Renovating the IC

What went wrong with it was that I fell in love with being upside down.

Retired Air Force Colonel and Hobart Alumni Association Medal of Excellence recipient C. RICHARD “DICK” ANDEREGG ‘67 , describing why his original plan to spend four years in the Air Force became a lifetime career. The quote is from an oral history for the Vietnam War Commemoration, a project that collects and preserves oral histories from those who served. The Day on the Hill experience allowed me to gain insight into life after HWS and how alums can find their presence on Capitol Hill. It was great to hear how their HWS education has given them a lift in their careers and how they have utilized their voice to advocate for themselves.

Economics major HRITHIK BISWAS ’23

The philosophy is based around communication, trust, love, hard work; it’s been really exciting the last few years to see the change in the culture at One Bills Drive and how inspiring that can be, and obviously you see it translate to wins on the field as well.

Buffalo Bills Senior Director of Community Relations and Youth Football PRESTON TEAGUE ’02 , on the culture shift under head coach Sean McDermott and General Manager Brandon Beane, in The Finger Lakes Times.

It’s a critical time for New York. The pandemic has taken its toll. And it’s the right time for me personally to step up and serve my city. I’m in this race because I love New York.

LIZ CROTTY ’93 on why she’s running to be Manhattan’s next District Attorney

It’s a population I connect with — not just as a person of color myself, but also because I understand their dreams and wants, as well as that of their parents and families.

Director of Alumni and Alumnae Relations

CHEVANNE DEVANEY ’95, P’21, P’23

on serving as the mentor for Posse 9

DADA

The correct answer JOSEPH RISHEL ‘62 gave to the question ‘For a 20-point bonus, what modern art movement sounds like baby talk?’ during the nationally televised G.E. College Bowl, held on January 29, 1961. The HWS team, consisting of Rishel, Jerry Levy ’63, Marcia Berges Hodges ’61 and James Zurer ’63, defeated Baylor University to become undefeated champions in the academic competition.

Love is that thing that helps you to change the trajectory of somebody else’s life because somebody’s love did it for you.

The REV. LAKISHA WILLIAMS ’96 , assistant director of advocacy and community engagement for #DegreesNYC, during the Founder’s Day virtual panel Francis Picabia, 1919, Réveil Matin (Alarm Clock), ink on paper, 31.8 x 23 cm

Pitch Perfect

Pitch Celebrates 10 Years with Win for Nusom ’23

BY NATALIA ST.LAWRENCE ’16

HWS celebrated the 10th anniversary of the newly renamed Todd Feldman ’89 and Family Pitch Contest by awarding Matthew Nusom ’23 a $10,000 grant for SymBio, a design company that reimagines how people manage their landfill, recycling and organic waste.

SymBio’s first product is a lunch tray that uses color-coded sections and indicative letters for composting, recycling and landfilling, allowing diners to place items on trays based on how they will be disposed after the meal. The grant will allow Nusom to produce and distribute 5,000 trays.

This year’s judges, including entrepreneurs and past Pitch contestants Ato Bentsi-Enchil ’17, Mattie Mead ’13, Sam Solomon ’17 and Sara Wroblewski ’13, selected SymBio because of the timing of the opportunity — New York State’s Food Donation and Food Recycling Law and a ban on polystyrene, single-use foam food will take effect in Jan. 2022 — and the immediate impact $10,000 will make toward launching Nusom’s vision.

Nusom has already developed strategic partnerships with local educators and companies, including a schoolteacher at Geneva West Street Elementary School, sustainability-education company Impact Earth and waste solutions company Closed Loop Systems. In the future, he envisions schools, hospitals, airports and other institutions will use SymBio products.

The Pitch marked its first decade by renaming the competition in honor of entrepreneur Todd Feldman ’89 and his family, who generously support the HWS Entrepreneurship Fund and the Opell Challenge. Feldman has spent his career developing ideas and building businesses, including creating and patenting The Nuddle Blanket with his wife Jenn (the first blanket with a foot pocket) to co-founding real estate software platform Leonardo247.

Launched in 2011 by the Centennial Center for Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the Pitch has shown the importance of cultivating student ideas and how “any one of them can change the world,” says Centennial Center Director Amy Forbes.

From Contestants to Judges

Winner of the inaugural Pitch in 2012, Sara Wroblewski ’13 is the CEO and founder of the nonprofit One Bead, which provides high-impact entrepreneurial programming to students across Boston. onebead.org

2013 Pitch contestant Mattie Mead ’13 is co-founder and CEO of Hempitecture, a public benefit corporation focused on healthy insulation for the residential and commercial building sectors, including HempWool®, an insulating fiber-based batt derived from industrial hemp biomass. hempitecture.com

2014 Pitch winner Ato BentsiEnchil ’17 is the founder of Black Adam Africa, a boutique investment firm specializing in private equity, investment advisory and project financing committed to building and financing high-growth and highpotential businesses in Africa. linkedin.com/company/blackadam-africa/about

2017 Pitch winner Sam Solomon ’17 is the founder of Pizza Posto, a gourmet, sustainable farm-to-table food truck that operates out of Geneva, N.Y. and the co-owner of Spotted Duck Creamery. pizzaposto.com

Three Decades on the Night Shift

BY BETHANY SNYDER

Just as the Hobart and William Smith campus was coming to life on the morning of Nov. 13, 2020, Heavy Duty Custodian Mark Cardinale was calling it a day — or rather a night — for the last time. For 33 years, he worked the night shift, 11:30 p.m. to 8 a.m., primarily in the science buildings.

“Mark has been a staple here for three decades,” said Cardinale’s manager, Housekeeping Supervisor Janet Rasmussen. “Between his sense of humor and his work ethic, we have some big shoes to fill.”

Cardinale witnessed much growth and change over those 33 years, from the renovations of Gulick and Rosenberg Halls to the building of the Katherine D. Elliott Studio Arts Center and the Gearan Center for the Performing Arts. Still, the thing he loved best about working at HWS is the same thing he’ll miss the most: “the people.”

Envisioning the New Intercultural Affairs Center

BY ANDREW WICKENDEN ’09

DESIGN PLANS for a renovation of the HWS Intercultural Affairs Center are now underway.

For generations of students and alums, the “IC,” as it’s known on campus, has provided a welcoming environment with support for personal growth, academic success and leadership skills as well as programming designed to broaden crosscultural understanding, foster an appreciation for diversity, inclusion and social justice, and strengthen community bonds.

In the fall of 2020, faculty, staff and students toured the current space with a design team from SWBR Architects, discussing what functions the space could serve in the future, how the renovation can support the mission of Intercultural Affairs and the Colleges’ Strategic Diversity Plan, and which aspects of the space should be preserved to sustain the spirit of the IC.

After consultation with the community, the building will be upgraded and expanded, and will stay in its current location, remaining on Pulteney Street near the entrance to campus at Hamilton Street. “We heard again and again from so many people that the historic location of IC on Pulteney Street at the heart of campus was important,” says Director of Intercultural Affairs Alejandra Molina. “We want students and alums to walk into the IC and it’s still the space they know, but also speaks to 21st century intercultural education.”

The renovation will be a process of “evolving the space to accommodate the needs of our students and club populations without losing the ‘home away from home’ feeling,” says Director of Opportunity Programs Renée Grant.

“From my first tour of campus, it was clear that if we are going to say that we are committed to equity and inclusion, then we need to make sure that a space dedicated to our values matches our aspirations,” says President Joyce P. Jacobsen. “I’m very excited that we are making this project an immediate priority and that it has the support of our community including the Board of Trustees.”

Hrithik Biswas ’23 hopes the new space will attract “all students from different walks of life … to innovate, inquire and collaborate,” while Student Trustee Nuzhat Wahid ’22 expects the updates will “expand the reach, space and opportunities the IC can continue to provide for our many communities on campus.”

“We are looking at a space that has really embodied a sense of community and belonging for generations, especially for students who may not have felt that sense in other spaces on campus,” says Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Khuram Hussain. “This project signals our commitment to that sense of belonging.”

Details about the renovation including how you can support the project will be available soon.

Campus Scene

In a year like no other, this photo stands out as being emblematic of the times. From his Henry House office, Associate Professor of Men’s Studies Chip Capraro talks with students via Zoom in his “Golf Course Architecture” First-Year Seminar course. The students remained in their residence hall rooms for the initial introduction to one another and Professor Capraro. Courses for the rest of the semester happened in person with social distancing and the use of face masks.

Putting the “Science” in Science-Fiction

BY ANDREW WICKENDEN ‘09

The Trias Residency for Writers is supported by The Peter Trias Endowed Fund for Poetry and Creative Writing. The residency was created through a generous bequest from Peter J. Trias ’70, and is designed to give distinguished writers time to write while they mentor Hobart and William Smith students and contribute to the artistic community on campus and in the City of Geneva. In Jeff VanderMeer’s Hummingbird Salamander, released this April and receiving rave reviews, a mysterious envelope sends “Jane Smith” on a dangerous, complex quest revolving around a taxidermied hummingbird and a taxidermied salamander. The titular animals are fictional, but their scientific plausibility is the product of the research and creativity of Professor of Biology Meghan Brown.

During VanderMeer’s tenure at HWS as the 2016-17 Trias Writer-inResidence, he and Brown forged a working friendship based on a shared fascination with science and the role fiction can play in connecting humans to the natural world. As VanderMeer developed the novel, Brown was enlisted to create ecological profiles for the species — including names, physical and behavioral traits, diets, migrations, defense mechanisms and reproduction strategies — that “would have biological realism which enabled them to be believable in the novel,” she explains. Her text appears throughout the novel to bring the species’ ecologies to the reader.

Brown says the Hummingbird Salamander collaboration was not only “delightful, but also instructive,” as it allowed her “to be a feminist and an environmentalist and an ecologist” simultaneously as she designed the species and engaged in a creative process to bring ecological tenets to a broad audience.

VanderMeer notes that having worked with Brown during his Trias residency, he was “incredibly impressed with her sharpness and point of view” and that he wanted the “made-up creatures that were essential to the novel to originate with someone else so that I would have to respond to them… [so enlisting Meghan] meant that the voice in which the hummingbird and salamander facts are presented is different than my voice.”

The “challenges organisms face and how they cope with them became a creative outlet, but also an outlet to tell the same story that I write in my scientific publications, just to a different audience,” Brown explains. “Being able to use these mythical creatures to help explain ideas of climate change and environmental contaminants and think about language that would help someone understand how those threats interact with an amphibian and a bird…that was really rewarding and really enjoyable.”

Brown studies and teaches about the critical role humans play in shaping our Earth home. Her non-fiction publications address questions such as: How does climate change impact organisms in European mountain lakes? Did Cuba’s Revolution shape its modern ecology? What role do non-native species play in the conservation of vulnerable environments? She is a Fulbright fellow, a National Science Foundation grantee, and a recently featured scientist in National Geographic.

VanderMeer is the author of more than 20 books, including Dead Astronauts, Borne and The Southern Reach Trilogy, the first volume of which, Annihilation, won the Nebula Award and the Shirley Jackson Award and was adapted into a movie by Alex Garland. A three-time winner of the World Fantasy Award, VanderMeer speaks and writes frequently about issues relating to climate change as well as urban rewilding.

ATHLETICS

Down This Road Before

BY KEN DEBOLT

On March 12, 2020, as Hobart basketball practiced in Newport News, Va., on the eve of its first appearance in the NCAA round of 16 and as Hobart hockey prepared to board a bus to Adrian, Mich., for its sixth consecutive NCAA playoff appearance, the decision was made that both tournaments would be canceled due to COVID-19.

Since then the word “unprecedented” has been bandied about in reference to the pandemic with extraordinary regularity. But that’s not the full story. Two previous instances of novel global events had a dramatic impact on Hobart and William Smith athletics.

The pandemic commonly referred to as the Spanish Flu ravaged the world population from 1918 to 1920. Campus officials restricted students to the Colleges’ grounds to prevent the disease from reaching the Student Army Training Corps, which could have hindered the country’s efforts in World War I. The combined impact of the pandemic and war cost Hobart the 1917 and 1918 lacrosse seasons as well as the 1918-19 basketball season. Somehow, Hobart football played on.

The longest shutdown of sports at HWS came two decades later during World War II. Following the 1942 football season finale at Rochester, Hobart Athletic Director Francis “Babe” Kraus ’24 announced the cancelation of all intercollegiate athletic contests for the duration of the war. The announcement came on the heels of a recommendation by the Association of American Colleges for institutions to place an emphasis on intramural sport, focusing on the fitness of all college men, many of whom would soon enter the armed forces.

The 1942 decision ultimately wiped out three seasons of football and lacrosse and two seasons of basketball.

Sports for women during World War I and World War II did not resemble today’s college sports landscape. Contests were often held between classes or between houses on campus, something more akin to today’s intramurals. When a quarantine came to William Smith Hill in 1918, the games played on as the women of Miller House defeated Blackwell House 19-12 in basketball.

The 1921 edition of the Pine yearbook reflects on William Smith athletes’ lives in the aftermath of the Spanish Flu: “Due to the wholesale vaccination of the college, and the sad effect thereof, some of our budding athletes were forced to recline in cushioned ease for several weary weeks. This somewhat delayed our series of interclass basketball games.”

Over the years, pandemics and world wars have interrupted sports at the Colleges. COVID-19 stopped all HWS sports for a year, the longest pause since World War II.