see they were tired and chafing at all the rules. I would ask them, “Was it worth it, coming back?” They always said it was. And I think they were right. Even in the compromised and difficult way we were together this year, it was good that we had this year on this campus. There are few times when you can participate in something bigger than yourself and connect yourself to an important mission. There are few times when the fate of the many depend on the actions of each individual. That was Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 7

what happened in Hamilton this year, and we were all changed by it. But I will never forget how hard this was for our students, and for our staff and faculty members. I

I hope the bravery remains. We were better for it.

It is summer as I write this, and on these warm nights, I walk my dog through the quiet campus. On those walks, I see West Hall, where I lived during the mandatory quarantines of this pandemic year. I see the windows of 100 West, and I think to myself: I lived there? It all already seems like a long time ago. I am not sure we will soon know what this year fully meant, and what happened to us. For now, all I can be sure of is that I am proud of Colgate students and faculty and staff. We were faced with something daunting,

8 Colgate Magazine Summer 2021

something big and unknown — and we came through stronger than before. The new academic year will be more normal. But I think there will be some compromises in how we move about. And I think we will be on guard in ways that become more habitual to us this year. But I hope the bravery remains. We were better for it. And I hope there will be music.

— Brian W. Casey

Mark Diorio (top); andrew daddio (Left)

will never forget the sheer exhaustion of it all. I will also never forget that we did something worthwhile, and that we were changing a university because of everything we were doing.

special collections & university archives

Letters

Good Times at Dana Arts Center As a fine arts major who was involved in vocal music groups, I spent a lot of time in Dana (“Places of Imagination,” spring 2021, p. 34). As a child visiting my big brother at Colgate for parents’ weekend, in 1967 I saw a play performed in Brehmer Theater in Dana. It perhaps was one of the first plays performed at Dana. Skipping ahead to the mid’70s, a group of friends my freshman year had a tradition of playing Sardines in the odd spaces in Dana every so often on Friday nights. I was a happy user of the elevator in bad weather. I loved the old Picker Gallery as a teaching gallery, with the open picture windows. Artists whose exhibits rotated through each year came to speak about their work in that space, and attendance was required as part of our studio courses. Dana brings back happy memories of University Chorus rehearsals with Marietta Cheng and of Swinging ’Gates rehearsals in Room 122. There were plays, concerts, and Madison Quartet concerts in Brehmer. One of the highlights of my experiences in Dana was the 1977 Summer Institute on Pre-Columbian Studies. Professor Flora Clancy

gathered the leading scholars on Teotihuacan to present papers of their current research, and it was great to meet these people, whose books we had been studying, in person. In particular, Dr. Clemency Coggins gave an outstanding presentation about the murals at Teotihuacan and inspired me to learn all I could about them. A year and a half later, I was on Dr. Anthony Aveni’s archaeoastronomy Jan Plan to central Mexico, standing directly in front of murals in buildings at Teotihuacan for the first time. Sculpture exhibits were held on the roof garden [at Dana] with wine-and-cheese openings during summer term. We dressed up to attend. Dana has a rich history at Colgate and was meaningful to me. I am grateful to have had the honor of exhibiting a collage in 1984 in an alumni art show in the upper gallery. Victoria Stephens ’79 Williams

Trusted Leader In response to “Teachable Moments,” about Jim Peyser ’78, secretary of education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (spring 2021, p. 74): Jim, from one Colgate grad to another, what a difference a great education makes. Proud to be a trustee of Holyoke Community College and follow your thought leadership. Thanks for all you do for our great state! Charlie Epstein ’79

Supporting Different Generations Sparked by “Somebody to Lean On” (spring 2021, p. 26): I’m 87 and still working full-time, and my granddaughter is 25 and just graduating from Columbia with a master’s in journalism. Amazingly, we have a lot in common and FaceTime every other week. Art Bayern ’54

We Asked, You Answered In March, we emailed a survey to readers to learn more about online vs. print preferences, subject-matter interests, what you think is successful, and how we can improve. We received responses from 12% (3,179) of recipients, who included alumni, students (prospective and current), parents of current students and graduates, and other supporters of Colgate. Thank you to those who took time out of their busy schedules to participate. What we learned: The magazine is the leading source of information about Colgate for its readers, and two-thirds of respondents say they read every issue. In terms of what you like to read, articles about alumni activities are favored by approximately 60% of readers, followed by campus life (35%) and faculty activities (8%). Readers are largely in agreement about the overall tone of the magazine, with a strong majority saying they believe that the magazine should be “about the same” seriousness (80.8%). Still, 24.6% say it could be slightly more nostalgic, 22.7% say it could be slightly more lighthearted, and 20.5% say it could be slightly more cutting edge. For those who worry we would make the magazine available only online, never fear — survey respondents consistently emphasize the power of print.

Remembering Beloved Professors In response to “In Tribute: Bertram J. Levine ’63” (winter 2021, p. 64) He was an amazing professor who taught on my Washington Study Group. He was a very kind and compassionate man who loved teaching. Kathryn Barcroft ’94 Bert played a big role in my life as a college jr. Great and selfless person. Eric Andersen ’87 In response to “In Tribute: William J. “Bill” Oostenink” (winter 2021, p 63) A truly tremendous personality and wonderful person. Jesse Bocinski ’04

73%

Exclusively print

Mostly print, occasional online

Online only

Percent 0

20.6%

1.7%

To share your thoughts on this issue, email magazine@colgate.edu, or connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, or Twitter. Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 9

Voices Relationships

Breaking Open A daughter’s love letter to her dad, Chris Fagan ’77

n All the Colors Came Out, Kate Fagan writes about her close yet sometimes complicated relationship with her dad, Chris Fagan ’77, who died of ALS in December 2019. Kate’s mom, Kathleen (Crowley) ’78 Fagan, refers to the book as “Kate’s love letter to her dad” in the introduction. “Lucky us … our daughters hit the jackpot,” Kathleen writes of Chris as a father. “Chris’ drive, his devotion, and above all, his attention to his daughters’ dreams made our girls who they are.” The following excerpt is from a chapter titled “Fort Moultrie.”

There’s a narrow street in Charleston — Huger Street — that cuts across upper downtown; my wife, Kathryn, and I happen to frequently find ourselves there. One of our favorite restaurants is on this street, and it’s also around the corner from Hampton Park, where we walk our dogs a few mornings a week. Kathryn doesn’t know this, but the street is haunted. Each time we drive down it, a scene plays out, and sometimes so vividly I have to remind myself it’s happening only in my head. (Or is it? Maybe there’s also an energetic imprint on the street.) The scene is excruciatingly simple. I’m in the car with my dad. He’s driving. It’s the night before my wedding — Oct. 3, 2018 — and we’re driving slowly on Huger looking for street parking. We find a spot, but we need to parallel park, so my dad pulls the car past the opening,

10 Colgate Magazine Summer 2021

lines it up, shifts the car into reverse, and begins to crank the wheel. I’m looking over my shoulder at his progress when the car suddenly stops. He looks at me, his eyebrows arched, his eyes big. “I need you to do it,” he says. “I — I can’t, this wheel.” His left arm, long rendered useless, dangles from his shoulder; his right arm, the one on which we’ve pinned our hopes, keeps slipping from the top of the wheel. “I got this,” I say, popping out of the car and darting around, believing the faster I park, the less time my dad has to analyze what just happened. And this is the moment. I see as a drone would, from above: the silver car idled on Huger, both our doors open, me scrambling around the hood, my dad dazed, struggling to pull himself from the driver’s seat. I quickly park the car, pretending that the wheel is sticky, grimacing for effect.

“Man, that’s a really tough steering wheel,” I say as I get out of the parked car. It’s one of those lies we build to get our hearts from one moment to the next, like grabbing someone’s arm and dragging them from a gruesome sight. Each time we drive down Huger, no matter the time of day, this scene plays. And sometimes as we pass the exact place on the street, I turn my head to keep my eyes there, just to stay in the moment a little longer. It’s no mystery why this has happened. Just hours before he and I drove down Huger, my dad and I had talked — finally talked — about all the failures and miscommunications in our relationship over the years. It was the kind of conversation I promised myself we’d one day have but worried we wouldn’t. Nearly a decade had passed between me knowing I had things to say and actually saying them. And for two Illustration by Patti Mollica

of those years, my dad had an ALS diagnosis hovering over him, and still I couldn’t figure out how to carve out time just for the two of us. But earlier that day, I’d asked if we could go for a ride, just us. As I knew would happen, my dad’s eyes darted to mine, and he said, “Uh oh, am I in trouble?” Now that he was sick, he balked at interactions presented as “special.” He thought they meant the other person believed he was dying, and if the other person believed he was dying — well, that was incorrect messaging for the powers that be, the big man upstairs. This kind of reverence for spoken ideas isn’t unusual. Many of us believe we can speak things into existence. We think that if we say our hopes aloud, the universe might just conspire to help us. And so, conversely, we worry that if we name our gravest fear, the thing we desperately hope isn’t true . . . well, what will the universe do with that energy? (Nothing good, my dad imagined.) “Let’s just spend some time together. I know a cool place,” I said, and, giving me another wary look, he accepted. We drove to Sullivan’s Island and parked the car facing the cannons of Fort Moultrie and, just beyond, the expanse of the Atlantic Ocean. The row of war machinery rests between two forts that feel as if they’re part of the lush hillside, and along the winding path detailed signs explain the strategic importance of each variation in the landscape. From this perch, with nothing in view but relics of long-ago battles and swaying palm trees, modern life can feel like an abstract concept. Even in October the temperature was touching 90 degrees, and my dad had his window down. For a few minutes, we said nothing. I shifted in my seat, took in a deep breath. My mind was filled with a jumble of ums, ands, I justs, I wanted tos — these false starts, this wheel spinning. Sitting there, finally in the moment I had wanted to create, I was still unable to imagine myself saying the things I needed to say.

Sitting there, finally in the moment I had wanted to create, I was still unable to imagine myself saying the things I needed to say.

For 30 years, our language had been low fives and the New York Knicks and practical advice and sneakers. My dad’s love had been expressed verbally through his signature text “aml” — all my love — but mostly through service: he mailed me cards with cash for a dinner out, he drove my car from New York to Colorado, he carried my gym bag around my summer basketball tournaments, he showed up for everything that was important to me. For all this, my gratitude was expressed simply: Thanks, Dad; you’re the best. We paved over the mistakes and miscommunications and kept chugging along. But what we never did was get in there, wade into the mix of awesome and awful, and see each other clearly. Sitting next to him, I realized that if I waited for a poetic way to begin the conversation, it would never start. I just needed to dive in and thrash about until I found my footing. “Um, I just . . . wanted to get some time together to, to talk, because I feel like there are all these things I want to say that I’ve never said before — I don’t think I’ve said, anyway.” His eyes turned soft and tender, and he opened his body to me. He could hear the tone of my voice, how it was running along the edge, threatening to fall into the pool of tears below. “I don’t know, I just don’t think you realize how important you are to me and how grateful I am . . . that . . . you’re my dad. I mean, all the time we spent together. How many dads do that? You took me everywhere with you, and you showed me everything you loved, and now I love those things, too.” “I’m not sure I deserve that much credit,” he said, putting his right hand on my shoulder. “It wasn’t a sacrifice to spend time with you. I really liked you.” “I just always think about all the hours you put in rebounding for me, a little girl, like I was the most important thing in the world. I can’t have you thinking I don’t remember that, that I don’t see that and think about it all the time. That we had such a great childhood and you treated me equally and gave me all these opportunities. I mean, I didn’t even realize people thought female athletes and women’s sports were inferior until, like, five years ago.” He laughed. “It was so much fun for me, those years, getting to watch you and seeing you fall in love with the game. I had as much fun as you did. Maybe I should be thanking you.” “I’m sorry I went to Colorado without thinking about how it would make you feel. I just didn’t, I didn’t even think of how it would

change everything, and how hard it would be for you to not be a part of that chapter of my life —” and here my voice lost its balance. “I don’t think I ever said I’m sorry.” “And you never needed to say you were sorry. Going to Colorado was a great decision for you — haven’t I said that, in retrospect?” I nodded, fat tears falling down my cheeks. Seeing them, he said, “Katie, oh, honey,” and touched my hair, and I thought how stubborn I’d been, missing him so much for so long and yet doing nothing about it. I wished I’d said something before the diagnosis, before the clock had started ticking. “And I just — I’m sorry about how I came out as gay, that I didn’t tell you directly, and I’m sorry about that email I wrote when I was mad at you. I’m sorry — I’m sorry I let myself put that anger down in words and sent it to you.” “I made mistakes, too, and I still think about them. I should have come play in that tournament with you in Los Angeles — I regret that to this day. But none of those regrets, or none of our mistakes, changes how much I love you or how proud I am that you’re my daughter. I mean, Katie, you’ve given us so much. I get to be the guy who walks into a room and people want to know if I’m your dad.” “But then you have to tell them you are,” I said, trying to make him laugh. “I am so incredibly proud of who you’ve become,” he said. “And I know it’s important to say these things, to talk them out, but you must also know that there’s nothing you could say or do that would change the way I feel about you.” And so, hours later, as we were driving down Huger, there was still this kinetic energy between us, this palpable warmth and softness that we’d both missed so much. More than just love, it was a kind of breaking open. It’s this energy, this feeling, that is now trapped in amber alongside the scene — a bird’s-eye view of the car, doors open — on that downtown street. And if it’s possible to feel a kinship with streets, I do with Huger, because a small part of my dad lives there.

— Kate Fagan is an Emmy Award–winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author. She currently works for Meadowlark Media and writes for Sports Illustrated.

After college, Chris and Kathleen lived in Europe, where he played professional basketball in Amsterdam, Holland; Ajaccio, Corsica; and Fougeres, France. Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 11

VOICES

I’M TRYING TO WRITE A JOYFUL POEM

Poetry

Capturing Joy in Times of Adversity In her prize-winning new book, The Falls, Emily Mohn-Slate ’01 dives into the complexity of emotions.

inding and holding on to happiness, gratitude, contentment — the bundle of feelings that describe joy — in the midst of hardship is a struggle everyone can relate to after this past year. Emily Mohn-Slate ’01 wrote the poem featured here before the pandemic, but its sentiment is evergreen. She was inspired by fellow poet Ross Gay’s book, Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude — both the themes he explores and his narrative writing style. Mohn-Slate approaches her own poetry by finding inspiration in real-life events and using them as a jumping-off point into her creative realm. “I was doing my version of the logic of his poems, where you’re thinking about one thing and then you leap to another idea or thought,” she says, “which I think mimics the way our minds operate.” At the time, Mohn-Slate was a new mother, so she wrote about grappling with the uncertainty of the future as well as the idea of mortality. “In the end of the poem, the speaker gets to this realization that joy is so bound up with loss and with how finite we all are — that the depth of the joy we experience connects to the fact that our lives will not go on forever,” she says. While the piece keeps slipping back into sorrow, sadness, and grief, the speaker keeps wresting it back to joy, she explains. “And then it ends on a note that contains all of those emotions mixed up together.” The poet was battling these conflicted feelings herself as she was quite literally trying to write a joyful poem. She estimates that it took 50-something drafts until she was satisfied.

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after reading Ross Gay’s new book, which makes me feel light and giddy, like maybe a world in which figs fall from a city sky is possible, but my poem becomes about the collapse of long love, how even the brightest glint in the eye becomes shadow eventually. My son dances across the room in a red cowboy hat, he asks me to chase him, but the girl in the documentary I watch lives in a landfill outside Moscow — she drinks water from dirty milk jugs and — why does joy always slide into darkness? My son laughs, his eight teeth new and white, shining in the sun while I tickle his belly. Joy must be at least as complicated as sorrow, which is one reason I hate those posed pictures people take before weddings, before babies, hands clasped over the woman’s belly — cupping warm skin thinking they know what’s inside.

other people across a stretch of table what it feels like to live on this planet right now, to have a mouth, to form words — I’m saying, How are you feeling? She’s saying, It was just so funny, so damn funny and the woman next to me she laughs, she sighs, she holds her belly. Maybe joy is the real mystery. Maybe I’ve been wrong for decades, only looking under the rock, pointing out the shades of dark. Last night I lay across from my love and said I love you, something I usually say while opening the fridge, while leaving the house, my back turned, I said I love you staring right into his open eyes — what made me look is that I remembered he will die. Maybe joy is a hand reaching out in a fierce wind, one so very hard to open your fingers in, or your eyes.

Maybe joy is an animal that scurries when you get close, or maybe it’s my son pointing out the moon saying Look! Up there! which makes me think how he almost wasn’t so many times. And doesn’t the girl in Moscow, Yula is her name, have joys, too? And this cramped coffee shop hums with people telling

Illustration by Mercedes deBellard

VOICES Mohn-Slate spends a lot of time talking about the writing process in her high school English classes at Winchester Thurston as well as in the Madwoman in the Attic Writing Workshops she teaches through Carlow University. At Colgate, Mohn-Slate was an English major who took poetry courses, including one with Peter Balakian, the Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor in humanities and professor of English. “I learned so much from him,” she says. In her junior year, Mohn-Slate took Professor (now emerita) Margaret Darby’s literature course on language and gender, which gave her a new perspective: “I started reading all these feminist poets who completely blew everything open for me, and I thought, ‘I want to write my own stuff. I don’t want to only talk about what other people are writing.’” She went on to earn her master’s at Boston University and spent several years working at Carnegie Mellon University. Approximately 10 years ago, she returned to that goal of writing her own poetry and essays. A few life changes and many drafts later, The Falls was published in 2020 and received the New American Poetry Prize. The book’s final chapter concludes with “I Am Trying to Write a Joyful Poem.” “When you’re ordering a book of poems, it’s like making a playlist; you want your first and last poems to have a lot of impact on the reader,” she says. “And what I wanted, for the narrative arc of the book, is for the reader to feel the speaker trying to move toward the light.” There are somber notes in The Falls, which deals with divorce, the anxiety of motherhood, and death. Even so, the book is not depressing; it’s a portrait of life. And while “it’s not a happy ending,” Mohn-Slate says, “it’s at least trying to be a happy ending.” Next, she’ll be writing new poems that explore the ways technology affects relationships. “I started working on these poems before the pandemic, and now [the topic] feels even more relevant, given how many of our daily social interactions happen online,” she says. The poet will observe how technology hampers our ability to be present for each other, changes our relationships as well as our ideas of ourselves, and creates connections but also disconnections. ● — Aleta Mayne

5-Minute Poetry Class “Read a lot of poetry … a lot of different kinds of voices so that [you’re] not only reading poems by people who live in the world in different contexts and ways, but also seeing different ways to make a poem.” “A lot of people come into studying poetry with negative associations like it has to rhyme or have hidden meanings. [Some] people feel like they can’t fully access poetry as an art form. I love breaking down those barriers and finding ways that each person feels like they’re able to connect and respond to voices that speak to them.” “It’s not that you have to find a voice. Everybody has a voice already. It’s how you are going to claim it and use it to articulate what you want to say.” “Don’t fall in love with your poems too quickly. Once you have a full draft, force yourself to reconsider the poem again. In poetry, even small changes can have a big impact.” “Your first draft can and should be absolutely terrible. You might end up with a couple of good lines in there, or even a couple of stances if the muse is kind to you, but a lot of times, it’s a process of unfolding the idea you’re wrestling with. Turn it over in your head when you’re driving to work, or in the shower, or making dinner.”

IN THE MEDIA “This is an opportunity for the NCAA to really highlight the wonderful product that the women’s game has become, and it just kind of failed on that opportunity.” — Jen Critchley ’98, a former Colgate basketball player who’s now head coach at Mount Saint Dominic Academy, comments on gender disparities between NCAA tournaments for northjersey.com.

“It’s worth noting, of course, that no president has had the courage to use the proper historical term ... because of fear of harming foreign relations with Turkey — ironically, Turkey, a government with one of the worst human rights records in the world over the course of the past several decades.” — Peter Balakian, the Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor in humanities and professor of English, for NPR on President Biden recognizing the Armenian genocide

There’s nothing at all magical about the number 435 Congress settled on.

— Associate Professor of History Dan Bouk tells NPR how lawmakers in the 1920s shaped the size of the U.S. House of Representatives today

“I believe true love and connection happens in person, in real life. So I am thrilled and honoured that Hinge had the chance to work with the White House to increase vaccination awareness across the country so our community can start meeting up safely once again.” — Justin McLeod ’06, founder of the dating app Hinge, on the effect of vaccinations on in-person dating for the Guardian

“Recently the Republican Party has increasingly adopted views, with regards to immigration and race, that are at odds with how Mexican-Americans see themselves. But on average, they are more conservative than the average American. On many social and cultural issues, it’s a group of people who are closer to the positions taken by the Republicans.” — Assistant Professor of Political Science Juan Fernando Ibarra Del Cueto on lapoliticaonline.com

“If this result is really consistent, I think this may have a very big impact on how we think about what is innate behavior and what is learned behavior.” — Assistant Professor of Neuroscience Wan-Chun Liu on the impact of animal-embryo response on biological understanding of nature vs. nurture for popsci.com Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 13

SCENE Looking Toward a Reclaimed Future

early 700 members of the Class of 2021 participated in commencement, cheered on by professors, staff members, and a limited audience of in-person guests, who gathered to celebrate in the open air of Andy Kerr Stadium. The University’s 200th ceremony followed the senior Torchlight Procession and a virtual baccalaureate service, which featured comments by winners of the Balmuth Award for Teaching and the 1819 Award. These longstanding traditions were carried forward by a determined community who remained Colgate Together to the very end of a remarkable inperson semester. “We have had many days of sadness in the last year,” then University Chaplain Corey MacPherson said in his commencement invocation. “So we are especially thankful for this day of celebration.” President Brian W. Casey, addressing graduates, suggested that those days of sadness could someday be the source of great strength. But, here in the present, it was necessary to acknowledge the full impact of recent history on the Class of 2021. “History visited this class in more ways than just through a pandemic,” Casey said. “Your college years took place in consequential times.”

14 Colgate Magazine Summer 2021

else can — where you can see things that no one else does. It’s there where you will find your purpose.” Samantha Power, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, spoke to the graduating seniors in remarks that were delivered remotely. “This pandemic will end,” Power said. “The key question for all of us, and on this day, especially for you, is ‘What will you do with this reclaimed future?’” According to Power, we developed new habits of thought, new appreciation for workers who were always essential, and new empathy for the plight of people around the

Kevin (“KP”) Porter ’21 from Gwynn Oak, Md.

mark diorio (3, commencement)

Commencement

Two momentous elections, racial reckoning, political divides, and COVID-19 — national and international events relentlessly shaped this class’ campus experience and the world into which it now graduates. “History unfolds slowly, and the story of you and our times will take time to develop. But I have no doubt that you are now entering a changed world,” Casey said. To help graduates as they encounter that change, Casey offered advice based on his own experience navigating Colgate through the pandemic. “Do what is right. Don’t cut corners … Go where you are needed. Be at a place where all can see that you are necessary and that you can shoulder things that no one

world during the pandemic. We also developed new habits of action in order to reassert control over our lives. However, Power said, “the idea that the pandemic is what took away control over our lives is false. It was always within our power to decide who we made time for. It was always possible to try to do good rather than just earn wealth. Often, we just didn’t.” Whether we relinquished control to self-concern, social media, or the marketplace, we can make choices that leave us stronger. “Try not to pursue the things that you are told will make you happy, and try to carry with you the empathy that this past year has given us all — one of the few times in human history when everyone on the planet has had their lives changed at exactly the same time,” Power said. “If you do, I promise you will discover a much more meaningful way of living, one in which you worry less about your plans and more about the gift of each day: the gift of all there is to see and savor around you.” — Mark Walden

Award

Exemplifying the Colgate Spirit

wo members of the Class of 2021, Jake Gómez and William “Paul” McAvoy, share this year’s 1819 Award, which recognizes character, scholarship, and service to others. It’s awarded to those who best exemplify the Colgate spirit. Gómez, a double major in Middle Eastern studies and peace and conflict studies, is a Benton Scholar, the vice president of Colgate’s Senior Honor Society (formerly Konosioni), and founder of the Model Arab League, a part of the Colgate Speaking Union dedicated to the discussion of Middle Eastern political affairs. According to one nomination, Gómez “brings his profoundly compassionate approach to address issues facing displaced persons, people experiencing racial and gender bias, and students struggling with socioeconomic disparities.” He began to demonstrate that characteristic compassion early in his Colgate career, traveling to France with the Benton Scholars to conduct research on internment camps. It has continued in a variety of forms ever since: in dance, as

The Class of 2025 → 17,540 students, from 50 states and 146 countries, applied for admission to the Class of 2025 — a recordbreaking 104% increase over last year. → 913 students enrolled in the class, which has an average GPA of 3.77 out of 4.0, up from 3.69 in 2020. Illustrations by Toby Triumph

Jake Gómez

William “Paul” McAvoy

he led the group called DDT; in mentorship, as he has tutored young Somali refugees in Utica; and, most recently, in peer education, as he facilitated Thirteen Days of Education, which used the University’s fall quarantine as a time for learning and discussion around issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Gómez has earned the George W. Cobb Award for outstanding leadership. He has appeared on the Dean’s List With Distinction for his academic achievements. Paul McAvoy is a double major in psychological science and English, completing honors theses in both. He has served as a campus wellness advocate, Maroon-News staff writer, member of the Student Athletic

Advisory Committee, and volunteer with numerous local and national organizations like the Headway Foundation, which works to combat concussions and whiplash injuries. McAvoy is a member of Colgate’s men’s hockey team and was unanimously voted captain of the 2020–21 squad. “Paul is an unselfish individual who always puts the team first. His dedication and commitment to his craft and his teammates are unparalleled on this team,” reads one nomination. McAvoy has delved into his studies, leading to a psychology thesis that seeks to answer the question, “What makes individuals function effectively as a team?” With a work ethic he attributes to his father’s influence, he is completing a memoir that tells the story of how a boy from Kentucky grows up to be a Division I hockey player — a narrative seed he has planted in others while teaching hockey to inner-city kids from Philadelphia and elementary students in Belfast. “The more I work with Paul, the more impressed I am with his academic talents, his motivations, his character, and his goodness,” another nomination reads. “He is one of the more extraordinary students I have had the pleasure to know in my decades of teaching at Colgate.” — Mark Walden

→ It’s the most selective class to date, with a 17% acceptance rate.

1 Seniors snarfed down cookie pies in the Senior Class Giving Committee’s annual contest.

2 Two out of five Queer Eye members, Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness, participated in live Q&As as part of Colgate’s 2021 Virtual Speaker Series.

3 Forty works in the Longyear Museum of Anthropology’s collection — originating from Canada to Peru — comprise the latest exhibition, Makers and Materials of the Americas.

Riverside Park, as part of its “RE:GROWTH” public art exhibit, unveiled Professor DeWitt Godfrey’s Stuk sculpture this summer in NYC.

5 This year’s 13 Days of Green included events like a locavore dinner, a clothing swap, and panel discussions.

→ 14% first-generation students, 25% domestic students of color, and 41% receiving Colgate financial aid → 15 students in Colgate’s first cohort of QuestBridge scholars, who come from 13 states and three countries. Nine of the 15 are first-generation college students, and, as a group, they have an average GPA of 3.93. All scholars receive a full scholarship.

13 bits

→ The international student population makes up 10% of the class, with 32 citizenships represented — another recordbreaking statistic for the class.

Professor Nancy Ries (anthropology and peace and conflict studies) is the 2021 recipient of the Balmuth Award, which recognizes distinctly successful and transformative teaching.

Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 15

SCENE

▼ 7 The Debate Society hosted its annual tournament, the 2021 Colgate Open, virtually.

Academics

New Minor Speaks to Present Times

Infographic of the global health and finance crisis during the pandemic

C 8 Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer is the chosen text for Colgate’s Summer Reading Program.

9 Colgate was named one of The Princeton Review’s 2021 Best Value Colleges.

10 Outdoor Education offered free hammock rentals for students to study in style.

11 Pledging to continue its work in reducing greenhouse gas emissions on campus and conserving resources, the University signed the Second Nature Climate Commitment.

olgate has announced a new interdisciplinary minor, global public and environmental health (GPEH), as part of its academic curriculum, beginning in the fall semester. Associate Professor of Biology Bineyam Taye will serve as inaugural faculty director of the GPEH minor, which will help students understand interdisciplinary perspectives on health issues, as well as foster thinking, speaking, and writing skills needed to address those complex issues. The program combines approaches from multiple academic divisions — including the natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities — placing emphasis on active engagement with communities rather than individuals, as well as with issues of diversity, that help build student experience and tools for addressing relevant issues. “The interdisciplinary nature of the GPEH program brings together students and faculty from diverse disciplines to explore the most complex health-related problems in a global context through the liberal arts education philosophy,” Taye says. While directing the program,

Taye will also co-teach the new course Introduction to Global Public and Environmental Health — one of the minor’s six required courses — alongside Rebecca Upton, A. Lindsay O’Connor Chair of American institutions in sociology and anthropology and Africana and Latin American studies. In taking Introduction to Global Public and Environmental Health, students will be introduced to global health topics, including infectious and chronic diseases, maternal and child health, immigrant and refugee health, the relationship between political and cultural processes and health, and factors contributing to disparate health outcomes in population groups, as well as how to measure those outcomes. The course is divided into two parts, the first half focusing on the causes and spread of disease and the second half examining critical global public health concerns in the

context of history and cultures. Other than the common introductory course, students will have to take five other courses from currently supported curricula to fulfill the six-credit requirement of the GPEH minor. Out of the remaining five credits, one course will be required from methodological perspectives, and one course each will be required from at least three of the four “Perspectives” disciplinary groups (scientific, environmental, social, and/or humanities). In the email announcement, Provost and Dean of the Faculty Tracey Hucks ’87, MA’90 wrote: “A new minor in global public and environmental health is yet another way that Colgate in its third century seeks to advance excellence, rigor, and innovation across the academic curriculum.”

— Lalana Sharma ’23

13 One hundred percent of the proceeds from the Senior Honor Society’s art auction benefited two Indigenous Oneida Nation organizations: Akweku Osh^he Yukwayote and The Shako:wi Cultural Center.

Student-faculty collaboration

“I think that the path to a cure to cancer starts with taking everything one step at a time. It takes figuring out that KLF4 regulates metabolism, then figuring out the next step, and then the next 25 more steps.” — Carly Ryan ’20 copublished, with five Colgate students and Associate Professor of Biology Engda Hagos, a research paper on the Kruppel-like factor 4 (KLF4) gene that is prone to uncontrollable cell division, which results in cancer.

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istockphoto.com/sankai

Assistant Professor of Educational Studies Ashley Taylor has been named the Colgate University Phi Eta Sigma Professor of the Year.

SCENE

The Third-century plan

Students

University Launches the Colgate Commitment

mark diorio

n June 1, the University announced the Colgate Commitment: An Initiative in Access and Affordability. The new policy provides full tuition support for the lowest-income students, aligns income and tuition costs for families with incomes between $80,000 and $150,000, and expands the no-loan initiative to $150,000. The announcement comes on the heels of Colgate’s record-breaking admission season, which saw a 104% increase in applications for the Class of 2025. This increase is attributable to a variety of factors, including the no-loan initiative, which replaces federal loans with Colgate grants in aid packages. The initiative was launched in fall 2020 for students with family incomes up to $125,000, a level that impacted 474 students. It was later announced that members of the Colgate classes of 2022–25 will also benefit from an additional expansion of the University’s no-loan initiative under the Colgate Commitment. Original plans in the launch of the Colgate Commitment called for loans to be replaced by University grants beginning with the Class of 2026. This new expansion to include all current Colgate students is possible due to record-setting giving from alumni. For families with annual income levels of $80,000 or less, Colgate will be fully tuition free. This move puts Colgate in a small group of universities — including Brown, Duke, Harvard, and Stanford —

that publicly pledge to be tuition free for their lowest-income students. The Colgate Commitment also targets lower- and middle-income families, who often face difficult conversations about choosing college based on net costs. Because such families might rule out a school like Colgate based on perceived cost, the University commits to charge only a reasonable percentage of family income toward tuition. Families with annual income levels between $80,000 and $125,000 will, on average, now pay just 5% of their income toward tuition. Families with annual income levels between $125,000 and $150,000 will, on average, pay 10% of their income toward tuition. (All levels of the Colgate Commitment assume typical asset levels for those incomes.) By making a Colgate education more affordable, the University anticipates the Colgate Commitment will have a positive effect on attracting and yielding top students. The Admitted Student Survey and a preliminary analysis of the impact of the noloan initiative revealed that 78% of no-loan– eligible students who chose Colgate believed their financial aid offers were superior to that of their other choices. Of that group, 60% indicated that Colgate’s value was far superior to their other options. “Families and their students need to know that the cost of a transformative education at Colgate is affordable. I hope this new commitment, along with its strong alumni support, shows that Colgate cares about attracting the best and brightest students regardless of their financial situations,” says Dean of Admission Tara Bubble. Initial funding of $1 million for the Colgate Commitment was provided by generous members of the Colgate community through the Colgate Fund. The University will seek an additional $25 million in gifts to the endowment during the next three years to fund the program in perpetuity. “I can say without a doubt that increasing access to a Colgate education is an initiative that so many alumni are tremendously proud to support,” says Alumni Council President Christian B. Johnson ’02. “We know firsthand how Colgate can change lives, and now we are all part of a movement to make it even more affordable for generations to come.” — Stephanie Boland

faculty

Appointments to New and Established Endowed Professorships

Endowed professorships recognize Colgate’s top faculty for academic achievement, distinguished teaching, and the promise of future accomplishments. During its spring meeting, the Board of Trustees approved a series of appointments to endowed professorships, effective July 1. “We greatly appreciate the generosity of those who provide gifts to support excellent work, and I celebrate these highly valued colleagues for their achievement of these significant professional accomplishments,” says Provost and Dean of the Faculty Tracey E. Hucks ’87, MA’90. Third-Century Endowed Chairs The creation of two new ThirdCentury Endowed Chairs was approved by the Board of Trustees. The holders of these new chairs were recommended by President Brian W. Casey and Provost Hucks, in consultation with the Dean’s Advisory Council. The Peter L. and Maria T. Kellner Endowed Chair in Arts, Creativity, and Innovation Established in 2020 by Peter L. Kellner ’65 and family (Erik M. Zissu ’87, Zoe H. Zissu ’16, and Claudia M. Hensley ’19), this is a permanent endowment fund created to assist Colgate’s efforts in recognizing teaching

Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 17

SCENE

The Third-century plan ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIP Appointments

(cont. from p. 17) excellence and scholarly achievements in the fields of arts, creativity, and innovation and to support the University’s efforts to promote the Middle Campus. Appointee: DeWitt Godfrey, who has been a member of the faculty since 2003, teaching classes in studio art and in the Challenges of Modernity core component. He was a member of the inaugural group of CORE fellows at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and has served as the president of the College Art Association. As a largescale sculptor, he employs carefully conceived structural processes in his work, combining cutting-edge digital technologies with custom craftsmanship, all grounded in empirical knowledge and experimentation. The Third-Century Chair in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Established in 2020 by Kellner and family in honor of Colgate’s 16th president, Brian W. Casey, this is a permanent endowment fund created to assist the University’s efforts in recognizing teaching excellence and scholarly achievements in the fields of philosophy, politics, and economics. Appointee: Timothy Byrnes, who joined the faculty in 1992 after teaching at the City College and Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His research interests include transnational politics as well as religion and politics. He has been a weekly panelist

on WCNY-TV’s Ivory Tower for many years. On campus, he has served as chair of the Department of Political Science and director of the Benton Scholars Program, was a Colgate presidential scholar, and is a past winner of the Colgate Alumni Corporation’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Appointments to Existing Endowed Professorships Charles A. Dana Professorship Fund Established by the Charles A. Dana Foundation in 1966. The foundation invited Colgate to participate in the Charles A. Dana Professorship Program. The fund provides research support for distinguished members of the faculty. Said professors are faculty members whose responsibilities are in teaching rather than administration. They may be faculty members who are new appointees, in a subject matter determined by the University. Appointee: Spencer Kelly, who joined the faculty in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in 2001. The main focus of his research examines the interacting roles of body movements and language in communication and cognition. Using social and psychological behavioral methods, Kelly investigates how gestures influence the ways in which children and adults comprehend language in different social contexts and how they think during the explanation of difficult concepts. On the neural level, he uses event-related potentials to study how gestures influence

18 Colgate Magazine Summer 2021

speech at multiple stages of language comprehension. Kelly is the codirector of the Center for Language and Brain at Colgate. He was a coprincipal investigator on a National Science Foundation (NSF) Research grant and on an NSF Major Research Instrumentation grant that awarded Colgate a state-ofthe-art electroencephalography system that records the temporal location of electrical signals generated by the brain in real time for studies of the human mind and behavior. Appointee: Robert Nemes, who joined the tenure stream faculty in 2000 after serving one year as a visiting assistant professor in the history department. He is a historian with a research specialty in central and Eastern Europe. His current projects focus on central Europe’s big cities and small towns; the Danube River’s past and present; and the hidden history of everyday commodities such has tobacco, coffee, and wine. He is the current chairperson of the Department of History. He has taught and led a group of sophomore residential scholars on a trip to Costa Rica and served as the faculty director of the Alumni Memorial Scholars program. Appointee: Rebecca Shiner, who joined the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in 1999, bringing her research expertise in personality, clinical psychology, and child development. She further expanded the psychology curriculum with her courses on developmental psychopathology, personality psychology, and psychotherapy.

Her research examines personality development across the lifespan and addresses the structure of personality in childhood; continuity and change in personality; and the impact of personality on various life outcomes, including academic achievement, relationships, and the emergence of psychopathology, especially personality disorders. Shiner also served Colgate as a University professor for the Scientific Perspectives program and as the inaugural faculty director of the Ciccone Residential Commons. Richard M. Kessler Chair of Economic Studies Established in 1988 by Richard Kessler ’52 to assist the University in attracting and retaining outstanding faculty in the field of economics. Selection of the individual is based on their scholarly achievements and teaching excellence. The holder may be a tenured or nontenured member of the faculty or a newly recruited member of the faculty. Appointee: Carolina Castilla, who has been a member of the economics faculty since 2011. She is a development and behavioral economist whose research interests also include intra-household decision making and gender economics. On campus, she is a valued member of the department and a respected teacher of applied econometrics and applied microeconomics; she also pioneered the core course The (Ir)rationality of Decisions. She is a founding member of the Liberal Arts Colleges Development Economics Conference. — Mark Walden

SCENE

DEI

Amplifying Diversity Efforts

epresentation matters. Colgate’s student body is wonderfully diverse, drawn from 78 nations and 48 states, as well as a spectrum of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. They want to learn from, collaborate with, and be mentored by faculty who reflect their geographic, racial, and experiential diversity. The University’s Third-Century Plan highlights the importance of diversifying the faculty in order to bring to classrooms, studios, and laboratories a greater range of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. Colgate’s administration and faculty are doing just that, drawing on national best practices and creating their own innovative approaches to increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in tenure-stream hiring. “It’s hard to imagine yourself succeeding in a field if you’ve never seen someone like you working in that field,” says Lesleigh Cushing, special advisor to the president for strategic initiatives who is the Murray W. and Mildred K. Finard Professor in Jewish studies and a professor of religion. “And having a more diverse faculty actually benefits all students. Students who are exposed to different perspectives and worldviews are getting a better education. As graduates, they are more ready to interact meaningfully with coworkers and friends with different backgrounds and worldviews — which primes them to be active and engaged citizens of a global society.” Since the 1970s, Colgate has been a voluntary affirmative action employer and provided an annual report on race and gender in faculty hiring. Through the years, it has significantly expanded its DEI efforts. “Colgate has a number of initiatives to help faculty search committees think proactively and ensure that we’re building a candidate pool that is demographically diverse,” says Maura Tumulty, associate provost for equity and diversity. “We’re asking ourselves, ‘How can we do a good job of finding people who would excel at the world-class research that Colgate supports?’” To that end, Colgate is a member of

the Consortium for Faculty Diversity, an association of liberal arts colleges that offers postdoctoral fellowships to scholars who would contribute to the diversity of its member institutions. “It enables us to identify talent earlier in the pipeline,” Tumulty explains. The Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NASC) has increased the intentionality and quantity of its inperson outreach to raise awareness of the opportunities a liberal arts university such as Colgate can offer diverse applicants in contrast to larger research institutions. “The encounters we have at conferences serve as a pre-interview, where we can give potential candidates a sense of the amazing intellectual community we have at Colgate,” says Krista Ingram, professor of biology and director of the NASC. “We have been able to significantly increase the diversity of our hiring pool that way.”

number. The hiring committee first reviews just the research, teaching, and diversity statements and ranks applicants on that information alone, before reading more personal information such as the cover letter, CV, or letters of recommendation. NASC faculty are sharing their successes in discussion groups with colleagues from not only their own division but also campuswide. “There’s no need to reinvent the wheel every time there’s a candidate search,” Ingram says. “We’re understanding that we can learn a lot from the successes of other departments.” Hiring of diverse faculty is only part of the equation; retention is another. In 2020, Colgate joined the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD). This independent association provides professional development,

We’re asking ourselves, ‘How can we do a good job of finding people who would excel at the world-class research that Colgate supports?’ Maura Tumulty, associate provost for equity and diversity

Several NASC departments — geology, biology, and physics — have joined national working groups that share best practices for DEI efforts. “They’re finding out what works at other schools and then developing it for Colgate-specific programs,” Ingram says. That’s just one component of the multiprong approach used by the physics department, which also ensures that notices of hiring opportunities are sent to HBCU department chairs. Physics also includes detailed guidance on its website for applicants seeking to submit strong teaching, research, and diversity statements. The department offers specific prompts: What are your goals for students? What will your lab look like? How will you provide an inclusive environment to students in your classroom and laboratory? “We wanted to make sure everyone has a fair shot of knowing what we are looking for in a candidate,” says Beth Parks, associate professor of physics and astronomy. The physics department also takes the added measure of reading applications “blindly.” Each applicant is assigned a

training, and mentoring opportunities to faculty members, postdocs, and graduate students from more than 450 colleges and universities. The NCFDD resources reinforce other mentoring opportunities offered within each academic division as well as by Colgate’s Faculty Diversity Council. “We want to make sure that all our hires have the support that they need to make it through the tenure process,” Tumulty says. “We look for candidates who we believe have the ability to succeed as high-impact teachers and scholars at Colgate,” Cushing says. “Then, we offer a wide array of professional support — from competitive start-up grants to mentorship networks, formal programs and informal conversations, discretionary research opportunities, and pedagogical funding — because we want to retain the excellent people we hire. When we welcome a colleague, we make a longterm investment.”

— Kristin Baird Rattini

Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 19

SCENE

LGBTQ

‘Digging Where You Stand’ An ongoing project begins to document LGBTQ+ history on campus.

n his sophomore year, Jacob Licker ’21 was doing something rare: making history and documenting history at the same time. He was helping to plan Queerfest on campus while also learning about its previous iteration — Big Gay Weekend — as part of a class project for Professor Ken Valente’s LGBT 220, Explorations in LGBTQ Studies. “Professor Valente always said, when you are looking into doing public history, you should dig where you stand,” Licker says. “I always loved the idea of digging where you stand, of looking at what’s all around you and then contributing to it.” He was in the first class that launched Valente’s three-year, evolving project of documenting LGBTQ+ history at Colgate — something that had never been done before — as part of the University’s Bicentennial. “We’re often written out of records,” Valente asserts. “We’re not typically found in archives; until recently we’re not found in public documents or newspaper cuttings.” But, with the help of Sarah Keen, University archivist and head of Special Collections and University Archives, the class started piecing information together. They pored over old newspaper clippings,

each student selected a few events, and then they created a digital timeline that went live in the spring of ’19. “There were quite a few struggles,” Licker admits. One was trying to figure out which terminology to use for search terms because it has changed over the years. “It was looking through all these old newspapers and trying to see, did they write ‘gay’ as in meaning ‘happy,’ or were they actually talking about LGBTQ students? And if I searched ‘queer,’ there was some really nasty and oftentimes derogatory language being used, but also it became a self ID later on,” he says. “So those were some of the toughest bits, trying to read between the lines.” The timeline starts with fall 1979, when the first gay student alliance on campus formed. Clicking through the digital presentation, there are articles about gay students speaking out about homophobia in Greek letter organizations, a march against the violence and oppression of gays and lesbians, the evolution of student organizations, and institutional support such as the hiring of the first LGBTQ+ program assistant. When Valente continued the project

A Pride flag photographed in 2012. The flag has since been modified by various groups to increase inclusivity.

20 Colgate Magazine Summer 2021

with the second class, in fall 2019, he taught students how to conduct oral history interviews. They paired up with alumni who gave first-person accounts of their experiences on campus. Barry Forbes ’78 helped form the first gay student alliance through the Sexuality Counseling and Information Center. He remembered it becoming the front-page story of the Maroon, “with an editorial in support of gays.” And because he was named in the article, Forbes became someone whom other students would approach to discuss issues about their own sexuality. When Andrew Richlin ’81 was a first-year, he remembered a cadre of seniors in Forbes’

We’re often written out of records. Professor Ken Valente

class who were out and supportive. But after they graduated, the following years were “very lonely and isolating,” Richlin said. He believes that when he came out during his senior year, he was “the only out gay person on campus” (in later years, he discovered that several of his friends were gay but had not come out). Barb West ’89 spoke in her oral history interview about feeling fortunate to find a group of friends right away in Cobb House. Although her years at Colgate weren’t always perfect, she found support in those friends as well as a head resident who hosted a program for “LGB awareness” in the first few weeks of her first year. “It gave me a sense that somebody had my back here if I needed it,” West said. She also found comfort while doing work study hours at the Women’s Resource Center and participating in the Gay Student Alliance. “I was really lucky that I found my niche right away,” she said. “There were people who didn’t.” Licker, who continued as a student worker for the project after his class ended, helped conduct interviews and says that aspect was his favorite part. “Whenever I would turn off the recording, we would just sit and talk for an hour or two about how things have changed, or how much of what they shared with me was relatable to my own experience as a queer person on campus,” he says. “It felt like a moment of praxis where the time loop was being completed.” In addition, Licker emphasizes the significance of these interviews in helping to fill the gaps. “The testimonial evidence

SCENE

Gerard Gaskin

In Prof. Paul Humphrey’s spring LGBT 220 course, students created zines that explored queer lived experience on campus. This is by Mike McDowell ’22.

is so important because there are very real events that were happening that weren’t necessarily being published in the newspaper, or there wasn’t a poster for it because it was the 1970s [for example] and being out and queer was not something you did on campus.” Finding information about LGBTQ+ history from the early ’70s and prior decades is one of the major barriers Valente’s group has faced. There is no documentation in the archives and limited information on older LGBTQ+ alumni who can speak about their experiences; also those generations are nearing the end of their lives. “So how is it that we can learn these things before we lose them?” Licker says. In the introductory text on the timeline page, the class that developed the project in 2018 has written: “Bearing in mind that this is an evolving timeline, we acknowledge the scarcity of the material that was accessible to us and hope future contributions expand upon our foundation.” The title of the timeline is “Queer Activism at Colgate,” because “activism is broadly construed,” Valente says. “You don’t have to have some sort of leadership role to engage in activism, you just have to live and you have to survive. [These alumni] showed great resilience in living their lives in whatever way made sense to them at that time at an institution where, for a number of years and to this day, it could be incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to find community and a space that acknowledges your identity.” Last fall, students continued to conduct oral interviews with more alumni and

expanded their scope to add faculty and staff members, including almost all of those who served as what is now called the director of LGBTQ+ initiatives (housed under the Office of the Dean of the College). “I wanted their memories of those early years, which were fraught and challenging for those individuals because the position was then not yet formally institutionalized,” Valente says. As he prepared to retire in the spring, Valente recorded his own oral history. Hired into the mathematics department in 1987, Valente established a joint appointment with LGBTQ studies in 2009 — the year the program was born. Through the core curriculum, he had been teaching courses that became part of the LGBTQ studies minor. Once LGBTQ studies was established as its own program, those courses migrated, and he migrated with them. Valente served as the first director of the program and has served as department chair as well as division director of university studies.

Check out the timeline and oral histories at cul.colgate.edu/queeractivism. If you’d like to contribute, fill out the alumni participation form on the page.

“I am so fortunate to have been able to teach at this institution for 30-plus years,” he says. “This [project] was a way to say thank you for giving me the chance to be something I would have never dreamed to be professionally when I started in 1987. So, it’s important to me to not only give people their voice, but to also put a bow on it and say, ‘Here you are.’” Taking over the project will be Paul Humphrey, assistant professor of LGBTQ studies. He started digging into the material this spring when he taught LGBT 220. Putting his own spin on the course, Humphrey assigned students to use the oral history interviews as a springboard for exploring their chosen topics, which ranged from social lives and dating to biggerpicture subjects like the AIDS epidemic. For Humphrey, who has taught at Colgate for two years now — a year and a half of which has been on Zoom — he’s found it informative to hear people’s perspectives

Prof. Valente

from the past. “There’s a history here at Colgate of queer experience,” he says. “It’s not one that’s been told until more recently. So what are the foundations that this is built on? Where can we take it in the future?” One idea for the future of the timeline itself is incorporating the oral history interviews into it — “so people will be able to see interviews corresponding to periods of time, and we can also connect certain events to the oral history recording,” Valente explains. Now that he’s graduated, Licker has realized what a large portion of his Colgate experience he’s dedicated to this project. He’s excited to see other students using the timeline he helped build in their own scholarship. “It’s wild that it’s going to be there for the rest of my life, and probably well beyond that, as long as the archive maintains.” — Aleta Mayne Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 21

SCENE

Women’s Basketball

Meet Coach G

elationships drive Ganiyat Adeduntan: from her connection with her older brother, who taught her the fundamentals of basketball; to her admiration for her father, who showed her a path toward medicine; to the players she coaches. “My number one core value is love, and it encompasses relationships,” says Adeduntan, who was recently appointed Colgate’s ninth women’s basketball head coach. After spending 7 years as a nurse practitioner, Adeduntan switched careers and got back on the court. She held roles at Wheelock College, Northeastern, and George Washington before accepting the top position at Colgate. How did you make the decision to leave your career as a nurse practitioner and devote your life to the game? My dad is a vascular surgeon, and he was a driving force behind me wanting to do something in the health care field. I knew I wanted to help people. [I asked myself] ‘How can I impact someone’s life? How can I be an advocate for someone to make their situation better?’ [Eventually, I] had

the opportunity to coach Division III. That was when I was like, ‘This is it. This is my passion.’ And everything fell into place. Do any of your approaches to nursing carry over to coaching? A lot of those things transfer over: the holistic approach I use, the whole well-being of a student-athlete, understanding that it’s not just about the physical piece and what they can do for me, but ultimately how I can serve them. How can I make them better human beings who are able to thrive and be successful in the world? How have you bonded with Colgate players so far? On the first day I got the job, I called every single student-athlete and had a FaceTime call. I told them, ‘I'm not going to call you on the phone. I need to see you. I want you to see me because we’ve got to make this as real as possible.’ We’ve had conversations about how relationships are two-way. We have small group and full team conversations over Zoom as well. What’s your mantra? Right before I moved, I wrote out, ‘Don’t think, just go.’ Today’s your opportunity. You can’t think about tomorrow or yesterday — the only opportunity you have is right in front of you. Being present and enjoying the

day-to-day; every opportunity I get, [I try to] find peace in the chaos. What are your goals for the team in the coming months? Team building and relationships are going to be important to us. Also, teaching our players how to compete, because that’s the joy: to come in every day and have this competitiveness. I’m really competitive — with everything. I want to be a high achiever in everything I do. I want to share that with our players and have them mirror that work ethic. The dream and the goal ultimately is to win. We want to be at the top of the conference. We’re going to set goals for ourselves, [starting with] small ones, areas we know we can get better at, and we’re going to celebrate [those small wins]. What about longer-term goals? I want to win the Patriot League championship. I want to go to the NCAA tournament. Postseason play is always going to be the goal every single year. Another goal, which will also be a standard and expectation, is to make sure we’re still achieving academically at a very high level and that our players are growing as people every single day.

— Rebecca Docter

Tennis

On the Court

Ganiyat Adeduntan

22 Colgate Magazine Summer 2021

mark diorio (2)

or the second time in the past three Patriot League Tournaments, men’s tennis reached the semifinals. However, the team lost to Navy 4–0, concluding its 2021 season. The fifth-seeded Raiders finished their season with an overall record of 4–6. “It was a tough end to an amazing season,” Head Coach Bobby Pennington says. “We proved we are in the very upper tier of our league with wins over Boston and Bucknell, and a narrow loss by one point to Lehigh. Navy showed why they are unbeaten and multiple-time Patriot League defending champs.” Meanwhile, the women’s team also fell to Navy, 4–0, in the Patriot League Quarterfinals. The Colgate women’s team finished the 2021 season with a 4–5 record.

SCENE SEASON STATS

Men’s Lacrosse

Late-Season Run Ends in Patriot Semifinals

inth-ranked Lehigh held Colgate to single goals in the third and fourth quarters and pulled away for a 13–9 victory in the Patriot League Men’s Lacrosse Championship Semifinals. James Caddigan ’21, Jacob Sposita ’24, and Marshall Terres ’22 all scored two goals for the Raiders, who were held below 10 goals for just the second time this season. Brian Minicus ’22 assisted on four goals to continue his late-season points flurry.

“Our guys were focused, they went through finals and did so many things right to put them into position to play for a chance at the Patriot League championship game,” says Head Coach Matt Karweck. “What a battle. When you lose by four goals, it’s a bounce of the ball here and a save there that can change the whole momentum of the game.”

— John Painter

→The Raiders went into the semifinals clearing the ball at 72.9% but went 16-of17 for their best percentage of the season (94.1). →Brian Minicus ’22 had 40 points and 25 assists — both tops on the team. →Mike Hawkins ’21 scored a goal and an assist to finish with a team-leading 19 goals. His 12 assists and 31 points were both second to Minicus. →Thor Adamec ’22 pitched in three ground balls and two caused turnovers. He led the position players this season with 27 ground balls.

Welcome Back This fall, fans will return to the stands to cheer on the Raiders. The University is excited to welcome alumni, families, and friends to signature events such as homecoming (Sept. 24–26) and family weekend (Oct. 22–24). “There is no doubt that some of our program’s best moments at Andy Kerr Stadium are etched in Colgate history,” Interim Head Football Coach Stan Dakosty ’05 says. “These moments don't happen without our fans and supporters creating a championship atmosphere for our players. From tearing down goal posts, to storming the field after a game-winning field goal, our fans have always been a special part of these moments, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.” Stay tuned to gocolgateraiders.com for team schedule announcements and ticket information.

Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 23

SCENE

Softball

Raiders Finish With 13 Conference Wins

he softball team split its final day of the Patriot League tournament with a pair of 4–3 decisions. The Raiders knocked off Army to keep their season alive, but could not complete the doubleheader sweep and saw their season come to an end with a loss to Lehigh. Colgate finished the season 16-15-1 overall with a 13-9-1 Patriot League record. The 13 conference wins are the most for the Raiders since racking up 16 en route to a regular season championship in 2011. Mia Guevarra ’21 was Colgate’s offensive leader with three hits in the doubleheader. Steph Jacoby ’23 and Adrienne Nardone ’23 each finished with two hits, while Virginia Irby ’20 had three RBIs. Bella Crow ’21 and Bailey Misken ’23 were warriors in the circle. The duo combined to throw 14 innings and came close to piecing together a sweep. “I am so incredibly proud of our seniors and the way they led our team through this difficult year,” says Head Coach Marissa Lamison-Myers. “ I can say with confidence the excitement of Colgate softball is back. I couldn’t be more excited for our future.”

SEASON HIGHLIGHTS

→ Colgate took three

out of four games from Lehigh April 17–18, marking its first-ever four-game series victory over the Mountain Hawks. It was the first series win of any kind against Lehigh since 2011.

→ Colgate’s 25 home

runs ranked atop the Patriot League, and its .290 team average ranked third.

Volleyball → The Raiders landed

four All-Patriot League honorees, their most nods since 2012.

→ Colgate won all but two conference series this season, taking three out of four games from Holy Cross, Lehigh, Lafayette, and Army.

Season Ends at Championship

he volleyball team left it all on the floor as the Raiders battled in the Patriot League championship. Despite overcoming a deficit with a 12-2 run in the fourth set, the Raiders were unable to force a fifth before falling to Army 3–1. Colgate finished its season with an 8–2 overall record, and went 7–1 in the Patriot League. STATISTICAL STANDOUTS

→ Alli Lowe ’21 recorded her second 20-plus kill match of the season behind a team-high of 22 while hitting .309. She had an all-around game that included three total blocks, three digs, and an ace. She ranks third in program history with 1,356 kills in her career.

→ Colgate’s blocking game was led by Sophie Thompson ’23, with a career high of nine total blocks by three solos and six block assists. Mia Guevarra ’21 was the Raiders’ offensive leader with three hits on the last day of the Patriot League Tournament.

→ A steady presence on the court for the Raiders was setter Julia Kurowski ’22. She notched 37 assists, eight digs, and four total blocks. → Colgate’s 14 total team blocks is just one shy of its season high back in the season opener on Feb. 19 (vs. Army).

Justin Wolford (bottom right)

→ Defensively, the team was led by Bridget Kolsky ’21, with 14 digs. She completes her career ranked fifth in program history with 1,254 digs.

SCENE

VOLLEYBALL’S SEASON STATS

Golf

→ The Raiders only suffered one

Student Standouts

loss during the regular season, falling to Army on the road.

→ After earning the No. 1 seed in

the Patriot League Tournament, Colgate completed the 2020–21 season with a 5–1 record at home.

→ This season, the Raiders earned

the No. 1 seed and right to host the Patriot League Tournament for the first time since 2012 and advanced to their first Patriot League championship since 2016.

→ Colgate earned a seven-match

win streak through the season’s 10 matches, a stretch that included four sweeps.

→ Cleaning up in postseason

awards, Lowe was named backto-back Patriot League Player of the Year, a first in program history. Kurowski earned the program’s first ever Setter of the Year honor. The duo had back-to-back appearances on the All-Patriot League First Team.

→ Harper Snyder ’24 marked the

program’s first first-year to be named to Second Team All-League honors since 2009.

— Jenna Jorgensen

ollowing a successful 2021 spring season, the Colgate golf team recognized three performers on the course, in the classroom, and in the community.

→ MVP: Dugan McCabe ’24 counted toward the team score in 9 of 10 rounds played, including a first place finish with a 1-underpar 70 in his collegiate opener at the Battle at Troy. He aced the par-3 15th hole, an uphill shot of 136 yards, to highlight his first career performance. McCabe was the top first-year finisher in the Patriot League Men’s Golf Championship to earn Rookie of the Year honors. He shot 77-80-72-229 for 19-over-par and a tie for 18th place in the championship, becoming Colgate’s second player to land the league’s top first-year honor. → Most Improved Player: Mark Gertsen ’23 competed in five tournaments and counted toward the team score in five of seven rounds in 2021. The sophomore carded a career-low 70 to lead the Raiders with a fourth-place finish at the Upstate Spring Escape at Seven Oaks. Gertsen closed with a 73 to finish 26th at the Patriot League Men’s Golf Championship in Annapolis, Md. → Leadership Award: Demonstrating the best attitude and dedication to the game and his teammates, Andrew Lombardo ’21 competed in 16 tournaments and held a scoring average of 77.87. A three-time Patriot League Academic Honor Roll member, Lombardo earned a 4.0 GPA twice during his collegiate career as a mathematical economics major.

MVP Dugan McCabe ’24

Men’s Basketball

Winning for His Home Country

rancisco Amiel ’19 graduated as a Patriot League champion, and two years later, he’s hoisting another trophy, this time as a national champion, while playing professionally for Sporting Clube de Portugal. Amiel’s squad was crowned for the ninth time in its history — 39 years after its last national title and less than two years since the team returned to active duty — by knocking off FC Porto by a final score of 86–85 in the fifth and final game of the competition final. Sporting CP, one of three main teams in Portugal, finished atop the league with a 23–3 record. In his second season playing for his home country, Amiel averaged nearly 11 minutes, 2 points, and 2 assists in 25 games played. “Sporting CP didn’t have a basketball team until the year I graduated from Colgate,” Amiel says, “so it was a blessing to be a captain on such a big team that was just getting back to the main stage.” A native of Miratejo, Portugal, Amiel graduated Colgate as the program record holder for games played (130) and averaged 2.9 points and 1.7 assists per game. Amiel shot over 32% from the field for his collegiate career and averaged 21 minutes per contest. He became the 13th student-athlete under Head Coach Matt Langel to sign a professional contract. Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 25

Discover e’ve seen it a million times: a celebrity is caught in a car with a prostitute; or participated in an illegal dog-fighting ring; or posted racist, sexist, or homophobic tweets in the past. They are widely shamed and may initially deny it. But eventually they apologize and take responsibility, and in a couple months or a year, are back in the public eye with all forgiven. “We’ve constructed a cultural script with expectations one has to meet to be allowed access to another opportunity if they’ve screwed up,” says David Newman, visiting professor in sociology and anthropology. Newman began looking into the idea of second chances — who gets them and why — a decade ago. His inquiries resulted in the 2019 book, A Culture of Second Chances: The Promise, Practice, and Price of Starting Over in Everyday Life, a wide-ranging exploration into pop culture, religion, medicine, schools, intimacy, and criminal justice. “My initial research question was, ‘Can people change?’, but that morphed into ‘Under what circumstances do we allow people to change?’, and that opened everything up,” says Newman. The idea of second chances is so seemingly ubiquitous, he proposes, because we all want to believe in a sequential narrative to our lives. So, when we or someone else messes up, we want to retrospectively make sense of the slip. “We convince ourselves that this horrible thing happened to me because it allowed me to change my life,” Newman says. Particularly in the United States, he says, that narrative is tied to a strong myth of individualism that says it’s up to us to get up and dust ourselves off after misfortune — which Newman found couldn’t be further from the truth. “The irony is that getting an opportunity to start over requires other people,” Newman says. Sometimes that’s literally another person, such as a spouse willing to forgive an infidelity; other times it’s a rehab center; still others, it’s society writ large, such as a media fan base willing to forgive a sexual impropriety. “We don’t do this on our own.” Those other people, however, don’t

Sociology

There but for the Grace The culture of second chances — and what it takes to get one

26 Colgate Magazine Summer 2021

Illustration by James Steinberg

dispense the opportunity to start over equally. While actors, sports figures, and CEOs are often allowed to start anew after a brief time-out, people released from prison are often stigmatized and shunned long after they’ve served their time. “I could have written a whole book on all of the hundreds of laws that restrict access to opportunities for convicted felons,” Newman says. Formerly incarcerated people face limitations in where they can live, who will hire them for a job, and whether they can vote, among other strictures, even though there is little evidence those restrictions prevent further crimes; in fact, they may only exacerbate a person’s ability to return to society. Newman suggests that the double standard has more to do with who we think is “deserving” of another shot based on our perceptions of their past achievements, rather than any assessment of their ability to change in the future. Not surprisingly, he says, “all of these opportunities tend to be stratified along race and class lines,” with poor people and people of color given less leeway for redemption than the rich, white, and famous. Despite how ubiquitous second chances seem in our society, Newman concludes, they aren’t as common as we might think from watching celebrity gossip shows. “It’s not a universally available opportunity to start over again,” Newman says. “There are rules, restrictions, and costs — whether it’s a literal payment or something more metaphorical. Typically, you’ve got to give, or at least promise to give, something (whether it’s financial, behavioral, or spiritual) to get a shot at a second chance.” ● — Michael Blanding

All of these opportunities tend to be stratified along race and class lines,” with poor people and people of color given less leeway for redemption.

ask a professor

What Does Serotonin Do? A lot! This is true in humans and across nature because the neurotransmitter serotonin is found in almost all animals and plants. People usually think of serotonin in the context of mood and behavior, and indeed when we feel sad or anxious, serotonin is involved. It’s also involved when humans and other animals eat, learn, fight, mate, exercise, sleep, and wake from sleep. A single neurotransmitter can influence so many diverse processes via its wide distribution in the central nervous system. From cell bodies located at the base of the brain, serotonincontaining neurons send their axons to the far corners of the brain, releasing the transmitter in numerous areas responsible for diverse processes. An array of receptors — distinct proteins on cell surfaces — bind the released serotonin and induce changes in cell actions. Serotonin has an interesting history. From an evolutionary perspective, it is an ancient molecule, emerging in unicellular organisms at the dawn of life. Receptors that bind serotonin allowing intercellular communication existed more than 700 million years ago, well before the split between vertebrates and invertebrates. Throughout the eras, neural pathways and receptors evolved, leading to many differences in anatomical and molecular structure among animals. Yet even in creatures as diverse as humans, worms, and insects, behavior is modulated by related serotonergic systems, descended from our distant common ancestor. From a human history perspective, serotonin was first identified chemically in 1949 from tissue lining the stomach (now known to produce more than 90% of the body’s serotonin). Several years later, drugs

were found that simultaneously elevated serotonin’s actions in the brain and reduced symptoms of depression. This finding launched an enduring hypothesis central to psychiatry: Depression results when serotonin levels in the brain are too low. Immediately, the search was on to discover drugs able to enhance serotonin’s actions in the brain and, if we judge by the plethora of drugs that have been developed and marketed, the search was successful. Today, the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the most commonly prescribed treatment for depression, and they’re also widely used to treat numerous other disorders such as anxiety, schizophrenia, alcoholism, impulsivity, and obesity. While the term “selective” implies specificity to the serotonin system, there is nothing specific about the drugs’ effects in the brain. As noted above, serotonin neurons project very widely, and serotonin receptors are distributed equally widely, residing on millions of neurons containing other neurotransmitters like dopamine, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine. Hence, when an SSRI reaches the brain, it is likely to affect every major neurotransmitter system, leading to a diffuse shake-up of brain physiology. How this shake-up and known molecular actions of drugs translate to clinical improvements in some people (though not all) remains mysterious. Importantly, despite intensive research over six decades, there is little direct evidence that low serotonin activity actually causes depression or other disorders. What would behavior and emotion be like without serotonin? In humans, we’re not sure, but in mice, genetic engineering has produced animals that possess no brain serotonin at all. Remarkably, these animals live rather normal lives. They show some behavioral effects like increased aggression, but basically their brains function nicely. This has led some researchers to conclude that brain serotonin is involved in everything and essential for nothing. This enigmatic molecule will undoubtedly continue to perplex and challenge future generations of neuroscientists. The next frontier may be understanding teamwork between the microbiome and serotonin-producing cells in the digestive system. While serotonin from the gut cannot directly cross the bloodbrain barrier, future research may reveal important serotonergic regulation of gut-brain communication. — Ann Jane Tierney, professor of psychology and neuroscience, has been focusing her recent research on serotonin. Experiments in her lab have examined how serotonin affects aggressive and anxiety-like behavior in several crayfish and insect species. Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 27

Geology

The Nuclear Sleuth Gary Eppich ’06 keeps the world’s radioactive material safe with his detective work.

vents like the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings keep Gary Eppich ’06 up at night. As tragic as that day was, Eppich’s mind jumps to a horrifying alternate scenario. What if, instead of the pressure cooker bombs used in Boston, someone had set off explosives strapped to stolen radioactive material? “The fear and chaos that would have occurred would be historic in the worst way,” he says. Eppich’s job is to prevent that nightmare. He’s based at the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence in Washington, D.C. “My work aims to make sure that nuclear material used for peaceful purposes — in power reactors and research facilities all over the world — stays where it belongs,” he says. Over the years, he’s hunted for clandestine weapons-grade uranium and plutonium from nuclear power facilities and tracked down the origins of radioactive contraband seized by police.

28 Colgate Magazine Summer 2021

A career safeguarding the world’s nuclear supply was the furthest thing from Eppich’s mind as a Colgate geology major. After earning a master’s degree at the University of California, Davis, he was just looking for jobs that could make use of the technical expertise he’d picked up with scientific instruments in Lathrop Hall. Little did he know, one of the top U.S. centers for nuclear science, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, needed researchers like him. Ever since the Soviet Union collapsed and funding for the Eastern Bloc’s nuclear sites dried up, radioactive materials — the kinds Eppich knew how to analyze in rocks and volcanoes — kept turning up on the black market. At Livermore, Eppich found himself plunged into a high-stakes case. Australian authorities had recovered uranium during a raid of a Melbourne methamphetamine lab, and they had questions. Where had the uranium originated? And was it of the weaponizable, highly enriched variety? Iran’s pledge to enrich uranium made

headlines this spring. But enriching uranium is not necessarily nefarious. Enriching means altering the composition of natural uranium so it contains more of the form called uranium-235. This form fuels both peaceful power plants and weapons of war. Scientists tell the difference between those two applications by measuring the relative amount of uranium-235 compared to another form called uranium-238. The uranium seized in Australia turned out not to be weapons-grade. In fact, it had likely been used in a peaceful nuclear reactor, the kind made infamous by the Chernobyl disaster. Eppich and his colleagues gleaned that information just by analyzing the uranium’s chemical and subatomic properties. If it all sounds like a TV crime drama, that’s not too far off, Eppich says. But the results didn’t come back in time for a commercial break. It was painstaking teamwork that took weeks. Explaining thefts is only part of what keeps the world’s nuclear material safe. The other piece of the puzzle is inspecting nuclear power plants to ensure they are being used peacefully. In 2017, Eppich joined the International Atomic Energy Agency, a global center for nuclear cooperation, to do just that. In a countryside lab outside Vienna, Austria, he analyzed cotton cloths that agency inspectors used to wipe surfaces at power plants around the world. The cloths pick up stray atoms that leak from equipment, and identifying those atoms reveals whether governments are being truthful about their nuclear activities. “If you start with the scale of a human, we can measure the amount of uranium equivalent to a single hair on that person’s head, and we can measure the amount of plutonium equivalent to a single cell in that person’s body,” he says. When dealing with minuscule samples, natural uranium from everything — even people — is a possible contaminant. So Eppich worked in a lab like the ones where microchips are made, with airlocks and head-to-toe gowns. These days, Eppich’s hung up the lab gear. He now uses his expertise to help U.S. allies be the best possible stewards of their own nuclear material. He works with several nations, including Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic that inherited a nuclear test site and other facilities when the USSR collapsed. “We work with some of the most intelligent people in these countries,” he says. The challenge is helping them do the most rigorous analyses they can with more limited resources. It’s a far cry from the instruments at Lathrop, but it’s a fulfilling career, Eppich says. — Carmen Drahl

André CHUNG

discover DISCOVER

DISCOVER

Pathobiology

Making Headway Research leads to improvements in concussion diagnosis and treatment.

an analysis of saliva help determine whether an athlete has had a concussion? It may be one forthcoming tool that can be used as part of a multimodal approach, according to Chuck Monteith, associate athletic trainer and concussion recovery manager at Colgate. He’s part of a research team — including doctors, neuroscientists, and exercise scientists from Penn State, Syracuse University, and other national institutions — that recently published its third paper based on a series of related studies. The researchers examined salivary measurements of microribonucleic acids (miRNAs) for biomarkers of concussion. Monteith — who assisted with data collection, intake, and assessment — took cheek swabs from one of the two groups of participants. Their saliva was then analyzed at SUNY Upstate Medical University. In the first group of participants, male former professional football athletes with a history of concussion were studied alongside a control group of age-matched peers (average age of the subjects was 73).

Researchers found significant differences in salivary expression between the former professional athletes and control participants; three miRNAs demonstrated a potential physiologic relationship with prior concussion. To determine whether those miRNAs could also be found in children and young adults, the researchers studied a second group, which included younger athletes with prior concussion. The participants were mostly male with varying concussion history and included some Colgate student-athletes who volunteered alongside students from eight other institutions. The student-athletes were compared to a control group of peers without prior concussion. Again, three miRNAs differentiated the participants who had and had not experienced concussion. Monteith explains here how the findings could contribute to concussion diagnosis in the future and what that could mean for improving athletes’ recovery: “No concussion is the same; concussions are individualized and so different with how people respond. We’re not trying to figure out one test; we’re trying to become more accurate in diagnosing.” “It’s a multimodal approach to help with the assessment of concussion. It’s using a symptom checklist, balance and cognitive tests, and the saliva to help diagnose a concussion.” “The goal is to have someone be able to go to an ER, where they could take a cheek swab and be able to help identify someone who has a concussion … then also identify who potentially could have chronic concussion symptoms.”

“The newest study is to help predict how long a recovery will be. Most [adults with] concussions recover within 10 to 14 days. But, if a person’s recovery is going to take longer than that, we could let them know what they can expect and it can maybe help decrease any anxiety or depression from having these injuries.” “Currently, using saliva is not something that we do [at Colgate]. It’s too new. Potentially, it would be nice to be able to do this on a sideline. But, there are different biomarkers that could be utilized to help diagnose; some show up immediately, and some show up days or weeks later. That’s the trickiness.” “Almost four years ago, Colgate decided to put an emphasis on trying to have a more cohesive approach with concussions. Currently, first-year student-athletes complete education on concussions and baseline testing that entails balance, cognitive, and memory assessments. Then, we repeat yearly education and baseline assessments.” “If a student-athlete sustains a concussion, I help them go through their recovery phases. Using their baseline scores, I reassess them and do a symptom checklist. I do an eye and inner ear test, then we do a balance and cognitive assessment. Based on their scores and symptoms, I walk them through the recovery process. It’s an individualized approach.” — Aleta Mayne

Int. J.Mol. Sci. 2021, 21,7758

Balance performance

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FIGURE 1. Salivary miRNA profiles differentiate former professional footbal athletes from peers. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) was applied to individual salivary miRNA profiles (A), balance performance measures (B), and neurocognitive scores (C) among professional athletes in the National Football League (NFL, n = 13; green) and control participants (CTRL; n = 18; red). The two-dimensional PLSDA plot based on saliva miRNA levels achieved complete separation of groups, while accounting for 27.5% of variance in the miRNA data.

DISCOVER

In the News

Power to the People From bridges to broadband, Professor Chris Henke looks at infrastructure and how it affects social structures.

t’s not every day that the president of the United States gets the country talking about your favorite topic. So Chris Henke, associate professor of sociology and environmental studies, was excited when the Biden administration introduced its sweeping plan to overhaul the nation’s infrastructure. The American Jobs Plan outlines an investment of about $2 trillion. “I’m happy that they’re going big, and that they’re taking it really seriously,” Henke says. He and his coauthor, Benjamin Sims, a sociologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, also take the subject seriously. They recently published a book called Repairing Infrastructures: The Maintenance of Materiality and Power (MIT Press, 2020). To the authors, repairing infrastructure doesn’t just mean filling in potholes. Henke and Sims discuss processes big and small, involving both physical structures — the roads, pipes, and buildings that most people associate with infrastructure — and the social structures intertwined with them. The book explores examples of tangible and intangible infrastructure including Louis XIV’s Versailles, New Orleans’ levees, public transit, the Panama Canal, Colgate’s Trudy Fitness Center, and even the internet. The Biden plan also takes a broad view of infrastructure. In addition to structures like highways, bridges, and airports, it includes money for the electrical grid, highspeed broadband, replacing lead pipes, and building day care centers. That has drawn some criticism, but Henke thinks it makes sense. Investing in electric vehicles and their charging ports, for example, will be critical for building a country that’s better prepared for climate change. “In a way, that’s infrastructure. But it’s not the roads, it’s not the bridges,” he says.

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No matter what you’re trying to fix, Henke and Sims’ case studies show that repairing something can raise questions of power, perception, and privilege. One of those stories is about the San Diego–Coronado Bridge. It stretches more than 2 miles across the bay to connect San Diego with the wealthy city of Coronado. When the bridge was constructed in the 1960s, it ran right through a MexicanAmerican neighborhood on the San Diego side called Barrio Logan. Over the years, artists from San Diego and beyond painted dozens of striking murals on the bridge’s support columns. The site, called Chicano Park, would eventually become a National Historic Landmark. That’s not the end of the story, though. In 1995, state engineers decided the San Diego–Coronado Bridge’s columns needed retrofitting with steel jackets to protect against earthquakes. But that would mean covering up the murals. Engineers “thought they were trying to solve a technical problem,” Henke says, “but were enmeshed in this set of politics and controversies about how to best fix this bridge at the same time that you would preserve an important landmark and source of cultural pride.” Eventually, the engineers found a solution

The San Diego–Coronado Bridge

that would make the bridge safer while mostly sparing the murals. “How do we really know when something is broken? Who gets to decide if something needs to be fixed?” Henke and Sims write. Systems of infrastructure can determine who has power and who doesn’t — and the way infrastructure is repaired can reflect, or even change, where that power lies. “If there’s one takeaway at the end of our book, it’s that we want people to be reflective about repair,” Henke says. “So that when you’re investing this money, it’s not just going to reproduce some of the problems of the past.” He’s glad to see that the Biden plan explicitly lays out the same goal. “Too often, past transportation investments divided communities,” states a fact sheet about the infrastructure plan, which aims to remedy historic inequities (citing I-81 in Syracuse as one example). “It’s not just that they want to rebuild bridges and roads,” Henke says, “but they want to do it in a way that helps support communities that have been disproportionately and negatively impacted by how those structures were built and maintained in the past.” — Elizabeth Preston

discover 1968, they didn’t write together much at all.

Music

Do You Want to Know a Secret? Course dives deep into the Beatles.

n the catalog of ’60s music, the Beatles stand out from other rock bands. “You can think critically about their music and walk away in awe,” says Marietta Cheng, music professor and University Orchestra conductor. Since 2019, she’s taught a 100-level course on the band that changed rock music. “I came to the Beatles because I loved them as a teenager, but also because I found them as a vehicle [through which] you could learn more about music,” Cheng says. “And the students wanted to learn about rock ‘n’ roll. So, it was an easy entree into saying, ‘To gain insights, learn the musical terms. This is the rhythm. This is the melody. This is meter. This is syncopation.’”

→ What about George and Ringo? George Harrison was the youngest Beatle, joining the band when he was just 15. “John and Paul, the number one team, didn’t initially feel they should give a lot of time to George’s songs, because as a songwriter, he was a Johnny-come-lately.”

Learn some little-known facts about the Beatles from Cheng:

(left) Alamy stock/Joseph s giacalone

→ Until 1964, they weren’t the skilled songwriters we came to know. The Beatles formed in 1957 and spent years honing their craft. “They were experimenting with their songwriting to make it original. A lot of other bands think, ‘I want to become known right out of the block in the first year.’ That doesn’t allow them enough time to think about things deeply. The Beatles had that time.”

→ None of the Beatles could read music. Paul McCartney dabbled in piano and trumpet lessons, but no member had any formal music education. They didn’t want to understand key elements of music, like harmony and chords, because they didn’t want to be held back by rules. “By not knowing the Illustrations by Katriel Pritts

rules of grammar in music, it meant they could try anything they wanted to try.”

→ The Beatles’ studio experimentation was a turning point for the rock genre. They made bold moves by playing tapes backward, changing where microphones were placed, and stuffing sweaters into bass drums. John Lennon wasn’t a mechanical whiz, so he’d describe the sound he wanted to create by saying things like “make my voice sound like it’s smothered in ketchup.” Producer George Martin and recording engineer Geoff Emerick did the rest. “They made rock into art.” → McCartney and Lennon were only a songwriting duo until 1965 or 66. They soon wrote independently, and by

Ringo Starr was the Beatles’ second drummer, following Pete Best. Starr was particularly good

at drum fills, or brief transitions at the end of lines. He got the gig because he was already friends with the other three musicians. “If you needed a buffer between strong egos or personalities, he really was good for that. He helped the band get along.”

→ Their image was carefully crafted by manager Brian Epstein. “Their image of being very witty and innocent and somebody you could take home to Sunday dinner worked really well.” — Rebecca Docter

Professor Marietta Cheng’s

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT: Think critically about these Beatles songs. Consider their lyrics and melodies, how they’re alike and how they differ. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”: “Was it [written] just because of [Lennon’s] son’s drawing of a young child, Lucy? Or is it deeper? Is it about LSD? Maybe it’s just about a dream state.” “A Day in the Life”: The song appears on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which Cheng calls “revolutionary.” It’s a good example of Lennon and McCartney’s strong creativity, and also the way the Beatles began experimenting in the studio. Why do you think the song is so eye-opening? “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Penny Lane,” “Strawberry Fields Forever”: Each of the three songwriters (Harrison, McCartney, and Lennon, respectively) had individual approaches. What differences do you notice?

“I found it incredibly exciting to learn about the innovations in terms of lyrics, melodies, cover art, albums, and more to see what really set some bands apart from others.” — Tyler Krantz ’21 Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 31

The Nexus: Innovation, Creation, and Hands-on Exploration Colgate’s Middle Campus brings together design, computer science, digital creativity, the arts, and entrepreneurship. By Aleta Mayne

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Future Plans Theater and Dance Film and Media Studies Computer Science TIA Studio Art

p. 36 p. 40 p. 45 p. 46 p. 52 p. 58

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Listen closely, and you’ll hear the wheels turning.

President Brian W. Casey’s vision for Colgate, as he’s outlined in The ThirdCentury Plan, is taking shape. As the University grows, it will coalesce, both physically and academically. Next on the horizon: developing the Middle Campus. “The Middle Campus will form an intentional, physical gateway between west campus and the academic quadrangle,” Casey says. “As the home of the Initiative in Arts, Creativity, and Innovation, it will be a hub of liberal arts activity, where new methods of teaching and learning encourage new modes of thought.” First, we’ll give you a glimpse of the proposed campus changes. Then, you’re invited to see the recent work of students and professors from the departments that will join together in the Middle Campus.

55% The percentage of students taking a course in a Middle Campus program or department during academic year 2020–21

158 Number of graduated majors/minors in Middle Campus departments or programs in 2020

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“ As the home of the Initiative in Arts, Creativity, and Innovation, it will be a hub of liberal arts activity, where new methods of teaching and learning encourage new modes of thought.” — President Brian W. Casey Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 35

FU TUR E PL AN S

Bridging upper and lower campus, both physically and academically

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RenderingS by RAMSA/Alliedworks

Reimagining Middle Campus

Experimentation Design Digital creation Hands-on exploration Innovation Exhibition and performance

Below the traditional academic quad, Case-Geyer Library, James C. Colgate Hall, Little Hall, and the Dana Arts Center sit as separate entities. As outlined in The Third-Century Plan, this section called Middle Campus will be developed and become more cohesive. “Colgate will address long-standing needs in arts and creative facilities and set a new standard for the teaching and creation of the arts, creativity, and

innovation within a liberal arts context,” the plan states. This is “in response to a new generation of student learners and learning modes,” says Lesleigh Cushing, special advisor to the president for strategic initiatives. “It’s a unique intellectual program that connects a number of growing academic units and broadens reach to a wide swath of the student body.”

The Dana Center for Curricular and Co-curricular Innovation

A Complex for the Arts, Creativity, and Technology

University Collections and Material Labs

The new Benton Center (pictured behind James C. Colgate Hall in rendering B) will be one of the key parts of the Complex for Arts, Creativity, and Technology.

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A Complex for the The Dana Center University Arts, Creativity, for Curricular and Collections and and Technology Co-curricular Material Labs Innovation

What: The Benton Center for Creativity and Innovation — thanks to a $20 million gift from Dan Benton ’80, H’10, P’10 — will be the anchor of a two-building complex totaling 36,800 gross square feet.

What: the Dana Arts Center, renamed and reimagined

Who: computer science, film and media studies, theater, and dance

Why: • weaving together new and traditional design modes in the curriculum: architecture, scenic, lighting, costume design, coding, and virtual and augmented reality

Why: Arts and technology are becoming increasingly collaborative and multimodal. This complex will help build on existing strengths in digital creativity. And, further integrating arts and technology will allow students to develop fluency in the newest phenomena. Providing: • computer science student research hub • flexible performance space, such as a black box theater • interactive performance and exhibition space equipped for events that involve virtual/augmented reality, immersive reality, and telematic performance (imagine dancers who wear sensors, and their dancing is projected onto the walls) • Media archaeology lab: Students can tinker with old equipment like a Steenbeck editing machine to edit film or a stereoscope (think View-Master) to see the origin of 3D images.

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Who: theater, design, Thought Into Action (TIA), music

Providing: • art galleries, visible storage, object study labs, and a lecture hall Inspiring: • integration of object-based learning across the disciplines, reorientation of collections toward the curriculum, and student-driven exhibitions

• colocating TIA and other student entrepreneurial, maker, and design programs with academics Highlights: design labs, collaborative spaces with creativity nooks, innovation commons

“We’d like to let the building [Dana] flow more than it does right now, and become much more inviting — and accessible.”

— Lesleigh Cushing, special advisor to the president for strategic initiatives

Museum/Lab/Classroom

Music While Colgate considers longer-term plans for music, vastly improved spaces will be built to accommodate acoustic upgrades. Future ideas may include areas for sound and storytelling, recitals and concerts, and integrating cultural programs.

Challenging the notion that art is simply to be looked at from a distance, a new storage facility will enable students to engage with art in a more interactive way. Colgate has been working with the architectural teams to develop short- and long-term space solutions that will not merely solve some of our significant art storage issues, but also ensure that students have the opportunity to engage closely with exhibitions, to conduct research on University collections, and to take courses centered around the objects that have been entrusted to Colgate. “The ethos of museums is really shifting to make them not just places where things are on display, and a passive learner comes in and stands in front of them, but instead, enables more hands-on learning,” Cushing says. Students can, for example, turn a painting around in their hands and look at it to try to understand it, not just in terms of what the painting is depicting, but also thinking about the first time it was framed and how it got in the frame. Museum study spaces will become a lot like labs. Cushing adds that there is also a change in the perception that museums are the experts that inform the visitors about the art, sometimes failing to acknowledge cultural misrepresentations in the art. In addition to looking at diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in museums, there is also strategic planning around making them more accessible (e.g., easier to move around in). “There is a broader kind of impulse around accessibility and museums, along with DEI and decolonizing efforts,” she says. The University is not alone in this new approach. For the past few years, several institutions ranging from the San Diego Museum of Man to the Australian Museum in Sydney have been working to improve cultural competency. “Rather than thinking about art as something that stands alone, we are now paying more attention to the institutions through which we access these objects and how that has framed our perceptions,” says Professor of Art and Art History Elizabeth Marlowe. As Colgate proceeds with moving its arts initiatives into the future, every last detail — including what, to the untrained eye, may look like just storage space — will be considered. The University began offering an interdisciplinary minor in museum studies in 2017. This spring semester’s course offerings included Introduction to Archaeology, Visual Rhetorics, and Mineralogy and Geochemistry.

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THE ATER AN D DANCE

A New Act: Employing Technology in Theater Probably more so than any other department, theater relies on people coming together in person. But, the continued New York State restrictions on events and gatherings did not hold the department back this spring. It just had to get even more creative than usual. “Sometimes limitations are a gift,” says Professor Adrian Giurgea. “They frame your work. They give a purpose.” Exploring the ways technology can be used, the Department of Theater presented new methods of storytelling and engagement.

The 2021 Take on Hamlet Technicians set up the camera and leave. In front of a green screen, the student actor prepares to perform one of Hamlet’s seven soliloquies. And from a laptop, Giurgea directs. After delivering the soliloquy, the actor changes the camera angle and performs again. “We did this 20 or 30 times until we had enough shots to choose from,” Giurgea says. For the production Hamlet the Sponger, cast and crew members couldn’t be in the same space for extended periods of time, so they filmed separately for four hours every evening throughout February and March. “We needed to be very well organized in order to make this happen,” Giurgea says.

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He spent the next five weeks doing postproduction, to prepare the play for its online release. “The process was intricate and difficult, but it paid off,” Giurgea says. Hamlet the Sponger was a take on Hamlet that was presented through just his seven soliloquies — which, in Shakespeare’s original writing, are interspersed throughout the play, but here became the focus. The clown, the warrior, the prince: Various facets of Hamlet, as portrayed in each soliloquy, were performed by students of different ethnicities and genders. “A character of so many dimensions that he is rather like a prism, that when held up to the light, produces numerous colors,” Susan Cerasano says in the prologue. Cerasano, who is the Edgar W.B. Fairchild Professor of literature, served as the dramaturge. Giurgea envisioned this modern spin on Hamlet — from the technology used, to the postproduction effects, to the characters themselves. The title was inspired by a Bertolt Brecht poem in which he calls the prince of Denmark an “introspective sponger.” Giurgea interprets this to be “a lazy person, indifferent to the signs of the time and looking inwards instead of outwards. “Hamlet is very contemporary to us,” Giurgea continues. “Hamlet is diseased by a form of lethargy that many young people suffer, particularly in these days of uncertainty. Hamlet is an overgrown adolescent playing computer games and watching television on the couch in the basement of his parents’ house.” Nathan Conlon ’22, for example, “played the socialite

Hamlet the Sponger was released on the anniversary of Shakespeare’s 400th birthday.

andrew daddio (3)

Hamlet — almost like a Paris Hilton Hamlet — who is completely self-centered, feeling pity for himself,” Giurgea says. “He’s the selfie Hamlet.” Adds Conlon: “[I played] this character who, even though he’s superficial on the outside, he’s still a real person, he still has real struggles. So [it was about] finding the life within that really vain type.” Even the presentation of the production was representative of the times. There were two ways to watch Hamlet the Sponger, which was available online for one weekend only. As the homepage explained, the first version showed the seven soliloquies in the order of which they were originally written. In the second version, called “The Play’s the Thing” (a quotation from act 2), “the order of the soliloquies is scrambled to fit the meaning of a larger and quite different story.” In addition, Giurgea sprinkled in other prerecorded elements — including TikTok videos; a deepfake of Konstantin Stanislavski singing; a soliloquy by Jenny Wu ’23 in Shanghai, delivered in her local dialect; and two of Giurgea’s Moscow Art Theatre students performing in Russian. The boxes were numbered in both versions, but viewers could click around. “It really feeds into making this a modern thing, because this becomes something specifically for a younger generation that’s used to clicking and has a short attention span,” says Conlon, who is majoring in math and German. “It’s not just watching a play; it becomes something totally different.” Although the play began as a solo undertaking, it ended up being a shared experience. Giurgea stayed mum about the final presentation, keeping even the actors in suspense until the online release date. For the first time, Conlon says, he was able to watch a performance at the same time as the audience. “Usually, I get to hear what my friends think afterward, but I watched this with a couple of my friends, and I got to actually see their reactions in real time,” he says. “It was the joy of discovering the show together.”

Actor James Alton played James Baldwin in the one-man show Citizen James.

‘Connecting the Past to Our Now’

WITH PROFESSOR KYLE BASS

Q: What motivated you to write this play?

A: Baldwin’s work is so prophetic; we are living through everything he said would happen, and we are grappling with and reckoning with all the things he said we would be.

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Brenna Merritt

Q&A

James Baldwin, before he became known as one of the 20th century’s greatest writers, left the United States at age 24, fed up with the prejudice in America. He bought a one-way ticket to Paris, with no plans to ever return, and prepared to board a plane at LaGuardia — not far from Harlem, where he was born and raised. Picking up the story here, Professor Kyle Bass wrote a one-man play titled Citizen James, or The Young Man Without a Country. “He’s just about to leave the United States because he knows he can’t survive in this systemically racist nation,” Bass explains. “As he says in the play, ‘How do I write the fire from within the flames? I can’t do that.’” Although Citizen James takes place in 1948, it’s as relevant today as ever. Bass, whom Syracuse Stage commissioned to write the play for an educational series made available via streaming, tells more:

Q: The description states, “Citizen James is a bridge that connects the past to our now.” How so? A: It holds the brutality of his time, which reflects the brutality of our time. In situating a young James Baldwin on the stage, it’s a fresh look at him. It contemporizes him because the things he talks about are the very things we continue to struggle with and reckon with now in this country, in terms of race and white supremacy, democracy, justice, and identity. Essentially, he could be speaking from last night, not from 1948. For every generation, things feel new. It has been brutal from the beginning, but we just get to see it in our time. I don’t have to bring it forward. I just have to shine a light on it and say: It’s here with us now; the then is now.

Working From Home In an empty London house, the two women who make up the experimental theater troupe Split Britches settled in to make what would become Last Gasp (WFH) (“work from home”) in March 2020. It “is not just one of the 40-year-old company’s best pieces,” according to the New York Times, “but among the most evocative art to emerge from the COVID era.” The New York–based duo, Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver, found themselves stuck in England at the start of the pandemic after the premiere of their show in New York and London had been canceled. In spite of this, they decided to hunker down in a house (that was in the middle of renovations) and continue producing the show they’d planned to tour. Their virtual collaboration led them to create a filmed version of the piece in place of the live performance. The result is what Shaw calls a “Zoomie” (Zoom movie), combining theater, movement, and video. In it, the feminist twosome tackles gender and sexuality, aging, race, and climate change. Colgate provided access to Last Gasp (WFH) and held an online panel discussion about pandemic performance with Split Britches in April. The event was organized and moderated by 2020–21 Visiting Lecturer in Theater Benjamin Gillespie, who wrote his dissertation on the group and is currently working on a full-length book project on the duo’s later works. “Split Britches will never go out of style,” Gillespie says. “Even now, in their 70s, Shaw and Weaver’s performances resonate with the contemporary moment more than ever. Last Gasp is a testament to their remarkable ability to connect generations through their off-kilter experimental performance style.”

Q: What about Baldwin inspires you? A: He’s one of my three writerly saints. He was an extraordinarily gifted person. He was born seemingly fully formed, somehow, intellectually. It was immediately recognized that he was an extraordinary child. His language skills were highly developed. Lucky for him, teachers saw this in him, and he was really supported. But it was also a time when the fact that he was Black was a hindrance. There weren’t as many escape hatches. In fact, he took an extreme one: He left the country.

Christa Holka

Q: How was Citizen James produced? A: It was this interesting blend of theater and cinema. There were projections — they’re period, all black and white — to support the storytelling. It’s located in the theater, but then it becomes more cinematic. You don’t do edits in live theater; you end the scene. You don’t do a close-up in the theater; you do a monologue. We captured a number of performances, and then it was edited to create the cinematic presentation. There are fades. All the things you see in cinema are present in the video rendering of the captured filmic version of the piece. And yet there was what we call direct address, which is when an actor speaks directly to the audience, breaks the fourth wall. That’s very theatrical. So it’s a hybrid. Q: What Colgate classes did you teach this semester? A: Screenwriting and playwriting. I encouraged my students to watch Citizen James. Colgate purchased the first access to it, and it streamed April 8–13.

Citizen James was supported by the Department of Theater and ALANA.

The events were cosponsored by the Department of Theater, the LGBTQ Studies Program, and the Women’s Studies Program. Peggy Shaw (left) and Lois Weaver of Split Britches

TO COME: The New/Normal Diaries this fall will showcase short plays, monologies, video work, dance, visual art, and any other modes of artistic impression related to the theme “new/ normal.” This is the second time the theater department has solicited works from the Colgate community; COVID Diaries was a virtual gallery presented last autumn.

Needing to Pivot in Dance

Dance Studies. Swanson and her courses are under the theater department’s umbrella. “The class looks at different phenomena through the lens of dance,” she explains. “It’s not a chronological dance history class, but organized around themes like national identity, queerness, and resistance, which we look at through various dance practices.” Introduction to Dance Studies examines dance in wide-ranging contexts, engaging students in conversations about race, gender, sexuality, class, nationality, and dis/ability. Swanson developed the idea for the course, which she began teaching in fall 2020, when it became clear that her inperson movement-based classes would be on hold until restrictions were lifted. “I really am more of a dance scholar than a dance practitioner,” she says. “I took the opportunity to create a new course.”

meditation as a method of alleviating stress and anxiety. “Dance can be very relaxing,” says Adamec, who performed moves he’d learned in contemporary dance for his final video. Tamara Chapro ’21 was one of the students who took the class this past spring, and she found that the content dovetailed with her peace and conflict studies major. “I applied a lot of the theories I was learning about, including critical race theory,” she says. “It all intersected.” Chapro’s research project centered on the emergence of dance on plantations: the ways dances were used as a vehicle for social change and how many dance languages are present in choreography today. “Because slaves were taken from different countries within Africa, they didn’t all speak the same language, so they created different dance languages that were uniquely African

Thor Adamec ’22 signed up for the fall class after taking Swanson’s Intro to Contemporary Dance the previous semester. A lacrosse player, Adamec loves dancing and saw that spring 2020 class as a way to add more movement to his day. He was then able to study the different movements he’d learned in an academic setting the following semester. That autumn followed a turbulent time in the United States, with the pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests heating up. So he decided to do his final project on dance

American,” she explains. “[Professor Swanson] opened up a whole new way of seeing the world, because I had previously thought of dance as just something people performed,” Chapro says. “But so many aspects of life could be analyzed through a dance theory lens.”

he origin of the word “cakewalk” is from a dance performed by enslaved Black people in the mid-19th century. American plantation owners judged the dances — characterized by fluid movements accomplished with great ease (hence the meaning of the word) — and the winning slave would “take the cake” as a prize. This is one example of the sociohistorical and cultural roots of dance that students have been learning about in Assistant Professor Amy Swanson’s Introduction to

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Swanson’s scholarly background and current book manuscript are based on representations of gender and sexuality in contemporary dance in Senegal.

MARK DiOrio

Professor Amy Swanson, teaching Intro to Contemporary Dance

F I L M A N D M EDIA S T UDI E S

Let’s Stay In for the Movies The documentary Boys State premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the U.S. Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize. This spring, Colgate students had the chance to watch Boys State — which follows 1,000 teenage boys as they team up to build a representative government — and discuss it with the two filmmakers as well as a student from Texas who was in the documentary. This was all done virtually. But, as professors and students have learned over the last year, limitations can sometimes provide new opportunities. In the past, the Film and Media Studies Program has brought directors and filmmakers to campus for conversations with students. This year, because everything took place online, the department was able to introduce students to a larger number of people involved in the films they watched as part of the Friday Night Screening and Speaking Series. Students were provided with the link to the movie a week in advance, and then they’d participate in a Q&A with the filmmakers over Zoom. Moderating the discussions were faculty members and senior film and media studies majors. “Our favorite discovery this year was how exciting and rewarding it was for our senior film and media studies majors to co-moderate these discussions,” says Professor Mary Simonson, director of the program. “They asked nuanced, challenging questions and shared excellent insights about the complex issues raised in the films. The invited filmmakers were so impressed with our students’ observations, critical takes, and poise. As we return to in-person screenings and discussions in the fall, we’ll continue to invite our seniors to moderate.” Every film screening was cosponsored with another department or program at Colgate.

SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE YEAR: John Lewis: Good Trouble — chronicling the late congressman’s 60-plus years of activism for civil rights, voting rights, gun control, health care reform, and immigration Crip Camp — a documentary depicting the early days of disability activism in the United States; winner of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival’s Audience Award Small Media Festival: A colorful celebration of the tiny image, featuring low-bandwidth movies that stream with no damage to the planet and prove that great cinema can be under 5 megabytes. BlackStar Film Festival: Showcasing the work of filmmakers of color and Indigenous filmmakers, this traveling program has been hosted by Colgate three years in a row.

Three students were selected for Cornell’s 8th Annual Centrally Isolated Film Festival. Emma Schaeffer ’22, Vuong Hoang ’24, and Alex Chu ’22. For his film La Cena Italiana, Chu won the Audience Award. An economics major, he made La Cena Italiana in his very first filmmaking class in fall 2020.

The New York City Film and Media Study Group will launch this fall. It is being hosted by the Gotham Film & Media Institute, where Jeffrey Sharp ’89 is executive director. Sharp has produced such films as Boys Don’t Cry, You Can Count on Me, and Proof. Watch for more about the study group in a future issue.

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COMP U T ER S C IENCE

Colgate and the Machine How the Department of Computer Science came to be BY TOM BRACKETT

Colgate’s computer center circa 1960–79

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Images courtesy of Special Collections and University Archives

Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 47

It all began in 1965, when Colgate started offering the January program (colloquially called Jan Plan). Professor George Schlesser of the education department had an IBM 1620 computing machine, which he used for research, and I used that machine to teach FORTRAN programming as my first January program. The following year, Roswell Miller ’68, who had participated in that first Jan Plan, wished to do an independent study in assembly language. His project was to write a program to do the registrar’s task of assembling students into classroom and laboratory sections. So the registrar, in cooperation with the faculty, created the schedule of course meetings, including multi-section classes and laboratories, and the students created their desired schedule of classes and other meetings. The information was assembled from both groups onto punched cards to serve as input for the program. The result — names of students assigned to particular class and laboratory sections — was produced quite rapidly, saving a lot of time for the staff members who were doing the process by hand. What’s more, the process could easily be repeated, with some class and laboratory meetings changed to maximize student enrollment and, thus, to achieve the best possible fit of student desires and course offerings. Everyone — students, faculty members, and administrators — was happy. What better way to show the entire Colgate community the value of computers? But why would Colgate, a liberal arts university, ever want to study a machine? Several reasons. This was a machine you could talk to, and that raised questions about programming languages and the limits of what you could say. In fact, Jim Reynolds, a colleague in the psychology department, had already visited me to discuss the relation between this digital computer and

the classic mind-body problem. This was a machine that assaulted human thought by defeating humans on certain intellectual tasks. Alan Turing, a founding father of computer science, had speculated that computers might become equivalent to or possibly even superior to humans in thinking power. Surely that thought was worth pursuing in an academic institution. In addition, computers were becoming useful for faculty research in many areas. Fortunately, the government was also interested in promoting the study and use of computing in colleges and universities nationwide; the President’s Science Advisory Committee implemented a program of support through the National Science Foundation (NSF). In January 1968, Jim and I wrote a proposal titled “The Development of Computer Activities in a Small Liberal Arts College” and submitted it to the NSF. Charles Holbrow from the physics department joined us in the proposal to provide additional professorial assistance. Our idea was to create a student academic program, a faculty education program, and access to different types of computer facilities to determine which would best serve the University. We were to keep careful notes on our experience so that the results might be of use to other colleges. In fact, we hoped Colgate’s experience would become a model for others. The proposal asked for two years’ support; the total costs were more than a half million dollars, of which Colgate would pay less than 20%. As I recall, Colgate was one of four schools receiving an award from the NSF in 1969. The others were Johns Hopkins University, New York University, and the Ohio State University. Colgate was the only university of its type to receive an award that year.

In 1969 we set up shop in the basement of the O’Connor Campus Center: offices for a computer operator and a program director, a machine room, and a small area with terminal connections to a computer occasionally used as a classroom. The main objective of our introductory course, Computers and Society, was to develop an appreciation of the capabilities and limitations of computers. A secondsemester course studied the main components of a computer and their organization. For students wishing to continue beyond this course, we offered advanced seminars on topics including artificial intelligence, nonnumerical programming languages, compiler design, and automata theory. With respect to faculty education, we had two one-month summer seminars to educate faculty members in programming and to discuss subjects like computer impacts on society, the place of computing in a liberal arts university, and computers for research and scholarship. On the whole, the Academic Computing Center encouraged computer use and developed a program that was a reasonable fit for education and research at Colgate. However, the computer science faculty needed to be organized into their own department. Furthermore, it was important that the department have its own computing facility for student and faculty research. This did not happen all at once; first an academic department of computer and information science was organized under the Division of Natural Science in 1979. It was the first academic department created at Colgate in 33 years. Eventually, the dean and president created a separate computing service — known as Information Technology Services today.

Tom Brackett served as chair of the computer and information science department and director of the computing facility until 1982. He served as a professor of computer science until his retirement in 2000. Brackett wrote this history of the department he helped create because, he says, “It seemed like a story that was going to be lost, and I was the only one who was going to be able to tell it.”

48 Colgate Magazine Summer 2021

Students in computer lab circa 1960–70. Photo by Dick Broussard

Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 49

$1 Million Gift Supporting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion As Tom Brackett and his wife, Liz, reflect on the parts of their lives that have been most significant, Colgate is a chapter that stands out. The Bracketts, now in their late 80s, joined the University in the 1960s. Both started in the chemistry department and then moved to computer science, teaching for more than three decades before retiring as professors emeriti. “Colgate was an extremely important experience to me, and I have a very fond attachment to it,” Tom says. To support other professors and students, the couple recently gave more than $1 million to create an endowment fund for diversity, equity, and inclusion in computer science. It will allow for the creation of academic opportunities for underrepresented students in computer science as well as support faculty members seeking to develop programs that will deepen underrepresented students’ exposure to computer science. “The field of computer science critically suffers from a lack of diversity,” says Joel Sommers, professor and chair of the

department. “With computing technology becoming embedded in nearly every facet of life, it is especially important that the scientists and engineers developing those technologies are representative of the rich diversity of society at large.” Some of the ways the funds will be used include bringing speakers to campus to discuss and raise awareness of topics like bias in AI-based systems, purchasing loaner equipment for students whose computing devices may be insufficient for coursework, running coding workshops for underrepresented students in central New York, and funding student attendance at conferences like the Richard W. Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing and the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. “The department is so grateful for the Bracketts’ generous gift,” Sommers says, “which will significantly bolster department efforts in diversity, equity, and inclusion.” In the ’70s and ’80s, Liz worked to increase diversity of the faculty when she served two terms (three years each) as

affirmative action director. And, helping people gain access to education has long been a dedicated cause for the Bracketts. In 1992, they began their yearly trips to Thailand, where they lived in a refugee camp with the Karen people and taught English lessons. Soon, they created the Brackett Refugee Education Fund, which has helped hundreds of young adult refugees obtain a university degree and thousands attend primary and secondary schools. Although they’ve done most of that work since retiring, the Bracketts did introduce the cause to a few Colgate students while they were still teaching. Hannah Newhall ’96 Sanger even went to Thailand with them one summer, lived in a refugee camp, and became so interested in the Karen people that she won a Watson Fellowship to continue working with them after graduation. Tom acknowledges that he was given an education of his own just by teaching at Colgate and interacting with other faculty members. “It was there that I received my liberal arts education,” he says. “It changed my view of life.”

What are your memories of studying computer science at Colgate? Write to us: magazine@colgate.edu.

Professor Tom Brackett

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Student Clubs <Colgate Coders> Game Development Club Women in Computer Science

160 36%

Today, the department has eight full-time tenured or tenurestream and three visiting faculty members as well as three lab instructors.

There are 160 computer science departmental majors, which includes computer science and computer science and mathematics.

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Women constitute 36% of computer science departmental majors.

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TIA

Venturing Into the Unknown, With Guidance Whether entrepreneurs have just the seed of an idea, a business that’s already taken off, or something in between, Thought Into Action (TIA) provides them with a network of mentors and helps them develop their skills. Megan Martis ’20 perfected her pitch for the “Shark Tank” competition for this year’s Entrepreneur Weekend. It worked: She won second place for her hosiery business, CLOVO. “You live in this space, and you differentiate yourself,” Bharat Mediratta ’92, one of the judges, told Martis. “I’m impressed with what you’ve done so far.” Jessica Steib ’23 also received

52 Colgate Magazine Summer 2021

encouragement from alumni at the end of the semester. Jake ’16 and Carolyn ’19 Danehy, the cofounders of previous TIA venture Fair Harbor, called Steib to say that her personalized sneaker company Blank Canvas holds a lot of promise in the custom clothing sphere. And, if it weren’t for the assistance of TIA, the cofounders of the food delivery service 'Gate Grubs wouldn’t have connections to Hamilton restaurant owners, which facilitated growth of their new venture while supporting the community. The TIA incubator is open to students, alumni, faculty and staff members, and

community members. In fact, local resident Jill Nelson won first place in this year’s “Shark Tank” with Natural Beauty, which makes breast prostheses for women who have had mastectomies. “The blessing of Colgate is that we’re all in this together, and the collaboration and the ability to learn about different people is extraordinary,” David Fialkow ’81 said while judging the 2021 Entrepreneur Weekend Shark Tank. Fialkow, Colgate’s 2020 Entrepreneur of the Year, and Mediratta were joined by this year’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Nick Kokonas ’90, as well as Deborah Benton P’23.

’Gate Grubs

housands of hungry college students are waiting. You have three months to build a business and get it off the ground in time for the start of the fall semester. Go. This scenario sounds like a reality TV competition, but it’s actually how Adrienne Vaughn ’22, Ebrahim Almansob ’22, and Nick Gerlach ’22 pulled off the launch of ’Gate Grubs last August. The meal delivery service has not only filled a need for students, but it also helped support Hamilton-area restaurants — many of which are small, family-owned businesses — during difficult times.

Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 53

“From September, when we get on campus, to May, when we leave campus, that’s a large bulk of their revenue, and since we left campus early in March [2020], that’s a pretty long time for them to be losing revenue,” Vaughn says. The coming fall would bring its own challenges, with students in quarantine for two weeks and sit-down dining restrictions imposed by New York State. The pandemic was the impetus for ’Gate Grubs from a personal standpoint as well. Heading into the summer, Almansob initially had an internship lined up, but it fell through due to COVID-19. He was living at home in Nebraska when Vaughn, his best friend in Maryland, suggested: “We should start a business this summer.” Their other friend, Gerlach, jumped on board and proposed they start a food delivery service because his brother had success with a similar venture at Cornell. The idea hit home for Almansob as he was witnessing the impact the pandemic was having on the familyowned deli where he’d worked during high school. “I was like, ‘All right, that’s a good way to give back to the Hamilton community and help the campus too.” Through TIA, the cofounders gained the support of Hamilton’s Partnership for Community Development in the form of a grant to start the business and connecting them with restaurants. Of course, there were bumps in the road as August approached. The team wasn’t able to begin web development until four weeks before the return to campus — putting them on a tight deadline. “Typically, there’s beta testing, where you only allow a certain number of people to use it, like a testing population,” Vaughn says, “but we didn’t have the time for that. We were testing a product that was completely new to a population as we were fully in business.”

CLOVO: The CLOthing ReVOlution

Sleek spandex band elimates sag and adds longevity

TencilTM tree fibers are breathable and durable

Made by women, for women

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’Gate Grubs was voted the favorite venture during Entrepreneur Weekend.

Gerlach adds: “We messed up so many times; we were like firefighters in those first couple of weeks.” Even so, ’Gate Grubs received 800 orders in the first two weeks while students were in quarantine and even sold out of availability for certain mealtimes. Clearly, they’d discovered their niche. “We found that there’s a gap in the food delivery market in small college towns,” Gerlach says. “There’s a student body who’s used to food delivery and who come from areas where they have Uber Eats and Grubhub.” After the quarantine ended, orders decreased, but the slower pace gave the cofounders time to improve their business by better defining roles and smoothing out the problems they’d been facing with the website’s backend. And although business slowed, making a huge profit was never the motivating factor. “It was more to help alleviate a problem as well as get good food to students in a fast and easy way,” Vaughn says. Adds Almansob, who is the CFO, “We generated more than $60,000 in revenues for these restaurants.” For this fall, they’re looking at ways to expand their customer base and developing a program through which parents can gift meals to students. In thinking about the longer term, the cofounders are talking about expanding to other smaller schools that lack food delivery systems. “We’re happy that it worked,” Gerlach concludes.

Adrienne Vaughn

Nick Gerlach

Ebrahim Almansob

verything our skin comes into contact with — from lotions to apparel — may have chemicals that are absorbed into our bodies. Carcinogens such as formaldehyde in new clothing, perfluorocarbon in waterproof gear, and phthalates in activewear are just a few examples. “They build up in our bodies over time. There’s not a lot of research on how that will affect us in 50 years, but it’s pretty terrifying,” says Megan Martis ’20, who’s created a business centered on sustainable apparel — starting with tights. She founded CLOVO in 2018, through which she sells sheer tights that “empower women and the environment.” Why tights? Martis is fixing a well-known nuisance: Hosiery is uncomfortable — it doesn’t stay up, and it’s itchy. “I went to Catholic school my whole life, and I had to wear a skirt with my uniform,” she explains. “However, I’m pretty tall, so [my tights] would just sag all day, which is really awkward when you’re walking down the hallway trying to pull up your tights without anyone noticing.” Then, when she came to Colgate, the cold temperatures required that hosiery remain a wardrobe staple. “I was just so fed up with it,” she says, “I decided to do something.” Majoring in astrogeophysics, Martis spent three years in the lab with Linda Tseng, assistant professor of

CLOVO

Founder Megan Martis ’20 Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 55

environmental studies and physics. Studying — and eventually writing her senior thesis — with Tseng, Martis learned about how microplastics enter the water system every time we wash our clothes. This not only pollutes the rivers and oceans, but also, when humans eat fish, we’re ingesting those toxins. Having identified the problems she wanted to solve, Martis joined TIA in her junior year to get CLOVO off the ground. “I knew it had an ecosystem of mentors and people who could help,” she says. That year, Martis conducted market research with millennials (whom she considers her target audience); researched materials; and critically assessed how tights are designed, by looking at the ways women pull them up and how they could stay up. “That’s [another way] I used my physics background,” Martis says. The company sells two main products: EverTights, which incorporate thin, spandex shorts to eliminate sagging; and RevoTights, which do not include shorts. They’re made from Tencel — a tree material from sustainably grown forests in Europe that is produced in a renewable energy–powered manufacturing plant. “They’re not itchy because Tencel is a cellulosic structure, so when you sweat, it absorbs it rather than letting it sit on your skin. And, because of that natural tree fiber, it’s able to regulate temperature a lot better,” Martis says. “It’s also more durable than cotton and nylon, so you can pull on it harder than you would be able to with normal tights.” CLOVO — named for “CLO”thing Re“VO”lution — additionally aims to empower women by being a comfortable fit for all body types. “One of the reasons tights rip a lot is because they’re not formfitting to all women, and that’s something I wanted to change,” Martis says. “I wanted to steer away from the idea that women should constrict themselves to a certain form — which a lot of shapewear does — and allow women to embrace

In 2020, Martis participated in the TIA summer accelerator. Her main mentors through TIA were Per Sekse ’78 and Stephen Rock ’85.

their natural shape. This is a huge movement right now.” This tenet is one of the ways she distinguishes her business from competitors, as she pointed out during the spring TIA Entrepreneur Weekend pitch competition. CLOVO was one of four ventures considered for cash prizes. “The hosiery market size in the U.S. is about $14 billion; the global hosiery market is about $50 billion,” Martis told the judges. “Looking at the sustainable clothing industry, by 2030, it is expected to reach about $16 billion. Currently, about 73% of millennials will spend more on sustainable clothing options today.” A Kickstarter campaign last summer helped CLOVO launch the tights, and ever since, they’ve been gaining traction through social media influencers. “Our product needs to be explained,” she says, “so that platform is where we’re able to talk more about the tights, environmental pollution, and women’s empowerment. Being able to story-tell across these different platforms has really driven sales.” CLOVO is now starting to meet its goal of hitting international markets. This summer, the tights will be sold through Sustainable Marketplace in Australia — where it will be winter June–August. Martis also hopes to start selling in retail shops and department stores. And, eventually, she wants to explore more sustainable wearables. “I’ve always thought of CLOVO as a science of fashion company rather than strictly fashion.” Meanwhile, she’s building her skill set at the University of Michigan by earning a master’s in energy systems engineering as well as a certificate in innovation and entrepreneurship. Martis continues to pursue the “astro” part of her Colgate physics degree by working with the nonprofit Mars Initiative as well as Students for the Exploration and Development of Space. But, she’s decided, for the focus of her vocation, “I want to spend my career saving the earth rather than leaving it.”

Ventures selected for this year’s Entrepreneurs Fund Summer Accelerator, receiving $7,500 in grant funding and hands-on mentorship during an eight-week program: Designs by Madison Taylor: Madison Bailey ’18, Joseph Brozek ’17, Morgan Bailey First Impression Nails: Kadian Dixon ’18 Hawaa Organics: Sally Ngoje ’19 Shotquality: Simon Gerzberg ’22, Yasoom Khalid ’21, Kunal Thadini Virtual Babysitters Club: Kyle Reilly ’16

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Blank Canvas

Steib’s mentors in TIA included Jane Najarian ’74 Porter P’10 and Deborah Benton P’23.

essica Steib ’23 can paint the Colgate “C” blindfolded. As founder of Blank Canvas, Steib creates customized sneakers, and several pairs have featured a Colgate theme. President Brian W. Casey received the first set of those special sneaks. She’d emailed him during winter break to ask if he’d like a pair of personalized shoes. He agreed, with a request: “The new Colgate C was his one specification,” Steib says. Casey posted the creative kicks on social media, as did her mom, Rachel Comisar ’92 Steib, inspiring others to place orders for themselves and graduation presents. A graduation gift actually led to the inception of Blank Canvas. In the spring of 2020, Steib’s best friend was finishing high school and preparing to attend Tulane University. “I wanted to make her something that was truly unique, that she would cherish for a long time and find very personal,” Steib explains. “I decided to make her a pair of Tulane sneakers.” The graduate’s friends were so impressed with the final product, they asked Steib to make sneakers for them. She started accepting commissioned work and marketing her business during the summer. By the time Steib joined TIA last fall, Blank Canvas was up and running. “I’ve learned time management skills through being in TIA,” says the environmental geography major who is minoring in architecture. Steib has become more efficient in her process and estimates that it takes her about five hours to finish an order. This spring, she was at 75 orders and counting. The price is based on the amount of detail requested by the client; customized Colgate sneakers are approximately $300. Other commissioned pairs have included Converse dotted with strawberries, Vans high tops with punchlines from The Office, and Nike Air Force Ones with Black Lives Matter statements. “Sometimes people are like, ‘I want it to be a surprise,’ and they just let me get creative with it,” Steib says. She’s been taking art classes since she “could hold a pencil,” mostly in drawing and painting. Last semester, Steib took a drawing class with Professor Lynette Stephenson and plans to take a painting class with her in the fall. Blank Canvas is a personal endeavor for Steib and an individualized experience for her customers, starting with the initial one-on-one consultation. Her goal is to help people express themselves through their footwear — and, she hopes, other apparel in the future. At the end of the spring semester, Steib was painting yet another pair of Colgate-themed sneakers, this time for someone close to her. Paul Comisar ’56, Steib’s grandfather, was celebrating his 88th birthday on May 8, and she wanted to surprise him with a one-of-akind gift. She decorated the fresh white sneakers with maroon accents: the University seal, the words “swim & dive,” and, of course, the Colgate C.

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STUDIO ART

Photography by Mark DiOrio

An Invitation for Dialogue 58 Colgate Magazine Summer 2021

“How are you?” asked a sign in the foyer of Clifford Gallery. Below, a QR code enabled visitors to enter quotes and images as part of a digital project titled be by Anna Rapson ’21. In the main gallery, large-scale paintings; colorful, abstract sculptures; and a chair made of vibrant Easter eggs were among the final projects on display in early May. During the spring semester, 15 senior art majors created their final student works that offered commentary on society, examined the self, and explored personal themes. They were guided by Professor Lynette Stephenson and their classmates in Arts 406 as well as their individual advisers. The students spent the semester pondering how their work fits into art theory and how it contributes dialogue in the world. Also important: that they “feel ownership or connection to their project; it’s a concept that they developed themselves and can see it through,” says Stephenson, who taught the class for the fifth time. “There should be a clear indication of beginning through the end — some growth, where the choices they thought about at the beginning might completely change as they work with whatever medium they’re using.” Meet four of the artists.

Still Lives Through a Modern Lens

uul pods, French fries, cigarettes, Dunkin’ takeout. Alone, these items people consume are, eventually, trash. But arranged in an ornate setting by Sofia Perez-Dietz ’21 (pictured left), they become art — and maybe even beautiful. “I am interested in what is and is not considered valuable, but more curious about how significance is constructed and understood,” Perez-Dietz says in their artist’s statement.

Photographing with 35-millimeter, black and white film, Perez-Dietz uses red, blue, and green filters. PerezDietz then layers the negatives to achieve the colors they want; final pictures may be composed of as many as 11 photographs. “The arduous process of constructing color from B&W film allows the photographs to feign themselves as painting, which exploits viewers’ expectation that still lives depict hyper-precious items,” they write in their statement. Taking art theory and painting classes, Perez-Dietz developed this concept when thinking about how, in the Dutch Golden Age, art was intended to replicate reality. Transferring that idea from the canvas to the camera, Perez-Dietz pondered the notion that today, photographs are thought to be depictive of real life. But, in both instances, that’s not entirely accurate. In the 17th century, still life paintings included items like lobsters and lemons, but “we don’t see it as exotic or strange; it naturalizes it,” Perez-Dietz comments. Similarly, today, items like fast food and drugs are normalized. “The objects … aren’t seen as trash from the get-go, rather they have roles in users’ lives as both precious and necessary until they become disposable,” Perez-Dietz explains in their artist’s statement. Examining the medium itself, Perez-Dietz says, “Everyone has a little camera in their pockets… When you think about iPhone pictures or journalism photography, it’s important to think about how cameras can make things really naturalized.” Perez-Dietz, in selecting the objects pictured, hopes viewers examine: What are we eating? What are we consuming? What do we show off? What do we not show off? “I’ve been led here subconsciously, with both this art history and art theory education,” Perez-Dietz says. “Being an art major at a liberal arts school is a really interesting phenomenon… We’re not just learning skills, we’re learning how to think, and that makes projects like this really rich and exciting.”

“Art is a skill that you’re always doing,” says Sofia Perez-Dietz ’21, an art and art history major with a studio emphasis, who is from Newton, Mass. “You can take painting and drawing and photography, but it doesn’t make you a painter or a photographer. It just helps you build this language; I think of art as language, and learning different skills to express things.” Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 59

Knox holds her dad’s painting smock, which she displays on her wall as a reminder of him.

Love and Loss

fter her dad passed away in the summer of her sophomore year, Allegra Knox ’21 found solace at the easel, a place they had in common. Like her dad and paternal grandmother, Knox has become a painter. “It must run in the family,” she says. In this time, she painted memories that bubbled to the surface. There was the funeral home, where she remembers that, while her mom was having a conversation, Knox was distracted by an oddly oversized bowl of Mentos on the table. “I just thought it was so bizarre,” she recalls, “…it was enormous.” Another moment: She’d spotted a blue jay, and “I felt like that bird was my dad coming to say ‘hi’.” These flashbacks became permanent on her canvas. A third painting symbolized her dad’s cooking, “one of his love languages”: an open kitchen drawer holding chef’s knives, with his initials engraved on the blades. Approaching her senior year project, Knox initially considered something related to the artwork of her grandmother, who created charcoal drawings and oil paintings. But when Professor Lynette Stephenson prompted students to creatively meditate on time or place, Knox thought of her dad and his unexpected death due to cardiomyopathy (an enlarged heart). “I chose to draw a big heart to represent time … your heart is a clock of sorts,” she says. Thinking of the common expression “ticker,” she adds, “it’s like a timer for your life.” As she continued, Knox “grew to like the shape more and more.” And, knowing she wanted to create a large-scale painting (like her dad’s art), the concept of an enlarged heart on canvas clicked.

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Working through her bereavement, Knox threw herself into her project, spending hours a day in the studio. One piece turned into six — now titled Fragment. “Each canvas is a small glimpse of the sorrow, isolation, and numbness that comes with such a deep loss, though there are pieces of life, celebration, and beauty within as well,” she explains in her artist’s statement. “The bloody, fleshy tones in some of the canvases represent the rawness of the trauma, while simultaneously there are beautiful aspects in the light pinks and soft curves on some of the paintings.” With the technique of piping, she created 3D veins: “… sometimes they manifest in infectious, unwelcome, tangled-up ways, much like unexpected sadness or triggers,” she wrote in her artist’s statement, “while other times they seem delicate and beautiful, reminding me that the loss only hurts this much because of how strongly I loved and was loved by my dad.” The project has helped Knox express her jumble of emotions and feel closer to her dad. “I understand him more now because I’m working on something he felt passionate about, and now I’m passionate about it,” she says. “Sometimes it makes me happy, and sometimes it makes me sad… I just wish I could call him, because in prior years, I would always tell him what I was learning in my art classes and we’d have really good conversations.” She adds: “But then, it’s so cool that I’m doing this because I know my dad would be really excited for me.” One silver lining, Knox notes, is that she’s developed new relationships with her extended family. “I don’t think that would’ve happened had my dad not passed away. There is a lot of badness and sadness and negative emotion, but there are also some positive emotions that have come out of it too.”

Majoring in studio art and computer science, Allegra Knox ’21 has accepted a position as a software engineer at DocuSign in Seattle. In the future, she’d like to learn more about game design, which she studied last year in Computer Graphics with Associate Professor Elodie Fourquet. “Ever since I was little, I’ve been really interested in art, but also how it’s used in a technological capacity,” Knox says. “And computer science is also a really creative field, because there’s a lot of creativity involved in logical problemsolving.”

Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 61

Constructed Cartography

his summer, Jared Lampal ’21 is hiking the Appalachian Trail, marking more points on his life’s map. Before embarking on this months-long adventure, Lampal spent his last semester at Colgate traveling a much shorter route: “There are about three places I go every week,” he says, “downtown, to my house, and to Little Hall [where his one in-person class was held].” This cycle got him thinking about place and time, which took him to his sketch pad. The final product, Mapping the Passage of Time, comprises four large panels representing different periods (counterclockwise from top right): a week, his lifetime, a year, and the future. “[It] is concerned with the ways we visualize life events, important locations, and worldly interactions,” he wrote in his artist’s statement. “This is a very personal piece, but it’s not obviously personal,” Lampal explains. “It’s my interpretation of those timeframes, their impacts on my life, and where I go and what I do.” However, Lampal wants the audience to engage with the pieces from their own perspectives, which he facilitates through certain artistic choices. “It’s my way of sharing my personal, internal ideas, but also allowing people to think of a way they feel about it themselves that’s unique to just them,” he says. Lines of text on the maps, such as “Stop and consider” or “Sometimes the closest places are the least accessible,” are intended to inspire contemplation. In front of the panels hang boldly colored geometric shapes, and depending on a person’s height as well as their angle and distance from the art, viewers will see Mapping the Passage of Time differently. The lenses not only change the work from a purely aesthetic standpoint, but also, their color-filtering properties either reveal or hide some of the text, depending on the viewing angle. A studio art and psychology double major, Lampal is intrigued by how the audience interacts with and is affected by art. “I’ve always thought it was interesting to see what influences the art people like, the art people make, and how art impacts people’s emotions.”

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Originally hailing from McLean, Va., Lampal has wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail since he wrote about it in his Colgate admission essay. Afterward, he’ll begin a full-time job with a marketing firm in the Washington, D.C., area.

There Is No Right Answer

cCloy Leonard ’21 likes to ask questions. Contemplating his senior art project, he deliberated: How do I ground this in contemporary practice? What’s the right answer to this problem I’m facing? Can art be just pretty, or does it have to have a deeper meaning? These quandaries were at first creating a barrier, but ultimately, a question gave him his answer: Why can’t this be fun? “Once I started playing with the works, things started flowing for me,” he says. The result is six sculptures that Leonard considers to be “temporal and behavioral aspects of the self,” he explains in his artist’s statement. These metaphorical self-portraits have titles including The Fool and The Fortune Teller. Each of the sculptures represents a phase, Leonard says. “Existing in different states, with me working on all of them at the same time — that’s the temporal aspect of it … and it’s me wanting to exist in all these different moments.” Hoping the viewers themselves ask questions, he adds, “I don’t want it to be clear which one came first.” Leonard, who is inspired by Leonardo da Vinci and French philosopher Roland Barthes, says: “My work is the question without the answer.” As he concluded this semester-long exploration and prepared his work for exhibition, Leonard posed one last query: “Why do we assume that a sculpture goes on a white box?” So he selected a few bases that, like the pieces, represent process and time: an old painting stool and a used paint can from the studio. “The act of layering paint each semester in a subconscious way [onto the stool and the can], by painting students, is what I want my pieces to highlight: process as art,” he says.

In the fall, Leonard will attend the University of Washington to pursue a master of architecture. Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 63

Endeavor Design

Reimagining the Great Indoors With HUSH, David Schwarz ’99 is transforming shared spaces in a post-pandemic world.

fter a year in which more than half of all Americans were working remotely to protect themselves from COVID-19, one of the questions companies large and small are facing is when to return to the office — and whether it still makes sense to do so. With tech CEOs like Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook announcing employees can work from home forever, it seems possible that some hybrid of remote and in-office working might become the norm. For an experience design firm like HUSH, the question is even more pressing because creating interactive physical spaces for humans to work, explore, and learn is the company’s bread and butter. As millions of Americans receive vaccinations, HUSH employees are investigating how to design environments that people will want to come back to. “This idea of connecting people is really about building trust between humans,” says Karl Stewart ’91, talent and people manager at HUSH. “I think that’s the piece we’re trying to solve. The companies that figure out how to do hybridization in a successful way will build that human trust.” Founded in 2006 by David Schwarz ’99 and Erik Karasyk, the firm’s goal from the start has been to create engaging sensorial experiences through a combination of design, technology, and architecture. They’ve worked with companies ranging from Nike to Uber on projects that take

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anywhere from three months to three years. HUSH’s quickest turnaround to date has been for the yogurt company Chobani. The single day “Giving Tree” installation in New York’s Grand Central Station celebrated Chobani’s 10th anniversary with an architectural-scale interactive installation. Viewers could plant a virtual seed and watch it grow, and for every “seed” planted, Chobani donated a case of yogurt to No Child Hungry. For Schwarz, it’s the longer-term projects that feel most satisfying. One such undertaking was the Energy Wheel created for biotechnology company United Therapeutics. The clock-like sculpture dominates the company’s atrium and reflects the amount of energy being produced and used by the building and its employees in real time, because the building runs entirely on solar and geothermal power. “We were asked to show employees the power of energy and sustainability as a part of their mission statement,” Schwarz says. “We created this iconic visualization that they sit next to every day. It’s a real-time data visualization that comes in from the energy of the building. It’s actually sharing whether [the building] is making energy or using it.” As the HUSH team envisions future assignments, they’ve been thinking about how to create both work and retail spaces that invite people to feel inspired and connected. Maybe the future of workspaces will house monthly team meetings on

United Therapeutics' Energy Wheel

Karl Stewart ’91 (left) and David Schwarz ’99

Clockwise from top: Jan Reichle, Laura Barisonzi, Nicholas Scope

Chobani's “Giving Tree” in Grand Central Station

a campus that’s designed specifically for their interactive and informational needs, whether that’s an engineering or creative team. If there are employees who choose not to participate in on-site meetings, HUSH will work to create new types of IRL/ virtual technological experiences to form better connections. For a soon-to-launch project with Facebook, Schwarz’s firm created a hybrid experience for employees and key guests. By simultaneously collecting ideas and information from participants in both virtual locations as well as on-site at their New York campus, they were able to design an experience that encourages active participation and interaction across time and space. As for HUSH’s own workspace, which was redesigned just a year before the pandemic, Schwarz was surprised how invigorating it felt to spend a little time at the office once it was safe to do so. “Even being there for a few minutes, I could feel how the space resonates with the frequency of being in an optimal state of creativity,” he says. “It’s so different than my house or any third space you might imagine.” That level of connectivity is exactly what HUSH hopes to deliver — just as soon as everyone’s back to work. — Lorraine Boissoneault Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 65

App

Sea Change Christine Hebert’s digital marketplace disrupts a predatory seafood supply chain.

uring family vacations in Maine, Christine Hebert ’12 accompanied her father to the docks to buy lobster straight from the fishermen. She’d play with the blue lobster they kept as a pet. When she moved from the United States to Copenhagen, Denmark, to pursue a master’s degree, Hebert was looking forward to buying lobster off the docks, but she was disappointed to find that she was unable to buy fresh seafood from the fishermen — or from the grocery store. Although Copenhagen is right on the Baltic Sea, its supermarkets offered only a small selection of prepackaged frozen fish for exorbitant prices. Hebert, who was studying environmental and natural resource economics at the University of Copenhagen, tracked down the reason why: Denmark’s convoluted supply chain exploits fishermen, gouges customers, and thrives on intimidation. There, Hebert saw an opportunity. Hebert enjoys “looking at the world in terms of data and throwing in some doing good for the world.” She and her

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friend Nima Tisdall, a business student from Copenhagen, conceived of a digital marketplace app through which small-scale fishermen could bypass the supply chain to sell directly to buyers. In just three and a half years, their company, Blue Lobster, has expanded throughout Denmark — but it started with two people who knew nothing about fish. In 2018, Hebert and Tisdall began visiting harbors, where fishermen explained that seafood from harbors throughout Copenhagen is sold at auction, passing through at least six middlemen on its way to restaurants and grocery stores. That’s why supermarket fish is at least a week old when it hits the shelf. This cycle isn’t only bad for consumers; the fishermen are paid so little that many small Danish harbors are closing, leaving the industry to bigger ships that engage in trawling, a fishing practice that devastates the oceans — and not just in Cophenhagen. Hebert and Tisdall learned that “the fishing industry in general is problematic; Denmark is really no different than supply chains in other areas.”

When Hebert and Tisdall approached the fishermen with a solution, “they thought we were crazy,” Hebert says. The partners needed to prove their small start-up could have a big impact. They strained their limited operations purchasing one fishermen’s catch for a full week, and had more than a ton of fish pass through the company. Their risk paid off. Nearly 60 fishermen joined the company, and Blue Lobster was off and running (swimming). Through the app, fishermen claim and fulfill orders, in addition to uploading their catches for customers to purchase directly. Blue Lobster matches the auction prices and returns the margin to the fishermen, amounting to two to four times more than they’re paid through the supply chain. There was pushback, of course. The auctions and other buyers blacklisted the fishermen, and “every time we went to a new harbor, our fish would get stolen,” Hebert says. “One morning, we came to pick up the boxes, and they’d been smashed.” Hebert and Tisdall were not dissuaded; in fact, Hebert took their competitors’ animosity as a sign of Blue Lobster’s success. “There wasn’t much they could do,” she says. “They couldn’t compete with how much we were paying.” The company began to garner notice beyond Copenhagen, with a mention in the Financial Times and a Nordic Ocean Watch headline naming the duo “Ocean Heroes.” Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and in the midst of Denmark’s lockdown, restaurants closed. Hebert and Tisdall pivoted. They narrowed their focus to six fishermen and four harbors in Copenhagen and began selling to private consumers, which inspired them to add an education feature to the app that includes webinars with local chefs. “Many people don’t know what the fish looks like; they just know it as the fillet they get in the grocery store,” Hebert says. “It’s important to know where your food comes from and not to be desensitized to it.” The company now partners with more than 58 suppliers (fishermen and shellfish and seaweed providers) and 200 restaurants. They serve more than 4,100 private customers — and Hebert and Tisdall aim to take the company international. Despite their global goals, Hebert says the company’s mission remains close to home: to deliver quality seafood straight from the harbor and pay the fishermen fairly. In return, “the fishermen have really stuck with us,” Hebert says. “They feel like we’re working together to change the system.” — Lara Ehrlich

Lars Moeller

ENdeavor

endeavor

Film

Two Men, 13 Minutes Jane Solomon ’83 executive produces a 2021 Academy Award–nominated documentary. n the New York Times “Op-Doc” A Concerto Is a Conversation, the audience has a seat in Horace Bowers’ living room as he and his grandson, film composer and pianist Kris Bowers, share their extraordinary lives. “I’m very aware of the fact that I’m a Black composer, and lately I’ve been wondering whether I’m supposed to be in the spaces I’m in or supposed to have gotten to the point I’ve gotten to,” confides Kris, who’s earned prominence with his scores for the Oscar-winning Green Book, as well as Dear White People and When They See Us, among other projects. “Never think that you’re not supposed to be there because you wouldn’t be there if you weren’t supposed to be there,” replies

Horace, who left the Jim Crow South at his first opportunity and built success owning a Los Angeles dry cleaning business (on a block that, in 2019, the city named Bowers Retail Square). “People are constantly throwing up things to stop you in life, but you’ve got to know, ‘You cannot stop me.’” This particular moment stands out to Executive Producer Jane Solomon ’83: “The perseverance that Horace was talking about … I think that really resonated with a lot of people,” she says. The film, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, was an Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at this year’s Oscars. Personally, Solomon found some similarities in Kris’ musical upbringing and her own. Kris and Solomon both started playing piano at an early age — 4 and 5, respectively. They both grew up playing recitals, and they had the strong support of their families. “My mother was a musician; my grandfather was a big band leader in Milwaukee,” she explains. “So, the whole thing really hit home for me.” Her interests also conjoined recently when she was the music adviser on the 2020 movie Stage Mother. But cinema is a

relatively new undertaking for Solomon. It was actually a reconnection with fellow Colgate tennis player Rex Miller ’84, now a director, producer, and cinematographer, that inspired her enthusiasm. She supported his documentary Private Violence (2014) and coproduced another of his documentaries, Althea (2014). In addition, Solomon started attending Sundance Film Festivals, and it all culminated in her “wanting to support films that really impact people,” she says. An art history major, Solomon applied her visual background to her early career as a buyer at the May Company, working on product launches for brands like Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and Dior. Next, she became a project manager, starting with Avon and then joining an international gifts company. “The art classes I took at Colgate helped train my eye as I look at the screen. It’s interesting how it’s all coming together now,” Solomon says. She became involved with A Concerto Is a Conversation as a member of Chicago Media Project, one of the documentary’s production companies. “These two men … had such passion and tenderness,” she says. “This film captured that in 13 minutes.” — Aleta Mayne

Horace Bowers presses grandson Kris’ suit for the composer’s world premiere of his concerto “For a Younger Self.” Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 67

endeavor

Media

Charting His Course Matt Shirley ’04 maps out the ups and downs of adulting in his new self-help guide.

here are many reasons why Matt Shirley ’04 could never murder someone. First of all, he doesn’t have any weapons. Then there’s his weak

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stomach. Most of all, though, murder sure does sound like a lot of work. Shirley is forthcoming about the reasons for his crime avoidance. In fact, he made a bar graph measuring the level of each of his hesitancies toward murder and posted the chart to his Instagram account. He’s not some weirdo: Shirley has made a career out of the charts he posts on social media, mixing his penchant for dark humor with topical, relatable material. Those charts got him noticed — he now creates them for marketing departments at businesses like T-Mobile, and his book, A Visual Learner’s Guide to Being a Grown-Up (Running Press, 2021), was released in April. One review for the book: “It might be my favorite thing to emerge from the dumpster fire of 2020 that doesn’t rhyme with ‘Maxine.’” Entering the world of charts with a dry erase marker in hand, Shirley began crafting his messages via whiteboard in 2017. Back then, he spent his days at a “boring desk job” and needed an outlet to spark his creativity. To keep things interesting, he challenged himself to make one new chart each day: “I started doing it just because I wanted to have something to hold myself accountable for,” he says. He’s since ditched the corporate life and the marker, trading them for full-time innovation and digital software. Zeroing in on the topic for A Visual Learner’s Guide to Being a Grown-Up was easy for Shirley because, like his charts, he drew from his lived experience. On the cusp of 40, he’s meditated on the modern definition of adulthood for years. Unmarried, childless, and career-focused, he’s pondered it even more as he’s approached midlife. “I think a lot of people are struggling with this

idea of what it means to be a grownup,” he says, “because it’s not like our parents, where they would just buy a house, have kids.” The guide is divided into the usual life sections, such as work, dating and breakups, and growing old. Like the infographics he displays on Instagram, the book is full of witty breakdowns of the ups and downs of adulting, including a corporate lingo translator, “The Periodic Table of Social Anxiety,” and a bad habits timeline from ages 0–90 (Spoiler: You’ll develop terrible habits, then do everything in your power to undo those habits with very little success). Looking into his future, Shirley sees more books. But for now, he’ll continue his process of waking up, driving to a coffee shop, opening Adobe Illustrator, and starting a new chart. “If I’m feeling creative, it’ll be based off of something that has happened to me recently or something that I just think is funny out there in the world. If I’m feeling not creative, I’ll go to the well of things that I know does well, like anxiety or … airplanes.” — Rebecca Docter

“[Colgate] influenced my way of thinking about growing up, especially because that felt like my formative years,” says Shirley, who was an international relations major and forward on the basketball team.

Charts by Matt Shirley

endeavor

Entrepreneurship

Big Men Off Campus Rob Carroll ’15 and Nick Freud ’15 bring the college experience to prospective students’ screens.

n-campus college tours are an exciting rite of passage for many eager high school students. But what if a student can’t travel to campus for financial reasons or, say, a worldwide pandemic? Even if they could, does a short in-person visit do the university experience justice? Enter Rob Carroll ’15 and Nick Freud ’15, founders of CampusReel. Created in 2017, their digital platform features crowdsourced student-generated video content to bring campuses to life for all prospective students. “There are fundamental inefficiencies in this process that create inequities for millions of students every year,” Freud says. “If you cannot visit campus, you are at such a loss to understand your college options.” CampusReel’s three-year head start on curating student-driven video content made the growing company — and its library of videos — the ideal solution to the urgent and universal challenge suddenly facing locked-down colleges and universities. By the end of March 2020, CampusReel’s user base had increased by 500%, and its client base of partner colleges had increased tenfold by March 2021. “COVID was an accelerant,” Carroll says. “It compressed a two- to three-year timeline of adoption into four months, because the industry suddenly realized that it needed to adapt right now. There was immediate buy-in.” Colgate itself had early buy-in on CampusReel. The fledgling project was among the 2017 winners of the University’s Entrepreneurs Fund Summer Accelerator, which awards a grant to exceptional Colgate start-ups and helps them reach commercial viability. “That was our jumping-off point,” Carroll says. The duo ditched their initial virtual reality format for a crowdsourced one closer to The Real World in style. “If you can’t visit a campus in person, you can’t understand the vibe or the community,” Freud says. They iterated constantly to dial in on just the right

Laura Barisonzi

video content that would convey important information about a school in a format appealing to tech-savvy Gen Z viewers who speak social media fluently. “They understand how to be digital storytellers in a very intuitive way,” Freud says. CampusReel received an immediate and enthusiastic response to its recruitment drive for student storytellers and sourced 15,000 videos in two years. “There are certain creators who have raised the bar and reimagined what storytelling can be,” Carroll says. He points to a frequent contributor, Julian ShapiroBarnum from Boston University, who provides candid and exuberant insider tours of the student union, library, and especially the fine arts facilities where he spends his days. Shapiro-Barnum has become such a

America, and a spike in interest from potential partners. In their tried-and-true spirit of frequent iteration, the founders and their staff of 10 (and growing) have shifted CampusReel’s business model. They now partner directly with nearly 100 higher-education institutions in 12 countries, ranging from community colleges to the Harvard Business School. They help each institution not only to reimagine the role of video in recruitment but also to make the best use of the videos across all of its social media outlets, digital marketing, and student recruitment initiatives. The duo aspires to triple CampusReel’s current user and client bases by spring 2022 and continue to expand its international footprint. “We want every single student

Rob Carroll ’15 (left) and Nick Freud ’15

star contributor that he launched a content creator academy for CampusReel, helping other ambassadors up their creative game. Freud and Carroll found themselves in the spotlight when they were selected for the 2020 edition of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list. “That was huge,” Carroll says. “It was the first public recognition of what we’re doing. I think it instantly validated us and legitimized us in everyone’s eyes.” That spotlight led to a profile in the New York Times, an appearance on Good Morning

around the world who is interested in furthering their education to engage with our content multiple times throughout their process,” Freud says. “CampusReel has the potential to fundamentally change how the college search process is done.” — Kristin Baird Rattini

At Colgate, Carroll majored in environmental economics, and Freud concentrated on English and literature. Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 69

SALMAGUNDI Mid-’70s

Rewind Remembering the Raiderettes

T R

extracurriculars that was not a sports team. By 1976, women were widely participating in athletics, but for those of us who were not athletes, we were fish out of the maledominated water. I loved to dance, so when I learned of the Raiderettes, I was eager to participate. Even better, because we performed at football games both home and away, we traveled along with the team. Although some might consider it a frivolous activity, it was not; we needed to be in top physical shape. Our coach and adviser, Jill Strand, the wife of math professor Al Strand, ran a tight ship. We practiced daily for hours based on choreography created by members of the group. The Raiderettes’ history began with Angela Nolan-Cooper ’74. A dance lover, Nolan-Cooper had been the majorette at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia. Three of her high school friends who came with her to Colgate — Covette Rooney ’74; her twin sister, Cozette Rooney ’74 Ferron; and Deborah Booker ’74 Matthews — had

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he Knicks have the Knicks City Dancers, Radio City Music Hall has the Rockettes, and, for 21 years (1970–91), Colgate had its Raiderettes, of which I was a proud member during the ’77–’78 academic year. Arriving on campus in 1976, I entered the sixth coeducational class, with 40% women. The centuries-old male dominance of campus life was finally beginning to substantially diminish. The Raiderettes — described in an early student directory as “a precision dance group that specialized in jazz and funk style” — was one of the few

all been cheerleaders and wanted to participate in something similar on campus. [You can read more about these women in “First Class,” autumn 2020.] Nolan-Cooper approached the marching band director, Peter Moore, and asked if they could march along on the field. Not sure how to answer, Moore consulted his math professor, Al Strand, who suggested that his wife might help, given her previous experience overseeing a large pep program at Washington State University. And so, along with

We danced and supported the spirit of Colgate. Jill Strand, coach

Lythel Mims ’74 and Alfreda Young ’74 Brooks, these six women founded Colgate’s first women’s activity group. Also remarkable is that all six women were Black, on a campus with a nascent

diversity mission. “If you could have seen the faces on the alumni [watching] these young Black women with big afros marching out on the field ...” Nolan-Cooper says. “The students didn’t have any problems with it that I recall, but the alumni sure were taken aback.” She attributes the alumni’s unwelcoming attitude to their shock at the double whammy of the Colgate community becoming both coed and more diverse. Mary Lou Doyle ’80 Tufford, who joined the Raiderettes in her first year, sees the group as a bridge to what Colgate was and what it has become. “We got involved in all the traditions,” she says. “We marched in the parades up Broad Street, enjoying the support of both town and gown; we participated in alumni events, and by performing at sports events, we were connected to Colgate’s great athletics program.” As captain her junior and senior years, she credits the group for instilling leadership skills that were vital to her future career in academic admissions. For several years, the Raiderettes competed at the Universal Cheerleading Association College training camps. In 1989, they earned first prize, adding to a growing collection of trophies. A year later, though, the Raiderettes faced an existential threat when President Neil Grabois wanted to abolish the dance team, asserting that “the nature of their performances elicited improper attitudes toward woman,” according to a Colgate News letter to the editor signed by the Raiderettes. But, students as well as parents fought to keep the group going. John A. MacLean ’62, the father of Bonnie MacLean ’86, who was captain of the first-place team, wrote to Grabois to emphasize the leadership and time management skills that his daughter had acquired. Jill Strand recalls facing similar objections to the group, but didn’t let them stand in her way. “I felt so positive about the experience the Raiderettes offered, I didn’t pay much attention to the bouts of criticism that sometimes emerged. It was a great opportunity and a lot of fun. We danced and supported the spirit of Colgate.” By 1991, however, the funds needed were cut, and the Raiderettes were unable to continue. In light of the Bicentennial and the 50th anniversary of coeducation, it’s time to celebrate this group that was consistently diverse, offered an opportunity to practice dance, and was arguably an important step in the evolution of Colgate women. On top of all that, I know I speak for most of us when I say that we simply had a blast. ● — Elizabeth (Liz) Hartman ’80, P’10

13 Words (or fewer)

Submit your clever caption of 13 words or fewer for this vintage Salmagundi photo by Sept. 17 to magazine@colgate.edu or attn.: Colgate Magazine, 13 Oak Dr., Hamilton, NY 13346. The winner will receive a Colgate Magazine tote bag and will be announced next issue.

Clipped From the Colgate Maroon, May 21, 1947

“‘The greatest reunion ever attempted in Colgate’s history and the greatest single event since the Centennial in 1919,’ were the sentiments expressed by Lloyd Huntley, secretary of the All-Alumni Reunion which will be held here in Hamilton June 13, 14, 15.” → What would Lloyd Huntley, Class of 1924, think of Reunion 2022?

Summer 2021 Colgate Magazine 113

13 Oak Drive Hamilton, NY 13346-1398

In This Issue

Pitch your venture to a panel of Colgate sharks p.52

Plan your perfect wedding — in just 20 hours p.102

Win first prize Hunt for in a dance clandestine competition weaponswith the grade uranium Raiderettes and plutonium p.112 p.28

Have a seat in Andy Kerr Stadium and watch Colgate’s 200th commencement p.14

p.20

Join the Beatles in the studio as they experiment with new sounds p.31

Map out your first trip postpandemic p.98

Take a 5-minute poetry class p.12

Practice adulting, from corporate lingo to breaking bad habits p.68

Rent a hammock (for free!) from Outdoor Education p.16

Deliver one of Hamlet’s seven soliloquies p.40

jill calder

Dig through the archives and document LGBTQ+ history

Get your claws on fresh lobster from Copenhagen p.66