Dickinson Magazine: Fall 2015

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Dickinson Published by the Division of Enrollment, Marketing & Communications Publisher and Vice President Stefanie D. Niles

16 Viva Bologna: We asked alumni of Dickinson’s

Executive Director of Marketing & Communications Connie McNamara

oldest global-studies program to share their memories,

Editor Michelle Simmons

and they responded with gusto, across generations.

Associate Editor Lauren Davidson College Photographer Carl Socolow ’77 Design Landesberg Design

20 Just Weight: The American and Global Mosaic program celebrates 20 years of lessons learned and

Printer Intelligencer Contributing Writers Matt Getty MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson Tony Moore

stories shared. 24 The Adventure Begins: Members

Magazine Advisory Group Gail Birch Huganir ’80 Jim Gerencser ’93 David Talton ’07 David Richeson Adrienne Su Robert Pound Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy Donna Hughes Nicole Minardi Website www.dickinson.edu/magazine Email Address dsonmag@dickinson.edu Telephone 717-245-1289 Facebook www.facebook.com/DickinsonMagazine © Dickinson College 2015. Dickinson Magazine (USPS Permit No. 19568, ISSN 2719134) is published four times a year, in January, April, July and October, by Dickinson College, P.O. Box 1773, Carlisle, Cumberland County, PA 17013-1773.

Periodicals postage paid at Carlisle, PA, and additional mailing office.

of the class of 2019 tell us what’s on their minds.

30 Ten Million Ways to Connect: Tom DiBiagio ’82 taps into his Dickinson network for the greater good.

32 A Most Uncommon Man: Read tributes to Dickinson icon Ben James ’34, who devoted 85 of his almost 103 years in service to the college. 36 You Are (Were) Here: Check out the people and places of Alumni Weekend.

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Address changes may be sent to Dickinson Magazine, Dickinson College, P.O. Box 1773, Carlisle, PA 17013-2896.

See Web exclusives at www.dickinson.edu/magazine.

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UP FRONT

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Dickinson matters

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college & west high

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fine print

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kudos

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in the game

IN BACK

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beyond the limestone walls

40 our Dickinson 54 obituaries 56

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ON THE COVER

Sam Phelps ‘19 (see Page 27) treated Assistant Editor Lauren Davidson and Photographer Carl Socolow ‘77 to an impromptu performance at the piano in Adams Hall during his photo shoot.

closing thoughts

[ Dickinson matters ] For the global good NANCY A. ROSEMAN, PRESIDENT

A

s Dickinsonians, we are proud of many things, but I think it’s safe to say that our approach to global education would be at or near the top of the list.

This past summer I visited one of our signature programs, the William G. and Elke Durden Bremen Program in Germany, to celebrate 30 years of partnership with the University of Bremen. It was a wonderful and moving celebration, as Dickinsonians across Europe and Bremen students who had studied in Carlisle gathered together to reminisce and to reaffirm a friendship that is deeply important to both of us.

I also spent some time with our colleagues at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS) in Copenhagen, one of our partner programs. A significant number of our students attend DIS, and I came away impressed by its academic rigor, excellent facilities and thoughtful use of experiential learning.

In both cases, I was struck by their deep commitment to immersing students in their academic work and in their exploration and understanding of a culture not their own.

With nearly 60 percent of our students participating in one of our 15 Dickinson programs or 22 partner programs, we have to be vigilant that the quality of each program meets our high standards. We ensure that our collaboration with host institutions is deep and thoughtfully coordinated. In fact, many of these programs are led by Dickinson faculty — either as resident or rotating directors — who work continually to enhance our students’ immersive experiences in and out of the classroom.

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While education abroad is one of many paths Dickinsonians may travel during their undergraduate careers, in taking that path, they open themselves up to a truly transformative experience. Without question, they will never be the same, and their life’s journey will have more possibilities available to them. For students who remain on campus for their four years, we are intentional in developing meaningful ways for them to engage with international and intercultural learning and experiences from the moment they arrive on campus. We embrace the challenge of helping students find their voices as citizens of a globalized world, whether in Carlisle or elsewhere.

Enhancing cultural awareness and problem-solving skills are key learning outcomes of the education abroad experience, enabling our students to see the world from multiple perspectives. Perhaps more important, there is something about the experience of living and studying abroad that allows students to examine — critically and appreciatively — the boundaries of their own respective communities and collective nation. Our responsibility is to be a vehicle for students on this intellectual and experiential journey, and I am proud to say that it is something Dickinson does exceptionally well.

But such preparation and oversight is expensive. The annual budgetary demands of global education are significant, but well worth the investment.

As I travel around the country meeting with alumni, I am moved when I hear Dickinsonians sharing stories of their time abroad, often noting their experience as one of the most defining of their lives. Providing opportunities for more students to share in these global exchanges is at the heart of our educational mission. For this reason, we ensure that the cost of education abroad programs are approximately the same as the cost of being in Carlisle, and that one’s financial aid package completely applies to the program fees of both the Dickinson and partner programs. We also offer bridge loans to help students purchase airfare.

While we are proud of our ongoing efforts, we are not complacent. As the world around us shifts and changes, we must ensure that our global campus, curriculum and programs continue to evolve yet remain unceasingly useful.

The enduring spirit of the liberal arts imbues Dickinsonians with the confidence and agency to raise their voices and be engaged citizens in this global age. The vibrancy and health of our entire planet depends on it.

in season

Some members of the class of 2019 kicked off their first days on campus by packing up and heading out on Pre-Orientation adventures, from rock-climbing at nearby Shaffer Rock to canoeing on the Susquehanna River.

[ college & west high ] 10 questions

for Stefanie Niles, Dickinson’s new vice president for enrollment, marketing & communications.

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Global education, sustainability and civic engagement are the hallmarks of a Dickinson education. Through a highly interdisciplinary, liberal-arts curriculum, coupled with extraordinary, useful experiences designed to expose students to real-world situations, we prepare our students to address the challenges of future generations.

I have to admit — like many others, I’ve spent several evenings taking a stroll down to Massey’s!

What is your elevator pitch for Dickinson?

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What do you see as the college’s primary strengths? Challenges?

One of the reasons I was so pleased to join the Dickinson community was that the college really knows its strengths and is committed to excellence in these areas. One of our greatest challenges, however, is to continue to communicate those messages clearly, concisely and consistently to prospective students and families in a market crowded with similar messages from multiple sources.

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Do you have a favorite spot on campus yet?

I still have much more of the campus to explore, but the porch of The Quarry is a comfortable place to grab a quick snack with a colleague.

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How about Carlisle?

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Dickinson is your first foray into overseeing Division III athletics. What do you see is the role of athletics here?

Athletics is an exceptionally important partner in the recruitment process.

Many of Dickinson’s scholar-athletes are here not only because of their academic interests, but also because of the experience they will have on the field, in the pool or on the court under the guidance of a coach they know will help them grow. A strong athletics program provides students with a fantastic way to develop lifelong skills in teamwork, communication and compromise.

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You’ve worked in higher education for over two decades. For you, what is the most rewarding aspect? The biggest frustration?

The most rewarding aspect is seeing the students whom I admitted to college years ago become successful individuals with fulfilling, happy lives, which I know were enriched by their college experience. The coursework, the internships and the people they met often became the foundation for personal and professional accomplishments.

The biggest frustration is seeing students make uninformed decisions due to a lack of education about the financial resources available to them.

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From demographics and enrollment trends to financial aid, admissions/enrollment is all about the data. How do you build in heart during the process?

Knowing whether or not a student is the right fit for Dickinson is critical.

We want to enroll students who will graduate from the college, so getting to know them personally by asking questions, listening to them and assessing their interests is key. Telling stories about current students and alumni is an effective way to help prospective students understand the culture, environment and opportunities Dickinson can offer and how they might thrive in this community.

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What is the single most important question a prospective student should ask?

“How can I schedule a visit?” While there are many online resources available, there is no substitute for a campus visit. Questions a prospective student or parent may not even have known they had can be addressed as they visit classes, talk with current students, listen to an information session and take a tour.

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Who is your greatest influence?

I’ve had the good fortune to work for a handful of exceptional individuals who have taught me the importance of being gracious, collaborative, thoughtful and strategic. However, I also think my children are among my greatest influences. They help me recognize priorities and achieve a sense of balance; and, in turn, I hope that I’ve been able to teach them the importance of hard work and what a tremendous experience it is to have a fulfilling career that you enjoy each and every day.

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What would you be doing if you weren’t in admissions?

One of the reasons I was so pleased to join the Dickinson community was that the college really knows its strengths and is committed to excellence in these areas.

Carl Socolow '77

I started college as a musical theatre major, so I would like to think that I would have taken Broadway by storm!

[ college & west high ] Boiga irregularis

Snakes. Memory. Atoms.

A round-up on summer student-faculty research.

Urbanatural Roosting It may not be a household term yet, but with a new Web portal developed by Professor of English and Environmental Studies Ashton Nichols (based on his 2011 book Beyond Romantic Ecocriticism: Toward Urbanatural Roosting), with the help of Kerin Maguire ’17, it’s fast becoming the next big idea.

Textbook research

Big data and cancer research are happening hand-in-hand with Associate Professor of Biology Mike Roberts and Associate Professor of Mathematics Jeff Forrester, whose bioinformatics background is informing ongoing student-faculty research on leukemia.

Learn more about student-faculty research at www.dickinson.edu/magazine.

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Mike Peel

Big data and leukemia

John “Jay” Mayers ’16 isn’t just reading a textbook for his research project; he’s enhancing it. As a summer intern for Associate Professor of International Business & Management Steve Erfle, he’s co-writing two online guides that will accompany Erfle’s forthcoming book on intermediate microeconomics — a book that includes sections written by two alumni.

Bjorn Lardner

A student-alumni-faculty team led by Associate Professor of Biology Scott Boback faced down a Snakes on a Plane scenario when they traveled to Guam to participate in a project funded by the U.S. Department of Defense and led by the U.S. Geological Survey. Four nights a week, they tracked the ubiquitous and unwelcome brown tree snake, an invasive species that has caused the extinction of many of Guam’s native vertebrates.

A new kind of order

There’s an experiment going on in a stuffy lab in Tome Hall, and it’s playing out with two physicists, a student and a gyrating table rigged with a pendulum setup. The springcoupled pendulum chain, built by Jiahao “Jacky” Han ‘17, demonstrates the breakup of the pendula’s uniform swinging motion, the descent into chaos and then the emergence of a new kind of order. The experiment, which in the end is about moving energy, could be used for developments in areas such as data storage, “stuff you can move without moving atoms around,” says Lars English, associate professor of physics.

Events lectures forums openings music Calendar of Arts: dickinson.edu/coa The Clarke Forum: clarke.dickinson.edu (includes event podcasts)

OCT. 9-DEC. 12

NOV. 17-21

Emerging Contemporary Artists in China

Tibetan Monk Residency

The Trout Gallery Pull Left_Not Always Right

OCT. 30-FEB. 20

The Trout Gallery

The Vase Project: Made in China — Landscape in Blue Barbara Diduk with Zhao Yu NOV. 5

The Clarke Forum The New Asylums: Mentally Ill and Behind Bars

Doris Fuller, Treatment Advocacy Center NOV. 8

Styles and Substance

Alzheimer’s research

Where do memories live, and how does memory work? The study of memory has become Associate Professor of Psychology Teresa Barber’s life’s work, and her recent research takes a new look at memory and its relationship with Alzheimer’s disease.

The College Choir and DICE NOV. 9-11

Music and the AntiApartheid Movement Residency

Janie Cole, Music Beyond Borders and the University of Cape Town NOV. 14

Admissions

Fall Open House

The Clarke Forum Enlightened Activity: The Green Tara Initiative NOV. 19

The Clarke Forum Federal Policy, Urban Policing and the Roots of Mass Incarceration

Elizabeth Hinton, Harvard University NOV. 21

Dear America 13th Annual Diversity Monologues Contest NOV. 20-22

Movement Matters NOV. 22

Dickinson College Jazz Ensemble DEC. 5-6

Dickinson College Collegium

Northern Lights

NOT FOR SHALE Actor and activist Mark Ruffalo, the 2015 recipient of the Sam Rose ’58 and Julie Walters Prize at Dickinson College for Global Environmental Activism, discusses what he’s truly passionate about with writer/editor Tony Moore.

Moore: Between the Solutions Project and your anti-fracking work, you’re becoming a real voice in issues involving the energy complex. How did you get so interested in these issues?

Ruffalo: About six years ago, Ramsay Adams, son of John Adams, took me to Dimock, Pa., to show me this new thing, hydrofracking, and how it was affecting people’s lives and communities there, and I saw really desperate people who couldn’t find a place to air their grievances. They just didn’t seem to have a voice, and they basically were asking me to tell the world their story. So I ran home — I wanted to get out of there quickly because that seemed a huge responsibility to me — and I was lying in bed that night, thinking, “OK, Ruffalo, are you really who you say you are? Do you really care about your community? Do you really care about the people around you? Do you believe in justice? Do you think we have responsibility for each other? Or do you just say those things and not act on them, and to what degree are you willing to act on them?”

And I was very fortunate. I have a nice acting career and I also have a voice that happens to reach further maybe than some of those folks, and so that became a place that I saw that I could be useful, and then I just started to study energy. And the question became, “Is there a way to move forward without polluting ourselves and our communities, and has this hundred years of concentrated hydrocarbons taken us to a place now where we can evolve in an energy sense?” And that took me to Stanford University, and I met with Professor Mark Jacobson, who’s the head of the civil engineering department at Stanford.

He’d done a white paper saying we could move, hypothetically speaking, the entire United States to 100 percent renewable

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Mark Ruffalo’s residency included classroom presentations, meetings with student organizations and a public Q-and-A with Clarke Forum executive director Amy Farrell.

energy in 50 years if we really put our minds to it based on the technology that we have today. And not only that, but it would create jobs, it would save billions of dollars in remediation and externalities. It would deal with blackouts. Once you have a piece of science that’s been peer-reviewed out of a place like Stanford, the entire conversation shifts. And I said, “Can you do this plan, but for a single state?” And that bloomed into the Solutions Project. Now we have 50 plans for 50 states. This winter, we’ll have plans done for every country in the world to take them to 100 percent renewable energy.

Moore: So technology’s the answer, in a way?

Ruffalo: It’s technology and knowledge, and maybe a simpler life for us, maybe more local-based economies, but really taking it to a much deeper level.

[ college & west high ] Moore: What do you tell your kids about the environment

and your work on behalf of it?

Ruffalo: I’m actually pretty hopeful about things. There are

a lot of really wonderful people who are joining in this movement at a moment when the technology is able to take us to another place. There’s a whole awakening of people, and so I share with them what they can understand at 13, 10 and 8.

A lot of it, they learn in school. I’m surprised by what they come home to tell me about. I taught them to love their surroundings, and I think that’s a really good place to start.

Moore: Obviously, Dickinson is committed to sustainability and working for the environment, and we’re so happy to have you here. What is it about Dickinson’s mission that made you want to come here for the Rose-Walters Prize and to become part of our community for the residency?

Ruffalo: One of the issues that I really work with and that got me started was water. Most of the data that the environmental side has to rely upon is either industry-produced or produced by the state or colleges, and I see the future of the commons and really the idea of how to protect water in the hands of the communities, in the hands of students of ALLARM. Your ALLARM program here is an amazing start to what could be done all over the United States. I know it’s been here for 30 years, but just in the past five years it started to move out into the rest of the nation, and with novel and newer and easier and cheaper testing technologies, we could start to really create a wall of defense that will deter polluters but also make it easier to catch them when they do it.

Moore: You’re fighting to ensure that fracking stays banned

in New York state. Do you see any hope for fracking? Is there a way, on the horizon somewhere, where it could work and it wouldn’t be dangerous?

Ruffalo: I don’t see it. It uses enormous amounts of fresh water in a time when fresh water is becoming more and more precious. Not only does it use it, but it’s very hard to recycle it.

Up to 13 million gallons of fresh water are used to frack one well. Out of those millions of gallons, they can only pull up about two-thirds of it. The rest of it has to stay in the ground forever. Out of that water, an enormous portion of that has got to be deep-well injected because it’s coming up with so much contamination that it can’t be put back into the system, so you’re losing fractions of the water table on the planet. You’re running a mass experiment that is completely out of control and without any understanding of where you’re headed in a time when, with global warming, we’re seeing these massive rolling droughts.

Another aspect is, when you drill a well hole, you’re actually creating a pathway between contamination down there and your aquifers, so it isn’t so much that somehow the

“The fracking fluid and the contamination are working their way up into aquifers from the very well that you’re drilling, and these wells are failing. They’re failing at 6 percent by the industry’s own numbers.

And they want to drill 55,000 wells in the next 10 years.”

fracking fluid’s going to work its way up a crack or something; the fracking fluid and the contamination are working their way up into aquifers from the very well that you’re drilling, and these wells are failing. They’re failing at 6 percent by the industry’s own numbers. And they want to drill 55,000 wells in the next 10 years.

You also have the fact that, if we’re going to follow the science of climate change — I can’t even believe I have to qualify that with an “if”— methane is between 30 and 70 times more damaging a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and the amount of methane that we’re losing in transporting fracked gas or extracting fracked gas blows by any benefit that the gas burns twice as clean as any other fossil fuel. All of these issues together make it not only unsafe but would have been incredibly unwise, and right now we have the technology to move past this age-old way of powering our world.

Moore: What alternative energies are you most excited about?

Ruffalo: What’s made alternative energy difficult is the pricing, but what we’ve seen throughout history is that fossil fuels rise at about 12 percent above inflation, and we’re seeing renewable energies dropping every year. We’re at parity right now with wind — it costs the same amount to put a wind turbine out as it does to power your house with natural gas or coal. We’re about three years away from solar being at parity.

At some point there’s an inflection point, and then we’re going to pass it. But the energy industry is heavily subsidized by our tax-paying dollars. If we were to pull those tax-paying dollars away, fossil fuels would be a done deal, because renewable energy and the electrification of our transportation system would be so much cheaper.

Moore: As you know, our students are fighting for various environmental causes. What would you say to them about really making their mark in the environmental realm?

Ruffalo: These students are in a very interesting part of the history of mankind, probably not like any other time. You have a way of communicating in a mass, decentralized way, so a lot of information can be passed along to a lot of people without filtration. You also have the specter of climate change, which is existential — probably one of the most existential threats mankind has ever faced. I would say that it’s probably an incredibly exciting time to be alive. It’s a purpose-driven time.

It’s a time when our values as human beings can really come into focus, and I would just say be bold. This is a chance to live a really full and exciting life, and what you guys are particularly doing is way out in front of a lot of people, so you’re leaders, and more so than any other generation, you can actually engineer what the future’s going to look like.

Learn more about Mark Ruffalo’s residency at www.dickinson.edu/magazine.

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Carl Socolow '77

Donna

Melissa

Kelly

Vincent

Erica

director of the Center for Service, Spirituality & Social Justice

interim director of the Women’s & Gender Resource Center

director of the Prevention, Education & Advocacy Center

director of the Popel Shaw Center for Race & Ethnicity

interim director of LGBTQ services

Hughes

Garcia

OUR HOUSE d i ck i n s o n ma gazi ne Fall 2015

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Wilt

Stephens

Gordon

Originally the home of Merkel and Mary Lamberton Landis, the Landis House has seen its share of leading lights, including two-time Newbery Award-winning writer Lois Lowry, who spent some of her happiest childhood years in the clapboard house at the corner of Pomfret and South College streets. Today, it is Dickinson’s nexus for social justice, advocacy and education and is a welcome gathering space for all students, faculty and staff — a fitting tribute to a writer known for questioning conformity and celebrating difference. From hosting nationally renowned speakers and programs to co-leading sessions on diversity in the workplace and organizing community-service and service-trip opportunities, the current inhabitants of Landis House touch the lives of nearly every student on campus and beyond.

[ college & west high ]

fine print Cop Job

By Chris Knopf ’73 Permanent Press In his 13th book, Chris Knopf ’73 returns to Hamptons executive-turned-cabinetmaker Sam Acquillo, the hero who launched his fictional career. Alfie Aldergreen was already living such a marginal life that it’s hard to believe it’s ended. But someone’s taken the trouble to duct-tape the addled, crippled Iraq War vet to his own wheelchair and drown him. Why would anyone have targeted such a harmless victim? Southampton Town Police Chief Ross Semple, who’s usually the first one to warn Sam off homicides on his patch (Black Swan, 2011, etc.), makes it clear he wants Sam’s help this time. And a conference with Suffolk County DA Edith Madison and comely ADA Oksana Quan suggests an obvious reason why: because Alfie is the third confidential police informant to die suddenly. Nor has his death ended the cycle of violence. The rear window of Sam’s 1967 Grand Prix is bashed in to discourage him.

His daughter, Allison, is attacked in her Manhattan apartment and left in a coma. Sam’s even hit by a fish truck in what seems to be an unrelated incident.

All of these provocations have exactly the effect you’d expect, sending Sam diving ever deeper into the murky waters of past and present felonies.

Hard to Let Go

By Laura Croghan Kamoie ’92 (pen name Laura Kaye) Avon/HarperCollins Beckett Murda hates to dwell on the past. But his investigation into the ambush that killed half his Special Forces team and ended his Army career gives

him little choice. Just when his team learns how powerful their enemies are, Beckett encounters his biggest complication yet — a seductive, feisty Katherine Rixey. A tough, stubborn prosecutor, Kat visits her brothers’ Hard Ink Tattoo shop following a bad break-up — and finds herself staring down the barrel of a stranger’s gun. Beckett is hard-bodied and sexy as hell, but he’s also the most infuriating man ever. Worse, Kat’s brothers are at war with the criminals her office is investigating. When Kat joins the fight, she lands straight in Beckett’s sights … and in his arms. Not to mention their enemies’ crosshairs.

Now Beckett and Kat must set aside their differences to work together, because the only thing sweeter than justice is finding love and never letting go.

Tracers

By Jennifer Howard ’94 Putnam Cam is a New York City bike messenger with no family and some dangerous debts. While on his route one day, he runs into a beautiful stranger named Nikki — but she quickly disappears. When he sees her again around town, he realizes that she lives within the intense world of parkour: an underground group of teens who have turned New York City into their own personal playground — running, jumping, seemingly flying through the city like an urban obstacle course.

Cam becomes fascinated with Nikki and falls in with the group, who offer him the chance to make some extra money. But Nikki is dating their brazen leader, and when the stakes become life-or-death, Cam is torn between following his heart and sacrificing everything to pay off his debts. An action-packed romance — now a major motion picture starring Taylor Lautner of Twilight fame.

Fresh Made Simple

By Lauren Keiper Stein ’02 Storey Publishing Fresh Made Simple is a collection of 76 full-page illustrated recipes with ingredients and steps cleverly integrated right into the art. Each recipe is designed around a featured fresh ingredient, from kale to leeks, mango to blueberries, cheddar to eggs, scallions to strawberries. The result is a delicious collection of vegetarian fare for every meal of the day, as well as snacks, dressings and spreads. It also include ideas to pair fish, meat and chicken with some of the dishes.

Beginners (even kids!) and good cooks alike will be inspired by combinations such as ginger lemon honey butter, leek corn egg bake, apple manchego salad, kale pesto, fried plantains with avocado feta mash, blueberry & corn pancakes and mango rice salad.

Adventures in Muniland

By Michael Comes ’08, David R. Kotok and John R. Mousseau Cumberland Advisors With a perspective that only decades of experience can bring, Adventures in Muniland captures the municipal bond market’s transformation from stodgy to dynamic. This concise yet comprehensive stroll offers an insider’s view, brings the reader right up to today’s discussions and carries the added benefit of providing a clear understanding of what can at times appear to be an opaque marketplace. The Cumberland Advisors team has produced an insightful review for the seasoned professional and a must-read for newcomers and investors.

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Kudos

[ college & west high ] Publications Cotten Seiler, associate professor of American studies, and Kristine Mitchell, associate

professor of political science and international studies, contributed a chapter, “Importing the American Liberal Arts College,” to The Best Kind of College: An Insiders’ Guide to America’s Small Liberal Arts Colleges, edited by Susan McWilliams and John E. Seery and published by SUNY Press.

Professor of Mathematics Lorelei Koss published “Differential equations in literature, poetry and film” in the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts. The paper investigates how differential equation models have been used to study works in literature, poetry and film and presents applications to works by William Shakespeare, Francis Petrarch, Ray Bradbury, Herman Melville, Ridley Scott and others, as well as applications to Greek mythology and the Bible. Koss also gives a range of useful examples for teaching and discusses how these models have been used in the classroom.

When a boa constrictor begins to squeeze its victim, it looks to be suffocating it, but a new collaborative study by associate professors of biology Scott Boback and Chuck Zwemer reveals that the snakes subdue their victims by shutting down the circulation and cutting off blood supply to the heart, brain and other vital organs, causing the victim to succumb rapidly rather than dying slowly by suffocation. The findings were published in the August issue of The Journal of Experimental Biology.

Mimesis International released A Very Seductive Body Politic: Silvio Berlusconi in the Cinema by Nicoletta Marini-Maio, associate professor of Italian and film studies. MariniMaio maps the multilayered narratives that the cinema has created on and around Silvio Berlusconi as a powerful means to explore the age of Berlusconismo. Going back to the comedy Italian style sub-genre, which foreshadows the significations converged in Berlusconi before the real figure actually entered the public stage, the discussion spans the proto-Berlusconi everyman of “La piu bella serata della mia vita” (1973) and the decadent caricature of “La caduta dell’impero” (in pre-production). Marini-Maio argues that the Berlusconi of this study is not only the historical persona, but also a pervasive semiotic category in which the history of the country is inscribed.

It’s all about the meat, says Ted Merwin, associate professor of Judaic studies and director of the Milton B. Asbell Center for Jewish Life. His new book, Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli, published by NYU Press, is the first comprehensive history of the Jewish deli. The deli, he argues, reached its full flowering not in the immigrant period, as some might assume, but in the interwar era, when the children of Jewish immigrants celebrated their success in America by downing sandwiches and cheesecake in theater district delis. But it was the kosher deli that followed Jews as they settled in the outer boroughs of New York City, and that became the most tangible symbol of their continuing desire to maintain a connection to their heritage.

Rethinking an Icon: Toussaint Louverture and Caribbean Cultural Production, edited by Mariana Past, associate professor of Spanish, and Natalie Léger of CUNY-Queens College was released by Santiago de Cuba: Editorial del Caribe. Past and Léger presented at the Festival del Caribe in July in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the foundation of Santiago de Cuba.

In his new book, Ted Merwin, associate professor of Judaic studies and director of the Asbell Center, chronicles the rise and fall — and rise again — of the deli in America. d i ck i n s o n ma gazi ne Fall 2015

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Jorge R. Sagastume, associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese, recently published a short story titled “Disappearing into the Night of Buenos Aires” in Transatlantische Auswanderergeschichten: Reflexionen und Reminiszenzen aus drei Generationen, ed.

F. A. Lubich, Königshausen & Neumann; the story belongs to a collection he’s currently completing that deals with the Argentine dictatorship (1976-83). He also recently published a selection of translations of poems by Homero Aridjis in SAND, Berlin’s English literary journal.

A new book by Associate Professor of Music Amy Wlodarski is the first comprehensive analysis of secondary witness and representation in Holocaust music.

Published by Cambridge University Press, Musical Witness and Holocaust Representation asserts that the composition of a Holocaust representation is a political act that reflects the composer’s understanding of, and relationship to, the Holocaust. By translating history into musical forms and idioms, Wlodarski argues, composers engage with questions of trauma, history, identity and representation.

Grants David Sarcone, associate professor of

international business and management, is sharing with Shippensburg University a $50,000 collaborative research grant from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. The project, Exploring Health Care Alliances in Rural Pennsylvania, will examine the formation of health care alliances; their effect on rural community health care capacity; and the potential of these alliances to better meet the needs of rural communities, while remaining aware and respectful of traditional methods of health care provision valued by the residents of these communities.

Greg Steirer, assistant professor of English and film studies, received $4,625 from the University of California at Santa Barbara, Carsey-Wolf Center – Connected Viewing Initiative for his project Beyond Minnows and Whales: Reconstructing Mobile Gaming for the Cross-Platform Franchise. The research will offer an overview of consumer responses to different kinds of mobileconsole connectivity initiatives as well as an analysis of emerging best practices for the use of mobile in cross-platform franchise management.

recreational components like fish habitat.

By deploying a small sensor buoy on Laurel Lake, the lake’s managers will be given highresolution temperature and oxygen data outlining the conditions of the lake in various habitat zones (warm, mixed, surface waters and cool, deeper waters). High-frequency sensor data will be supplemented by biweekly monitoring of lake chemistry (pH, conductivity, and concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus) and the biological communities in the lake (including algae and zooplankton).

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Kristin Strock is conducting research on Laurel Lake with support from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources — South Mountain Partnership.

She was awarded $10,000 for her project, Protecting and Managing Laurel Lake in the Face of Environmental Change, which aims to better understand the physical and chemical properties of Laurel Lake in Pine Grove Furnace State Park. During the last century, summer water temperatures of over 100 large lakes around the world have increased. Little is known about how lakes and reservoirs in Pennsylvania have changed over time and how seasonal variability in lake temperature may affect important

Asuncion Arnedo-Aldrich, visiting instructor

in Spanish, received $3,345 from the Partnership for Better Health for the project 2015 Migrant Farm Labor Health Outreach.

Since 2007, Arnedo has been leading an annual service-learning project that is part of her course Spanish for the Health Professions. The project involves student volunteers working as interpreters at health clinics that serve Spanish-speaking orchard workers in Adams and Franklin counties.

Awards

At the annual Idea Lab poster-presentation showcase hosted by the New Media Consortium, multimedia specialists Brenda Landis and Andy Petrus earned judges’ choice and people’s choice awards for Dickinson Makes, an initiative that supports collaborative projects by centralizing information about related campus resources, projects and events. Language Technology Specialist Todd Bryant earned judges’ choice honors for his Modding Games program, which allows students and faculty members to modify the Civilization V video game to help teach and learn lessons in political science, international relations and history.

Suman Ambwani, associate professor of

psychology, was awarded $2,000 from Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology, for the research project “But why do we continue to fat talk? An experimental investigation of college women’s reactions to body disparaging conversations.”

Mariana Past, associate professor of Spanish, commissioned a new painting for the cover of her co-edited title, Rethinking an Icon: Toussaint Louverture and Caribbean Cultural Production.

Learn more about faculty kudos at www.dickinson.edu/magazine.

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Carl Socolow ’77

Field & goals.

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[ in the game ] E

very four years, the European Maccabi Games bring together 2,000-plus Jewish athletes from more than 30 nations to compete in 19 sports. Much of this summer’s weeklong event took place in a Berlin auditorium originally constructed for the Olympics in 1936 — the year when Adolf Hitler banned Jewish athletes from the competition.

So when Catherine Perlmutter ’17 (left) and Freddie Bancroft ’18 were accepted to play in the 2015 games this past summer, they entered a poignant moment in Jewish sports history. Seventy years after the end of World War II, they played field hockey in the auditorium from which Jews were once banned, and during the firstever Maccabi Games on German soil.

Athletics is a family affair for Bancroft, who began to play field hockey in third grade. “I also played all of the same sports as my three brothers — T-ball, soccer, tennis — but as I got better at field hockey, I decided I enjoyed playing a sport all my own,” she says. “I wanted to teach them, instead of the other way around.”

Bancroft visited Dickinson at the recommendation of her aunt Susan Hering Foster ’83 and grandfather George Hering ’53. Her overnight stay with the field hockey team — and her meeting with Head Coach Caitlin Williams Dallmeyer — played a major factor in her decision to choose Dickinson.

“She’s the kind of athlete every coach loves to have on their team,” Dallmeyer says, noting that Bancroft is a consistent force in the backfield and “one of the first players to ask for extra touches on the ball.” During her first year on campus, Bancroft played four games as goalkeeper, making 11 stops and posting a .786 save percentage; she also tallied a solo shutout against Swarthmore College and shared another at Frostburg State University.

A double major in Spanish and neuroscience, Perlmutter joined her first field-hockey team in eighth grade. Three years later, she was playing in a competitive club near her home in Blue Bell, Pa., and field hockey became a big part of her identity and daily life.

Today, this forward is one of the most skilled players to enter Dickinson’s field-hockey program, according to Dallmeyer, who cites Perlmutter’s energy, creativity, elimination skills and mentorship to younger players as great assets to the team. After only two years at Dickinson, Perlmutter is ranked 10th in career points. She also earned All-Region and All-Centennial Conference honors in 2013 and 2014.

Both players point to last year’s game against Susquehanna University, during which the Red Devils beat the Crusaders for the first time in a decade, as among the most memorable.

“We were up by one goal with not that much time left, and the team went into a stall,” Bancroft remembers. “The atmosphere was so high-energy and we were all cheering each other on, and we won the game. All our hard work during pre-season had paid off.”

Still, their favorite part of playing at Dickinson is not the wins, but the team that earns them. “I love that feeling when I’m watching my teammates and they just click — whether it be an amazing passing combination or someone shooting the ball and another teammate assisting,” Bancroft says.

“Our energy makes me happy to play,” Perlmutter agrees, adding that because the conference is competitive, every game is exciting.

“I feel lucky to be a part of such a great program. I’m proud to be a Red Devil.”—MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson

Full Circle

Dickinson’s 2015-16 season began with Joe Giunta as the new director of athletics. Giunta brings a wealth of experience and a strong background in athletics administration, having served in similar capacities at Temple and Neumann universities and Cabrini College. Joining him in Carlisle are his wife, Colleen; their twin sons, Gavin and Braydon; and son Michael.

“As a former Division III student-athlete, I believe strongly in the appropriate balance between academics, community service, personal and family time and athletics,” Giunta says.

Giunta was most recently the senior associate athletic director at Temple, where he oversaw football, field hockey, men’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, women’s track and field and men’s and women’s tennis.

While at Cabrini, Giunta managed a staff of 20 full- and part-time employees, 16 varsity teams, club sports and recreation activities and an active community health-and-fitness center. During Giunta’s first year, the Cavaliers captured all three Colonial States Athletic Conference President’s Cups, which are awarded annually to the men’s, women’s and overall athletic programs with the highest competitive percentage rating obtained from championship and regular-season play.

He has a proven track record of valuing diversity and gender equity, as well as extensive experience hiring and motivating successful coaches and administrators.

Giunta earned a bachelor’s in communications from Neumann University and a master’s in sports administration and facility management from Ohio University. In addition to his work at Cabrini and Temple, Giunta has served as the director of athletics at St. Edward High School in Ohio and director of alumni relations and special programs at Neumann.

Need more Red Devil sports?

Check out all the stats, scores, schedules and highlights at www.dickinsonathletics.com. Information about live streaming and radio broadcasts is available on a game-by-game basis, so check the website regularly or follow @DsonRedDevils on Twitter for the latest updates.

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[ feature ] When the Nov. 13, 1964, issue of The Dickinsonian announced faculty approval of the college’s first study-abroad program— slated for Bologna, Italy, and led by K. Robert Nilsson, professor of political science — it noted, “The program, to be inaugurated in the fall of 1965, is unmatched in undergraduate institutions.” Fifty years later, with 40 institutional and partner programs in 24 countries on six continents, Dickinson can boast even more heartily that its global studies program is unmatched, unparalleled and unmistakably exceptional. We asked alumni of Dickinson’s oldest global-studies program to share their memories, and they responded with gusto, across generations — from George Honadle ’66, who was part of the inaugural class, to Ashton Fiucci ’15.

The center has hosted more than 1,000 Dickinson students since its opening and with the announcement at the recent Celebration of Global Studies in Washington, D.C., of the new K. Robert and Julianna P. Nilsson Scholarship to help support students studying for a full year in Bologna, even more Dickinsonians will have the opportunity to study, stroll, sip, sup and grow as engaged citizens of a global community. — Michelle Simmons Elizabeth Needham ’88

Bologna was quite simply the reason I went to Dickinson and also the best year of my college career. I loved everything about it. The small group of students whom you really get to know, for better or for worse. The intimate yet cosmopolitan city — its central location affording limitless travel possibilities. And most important, the freedom. I remember one specific night sitting on the steps of Piazza Maggiore with my roommate, Christy, wishing we could stop the clock.

We both knew how special and lucky we were to have this experience. I wouldn’t change a thing.

Lou Grossman ’73

I was in Bologna 1971-72, under the very able tutelage of the late K. Robert Nilsson.

The Nilssons, my fellow Dickinson students, my landlady, my Italian and Greek roommates and the populace of Bologna were all my family that year. It was one of the most important experiences of my life. I learned how big the world was. I learned self-reliance.

I learned discipline (thanks to a very big boot in the butt from K. Robert). And I began a lifelong love affair with Italy and all things Italian. I have been back to Italy many times over the years. For my 50th birthday I returned to Bologna and visited the newly named Nilsson Center and dined with Judy [Nilsson], Professor Rhyne and other Bologna friends. It was special — almost as special as that magical time my junior year.

Bob ’69 and Beverly Rich Kahn ’69

Year No. 3 (1967-68) with Professor Gene Rosi at the Johns Hopkins Center: 15 females and five males; living in pensioni; lasagna verde; Italian lessons from Francesco Guccini; weekends in Munich (for Octoberfest), Innsbruck, and Florence; vacation weeks in London, Rome and Eastern Europe/Russia; Carnevale; gelato; Italian Communists, Maoists and Neo-Fascists; enduring friendships and one marriage.

Richard Levie ’66

My experience in Bologna changed my life — professionally and personally.

My career in law, my love of travel and exploring new areas and many of my political views germinated during my year in Bologna.

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Submitted by Paul Rosengren ’83 Submitted by Richard Levie ‘66

George Honadle ’66

In the summer of 1965, 16 of us went to the New York City docks to board the Castel Felice, a student ship bound for Europe. Sunset on the Atlantic was accompanied by bagpipes played by a Scottish student who was returning home after studying in the U.S. The camaraderie, the cuisine, the music, the schedule of up-all-night followed by to-bed-after-breakfast and up-beforedinner, and the anticipation of hard work in new places, all set the tone for this trans-Atlantic jaunt. This was the release before the discipline and adjustment that would come. We cemented friendships as we prepared to share a great adventure.

One of our course options in the spring of 1966 was called Politics of Developing Areas, taught by K. Robert Nilsson. As part of the course, he arranged for us to examine economic-development policy and practice in Italy. We went to Rome to meet with officials of the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno and then to the southern reaches of the country, as far as Calabria, to visit a sequence of locations. First, we saw a rural village with no development activity. Then we visited an agricultural setting with land reform in progress.

Next, we viewed a town with newly introduced cottage industries. Finally we visited the Industrial cities of Bari

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and Taranto. This tour took us not only from the north to the south, it also gave us a ride on a time machine beginning in a poverty-stricken rural village with a lifestyle that could not be distinguished from those of centuries ago and ending with the social structure of the industrial age. It placed us in the sweep of our own global history in a way that no book could.

Mark Ruhl ’70

When I went to Bologna as a student in 1968, I began a love affair with the city that continued through six more years as the Bologna program director. The photo with the indispensable Clarissa Pagni and Ellen Laird of our Bologna staff is from my last tour in 2008.

Patricia Torres Cronenberger ’76

Grades were among my worst at Dickinson while in Bologna (1973-74).

So often I would arrive at the Hopkins library to study just to be tempted to go for a coffee or wander somewhere in that beautiful city. It was a magical year.

Hana Thomson ’09

Studying abroad in Bologna was the best decision I have ever made. I had the opportunity to travel around Europe and really get to know and understand the city we lived in. I had so many memorable experiences, but the most important take-aways were the relationships formed during my time there. Some of the most important people in my life today I met in Bologna.

Paul Rosengren ’83

The Bologna class of 1981-82 was the first to hold classes in what is now the K. Robert Nilsson Center. Early in the year, we peddled bike carts full of books and school materials from the old rented classes to the new center. Professor Nilsson and his wife both taught that year, as did Francesco Guccini, the “Bob Dylan of Italy,” who for one month a year traded in his folk-singer life to teach Dickinson students Italian.

Ashton Fiucci ’15

I read Dante’s Divine Comedy for the first time for my UniBo class in Italian.

That was my greatest struggle alla bolognese. But I learned just as much from dinners with my host family, like how to make my favorite pumpkin tortellini and how to light dessert on fire.

Douglas Riley ’72

The Bologna experience completely changed my life. A broken romance catalyzed fleeing Carlisle and spawned, inter alia, moonlit motorcycle rides over the Alps, hitchhiking to Marrakech, and learning the meager Italian that improbably secured my Sicilian bride’s parental blessing. We have blissfully returned two dozen times.

Submitted by Bob ’69 and Beverly Rich Kahn ’69

Submitted by Mark Ruhl ’70

Submitted by Bob ’69 and Beverly Rich Kahn ’69 Submitted by Patricia Torres Cronenberger ’76 Submitted by Paul Rosengren ’83

If I could bottle Bologna By Olivia Vega ’04 If I could bottle Bologna it would be a perfume Of coffee, espresso, pouring out of each and every café and bar Water from the tap in the kitchen, aqua dalla spina And the shower in my bathroom with an open window and a view of the garden and terrazzo below It would include the cool and soft scent of the Gelateria flavors of the day of marscarpone, fragole, stracciatella, and limone And the sweet, dolce, smell of the wood burning stoves in the Pizzerie warming the blocks, tiles, and noses of those fortunate to stroll by It would have just a hint, a whiff, of cigarette smoke following its owner gingerly and cooly down the strada, and blend with the cologne of diesel as trucks and their drivers make their way through the day It would resemble brick buildings and grand arches of porticos protecting its people by keeping them dry in rain and shaded in sun

It would of course include the Osteria or restaurant built before its neighbor Basilica San Petronio sung its first Mass Both still standing as if military officers at their post as people, la gente, whirl around them and through them for centuries upon centuries on end It would be full of windows brimming in castro, perfectly placed like puzzle pieces of exquisite garments displayed as gems with piccoli prezzi, small signs marking the cost of each treasure, tesoro It would include a couple gifted with time walking arm in arm slowly, steadily, with purpose and poise down the street on their way to dinner, church, the grocery store, the market, or a long slow, lungo e lento, Sunday lunch with the family.

And my Italian mom, Mia Mamma Italiana, as she fixes her son’s tie, cravatta, with precision and care in the minutes before heading to the church to meet his bride It would echo the music of my shoes clicking along the polished stone, bouncing off the archways greeting me each step

The rain hitting terracotta tiles washing them of their sins, Birds singing a song with a sweet and joyful melody previously foreign to my ears, Children speaking in fretta, quickly, con vivace, with life like one of my favorite waltzes by Fermo Dante Marchetti.

It would include the sounds of my own voice as I chiacchierare, chat with my friends, amici, in Italian as words spring from my center like water bubbling up from the great Fontana Nettuno, Neptune Fountain in the center of town, splashing, and swirling away.

But a city is not meant to be bottled.

It is meant to live, move, change, cambiare, grow, crescere, and be enjoyed by generations to come I hope you can come Sit as I sat on a mattone, brick, in Piazza Maggiore Watch people as they walk by And realize how wonderful it is to be alive Here in Bologna, Qua a Bologna.

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JUST The 20th anniversary of the American and Global Mosaic program draws reflections, celebrations

WEIGHT

By Michelle Simmons

Community Studies Center

Developed in 1996 by Sharon O’Brien (far right, standing), Chuck Barone (sitting) and Susan Rose ’77 (center, sitting) the American Mosaic Steelton Project led to programs that span the globe today — including three Patagonia Mosaics (2001, 2003 and 2005) in company town Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina.

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ometime in the middle of the two weeks that Professor of History Marcelo Borges and the students in the 2003 Patagonia Mosaic were spending in Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina, he received a call from a woman telling him she had heard about the project through a mutual connection, and she had some photographs he might be interested in. Could they come to her house that afternoon?

“We looked at our schedule, and it was really packed and full,” Borges recalls. Despite the hectic pace, they managed to fit in a visit. “So we go, and this person starts bringing out to the dining table box after box after box of photographs.”

The boxes were filled with albums of photos that she had recovered from the trash, when the oil company she worked for transitioned from state-owned to private. The pictures represented decades of memory of work in the oil company. “They didn’t know what to do with the pictures — nobody wanted them,” he says. “She had worked for this company all her life as a nurse, felt attached to the company. When someone told her about the photographs, she just rescued everything and took it home.”

Borges, along with John Osborne, professor emeritus of history, worked with the students to digitize as many of those photos as possible and, when they returned to campus, set about cataloging those photos and transcribing the dozens of oral-history interviews they had conducted while in Argentina.

All of them are now archived at Dickinson’s Community Studies Center and available to researchers around the world, as well as the Comodoro Rivadavia community itself.

It’s moments like those — the relationships, the reciprocity, the “small epiphanies and the results of explorations that could be anywhere,” as Borges calls them, that defined the Mosaic program for him. “You’re learning from the people in that particular community who know a lot more than you do,” he says. “You’re learning from lived experiences.”

O

ral history can trace its origins to Herodotus, or perhaps even as far back as the beginning of language and culture, when elders shared their stories, skills and visions with younger generations. “In terms of people being willing to talk with you and give you their oral history, it’s a gift,” says Susan Rose ’77, professor of sociology and director of the Community Studies Center. “We use the term ‘narrator.’ We don’t use ‘subject.’ The sense of the narrator is that they are the experts of their own lives. It’s learning about other people, and in the process also learning about yourself.”

Twenty years ago, Rose, along with Sharon O’Brien, professor of American studies and English, and Chuck Barone, professor of economics, developed the first Mosaic program, what would become a model for doing oral history well, for creating communities

of inquiry and opening the door to an undergraduate academic experience that many had never imagined was possible.

The seeds for the Mosaic program were germinated during a summer’s worth of backyard conversations at O’Brien’s home.

Rose, Barone and O’Brien proposed co-teaching three integrated units that incorporated community studies (Rose), political economy (Barone) and memoir and narrative (O’Brien). In spring 1996, the experimental — and experiential — four-credit course American Mosaic Steelton Project was born, with 25 students and three faculty leaders: six weeks of intensive reading, lectures, workshops and discussion, followed by seven weeks of immersive field work and culminating in a final collaborative project.

“Dickinson had a strong global-education program, but we were doing little in terms of diversity either on campus or about U.S. pluralism,” Rose recalls. “We were really interested in class as well as race and gender. We thought about a number of things, but it was brainstorming over time.”

Why Steelton? In the 1990s, the Bethlehem Steel company town, one of the most multiethnic communities in Pennsylvania, was dealing with the effects of globalization and deindustrialization.

With a heavy Serbian and Croatian population, its members were trying to make sense of the sectarian violence and genocide following the breakup of Yugoslavia. The local Roman Catholic diocese had just announced the closing of five parishes in the town. To say that racial and ethnic tensions were high was an understatement.

Yet Dickinson students, in their interviews, also found a community — across generations, races, classes and ethnicities—that shared stories, hardships, recipes, friendships. As the students interviewed retired steelworkers and Croatian parishioners, they also mentored Steelton-Highspire elementary and high-school students, who in turn interviewed their own families. From there, the Mosaic program grew to encompass a variety of communities, curricular models and research topics that spanned the globe: Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Peru, Ghana, Cuba, Morocco, South Africa, France, Spain, Denmark, to name a few.

W

hat, exactly, is a Mosaic program? The overview describes Mosaics as “intensive, interdisciplinary, semester long research programs designed around ethnographic fieldwork and immersion in domestic and global communities.”

Generally, a Mosaic is centered on a specific research question, theme or community, with interconnected courses co-taught by several faculty members, a discrete period of fieldwork (whether throughout the semester, during a winter or spring break or over the summer) and a final project.

From the beginning, the Mosaic program proved to be uniquely adaptable and protean. The original Steelton Mosaic, for example, focused on a company town relatively close to

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Community Studies Center

The 2008 Comparative Black Liberation Movements Mosaic took students from the Mississippi Delta to King William’s Town, South Africa. Pictured here is one of the participants, Flosha Tejada ’11, who is now college placement coordinator at Uncommon Schools in New York.

campus; but an equally interesting company town, Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina, became the location for several Patagonia Mosaics, in 2001, 2003 and 2005. In the 2008 Comparative Black Liberation Movements Mosaic, students and faculty studied the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and the civil rights movement in the Mississippi Delta — a project that encompassed a summer and fall semester, thousands of miles traveled and five disciplines: history, music, Africana studies, sociology, anthropology and American studies.

For Ryan Koons ’10, the 20-hour flight to South Africa was the first time he had been on a plane and his first time outside of North America. “It’s one of the reasons I decided to become an ethnographer,” he recalls. “After you’ve spent some time in and working with plural cultures, you begin to get an underlying sense of humanity — from what it means to be a human in South Africa, in the U.S., in Cameroon, Canada, wherever, to being a human being, period.”

Koons, a music major, had been drifting a bit academically when he decided to sign on to the Mosaic. With an interest in ethnomusicology, he and classmate Atandi Anyona ’10 collected hours of music and interviews — including with contemporary

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blues man Bill “Howlin’ Mad” Perry — and created two podcasts for the Mosaic’s archive. Now a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Ethnomusicology at the University of California-Los Angeles, Koons says, “I can safely say, had I not participated in the Mosaic, I would not have been accepted in the UCLA graduate program, the biggest and oldest ethnomusicology program in the world.”

In 2009, Neil Leary, director of the Center for Sustainability Education, had led a group of students to Copenhagen, Denmark, for the United Nations’ 15th Annual Climate Change Conference.

The experience had been enlightening — and exhausting.

He wasn’t sure he wanted to do it again. But then he had a conversation with Rose, and ended up working with Professor of Earth Sciences Jeff Niemitz and Associate Professor of History Jeremy Ball (whose research interests lie in African political and ecological history and played an integral part in the 2008 Black Liberation Mosaic) to offer a new Mosaic built around the 17th annual conference (2011), this time in Durban, South Africa.

“I like that aspect of designing a Mosaic that allows students to come at it from a variety of perspectives, disciplines and majors,” Leary says. “What I’ve been doing somewhat fits the mold of what the original idea was for a Mosaic: We’re doing fieldwork, and the students are trained in social-science research methods, doing interviews. In this case they’re interviewing people who are part of a community that’s unlike any of the other communities that a Mosaic has looked at. It’s a community of folks from Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, North America, Europe, small island states—government representatives, civil society representatives, environmentalists, business people, all coming together to try to figure out how we’re going to collectively address this problem of climate change.”

The group stayed an extra week afterward, doing service work in Makaphutu Children’s Village, a community for children affected by AIDS/HIV. For Tim Damon ’12, the experience altered the course of his future. As the group was distributing food packets, one community organizer turned to him and said, “I can’t do this anymore. Here, you decide who gets the last two packs of grain.” Before Damon had a chance to respond, he was surrounded, and the two packs disappeared into the crowd.

“I was not at all prepared for that,” he says of the experience of coming face-to-face with extreme poverty. “From there, I knew that I had to look into the development aspect.” The law & policy major went on to earn a master’s in climate change and international development at the University of East Anglia.

Since then, he’s returned to the Climate Change Conference, twice, as a delegate for SustainUS, a youth-led advocacy organization focused on advancing justice and sustainability. “The Mosaic gave me the chance to delve deeply and critically into one of the most pressing problems our species is facing today,” he says.

“It also exposed me to the other greatest problem. We can’t allow climate change and development to be mutually exclusive. We need to live within the boundaries of nature; at the same time, it’s inexcusable to live like we do in the U.S., surrounded by poverty.”

Community Studies Center

The Mexican Migration Mosaics (1998, 2003 and 2011) focused on migrant farm workers, their families and communities in nearby Adams County and in Peribán in Michoacán, Mexico.

“

T

here’s an emotional weight in terms of the interviewing,” Rose says. “It’s not just research for research’s sake. The whole idea is that you’re giving back to the community.”

For Lauren Ashley Smith ’06, who participated in the 2003 Mexican Migration Mosaic, that weight took on literal dimensions. The program focused on migrant farm workers in nearby Adams County and in Peribán in Michoacán, Mexico. “I remember the first time I felt the weight of the bags the apple pickers in Adams County carry for hours at a time,” she says.

“Apple picking takes on a whole new meaning when you feel how heavy and cumbersome the bag is.”

Smith’s Mosaic was the second of three to work with Adams County migrant farm workers, beginning with the 1998 American Mosaic Project. The 2003 program incorporated Peribán, the home town of many of the migrant worker interviewees; and the 2011 project focused on mapping migration routes, food security issues and the economics of the apple industry. Each Mosaic built on the previous one: Interviews during the 1998 Mosaic yielded relationships and information that led researchers to Peribán.

That geographic and familial link in turn led students and faculty in the 2011 project to trace the workers’ migration routes, based on the growing seasons of specific produce: Florida to New Jersey, south to North Carolina and back north to Pennsylvania and Connecticut, and then west to Wisconsin and West Virginia.

“Intellectually and emotionally, the Mosaic experience shaped me,” Smith says. “Doing the Mosaic gave me the opportunity to witness and be part of cultural moments and experiences I will never forget. While in Mexico I was invited to weddings, birthday parties, cultural festivals, holiday celebrations, the home of a curandera (healer) and so much more. Those moments, for me, are invaluable.”

Rosemary McGunnigle-Gonzales ’01, a Ph.D. candidate in the sociology department at Columbia University, carries her

1998 Patagonia Mosaic experience wherever she goes. “I bring it with me into every classroom I step into, whether I’m the student or the teacher,” she says. “I bring it into many a casual conversation.”

After graduating from Dickinson, McGunnigle-Gonzales worked as a legal assistant before pursuing graduate work.

During that time, she interviewed and worked with African and Latin American political asylum applicants, domestic-violence victims eligible for permanent U.S. residence and applicants for permanent residence under the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central America Refugee Act. The Mosaic program “gave me my identity as a documentarian of the world around me,” she notes, recalling a formative moment.

“In Comodoro Rivadavia, I interviewed my host dad, a proud man about my father’s age, a man who I’d come to esteem and love as my ‘Papa Francisco.’ In talking about the suffering of his native Paraguay, he began to cry. I think I was afraid, and I wanted to give him an out, so I told him we didn’t have to talk about that if he didn’t want to. [Afterward,] watching the video onsite at the Bulgarian Association in Comodoro, Marcelo Borges’ feedback was ‘just wait.’ In the future, he said, ‘just wait.’ Let the person finish; let them work through it.

“In fact, my host dad had said, ‘no, no, no’ when I offered him that out,” she continues. “He wanted to speak. Borges’ advice means even more to me today than it did then when I was in my early 20s. We often see waiting, holding back as evidence of hesitation, as a sign of fear. And yet, it takes courage to wait and to listen. That advice has made me not only a better interviewer and a better scholar, but also a better friend and neighbor, a better daughter, spouse and parent and, quite simply, a better human being.”

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The adventure begins.

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Carl Socolow ’77

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hey hail from 31 states, plus Washington, D.C., and 27 foreign countries: the 731 members of the class of 2019 already are making a name for themselves as the largest class in the college’s history. We caught up with several of them during their first days on campus, and it was easy to see what all the hype is about. They are articulate, worldly, driven — and we can’t wait to see how they will shape our community.

Remember these names. You’ll be seeing them again as Dickinson Magazine tracks their progress over the next four years. And while they look to their new adventures as Dickinsonians, they already have counted tragedy among them, when first-year Jigme Nidup died in an accidental drowning just weeks after matriculating (see Page 55).

They know the next four years will be marked by their share of ups and downs; and when they are ready to leave these limestone walls to enter the alumni community, we will catch up with them again so you can see how they’ve grown, what they’ve accomplished and where they’re heading. — Lauren Davidson

Quadrese Glass

philadelphia, pa.

Why Dickinson? I’m passionate and intrigued about traveling abroad and Dickinson offers ample opportunities for me to have this experience. Additionally, I am interested in the Peace Corps, and Dickinson is one of the colleges that has a high number of Peace Corps volunteers annually.

Reading: The New Jim Crow, Kill Them Before They Grow and Convicted In the Womb.

Watching: A Different World.

Listening to: Fetty Wap (“Trap Queen” and “My Way”), J Cole’s album Forest Hill Drive and a myriad of gospel and R&B music.

Following: I’ve been tuning in to two podcasts: Things You Missed in History and Joel Osteen. These two completely different topics cover things that are important to me: history, spirituality and optimism.

Most meaningful item you brought to Dickinson: I have two posters so far that resonate with who I am currently. One is of Malcolm X with one of his famous quotes, “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare today.” The other one emits much more power because it is a photo of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shaking hands and smiling. They were polar opposites in the methods they used to fight the injustice of the ’60s, but both were fighting the same fight. When you recognize that someone is fighting the same fight as you, just with a different approach, a level of respect should arise.

Three adjectives to describe the next four years: groundbreaking, enlightening, fun.

Aspirations: I aspire to be at peace with myself, my family and my environment.

I aspire to live my life, not to merely exist. Lastly, I aspire to find happiness.

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Carl Socolow ’77

Mary “Mollie” Montague

gloucester,va.

Why Dickinson? I was so impressed by the students’ passion for engagement and activism. I wanted to be a part of a community that is not only here to learn, but also to do.

Reading: Speak Now Against the Day: The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South; Hold Still; The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good; Let Us Now Praise Famous Men; and when all of that gets a bit heavy, The Mists of Avalon.

Watching: The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight, Masterpiece on PBS, Seinfeld, Jane the Virgin, Once Upon a Time and Sherlock.

Listening to: A Prairie Home Companion, classic rock and in general music from the 1920s ’30s and ’40s. I love listening to good TED Talks, fiddle music and, I’ll admit, a little Taylor Swift along with One Republic and Mumford & Sons.

Following: Time magazine, Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls and several sites about history and culture.

Three adjectives to describe the next four years: unknown, challenging, open.

Aspirations: I would like to help people. I don’t know what role I will play: perhaps I will be a lawyer or an activist or a teacher, but I would like to be able to change the systemic problems in our country that make the daily lives of hundreds unjustly hard. For now, I am hoping to possibly join the Peace Corps after college. As long as I am doing something I believe in, I will give it my all.

Carl Socolow ’77

Most meaningful item you brought to Dickinson: I have a blanket that I made my senior spring at high school through the weaving program.

It is made with wool from the sheep on the school’s farm.

Sam Phelps upperco,

md.

Why Dickinson? Ultimately the quality of the music program — and the warmth of the professors—is what drew me in. I was looking for a place that provided opportunities for interdisciplinary study and a wide range of very strong liberal-arts subjects; I found all that at Dickinson. Add to that the campus farm and it was a perfect fit!

Reading: The Illustrated Man, The Odyssey, Crime and Punishment.

Watching: Not much. I avoid most television and don’t watch very many movies.

Listening to: Everything from traditional bluegrass/gospel (The Fairfield Four, Ralph Stanley) to some of the old greats (J.S. Bach, Scarlatti, Stravinsky) and some other fun stuff like Tom Waits and Son Lux. Following: For the most part I avoid social media. I do not have a smartphone and, unless I need one for professional life, hope never to get one. I do enjoy certain podcasts — my favorite is Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History.

Most meaningful item you brought to Dickinson: For much of my childhood I lived on a farm of sorts, and we heated our house entirely with a wood stove; every day in the winter I had to split logs and gather kindling for heat. I have a broken shard of metal from the splitting-maul that I keep on my desk as a reminder that no matter how deep into academia I go, no matter how soft my hands get, my character as a creative and a person is, and should be, shaped by discipline and labor.

Three adjectives to describe the next four years: eclectic, busy, creative.

Aspirations: This is how I look at it: the world needs wise people and good people as much as it needs smart people. I say this not in a clueless, ineffective way, but with all the wonderful seriousness it deserves: I want to be a good and useful person. I don’t have a specific job or career in mind yet (right now it’s a tossup between composer and stone mason). What is much more important than how I aspire to make money is what type of character I aspire to have.

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Carl Socolow ’77

Karen Siderovski

chapel hill, n.c.

Why Dickinson: Dickinson has everything on my college wish list. The campus is beautiful, and the science facilities are some of the best that I have seen. My passion for ballet was a major part of my college decision, and Dickinson has an amazing dance department that connects with a world-class program, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet (CPYB), located just down the street. Also, the Kline Center and juice bar are pretty incredible.

Reading: The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less.

Watching: I’m so far behind in everything, but if I had more time, I would catch up on Orange is the New Black, American Horror Story, Parks and Rec and Community.

Listening to: Childish Gambino and Adore Delano.

Following: Fashion, dance, musical theatre and art blogs on Tumblr.

Most meaningful item you brought to Dickinson: My dorm wall is filled with postcards with different paintings printed on them. Most of them are Impressionist paintings or modern art that I started collecting from museums I have visited, like the Louvre, the British Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C. Three adjectives to describe the next four years: Impactful, creative, joyful.

Aspirations: I would love to intern or work with performing arts companies, maybe in places such as the Kennedy Center or Lincoln Center, where I could merge my love of dance with my academics in psychology and business operations. I hope to find a career that can combine all of my interests into one.

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Meet more members of the class of 2019 at dickinson.edu/magazine.

Diane Lee

seoul, south korea

Why Dickinson? The stories about student-to-faculty relationships were what got me. The connections that seemed to go beyond what one would naturally expect from a college really made Dickinson stand out. I wanted to become a part of that.

Reading: Anything and everything I get my hands on. When I’m on a tight schedule, I content myself with cereal boxes.

Watching: Inside Out, Interstellar, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Sound of Music, Midnight in Paris and Sherlock (BBC series).

Listening to: I like original soundtracks. I also listen to piano music when I write, because then my hands don’t automatically type the lyrics.

Among the more modern singers, I like Adele and Christina Perri.

Following: newyorker.com.

Most meaningful item you brought to Dickinson: My first book. As in, the first book that I wrote and got published. It’s called Abigail’s Flight and Other Stories, and it’s a children’s book about teenage reindeer living at the North Pole. Considering my dream to become a writer, I count this as the second step — the first was the literary magazine I ran.

Three adjectives to describe the next four years: novel, inspiring, brilliant.

Carl Socolow ’77

Aspirations: I hope to become an author, as I really love imagining stories and writing them.

Teryon Lowery

newark, n.j.

Why Dickinson? The campus was beautiful, and the admissions staff was amazing. I knew I would get a high quality education, and I could continue running track while focusing on my academics and other interests. But what really sold me was the strong sense of community and the pride that all Red Devils have.

Reading: The Autobiography of Malcolm X, The Prince, The Art of War and The Fire Next Time.

Watching: I don’t really watch TV that often, but since I was little I have been in love with anime. In terms of movies, The Usual Suspects, Goodfellas, The Green Mile and Friday are my favorites.

Listening to: Dancehall, soul, ’90s and modern hip-hop and R&B for the most part, but if I think a song is good I listen to it. My favorite artists are Prince, Celine Dion, Anita Baker, Teena Marie, Wu-Tang Clan, Erykah Badu, Nas, Marvin Gaye and R. Kelly.

Following: More Than Me organization on Instagram and Facebook.

Most meaningful item you brought to Dickinson: A photo given to me by my older half-brother as a high-school graduation present, showing the first time we met.

Three adjectives to describe the next four years: revealing, exciting, independent.

Carl Socolow ’77

Aspirations: I just want to help people. I hope these four years will help me understand how exactly I want to do that, but for now that’s the only aspiration I have.

Carl Socolow ’77

10 MILLION WAYS TO

ou’ve got two years to give away $10 million. Go.” This might sound like a tagline from a movie poster, but Tom DiBiagio ’82 was on the receiving end of something just like this.

It happened after DiBiagio conducted a routine audit of a $50-billion European client of Baker-Botts, the international law firm in which DiBiagio is a partner. The long-and-short of it is that DiBiagio discovered money — $10 million — on the company’s books that shouldn’t have been there, so he worked with the client to create an ad hoc trust that would distribute the funds to charitable organizations.

CONNECT

By Tony Moore

DiBiagio’s previous life as U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, a post to which he was appointed by President George W. Bush, didn’t provide the perfect segue into this endeavor. But it turns out that Dickinson did.

It began with a notice in the spring 2014 issue of Dickinson Magazine that Anne Dowlin Paul ’82 had died, DiBiagio recalls, adding that he was close with both Anne and her husband, Chris ’80, while at Dickinson. For a moment, he seems to forget about the $10 million, about his task, about everything, and he’s right there with the people he connected with decades ago. “One of the things that you know from your experience at Dickinson is that you meet the most remarkable people ever,” he says. “All the places I’ve been, I can tell you that the fondest memories I have are for the people I knew when I was there. They were absolutely remarkable people.”

DiBiagio sent Paul a sympathy note, and Paul gave DiBiagio a call. While they talked, catching up, DiBiagio says something just clicked.

“I said, ‘By the way, I’m under this incredible pressure to essentially give away $500,000 per month,’ ” he recounts, explaining that he had to parcel the total sum into smaller chunks. “I asked if there were any organizations that he was close to that maybe we could give a gift to.” Paul sent him a list, and before long DiBiagio and his team were flying to Oklahoma to meet with Paul.

“Tom is one of those folks who, I don’t see him for 25 years and we sit down and we pick up right where we left off,” says Paul, who credits the relationship they built in their fraternity at Dickinson with creating an inherent level of trust that the years couldn’t diminish.

After running due diligence, DiBiagio was able to make six-figure gifts to groups the Pauls held dear: one to Emergency Infant Services, a Tulsa-area organization that helps families who need short-term, immediate assistance, and the Eastern Oklahoma Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation.

Then DiBiagio started to think that the inherent level of trust Paul felt might lead him to other good causes.

So DiBiagio contacted Jim Paterno ’85, another fraternity brother who now lives in the Philadelphia area. It didn’t take Paterno long to suggest two organizations that meant a lot to him and his wife, Elizabeth ’86: Students Run Philly Style, a marathon-based mentoring program, and Project HOME, a broad-based program combatting homelessness, each of which received six-figure gifts. For Paterno, with whom DiBiagio had kept in touch over the years, the whole thing made a lot of sense right out of the gate, chiefly because of their Dickinson bond.

“There’s a pretty substantial group of Dickinsonians who have leadership positions and care about the community in which they live,” Paterno says. “You know you can count on them to be committed to what they’re doing and be thoughtful and engaged.”

DiBiagio continued the streak with a large grant to help fund tuition assistance and academic programs at Brooklyn’s St. Joseph’s High School, where Loretta Lundberg ’82 is on the board of directors. Lundberg is in a photograph that DiBiagio still displays on a shelf at home — it shows the group he went to Bologna with while at Dickinson — and she was another person he knew would be ready to get involved.

Overall, through his Dickinson network and beyond, DiBiagio helped 52 organizations, among them veterans’ groups, food banks, hospitals and advocates fighting domestic violence. They are causes as meaningful as DiBiagio’s charitable mission, and the relationships that made it a success, came to be for him.

“Putting all these pieces together, finding the need to help each other, there’s a great experience there,” he says.

“To me, it’s so important that the message get out that we need to help each other.”

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A Most Uncommon Man

rom his days as a student to his years as a teacher, dean, coach and mentor, Benjamin D. James ’34 epitomized the spirit of his alma mater. Although he earned national recognition for his professional endeavors, it was his 85 years of devotion and service to the college and the countless lives he changed that made this extraordinary man a beloved Dickinsonian. As fellow professor of psychology Stephen Coslett noted in 1977, the year that James retired from the college as the Richard V.C. Watkins Professor of Psychology and Education, “I know his emotional love of the college and his tenure in its finest sense will continue on. Ben is a most uncommon man in his loyalty and his dedication to the college.� Honors bestowed on him include the Distinguished Alumni Award; honorary degrees from the Dickinson School of Law, Dickinson College and Harrisburg Area Community College; and the Alexis de Tocqueville Humanitarian Award. In 2014, President Nancy A. Roseman and the Board of Trustees named him Honorary President for a Day. And when James died July 4, just shy of his 103rd birthday, the same community he nurtured responded in force, with heartfelt notes of condolence and tribute.

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What a remarkable 100-yard run! A guy, who is both a scholar and athlete, who devotes his life to one academic institution doing tough jobs — and ends up beloved by everyone who came into contact with him. I didn’t know Ben very well, but he had a profound effect on my life. In the fall of 1952, I interviewed for the class of 1957 with the dean of admissions (i.e., Ben).

Having a rather mediocre high school academicathletic career, I was a teensy bit nervous. Twothirds of the way through, Ben looked up at me from scanning my transcript. He asked, “What is this ‘C’ in physics?” I responded meekly, “I was playing varsity basketball.” I don’t know if this actually happened, or if it is apocryphal, but my brain remembers it as him studying me, and then smiling and saying, “You’re in.”

Since I didn’t want to let him down for taking a chance on me, I stayed in touch with him through his lifetime. He saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself.

A guy, who is both a scholar and athlete, who devotes his life to one academic institution doing tough jobs — and ends up beloved by everyone who came into contact with him.

Ira Glick ’57

Ben James always remembered everyone’s name, even if you had met him only once.

He never forgot to call you by name every time after that, when he saw you on campus or off. There were approximately 900 students in the student body in 1952, and he knew every one, earning him the well-deserved title, “All Names James.”

He had a truly remarkable talent, and he was a truly remarkable man.

Eleanor Shepherd Sheppard ’56

Ben was a mentor and confidant that made my years at Dickinson a wonderful experience.

Ben was head of admissions when I interviewed in 1962. My dad, Herbert Baron ’31, had played basketball with Ben at Dickinson, and they stayed in touch all of Dad’s life. Ben was a mentor and confidant that made my years at Dickinson a wonderful experience. I last saw Ben in 2012, with my daughter and son-in-law. I wanted them to see Dickinson and meet Ben, and, of course, he regaled them with stories of my father. When my son visited Dickinson in 2002, Ben made the effort to come to the admissions office to speak with Noah and encourage him to apply. I sent Ben a sculpture made in honor of his 100th birthday.

Words alone cannot express how much knowing him shaped my college years and life.

Dr. James impressed me as being truly dedicated to his professorial role (including his thoughtful and benevolent interactions with us students) and the field of psychology. His noted dedication and imparting of his knowledge helped me decide to pursue a graduate degree in psychology (after my service in Vietnam), sidetracking my original intent to seek a law degree (later reactivated in 1980 after having practiced psychology at the master’s level for about seven years).

I have been the Arkansas State Board of Psychology’s part-time ethics investigator for almost 22 years, while practicing law full time for 31 years. Possibly, my dedication to the advancement of the psychology profession through the policing of its practice by our licensees is, at least in part, due to my exposure to Dr. James.

James Ammel ’68

Jeffrey Baron ’67

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It was with these simple traits and qualities that Ben made his impact: He listened, he shared, and he inspired.

As a member of Raven’s Claw, I had the distinct opportunity and pleasure to know and interact with Ben James since my arrival on campus in 1984.

However, it was not until I became the society’s advisor, when I returned to Dickinson to coach men’s lacrosse in 2001, that I fully appreciated his impact.

Some people make an impact with one significant act or on one momentous occasion. Ben’s was cumulative, in the way he made each individual feel special. Ben also had the gift of storytelling. Most of his stories were about young people at Dickinson, and somehow he was able to bridge a gap between his current audience and that of his subject. Like many great storytellers, Ben’s greatest gift was his ability to listen; his memory and recall are legendary.

It was with these simple traits and qualities that Ben made his impact: He listened, he shared, and he inspired.

Dave Webster ’88

He consistently walked his three-point roadmap for living: Love everyone, don’t be controlled by money, and serve others.

Wednesdays at noon: If you were a Raven’s Claw, this was the sacred time when you attended the most important class you would take throughout your four years behind the limestone walls — lunch with Dr. Benjamin James. For decades, he faithfully came to campus once a week to mentor the seven members of Raven’s Claw. These were treasured moments when we wanted time to stand still. Some days we would discuss campus activities or hear his legendary tale about the 1931 football team’s victory over Penn State. Other days we would discuss the virtues of life.

All days we would leave in awe of a man who lived a life worth living — a life rooted in principle, tolerance, acceptance and love. He consistently walked his three-point roadmap for living: Love everyone, don’t be controlled by money, and serve others.

Dr. James was born with the skills to be a great leader, and he perfected his craft to become the greatest mentor in Dickinson’s history. He may not be a household name, but he was an American treasure.

Luke Bernstein ’01

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I had the honor of opening the doors of Old West at the 2008 Commencement ceremony. The doors are ceremonially opened by the president of the class from the previous graduation year, and I did not know I would share this responsibility with perhaps the most recognizable Dickinsonian of the past century. A few years later, I saw Dr. James at Biddle Field for his 100th birthday celebration.

The first thing he said when he saw me was, “Hello, Mr. President from the class of 2007.”

Michael Pennington ’07

Janet owes the start of her teaching career to Ben. She was slated to student-teach during the fall of 1972, at the Carlisle Middle School.

Just a few days before school started, her classroom teacher withdrew from the district, leaving the students with no earth science teacher and Janet with no supervisor. The school called Ben for advice, and he persuaded them to hire Janet. Of course she had not yet earned her certification, and Janet still needed a combination of coursework and student teaching credit to graduate. Given the demands of her schedule, taking Dickinson courses during business hours was impossible. Ben met with her at home, in the evenings, on an independentstudy basis, so that she could graduate on time.

We have never forgotten how considerate he was to do all this. It was way above and beyond

the call of duty. Janet had a very productive teaching career for four years before she left teaching to start a family. She later served as a substitute teacher when we moved to New Jersey, and then taught for five years in Charlotte, N.C., and seven years in Kansas City, Mo. She has been back in the Charlotte district for 11 years now. Her current position is supervisor for all of the school libraries in the Charlotte district, which has I50-plus schools.

We stayed in Carlisle until 1989, so we both had continuing contact with Ben at various college and alumni events. He was always gracious, and always encouraging. How I wish the world had more people who had such a positive effect on others.

Raymond ’70 and Janet Whiffen Jones ’73

Family and friends gather to honor Nate Kirkland ’11.

The center of campus life, Britton Plaza is the place to be for the AllAlumni Reception.

Future Dickinsonians join in the celebration on Morgan Field.

IFC members pore through 100 years of history.

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The class of 1965 celebrates its 50th reunion in iconic (or is it iconoclastic?) fashion.

Alumni Award recipients and friends celebrate another great year.

You are (were)

HERE

It was tough to say which was more golden: the light streaming into Denny 317 or Adam Spiegel ’06’s craft whiskeys.

R

Professor of English Wendy Moffat discusses World War I cultural history and literature during Saturday’s Alumni College.

oughly 1,300 Dickinsonians and family members from across the country and around the world joined together on campus June 12-14 to renew friendships and reconnect with the college during Alumni Weekend 2015. And while they relished the chance to share milestones and recent news, many also seized the opportunity to learn something new. The All-Alumni Reception and barbecue were perennial favorites, along with class and club get-togethers, the flag-football game, kids’ zone, farewell brunch and guided tours of campus, Carlisle and the College Farm. This year’s weekend also marked the 50th th reunion for the class of 1965, the 25th th anniversary for the class of 1990 and the 100th for Dickinson’s InterFraternity Council (IFC).

In Tracks, Rick Smolan ’72 traces his experiences with author Robyn Davidson’s journey across 1,700 miles of Australian desert.

The Faculty Band stirs up some barn critters and alumni fans down on the farm.

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[ beyond the limestone walls ]

Increasing our impact (

continued)

Carl Socolow ’77

M I C H A E L D O N N E L LY ’ 0 2 , A L U M N I C O U N C I L P R E S I D E N T

I

open this column by posing a question: What have you done in the past few months to increase your Dickinson impact? The notion of being an active alum, an advocate for our alma mater, a Devils’ Advocate, literally, is really at the center of my work as the Alumni Council president. To that end, I will continue with the theme of increasing our impact for my tenure, as I will do my best to find ways to share out with you multiple opportunities for engagement and to share in with the staff in the Office of College Advancement the awesome stories that I hear from you.

Since the publication of the summer issue of the magazine, I have had the pleasure of hearing some of those stories from several alumni, from rekindling a friendship with a fellow graduate to encouraging another alumna to serve on a reunion committee.

And let me share my own story from this summer.

While chaperoning an exchange program to Germany with 16 high-school students from my district, I experienced a small-world moment atop an observation tower in Reykjavik, Iceland. The chilly weather necessitated a sweatshirt, and of course my trusty red Dickinson sweatshirt travels with me to keep me warm. As I made my way from one side of the observation deck to the other, I was approached by a very nice woman who asked if the Dickinson on my sweatshirt was

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“the Dickinson” in Carlisle. As it turns out, not only does she live a few minutes down the street from the high school in my district, her cousin is a fellow Dickinsonian.

There have been a number of impact opportunities throughout the past few months — ranging from receptions and regional events to the annual Career Conference and Volunteer Leadership Summit. I trust that everyone who participated felt that his or her time was valued. Imagine the impact we would have if every Dickinson alum were to attend just one event each year. Not only would we show our camaraderie as alumni, but we would also serve as ambassadors for the college and help others reconnect to “their” Dickinson.

While, like any organization, changes and updates are necessary to stay current and to provide unique experiences to students, Dickinson is still “our” Dickinson. Each of us has personal experiences and memories that connect us to the college. That Dickinson, the one we remember, is still very much alive, and the continued success of our alma mater is based on the time and effort we each put forward today to spread the word of what makes Dickinson such an awesome and life-changing place.

Be certain to stay informed of upcoming events and activities by regularly visiting the alumni page (dickinson.edu/alumni). Consider participating in One College One Community events. This year’s One College One Community theme ties nicely into the recent celebration of global education in Washington, D.C. It was a great weekend to bring together alumni, faculty, program directors and students to celebrate the anniversaries of several Dickinson abroad programs. We have been, and will continue to be, a leader in the area of global education.

Thanks to all of the college staff, students and alumni who helped to make the weekend such a great success!

Staying engaged also means sharing your ideas, so please feel free to contact me with suggestions and feedback. The entire Alumni Council is elected to serve as a liaison between the college and our alumni community, so please reach out to any of the members. Profiles can be found by visiting dickinson.edu/alumnicouncil.

I look forward to our continued work together as we inspire one another to increase our impact — on fellow alumni, current students and future Dickinsonians! Meanwhile, have a pleasant fall and an enjoyable holiday season.

UPCOMING Alumni Global Adventures April 15-27

13 Days. Six UNESCO World Heritage sites. No crowds. Join Dickinson’s Alumni Global Adventures April 15-27, 2016, for a spring odyssey in Tuscany — from the hidden gems of Florence to the geotechnics of Pisa and the frescoes of the San Francesco Basilica. Travel and learn with a variety of local experts, and admire medieval towns, cathedrals, villas and fortresses.

Learn more at dickinson.edu/alumnitravel.

EVENTS November 1

Baltimore: Pratt Street Ale House

Geology & Earth Sciences Reception November 11

Chicago: One College One Community

Transnationalism and Musical Holocaust Witness November 14 Carlisle

Admissions Open House November 17

Baltimore: One College One Community

Health Related Quality of Life in an Aging World November 17-21

Carlisle: Tibetan Monk Residency

Enlightened Activity: The Green Tara Initiative

Learn more at dickinson.edu/alumni.

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[ closing thoughts ]

It takes a village, then and now B Y A M Y D AT S KO K U E B L E R ’ 0 3

O

ur sons, born just a few weeks apart, tumble and roll around a third-floor nursery in Nicole’s Philadelphia row house. They’re surrounded by bright and noisy toys, though they continue to zero in on a laptop cord. We read them books, show them how to push a car around, talk back to their babbles. We’re both around the six-month mark of motherhood. We’re used to them being around, but we remain awed.

Nicole Salemno Levy ’03 and I met in 1999 as first-year students living in Adams Hall. She moved across the Dickinson campus in bounds; the same high energy (and a bottomless well of patience) serve her as a parent. A bank examiner and poet, she works tirelessly in the name of economic justice and writes verses full of delicate candor.

Nicole arrived to campus on a mission to make the world better.

For me, the arrival to Dickinson was a lot like arriving home from the hospital with an infant: what now?

As with new parenthood, my time at Dickinson was a piecemeal venture. If something felt right, I went with it. My first-year seminar with Professor of Religion Mara Donaldson influenced my declaration of a religion major. Working in the Writing Center convinced me to pursue writing. Hours spent in the Waidner-Spahr Library eventually led to a master’s in library science.

Figuring out my son was a similar process of trying new things and sticking with what worked. He slept best when wrapped in a tight swaddle. He delighted in watching a slowly turning ceiling fan. He was instantly calmed when I put on Fats Domino.

Before giving birth, I was given the firm warning by more than one mom: The days are long, but the years are short. I’m not even a year in, and I see what they mean. On the never-ending early days of my son’s life, I found myself repeatedly checking the clock, anxious for my husband to arrive home so I could get a break. But it got easier. We got more practice with eating and sleeping. My son scuttles across the floor

in pursuit of the dog’s tail, and I wonder where my tiny baby went.

A photo of Nicole and me on graduation day, gleeful in caps and gowns, was snapped an unbelievable 12 years ago. Could I have imagined when I arrived to campus on a sunny morning that on a rainy day four years later I would descend the steps of Old West, diploma in hand? During my first finals week, running on nervous energy, spending full days studying and writing, I doubt I perceived how quickly the end would come. The years are short.

We first introduced our boys when they were still fresh and immobile, a day spent at my home in Baltimore lounging with sleeping babies, bouncing crying babies, eating and breastfeeding. In our sleepless haze, we pieced together memories from college.

We talked about the optimism surrounding our undergrad days.

At Dickinson, we both found professors—Jim Hoefler (political science) and Andrea Lieber (religion and Middle East studies)—who would serve as mentors and sages. We sought their guidance, shared our ideas, got a boost of confidence. They launched us into post-college life feeling ready and inspired.

Now we ask daycare providers, grandparents and trusted friends for guidance with our sons. We text each other with the worries and wonders of new motherhood. This past winter, my sister and I scrambled to find childcare for our kids on a snow day. “It takes a village,” she reminded me at the end of the conversation. Every morning (usually around 5), I’m launched into my new role as Mom; an entire village propels me.

Of course, there are days where I lose my confidence, unsure where I am headed or what the day (or hour) ahead will hold. Thinking back to the August morning when I arrived on campus, I remember the same jumble of feelings — unsure, yet thrilled. As then, I promise myself I will learn something new each day, piece everything together, rely on my village, figure it out.

Amy Datsko Kuebler ‘03 works in education and lives in Baltimore with her husband Roman, son Eddie and beagle Penny.

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DICKINSON CONNECTIONS

WHICH?

WHO? From Phi Epsilon Pi brunches to Take-aDickinsonian-to-Lunch, from Operations Crossroads Africa to the Dickinson Science Magazine, the connections we make at Dickinson continue to serve us well through the years. We see connections others don’t, create them where others can’t. This ability, forged through careful analysis, discourse and exploration, makes Dickinsonians uniquely prepared for lives of purpose and meaning. When we presented Dickinsonians from a variety of classes with questions about their college experiences, their answers revealed not only how Dickinson has evolved but also how the Dickinson experience remains true — across generations and across disciplines. It’s a small illustration of the many reasons we stay connected to our classmates and our college.

Find out more about Barry Warren ’65’s and Gloria Hwang ’16’s connections — and much more — at Dickinson.edu/alumni.

WHAT? WHY?

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Our deeply rooted ideology that stigmatizes fatness actually causes us to ignore the studies that indicate that exercise and healthy eating are much more correlated to good health than weight is.

A M Y FA R R E L L , professor of American studies and women’s & gender studies and the new executive director of the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, on why her book Fat Shame continues to resonate. Read more at dson.co/farrellFOF.

Follow your bliss. Not in the sense of follow whatever makes you feel good, but those things that deeply tug at you in a way that it’s an imperative to follow them.

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in “A Painter Follows His Bliss,” Maine Boats,

Homes and Harbors.

I’ve experienced the greatest professional growth when I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone and took on an assignment that, at first, felt well beyond my abilities. I realized failure was a possibility but decided the reward was worth the risk.

SUSAN COAN ’84,

in “Power Players: The 50 Most Influential Business Men and Women in South Jersey.”

The important priorities are people and stepping up to help them.

B E NJA M I N D . JA M E S ’ 3 4 .

Read tributes to James on page 32.

The fact that the Roman Catholic Church supports evolution and climate change is as newsworthy as its support of gravity.

In circumstances where society as a whole practices and approves evil, the antisocial impulses of individuals, which are often thought of as themselves as foolish or evil, become one of the few conceivable sources of improvement.

M A R C U S K E Y , Joseph Priestley Professor of Natural Philosophy, in “Pope Francis’ Historic Visit: What Messages Matter Most?” Read more at dson.co/popevantagepoints.

CRISPIN SARTWELL,

associate professor of philosophy, in “Can We Improve?” The New York Times.