Spring-Summer 2006 Millsaps Magazine

SPRING–SUMMER 2006

Written in Stone

John Stone Hall houses one of the nation’s top 17 college writing programs

From the President

This issue of Millsaps Magazine brings together two essential themes of the Millsaps experience: God and the written word. Our magazine takes a look at how Millsaps College makes both writing and religion top priorities.

Our emphasis on strengthening our students’ writing skills has not gone unnoticed.This year, U.S. News & World Report ranked Millsaps among the top 17 colleges across America that make writing a priority.This has largely come about because of the efforts of our faculty.They have worked tirelessly to raise national awareness of Millsaps’ innovative approach to writing across the curriculum—that is, making written expression as important in accounting as it is in English.

Millsaps has an innovative approach to religion, as well. Never before has a deeper dialogue on spiritual contributions to our nation’s welfare been more essential. I am proud of Millsaps College for championing the belief that religion is a vital source of human wisdom.This is demonstrated by the number of programs offered on campus this semester.

The need for examining personal and moral values as part of the educational experience grows out of the idea that the college years have a significant impact on shaping the direction of a student’s life. Programs such as those featured this year on campus broaden the thinking of students as they develop spiritual values and gain knowledge about global religious diversity.

Four prominent religious scholars graced the Millsaps campus during February and March, each leaving something behind for each faith community to uphold. We can learn much from other religions; mostly, we can learn more about God. I echo the sentiment of Millsaps’ Dr. James Bowley, associate professor of religious studies, who says:“There’s always something changing, something growing, something happening.That’s why Millsaps College and the Department of Religious Studies are always seeking ways to learn, understand, and engage the myriad religious ideas shaping our world.”

Huston Smith, an author and scholar of religion, pictures world faith traditions as parts of a complex and beautiful stained glass window, refracting and revealing the pure, divine light of God. Each part reveals truth, goodness, and beauty, and each has its own unique opaqueness as well. I suppose that same description could be used for our words, if only spoken and written by those standards.

Best wishes to each of you for a wonderful spring and summer!

Warmly,

In This Issue f e a t u r e

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MILLSAPS MAGAZINE spring-summer 2006

Write On, Millsaps The College is ranked among the top 17 colleges in the nation for its revolutionary Writing Program

Executive Editor Patti Wade d i r e c t or o f c om m u n i c at i on s Design Kelley Matthews graphic designer Contributing Editors John Webb c om m u n i c at i on s w r i t e r Jesse Yancy a s s o c i at e d i r e c t or o f m e d i a r e l at i on s Lisa Purdie Scott Albert Johnson c om m u n i c at i on s s p e c i a l i s t s Clint Kimberling s p ort s i n f or m at i on d i r e c t or

d e p a r t m e n t s On Campus 2 In the Spotlight 14 Fine Arts

Major Notes Editor Tanya Newkirk a s s o c i at e d i r e c t or o f a l u m n i r e l at i on s Editorial Assistants Anna Ellis, 2006 Jewel Johnson, 2006 Jackie Rezk, 2007 Chris Spear, 2007

Faculty & Staff 18 In the Spotlight 20 Campus Community Athletics 32 Mike DuBose 34 Scholar Athletes

Major Notes 37 In the Spotlight 44 Classnotes 47 In Memoriam

Contributing Photographers Frank Ezelle Shannon Fagan © 2006 Kelley Matthews John Webb Paul White © 2006 Jesse Yancy Administrative Officers Dr. Frances Lucas president Dr. Richard A. Smith s e n i or v i c e p r e s i d e n t a n d d e a n o f t h e c ol l e g e Louise Burney, M.Acc. 1996 v i c e p r e s i d e n t f or f i n a n c e Dr. R. Brit Katz v i c e p r e s i d e n t f or s t u d e n t l i f e and dean of students Dr. Charles R. Lewis vice president f or i n s t i t u t i ona l a dva n c e m e n t Todd Rose v i c e p r e s i d e n t f or c a m p u s s e rv i c e s

Parting Word 49 Spirits Burning

With Wesleyan Ideals

37 On the Cover Kathi Griffin, coordinator of the Millsaps W r i t i n g C e n t e r, i n J o h n S t o n e H a l l w i t h j u n i o r J o h n Ya r g o a n d s o p h o m o r e A n a n s a B a i l e y. p h ot o b y s h a n non f ag a n © 2 0 0 6

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OnCampus ‘Religion Matters’: A Congregation Of Theologians The many facets of religious study were brought to life on campus this semester with lectures by leading scholars and theologians from across the country. The lectures also were representative of the broad spectrum of cultural activities on campus in any given semester, since they took place in a variety of Millsaps venues yet were united under the umbrella title “Religion Matters at Millsaps.”

“Matters of religion are always dynamic and always important to our culture,” said Dr. James Bowley, associate professor of religious studies at Millsaps. “There’s always something changing, something growing, something happening.

That’s why Millsaps College Reza Aslan, the author of No god but God, spoke on modern Islam. and the Department of Religious Studies are always seeking ways to learn, understand, and Reza Aslan challenges the engage the myriad religious ideas shaping our world. Because we believe deeply “clash of civilizations” mentality in broad exposure to different ideas and perspectives, our ‘Religion Matters’ in regard to Islam and the West, programming this spring, in addition to our many courses and campus events, and the “hijacking” of his faith includes a wide spectrum of viewpoints.”

“In addition to these speakers, our own United Methodist Bishop Hope Ward by power-hungry demagogues, has been on campus twice this spring, first self-serving clergy, and radical as a participant on a panel about women in religion for our Friday Forum program, fundamentalists. and again to lead a chapel service,” said Kay Barksdale, director of church and parent relations.

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The first lecture was delivered in February by Dr. Bernard McGinn, Donnelly Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology and of the History of Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is also the preeminent American scholar of medieval Western Christianity. In his lecture, “Why Monasticism Matters,” McGinn reflected on monasticism, including its origin with the desert fathers and mothers, its Golden Age in the 12th century, and its modern revival in the 19th and 20th centuries. McGinn appeared on campus as a guest of the Millsaps College chapter of Phi Beta Kappa (Alpha Mississippi) through its Visiting Scholar Program.

“Bernard McGinn is the foremost scholar of Western Christian mysticism and also an authority on the history of apocalypticism and concepts of evil,” said Dr. Steven Smith, chair of the Department of Religious Studies. “It says a lot about our world that this erudite medievalist’s interests now seem supremely timely.”

Ron Sider, the president of Evangelicals for Social Action, spoke in February on the relationship between religion, politics, and social action. Sider’s scholarship and teaching, and his life lived among the poor, have inspired and challenged Christians around the world to work for justice. A widely known evangelical speaker and writer, Sider has appeared on six continents and published 27 books and scores of articles. His most recent book is The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience.

His Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger was recognized by Christianity Today as among the 100 most influential religious books of the 20th century.

Reza Aslan, the internationally acclaimed author of No god but God, spoke on the modern state of Islam, the fastest growing religion in the world, in an Arts & Lecture Series appearance in February. Aslan, a native of Iran, a master of theological studies from Harvard, and a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Santa Barbara, challenged the “clash of civilizations” mentality in

regard to Islam and the West, and the “hijacking” of his faith by power-hungry demagogues, self-serving clergy, and radical fundamentalists.

“We are very excited and fortunate to have this articulate scholar in our series,” said Ferrell Tadlock, B.A. 1972, president of the Millsaps Arts & Lecture Series. “Aslan is one of a group of young Islamic scholars finding a voice in the publishing world.

We hear a lot about the extremists, but we’re only now beginning to hear from progressive Muslims who are trying to move Islam into the mainstream.”

And Steven Tipton, professor of sociology of religion, Candler School of Theology, Emory University, spoke in March on “In Search of the Self in Community”as part of the Summers Lectures. Tipton, the co-author of Habits of the Heart and The Good Society, examined religious and moral conflict in American public life today.

The Summers Lectures, presented annually, are endowed by a gift from the Reverend Lemuel Summers and by the Reiff-Lewis Endowment Fund.

“I was delighted that we had the opportunity to hear four prominent scholars in less than one month’s time right here on the Millsaps campus,” said the Reverend Lisa Garvin, Millsaps’ chaplain. “These men represent the diversity of religion in America and in the world today. With an evangelical Christian who challenges us all to be socially active, a young Muslim who offered a thoughtful critique of his own faith, a scholar who reflected on the origins of monasticism and the revival of monastic practices today, and a sociologist of religion who addressed the role of religion in politics and the public square, there was something for everyone in the faith communities and the people of Jackson, as well.”

—Jesse Yancy

Celebrating King, Hand in Hand With Tougaloo College The Millsaps community commemorated its observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday this year with a threeday series of events. And, in keeping with the spirit of the celebration, Millsaps and Tougaloo College participated together in the activities.

On the morning of Monday, January 16, students, faculty, and staff traveled to Tougaloo for a breakfast celebration. “It was a great way to start the morning in a place that Dr. King actually visited,” said the Reverend Lisa Garvin, Millsaps chaplain.

“Being able to participate in the historic

late colleague (King) about the progress of racial equality in the United States. In his message to the Millsaps and Tougaloo communities, White urged the pursuit of common ground. He asserted that “the common ground of people of faith is understanding that we are all created by God, [and] for people not of faith, the common ground is the human family.” He

partnership of Tougaloo and Millsaps, which I have heard about and written papers about, was surreal at times that day.”

In the evening, Tougaloo students, faculty, and staff traveled to Millsaps for an evening service whose guest speaker was the Reverend Woodie White, bishop-inresidence at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Each year since 1976, White has written a “birthday letter” to his

closed his address with this same challenge saying, “Spread the fragrance everywhere you go.”

The service began with a multimedia presentation produced by Millsaps senior Jason Jarin of Jackson. The piece presented images from the civil rights movement, as well as other people who still strive to continue King’s legacy.

Garvin commented that the piece “was

Kiana Moore, a sophomore at Tougaloo, in a prayerful moment.

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moving and set the perfect tone for the rest of the celebration—a celebration of the diversity of the community gathered that evening and a challenging and inspiring message from Bishop Woodie White.”

Performances for the event included The Chamber Singers and Tougaloo’s gospel choir, Anointed Voices of G.R.A.C.E. Garvin said that students from both schools “came together and, through their many gifts and languages, celebrated the life of Dr. King, who challenged us to do something for others.”

—Jewel Johnson

Fortenberry Leads McNair’s $1 Million Missionary Program An endowment from David McNair, a Jackson businessman, promises to keep the Reverend Don Fortenberry, retired Millsaps chaplain, busy doing what he loves best: helping students find ways to be good stewards locally, nationally, and abroad.

Fortenberry, who returned to Millsaps on a part-time basis in March, will continue to oversee the David C. McNair Endowment for Christian Missions, a charge he accepted while serving as campus chaplain. McNair’s pledge of

$1 million is being used to underwrite campus programs geared toward evangelical missions and stipends for Millsaps students and faculty who wish to participate in Christian missionary work.

The developer of the Treetops Boulevard area on Lakeland Drive, McNair attended Millsaps College from 1956 to 1959. He has said he believes Millsaps missionaries could be especially effective in a world where the young seem increasingly disillusioned. He believes our young people have the physical stamina it takes to work in schools and hospitals and spread the word about Christianity.

Since the program’s inception, five Millsaps students have been given those service opportunities. Andrea Dewey was the first recipient of a McNair mission stipend in 2004. The senior from Paducah, Kentucky, toured Rwanda and Uganda for two months. “I participated in craft projects to raise money for widows and orphans and learned firsthand about the Rwandan genocide,” she said. “Missions have always been a huge part of my life, and because of this endowment I was able to live out that part of myself.”

Millsaps seniors Katie Beth Miksa, of Monroe, Louisiana, and Kristen Keating, of Eads, Tennessee, did mission work in South Africa; sophomore Matthew

Jackson businessman David McNair on one of his many missionary expeditions around the world.

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Herbert of Madison traveled to Honduras to work for an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity; and sophomore Brenna Spell of Memphis served as a ministry coordinator for Mountain TOP (Tennessee Outreach Program) in the Appalachian Mountains.

Fortenberry, who served as the Millsaps chaplain for 30 years, looks forward to having the freedom to concentrate on this particular project without having to manage many other projects at the same time. After all, multitasking was routine during his preretirement days.

“My major goal in overseeing this endowment is to increase the number of possible placements, not only abroad, but in Jackson, in Mississippi, and within the United States,” he said. “I want our students to cover a variety of areas. The calls for servant-leadership abound; there is always a need somewhere.” —Lisa Purdie

Window a Tribute To ‘Our Chaplain’

By Class of 2005 Before the announcement of the Reverend Don Fortenberry’s retirement last year, a group of alumni decided to raise funds for a scholarship to be established in his name and recognize the 30 years of service that Fortenberry had given to Millsaps College and the community. To date, more than $45,000 has been raised in pledges and gifts for the Don Fortenberry Endowed Scholarship Fund and Award.

Then, just after his retirement announcement, the Class of 2005—in conjunction with the Senior Year Experience and under the supervision of Dr. Brit Katz, vice president for student life—raised more than $3,300 for a stained glass window to celebrate Fortenberry’s life and work at Millsaps. Under the direction of Ryan Day, B.S. 2005, the senior class voted on the project, chose the design of the stained glass, and raised the funds to purchase and install the new window.

Don instilled in us all the Christian meaning of love, service, and true passion, through his generosity to the College and the example he set for each of its students.”

“Our class, the Class of 2005, was the Class of 9/11 and Don Fortenberry,” said Paige Henderson, B.S. 2005, who also co-chaired the Senior Year Experience. “Because of this one event, we, at the tender ages of 17, 18, and 19, experienced tragedy, death, terrorism, and a deep sense of profound loss as American citizens. At the same time, Don Fortenberry showed us love, understanding, and compassion for those who hurt us most. I will never forget the 9/11 candlelight vigil as long as I live. September 11 might have forever brought together a nation, but Don Fortenberry forever brought together a living unit of naïve The stained glass window celebrating Reverend Fortenberry was and terrified freshmen. installed in New South Residence Hall by the Class of 2005.

“To this day, I honestly believe that “I felt like my time at Millsaps had Don Fortenberry is the one person impacted me so significantly that I wanted that every person from my class knows to do something in return,” Day said. “I from the College. You could have been very think that the senior class gift, beyond involved at Millsaps or not involved at all, leaving a physical memory of a graduating yet everyone knew and respected the man class, serves to anchor us to the College who was ‘Our Chaplain.’” as young alumni—a way for us to look Installation of the stained glass window back and see something tangible we left in the New South Residence Hall will behind. The senior class gift committee ensure that Fortenberry’s legacy will endure discussed a number of ideas, and we for generations and encourage others to decided we wanted to add something serve as Fortenberry did. unique to campus. When we learned of —Vernon King Don’s retirement, we thought a stained glass window would be a fitting way to There are plans to dedicate the window honor him, since he’s given so much to us during Homecoming, November 10–12. For as students.” more information on the window and the “We chose to honor Dr. Don scholarship fund, please visit the Millsaps Fortenberry because he was ending his website at www.millsaps.edu. If you would like journey at Millsaps at the same time as to make a gift in honor of Fortenberry, please the Class of 2005, though his chapter visit www.millsaps.edu/devoff/ or write to lasted much longer,” said Eleanore Kelly, Millsaps College, 1701 North State Street, B.A. 2005, co-chair of the Senior Year Jackson, MS 39210. Be sure to write Don Experience. “The stained glass window Fortenberry Endowed Scholarship Fund in the would remain at the College as a precious memo portion of your check. reminder of Millsaps’ relationship to the Methodist Church and how much

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‘September Transfers’ Remaining at Millsaps In the Wake of Katrina As Hurricane Katrina churned her way through New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast, her winds reshuffled families, redistributed populations, and forever altered the course of many lives, including those of hundreds of displaced Louisiana students who transferred to Mississippi colleges. Forty-nine of those students enrolled at Millsaps, either because their own schools had been closed or they could not otherwise go home.

Out of those 49 students, 11 have opted to remain at Millsaps— approximately a 22 percent retention rate.

And some of these “September transfers” say they have appreciated the unexpected opportunity to experience what the College has to offer.

“For me, Junior Harvey Hunt transferred the transition here from Tulane with his twin ended up being sister, Mia. Hunt is a music major. a very positive thing,” said Emily Smith, a sophomore who came here from Tulane University. “I enjoy Millsaps much more than Tulane because I am able to have smaller classes, thus better relationships with my professors, and I have ended up making a lot of new friends.

After living in New Orleans my whole life and having spent two years at Tulane, it is refreshing to finally get to experience life outside of my bubble. The whole experience has changed me for the better.”

Mia Hunt, a sophomore from Tulane, said she was just about to start classes the

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Thursday before the hurricane hit and evacuated that Saturday. “When we came to Mississippi, we brought just a few clothes because we thought we’d be able to go back,” she said. “But after the levees broke, we knew we couldn’t.”

Hunt, whose twin brother, Harvey, a junior majoring in music, also transfered from Tulane, first stayed with relatives in Port Gibson. She said her initial step toward rebuilding her life was to enroll at Millsaps.

“There was no red tape,” she said. “It was easy. I enrolled over the phone—even picked out my classes over the phone—and when school started I moved up here. The transition was easy. I’m the type of person who feels that once one door closes you might as well walk through the next. I

Sophomore Mia Hunt, who transferred here with her brother, Harvey, said enrolling at Millsaps was the first step toward rebuilding her life, which had been uprooted by Katrina.

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totally dropped my life at Tulane, even though I still talk to my friends—most of whom have gone back.”

Hunt, who said she would like to become an elementary school teacher and eventually have her own performing arts school for low-income families and minorities, said the Millsaps faculty had been extraordinarily sensitive to her situation.

“My first day of class, the professors were so supportive and encouraging,” she said, adding that Dr. Elise Smith, her Liberal Studies professor, had housed her mother and two brothers until they found a home.

“It has been a huge blessing in my life to have my family here.”

The Reverend Lisa Garvin, Millsaps chaplain, hosted a series of meals with the September transfers. “They were very bright young people who seemed to be adjusting very well to the unexpected move,” Garvin said. “They all seem to be very happy and active in the life of the College and are adding much to the community.”

The federal Department of Education allowed Millsaps and other colleges and universities to circumvent many of the usual hurdles to enrollment. “We brought in all of these students as degree-seeking students so we could award them federal financial aid,” said Patrick James, director of financial aid. “The federal government relaxed the requirements for verification of tax returns, the information that normally goes on Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms. We didn’t have to collect all that.

“This was all dropped on us suddenly, and we had students calling us before we had any regulations in place about how to proceed. But the administration enrolled students first and sorted out the details later. We knew that we could accept the students and give them Millsaps money without any problem, but then more questions came into play: ‘How do we get their federal student loans here? How do we get their Federal Pell Grants here if they qualify?’ We were accepting the students

and waiting on the regulations to come down from the Department of Education.

Fortunately, the regulations came quickly, allowing us to take in the students, process their financial aid, and clean it up later.”

“Many of them had lost everything, and certainly all had suffered to some degree,” said Louise Burney, vice president for finance at Millsaps. “To a person, they were cheerful, grateful to be here, and very appreciative of our help. We never heard them grumble about their plight, however bad. They just came to make the best of a bad situation. And they were very persistent in making sure that all processes had been completed.”

The fact that financial aid had often already been channeled to the students’ home institutions for the semester only complicated matters. But the College did not pressure the students for payments and gave them until the end of the semester to pay off their balances. “We were extremely lenient,” James said. “We were basically lenient on everybody’s payment for the fall semester—everybody who could have been affected by the hurricane.”

The school took advantage of a $100,000 Mellon Foundation grant to help cover the tuition. “We also covered a lot of students with the Joe B. Love Memorial Loan Fund, an institutional loan, and used the Mellon Foundation money to pay those loans off,” James said.

Meanwhile, Hunt said she didn’t think she would be moving back to New Orleans anytime soon. “I’ve been back there,” she said, and paused, shaking her head. “It was so dead. It was really sad to see it that way.”

—John Webb

Dr. Charles Lewis, vice president for Institutional Advancement, on a system matching volunteers with the Red Cross.

Creating a Database To Match Volunteers With the Red Cross With so many evacuees coming to shelters in the Jackson area in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, locating them had become chaotic. Workers could track them only manually, fumbling through hundreds of handwritten cards. So volunteers Thad and Sandra McLaurin devised a plan that would expedite this system.

They contacted Millsaps officials for permission to use the computer lab in Sullivan-Harrell to input data. “We had many people who were trying to find family members and friends who had been evacuated to the Jackson area,” said Sandra McLaurin, a former executive-in-residence at the Else School of Management. “No method was in place to determine which of the 10 or so shelters had received these evacuees.”

So the McLaurins got busy. Sandra McLaurin knew the resources that were available at Millsaps—specifically, the numerous computer systems located in labs across campus. And with the help of staff members and students, a database containing the names and addresses of all

evacuees to the Jackson area from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast was created.

Next, workers created additional databases listing all 911 calls made to the area and all volunteers who were working in locations ranging from Richland to Ridgeland.

When classes were resumed after Katrina, Dr. Don Schwartz, chair of the computer science department, created a service-learning course in advanced database. “Students designed and implemented a web-based application for organizing and managing the information about the volunteers,” Schwartz said.

“Through this system, volunteers could register, list their skills, and specify those time periods during which they could work.” This allowed volunteers’ skills to be matched with Red Cross needs.

“Initially, the most critical task was to create a template for volunteers to follow that allowed input of all the information,” said Jeanne Bodron, coordinator of user services for the Department of Computer Services. “We entered the names of hundreds of missing persons, coding the state of each person’s health. This information was uploaded to the Coast Guard secure web area, which initiated the organization for search and rescue efforts.”

Kristen Kinsella, B.S. 2005, the wife of Head Softball Coach Joe Kinsella, logged

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several hours a day at the computer lab, alphabetizing shelter data and entering 911 calls for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. Senior Adam Huffman of Philadelphia, Mississippi, and junior Andrew Harris of Hattiesburg worked diligently with Bodron and Raymond Heatherly, B.S. 2004, M.B.A. 2005, of Jackson, student computing manager, to launch the project. More than 3,000 names had been entered by September 5.

“We are so grateful to President Frances Lucas, the staff, and students of Millsaps for making this possible,” said Thad McLaurin, who serves on the Red Cross Board of Trustees. “On behalf of the Red Cross, we offer our sincere thanks.”

—Lisa Purdie, Jackie Rezk

Asbury Scholarships: $1 Million for South Mississippi Students Four years ago, The Asbury Foundation of Hattiesburg, Inc., made a significant commitment to scholarships at Millsaps College. The $1 million gift, the foundation’s largest gift to a private college or university, began contributing to scholarships in fall 2003 for Millsaps students from the seven Mississippi counties served by the Asbury Foundation—Forrest, Lamar, Jones, Marion, Covington, Perry, and Jefferson Davis.

“We have a high regard for the national rankings and academic standards of Millsaps College,” said Asbury Foundation President Bill Ray at the August 2002 press conference announcing the gift. “We thought that some of the students from our area who are academically skilled enough to be admitted to the school might be prevented from attending for financial reasons, and we wanted to remove that obstacle.”

The Asbury Foundation, created in 1984, is a private grant-making organization serving Hattiesburg and

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the surrounding region. The foundation provides financial resources and assistance in developing healthy communities and improving the physical, mental, and spiritual health of south Mississippians.

“Millsaps is very grateful for our partnership with the Asbury Foundation,” said Dr. Frances Lucas, president of Millsaps College. “Because of their generosity we are able to attract those south Mississippi students who will flourish and excel at Millsaps in ways that would likely not occur in other academic environments.”

With the completion of the fouryear pledge, Lucas recognized the Asbury

Founders Day 2006 The Asbury Foundation of Hattiesburg was honored in February on Founders Day as the latest addition to the Founders Society. Founders Day recognizes individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to the College. The luncheon featured remarks from Jeff Good, B.B.A.1986, and a keynote speech by the Reverend Luther Ott, B.A. 1971. Pictured are, from left Bill Ray, president and CEO of The Asbury Foundation, Dorris Miller, Asbury board member, and Millsaps President Frances Lucas.

Foundation at the 2006 Founders Day celebration, unveiling Asbury’s plaque on the north wall of the Millsaps bell tower.

The foundation joins a select group of individuals and foundations with a lifetime gift to Millsaps of $1 million or more.

Last year, the foundation established an additional scholarship fund in memory of Richard Foxworth, B.S. 1956, a muchbeloved alumnus and longtime member of the board of the Asbury Foundation.

“Increased scholarship funding is a high priority for us,” said Dr. Charles Lewis, vice president for institutional advancement. “This gift is already making a difference in the lives of our current students, and it will have a profound influence on the lives of students for generations to come.”

Lucas added, “Because of the generosity of donors like the Asbury Foundation, we can encourage Mississippi’s finest students to remain in our state, and we can continue to attract students who will benefit from a Millsaps education.”

—Nancy Seepe

The Right Formula: Telling the Story Of Millsaps Sciences Once upon a time, there were three chemistry professors at Millsaps College who taught together during the turbulent 1960s, the groovy ’70s, and the explosive ’80s, and they didn’t retire until the new millennium. Colleagues Drs. Gene Cain, Al Berry, and Al Bishop were instrumental in shaping the current chemistry program, and remained friends until Bishop’s death in 2003.

In 2004, Cain and Berry, along with Bishop’s widow, Julia Bishop, B.S. 1962, a retired preschool director, began discussing ways to honor Dr. Bishop, as well as to chronicle the events in the development of the chemistry department.

“We needed to tell the story,” said Julia Bishop, “These three men made a big

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impact on the College, as did the others before them. We wanted to get all the facts and somehow display them in a way that would give people a sense of how the department developed over the years.”

Franklin W. Olin Hall, built in 1988, houses the biology and chemistry departments and is located on the north side of the Bowl in the center of campus.

The atrium in Olin Hall is a corridor from the north parking area to the center of campus and often serves as a “front door” for visiting student groups, parents, and other campus visitors. The discussion about a location for the project thus turned toward the atrium.

“With this project being in a shared space, it seemed natural to make it a project of both biology and chemistry,” said Dr. Richard A. Smith, senior vice president and dean of the College. “Presenting our heritage is an important initiative for the whole of Millsaps College.”

The joint committee has met many times over the past year to discuss how to move forward with the project, which will be the first of many heritage projects across campus. Jeanne Luckett, B.A. 1966, a coowner of Communication Arts, will work with her staff to design the display from the committee’s suggestions.

“The sciences at Millsaps date back to the origins of the College,” noted Dr. George Bey, dean of sciences at the College, “and the programs have been shaped by worldwide events and discoveries, as well as by the professors themselves. It is exciting to tell their stories.”

Fund-raising efforts for the project will begin this summer. For information on the Heritage Project for the Sciences, please call Nancy Seepe in the Millsaps development office at 601-974-1454, or email her at seepenf@millsaps.edu.

—Nancy Seepe

Hardin Foundation Funds Faith & Work Outreach to Schools The Phil Hardin Foundation has awarded Millsaps College a grant of $575,000 to support the Millsaps College Faith & Work Initiative, specifically in the area of programs relating to K-12 education.

“The Hardin Foundation has a longstanding partnership with Millsaps,” said Dr. Frances Lucas, president of the College. “We are grateful for their investment, not only in our current programs, but also because their gift will be a catalyst that will encourage other foundations and individuals to invest in this life-changing initiative.”

The Phil Hardin Foundation was founded in 1964 by bakery businessman Phil Hardin with the purpose of “furthering generally the education of residents of the State of Mississippi, of providing financial assistance in the education of deserving individuals by loans or grants, and of providing financial assistance to . . . colleges or universities located in Mississippi.” The foundation began its relationship with Millsaps in the 1970s and has consistently supported its students and programs in keeping with Hardin’s vision.

The Millsaps College Faith & Work Initiative began in 2001 with a five-year grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. The opportunities offered by the initiative prepare the next generation of leaders to connect their deepest values, commitments, and hopes with their work as they aim toward lives of long-term service.

Recently, the Lilly Endowment provided an additional $338,000 to be matched one-to-one by additional gifts to provide operating support to the Faith & Work Initiative through the 2009 calendar year.

During this period, the College is seeking to raise $4 million in endowments to sustain the program in perpetuity.

The recent grant from the Hardin Foundation provides a gift of $75,000 in matching monies to assist in underwriting the Faith & Work Initiative through the 2009 calendar year, as well as a $500,000 endowment to be used for ongoing projects.

They include the service learning courses and the Lilly student internship and student fellows programs.

Designed and implemented by faculty members to involve Millsaps students in K-12 education through their academic courses, the service learning courses render a valued service to local nonprofit agencies while advancing the academic aims of the course, helping students connect theory to practice. For example, Millsaps marketing students might develop a public relations campaign for the Jackson Zoo, or students in a math course might partner with Operation Shoestring to tutor students in their after-school programs.

The Lilly internship and fellows programs help students explore their vocations while considering how they might use their future work in the world to support the common good, including K-12 education and the community infrastructure necessary to support it.

Graduates of this program will have spent significant amounts of time and energy cultivating a commitment to the common good, while acquiring the leadership skills necessary to take that commitment into their future professions and communities.

“Thanks to the support of the Hardin Foundation we can offer our students a way to prepare not merely for a job or career, but for lives of long-term meaning and service to others,” said Dr. Darby Ray,

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director of the Faith & Work Initiative.

“In the face of the mounting pressures of a fast-paced and constantly changing global economy, these young people are pausing to reflect on their callings in life.

In addition, they are exploring ways of connecting that calling to the common good, to the world’s needs.”

—Nancy Seepe

‘Curb Appeal’: Hey, We Sure Do Clean Up Well The term was once associated mainly with real estate professionals. It is now familiar language at churches, colleges, and even fraternity houses. Curb appeal, that quality of property that creates a positive first impression, is used to describe colleges and universities across the nation. The reason: The impression created by the environment on a college campus plays a critical role in student recruitment.

Members of the Millsaps community recently considered the College’s curb appeal. They realized that, along with

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majors, scholarships and aid, and distinctive programs, curb appeal was a deciding factor for many college-bound students. In fact, in a recent College Planning & Management article, Ellen Kollie noted that the decision to attend a college is made within the first 15 minutes of a student’s visit.

Millsaps College trustees identified areas where immediate enhancements would help maximize that 15-minute window of opportunity. At its October 2005 meeting, the Board of Trustees voted to allocate $1 million toward College enhancements, including augmenting faculty positions and providing faculty support, improving campus landscaping and beautification, enhancing selected residence halls and academic facilities, renovating offices key to student recruitment, and supplementing efforts that support recruitment and fund raising.

“After a morning discussing needs to be met, several trustees spontaneously spoke up about what we could do immediately to demonstrate both our commitment to long-range goals and our faith in Millsaps today,” said Maurice Hall, chairman of the Millsaps College Board of Trustees. “When one trustee raised the question of what could be done with $1 million, ideas flew from every corner of the room. We quickly realized that we

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needed guidance from faculty and staff to see that our exuberance was channeled properly. What is happening now is the result of several weeks of intense planning by the administration.”

At the core of the initiative is a vision for interpersonal spaces that resonate in the hearts and minds of the student body.

“Our intent was to expand the beauty of the Bowl with the ultimate vision for every single foot of the Millsaps College campus to be appealing and attractive,” said Dr. Frances Lucas, president. “Most importantly, we are trying to design sacred spaces for the creation of lifelong relationships and for growing the seeds of lifelong learning.”

Nearly one-third of the fund was allocated to support academic endeavors.

Two additional faculty positions will be filled for the 2006–07 academic year, and two others are expected to be filled the following year. Funds will allow for faculty replacements during tenured faculty sabbaticals and provide for teaching and learning faculty-development initiatives.

Eight classrooms were renovated during winter break using these funds and monies from the Division of Academic Affairs, which will also supply new furniture for several of the renovated classrooms.

The academic affairs budget also will provide new video projectors, wireless

connections to many video projectors, additional Internet connections, and two “smart” classrooms. Smart classrooms are wireless environments that allow for videoconferencing, live broadcasting, and student/faculty interaction from multiple locations.

The remaining funds from the trusteeallocated monies are going toward campus enhancements and efforts to shore up student recruitment and fund-raising resources, including website redesign, an initiative vital to student recruitment and satisfaction. The Student Body Association funded additional campus enhancement projects, including a new gazebo, benches, and a landscaped sitting area.

In the tradition of campusenhancement initiatives nationwide, improvements are guided by both a strategic plan and a master plan. “The enhancements chosen were in areas previously identified as needing attention,” said Todd Rose, vice president of campus services. “The allocation by the trustees authorized President Lucas to make these expenditures at this time on projects that were within our existing plans. For instance, new signage at Riverside Drive and Park Avenue entrances will make identifying campus entrances simpler for all visitors, including the many guests who come to campus for special events.”

The redesign of the Franklin and Bacot lobbies will make the areas more appealing for prospective students, but will be enjoyed by the entire campus community since lobbies often serve as a venue for student meetings, study groups, and informal gatherings. The creation of “model rooms” in freshman residence halls gives prospective students ideas of what they could do with their rooms after becoming a Millsaps student.

“By creating an exciting and colorful designer concept in each model room, we ignite our prospective students’ imaginations of what a residence hall room might look like with intentionality and inspiration,” said Brit Katz, vice president for student life and dean of students. “It’s

very important for residential students to enliven their personal living-learning space so that they heighten their appreciation for college.”

While colleges hope students will make decisions based on where they fit best academically and socially, the deciding moment for students is often determined by a feeling rather than a calculated choice.

“While we strongly desire for prospective students to realize the true nature of Millsaps College and to be able to picture themselves as part of our community, achieving this understanding is quite a challenge for a student who may spend a short time on our campus and may be visiting numerous campuses in his or her college search,” said Mathew Cox, dean of enrollment management. “So it is vital that we remove any hindrances that could discourage a student during the campus visit. The visual impact of the campus on the student and family is paramount to helping the student make an assessment of the campus community.”

“While we may wish it were otherwise, perception is reality when a first impression may be the only thing remembered from a short visit by prospective students,” Hall said. “Curb appeal is also important to alumni and friends. Donors want to support colleges with bright futures, and campus appearance is vital to establishing both aesthetic and emotional appeal.”

—Patti Wade

Mississippi College Establishes Millsaps Law Scholarship The Mississippi College School of Law has established an annual full-tuition scholarship for the Millsaps College student deemed most qualified by the Mississippi College admissions committee.

The Millsaps Law Scholarship will be awarded this year and renewed for the three years of law study, provided academic and character standards are met. A modest stipend will accompany the $60,000 value of the scholarship. The committee will use the “whole person” concept to determine the best qualified applicant and will also help the scholarship recipient with finding professional opportunities during law school.

“I am excited about the opportunity this scholarship provides and know that it will generate interest at your school,” said Jim Rosenblatt, dean of the Mississippi College School of Law. “We are not limited to this one scholarship but may award additional scholarships for full or partial tuition, depending on the strength of the applicants. However, we guarantee that we will award at least one full-tuition scholarship each year to a student of Millsaps College.”

Dr. Frances Lucas, president of Millsaps College, said she was thrilled that Millsaps students could qualify for the Mississippi

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College scholarship. “We are truly grateful that our students can take advantage of this very generous offer from the Mississippi College School of Law,” Lucas said.

Oghale Ighoavodha, a sophomore and president of the Phi Alpha Delta Pre-Law Society, said: “The scholarship is great.

Going to law school for free is almost unheard of.”

Mississippi College is interested in receiving exceptional applications, Ighoavodha said. In addition to the applicant’s cumulative grade point average and LSAT score, letters of recommendation from undergraduate faculty, leadership positions held, and involvement in community service will also be considered.

—Jesse Yancy

Enrichment Series A Tradition of Lifelong Learning Since 1972 Millsaps College recognizes that learning is a lifelong process, an idea reflected most clearly in its Community Enrichment Series, which registered a record-breaking number of participants (more than 700) this spring in a broad range of classes.

The Millsaps College Community Enrichment Series has been in existence since 1972 and continues to be the largest program of its kind in the Jackson metropolitan area. The program offers noncredit courses, which have no

Matter of the Utmost Gravity Jon Ferris of Tulsa, Oklahoma, donated his father’s Worden Gravity Meter to the Millsaps Department of Geology in December to honor Daniel Finnefrock, B.S. 1976, for his distinguished career in petroleum geology.

Ferris said the gift, which included a geometrics proton procession magnetometer, not only honors Finnefrock but also allows the legacy of his father, Craig Ferris, and his 67-year career in geophysics “to continue through the Department of Geology at Millsaps College.” Gravity meters provide information on the density of underlying rock and are used for geological studies and oil and mineral exploration. “These instruments will be excellent teaching platforms,” Ferris said.

—JesseYancy

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prerequisites and no examinations and cover a variety of special-interest areas, such as arts and crafts, computers, health and fitness, home and garden, language and literature, money and business, music, and personal development. Enrichment courses are available in the fall, winter, and spring, and enrollment, as well as the variety of offerings, is growing.

“When I came here in 1995, the

relevancy, sometimes we will check with a faculty member who is knowledgeable in the area.”

The classes range in cost from $50 to $150, and they attract a wide range of participants. “Our learners are widely diverse,” Gibson said. “We have a lot of college students who take these classes, as well as older people.”

Wanda Manor, administrative assistant

Janice Jordan’s Belly Dance for Fitness class has been part of the Millsaps Community Enrichment Series for five years.

enrichment program was still held three times a year, as it is now, but there were only 30 or 40 classes,” said Dr. Nola Gibson, director of enrichment and special projects. “Now we have around 80.”

Gibson said that determining what sort of classes to offer is a challenge. “We attend national and international seminars on continuing education, and we get ideas there. If we read about trends, we try to find an instructor to teach them. We’re also often approached by people who have something they want to teach, and we try to determine if there’s going to be an audience. If there’s a question as to its

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for enrichment, said: “The Veterans Administration has actually paid for a couple of people to take classes by way of helping them get back into the workforce.

The post office paid for some, and we have had some rehabilitation facilities sponsor students.”

“Also, some companies will pay for their employees to take courses, as is the case with the grant-writing courses,” Gibson said.

“Wine tasting and belly dancing fill up almost every time,” Manor said, “along with t’ai chi, yoga, photography, and art classes.”

“There aren’t really any similar programs in the area,” Gibson said. “Other colleges might offer a few test prep and computer classes. It’s almost unheard of for a small college such as we are to offer such a large variety of courses.”

“Area cultural centers might offer enrichment-type classes,” Manor said. “But a lot of their classes are held during the day, whereas ours are at night. We get students from as far away as Belzoni, Kosciusko, and D’Lo, and we get a lot of people from Vicksburg.”

Janice Jordan, administrative assistant for the Core Curriculum and Writing Program, has taught Belly Dance for Fitness for five years. “Of course the dance class offers an excellent workout for both the students and for me, but it has become, for me anyway, more than dance and exercise; it’s an opportunity to share some of my own personal philosophies of health and wellness,” she said.

“The Community Enrichment Series is an amazing outreach of the College to the Greater Jackson community,” said Janet Langley, director of academic support services at Millsaps College. “The choices offered with each session always include fascinating new topics, along with the favorites our students ask for again and again. At Millsaps, we believe that learning is fun and keeps our minds and bodies young. We are committed to the concept that education is a lifelong pursuit; it should not end with a diploma or degree or at any age in life.”

For more information on the Community Enrichment Series, please contact Wanda Manor at 601-974-1130 or manorwl@millsaps.edu. —Jesse Yancy

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For Family Weekend, A Spring Revival Family Weekend has been a fall tradition at Millsaps for at least 45 years, giving parents a chance to return to campus after classes have started to visit with students in a casual setting and enjoy some of the activities in the Jackson area. The weekend also affords a chance to meet faculty, other parents, and friends of their sons and daughters.

For the past two years, the weekend has been a washout, with torrential rains spoiling outdoor plans in 2004 and the effects of Hurricane Katrina, whose refugees filled all Jackson hotel rooms, leading the College to cancel the weekend in 2005.

So a different schedule was created for 2006—Family Weekend in the spring. Parents were invited to participate in a variety of events, including sorority- and fraternitysponsored activities that benefited charities. A dinner and silent auction for the Family Support Center of Jackson opened the weekend, followed by a 3k walk/run Saturday morning benefiting the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Proceeds from a chili cook-off in the Bowl went to help the LifeShare Foundation.

As Stuart and Jeanne Smolkin of New Orleans toured the Nicholson Garden during Family Weekend, grounds supervisor Danny Neely explained landscape plans for the campus. The Smolkins were here to see their son David, a sophomore.

The Millsaps gardens were featured, with tours led by College grounds supervisor Danny Neely, and this year the senior class received special attention with a lighthearted runthrough of Commencement called “Walk This Way,” designed to help parents know what to expect at graduation. Another highlight of the weekend was the concert at Thalia Mara Hall in downtown Jackson with the combined choirs of The Millsaps Singers and the Mississippi College Chorale

performing Poulenc’s Gloria with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra.

On-campus sessions included “Brunch with the Deans” in the Kava House, with a conversation between Richard A. Smith, senior vice president and dean of the College, and Brit Katz, dean of student life. Dr. Darby Ray, director of the Faith & Work Initiative, was teamed with Tonya Craft from the Career Center to present a session on “Building Lives and Careers.”

Jackson-area activities included visiting the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and tours of the Mississippi Museum of Art’s exhibit of works by Georgia O’Keeffe.

Plans are to schedule next year’s weekend, if it continues in the spring, to coincide with a baseball game on campus.

If Family Weekend is permanently changed to the spring, parents could still enjoy a fall weekend with students.

Parents will have an opportunity to voice their opinions on the Family Weekend schedule before next year’s event is scheduled.

—Kay Barksdale Sampling the fare at the annual Chili Bowl, a charity fund raiser held in conjunction with Family Weekend.

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OnCampus

From left, Ace Madjlesi, Jacqueline Coale, Andrea Dewey, and Candice Fisher in The Players’ production of The Cover of LIFE.

“The heart of this piece examines a woman’s ‘place’ in this and other situations.

I was fascinated that a ‘war play’ was not about men and their battles, but about women and the battles they were left to fight.”

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The Cover of LIFE: Battling It Out On the Home Front When director Anne Sullivan decided to take a minimalist approach to The Millsaps Players’ February production of The Cover of LIFE, she didn’t know that her own life was about to take a turn for the minimal, as well. But after a fire gutted her house and destroyed almost everything she owned, Sullivan and her husband, Virgil Brawley, a Jackson blues musician, had to start over with almost nothing.

What material possessions did remain of Sullivan’s former life were the balsa model for the set of The Cover of LIFE (designed by Associate Theatre Professor Brent Lefavor), the script, and her notes— which she had left safely in her car during the blaze. “Two days after the fire, we had gotten in this little apartment that was very empty, with stark white walls and very little furniture,” said Sullivan, director of the Magnolia Speech School for hearingimpaired children. “I sat down at the table

and got the set model that Brent had made for me, along with the script, because they were almost the only things I had left.”

Still in shock from the fire, she began poring over the model, trying to work out how she could best block the play using the space Lefavor had designed. “Virgil walked in and looked at me, and you could see the relief flood over him,” Sullivan said. “‘That’s the first normal sight I’ve seen in two days!’ he said. It was a very healing thing for both of us that I still had this.”

Written by R. T. Robinson, The Cover of LIFE follows the lives of four rural Louisiana women during World War II. Three young wives are living in the home of their husbands’ mother and anxiously waiting for the men to return. The family’s situation is chronicled in the local press and then picked up by a New York reporter for LIFE magazine, who moves in with the women to write their story. Eventually all these women, including the reporter, make startling discoveries about themselves, their families, and what they want for their lives.

And what proved to be a cathartic exercise for Sullivan, a creative distraction during her own family crisis, was a play that she hoped would also be cathartic for audiences grappling with the reality of the current war and its effects on those left behind by family and friends serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sullivan, a frequent Millsaps guest director whose last production was The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail in 2004, said that she felt the play was extraordinarily relevant to our times. “I think the one thing about this play that screamed at me was the fact that we have so many families right now who are so uncertain about their loved ones who are in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places,” she said. “It’s a universal experience when they go away and their lives are threatened every day. I think that a family has to face similar things no matter what era it is or what war it is.”

“Usually, when we think about war we think about the men on the front lines,” said technical director Lefavor, who worked with designer Jimmy Robertson on the

set. “We don’t think about the families and what they’re going through. For instance, I can’t imagine what it was like when they announced here recently that the boys were coming home, and then it was delayed another six weeks. That has to be devastating, with the body count rising all the time. All their families can do is to sit back and hope, pray, and trust that their loved ones are coming home.”

Sullivan said that a Discovery Channel documentary she had seen about a family waiting for the father to come home from Iraq was on her mind as she read the script.

“It’s so easy for those of us who aren’t directly involved to go about our daily lives and not understand what impact something like this has on so many children, spouses, and parents—not to mention the families whose loved ones don’t come home,” she said. “I wanted the audience to enjoy the story, but I also wanted them to tune in to the state of things now.”

“It can be easy to forget the hardships undergone by those who love those who fight,” said cast member Trace Lee Hunt, a junior from Walnut, Mississippi. “Whether someone supports the war or not, the hardships that are placed on those who don’t know if they will see their loved ones again is undeniable,” Hunt said. “The

Meagan Malone as the reporter for LIFE magazine.

mental anguish of the wives in this play is a model of what a war can do to a family.

Those who travel overseas to fight for this country often have a battle waiting for them when they return, as well; a battle to get their lives back to normal.”

Hunt, who like Sullivan has small-town Southern roots, said he felt a powerful sense of connectedness to The Cover of LIFE, which is set in a rural Louisiana town. “I loved the feeling in the air when

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we rehearsed,” he said. “It was often like I was back home.”

At its center, the play is about what it means to be a woman on the home front in wartime, Sullivan said. “There are things that are always true about small towns, about family relationships, and certainly about separation—all of these are addressed in this story,” she said. “The doubt, the uncertainty, and the fear that drives these characters helps us understand what they are going through. But the heart of this piece examines a woman’s ‘place’ in this and other situations. I was fascinated that a ‘war play’ was not about men and their battles, but about women and the battles they were left to fight.”

“The script really makes the audience think about women’s roles and treatment in society,” said Andrea Dewey, a junior who played one of the war brides: “Have they changed that much in the past 50 years?”

“I’ve always admired the quality of Millsaps’ theatre productions, but as a female actor it has been difficult finding roles other than the stereotypical girlfriend, prostitute, or daughter roles,” said Lauren Bardwell, a senior. “But in The Cover of LIFE, I think we had very strong—and very colorful—female characters who embody all aspects, both good and bad, of what it means to be a woman.

“As for our guest director Anne Sullivan, this is my second time to work with such a fantastic director, whom all actors would dream of working with. She knows exactly what she wants from the play and can convey it clearly, but at the same time she gives us actors a world of freedom in developing our own character analysis. Rehearsals with Anne are always a wonderful experience.”

The Cover of LIFE was not about theatrics but content. To that end, Sullivan, who sees her role not only as a director, but also as a teacher, gave outside reading assignments to her cast. She wanted them to deeply understand the material and the craft of acting. She also said the set was designed to be a suggestive, rather than literal backdrop to the cinematic and

From left, Ace Madjlesi, Lauren Bardwell, Andrea Dewey, and Jacqueline Coale, as the war brides salute the cause.

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The 2006–07 Season (final dates to be announced)

Angela Cheng, piano The Fischer Duo, cello and piano John Salmon, piano (classical/ jazz) The Wideman Competition Gold Medalist

very verbal script. “I think the acting and the story carry it,” Sullivan said. “It’s that kind of play. My real goal was to have the audience hear these women. I wanted this to be heard. I think that it’s all about the words. I tell my actors that.”

And in those words are the political and social ramifications that made The Cover of LIFE yet another example of the College’s efforts to tie theatre productions into Core courses, just as Metamorphoses, directed last season by Sam Sparks, tapped themes in the Heritage, Classics, and English curricula.

“The theatre department is constantly trying to take an interdisciplinary approach,” Lefavor said. “In that vein, I would like to do Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, which could tie into history courses taught by Dr. Robert McElvaine.”

The Cover of LIFE was followed in March by The FlatteringWord, by George Kelly, a senior directing project by Steven Richardson and in April by Peter Zapletal’s puppet production of The Golem, a Jewish folk tale adapted by the writer Edward Cohen, a Jackson native.

—John Webb

Opening Credits: New Concentration Focuses on Film

www.millsaps.edu/pfrmarts/bell4.shtml

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The culture of cinema was alive and well at Millsaps this spring, with the burgeoning film studies concentration marking a successful one-year birthday and the landmark Southern Circuit Film Series continuing to regularly present its unique combination of film and filmmaker to the College community. Both have contributed greatly to the skyrocketing interest in films on campus in recent months.

Perhaps that appreciation is most evident in the new film studies concentration, which has concluded an encouraging first year. The academic curriculum, which falls under the purview of the English department, is already close

to graduating two upperclassmen from the field, while freshmen are crowding in to begin the course of study. In addition, the Millsaps-Wilson Library’s recent acquisition of a film production kit provides everything an aspiring filmmaker on campus needs to create a movie. Several students have already completed production on short films using the campus equipment.

Currently, the concentration requires five film-related classes, including Film History or Philosophy of Film. However, there are other diverse classes such as Shakespeare and the Play of Genre, America Since 1970, and Anthropological Filmmaking that make up course options for film studies. Screenwriting is also offered in the directed study program, for students sufficiently inspired to pursue a special course of study in the writing aspect of cinema.

“I think with the film teachers we have here, who really know the medium, in the next five years film studies could easily become a major,” says Dylan Chatterjee, a senior pursuing the concentration.

“It will need more resources, hopefully from alumni, for higher-format editing suites, better cameras, and generally nicer equipment. But assuming we can get that kind of equipment, and that kind of economic support, it could blossom into a well-established major.”

The Southern Circuit series also had a highly successful year, with popular presentations of everything from animations to shorts to documentaries. The South Carolina Arts Commission explains on its website that it hosts the Southern Circuit as an “opportunity for filmmakers to travel throughout the Southeast with their works and screen them to new audiences,” including Millsaps. The College shares the circuit with such schools as Clemson University and Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, and cities like Columbia, South Carolina, and Montgomery, Alabama.

However, Millsaps is the only venue in Mississippi where this eclectic mix of films can be seen.

Dr. Holly Sypniewski of the classics

Junior Chris Spear, an intern for Millsaps Magazine, is minoring in the College’s fledgling film studies concentration.

department takes charge of the Southern Circuit’s involvement with Millsaps. She emphasizes how the unique interactive qualities of the Southern Circuit series make it far more than the ordinary filmgoing experience. “The filmmaker travels with his or her film,” Sypniewski explains.

“So it’s not just a chance to see a film, but to talk to the filmmaker and learn about the creative process involved in making it.” Essentially, those in the audience can ask the film’s creator about anything from production design to screenplay ideas at the showing, rather than watching the movie in silence and leaving the cinema with unfulfilled curiosity.

The life of a Southern Circuit film begins with an open call for submissions, including advertisements in film magazines and newspapers. After the candidate films are collected and the South Carolina arts organization makes a preliminary cut based on production quality, the assembled representatives of each venue throughout the Southeast sit down and watch 10-minute excerpts of the remaining submissions. Each representative has one vote for each excerpt: to keep or discard the film, with a majority vote by the delegates keeping a film as a viable option for the series. Eventually, the pool of candidate films is whittled down to

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the final seven: six circuit films and an alternate, in case a film or filmmaker is unable to complete the tour.

Some Southern Circuit films have taken on new dimensions through their association with the program. Sypniewski points out the example of The American Astronaut, a film by writer/director Cory McAbee that made its Jackson debut as part of the series at Millsaps. The film found such a receptive home in the city that McAbee returned for the Crossroads Film Festival later that year and eventually performed with his band at the Crossroads awards ceremony. Astronaut, Sypniewski says, is a good example of how the film events of Millsaps contribute to the cinematic culture of Jackson as a whole.

Francesca Talenti, an animator and filmmaker who displayed her animated shorts as part of the series’ offerings at Millsaps in February, has enjoyed her time on the Southern Circuit. “It was good to have an audience, and be able to hear them react,” Talenti says. “With the film series, I’ve been able to meet people I never would’ve met.”

—Chris Spear

Lost World: Giving Visibility To What May Disappear Michelle Acuff ’s “Making the Mountain” (2005), in wood, measuring seven-by-eight-by-two and a half feet, was part of a faculty show this winter at the Lewis Gallery. Acuff, visiting assistant professor of art, and Sandra Murchison, associate professor of art, share a vision: the cultivation of a deep sense of attachment to a place and its people that can happen only over time. Both artists strive to make visible that which is at risk of becoming lost, that which may bind society together. Acuff, as a sculptor, installation artist, and video maker, discovers the meaning of matter and image and the relationship between the two. Murchison, as printmaker, painter, and fiber artist, deals with imagery referring to the origin, condition, and memory of a place and its community.

—Jesse Yancy

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FacultyStaff & For Joe Lee Gibson, A Millsaps Thank You For a Job Well Done Joe Lee Gibson, 84, has been known as a legend on the Millsaps College campus, providing consistent, positive words of encouragement and an example of a tireless spirit and work ethic.

According to Todd Rose, vice president for campus services: “Joe Lee represents what Millsaps is all about.”

And so it was with a spirit of thankfulness for a job well done that Gibson’s retirement party was held in November in the Lindsey Suite of the Campbell College Center. Friends and members of the Millsaps community packed the room, shaking hands with Gibson, who was profiled in the summer 2004 edition of Millsaps Magazine, and reminiscing about the past. All came out to pay homage to a man who leaves with 69 years of service—and a gold Millsaps watch.

Danny Neely, grounds supervisor for the College, said: “It’s amazing. I run into Joe Lee Gibson with his wife, “Miss Grace,” at his retirement party in the Lindsey Suite. alumni all the time, and the first thing they ask is, ‘How’s Mr. Joe? Is he still at Millsaps?’

Joe Lee Gibson loves Millsaps. He has seen more changes on this campus than any other person ever will.”

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The refreshments, anchored by a strawberry-filled butter crème cake, offered a spread fit for the man who had served the Millsaps community since June 1, 1936, the day he began working in the physical plant.

Gibson, fondly known as “Mr. Joe,” was born in Jackson on June 20, 1922.

He retired from the College effective October 2006 for health reasons. “It had just gotten to be a struggle for him to do what he loved to do,” Neely said. “He will be greatly missed by those who had the opportunity to get to know him.”

—Lisa Purdie

Online Latin Course A Virtual Excursion To Ancient Rome Ovid surfed the web. Virgil made a bundle in dot-com stock before the crash. Plutarch was the first blogger.

Just kidding. But, thanks to a new interinstitutional Latin course offered by the Millsaps Department of Classical Studies, ancient Rome and modern digital technology aren’t as far apart as you might think.

The course, Neronian Literature, is taught as part of a collaborative technology initiative in partnership with classics departments from 12 other Southern liberal arts colleges, including Rhodes College, Trinity College, the University of the South, and other members of the Associated Colleges of the South. The program, called Sunoikisis, is funded by a grant from the Mellon Foundation. Its stated goal is “to build a digital infrastructure that would support a wide range of collaborative efforts,” thereby creating a “virtual department of classics.”

The Sunoikisis program combines distance learning with the aggregate expertise of a dozen institutions. Students “attend” lectures in the computer lab, with streaming audio and a scrolling onscreen

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“chat” window bringing together students and teachers from far-flung locations. The chat window enables students to interact with the lecturer and one another.

“The Internet allows us and other small classics departments to pool and leverage our resources,” says Dr. Holly Sypniewski, assistant professor of classical studies and the course’s instructor. “It’s more than ‘distance learning’ in that the technology actually enables us and our partner institutions to offer our students an experience that none of us could provide on our own.”

During one lecture, Professor David Sick from Rhodes College discusses the way death was treated by writers during the Neronian period. During the lecture a bell is heard declaring the top of the hour on the Rhodes campus; students from other schools hastily type silly jokes about the bell’s tolling, and for whom, in the chat window.

Later, images of an ancient Roman tombstone are posted on the class web page; students are given a few minutes to translate the marker’s inscription, while the 1970s chestnut “Seasons in the Sun” plays in the background. The correct response: “Don’t commit sacrilege on my tomb.”

Students can later access the lecture recording and chat log (a text file with

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Senior Matthew Vieron and freshman Emily Gilbert linking to antiquity—as well as classics departments at other colleges.

all the comments made by students), as well as other supporting materials, via the course website. Students are also expected to critique one another’s work. Professors from the partner institutions lecture in rotation.

“All the instructors get together twice a year to determine the syllabus and other details of the class,” says Sypniewski. “It’s a much broader experience than our students could otherwise get on their own. They get to hear from leading experts in their respective fields of study. Our students have

really grown as thinkers and readers of Latin literature.”

Sypniewski says that the course also has benefits beyond the world of Nero and Caesar. “Students get great technological experience that is very useful for future careers,” she says. “The use of technology to communicate at a distance is very important, whether on Wall Street or in the academic sphere.”

For more about the Sunoikisis program, visit www.sunoikisis.org.

—Scott Alber t Johnson

Quality Service (With a Smile) Millsaps College announced the winners of the Harrylyn G. Sallis Award for Quality Service for 2005 at the President’s Christmas Party. Pictured at left with President Frances Lucas is this year’s winner for individual excellence, Kathie Adams, assistant coordinator of records. The award for excellence by a department went to the staff of the Department of Food Services, headed by Olivia White-Lowe, director (right). The Sallis Awards, named in honor of Dr. Harrylyn G. Sallis, dean emerita of adult learning and a strong proponent of the Millsaps College quality-service initiative, are given to staff members and departments in recognition of their outstanding service in and outside the Millsaps College community.

—Jesse Yancy

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C A M P U S

C O M M U N I T Y

FacultyStaff & Arts and Letters Cheryl Coker (performing arts) presented

her Millsaps Faculty Recital last fall, which was recorded by Mississippi Public Broadcasting and played during the Mississippi Concert Hour on Monday, Jan. 9. Since MPB rarely plays solo vocal recitals, the broadcast was an honor. Coker was also soprano soloist for the Mississippi Chorus presentation of Haydn’s “Creation” last fall, performed with an orchestra.

Last October, Kathi Griffin (Writing Center) was a member of a panel on “Race, Region, Religion and Gender: Learning from Marginalizations on the Job” at the International Writing Centers Association conference in Minneapolis.

She published “Becoming Mindful of the Absent Professor: Teacher/Tutor Relations on a Small College Campus” in Purdue University’s Writing Lab Newsletter and “The Birth of the Mississippi Writing Center Association, 2000–2005” in Southern Discourse, a publication of the Southeastern Writing Center Association. In February, Griffin, along with Paula Garrett (Writing Program) and writing tutors Becky Lasoski, Anna Ellis, and Yale Murphy, presented “Suddenly Marginalized: Transfer and Adult Students Help Focus Issues for Peer Tutors,” in Chapel Hill at the Southeastern Writing Centers Association. In addition, the Millsaps College Writing Center hosted Writing Awareness Week, Feb. 20–24.

Patrick Hopkins (philosophy) presented a paper, “Who Will Hate Nanotechnology and Why?” at the 13th Foresight Conference on Advanced Nanotechnology in San Francisco last fall. He published the papers “Natural Law” and “Heterosexism” in the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, second edition, and “Transcending the Animal: How Transhumanism and Religion Are and Are Not Alike” in the Journal of Evolution and Technology.

Brent Lefavor (performing arts) has

continued serving New Stage Theatre as

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a guest set and lighting designer during Washington, D.C., and to finish research on the last year. His most recent work at New Nichols at the National Archives.

Stage was as lighting designer for the Peggy Whitman Prenshaw (English), the productions of Idols of the King, Shiloh Millsaps College Humanities Scholar-inRules and The Skin of Our Teeth and Residence, has been granted a Fulbrightset designer for this season’s opening Hays award for travel to China and Tibet in production, Noises Off. As in 2002, this summer 2006.

The travel is in conjunction summer Brent will be the production with a monthlong seminar, “Women, manager for Jackson’s USA International Family and Social Change in China,” Ballet Competition, in charge of scheduling coordinated by Rust College and Fordham rehearsals and outfitting sites for the 127 University.

Prenshaw will incorporate international dancers and their coaches. He aspects of the China study in a spring 2007 will also supervise site management for course, 19th- and 20th-Century American the International Dance School and the IBC Women Writers.

Teachers Workshop. Additionally, the flags, banners, and “Olympic torch” decorating Elise Smith (art) presented a paper on the city of Jackson and Thalia Mara Hall are “‘The more delicately constitutioned part of his responsibilities to the IBC. botanist’: Agnes Ibbetson, Anna Maria Hussey, and Early 19th-Century Field The book by Suzanne Marrs (English) Botany” in a session on “Science and the EudoraWelty, A Biography is one of the Arts, c.1700–1900” at the Southeastern Chicago Tribune’s “Best of 2005” books in College Art Conference in Little Rock, the nonfiction category and one of Amazon.

Ark., in October 2005. She also gave a talk com’s top 10 biographies of 2005. It is also entitled “Enclosed in the home-garden: a Booklist Editors’ Choice title for 2005 and British Women and the Cultivation of Virtue one of the “Top 10 Women’s History Books” in Children’s Literature of the Late 18th and selected by Booklist.

Early 19th Centuries” at the British Women Writers Conference in Gainesville, Fla., in Molly Signs McManus (library) published March 2006. Both papers come out of her “Web Accessibility: What Your Library Can work with Judith Page on a book project Do,” an article for the winter 2005 edition about women and the domestication of of Mississippi Libraries. nature in England, c.1750–1850.

Kristen Tegtmeier Oertel (history) Steve Smith (philosophy and religious published an article, “A Large-Hearted, studies) published Appeal and Attitude: Brave, Faithful Woman: Clarina Howard Nichols,” in the anthology John Brown Prospects for Ultimate Meaning with Indiana to Bob Dole: Movers and Shakers in Kansas University Press in December. Inspired in History (University Press Kansas). The book part by Millsaps Core studies, the book is available at the press’s website and on attempts to show how Millsaps’ individualAmazon.com. This semester she is working centered approach to determining ultimate on a full-length biography of Nichols meaningfulness was first created by tentatively entitled “A Strong-Minded Classical Age prophets and philosophers Woman: Clarina I. H. Nichols and the and then re-created by Kant and postPolitics of Motherhood.” Tegtmeier Oertel Kantian thinkers articulating supreme is also writing a review of a new work by appeal and sovereign attitude ideals. the historian Bruce Laurie called Beyond

Garrison: Antislavery and Social Reform

(Cambridge University Press 2004) for the journal CivilWar History. Later this spring she plans to attend the Organization of American Historians’ annual meeting in

Science

George Bey (sociology-anthropology) and Jennifer Sandlin have had an article accepted

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for publication in the Journal of Social Archaeology. The article is entitled “Trowels, trenches, and transformation: A case study of archaeologists learning a more critical practice of archaeology.” Sandlin, an assistant professor in the Department of Adult Education at Texas A&M, graduated from Millsaps in 1992 with a B.A. in English.

Stephen Black (psychology) was granted an

award by the National Science Foundation to attend Summer Research Institutes in Suicide Prevention at the University of Rochester Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide. He completed a second Ph.D. in clinical psychology in August 2005. He is currently on fellowship at the Veterans Affairs Health Care System in Palo Alto, Calif.

Michael Galaty (sociology-anthropology) presented a paper entitled “Archaeology and Conflict Resolution in Northern Albania: The Shala Valley Project and the Cross-Border Balkan Peace Park” at the 107th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Jan. 5–8, 2006.

In October, Bob Nevins (biology) and Kristy Stensaas (chemistry) attended the Associated Colleges of the South’s Reform of Introductory Science Courses for NonScience Majors Program Workshop at Furman University and presented “Once More into the Breach, Dear Friends,” a report on their ACS/Keck grant for a course for non-science majors. The program has morphed from Superscience into Human & Natural Disasters and How Things Work, an interdisciplinary, two-semester, four-department course. Millsaps is the only school presenting a two-semester interdisciplinary program.

Ming Tsui (sociology-anthropology)

received the Distinguished Service Award from the Alabama-Mississippi Sociological Association at the association’s 2006 annual conference at the University of Mississippi.

The award recognizes her many years of

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service and contributions to association governance and annual programs.

Orientation and Intention to Use Computers” for possible publication.

Whit Waide, B.A. 1996, (political science)

Staff

served as a judge in the regional rounds of the 2006 Philip Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, held at Ole Miss Law School in February. Winners advanced to Washington, D.C., for the World Championship, which draws student litigators from 500 law schools in 80 countries. The competition began in 1960 at Harvard Law School.

Else School of Management Ajay Aggarwal (management) has had two

journal acceptances. His paper “Pricing Analysis of Decision Analysis Software: Modeling and Artificial Intelligence Approaches” (with two co-authors) has been accepted for publication in the International Journal for Computer Applications in Technology. The second paper, “Some Issues in Outsourcing,” has been accepted in the International Journal for Electronic Marketing and Retailing, and it received the “Best Paper in Track Award” at the annual meeting of the southeastern chapter of INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences) in 2004. Aggarwal and Ray Phelps had an article, “Kano Method: A Transferable, Quality Assurance Technique for Management Education,” published in the International Management Review, Vol. I, No. 3, 2005, pp. 16-21.

Kevin Pauli (management information

systems) published the article “In the Eye of the Beholder: Moral Disengagement and Ethical Decision Making among Information Systems Professionals,” co-authored with Tammy Arthur (Mississippi College), in the Review of Business Information Systems Journal. He also submitted the articles “Computer Monitoring: The Hidden War of Control” and “For Pay or Pleasure: Motivation

Janis Crawford Booth (student life), director

of counseling and wellness services, serves as on-campus adviser for a grant by the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi on Campus at Millsaps College, which contributes $12,500 toward tobacco cessation and education efforts on campus.

She presented at the Mindsight Symposium in Portland, Ore., in October 2005 and the American College Personnel Association annual conference in Indianapolis recently.

She also conducted research to provide normative data for the new Millon College Counseling Inventory, which should be published late this year.

Cindy Strine (student life), director of

campus recreation, attended the National Association of Campus Activities national convention in Boston with senior Heather Wilson of Birmingham, Junior Camille Herman of Cordova, Tenn., and sophomore Asela Roberts of Waveland, Miss., who are on the executive board of Activities and Campus Entertainment.

The communications office received two PRism Awards and two Awards of Excellence at the Public Relations Association of Mississippi 2006 conference in Oxford and one award from Admissions Marketing Report. Millsaps Magazine and the Homecoming Brochure each won a PRism. The website received two Awards of Excellence. In the 21st Annual Admissions Advertising Awards, sponsored by Admissions Marketing Report, Millsaps won a bronze award for recruitment materials produced in 2005. Staff members who participated in the winning projects were John Webb, Jesse Yancy, Shelly Bass, Kelley Mathews, Lisa Purdie, Scott Albert Johnson, Anu Goel, Patti Wade, John Conway, Tanya Newkirk, Trenee Palmer, and Clint Kimberling. Students who participated were Anna Ellis, Jewel Johnson, and Chris Spear.

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Write On, Millsaps 17!

The College is ranked among the top 100 collegesin the nation for its

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revolutionary writing program

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By Jo n Webb

D

r. Paula Garrett’s parents live in Spartanburg, South Carolina—about a nine-hour drive from Millsaps—and until recently they have had little real understanding of what she does for the College. “My dad is a preacher, so both of my parents introduce me as working at ‘Millsaps Methodist College,’” said Garrett, director of the Millsaps Writing Program. “That’s the one thing that translates into their world. I do share stories with them about my teaching, but I’m pretty convinced these anecdotes only add to their lack of understanding about my job.”

So when U.S. News & World Report’s 2006 America’s Best Colleges ranked Millsaps alongside Amherst, Harvard, and Duke in a group of 17 colleges “that make writing a priority,” Garrett showed the list to her parents.

“See, this is what I do,” she told them. “This is the program I direct. I’m pretty sure that they have the press release about this and a copy of that U.S. News book on their coffee table!”

Now, in addition to Garrett’s parents, the world of academia and the national media are becoming aware of Garrett’s work and the reputation of the Writing Program at Millsaps. The U.S. News ranking caught Garrett by surprise at a meeting last year with Dr. Richard A. Smith, senior vice president and dean of the College. “He pulled out the report from U.S. News and showed me how we were listed,”

she said. “We both just sat there for a moment to soak it in—the fact that Millsaps is on that list with schools that we don’t ordinarily think we compete with. I left that meeting very jazzed.”

Finally, Garrett knew that Millsaps’ innovative Writing Program was being acknowledged on a national scale and that those who rank colleges have come to see that writing is one of the College’s most impressive and distinctive strengths. “A few days later, Richard sent an email to me and Kathi Griffin, assistant director of the Writing Program and coordinator of the Writing Center, congratulating us,” she said. “I was a little self-effacing in my response, telling him that I knew those rankings were a bit mysterious—and that I was not going to take them too seriously. He wrote back that I should take it seriously, that it is a real pat on the back.”

A pat on the back, indeed, for what has been an immense, exhaustive effort on the part of the College to actively put writing at the forefront of its academic agenda—through the overhaul seven years ago of the Writing Program and the Writing Center, which included the hiring of Garrett and Griffin. It also included adding to the responsibilities of Janice Jordan, who was asked to take on administrative assistance to the Writing Program in addition to her work with Liberal Studies and the Core Curriculum. Garrett worked hard to put together this team.

Moreover, through their presence and participation in the na-

The painting on the left, by Jackson artist Ellen Langford, depicts John Stone Hall, which houses the Millsaps Writing Center. Langford has studied fine arts at the San Francisco Art Institute, Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy, the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., and at the University of Mississippi. Having left Mississippi as a teen in 1985, Langford returned in 1998 and found new inspiration for her paintings. Langford is a neighbor and friend of Dr. Paula Garrett, director of the Writing Program, and Kathi Griffin, coordinator of the Writing Center, both of whom believed she could capture the soul of John Stone Hall on canvas.

John Stone Hall is named for Dr. John Stone, B.A. 1958, a poet, essayist, and cardiologist who has gained national recognition for studying the relationship between medicine and literature.

spring-summer 2006

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tional dialogue on literacy, Garrett and Griffin have garnered for Millsaps national clout and cachet. “It’s always hard to say how those rankings come down, but clearly enough people have to be aware of the Millsaps program and think highly of it for us to be in that ranking,” Smith said. “Paula and Kathi’s presence at conferences on writing, where they are talking about what we’re doing at Millsaps, is an important piece of the puzzle.”

“It’s been a community effort, but we were so pleased to get this recognition,” said Griffin, who speaks with authority, passion, and urgency not only to literacy issues on campus, but also across the state and the nation. “A lot of that recognition happens because Paula and I are engaged in national conventions on writing. Our support from a majority of the faculty has helped, too. Plus, our students have a good reputation out there.”

Although Smith might have been surprised by the ranking, he said Millsaps had been aiming high all along. “Part of my charge to Paula was to develop a writing program that not only would serve the needs of our faculty and students but would also go beyond that to become one of the best in the South,” he said. “We wanted to be able to make a strong claim that the program is both nationally competitive and regionally distinctive. And I think we’re there, based on research Paula has done, surveying what our program looks like compared to those at a lot of other schools. It’s a very fine program.”

The proof is in the performance of Millsaps alumni after graduation. Alumni and employers of alumni consistently cite Millsaps graduates as better writers than their peers from other institutions.

“The writing program continues that long tradition of providing

faculty and students with the support necessary to become better writers,” Smith said.

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hen Smith came to Millsaps eight and a half years ago, there was already a functioning Writing Center, but it lacked a cohesive strategy, a strong foundation, and institutional support. “In 1998, I asked the faculty to do an assessment of the Core Curriculum, which at the time was five to six years old, and asked, ‘O.K., it’s been in place for awhile, how well is it working?’” Smith said. “The review came back with a number of recommendations, and the most significant of those was to do more with the Writing Center and the Writing Program.”

Out of that recommendation arose the decision to create a tenure-track writing director’s position. “We wanted to hire somebody who would have the Writing Program as a primary responsibility, as well as more traditional faculty responsibilities,” Smith said. “We also wanted to have a coordinator of the Writing Center who would oversee its day-to-day activities, as opposed to the general Writing Program, which focuses on both faculty and students.”

Enter Garrett and Griffin. Smith said Garrett’s work as program director primarily focuses on working with faculty, while Griffin’s role at the Writing Center is to work with students and student-tutors. The third position is that of Jordan, who provides administrative support to both Garrett and Griffin. “None of this would happen without Janice,” Garrrett said. “It is her task to keep the immense writing portfolio process organized and efficient. Her contributions can’t be overestimated.”

As director of the Writing Program, Garrett serves as an adviser to the faculty on all writing issues relating to the curriculum. “This means that I am primarily thinking about how we are teaching writing, and serving as a resource for faculty members who need a sounding board for their use of writing in their classes,” Garrett said. “Each semester I send out an email to tell faculty members that I’m here and would be happy to read their assignments, brainstorm with them, etc. In addition, I serve as an ex-officio member of the Core Council and help determine the role of writing in Core courses.”

Department by department, Garrett has been stimulating conversations about writing in

Dr. Paula Garrett (center), director of the Writing Program, hosting a discussion with the history faculty on writing in the major.

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the individual disciplines. “I have met with at least half of the departments on campus to talk about their goals for writing in their departments, about how their current curricular offerings help them meet these goals, about gaps in the curriculum, and about ways to assess these goals,” Garrett said. “Those conversations are incredible. It’s amazing to see what folks in various departments are doing. We have real teaching innovation, and I’m one of the few people on campus who can have such a firsthand look at it and hear faculty members talk so openly about teaching writing.”

“Paula has been successful because she has tried to meet the departments’ needs as opposed to trying to develop a general model that is imposed on everybody,” Smith said.

He added that Garrett has contacts with writing program directors around the nation for whom the Millsaps template is a model. “It’s about developing a network of people who know you, because they often are the ones that create word-of-mouth,” he said.

While the College had an organized outline for the Writing Program and a clearly articulated thesis statement for its approach to writing, other institutions are still wrestling with selling the idea to faculty that whether “you’re teaching English or biology or accounting, you have responsibilities for teaching students how to write in those areas,” Smith said. “That turns out to be a very large challenge for most colleges and universities to address, because the general response of most faculty is to say writing is ‘not my job,’ and that somebody else needs to teach them how to write, so when they come to my class I don’t have to do it.”

Millsaps has embraced a philosophy that says writing cannot be taught in one semester of freshman comp. “It’s something that’s taught over a four-year period, it has to be taught repeatedly, and it has to be taught within the context of the discipline,” Smith said.

“It’s in those ways that students really learn how to write well.”

Writing also requires repeated instruction and a lot of practice.

“The common notion through the 1970s that you could teach students how to write in an English composition course is an idea that we don’t accept here at the College,” Smith said. “Yet it’s still a dominant model out in the academy: You take your writing requirement and move on. And sometimes at those universities and colleges that’s the only intentional emphasis that is placed on writing. We’re trying to say that intentional emphasis must be placed on writing throughout the four years, so students really learn how to

write well. It’s a different philosophy of how to teach writing. It’s a philosophy that requires a lot of buy-in and support from faculty, and that’s why it’s so hard to get it established at other colleges and universities. We’re further ahead because our faculty has much more of a longstanding interest in writing, and they see writing as an integral part of what it means to teach well.”

In fact, faculty commitment has been the backbone of the program. “We have a faculty here that is intensely interested in the learning of our students and sees writing as an integral part of that,” Smith said. “So while they might wish that somebody else would magically teach these students how to write, you can talk to them about how it’s difficult for someone outside of the biology department to teach students how to write for a biology audience and understand how to write a scientific article.”

Increasingly, Smith said, the faculty has recognized that writing is another form of thinking. “To write clearly requires clear thought, and writing is often a way to help clarify your thinking,” he said. “And so this intimate connection between clear thinking and clear writing is something that also is part of what the faculty respond to.”

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he M illsaps W r i t i n g Program provides a powerful lens through which both students and faculty can examine the written word. “The program allows individual students to focus on their specific writing needs and to improve in areas that are specific to those needs,” said Dr. Sarah Lea McGuire, associate professor of biology. “One of the values of the program is to allow students who enter with vastly differing writing and thinking skills to work beyond where they were when they entered Millsaps. I have seen freshmen improve significantly in their organization and critical thinking as a result of the program. So, as a faculty member (particularly one who was never taught how to design a good writing assignment—who in fact had never seen a good writing assignment!), I have learned how to structure assignments that allow the greatest opportunity for success. This makes it less stressful for the student and me—we both know what I expect. It has also helped me learn how to grade assignments more carefully and provide the right kind of feedback to the student.”

Unlike many schools, Millsaps has developed a Writing Program that is independent of the English Department. “That is intentional,” Garrett said. “The person who directed the Writing Program before spring–summer 2006

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At the Writing Center, Tutors Bring Their Own Perspectives to Peers’ Assignments An important component of Millsaps’ innovative approach to writing is the Writing Center. Located in John Stone Hall (named for the physician-poet who earned his B.A. from Millsaps in 1958), the cozy building in the shadow of the Christian Center is also home to the Department of Classical Studies. The Writing Center is a nurturing environment where peer tutors are on hand to help fellow students gain perspective on their writing assignments and their responses to those assignments.

In her work at the center, coordinator Kathi Griffin serves as a liaison between faculty and students. “In contrast to my position as a resource for faculty, Kathi is primarily a resource to students,” Garrett said.

“She works with student tutors to prepare them to staff the Writing Center, she keeps the center up and running, and she assesses the writing portfolios. She has dozens of oneon-one conversations with students about their writing in any given week, whereas I have dozens of one-on-one conversations with faculty members in any given week.

The lines are, of course, blurred. I work with students often, and she works with faculty. But this is the way that our jobs are set up.”

Currently, Griffin oversees about 10 peer tutors. “All peer tutors take a one-hour course for one semester before they can tutor,” Griffin said. “They have to learn how to talk about writing and respond to writing without being authoritative, without taking authorship from the person who’s writing the paper. And that takes particular skill.”

Participation in the Writing Center—which was profiled by Jessica Hoffpauir, a Millsaps peer tutor, in the January issue of Southern Discourse, published by the Southeastern Writing Center Association—is strictly voluntary. “Students aren’t required to come—it’s a drop-in situation,” Griffin said. Typically, “the student comes in and the tutor is here waiting. The tutor will ask, ‘What are you working on?’ and the student will share the assignment. The tutor will then ask the student, ‘Where are you in your process? What have you done so far?’ The tutor may ask them to describe what they’re writing—challenges, problems—and that’s where the conversation begins. ”

Many times students can’t identify their own needs, so the tutor has to determine where their writing needs improvement, Griffin said. “They may need to talk about the introduction or the lack of a thesis statement,” she said. “They might say, ‘I’m expecting a thesis here and not getting it.’ They need to know the professor is going to expect an introduction and a thesis. The conversation is about identifying what the student needs help with. A lot of times it is about organization. ” Griffin underscores, however, that the Writing Center is not an editing service.

“Students sometimes think we’re here to fix papers for them, and the faculty sometimes thinks we’re here to make papers perfect,” Griffin said. “But we’re here to encourage students to work to the best of their ability.

We just try to point to what doesn’t sound right. Sometimes they don’t know how to identify a run-on sentence or a comma splice.”

Anna Ellis, a senior who has tutored at the center for the past two years, said that as a result of her peer counseling her own writing had improved. “I think that teaching writing is such a challenge, because outside the parameters of grammar and citation there is no distinct right or wrong, and writing itself becomes a vaguely defined skill,” she said. “I now have the utmost respect for professors who spend time with students individually to discuss their writing, and I recognize the dire need to have a writing center on all college campuses.”

Jewel Johnson, a senior who writes for Millsaps Magazine, said that as an incoming student the concept of writing across the curriculum was new to her. “I could not understand how or why students would be expected to write papers in every class, especially math. I now see that this program, the Writing Center, and the writing portfolio are just a few of many qualities that distinguish Millsaps from other colleges and universities. The program helps students develop the art of communication, an essential life skill that can be used in any major or career. The Writing Center does an outstanding job of helping students think about their writing and what they want to say, rather than merely correcting the mistakes for the students. This approach allows students to eventually learn what questions to ask themselves as they write.”

Garrett and Griffin took three students to the Southeastern Writing Center Association conference in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in February 2006, and Griffin and peer tutors Mike Parks, B.A. 2005, Wes French, B.A. 2004, Megan Parks, B.A. 2004, and Michael Pickard, B.A. 2004, published an article from their 2004 panel presentation, “Becoming Mindful of the Absent Professor,” in the Purdue Writing Lab Newsletter in January 2006.

“Every writer has questions, needs feedback, and can benefit from some one-to-one conversation with a writing tutor,” said Muriel Harris, professor of English and director of the Writing Lab at Purdue University. “In addition to what classroom teachers can offer writers in class, writing center tutors can provide close attention to each writer’s concerns, from the earliest planning time for papers, to later drafts that may just need some responses as to whether the reader finds the writing clear, organized, and effective. As hundreds of students I’ve tutored have told us in our Writing Lab, they feel more confident about their writing after a tutorial.”

“The Writing Center does an outstanding job of helping students think about their writing and what they want to say, rather than merely correcting the mistakes for the students. This approach allows students to eventually learn what questions to ask themselves as they write.”

26 i lis lhome s a to p the s Millsaps m a g Writing a z i nCenter, e where students tutor their peers.

John StonemHall

“It never fails. Faculty from other schools are inevitably envious of our community and the campus-wide involvement in this conversation about writing.” me was Dr. Ted Ammon, a philosophy professor. The ad for my job called for a person with a Ph.D. in an academic discipline and with an interest in writing program administration. Though I have a Ph.D. in English, the position did not require one.”

“The English Department’s primary focus is on the teaching of literature and the analysis of literature—not on the teaching of writing,” Smith said, “so I don’t think they necessarily see a conflict.

If we had an English Department with a lot of people hired to teach writing and composition, there might be a conflict there. Generally, we think it is the job of English departments to teach writing, but the approach here is that there is no particular department that has the unique responsibility to teach writing. It’s the responsibility of all departments.”

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he separation between t h e W r i t i n g P ro g r a m and English Department facilitates writing across the curriculum, or WAC, as it has come to be known. “It seems to me to be a mixed message to say that we all have a responsibility to teach writing on this campus, that it isn’t the purview of the English Department, but then give the English Department the final say in the way writing is taught,” Garrett said. “I think that’s how a lot of schools get stuck. Ultimately, by putting the Writing Program in the English Department, they are really saying that it’s the English Department’s job. If I were a faculty member in another department, I would read that message loud and clear.”

While Garrett’s disciplinary home is the English Department, where she teaches upper-level courses, she tries to stay open and accessible to every department on campus. “Although my colleagues in the English Department are fantastic teachers of writing, so are my colleagues in math and in accounting,” she said. “I’m clear on that. And I think I deliver that message campus-wide with great credibility, because I spend as much time with other departments as I do my own. That’s how I understand my job.”

Both Garrett and Griffin have raised awareness of the Millsaps Writing Program by their vocal roles in the national debate on literacy. Griffin has worked to develop a Mississippi Writing Center Association and hosted several state conferences here to share the strengths of the Millsaps program with other schools in the region.

“We both go to conferences to give presentations on various ele-

ments of our Writing Program,” Garrett said. “Kathi usually organizes at least one panel of student tutors at a conference each year.

We try to do one a semester, depending on budget issues. She gets the tutors to think through an angle that would be of interest to other schools. She has taken students to regional writing center conferences frequently. I have joined these panels a couple of times.”

As Griffin serves as Millsaps’ voice in the conversation about campus writing centers, Garrett participates in the broader dialogue about writing programs across the nation. “I try to attend the Conference on College Composition and Communication and/or the National Conference of Teachers of English each year, as well as the annual meeting of Writing Program Administrators,” Garrett said.

“I almost always make a presentation about the innovation of our Writing Program. The hallmark of our Writing Program is that we have made writing across the curriculum work.”

At many schools, it doesn’t work.

“Either there’s no accountability, or schools are too big to maintain serious dialogue about the teaching of writing in every area of the campus,” Garrett said. “But our interdisciplinary writing council and our intimate faculty make such a conversation a delight to facilitate. That’s not to say that all of the conversations that I host are easy. In fact, few of them are easy. The typical conversation I host with a department is full of questions and challenges. But the fact that we are talking about teaching writing in every single department on our campus is a delight.

“So I go to national conferences to talk about just how we make it work—about the role of writing and other faculty development initiatives, about our interdisciplinary writing council, about what has and what hasn’t worked in trying to keep this conversation alive.

It never fails. Faculty from other schools are inevitably envious of our community and the campus-wide involvement in this conversation about writing.”

Several years ago, Dr. Kim Burke, associate professor of accounting, and Garrett attended a National Conference of Teachers of English in Milwaukee. “It was absolutely hilarious to watch the facial expressions when Kim introduced herself as an accounting professor and then continued to describe an experiment with defining ‘analytical writing.’ Faculty at other schools just don’t expect an accountant to speak this language, let alone to care about these issues.” spring–summer 2006

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This past summer in Anchorage, Alaska, at the Writing Program if we are really going to help Mississippi students move forward,” Administration Conference, writing program directors honestly Griffin said. “And we have to identify expectations before we can confronted the challenges of their jobs. “It was so refreshing to have help students meet them.” this community, and also to hear about their envy of our program,” Meanwhile, Millsaps is becoming synonymous with good writGarrett said. “This became even clearer when I was asked by a small, ing in the eyes of regional educators. “Kathi is really trying to proliberal arts school much like vide a service to higher educaI have worked with three Millsaps tion in the state and surroundour own to give a talk about our Writing Program. This was interns over the years, and I can ing states by providing a venue a very good school, but, wow, in which writing program we are so far ahead of them. professionals can talk about attest to the fact that all were They have a WAC agenda but writing by sharing experiencextremely professional and had no real dialogue about stanes,” Smith said. “The Millsaps dards, skills, or who teaches program is seen as a model for strong communications skills. what. It made me realize how how to run a successful writmuch I take for granted with ing program, but there is also —Maryann Jacobson dialogue between Kathi and the collegiality and commitNational Manager Major Donor Relations her colleagues in which ideas ment of Millsaps faculty.”

While Garrett is pursuing a Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation are shared that help us imliteracy agenda that transcends prove our own program. My the boundaries of the academic disciplines, Griffin is concerned at sense, having gone to a couple of those conferences, is that we are state writing center conferences with “talking across boundaries” seen as the leader in the region in thinking about writing.” from high school to college, from two-year college to four-year Other schools look to Millsaps for guidance. “When we were college, from public to private school, and from four-year private working to establish a writing center at Jackson State, we sought college to public university. “We need to have these conversations guidance from the Millsaps center since, in many ways, they were

Dr. Paula Garrett, left, director of the Millsaps Writing Program, and Kathi Griffin, coordinator of the Writing Center, in Garrett’s office in John Stone Hall.

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taking a leadership role in the state with respect to writing across Students Needs,” “Preparing Tutors of Writing,” and “Designing Efthe curriculum,” said Dr. Monique Guillory, formerly executive fective Writing Assignments.” director of the Mississippi Learning Institute and a former English Griffin, who believes that Mississippi provides an extraordinary professor at Jackson State University. “The College was very involved field laboratory for the study of literacy issues, said: “One of the with the annual Mississippi Writing Center Association conference, wonderful things about this state is that here we have the opportuwhich was where I first met Kathi Griffin and some of the students nity for working and talking across boundaries, not to homogenize from the Millsaps Writour populations but to reWe have been fortunate to have ing Center. We eventually spond to and help encourbrought the two centers age those different voices. students and/or graduates from together, and the Millsaps We can also help them students were very encourbecome aware of similariMillsaps work for our company. All aging and supportive of the ties and differences to help have exhibited exemplary writing work we were beginning young people excel and do at Jackson State. You could they want to do, inskills and the ability to communicate what see from their enthusiasm stead of being hindered by that working at the Writthose boundaries.” ideas in a professional manner. ing Center really had a How students commusignificant impact on their nicate through the written —Frank Buchanan and spoken word can coneducational experience at StateStreet Group, LLC tain “markers” that either Millsaps.”

Griffin is committed to move them forward or creating a sense of camaraderie among literacy educators in Missis- hold them back, Griffin said. But she maintained that these markers, sippi, and she helped found in 2001 the annual Mississippi Writing these stumbling blocks, can be turned into challenges. “You only Centers Association Conference. The idea took root when Griffin stumble over something you don’t see,” she said. “It makes things attended a Southeastern Writing Centers Association conference visible for you to talk about them, use them, work them, and move at Auburn, where she met Bruce O’Hara, dean of Arts & Letters at on and not be stuck. That’s why conversation is so important. I don’t Tougaloo College. know what is a stumbling block or a challenge for somebody else She was invited to tour Tougaloo’s writing center and to meet without having a conversation with them.”

Phillip Gardner, director of the Writing Center at Francis Marion University and a regional expert gaining in national recognition. urthermore, griffin believes that conversation, “I asked if I could bring some tutors and whether we could invite that direct human contact, cannot be replaced by other writing center staff from area colleges. The answer was yes, of computers. “I feel like the state wants to throw money at course, and peer tutors came with their advisers from around the technology and put computers in every classroom, when city—from Mississippi College to Jackson State University. Phillip really all students need are good texts to read and small helped us reflect on our experiences, and afterward we realized how classrooms where teachers and students can interact,” Griffin said. important this conversation had been. It was an impromptu confer- “I think technology is important, and we need to know how to use ence, but as a result we decided to meet again the next year. it, but you can learn that in a summer program. You don’t need to Thus the first Mississippi Writing Center Association Conference learn it in school every day. You do need to learn how to read and was born at Tougaloo. “At the end of it we were all sitting around how to respond to texts. It happens in conversation, one on one, talking, and we realized how hungry we were to talk to people do- not between you and a computer. Computers can’t take the place ing what we do, where we do it,” Griffin said. “We go to national of being in a room and talking with another human being about conferences, we go to regional conferences, but Mississippi, just like something you’ve read or written or getting some response to many other states, has its own issues. This is where the conversation something you’ve written. That is much more valuable than having began, and we all realized we had common goals, common issues, a computer tell you if you’ve gotten your grammar right.” and common challenges. And we all felt like we were reinventing These are just some of the kinds of conversations taking place the wheel when we could use each other as experts and move for- at writing center conferences. “The dialogue can then be taken back ward much more effectively as colleagues.” to schools and be incorporated into classrooms,” Griffin said. “They The fifth annual conference, “Tell It Like It Is: Using Our Stories are the kinds of conversations that need to be ongoing. There is no to Shape Our Future,” featuring a keynote address by former Gover- one right answer. Education, as it has been from the time of Locke, nor William Winter (see sidebar, next page), was held last year on the is an experiment in helping people participate successfully and efMillsaps campus and featured symposiums on “Learning from WAC fectively in their communities.”

Assignments,” “Understanding—and Meeting—Nontraditional Garrett would like to relate the Millsaps experiment—the

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Governor William Winter: “When we were working to establish a writing center at Jackson State, we sought guidance from the Millsaps center since they were taking a leadership role in the state with respect to writing across the curriculum.”

College’s emerging research on writing—to the broader, growing research on learning. “I also see the Writing Program as providing a model of assessment for other areas on campus,” she said.

Each Millsaps student must contribute papers to a writing portfolio that the faculty can use to assess the student’s strengths and weaknesses. “My immediate goal for the future of the Writing Program is to make sure that we are closing the feedback loop with the portfolio,” Garrett said. “We collect papers, we assess them, and we give them back to students. Now my job is to begin thinking about ways to understand these assessments, to see the big picture that they paint, and to translate this to faculty members so that these assessments inform our decisions about the curriculum.”

Griffin, too, is involved in assessment, as well as response. “I’m sort of the ‘gatekeeper of writing’ at Millsaps, yet the Writing Center has nothing to do with evaluation, so I go from one extreme to the other,” she said. “It’s a schizophrenic jobteaching versus tutoring, evaluative versus responsive. It makes me more analytical about issues of literacy, from producing the text, to reading the text, to responding to the text, to reading the response to the text. It’s a circular thing. I’ve become increasingly aware of that ‘literary cycle.’”

Senior Anna Ellis with Kathi Griffin, coordinator of the Writing Center.

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I was meeting the old man for the first time. He was not really an old man—he was only 44—but I thought of him as old. People appear older to 13-year-old boys. That was my age when I saw him in the weatherbeaten cabin on the Bull Farm.

It was during the Depression, and he was one of the countless displaced persons who had been roaming the face of the land in those bitter years of the mid1930s—hungry, homeless, and in despair.

He was now working for the government—on halves.

Dispossessed by the harsh economics of five-cent cotton, he had been picked up by a New Deal program called the Farm Security Administration and put back to work as a sharecropper with the U.S. government as his landlord. The land was rented by the government from a local farmer, and it was derisively called the Bull Farm because of an ill-conceived plan to use oxen rather than mules to pull the plows. My family’s farm was next to the Bull Farm.

My introduction to the man was through his son—a boy my own age with whom I rode the school bus. On this chilly Saturday morning in late February, I paid my friend a visit. There, in this bleak cabin huddled in front of a miserable little fireplace, was the boy’s father. It was too wet and cold for him to be in the fields. This day in the dim light that came through the dingy panes of one little window, he was holding a large book. As we spoke, he put the book down. I noticed its title. It was the Sears, Roebuck catalogue. For so many of my neighbors in those bleak and desperate times the catalogue and the King James Bible were about the only literature that one ever saw in the homes of most tenant farmers, who constituted the overwhelming majority of the rural population.

I never knew if the man could read. I rather doubt that he could. That was not unusual in those days. Half of the rural whites and 90 percent of the rural blacks were functionally if not totally illiterate. Still, many cast about for ways to comprehend the mystery and wonder of a world that seemed to lie beyond their grasp and even beyond their imagination.

Never having heard of Scott or Wordsworth or Longfellow, they could only browse through the Sears, Roebuck catalogue.

I have often contrasted my own life with that of my young schoolmate from the Bull Farm. Whereas his father was illiterate, my parents were both avid readers. And our home, modest by today’s standards and lacking radio or electricity or indoor plumbing, nevertheless had a bookcase filled with great books. It was out of this early association with reading at home plus the encouragement of inspired teachers in my school years at Grenada that I came to regard writers with the same affection that I lavished on my sports heroes like Dizzy Dean and Lou Gehrig.

What I did not fully understand then but that I have since come to comprehend much more clearly is that for so many people—black people and white people alike—living and growing up in the rural South in generations gone by, there were these walls imposed by poverty and ignorance and class and race that left thousands of them marooned in permanent intellectual isolation and deprivation. A few escaped, but so many did not.

It has been an appallingly slow and tortuous journey out of that dark

‘We Must Create More Poets If We Are to Survive’ hole. As late as the mid-1950s, 20 years after my visits to the Bull Farm, only one white in four and one black in 40 was finishing high school in our state. Even today you can walk down the roads and streets of almost any of our small towns and rural communities, and at least one out of every five adults you meet will be functionally illiterate, and in some places it will be higher than that.

There is a strange and haunting paradox about all of this. In a state and region that has for so long prided itself on its commitment to taking care of its own, on sustaining strong family values, on helping each other, we tended to neglect that most essential of all our social responsibilities, and that was the extension of adequate educational opportunity to all of our people. And there is an even stranger and more intriguing paradox. In this state where for so long so many have lacked the very basic learning skills, we have produced such a disproportionate number of celebrated writers.

That incidentally led the late Chancellor Porter Fortune to comment that we Mississippians may not be able to read but we sure can write. The late Willie Morris even suggested an explanation for this abundance of successful authors. “It beats trying to make a living farming,” he said, quoting one of his Lafayette County neighbors who had lost several cotton crops to the boll weevil.

There are profound and complex explanations for this very real phenomenon of Southern literary achievement. But Willie Morris’s friend may not have been too far off base. Sociologist Howard Odum, who began his distinguished career as a graduate student at Ole Miss before going off to Chapel Hill, thought that there was something to the notion that the tensions, frustrations, and deprivations arising out of our troubled and conflicted past helped create the elements of great writing. He speaks of how the whole range of human experience had combined to make this region a setting of such indefinable contrast that has provided a tantalizing and irresistible challenge to so many writers.

The South was American and un-American, righteous and wicked, Christian and barbaric. It was a South getting better, a South getting worse.

It was strong and it was weak, it was white and it was black, it was rich and it was poor. There were great white mansions on hilltops among the trees, and there were unpainted houses perched on pillars along hillside gullies or lowland marshes. From high estate came low attainment, and from the dark places came flashing gleams of noble personality. There were strong men and women vibrant with the spontaneity of living, and there were pale, tired folk, full of the dullness of life. There were crusaders resplendent with some perpetual equivalent of war, and there were lovers of peace in the marketplace. There were freshness and vivacity as of a rippling greenwhite rivulet, and there were depth and hidden power as of gleaming dark water beneath an arched bridge.

Thus was described the cultural richness of our region that made it a place where great literature was inspired. It was the literature of Faulkner, of Wolfe and Welty and Warren—writing stories about people and places they knew, their own postage stamp, as Faulkner once said. It is this kind of storytelling that is the basis of great literature. And because it consists of exploring the lives of people, some ordinary lives but others complex and different, that we find in them mirrors of our own lives as well as fantasies of lives we could never know; but out of that reading we come to understand better who we are and how we relate to each other. There is a magic about this that has the power to transform people from spiritless apathy to an awareness of their full potential for creative thought and work.

This is an area too often underemphasized in our educational system.

If we concentrate solely on technological achievement, we risk losing our souls. Now we are called on to create out of this new information age a cultural imperative that will preserve our common humanity.

That can be done only through an increased emphasis on writing and

reading about those experiences out of our own lives that go to affirm the strength and resilience of the human spirit.

In a time when there is a divisive political debate over values, why can’t we let the words of Eudora Welty be our guide. In One Time – One Place, she tells why she started writing: But away off one day up in Tishomingo County, I knew this, anyway: that my wish, indeed my continuing passion, would be not to point the finger in judgment but to part a curtain, that invisible shadow that falls between people, the veil of indifference to each othe’’s presence, each other’s wonder, each other’s human plight.

All of us in this room today, whether we acknowledge it or not, are here because of the impact that meaningful writing has had on our lives. It may have started in little-remembered stories from our childhood that began to open us up to the magic of a world larger than we could then imagine.

I know that is true in my own life. It has been my good fortune to have been enriched by the writings of my fellows of every age and from every walk of life, and whatever any of us has been able to accomplish in our lives has been grounded in the ideas and the ideals that have come from that experience.

The William F. Winter Archives and History Building in downtown Jackson is the repository for the manuscripts and papers of many Mississippi writers.

This must then be our continuing commitment—to see that in these more affluent times we do not let our pursuit of the fast buck or the superficial gain obscure the longer-range goals that should guide our society. The models are there, molded and shaped in the telling and retelling of the stories of our individual lives. It is there that we find the strength to see us through life’s complexities and ambiguities and tragedies.

We must insist that through good writing more of our fellow citizens be enabled to join in this incredible journey.

William Faulkner, in the conclusion to his memorable address on the receipt of the Nobel Prize, spoke of the writer’s duty: “It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.”

In this complex and conflicted world we must create more poets if we are to survive.

Excerpted from Winter’s keynote s p address r i n gat –thes fifth u mannual m e rMississippi 2 0 0 6Writing Centers Association Conference, held at Millsaps in the fall of 2005.

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Athletics Mike DuBose Is Named Head Football Coach

“His NCAA Division I experience, his knowledge of the game, and his ability to win are all going to be huge assets to this football team.”

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When Ron Jurney, then director of athletics, learned on the morning of February 3 that David Saunders was leaving Millsaps, he was faced with the crisis of finding a new head football coach.

Jurney’s crisis was quickly downgraded that morning when he was met by a group of players milling around Jurney’s office. These players had a solution to Jurney’s problem: Promote the defensive coordinator, Mike DuBose, to head coach.

DuBose, whose last college head coaching job was at the University of Alabama, has been a part of the Majors’ coaching staff since the 2005 season. His coaching résumé, knowledge of the game, and familiarity with current players made him a logical choice for the head coaching job at Millsaps. As Jurney put it, “This was a no-brainer for me.”

The decision to accept the head coaching position came easily to DuBose, as well. “I don’t know if I’ve ever taken a phone call and accepted the job at the same time,” DuBose said. “Usually, you want to take some time to talk about it, think about it, and pray about it. But there was no question about this in my mind.”

DuBose is not the only person at the College excited about his new position.

After DuBose was announced as head football coach, President Frances Lucas said, “We are thrilled to have a topnotch coach with outstanding regional and national credentials on board here at Millsaps College.”

Perhaps no group on campus is more eager for DuBose’s term to begin than the Majors football team. Josh Hanna, senior defensive back, reports that DuBose is a very hands-on coach, which has him and the rest of the team looking forward to the 2006 season. “Coach DuBose is a very involved football coach who really

wants to see his players do well in life, in the classroom, and on the football field,” Hanna said.

Connell Phillips, a senior offensive lineman, was enthusiastic about the upcoming season based on DuBose’s previous coaching successes. “Coach DuBose knows what it takes to build a championship team,” Phillips said. “His NCAA Division I experience, his knowledge of the game, and his ability to win are all going to be huge assets to this football team. I am truly looking forward to playing for him this upcoming season.”

—Clint Kimberling

Links to a Legend: Tourney a Tribute To Mary Ann Edge Golf traditionally has been known as a sport for forging relationships between business associates, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, and brothers and sisters. In the South, golf is almost a religion. Services start with each tee time, the congregation is the gallery, the sermons are long straight drives in a cathedral of

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trees and grass, and communion takes place each and every time a golfer sinks an 18foot putt into the tin cup.

At Millsaps College, one woman can be credited with forging numerous alumni relationships spanning four decades, and to honor this woman’s legacy the Mary Ann Edge Memorial Golf Tournament was established in 1997. Edge, a native of Amory, Mississippi, was a pioneer in golfing circles in Mississippi and throughout the region. Some of her many accomplishments include being named the City of Jackson Women’s Champion 13 times, State Senior Women’s Champion once, State Amateur Runner-Up five times, Low Amateur in LPGA events twice, and Shady Oaks Club Champion 20 times.

In the meantime, she coached the Millsaps Majors Men’s Golf Team for 28 years, and in 1993, the year she retired, she coached the Majors to the Southeastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship. In the state and throughout the region, Edge was known for her tireless devotion to the game, coordinating the Junior Girls Golf Circuit in the 1970s and hosting golf clinics for men, women, and children to promote the game.

January 29, 2006, marked the 10th anniversary of the passing of Millsaps’ beloved golf coach and associate professor

of physical education, and this is the ninth year that the College will host the Mary Ann Edge Memorial Golf Tournament.

Doug Minor, B.A. 1977, a former student of Edge and one of the original organizers of the event, recalls how the tournament has grown and become a new Millsaps College tradition. “After I graduated, Mary Ann and the alumni office asked me to establish and coordinate an annual golf tournament in conjunction with Homecoming activities,” Minor said. “I was happy to offer my services, and, for most of the 1980s, alumni, staff, and friends of Millsaps would play in a scramble on the Friday before the Saturday football game. Mary Ann played in the tournament every year.”

In the early 1990s, John Christmas, then the Millsaps vice president for enrollment and student services, suggested naming the tournament for Edge as a tribute to her long tenure at Millsaps and her devotion to golf, her players, and her students. Therefore, the Annual Millsaps Homecoming Golf Tournament became the Mary Ann Edge Golf Tournament. A few years later, after Edge lost her battle with cancer, the event was renamed the Mary Ann Edge Memorial Golf Tournament.

Said this year’s tournament chair, Russ Hawkins, B.B.A. 1995: “This is a chance

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to give back to Millsaps College for the opportunities that were given to me in the early 1990s,” he said. “It’s also an honor for me to chair a golf tournament in honor of Mary Ann Edge, who represented everything from a coach to a friend, on and off the golf course, to all who played for her.”

Buddy Buchanan, B.A. 1962, another of Edge’s students, said: “Mary Ann Edge was my coach, friend, and life mentor. The list of top golfers she turned loose on the public is only part of her legacy—players like Mary Mills, who won three major LPGA championships and was named 2006 Alumna of the Year (see related story, page 37), Doug Minor, Greg Maloney, Fred Gipson, Roger Williamson, and Dick McMurray. Coach Edge was also a splendid ball striker. She was a masterful course manager and had the competitive heart of a linebacker. Had it not been for the great Mary Mills, Mary Ann would certainly have won most of the Mississippi Women’s Amateur titles from 1955 through 1962.

She left word for me to read scripture at her memorial—one of the finest honors ever accorded me.”

Even 10 years after Edge’s death, her memory and golfing legacy live on in the hearts and minds of alumni and friends.

Because of the impact that she made on Millsaps College, new relationships will continue to be forged for years to come on the fairways, the greens, and the sand traps of our common life that is Millsaps College.

This year’s tournament, the Ninth Annual Mary Ann Edge Memorial Golf Tournament, is scheduled for May 12, 2006, at the Lake Caroline Golf Club in Madison. For an application, go to the Millsaps website, www.millsaps.edu, and click on the Mary Ann Edge Golf Tournament icon, or call the Millsaps athletics office at 601-974-1191 to request an application. This year’s event promises to be one of the best yet.

Special thanks to our major corporate sponsors: AmSouth Bank, BancorpSouth, and BankPlus.

—Vernon King

From left, committee members Scott Essex, Mike Highfill, Dick Highfill, Russ Hawkins, Jim McKeown, Pat Taylor, and Vernon King.

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How Athletics Make Millsaps a Stronger Academic Institution Millsaps College is proud of its deserved reputation for academic excellence. U.S.

News &World Report’s America’s Best Colleges 2006 has recognized Millsaps as one of the top-tier liberal arts colleges in the nation, a ranking that makes Millsaps the top institution in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama and one of the top five colleges in the South. Barron’s Best Buys in College Education ranks Millsaps College as just that. Loren Pope’s 40 Colleges That Changes Lives has also recognized Millsaps College.

Colleges that do not offer athletic scholarships are often reluctant to give prominence to their athletic programs because of myths that suggest athletics is detrimental to academics. Let’s explore three of these commonly accepted myths.

Myth No 1: Money spent on

athletics takes money away from more worthwhile academic needs such as scholarships, endowed chairs, etc. The Millsaps community takes pride in

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a state-of-the-art turf football field and a new dressing room and weight room for football. A lighted baseball field commands a view from one of the highest points in Jackson, and there is a very real possibility that a new grandstand for this field will be built. Millsaps’ new tennis courts and fast-pitch softball field are projected to have lights, a concession stand, rest rooms, and a new access road in the near future. Funds for these facilities came primarily from donors, rather than general Millsaps funds. These facilities serve as recruiting agents for the College, thus generating tuition that can support general Millsaps academic needs. The community also pays to use them. These facilities generate funds and scholar-athletes for the College; they do not take away from academic needs.

Myth No. 2: Colleges prohibited

from offering athletic scholarships circumvent such policies by offering athletic scholarships disguised as academic scholarships. Millsaps

College’s various academic scholarships are based on clearly defined standards, emphasizing GPA,

SAT, or ACT scores, and letters of recommendation. The administration, the admissions department, and the faculty members of the admissions committee are clearly aware of the NCAA Division III regulations prohibiting athletic scholarships.

Millsaps College unequivocally supports both the spirit and letter of these policies. There are athletes who have scholarships, but they are based on clearly defined academic merit.

Millsaps College does not provide athletic scholarships in any form.

Millsaps does provide scholarships for students who then take the initiative to participate in athletics.

Myth No. 3: A successful athletic

program contributes few academic benefits and little to the College or the athlete’s education. Millsaps athletes in general enjoy a 96 percent graduation rate, a higher graduation rate than the College in general. Millsaps College has won the David M. Halbrook Award, given annually to the college or university in Mississippi with the highest graduation rate, for seven straight years and 17 times in the last 21 years. Brad Chism, B.A. 1982, was

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a Rhodes Scholar and a member of the 1980 undefeated football team.

Consider the highly successful baseball program at Millsaps and what it does for the College. Jim Page, B.S.Ed.1986, is currently in his 15th season as head baseball coach. He has been SCAC Coach of the Year and has won 401 games, with 257 losses and one tie. His teams have been SCAC conference champions seven times in 16 years, while winning 11 Division SCAC championships during that time.

His teams have qualified for regional competitions four times in 16 years.

These regional competitions are the qualifying round for the NCAA Division III World Series.

The 1996 baseball team finished the season ranked 19th in the nation in NCAA Division III, according to the

American Baseball Association/Baseball America final poll. This record qualifies Millsaps’ baseball program as top tier, paralleling the academic rating of the College. Mike Highfill, B.S. 1998, was named to the ABCA All-American team that year, and he also earned recognition as All SCAC Player of the Year. He was named to the All South Region Team and the All South Region Tournament Team. Teddy Hymel, B.B.A. 1996, was named to the All South Region Team, as was Kirk Kinard, B.S. 1996. Kinard was also a previous SCAC Player of the Year and was signed by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Hymel was the SCAC Pitcher of the Year. Ten players on that team were named to the All SCAC team, while Mike Prejean, B.B.A. 1997, Mike Jefcoat, who attended Millsaps in 1995–96, and Thomas Beau Pollard, B.B.A.1999, were named to the second team. Peter Austin, B.B.A. 1997, was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

These successes provide the College with name recognition, thus helping recruit scholar-athletes who wish to join a winning program.

Successful sports programs are free

advertising for the College. Many of the donors for Millsaps facilities have been past athletes, and the many facilities enjoyed by the entire Millsaps community flow from their largess, a result of their love of participation in Millsaps athletics.

Millsaps athletics clearly helps the College, but what value did athletics and that team provide to academics?

Three of four seniors on that team are now physicians (Kinard, Chris Lawrence, B.S. 1996, and Robert Dews, B.S. 1996). One of the remaining two seniors is a successful businessman (Hymel) and the other, David Shelton, B.B.A. 1996, is a lawyer. One of the six juniors on that team, George (Tripp) Gillespie III, B.S. 1997, is a physician, and Chris McNeal, B.B.A. 1997, is in pharmaceutical sales in a managerial position. Prejean and Austin are accountants. One of the sophomores, Ben Jeffcoat, B.S. 1998, is a physician, while Kevin Wilson, B.B.A. 1998, is in business. Mike Highfill is a stockbroker for Morgan Stanley. The four freshmen on the team included Lane Walberg, B.B.A. 2000, who is now head of the Jackson YMCA. These accomplishments suggest a synergism between athletics and scholarship. Colleges often tout their success in gaining access to professional school, and these athletes certainly succeeded in that regard and went on to successful and prestigious professions. Athletics has also served as a catalyst for converting those with little academic interest into scholars.

This is typified by Carla Webb, B.S. 1997, SCAC Player of the Year in 1995–96. Webb played on a Lady Majors basketball team that progressed to the regional playoffs two years in a row. “Academics had always come easy to me in high school,” Webb said, “but academics were not particularly interesting.” Participating in athletics played a major role in her choice to attend Millsaps. This provided the

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Jurney Accepts Post At Canton Academy Millsaps College Athletic Director Ron Jurney, B.A. 1978, has officially resigned to accept the athletic director/head football coach position at Canton Academy in Canton, Mississippi.

Jurney has served as the athletic director at Millsaps for 13 years. During his tenure as director of athletics, the College has made improvements to athletics facilities in excess of $17 million—most of these enhancements were made possible by fund-raising efforts.

“Millsaps is so fortunate to have the support of many great alums and I will certainly miss them,” Jurney said. “I will miss Millsaps so much. It was truly a pleasure to work with such a great coaching staff and student athletes who were committed to excellence both academically and athletically.”

Millsaps athletics thrived under the direction of Ron Jurney. The College captured 15 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference titles (nine outright, six divisional) and received a record 10 NCAA tournament bids.

Jurney also served as head football coach for the Majors from 1996 to 1999. In his first year as head coach, Jurney went 8-2 and captured the SCAC title.

“Ron Jurney had a spectacular run as the athletic director for Millsaps College,” said Dr. Frances Lucas, president of the College.” While on his watch, we saw many upgrades in facilities and great wins for athletes on the field and in the classroom. Ron has advanced our athletic program to a new level. Most importantly, Ron will continue to be a loyal Millsaps Major as an active alumnus of the College and an enthusiastic booster of our teams.”

Said Brit Katz, vice president and dean of students, “In his senior level administrative role, Ron has successfully guided men’s and women’s varsity athletics, planned for the expansion of new facilities, enhanced existing facilities, enthusiastically recruited scholar-athletes, supervised our award-winning coaches to numerous conference championships and NCAA tournament appearances, nurtured important donor relationships, and, most importantly, served as educator and mentor to talented youth.”

Also during Jurney’s term, Millsaps was awarded the David M. Halbrook Award 11 times. The award is given to the college or university in Mississippi with the highest student-athlete graduation rate. ­—Clint Kimberling

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College a chance to motivate Carla toward scholarship, and the College succeeded. She is now Dr. Carla Webb, D.M.D. Millsaps athletics is often a significant factor in nurturing successful academics.

During the past decade and a half, Millsaps baseball has gained substantial recognition for its quality program. It has given the College name recognition locally, regionally, and nationally through the news media. It has attracted a significant number of scholars to Millsaps, and a substantial number of these scholarathletes have gone on to prestigious professional careers. Baseball is not the only successful sport. The college has many All Conference players and some All-Americans. These can be documented by a stroll through the Maurice H. Hall Activities Center.

Many Millsaps players have been elected to the 15th Anniversary SCAC teams, and their names can be accessed on the Internet at www.scac-online.org/.

—Dick Highfill

For Majors Baseball, Great Expectations The expectations for the 2006 Millsaps Majors baseball team were at an all-time high at press time. In an April poll, the Majors were ranked 14th in the country in their division by the American Baseball Coaches Association.

Preseason praise was heaped upon the team, as well as individual players. Garner Wetzel, a senior from Gulfport, received several preseason honors in Baseball America.

Wetzel, who started as shortstop for the Majors last season, was included on the Division III preseason All-American Team.

Additionally, Wetzel was tabbed as the preseason candidate for Division III Player of the Year.

Adding to the list of honors from Baseball America, Wetzel was also included among the top Major League Baseball prospects. Wetzel is listed as the 28th best draft prospect among all college seniors, all positions, across all NCAA divisions.

Last June, Wetzel was selected in the 10th round by the Colorado Rockies in the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. After suffering an injury last summer, Wetzel opted for corrective surgery and to play out his senior season at Millsaps.

The Majors were also picked to repeat as SCAC Champions based on voting held by the 10 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference head coaches. Millsaps received seven of 10 first-place votes, making the Majors the overwhelming favorite to take the SCAC title. This would be Head Coach Jim Page’s third conference title in four years.

Page had already reached another coaching milestone in 2006. In the third game of the season, against Mississippi College, Page recorded his 400th career coaching victory. Page is now in his 18th year as the Majors’ head coach.

—Clint Kimberling

Millsaps College Sports Hall of Fame During Homecoming 2005, the Millsaps College Sports Hall of Fame inducted a new class of former standout athletes and coaches. The new members, from left to right, are: William (Billy) Mann, B.S. 1949, Dr. William (Red) Powell, B.S. 1956, former Basketball Coach John Stroud (1990–2003), Shane Langston, B.B.A. 1980, M.B.A. 1982, Susan (Kasperbauer) Mascari, B.A. 1995, and Archie Lamb, B.B.A. 1977, recipient of the Samuel Knox Distinguished Service Award.

—Clint Kimberling

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MajorNotes College Honors Alumna of the Year, Livesay Winners Millsaps College has presented the 2006 Alumna of the Year award to Mary Mills in recognition of her stellar contributions and leadership as an athlete and educator.

Mills is a world-class professional golfer whose performance in the LPGA helped push the women’s tour to new heights of excellence and visibility. Along with her contemporaries in the field, she is considered the trailblazer for current players. “Millsaps helped me become a national winner,” said Mills in her acceptance speech. “To win takes character, courage, tenacity, and some grit, and Millsaps helped me believe in myself.”

Mills began her career by winning the Mississippi Women’s Amateur Championship in 1954 at the age of 14, the youngest person to ever win this title. In 1962, her first year on the LPGA Tour after graduating from Millsaps, she was selected as the Rookie of the Year by Golf Digest. Her subsequent major victories, Alumna of the Year Mary Mills, a world-class professional golfer, in her heyday. including the USGA Women’s Open Championship in 1963 and the LPGA Championships in 1964 and 1973, mark Mills as one of the most accomplished professional athletes to have attended Millsaps.

Born in Laurel and raised on the Gulf Coast, Mills originally came to Millsaps in pursuit of a topnotch education because she knew it was considered the best liberal arts college in the state. Already an accomplished athlete, during her senior year in high school she became interested

in learning. “I came here to ask the big questions: ‘Who am I and what is life about?’”

During her four years at the College under Coach Mary Ann Edge (see related story, page 32), Mills played in the No. 1 slot on the men’s golf team, attracting regional and national attention. Along with many regional titles, she won eight consecutive Mississippi Women’s Golf Association events; she holds the record for the most total and consecutive wins of the Mississippi Women’s Amateur Championship.

“The purpose of golf is connected to the reason I came to Millsaps,” commented Mills, as she described how the game of golf parallels life experiences. “It’s not whether you are going to get in trouble, it’s when. It (golf) takes into consideration the whole human spectrum,” she mentioned as she contrasted the power needed for a drive with the control needed for a four-foot putt. “There’s no other sport that goes to those extremes.”

Mills was inducted into the Millsaps Sports Hall of Fame in 1975 and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1988.

In addition to earning a B.A. in philosophy from Millsaps in 1962, she earned a master of landscape architecture degree from Florida International University’s School of Engineering in 1996. She is an accomplished golf course architect with extensive experience designing courses throughout the United States and abroad.

Mills’s first love remains teaching. A member of the LPGA Teaching Division since 1980, she has taught and coached at leading American universities and golf clubs for more than 25 years. She currently serves as an instructor for The Bird Golf Schools, with locations throughout the United States.

The College also bestowed the prestigious Jim Livesay Service Award upon four distinguished individuals. The award honors the spirit of commitment in which Livesay (1920–2001) served the College as an alumnus, administrator, and volunteer for nearly 50 years. Betsy Bradley, B.A.

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From left, Alumna of the Year Mary Mills and Livesay Award winners Betsy Bradley, Tom Shima, and Jane and Price Hildebrand.

1984, Tom Shima, B.A. 1987, and Price and Jane Hildebrand, parents of both a current and a former student at Millsaps, were honored with Mills at the 2006 College Awards and Recognition Dinner, held in March on campus at the Leggett Center.

Greenville native Betsy Bradley was appointed director of the Mississippi Museum of Art in 2001. She oversees the museum in Jackson, which has 29 statewide affiliates. Since arriving at the museum, she has acquired federal funding for an award-winning after-school partnership with the Jackson Zoo, the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, and Rowan Middle School. She has also secured state bonding authority and a city lease for a new museum building, and she has launched monthly jazz and multidisciplinary community programs.

Prior to her tenure at the museum, Bradley served as the executive director of the Mississippi Arts Commission, the largest grant-making organization for the arts in the state. Under her leadership, the commission’s Whole Schools program grew to serve 26 schools statewide and received national recognition, including a $1 million leadership award from the U.S. Department of Education.

Bradley, who earned a B.A. in English

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from Millsaps and an M.A. in literature from Vanderbilt University, currently serves on the board of directors for Americans for the Arts, and she has served on the boards of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, the Southern Arts Federation, and as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. In addition to her career and civic duties, Bradley has given freely of her time and expertise to the College for many years. She is a past president of the Millsaps Arts & Lecture Series board, a former Alumni Council member, and a longstanding participant on the alumni panel for the Office of Admissions’ Top Scholars Days. She is currently serving as a mentor to Millsaps students through the Faith & Work Initiative’s Lilly Internship program.

Bradley recalled a memorable point in her Millsaps career when a paper in Greek tragedy was returned to her with no grade and a note from Dr. Catherine Freis that said, “See me.” Bradley recounted that Freis told her: “I know what kind of girl you are. You were trained not to think.” Bradley credits Millsaps with changing that.

“Millsaps opened a world of wonder for me,” said Bradley. “It is an education that has never failed me. I’m so proud of Millsaps, that you’ve continued to stay

true to your mission of being a liberal arts college.”

Tom Shima has consistently demonstrated outstanding leadership of and support for Millsaps College. While at Millsaps, he was active in Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, served as a student senator, and was a member of the honorary leadership fraternity Omicron Delta Kappa. He later kicked off his impressive professional career with the CBS News Election and Survey Unit in New York City, conducting nationwide statistical field research for the 1988 presidential election. For the past five years, Shima has worked in technology sales in the Washington, D.C., area, serving as an account manager and international sales representative for several global concerns, including SAVVIS Communications, UUNET Technologies, and Cable & Wireless America. He is currently a territory sales manager for Acronis, Inc., an award-winning software company with offices in Virginia and San Francisco.

Shima grew up in Iowa, but made periodic visits to his grandmother’s home in Jackson. His grandmother would comment to the grandchildren as she drove past Millsaps that “you attend Millsaps not to learn how to make a living, but to learn how to live.” That notion stayed with Shima, and when the time came to attend college, his parents agreed to find a way to send him to Millsaps, even though he had resigned himself to the idea that the College was financially out of reach. He now says of attending Millsaps: “It is a gift of a lifetime that I will always cherish and never forget.”

Continuing his commitment to Millsaps long after graduation, Shima has served as the charter president of the Alumni Association’s Washington, D.C., chapter since its inception in May 2003. He has given tirelessly of his time and energy to organize, maintain, and improve this group.

Shima is also a member of the College’s Alumni and Parents Subcommittee.

Price and Jane Hildebrand, parents of Taylor, B.A. 2004, and current senior

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Emily Hildebrand, are perennial supporters of Millsaps College. Both are deeply committed to education. Price, the founder and president of Precision Tech and Senior Partners, spent more than 15 years as an active member of the PTA in his children’s schools. He also was a longtime scoutmaster for the Cub Scouts. Jane, who has taught second grade in the Jackson Public Schools for the past 28 years, was named teacher of the year in 1993 by Parents for Public Schools.

As members of the Millsaps Parents Council for the past four years and copresidents for 2005–06, the Hildebrands have led the council in organizing and implementing annual events such as Welcome Weekend, investing many hours to ensure that the opening day of school is expertly managed. In addition to hosting numerous open houses for parents of incoming students, they have assisted the Office of Admissions with student recruitment and the Division of Student Life with Greek organizations.

Jane has also supported the College’s Department of Education by consistently serving as a JPS supervising teacher for Millsaps teacher candidates, welcoming a student teacher to her classroom each year.

Over the course of her teaching career, she has shared her passion and expertise with 17 student teachers, 15 of whom were Millsaps students. The Hildebrands’ son Taylor received elementary education licensure at Millsaps, and their daughter Emily is currently working toward her teaching license.

—Scott Alber t Johnson, Patti Wade

Alumni Teaching English in China And Macedonia Nihao! Zdravo! Hello! Imagine bathing elephants and spending the day at the spa for 13 cents. Imagine being able to teach English to students in another country

while learning about a different culture and exploring exotic locales. Teaching English in a foreign country is an enlightening experience that can provide insights into cultures far beyond the gates of Millsaps College.

Seven graduates are doing just that.

Lindsey Jackson, B.S. 2004, Jessica Lester, B.A. 2005, Jennifer Paradise, B.S. 2005, Meghan Pigott, B.A. 2005, Sherry Smith, B.A. 2004, and Liz Stewart, B.A. 2004, are teaching English as a second language to college-level students in China. In addition, Marion Parker, B.A., 2004, is teaching English in the Albanian community in Struga, Macedonia.

The program that allows recent alumni to teach abroad in China started in 1993 when Dr. Ming Tsui, associate professor of sociology, recommended one Millsaps graduate to teach at Wuhan University of Technology in China for one year. Since then, about 30 Millsaps graduates have participated in the program. Having spent several summers in Albania with Dr. Michael Galaty, associate professor of anthropology, Parker sought teaching opportunities in the region on her own by searching for language schools and applying for available positions.

It is not required that students major in English to teach the language abroad. In fact, those who participate in the program come from a broad range of academic backgrounds. The opportunity to teach abroad allows graduates to find out what they want to do professionally and helps them gain work experience and improve their professional skills.

“With globalization, I feel it is extremely important that our graduates should not only have study-abroad opportunities but also work-abroad experiences,” Tsui said. “Over the years, many who worked abroad have gone to graduate or law school and become researchers related to international issues, or lawyers specialized in international law, or have found jobs in multinational corporations.”

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Meghan Pigott in Wuhan, China, where she has been teaching English as a second language to college-level students.

students broaden their horizons—and their attitudes. Of course, adjusting to the culture may take time. Parker said she learned to adjust comfortably by having an attitude of cultural relativism. “This means that I not only accept cultural differences, but I also enjoy them and adapt my behavior to suit my environment,” she said.

Macedonian customs are about generosity and making guests feel at home by offering Turkish coffee, cookies, and other snacks. “So after observing this custom, whenever guests come to my apartment I do the same thing,” Parker said.

“While they comfortably sit in my living room, I am running back and forth to my kitchen to make coffee, tea, refill juice and water glasses, put food on plates, etc.”

Pigott said that teaching in China has allowed her to learn a little Chinese, the art of bargaining, and how to handle seeing raw meat hanging from her neighbors’ porches.

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Townsend Brings Aid And Training to Bolivians J. Shane Townsend, B.A. 2000, has returned from two years working with the Peace Corps as a risk/ emergency management consultant in Bolivia. From August 2003 until October 2005, Townsend, who also served as an emergency services and response planner in Virginia, revised the Peace Corps Bolivia Emergency Action Plan and created a nationwide hazard-analysis plan for the socially divided country.

He also drafted the first edition of Peace Corps Bolivia’s safety and security newsletter and designed and implemented training for staff and volunteers.

Townsend said his efforts concentrated not only on helping the Bolivians prepare for natural disasters, but also on “helping with community development projects that trained women, children, and indigenous groups in tourism, computer skills, English, hygiene, and environmental awareness.” Townsend is currently working with Save the Children in Baton Rouge.

—Jesse Yancy

These graduates have been able to build on what they learned as students, and now they have the knowledge and experience to connect with a completely different culture.

They are able to form open relationships with students who may initially seem very different.

“As I have gotten to know my students, their personalities have allowed me to see them as individuals,” Paradise said. “My absolute favorite moments are when they

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do something so typical of any student that I forget they are Chinese students. They complain about homework, laugh when I try to speak Chinese, make fun of one another’s English, and cheer when I decide to give no homework. Sometimes it’s like I’m back at Millsaps!”

This experience goes beyond just teaching English. It represents a meshing of cultures where strong relationships and bonds are formed between two dramatically different cultures. In the end, both cultures benefit from the service.

Paradise said she believed that Millsaps taught her to embrace the unknown so that she never ceases to be a student. “With this mindset, I moved far from home, and now China has taught me to view the world with open eyes and all its people with an open heart,” she said.

Tsui emphasized that “through teaching Chinese college students, our graduates also introduce American culture, enhance the understanding between the two countries, and spread democratic ideas directly to their students. Our graduates are doing a great service to the Chinese people, and their work will have long-term, positive consequences.” —Jackie Rezk

Partners in Law, Music, and Helping Their Community Webster’s defines a Renaissance man as “a person who has wide interests and is expert in several areas.” Sounds like a good guy to have around, right? Imagine having two of them.

Millsaps alumni Eric Stracener, B.A. 1987, and John Hawkins, B.A. 1990, combine music, the law, and an abiding concern for their community. They work together as partners in the Jackson law firm of Baria, Hawkins & Stracener, where they represent “people, not corporations.”

They are active in the community, giving robust support to such worthy charitable

organizations as Operation Shoestring and Mississippi HeARTS Against AIDS. They’re also accomplished musicians.

Stracener is a highly regarded singersongwriter and the leader of the band Eric Stracener and the Frustrations. His music has received airplay as far away as Europe; his new album, The Trickbag, was released in March to strong reviews. In addition to his own music, he’s also a champion of other songwriters, having emceed the recent Arts & Lecture Series concert here with Kate Campbell, Will Kimbrough, and fellow alumnus Cary Hudson, B.S. 1985.

Hawkins is an accomplished guitarist and bassist who fronts the band Men of Leisure, a four-piece outfit playing (mostly) his original music; he has been an active member of the Jackson musical community since his high school days at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School. He was the driving force behind such well-known local bands as Goode Question, Trip Daily and the Imperial Show Band, and Soul Pocket. He’s currently putting the finishing touches on Men of Leisure’s debut album, expected to be released this summer. He also plays bass in Stracener’s band.

The two met at Millsaps in the mid1980s (Stracener was three years ahead of Hawkins). Guitar was the common bond, although, as Stracener puts it, “I couldn’t play.” He began learning his senior year.

“My dad and brother [Sam Stracener, B.S. 1989] were both really good musicians,” Stracener recalls. “I was writing an honors paper, and to sort of give myself a break I started teaching myself how to play. There were a lot of good players around.” He quickly gravitated toward creating his own music, honing his writing and guitar playing while attending graduate school at the University of Alabama. He played in bands in Tuscaloosa and Mobile before eventually heading to law school at the University of Mississippi. “In Oxford, I started really writing and playing a lot of solo acoustic gigs,” he says.

Hawkins also had music—and Millsaps—in his blood. His father, Fred Hawkins, was an alumnus as well as an

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here,” he says. “We did do original music, with heavy influence from New Orleans rhythm and blues, Little Feat, that sort of thing. It was the first time that I had really focused on doing my own songs.”

All the while, both men were advancing their legal Musicians John Hawkins, left, and Eric Stracener at their law office in downtown Jackson. careers. Hawkins clerked for the excellent guitar and bass player. John late Mississippi Supreme Court Justice formed Goode Question while still in high Michael Sullivan, while also interning at school; “the answer to great rock and roll” some larger corporate firms. Stracener also was their slogan. Hawkins played music dabbled in the corporate defense side of throughout college and started Soul Pocket the legal world, but his beliefs and politics while in law school at Tulane. would eventually lead him elsewhere.

“It was mainly an excuse to travel up “It was a great learning experience

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with good, honorable people that I wouldn’t trade for anything,” says Stracener.

“Finally, though, the way I view the world led me toward trying to keep individual rights intact in a world that keeps getting more and more polarized and run by fewer and fewer people. If I get to help some folks and provide for my family, then I am fulfilled. It’s really that simple.”

“I didn’t really like the institutional, ‘billable hours’ setting,” says Hawkins.

“Clerking for Justice Sullivan had a big impact on me. He was a populist, and he was inclined to protect people, whether in the context of a criminal defendant’s constitutional rights or a person who has been injured and seeks justice. It wasn’t a litmus test for him that I shared those policies, but it quickly became apparent to me that I did.

“During those two years with the Supreme Court, I had some direct involvement in some very important cases

OUR GOAL IS

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HELP YOU EARN A BIGGER PAYCHECK. WE EXPECT YOU TO SIGN THE PAYCHECKS.

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spring–summer FOR MORE INFOMATION CALL 601-974-1253 OR GO TO MILLSAPS.EDU.

2006

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that dealt with what I felt were important issues. It was already part of my psyche and philosophy, but that experience reinforced it. I later went to work for a firm that did a lot of civil rights and employment discrimination work. I cut my teeth as a lawyer there. I learned how to treat the court, my opponents, and clients with respect, and I learned how to work through the system to find justice.”

Both Hawkins and Stracener married Millsaps students—Dorothy Allen Hawkins, B.A. 1991, and Stacey Perkins Stracener, B.A. 1992, respectively. Both men cite Millsaps as playing a pivotal role in shaping the values that, in turn, have shaped their careers and lives.

“Millsaps played a huge role in guiding me to this vocation and to the ‘side’ that I’ve chosen,” says Stracener. “Not because the school is particularly liberal or conservative, but because it promotes an exchange of ideas and a realistic and educated view of the world, instead of what’s just spouted at you every day. It helps you make informed decisions about how to see and live in the world. They don’t tell you what to think, but they make sure that you do think.”

“Millsaps sought to instill the desire to be creative and think critically,” says Hawkins. “That’s not necessarily going to lead you to one ‘side’ or the other in the legal world, but in my case I feel that what I do is on the more creative and proactive side of civil litigation. We represent individuals who often have what seem like insurmountable hurdles to justice and resolution. You have to be critical, creative, and analytical, and that’s part of the education I got at Millsaps. I’m thankful for that.”

The two lawyer-musicians extend this philosophy beyond the boardroom and bandstand, actively supporting a wide range of local charities. They are both regular performers at the annual holiday benefit show supporting Operation Shoestring, a nonprofit organization serving children and families in Jackson.

Stracener was the lead organizer of last

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year’s installment.

“Eric and John are really amazing guys,” says Robert Langford, Operation Shoestring’s executive director. “They’re both good lawyers, great musicians, and devoted to their families. But what’s most impressive to me is that these guys take the time to support our work in very handson ways. In fact, Eric and John have given generously to us, gotten others in their profession to support our work, and taken very active roles in making our annual music benefit great fun and a financial success. They’re putting their money where their mouths are in terms of creating opportunities for low-income kids.

“They even invite me to sit in and play guitar with them on occasion, and that’s worth a whole lot in my book!”

This perspective on life and work helps explain why both Eric Stracener and John Hawkins have found a sort of holistic synergy in their multiple talents. There’s nothing, after all, mutually exclusive about the law and rock ’n’ roll. “You don’t have to be a robot to be a lawyer, or a doctor, or whatever,” says Stracener. “You can be more than one thing. And doing things in the community—that’s the same way. I see everything I do in terms of community.

This is where we work and live.”

“You’re not just defined by your occupation,” agrees Hawkins. “We recognize a sense of duty as a law firm and as individuals to contribute to the community in multiple ways. That includes what we do as lawyers, but also the causes we choose to support and even our musical activities. It’s very meaningful when we get the chance to do that.”

It’s fun, too, especially when they play together. “Being partners, friends, and band mates … it’s about the most fun you can have standing up,” says Stracener.

Their music is accessible on the web at www.ericstracener.com and www.menofleisuremusic.com, which was scheduled to go online this spring.

—Scott Alber t Johnson

Tom Bauer/The Missoulian

Norma Fox outside her home near Ronan, Montana.

Two of her sons have died of alcohol-related causes; she and her other children have also struggled with alcohol.

Moore Wins Casey Medal For Series on Alcoholism Among Native Americans Michael Moore, who attended Millsaps in 1981, recently was awarded a 2005 Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism for his feature series about two 11-year-old boys on an Indian reservation who drank themselves to death.

Moore, a reporter for the Missoulian daily newspaper in Missoula, Montana, spent two months on the Flathead Reservation, in an attempt to find out what went wrong. The series won the Casey Medal for the best project or series for a newspaper with a circulation under 75,000.

The Casey Journalism Center at the University of Maryland praised Moore’s series as “a powerful, deeply nuanced examination of the lives of Flathead Indian children and the destruction alcohol leaves in its wake—narrative storytelling at its best.” For more about the Casey Awards, go to: www.cjc.umd.edu/awards/2005_ awards.html; to read Moore’s series, go to www.missoulian.com/specials/lostboys/.

—Scott Albert Johnson

How do you judge the value of something invaluable— like a college education?

For starters, you take a look

at what happens after graduation.

Congratulations to Millsaps College alumni named by the Mississippi Business Journal to Mississippi’s Top 40 Under 40 for 2006.

Derek Arrington

District Attorney’s Office – 12th Circuit Court

Mark McCreery

MJM Consulting Group Inc.

Allison Lesley Graves

Entergy Mississippi Inc.

Elisa Phillips

Regions Financial Corp.

Ray Harrigill

Holly Lange

The SunRay Companies, LLC

Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life

Manisha Sethi

Lyneille Countiss Williams

Internal Medicine and Pediatric Associates of Ridgeland, PLLC

Watkins, Ludlam, Winter & Stennis, P.A.

1701 North State Street • Jackson, MS 39210-0001 • 601-974-1000

Prepare your mind for the possibilities.

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MajorNotes Send It In: Millsaps Magazine would like you to know that its Major Notes policy has changed. The magazine is now printing only information sent in specifically for Major Notes. In the past, material was gleaned from newspaper clippings and other sources. The change was made to protect the privacy of alumni and to simplify the editing process. We would like to encourage all alumni to send in their news, whether big or small, personal or professional, to Tanya Newkirk, Major Notes Editor, Office of Alumni Relations, Millsaps College, 1701 North State Street, Jackson, MS 39210-0001. Or fax : 601-974-1088.

Phone: 601-974-1038 or 1-86-MILLSAPS (1-866 - 455-7277), the alumni relations toll-free number. Email: alumni @ millsaps.edu. Please include your name, address, phone numbers, email address, graduation year and degree, and any news you want to share. Appropriate items include births, weddings, advanced degrees, awards, job promotions, etc. Photographs are also welcome. If you are aware of alumni who are not receiving the magazine, please send us their names and addresses.

1956 Reunion Class 1963 Dr.Tom S. McHorse, B.S. 1963, of Austin, Texas, has been named the Travis County Medical Society’s 2005 Physician of the Year. He has been described as a caring and exceptional physician who made strides in indigent care in the county through his efforts at the Volunteer Healthcare Clinic and Project Access. A gastroenterologist, McHorse has cared for patients since 1976 at the Austin Volunteer Health Clinic, where he has been the medical director for the past 12 years. He also helped create Project Access, a coordinated system of volunteer physician care, hospital care, diagnostic services, and medications assistance for low-income, uninsured people in Travis County. He was selected by county Medical Society members for the award based on criteria including knowledge, integrity, service to the community or the profession, humility, and compassion for patients and fellow workers. The society is a voluntary membership organization of more than 2,500 physicians serving Austin and surrounding counties since 1853.

1966 Reunion Class 1970 Brigadier General J. E. (Erik) Hearon, B.A.

1970, of Jackson was transferred from the post of commander of the 186th Air Refueling Wing in Meridian to chief of staff for the Mississippi Air National Guard Headquarters in January 2006. He was also promoted to the rank of brigadier general.

The Air National Guard Headquarters is responsible for three locations in the state:

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Meridian, Jackson’s Thompson Field, and the Combat Readiness Training Center in Gulfport. In his new position, Hearon oversees about 2,700 people. He has extensive military training, including an eight-month tour of duty with Operation Iraqi Freedom and stints with Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

1971 Arthur D. Dyess, B.A. 1971, of Kosciusko

has been selected for another term as lead automation instructor for the Social Security Administration in Mississippi.

His duties include software and hardware training for 30 state Social Security and related offices. He is also responsible for implementing training programs and initiatives dictated by the Atlanta Regional Office of Training. He has served in this capacity since October 2003.

1975 Linsa Brown Archer, B.S. 1975, of Greenville received her state licensure in marriage and family therapy in July 2005.

She operates a private practice in Greenville, offering counseling to individuals, couples, and families.

1976 Reunion Class 1977 Toni M. (McMillan) Bailey, B.A. 1977, of

Rockville, Md., has her own business, Toni Bailey Landscape Designs, in Rockville.

1981 Reunion Class

1983 Martha L. (Lewis) Bell, B.B.A. 1983, of

Spring, Texas, is a self-employed certified public accountant.

Rhonda E. Jones, B.B.A. 1983, M.B.A. 1989,

of Ooltewah, Tenn., is an operations manager for Medical Management Professionals in Chattanooga.

John M. (Marshall) Pemberton, B.B.A. 1983, of Roswell, Ga., is a manager for Claims Management Services in Roswell.

He also coaches his daughter’s softball team through the Sandy Springs Youth Association.

Cordelia D. (Douzenis) Zinskie, B.A. 1983,

of Statesboro, Ga., received the Jack Miller Educator of the Year Award in August 2005 from the College of Education at Georgia Southern University. She is the acting chair of the Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading.

1984 Dr. Benjamin R.Wynne,

B.B.A. 1984, of Watkinsville, Ga., wrote the introduction for two works published by Barnes & Noble Books: Mosby’s

Memoirs:The Memoirs of Colonel John Singleton Mosby,

by the noted Confederate cavalry officer, published in January 2006, and a new edition of G. F. R. Henerson’s Stonewall

To Find Alumni Online, Log On to MyMillsaps.com

Jackson and the American Civil War, scheduled for publication in June 2006.

Wynne is an assistant professor of history at Gainesville State College in Georgia.

1986 Reunion Class 1990 David P. Sullivan, B.A. 1990, of Gulfport is a partner with Ungarino & Eckert, LLC, in Gulfport.

1991 Daniel R. Ayres, B.S. 1991, and Dr. Karen Lubell of Nashville, Tenn., were married on Sept. 17, 2005, in Nashville. He is a geologist and project manager for Groundwater & Environmental Services, Inc., in Nashville. She is a clinical instructor in the Department of Pediatrics at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital.

1992 Christopher H. Beck, B.S. 1992, of Evanston,

Ill., is an enterprise voice architect for Career Education Corporation. He is responsible for leading the execution of a company-wide telephone strategy, which involves designing and installing call centers, call scoring systems, phone systems, free intracompany long-distance networks, and other phone services.

Suzanne E. Gueydan, B.B.A. 1992, of Palo Alto, Calif., has been promoted to the position of vice president of finance and administration for Valchemy, Inc., a mergers and acquisitions software company in Silicon Valley. She also volunteers as a coach for high school girls’ soccer each fall through the American Youth Soccer Organization in Palo Alto.

The Millsaps alumni online community makes it easy for alumni to stay in touch with classmates and their alma mater. Access to the online community is a password-protected benefit exclusively for Millsaps alumni. Registered users enjoy a number of services, including an online search for other alumni and permanent email forwarding, which allows alumni to receive email no matter how many times their addresses change. An online events calendar alerts alumni to upcoming events on and off campus, enabling graduates to stay informed. Alumni can also report changes in their addresses and personal information. If you would like additional information or if you have questions or comments about the online community, please email us at alumni@millsaps.edu or call 1-86-MILLSAPS.

1993 Jennifer W. (Wallace) Thomas, B.A. 1993, and Jon Thomas of Nashville announce the birth of their daughter, Jane Claire, on May 28, 2005. Jennifer is a literacy coordinator and reading specialist for Metro Nashville Public Schools.

1994 Jennifer L. Nevins, M.B.A. 1994, and

Wayne D. Henson of Hampton, Tenn., were married Oct. 8, 2005, in Columbia, S.C. She received a Ph.D. in international business from the University of South Carolina in December 2005. She is an assistant professor of marketing at Appalachian State University’s Walker College of Business in Boone, N.C.

1995 John M. Mercer, B.B.A. 1995, of Mobile, Ala., is an account manager for Lewis Communications.

1996 Reunion Class Cynthia (Cyndi) Meeks, B.A. 1996, and John Anthony (Tony) Saia Jr. of Greenwood were married June 11, 2005, in Greenwood. She is the manager of international marketing for Viking Range Corporation.

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1997 Philip J. Chapman, B.S. 1997, and Anne C. Roberson, B.A. 2000, of Brandon were

married Aug. 27, 2005, in Jackson. The wedding party included Millsaps alumni Martha R. (Roberson) Frye, B.A. 1994, William D. (Davis) Frye, B.B.A. 1994, Laurie Lester Sledge, B.B.A. 1995, Dr.Timothy P. Bakelaar, B.S. 1996, Michael B. Sledge, B.S. 1997, Craig A.Thieling, B.S. 1997, Mary Virginia (Ginger) McElwee Harbour, B.B.A. 1999, Daniel H.Walker, B.B.A. 1999, M.Acc. 2000, Kate E. (England) Walton, B.S. 1999, Andrea Klevan, B.B.A. 2000, and Heather S. (Sullivan) Wise, B.S. 2000. April Harris Roberson, B.S. 1998, and Kimberly A. Niolet, B.S. 1999, also participated. Chapman is an attorney with Copeland, Cook, Taylor & Bush, and Roberson is a registered nurse at River Oaks Hospital.

Angela M. (Whittington) Doss, B.B.A.

1997, M.B.A. 1998, and Burton M. Doss of Jackson announce the birth of their son, Jackson Moran, on Dec. 15, 2005. Angela is the finance coordinator for Hospice Ministries in Ridgeland, and Burton is the director of information technology for Malaco Records in Jackson.

1998 Erin L. (Best) Margolin, B.A. 1998, and Dr. Daniel J. Margolin of Mission Hills, Kan., announce the birth of their twin daughters, Abigail Jane and Isabel Grace, on Dec. 9, 2005. Erin is a full-time mother and Daniel is a general surgeon at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.

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2003

1999 Allison V. Nichols, B.S. 1999, and Trey

Tupman of Benton were married Oct. 1, 2005, in Yazoo City. She is a biology teacher at St. Joseph Catholic School in Madison.

2000 Kevin J. McMahon, B.A.

2000, and Jessica Fleury of Louisville, Ky., were married on Oct. 22, 2005, on Tybee Island, Ga. The groom’s attendants included Jason S. Otis, B.A. 1998, and Benjamin L. Chandler, B.S. 1999.

McMahon and Fleury are archaeologists for PanAmerican Consultants in Louisville.

Heather R. Sullivan, B.S. 2000, and Reese M. Wise of Brandon were married Dec. 18, 2004, in Brandon. She is a speech-language pathologist at Methodist Rehabilitation Center, working in neurological outpatient therapy and at the Quest Program, a community re-entry program for people who have had brain injuries. He is a registered nurse in the surgery department at River Oaks Hospital in Flowood.

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Sarah E. Bartlett, B.A. 2003, of Jackson was hired as the development coordinator for Operation Shoestring in November 2005. The nonprofit organization was founded in Jackson in 1968 as a response to the turbulence of the 1960s and the growing divisions in the city and the state of Mississippi. An interfaith ministry supported by a variety of individual and corporate sponsors, local congregations, and public entities, it provides educational opportunities for inner-city Jackson children and families as well as some crisis intervention services. In her new position, Bartlett is responsible for building and leading the development office.

John R. Henry, B.B.A. 2003, of Memphis is an accountant in the tax department for Thompson Dunavant, PLC, in Memphis.

Mackey Sugar Quinlan, B.B.A. 2003, and Mickey Quinlan, of Shreveport, La., announce the birth of their daughter, Riley Anna, on Dec. 19, 2005. Mackey is a third-year medical student at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, and Mickey is the associate director of admissions and alumni liaison at Millsaps.

Jessica R. (Rose) Springfield, M.B.A. 2003,

of Canton is a student loan officer with Trustmark National Bank in Jackson.

Shane E.White, M.B.A. 2003, of Dayton, Ohio, is the director of marketing and operations for enrollment management at the University of Dayton, where he is pursuing a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership with an emphasis on higher education administration.

2004 Kelly C. Sellers, B.A. 2004, and Joshua A. Wittie, B.A. 2004, of Hammond, La., were

married on Nov. 26, 2005, in Hammond.

She teaches math to 3- to 5-year-olds and is a homeroom teacher at Montessori & Me Preschool in Ponchatoula. He teaches world history and theology to freshmen and sophomores and coaches soccer, cross country, and track at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic High School in Hammond. They are both pursuing master’s degrees at Southeastern Louisiana University, she in history and he in teaching.

2005 Jennifer M. Keith, B.B.A. 2005, of Ridgeland is a sales assistant and receptionist for Coker & Palmer Securities Brokerage in Jackson.

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MajorNotes Albert L. (Lee) Allbritton Jr., B.B.A. 1984,

of Waynesboro died Oct. 20, 2005. At Millsaps, he contributed to the literary magazine Stylus and the Purple &White, won the Wall Street Journal Award, and was on the Dean’s List.

Charles A. Barton, B.S. 1949, of Jackson

died Oct. 5, 2005. While at Millsaps, he was a member of Theta Nu Sigma honorary and was on the Dean’s List. He taught as an adjunct professor of geology at the College in the 1970s.

the Debate Team, the Bobashela staff, the YMCA, the Student Executive Board, and the Christian Council. He served as Student Body President, president of Pi Kappa Delta, and vice president of the International Relations Club. Ford was named Master Major in 1938 and was named to Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities.

died Oct. 3, 2005. At Millsaps, he was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity and the International Relations Club.

Marian P. (Pendergrast) Brown, 1949, of

Brookfield, Wis., died July 20, 2005. While at Millsaps, she was a member of the Vikings.

Aug. 3, 2005. While at Millsaps, he was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.

Brandon died Aug. 13, 2005. At Millsaps, he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, Alpha Psi Omega, The Millsaps Singers, The Millsaps Players, and the Inter-fraternity Council. He served as business manager for the Stylus and The Millsaps Players.

Thomas Jasper Lowe, 1933, of Jackson died

Dec. 8, 2005. While at Millsaps, he was a member of Eta Sigma and the debate team.

Patti L. (Latham) Burnham, B.A. 1946,

of Houston, Texas, died Aug. 6, 2005.

At Millsaps, she majored in English and worked in the campus post office.

Helen R. (Shelton) Byrd, 1938, of Madison

died Oct. 26, 2005. While at Millsaps, she was a member of Kappa Delta sorority.

Emily (Fleming) Castle, B.B.A. 1989,

of Conway, Ark., died Dec. 9, 2005. At Millsaps, she served in the Student Body Association and as treasurer of Chi Omega sorority. She was a member of the crosscountry team and played intramural basketball and volleyball. She was also on the Dean’s List and served on the Campus Ministry Team.

Ed Davis Noble, 1940, of Lorman died

Nov. 19, 2005. While at Millsaps, he was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity, the YMCA, the Pre-Medical Club, the Science Club, the M-Club, and the baseball team.

Martha A. (Ray) Novak, B.A. 1961, of

Jackson died Dec. 12, 2005. At Millsaps, she was a member of Chi Omega sorority, Chi Delta, Sigma Lambda, the International Relations Club, the Purple &White staff, and the Social Science Forum. She participated in the Washington Semester in 1961 and was named to Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities.

Henry W. Obaugh, 1947, of Staunton, Va.,

died Aug. 15, 2005. While at Millsaps, he was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity.

He attended the College as part of the Navy V-12 officer-training program.

Frank B. McCaa II, B.A. 1966, of Dillsburg,

Pa., died Aug. 23, 2005. While at Millsaps, he was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity and the M-Club. He also served as sports editor of the Bobashela and participated in athletics.

Dr. Cobern E. Ott, B.S. 1964, of Lexington,

Dr. David L. Meadows, B.S. 1963, of

Mary Lucinda (Cindy) Pharis, B.A. 1970, of

McCarley died Aug. 5, 2005. At Millsaps, he was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity, The Millsaps Singers, and the track team.

He served as president of Alpha Epsilon Delta and was the recipient of a National Science Foundation Scholarship.

Abita Springs, La., died Jan. 1, 2005. While at Millsaps, she was a member of Kappa Delta sorority and Kappa Delta Epsilon.

Leonard Metts, B.S. 1949, of Jackson died

Albany died July 26, 2005. While at Millsaps, he participated in athletics.

Oct. 27, 2005. While at Millsaps, he was a member of The Millsaps Singers and the Student Executive Board. During the 1970s, he served on the Board of Directors for the Millsaps College Alumni Association.

William R. Ford, B.A. 1938, of Kosciusko

Calvin J. Michel, B.S. 1941, of Jackson died

died Nov. 7, 2005. At Millsaps, he was a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity, Omicron Delta Kappa, Eta Sigma Phi,

Aug. 4, 2005. At Millsaps, he majored in chemistry.

Dr. Ronald L. Feather, B.S. 1973, of New

College 1926, of Hazlehurst died Jan. 30, 2006.

Charles S. Jackson, 1963, of Yazoo City died

James B. (Brack) Lange, B.S. 1959, of William H. Brewer, B.A. 1952, of Tupelo

Mary Ella (Bennett) Miller, Whitworth

Ky., died Sept. 23, 2005. While at Millsaps, he was a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity and the M-Club. He also played baseball and basketball.

Mildred C. (Clegg) Rhea, B.A. 1938, of

Madison died Nov. 17, 2005. At Millsaps, she was a member of Beta Sigma Omicron, Alpha Psi Omega, Eta Sigma, Sigma Lambda, Eta Sigma Phi, Chi Delta, Le Cercle français, The Millsaps Players, and the debate team. President of the YWCA and editor of the co-ed edition of the Purple &White, Rhea was also named to Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities.

She was an active alumna and supporter of the College, serving as secretary and vice president of the Millsaps College Alumni Association’s Board of Directors

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in the 1940s and 1950s. She was also a longstanding Presidents Society member. In 1991, Rhea received the Millsaps College Livesay Service Award.

of the Virginia Mayfield Riggs Study Center and Reading Room in the Millsaps-Wilson Library in honor of his wife.

Ruth M. (Mann) Watson, B.S. 1932, of Yazoo

City died June 5, 2004. While at Millsaps, she was a member of Beta Sigma Omicron sorority and Eta Sigma.

Charlton S. Roby, B.A. 1942, of Jackson Dr.Walter S. Ridgway II, B.S. 1943, of

Shelton, Conn., died Oct. 16, 2005. At Millsaps, he was a member of Omicron Delta Kappa and The Millsaps Players. He served as president and treasurer of Kappa Alpha fraternity, vice president of his freshman and sophomore class, president of The Millsaps Singers, vice president of Alpha Epsilon Delta, and vice president of the Men’s Panhellenic Council. From 1947–48, he served as president of the Millsaps College Alumni Association. A longstanding financial supporter of the College, he served as chair of the Annual Fund drive for the state of Connecticut from 1962–63.

died Feb. 1, 2006. While at Millsaps, he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, Eta Sigma, and the Purple & White staff. An active alumnus and financial supporter of the College, he served as president of the Millsaps Alumni Association from 1961–62.

He was also a member of the Presidents Society. In 2003, he contributed to a fund for the creation of the General Louis H. Wilson Jr. exhibit in the Millsaps-Wilson Library.

Helen F. (Furlow) Scruggs, B.A. 1932, of

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Bobbie H. (Holder) Wilson, B.A. 1949,

of Atlanta died Aug. 30, 2005. While at Millsaps, she was a member of the Vikings, Sigma Rho Chi, and Eta Sigma Phi.

Friends Dr. Merlin D. Conoway of Tupelo died Aug. 6,

Richard Harold (R. H.) Stacy, B.S. 1936, of

Mamie Lee (Ratliff) Finger of Asheville, N.C.,

Birmingham died July 24, 2005.

Steven R. Stuart, M.B.A. 1988, of Clinton

died Dec. 6, 2005.

The Rev. John Fredrick (Fred) Toland Jr.,

B.A. 1951, of Chickasaw, Ala., died Nov. 3, 2005. While at Millsaps, he was a member of the Ministerial League and The Millsaps Singers.

2005. He served two terms on the Millsaps College Board of Trustees, from 1986–90 and from 1993–98.

died Feb. 13, 2006. She was the wife of Bishop Ellis Finger Jr., who was president of Millsaps from 1952–64. During his presidency, the couple lived on campus in what is now the English House. They raised their three children there and often hosted groups of students, faculty, and staff. She is survived by Bishop Finger, who lives at the Givens Estates in Asheville.

Upholding a Strong Tradition

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died Sept. 6, 2005. He played varsity football at Millsaps, which he attended as part of the Navy V-12 officer training program.

Pascagoula died Aug. 27, 2005. While at Millsaps, she was a member of Kappa Delta sorority, the Glee Club, and the Classical Club.

Marvin A. Riggs, B.A. 1933, of Raymond

died Nov. 6, 2005. While at Millsaps, he was a member of Pi Kappa Delta and the debate team. In the 1950s, Riggs taught a summer school class at Millsaps and participated in a fund-raising drive for the College. He served on the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors in the 1970s. A longstanding financial supporter of the College, he was a member of the Heritage Society. In spring 2005, he donated money toward the construction

B. F. (Billy) Weathers, 1948, of Carthage

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Each year, the Millsaps Annual Fund provides financial resources that directly affect the quality of teaching and student life at Millsaps. Through scholarships, academic programs, and faculty or library support, your Annual Fund gift helps the College build on its foundation of excellence.

As Millsaps shapes its learning environment, cultivates its students, and constructs new areas of study, your gift offers the support the College needs to remain one of the nation’s finest liberal arts colleges.

Give to the Millsaps Annual Fund today to ensure our success for generations to come.

Millsaps Annual Fund • 1701 North State Street • Jackson, MS 39210 - 0001 • 601-974 -1037 • www. millsaps.edu

CORRECTION: The Office of Alumni Relations would like to extend its most sincere apology for listing Dr. Robert C. Tibbs III as deceased in the Fall-Winter 2005 Millsaps Magazine. We regret the error and any hardship or inconvenience this may have caused.

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Spirits Burning with Wesleyan Ideals I’ve learned over the years that some people don’t know that Millsaps College is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. But here at the College, we certainly know it, and we are proud of it.

You don’t have to be Methodist to work here or go to school here. We welcome people of all faiths and of no faith into our community. That openness, in my opinion, makes this such a wonderful place to be. Millsaps College doesn’t want to hide from the world, be angry with the world, or assume we’re better than the world. Rather, we want to engage the world around us in a spirit of adventure, respect, and service. So in our classrooms and study-abroad programs we venture forth boldly, seeking ever-greater understanding and appreciation of the complexity of God’s wondrous creation.

But that doesn’t mean we reject our Wesleyan roots. Several years ago, our Millsaps faculty participated in a yearlong seminar to learn about the United Methodist Church. Participants were Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim. We even had one atheist, just for fun. Together, we read the hymns, sermons, and essays of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. And despite our diversity of backgrounds, every one of us came away with a deep appreciation for the Church to which Millsaps College is committed.

Three things from that seminar linger in my mind after several years. These are three commitments of Wesleyan theology that I believe define the current character and commitments of Millsaps College and make it possible for us as a College to embrace our relationship to the Church with sincerity and passion.

Foremost for us as an institution of higher learning is the commitment to intellectual growth and academic freedom. Wesley was resolute and explicit in his recognition of the importance of the life of the mind. Never did he suggest that we shut down our minds or turn off our questions to be people of faith. On the contrary, he saw the intellect as a fabulous gift from God and a crucial means for knowing and drawing close to the Divine. At Millsaps College, our mission is to equip students to develop the life of the mind—to become careful, well-informed, imaginative, and responsible thinkers.

A second Wesleyan commitment we value highly is the connection of the life of the mind with the habits of the heart. All the smarts in the world don’t matter a stitch if they aren’t guided by a merciful and contrite heart. The brain may be able to develop nanotechnologies, a worldwide network of financial markets, and a slew of sophisticated medicines, but without guidance from a heart enlivened by grace, on fire for justice, and cultivated by experiences of vital piety, the life of the mind is aimless and often destructive.

Finally, we at Millsaps embrace the Wesleyan commitment to serve the least, the lost, and the last. We guide our students toward lives of long-term meaning and service. The life of the mind, if cultivated in tandem with life-giving habits of the heart, will issue in concrete practices of compassion and justice-seeking.

With these commitments to nurturing academic excellence, life-giving habits of the heart, and lives of long-term meaning and service, we at Millsaps join hands with the United Methodist Church and look forward to many, many more years of friendship.

—Dr. Darby Ray, Director of the Millsaps Faith & Work Initiative

Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage P A I D Jackson, MS Permit No. 164

Mark Your Calendars Now For Homecoming 2006!

November 10–12, 2006 Great activities all weekend long: • Majors football vs. Trinity University • Fraternity and sorority open houses • Special activities for class reunions

1996 (10-year reunion)

1986 (20-year)

1981 (25-year)

1976 (30-year)

1966 (40-year)

1956 (50-year) • Young alumni parties • Campus tours • Faculty showcase • Picnic lunch, music, and activities for the kids • 5K Run/Walk • Sports Hall of Fame brunch • Memorial service for alumni/friends • Alumni Association annual meeting

Millsaps Office of Alumni Relations 1701 North State Street Jackson, MS 39210 -0001 601-974-1038 1-86-MILLSAPS (toll-free)

alumni@millsaps.edu www.millsaps.edu