QUADANGLES
Someone to Watch Over Us Page 20
SUMMER 2016
When Women Became Athletes Title IX transformed women’s sports. Ellie Lemaire had been waiting | 12
Let’s Argue
The late, lamented art of debate | 16
Girl On Display
A filmmaker explores the dark practice of human zoos | 26
Nanotech is Here The wildly exploding new frontier of science | 28
Some Pig
Richard Llanos '16 graduated with a degree in animal science during the University's 130th Commencement in May. At URI's Peckham Farm, the star livestock judge honed his instincts on what makes an animal a prize winner—and got to spend some quality nose-to-nose time with sheep, goats, donkeys, and adorable piglets.
QUADANGLES SUMMER 2016 | VOLUME 23, NO. 4 FEATURES
12 The Grueling Politics of Women and Sport Title IX caught universities across the country by surprise, but Ellie Lemaire was ready—for the fight of her life. Now, Lynn Baker-Dooley is taking a hard look at what comes next.
16 Art of Argument
Let’s agree to disagree, spiritedly discuss the facts, then cordially debate our conclusions. Don’t laugh—it really happens. A storied student club shows the way.
20 On Guards
It’s a summer job, a family tradition, a rite of passage—and for URI, something of a cottage industry. Stories and wisdom from the sandy, sunburnt, whistle-carrying trenches.
26 Human Zoo
Two small girls meet in Brussels, 1958. One is behind a fence. A newly minted filmmaker reimagines a dark chapter of the World's Fair.
28 The Tiny Tech That’s Changing Everything We may not know it, but nanotechnology is all around us. Geoffrey Bothun wants to harness its power, inside and outside the human body.
DEPARTMENTS A lifeguard's whistle remains a key safety tool. | 20
2 FEEDBACK 4 PRESIDENT’SVIEW 5 5MINUTEEXPERT | Naloxone 6 NEWS&VIEWS 10 PRESSBOX 32 CLASSACTS | News from your classmates 35 CLOSEUP | Lawrence Ginsberg ’80 37 CLOSEUP | Marie Antonette Juinio-Meñez, Ph.D. ’91 40 BACKPAGE | The Pittsburgh Steelers and their URI summer camp On the Cover: Lifeguard captain Jameson Logiodice ’08 keeps watch over Scarborough Beach, summer 2015.
PHOTOS: NORA LEWIS; DAVE LAVALLEE
MORE ONLINE
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uri.edu/quadangles
Victoria Ferraro ’17 blogs from Cuba. The shoes of Commencement. Your summer beach reading guide, curated by literary stars from the Ocean State Summer Writing Conference. Vladimir Duthiers ’91 is a voice for the voiceless as a CBS News correspondent. We hear his voice in an exclusive Q&A.
FEEDBACK Write to us: pjack@uri.edu Read more online: uri.edu/quadangles Update your email address to get the magazine electronically: pjack@uri.edu
Sailing Down the Saugatucket
Wanted: Your Stories Dear Reader, We want to tell your tales—the things that happened to you, to your loved ones, to that neighbor nobody else remembers—and to do it, we need your help. The University turns 125 next year, and we’re planning a celebration. Do you know of a now-lost student tradition? Did your grandfather sleep in a Quonset hut? Did your great-aunt commute to Newport daily by ferry? From student protests to life-changing professors to chicken plucking class, if you have URI-related historical photos, letters, memories or memorabilia, serious or irreverent, we’d be grateful if you’d share. We’re also planning a story on the Peace Corps to celebrate the launch of a new Peace Corps Prep program at URI. Did you serve? What was it like? Would you do it again? Email us about these ideas, or anything else that’s on your mind, at pjack@uri.edu. This is your alumni magazine, and we’d be honored to hear your thoughts, share your opinion, and tell your story. Thanks for reading. —Pippa Jack Editor in Chief
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When I wasn’t struggling with calculus and German at URI, I somehow got involved with the sailing group. It operated out of a rented boathouse on the Saugatucket River—although calling the Saugatucket a river is a stretch. At best it is a muddy creek that meanders through Peace Dale and Wakefield. From that boathouse to the upper reaches of Salt Pond was about half a mile, which we usually had to paddle down because the channel was so narrow and shallow. If we had to get out to move the boat off a shoal, we sank in black muck up to our knees. It was truly a Rube Goldberg arrangement, which led to discussions about getting a better location. Lo and behold, the town of South Kingstown gladly leased a prime lot on Point Judith Pond to us. The late Lew Conklin ’50, our leader, found a sawmill in Hope Valley that readily unloaded green, third-grade lumber full of knotholes. We set about building our own boathouse (and filling knotholes). I remember Lew telling us to use a lot of nails, because the lumber would shrink and buckle. That building stood undamaged through several hurricanes. Our floating dock rested on empty 55-gallon oil drums. Some of them came from the dump, I believe. When I became the University’s vice president for fundraising and public relations, I initiated a campaign to build a better boathouse. The committee consisted of Harry Anderson Jr., Hon. ’90, former commodore of the N.Y. Yacht Club; Ed Rumowicz ’57 of
Puerto Rico Calling
The letter from Harry Perry Jeffries on the fast break (spring 2016) indeed broke the monotony of my evening hours at home in Puerto Rico. HPJ, as we called him, was my professor during my graduate school days in oceanography at beloved URI. He was instrumental in leading my way into the realm of marine science education. I lost track of him and it was wonderful to hear from this great professor. I also loved the story “The Martians” (spring 2016). I am using the article to show everyone around here about progress in space ventures. —Juan G. Gonzalez, Ph.D. ’73 Professor Emeritus at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, PR
PHOTOS: ROBERT A. MIGLIACCIO; CHRIS FOX.
Rachel Bryer and Hannah Scanlon on the way to a big win at the Dellenbaugh Trophy in March. The Lady Rams have qualified for the National Championships in San Diego in late May, and finished third in the New England Championships. Both have picked up individual distinctions: Bryer was runner-up for New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) Skipper of the Year award, and Scanlon was voted the number one NEISA Crew of the Year.
QuadAngles is a quarterly publication of the University of Rhode Island Alumni Association. The URI Alumni Association informs and engages current and future alumni as committed partners of the University, its mission and traditions. Executive Editor Michele A. Nota ’87, M.S. ’06, Executive Director, URI Alumni Relations; Secretary, Alumni Association Executive Board Editor in Chief Pippa Jack Art Director
Contributing Johnson Ma Designers Bo Pickard Verna Thurber Photographer
Nora Lewis
Digital Media
Janine Squillante ’14
Editorial Board
Hollywood, Florida; and the late Ralph Potter ’47, Hon. ’79, who had resurrected the program in the 1940s. They raised over $100,000. Later Ed created a sizeable endowment that funds an annual lecture series. It brings maritime scholars to the campus and provides for an undergraduate seminar to foster a lifelong love of maritime literature. An earlier gift from Harry Anderson made it possible to acquire a fleet of modern racing boats, replacing a fleet of wooden Dyer Dinks. He also contributed to Ed’s endowment, and recently donated $69,000 to help purchase 18 Collegiate FJ sailboats, which will arrive this August. My time as a competitive URI sailor was limited, because I weighed in at 180 pounds. Skippers like lightweight crew members, but when there were near gales, I helped hold the boat upright. Eventually, I got to be a skipper thanks to the late Ian Harrington ’51, a classmate from Hawaii who taught me sailing fundamentals. The journey down the Saugatucket has been rewarding. And now Rollin “Skip” Whyte ’72, URI sailing coach, has made the women’s sailing team number one in the nation. —James W. Leslie ’52 Sarasota, Fla.
Bucket Truck No No
As usual, I enjoyed reading the latest edition of QuadAngles, including “Turning Back Time” (spring 2016). I was, however, bothered by one of the photographs you chose to use. Excavation buckets should never be used as work platforms. Mr. Fox also does not seem to be wearing any kind of harness for fall prevention, nor a personal flotation device should he fall into the water. He should not have been in the bucket, the excavator operator should have refused his request, whoever took the photo of him in the bucket should not have let it happen, and you should not have used the photo, unless in the context of showing what not to do. Please be more safety-conscious. Mr. Fox could have used an articulating man-lift or a drone to get the photo he desired. —Brian McCarthy ’83, M.S. ’86 Portland, Connecticut
Kim Robertson
Contributing Barbara Caron Editors Dina M. Dionizio ’91 Shane Donaldson ’99 Dave Lavallee ’79, M.P.A. ’87 Kate O’Malley Elizabeth Rau
Kelly Mahoney ’03, Executive Director, External Relations and Communications Linda A. Acciardo ’77, Director, Communications and Marketing Tracey A. Manni, Director, Communications, URI Foundation
URI Alumni Angela Brunetti, Executive Assistant Relations Staff Alexis Giordano, Program Assistant Karen LaPointe ’77, M.B.A. ’84, Associate Director Kate Maccarone ’08, Assistant Director Nicole Maranhas, Associate Editor Mary Ann Mazzone, Office Assistant Amy Paulsen, Web/Print Editor Samantha Rodrigues ’11, Program Assistant Karen Sechio ’99, Assistant Director Amy Simonini, Assistant Director Samantha Stevens, M.S. '15, Specialist Alumni Assoc. Susan R. Johnson ’82, President Executive Board Louise H. Thorson, M.B.A. ’85, Past President Daniel G. Lowney ’75, Vice President Thomas F. Shevlin ’68, Vice President Patrick J. Cronin ’91, Treasurer Alumni Assoc. Councilorsat-Large
Laurel L. Bowerman ’77, M.B.A. ’84 Matthew T. Finan ’11 Colleen Gouveia Moulton, M.B.A. ’98 Mackenzie Hofman ’12 John J. Palumbo ’76 Gregory S. Perry ’88 Perry A. Raso ’02, M.S. ’06 Karen E. Regine ’81 Christos S. Xenophontos ’84, M.S. ’85
Alumni Assoc. Representatives: Arts and Sciences, Kathleen O’Donnell-White ’90 Business Administration, Jordan D. Kanter ’99, M.S. ’00 Feinstein Continuing Education, Bianca S. Rodriguez-Slater ’10 Engineering, Anthony J. Rafanelli ’78, M.S. ’85, Ph.D. ’95 Environment and Life Sciences, Catherine Weaver ’82, B.L.A. ’96 Human Science and Services, Christine S. Pelton ’84 Nursing, Silifat “Laitan” Mustapha ’97 Graduate School of Oceanography, Veronica M. Berounsky Ph.D. ’90 Pharmacy, Henrique “Henry” Pedro ’76 URI Foundation, Lorne Adrain ’76 Faculty Senate, Diane E. Kern ’84, M.A. ’93, Ph.D. ’03 Student Senate, Cody Anderson ’17 Student Alumni Association, Anthony Kennedy ’17
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 3
PRESIDENT’SVIEW “My life’s story touches people because it resonates with their own circumstances.” –Sonia Sotomayor
2016 Commencement speaker the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
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By the time you receive this issue of QuadAngles, we will have celebrated the University’s 130th Commencement. And many of you will already be aware that our speaker on this momentous occasion was the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. What a proud moment in our history! In preparation for meeting Justice Sotomayor, many of us read her bestselling memoir, My Beloved World. In the preface to her candid and honest book, Justice Sotomayor offers a profound reflection: “My life’s story touches people because it resonates with their own circumstances. The challenges I have faced— among them material poverty, chronic illness, and being raised by a single mother—are not uncommon, but neither have they kept me from uncommon achievement.” Any objective assessment of Justice Sotomayor’s life and career would concur that “uncommon achievement” is, indeed, an accurate characterization of all that she endured and all that she accomplished. From public housing projects in the South Bronx, the young Sonia Sotomayor arrived at Princeton University, where, in her own words she felt like “a visitor landing in an alien country.” But as she gained confidence, she became an activist; her leadership resulted in the hiring of Latino faculty and introduction of a seminar on Puerto Rican history and politics. Activism—especially when it comes to women and minorities—is a thread that is pulled through Justice Sotomayor’s distinguished career working at almost every level of
our judicial system: prosecutor, corporate litigator, trial judge, and appeals court judge. At Yale Law School, Justice Sotomayor was known to stand up for herself and not be intimidated. Clearly she was not intimidated by the Major League Baseball owners in 1995, when the injunction she issued ended the baseball strike that had caused the World Series to be cancelled the previous fall. Justice Sotomayor is a pioneer in the truest sense. She is not content to break down barriers for herself but rather seeks out ways to help young people whose backgrounds mirror her own. Open and unapologetic about the doors affirmative action opened for her, she believes, “Until we get equality in education, we won’t have an equal society.” This belief is perfectly aligned with our own philosophy at URI, where programs like Talent Development fulfill the purpose Justice Sotomayor defines for affirmative action: “To create the conditions whereby students from disadvantaged backgrounds could be brought to the starting line of a race many were unaware was even being run.” As I write this message I don’t know what Justice Sotomayor plans to tell the class of 2016 on Sunday, May 22. What I am confident of is that she is an excellent and admirable role model, and dramatic evidence of the power of education to transform a life. And she embodies much of what we cherish about American ideals. Certainly, I very much value this wise counsel from her memoir: “You cannot value dreams according to the odds of their coming true. Their real value is in stirring within us the will to aspire. After a time you may recognize that the proper measure of success is not how much you’ve closed the distance to some far-off goal, but the quality of what you’ve done today.” Wishing all of you the courage to dream and the will to aspire. And a wonderful summer.
David M. Dooley President, University of Rhode Island
PHOTOS: JOE GIBLIN; STEVE PETTEWAY, COLLECTION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
5-MINUTEEXPERT
The Fight to Distribute a Lifesaving Drug naloxone
BY ELIZABETH RAU
noun | nal·ox·one | /na-läk-sōn/ A synthetic potent antagonist of narcotic drugs
S
ales of prescription opioid painkillers have climbed 400 percent in the last 15 years in the U.S., while overdose deaths from opioids and heroin have gone up 200 percent. What’s going on in the bodies of people involved in this national tragedy? A deadly overdose slows breathing. Its signs: respiratory distress, clammy skin, blue lips. Naloxone, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the early 1970s and administered through a needle or as a nasal spray, works by displacing the opiate from its receptors in the brain. It reverses the effects of the drug in a few minutes—people wake up and breathe again. It costs about $100 per kit, which is covered, at least in Rhode Island, by public and private health insurance. When fentanyl-laced heroin and opioid pain relievers like Oxycontin and Vicodin started killing tens of thousands of Americans, police departments began outfitting their officers with the lifesaving medication, often known as Narcan. Now URI pharmacy professor Jeffrey Bratberg wants to go a step further, and his idea is gaining traction across the nation: Distribute naloxone from pharmacies to users—and their friends and families. “Pharmacies are ideal locations for caregivers to ask for help for their loved ones,’’ he says. An infectious disease specialist with a focus on public health, Bratberg researched the role of pharmacists in bioterrorism and natural disaster responses for years, assisting with the state’s H1N1 swine flu epidemic and aiding victims of Hurricane Katrina. Then he learned that Rhode Island
PHOTO: NORA LEWIS
URI pharmacy professor Jeffrey Bratberg’s crusade: make naloxone available at drug stores.
had one of the highest rates of fatal overdoses in the country: In the last five years alone, the number of overdose deaths in the state has grown by 73 percent, to 243 deaths in 2014. Bratberg teamed up with his colleagues and doctors to develop a program that allows anyone to obtain naloxone from a participating pharmacist. The Walgreens pharmacy chain was the first to join, then CVS and Rite Aid. Bratberg also enlisted Tara Thomas, Pharm.D. ’13, who created an online training course on overdose signs and recommended addiction treatment centers. “Pharmacists play an essential role in medication safety for all patients getting opioids,’’ says Bratberg, who is working with researchers at Boston Medical Center on a $1.3 million federal grant to create best practices for naloxone distribution by pharmacists. “Make no mistake about it: Pharmacists are at the forefront of the nation’s opioid epidemic.’’
Skeptics say people will use naloxone as an excuse to continue their drug use without fear of an overdose. Bratberg’s response: “It’s not a moral failing to be a chronic drug user. It’s a disease. Do we lock up people with diabetes because they ate too much sugar? No. As a society we have a moral obligation to treat people with chronic diseases.’’ One day, naloxone may be offered overthe-counter, much like a cold pill. Australia sells it that way, and Canada is expected to follow this summer. •
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 5
NEWS&VIEWS
Professor Carlos García-Quijano grew up in Puerto Rico, where he spent his childhood diving, surfing, and reading about wildlife and the environment.
A Missing Piece in Environmental Rights When regulators react to declining fish stocks, the resulting restrictions can be disastrous for fishing communities. “There could be an alternative job in a factory elsewhere, but that could be a major loss in quality of life and social identity for the fishermen,’’ says anthropology and marine affairs pro-
fessor Carlos García-Quijano. “It could be devastating for someone used to working outdoors and being his or her own boss to suddenly be working in a contained environment under a supervisor.’’ That’s one example GarcíaQuijano and his co-authors use in a new study published in the
journal Science, which concludes that protecting our planet is indeed a vital human mission— but can’t succeed unless the burdens and benefits of sustainability are shared equally. “Environmental conservation and social justice are inseparable,’’ says García-Quijano, who lives in Providence. And these issues are becoming particularly pressing because the poorest people in the world are likely to be the ones most affected by climate change, he adds.
Debunking Political Myths
$500,000 Gift by college sweethearts Diane and Kent Fannon (both Class of ’74) to establish a scholarship dedicated to giving business students the financial support to seize career opportunities. It’s the third scholarship the couple has endowed here.
On Election Day this November, pollsters will haunt voting booths, scrambling to call the new U.S. president—and the winners of other races—before the official results. Those polls can offer deep and unexpected insights into how Americans tick, and for the past decade, political science department chair and professor Brian Krueger has sought to unravel their reams of data. In the process, he’s quashing dearly held political fictions: White voters with less money tend to vote Republican. Yet exit poll data show that during the past few decades, low-income whites have generally given a higher percentage of their vote to Democrats than high-income whites have. Presidential candidates need to secure independents to win the White House. “There is enormous focus on independent voters prior to elections by the media,” Krueger says. “But in the last election, independents preferred Romney to Obama, 50 to 45 percent.” Read more about Krueger’s work in the current issue of the research magazine Momentum at web.uri.edu/researchecondev. Brian Krueger at the R.I. Statehouse.
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The study identifies six important social values: wellbeing; culture; values; equality; justice; and self-determination. While harder to quantify than, say, carbon emissions or income per capita, García-Quijano says they’re measurable by applying insights from social scientists, and must be included in environmental policy. “We have to stop looking at human beings and the natural world as separate,’’ he says. “Like other living beings, we’re part of our ecosystems.’’
Big Data by the A Sweet Path to Brain Health? Pomegranates and other superfoods are known to improve brain functions such as memory and cognition, and now, researchers have discovered a clue as to how. The answer may lie not with the foods themselves, but with the way they interact with the body’s microflora—a discovery that could lead to breakthroughs in protecting against Alzheimer’s. Navindra Seeram, associate professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences, says anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective compounds are created when gut bacteria break down pomegranate extract. “We asked a simple question: What is it within the extract that is really working?” relates Seeram. “And that’s where it became interesting.” His team isolated and identified 21 compounds, mostly polyphenols, from pomegranate extract. None were able to cross the blood-brain barrier, but after gut microflora broke them down, the resulting urolithins could. Before you stain your hands red, there’s a catch. Not everyone is able to produce these useful urolithins—each person’s gut microflora is different. PHOTOS: NORA LEWIS; BEAU JONES; ISTOCKPHOTOS.COM
Numbers .5 billion
DNA sequences logged by professor Bethany Jenkins from microscopic organisms in Narragansett Bay, providing critical information about the Bay’s health and showing that researchers vastly underestimated the diversity and number of life forms in the ocean.
2 million
Pharmacy dispensing records analyzed by professor Stephen Kogut ’91, Ph.D. ’02, to track patterns in disease, treatment, cost and hospitalization. One use: ascertaining medication habits in people with depression.
300
Boxes—containing 30 years of archives on the topics of writing and composition— being digitized by doctoral student Jenna Morton-Aiken for future wordsmiths.
8
Number of new faculty the University will hire as part of its Big Data Collaborative; they will work with a new high-performance computing center open to students, professors and other universities.
4
The Vs of Big Data: volume; veracity (its accuracy); variability (its complexity); velocity (the unprecedented speed at which it’s now collected).
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 7
NEWS&VIEWS
History Hidden in Plain Sight Zipping down I-95 in Providence, they’re easy to see: wood and pilings poking through the Providence River below, like the tree trunks of a forgotten forest. But the tens of millions of drivers who barrel past every year never realize they have a prime view of an extraordinary cultural and historical site. “It’s rare physical evidence of Providence’s heyday as a maritime hub and industrial port,’’ says David Robinson ’90, a URI marine archaeologist who has plotted the remains of more than two dozen vessels in Providence Harbor. The ships date from the mid-19th century to early-20th century. They spread across 33 acres of Green Jacket Shoal off Bold Point: five steamboats, six sailing ships and 15 barges. Among them are two 1800s paddlewheel steamships, each 200 feet long, the Mount Hope and Bay Queen. They date to a time—before cars clogged the roadways— when Rhode Islanders eager to escape the
Providence Dry Dock & Marine Railway Company, a shipyard that repaired and maintained vessels in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
heat took all-day cruises, stopping at cavernous shore dinner halls at Prudence Park, Conanicut Park, Newport and Narragansett Pier for clams and watermelon. Providence Harbor was an industrial landscape then, Robinson says, dotted with shipyards and marine railways. Many of the vessels were likely abandoned at the end of their working lives. Underwater archaeologists are taking more notice of ship graveyards these days,
since Congress passed a law transferring the titles for abandoned ships in state waters to the states to prevent vandalism and looting. Once Robinson finishes his research, he’ll send his report to Rhode Island Sea Grant, which will pass along his findings to other local groups. Together, they’ll decide what to do with the graveyard: leave it alone, remove the ships, or a combination of both.
New Leadership for URI Foundation This spring, Lil Breul O’Rourke took the helm of the University of Rhode Island Foundation, the independent nonprofit charged with raising private support and overseeing the management of the University’s endowment. “URI is on an upward trajectory and that makes it a particularly exciting time to be here,” says O’Rourke, who comes from Syracuse University, where she held a variety of key development roles over a 30-year career. “I believe in our ability
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to increase the impact of private support for the benefit of URI and look forward to working with my team, the Board, President Dooley and other campus partners, as well as our devoted alumni and friends, to think bigger and make it happen.” For more on the impact of private support at URI, visit urifoundation.org.
Some 75 students visited New York’s Rockefeller Center over the past year, getting backstage passes—and face time—with Meredith Vieira and Adam Freifeld ’89, vice president of corporate communications at NBCUniversal. (It helps that both are members of URI’s Harrington School of Communication and Media Executive Advisory Board.)
PHOTOS: COURTESY DAVID ROBINSON ’90; ADAM ROTH; JOE GIBLIN; ISTOCKPHOTOS.COM.
Bobcats
Sightings are on the rise, but little is known about bobcats in Southern New England, so two wildlife biologists—professor Thomas Husband and the Department of Environmental Management’s Charles Brown ’85—captured one in November as part of a five-year study. A tracking collar reveals he’s “wandering a lot farther than we expected: Snug Harbor, Bonnet Shores, Matunuck, Charlestown,” says Brown. “We lose track of him for a few days, but we always catch up to him.” Bobcats weigh up to 35 pounds and are the most widely distributed feline in North America. In Rhode Island, they are believed to consume mostly rabbits, squirrels and rodents. Hotspots are South Kingstown, Westerly and Foster, but they also travel through densely populated areas of Cranston, Warwick and West Warwick. It’s turning out to be difficult to trap more of the canny animals. Bait like dead ducks, rabbits and squirrels has failed to ensnare any, although motion-sensor cameras indicate several have investigated researchers’ traps. Other animals are less suspicious: gray foxes, fishers, a red-tailed hawk and several opossums have been released.
<Yes, ds Copepods Copepo
Calanus glacialis copepods are crustaceans, slightly smaller than a raisin, crucial to Arctic ecosystems. Important food for fish and seabirds, they’re predators themselves—but they’re so tiny that their eating habits can be difficult to study. Alison Cleary, Ph.D. ’15, spent six months with colleagues at the University Centre in Svalbard, Norway, working on new DNA sequencing tools to figure out what was in the copepods’ stomachs. The sun doesn’t set during Svalbard’s summer; months of winter darkness follow. Much of the coastal sea is covered in solid ice. So the copepods eat plant-like plankton when there’s enough sunlight for it to grow. In the depths of winter, they fast. In early spring and late summer, they eat animal plankton. Why care? They play a vital role in a food web that, so far, has been the most stressed by climate change. “Understanding the things Calanus eat under different circumstances has implications for how organisms that eat Calanus, and those even higher up the food chain, will fare,” says Cleary.
THE PREDATOR FILES Near and far, how apex species interact with us—and the ecological changes we have wrought.
Sharks
Makos are among the fastest swimmers in the ocean and travel great distances between feeding grounds. They’re also sought after by fishermen around the world because they taste good. So biologist Brad Wetherbee teamed up with shark experts in Nova Scotia to establish the Great Shark Race. Businesses and individuals sponsor sharks by buying satellite tracking tags; the researchers trace their paths, and encourage people to follow them online. The winner, a shark dubbed Ebenezer by its sponsor, entrepreneur Richard Branson, traveled more than 7,000 miles during the race, departing the Maryland coast for the Canadian Maritimes, then racing straight to South America before turning around and coming back. “Sometimes they go straight for a thousand miles without stopping, then stop and zigzag around,” observes Johann Becker ’17, who studies makos with Wetherbee and won a $19,000 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scholarship in April. Three of the eleven tagged sharks were killed by fishermen during the six-month race. For more information visit 2015.greatsharkrace.com.
Orcas
Most of what is known about killer whales comes from the Pacific Northwest—but they’re also found in the North Atlantic, and Tara Stevens, Ph.D. ’17, is the first to investigate the 200 or so that live around Newfoundland and Labrador. “We had no idea what they were even feeding on, but it became clear minke whales are a predominant prey,” explains Stevens. “We would see sometimes 10 or 20 killer whales jumping on a minke to force it underwater. Their strategy is to drown them.” Orcas also eat dolphins, porpoises and seals, and perhaps fish: “We’ve seen some taking halibut and tuna off longlines,” Stevens says. “There used to be a substantial population associated with the tuna fishery in the Gulf of Maine, but the fishery crashed and we don’t know where they went.” It’s unknown whether orcas in the North Atlantic are prey specialists, like their Pacific cousins, but Stevens says some may be: for instance, those that remain year-round in Newfoundland and Labrador have been sighted within the pack ice, feeding on breeding seals.
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 9
PRESSBOX
Bjorn an Athletic Director of the Year University of Rhode Island Director of Athletics Thorr Bjorn was selected as one of Under Armour’s Athletic Directors of the Year recipient for 2015-16, the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics announced in March. In total, 12 athletic directors from the Division I level were honored for their commitment and positive contributions to student-athletes, campuses and their surrounding communities. “I am very honored and humbled by this recognition,” he says. “However, anytime an award like this is given, it is the result of a great deal of hard work and dedication from amazing student-athletes, coaches and staff. I accept this recognition on behalf of all of them.” Since arriving on the Kingston Campus in July 2007 as the eleventh director of athletics in URI history, Bjorn has made it a priority that all 400 current and former student-athletes are united as one Rhody Athletics family. Under his watch, Rhode Island has raised more than $15 million in external and internal resources aimed at facility and programmatic enhancements. A keystone of those enhancements opened its doors to the public in April 2014: The $5-million Ryan Family Student-Athlete Complex includes state-of-the-art strength and conditioning, sports medicine, and academic advising areas. Since then, the Thomas M. Ryan Center, already one of the top basketball facilities in the Northeast, has received major LED display upgrades and a new playing surface.
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Race to 20/20
What’s in a (gold) number? Ask the track team. Each year, Rhode Island’s men’s track and field team assistant coach Rob Whitten designs new practice T-shirts for the athletes. This year’s design was a grey shirt with a gold “20/20” logo, a reminder of the team’s championship goals: this was the year the team wanted to record both the 20th Atlantic 10 Championship
and 20th New England Championship in program history. “We wanted to make a shirt that was a little different,” Whitten said. “Our athletes have seen photos of former URI teams in the old gold uniforms, and they loved the look, asking if we could go back to gold. While it wasn’t really possible for
Making the Short List Rhode Island senior Chase Livingston ’16 was named to the 2016 Johnny Bench Award watch list, announced in March by the Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission. Each year, the prestigious award is given to the nation’s top Division I collegiate catcher. Livingston was identified by Atlantic 10 coaches as the conference’s best defensive catcher via a poll by College Baseball Insider in 2015. At press time, the list of semifinalists was about to be announced.
us to do that, incorporating gold into the practice shirts was a way to pay homage to the history of the program here.” The sartorial bet paid off: the team pulled off both milestones, making 20/20 both challenge and reality.
Making Cleats Count
On a search for life after soccer, a student heads to Africa BY DANIELLE GARIGLIO ’17 Sophomore soccer player Taylor Ross ’18 is many things. An ordinary student-athlete, she is not. Ross wakes every day at 5 a.m. for workouts and practices. A marketing major, she has plenty of schoolwork, and like her peers, must balance sports, school, and social life. So far, so normal. What sets Ross apart from the rest is that, at just 19 years old, she is in the process of building a nonprofit. As a senior in high school, the Mapleville, R.I., native created an athletic clothing brand, Eleven, that generated more than $1,000 in revenue through the sale of lacrosse pinnies. But Ross realized that there was more to life than making money, and began educating herself on nonprofit organizations during her freshman year. She was able to apply the skills she was learning in her marketing classes to her real-life cause. “I liked the business side of it, but I wanted to do something that really mattered, something that had a purpose,” Ross said. “Of course as a soccer player, soccer has always been my biggest passion. But that will have to come to an end.” Enter Cleats Count. The start-up nonprofit collects donated cleats for young soccer players in developing countries, many of whom have never owned or even worn them before. Ross connected with a larger nonprofit, Ordinary Hero, to learn the ropes; she joined the organization on a trip to Ethiopia this April. “My mom had heard of them through her work, and I was searching for an outlet to take the trip because, you know, you can’t just jump on a plane to Ethiopia,” Ross says. “Then they contacted me and said ‘Hey Taylor, we heard about what you’re
PHOTOS: A&D PHOTOGRAPHY; COURTESY URI ATHLETICS
doing and we think it’s fate because we already have a trip to Ethiopia planned for the opening of a youth soccer field. We think you bringing the cleats you’ve collected would be perfect.’” With Ordinary Hero, Ross traveled to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia— Africa’s oldest independent country and one of the poorest nations in the world. She brought 78 pairs of cleats with her, including 40 donated by Lids Team Sports. “My coach helped me send out a big email to a ton of Division I schools,” she says, “so more and more came in.” Now she’s back. She’s still collecting, hoping to go again next year. She has drop boxes at both Wide World of Indoor Sports facilities in Rhode Island—in North Kingstown and North Smithfield—as well as at her former high school, Burrillville High. “I think that people forget what we’re capable of,” she reflects. “If you want to do something that helps people, then just do it. It really can be that simple. For me, because I’m so passionate about this—about helping people and about soccer—it’s not even something I need to make the time for.” To pass on a pair of cleats or to donate toward Ross’s next trip, search for Cleats Count at gofundme.com, or contact Ross directly at nikeross09@yahoo.com.
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 11
The Grueling Politics of Women and Sports Across the country, Title IX found universities woefully unprepared to give women the equal access the landmark legislation demanded. Ellie Lemaire fought the good fight, putting the University of Rhode Island in a leading national role. Forty years later, Lynn Baker-Dooley salutes that legacy—and notes the work still to be done. BY PIPPA JACK
Title IX: No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.
Ellie Lemaire was director of women’s athletics at URI from 1976, the year Title IX went into effect, to 1992.
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The law has implications for areas from math and science education to sexual harassment on campus and the rights of transgender students, but its biggest impact has been on collegiate athletics.
I
t’s hard now to convey just how radically different the landscape was for female athletes when Eleanor “Ellie” Lemaire was growing up. Consider this: As a student at Boston University’s Sargent College in the late 1940s, the carpenter’s daughter and her classmates got wind of a local women’s sports league. “We’d pile six people in a friend’s convertible and go play,” Lemaire recounts. “We won every damn game.” They knew they might get in trouble. “We were playing full-court basketball, men’s rules, and women were supposed to play half-court,” says Lemaire. “We all used false names.” Sure enough, during the final round, disaster struck: “I remember going up for a shot and seeing four professors from Sargent.” The classmates were studying to be physical education teachers. But incredibly enough, actual competition was considered “unhealthy, unwise, and bad for our menstrual cycles,” Lemaire says. “We were all suspended.” Lemaire’s roommate also ran up against the school’s restrictive philosophy. Janet Moreau Stone qualified for the 1951 Pan American games in Buenos Aires (she would go on to win gold at the ’52 Olympics in Helsinki for the 4x100 relay). But when she approached the dean to ask for the time off, he didn’t approve. “He told me, ‘I can’t guarantee you will graduate,’ ” Stone recalls. “My poor dad, who had saved so much and worked three jobs for me to go to college, told me I was going. I could worry about college afterward.” Both women came from working class French families in Rhode Island, Lemaire from Bristol, Stone from Pawtucket. They worked as live-in nannies together their first year at Sargent to save on dorm costs. “She and I had a lot in common,” says Stone, still fit and vibrant at 88 years old, “except that she was brighter than me.” They would both go on to work for the Barrington, R.I., school system. Stone worked at the middle school, while Lemaire took charge at the high school, where she
established the first girls varsity sports program at any public school in the state. Lemaire bootstrapped it, doing things like persuading parents to let the girls use home tennis courts in return for yard work. She created possibilities out of sheer charm and force of will—the defining theme of her remarkable career. Another example: After she landed at the University of Bridgeport’s Arnold College in 1963, she conjured a sailing program out of the wind by convincing a local sailboat manufacturer to donate boats in return for using the coeds in their ads. Those memories are still vivid for Lemaire, who at 87 years old is frank about her early-stage Alzheimer’s but remains a sparkling, warm and whip-smart conversationalist. She was a tenured professor and had climbed to director of women’s sports at Bridgeport when the nation first realized what a game-changer Title IX would be; in addition to her paid work, she helped lead organizations that lobbied for change. “She helped shape and educate others about the government regulations, devoting significant time to speaking at Title IX conferences and workshops,” says Donna Lopiano, a national sports consultant and former CEO of the Women’s Sports Foundation who describes Lemaire as “a foremother and mentor.” Signed into law by President Nixon, Title IX’s language had originally been part of the Equal Rights Amendment, but was added to the Education Amendments of 1972 when it became clear the ERA wasn’t attracting support. Its original language made no mention of women’s athletics, a phrase in any case rarely used then— collegiate sports programs for women were mostly nested inside physical education departments and served the goal, along with home ec class, of fashioning wellrounded women and future wives. Before Title IX, Lemaire and her peers “coached and officiated women’s athletic competition, frequently for no pay, and often funded women’s teams out of their back pockets,” Lopiano says.
PHOTOS: NORA LEWIS; COURTESY URI LIBRARY; ILLUSTRATION COURTESY BOB SCHNECK
Ellie Lemaire on the Kingston campus, circa 1977.
One of Lemaire’s first changes was to name female athletes the Women Rams, or WRAMS. “I called my players ‘girls’ once, and she corrected me: ‘They’re women, they’re not in high school,’” recounts volleyball coach Bob Schneck. The “W” was dropped after Lemaire retired.
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 13
That changed as athletic directors grudgingly accepted Title IX’s ramifications. At the University of Rhode Island, the colorful and politically savvy Maurice “Mo” Zarchen ’49 was ahead of the curve. He invited a champion women’s golfer to join the men’s varsity team in 1972, even as other schools were still protesting the new law. By 1976, the year Title IX actually went into effect, it had become clear that allowing women simply to play on men’s teams was not going to cut it. Zarchen advertised for a director of women’s Kengelin “Kengy” Gardiner Bell ‘93 won the prestigious NCAA Woman of the Year award for the 1991–92 season, athletics, and hired Lemaire, and went on to play pro beach volleyball and star in TV and print ads. Here, she accepts the award with Lemaire, then 47. who was about to retire. At the time, she told The Scribe, the University of board and committee she could, at the Schneck, like the other women’s Bridgeport student newspaper, University and outside it. (“I had to,” she coaches, would do things like drive his that she had applied “halfheartedly,” but says. “The groups had the power to get team to West Virginia for a match, then was glad to be going to a place “not limited things done.”) She got her administrative turn around and drive them home, not by inadequate facilities, where the possibilwork done later, toiling into the wee hours sleeping for two days. “Now we have a ity for growth is a reality.” so routinely that she had an arrangement bus and a driver,” he says. “But that’s only in Grow the program she did, establishing with a Chinese restaurant near her home in recent history.” He says Lemaire expected a ten intercollegiate women’s sports teams North Kingstown: “I’d call and they would lot of her coaches: “She was hard-nosed, within just three years, her long days and leave a container of noodles on their front and she’d let you have it, but we all working weekends legendary. She found in steps,” she says. respected her. She really was a warrior Zarchen, who died in 2010, a worthy She fought to use the fields, to use the for women’s athletics. We’re a small school, opponent in the endless battle for funds, gym, to build locker rooms, to buy unibut we were recognized nationally, and it and reminded him often that he had two forms and shoes with cleats, to hire was because of her.” daughters—“unfortunately neither were coaches, to pay them anything like what the When Lemaire retired in 1992, the long very keen on sports,” she laughs. She men’s coaches were earning. To afford days had taken their toll; she wanted to sail, outlasted him, serving under two more transportation, “We’d have bake sales,” she golf, “put my own house in order,” she told directors during her 16-year tenure at says, “or parents would drive the students the Providence Journal. The lonely struggle the University. out of state.” of those decades, for women administrators Lemaire never married—from the day She initially resisted scholarships for across the country, is perhaps best encap she graduated Colt High School, she says, female athletes, believing they would tarsulated in an observation she gave the “I was a career person, and every bit of it nish women’s sports with the commercialNarragansett Times about Title IX: “The was a joy.” She formed many firm friendism that ruled men’s sports, muddying problem is, people have always looked for ships with men, but her life was defined by decisions that students should make based ways around it.” her relationships with women. They were on academics alone. In both retirement articles, she noted a her mentors, mentees, friends, housemates, But once it became clear the program 1991 Supreme Court ruling that made it they were the thousands of students whose would be left behind without scholarships, possible for women to sue institutions for lives she changed. From the Bristol Girl “she got on board, and knew how to use noncompliance. “Now, everybody wants to Scout leader who taught her a love of sailthem,” says Bob Schneck, the enormously be a hero,” Lemaire observed mischievously ing to Madge Phillips, the close friend successful women’s volleyball coach to the Times. She believed that things were whose research helped shape Title IX, it Lemaire brought on in 1981. “I was hired changing. was other women who gave her the steel to right out of being a high school coach, Lauren Anderson, whom Lemaire had spend so many years fighting, while their which would never happen today,” he says. hired in ’77 as track coach, became the successes served as her reward. “I often think that if it wasn’t for Ellie, my University’s next SWA (the term now used At URI, she spent her daytime hours to denote the senior woman administrator with the women’s coaches, who often had to whole life would have been different.” in athletics). Like Lemaire, she tried to hire coach two sports, and participating in every
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female coaches for women’s sports, although “as soon as women’s coaching was paid, men wanted the jobs,” she observes. “And of course they had more qualifications.” The pie that men’s and women’s athletics had to split was never big enough, and women’s sports never commanded the crowds and newspaper headlines that men’s did. In 2007, the year before she would retire, Anderson told a student audience at Keaney Gym: “College athletics should not be all about money, but if money were limitless, Title IX would not be controversial.” That remains as true today as it was then. “Things are much better, and now it’s not just the women administrators who are fighting,” says Gina Sperry, the University’s current SWA. “The struggle for equity is a shared role. But there will always be a need to monitor.” It’s a national need. In the 34 years since Title IX became law, the number of women playing at the college level has grown a staggering 600 percent—a success by any measure. But across the country, the percentage of female coaches is dropping, while minority women have not shared the same gains as white women, according to the Women’s Sports Foundation. And the annual reports every school must file under the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act show that most schools miss the mark in indices such as recruitment, coaching salaries and game-day expenses, where numbers are
skewed by revenue-generating but expensive programs like men’s basketball and football. It’s a syndrome with which Lynn BakerDooley is all too familiar. “I was of the generation that didn’t have Title IX,” says Baker-Dooley, the wife of University President David M. Dooley and, as a Baptist minister, someone intimately familiar with the challenges of working in a male-dominated field. In her college days, “Friday and Saturday nights, it was basketball all over the Midwest. I remember my dad being appalled that my teammates and I had to drive my car while the boys had a bus with plenty of room. We would follow them to the restaurant, where their steak was provided, while we’d pool our money for fries.” Baker-Dooley’s work-study job: washing the men’s uniforms. The Dooleys came to Rhode Island in 2009; as her husband took the University’s reins, Baker-Dooley got to work establishing a fundraiser for women’s athletics. Now in its seventh year, An Evening of Grapes and Grain has been raising $60,000 or more a year for everything from an outdoor batting cage to moving urinals out of converted women’s locker rooms. The Dooleys carry the torch for Lemaire’s educational philosophy. Female Rams come here to study the major of their choice, not always the case in Division 1: “At many schools, your major is dictated. We let our female athletes study whatever they want,” Baker-Dooley says. “That includes subjects like nursing, with labs that coaches have to schedule around.” The couple has no plans to leave the University soon, but Baker-Dooley is looking ahead. “What happens when this stops?” she asks. “Realistically, it’s not likely the next president will fundraise for women’s athletics.”
Ellie Lemaire (left) has won countless honors and been appointed to many athletic halls of fame, but among the professional accomplishments in her resume, she lists something no man would ever boast of: the title Playground Supervisor. Lemaire lives in North Kingstown with Madge Phillips (right). Madge Phillips’ doctoral thesis, on whether hormones affected women’s ability to play competitive sports, was pivotal in helping shape Title IX regulations. “Can you imagine what it took to stand up in front of a committee full of men and talk about menstruation?” marvels Lynn BakerDooley. “That’s courage.”
She envisions an endowment that can fill the gap, an enduring legacy in support of women’s athletics. “And when you think legacy,” she says, “you think Ellie Lemaire.” So Lemaire will serve as honorary chair of Grapes and Grain this June 11, which will raise money for the Ellie Lemaire Award fund. “It feels like a tribute to my life’s work,” Lemaire says. And as attendees enjoy the festivities on the lawn of the President’s House, BakerDooley will reflect: “How much we slip back,” she says, “if we don’t stay vigilant.” • For more information, visit uri.edu/grapesgrain
Lynn Baker-Dooley and Ellie Lemaire at the 2012 Evening of Grapes and Grain.
PHOTOS: COURTESY BOB SCHNECK; STEW MILNE /JOE GIBLIN; NORA LEWIS
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 15
This election season, you might be forgiven for thinking that reasoned examination of the issues and passionate but cordial disagreement are quaint relics of the past. Meet the members of the Debate Union, who have revived a club with a rich history, and are honing skills that have never been more relevant, or desperately needed, than they are now.
The Art of
BY ELLEN LIBERMAN
Argument The House regrets the politicization of tragic events.
The University’s first debate club coalesced in 1904, with five students. Debate then was less about intellectual freedom than about polishing the college’s working- and middleclass students.
16 QUADANGLES SUMMER 2016
“The House” was a dozen students, their wheeled desks in a ragged circle in a basement room in Davis Hall. The tragic event was the November 13 Paris terrorist attacks that left 130 dead and 368 injured; and “the politicization,” the French flag overlay on Facebook profile images. With 15 minutes to sharpen their arguments, they swiftly broke into two-person teams, representing the Government and the Opposition. For one hour, they tangoed up and down the issue, marshalling everything from #BlackLivesMatter to the ALS ice bucket challenge to their cause, with much stumbling over the word “politicization,” occasional banging of tables in agreement and a sprinkling of “Hear! Hear!”. When the dance was done, the judges ranked the teams and the House scattered, to return two days later for another practice. After a seven-year hiatus, club debate is back at URI. It may occupy the arcane corners of clubdom with its many variations— among them British Parliamentary, Model U.N., Policy, Karl Popper and Lincoln Douglas-style debate—each with a different emphasis, format and rules. But its adherents are passionate. And all forms celebrate the art of argument, well-constructed, logically coherent and delivered with spirit. “Debate is about being better intellectually,” says Bunmi Olatunji ’17. She started debating at 13 years old and is now the president of the URI Debate Union. “It’s a place to learn and meet other intellectuals. I was very shy. I was bullied at school and I had a hard time speaking to people. Debate has given me a community and a confidence in my abilities. I still struggle with being shy, but even if I’m in a situation that is not comfortable, I know I can speak and I can talk to people. It changed my life.”
URI Debate Union vs. the Japanese National Select Team on the legalization and usage of recreational drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, and MDMA. At the podium: Lolade Ashamu ’18, a doublemajor in philosophy and political science. Foreground: Masaya Sasaku, University of Tokyo; and Naruhiko Nagano, Mie University in Japan
The current team of about 25 members hails from a wide range of disciplines— communications, computer programming, political science, philosophy, pre-veterinary sciences—bonded together by an abiding interest in current events beyond the winner of American Idol. Some, like Tabatha Lewis ’18, are novices. An environmental sciences major, Lewis never liked public speaking, but she always enjoyed arguing in her classes. “I was just looking online for a club to join,” she says. “I had no idea when I went in, but it’s more fun than I imagined. You gain a better perspective about life and it expands your knowledge.” Olatunji and others came to URI experienced in policy-style debates, in which a single resolution—usually regarding a change in a policy of the federal government—is tackled over the course of a year. Policy debaters bury themselves in research, squirreling enough information and references to spew their arguments at the rate of more than 350 words a minute. The group meets twice a week to practice in the parliamentary-style format. Unlike policy debate’s deep dive into the facts, parliamentary style emphasizes persuasive rhetoric and an ability to think
PHOTO: MIKE SALERNO; ILLUSTRATION COURTESY 1915 GRIST
quickly. In one tournament, two-person teams—two representing the government’s affirmative view and two representing the opposition’s negative view—will debate several topics without advance notice, and with fewer than 20 minutes to prepare. Catherine Morrison, a lecturer in the Harrington School of Communication and Media and director of debate, relaunched the club in the British Parliamentary style out of practical and philosophical “concerns with the direction policy debate was taking, and I didn’t think it was a format accessible for new debaters,” she says. “The idea behind parliamentary debate is to produce well-rounded students who are up on the issues of the day. It frowns on specialized knowledge and focuses more on eloquence and thinking on your feet.” Debate has its roots in ancient Greece, but the collegiate debate tradition was established in the early 19th century. College debating clubs, such as the Cambridge Union Society, founded in 1815, flourished in an authoritarian educational system as a venue where students could discuss the topics they were interested in, Morrison says. Debate at what was then the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts was less
about intellectual freedom than about polishing the college’s working- and middle-class students. The University’s first debate club coalesced in 1904, with five students and the goal of teaching “every man to think on his feet and to give him confidence for the expression of those thoughts. It is absolutely necessary that the present-day citizen be able to express himself, in town and school meetings, on all questions that concern his welfare.” By the time Communication Studies Professor Emerita Agnes G. Doody, Hon. ’84, arrived at URI in 1958, the franchise had taken on a genteel mantle she did not care for. Dubbed at one point the Little Rest Debating Society, it conjured images of teacups and musty parlors. Doody saw an opportunity for remaking a sleepy society into a crack policy debate team that could take on all comers. The first thing she did was change the name to the Forensic Debate Team. “It was very relaxed. But I didn’t want them to think that they could rest a little,” she jokes. The group had been under the auspices of the Department of Speech and Theatre, where the emphasis was on the latter.
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 17
exciting trends in the league’s history,” says Doody ran the team Executive Director Ashley Belanger. until 1966, when she “Students who graduate from the program handed off the directorwant to give back because they recognize ship. During the era she the value of it in their lives and want to pay started, which lasted fifty it forward. It’s very cool to see things from years, URI became a competitive policy debate team both perspectives: the URI students taking pride and ownership in being a part of the on the regional and league from a different side; and the stunational circuit. But when dents who debated with them during their its strongest advocates freshman year, who see them now as role retired, the club lost models who can talk about the college momentum, and in 2008, experience.” went dormant. Kamil Bahit ’18, who at just 19 is a That was also the year sophomore and an alum of the high school that Morrison joined the league, has served as a tournament judge. A University staff as a graduate of Woonsocket High School, he lecturer, teaching argumentation and debate. She says that debate has shaped him and his career aspirations. was still a graduate stu“It’s an activity other than talking— dent in the University of you do have to be a good listener for the Pittsburgh’s Department Agnes Doody, seated at left, with the 1959 Little Rest Debate majority of the debate, and it helps you of Communications, Society—it was the last year the debate team would bear that understand how people think differently working on her dissertaname. The legend below the Grist yearbook entry: “Remember the Issues” is a phrase the Rhode Island debaters will long remember. than you. Different people come up with tion. She had been an crazy ideas, and you have to deal with accomplished policy unorthodox thinking,” he says. A pre-med “The head of the department was a debater in high school and college, but she student, Bahit is thinking of combining director of plays and he couldn’t care less wasn’t tapped to revive the debate team medicine and debate into a position in about speech. I cared passionately about it,” until 2014. The debate club actually had public health: “I see myself getting engaged Doody says. In her estimation, the URI had an endowment since 2005, a $123,000 team suffered an inferiority complex— gift from the estate of a former URI debater, in the legislative process. This is especially important now that the government is at the time, URI was still considered a Martha McCormick Kelly ’37. But the fund increasing its intervention in our health “cow college,” even though it had transicould only be administered by the director tioned to a university seven years earlier. of debate, so it sat untapped until Morrison care system.” On a warm December Saturday, the It didn’t help that the Ivy League’s Brown was officially designated. Then, it took a University was only 32 miles away. And the couple of years before she administration wasn’t inclined to argue. found a core of students There was only a small budget for tournawho had debated in high ment travel, and then-President Francis school and wanted to conHorn thought the debate team should stay tinue here. She was eager at the local YMCA. for the club to coalesce. Doody had other ideas. “I’m an evangelist for “I said that we are going to stay in the debate,” she says. same kind of hotels that the best teams go Her students are, too. to. That’s all part of your image and your Several mentor their self-esteem. I wanted the kids to think difcounterparts in the Rhode ferently about themselves. We had training Island Urban Debate sessions at the UClub so they would use the League. Founded with dining room. I was death on manners.” Brown University’s Parliamen Doody’s determination to send forth the Swearer Center for Public tary style deba Forensic Debate Team in grand style Service in 1999, the prote apparently bothered Horn so much, he gram draws debaters from emphasiz es reportedly asked retired public speaking 10 high schools in persuasiv e professor, Lee Polk, then a URI faculty Providence, Central Falls, rhetoric a Director of Debate Catherine Morrison, nd candidate, in a job interview: “Do you Woonsocket and a lecturer in the Harrington School, an ability to think it’s really necessary to house debaters Pawtucket. relaunched the club in the British think quic kly. Parliamentary style. at the Waldorf in New York City? I don’t “This is one of most even stay there.”
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Debate Union hosted the high school league’s Ugly Sweater Bash, in which the combatants fought over the proposition that: “The United States federal government should substantially curtail its domestic surveillance.” While Olatunji, a coach and judge, kept time for the final round in the Agnes G. Doody Auditorium, the rest of the URI team relaxed over pizza in a Swan Hall classroom. The team had just competed in its second intercollegiate tournament at the University of Vermont, and the occasion marked a moment of full circle: The Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts’ first debate club also met in a basement room in Davis Hall. Its first contest pitted the five-man team against the Farmers and the Poultry clubs. And although the Debate Club got its coop cleaned, according to a report in the archives, “it is felt that the Debating Club acquitted itself creditably.” Similarly, URI’s newest debate club did not bring home any trophies in its latest outing, but felt it had a respectable showing. Arnav Doss ’17 teamed with Olatunji to debate the permissibility of religious symbols on memorial sites and whether the U.N. should save dying languages; they made it to the top bracket in the preliminary round. Doss began debating in high school in the Model U.N. style, well prepared by evenings listening to the BBC and heated family political discussions. He came to URI in 2013 to study ocean engineering and was disappointed to discover there was no team. “I always want to know what’s going on in the world, and debate is the place I can go and find other people I can discuss issues with. The tournament was fun. We learned a lot,” Doss says. “Then we got into the top bracket and we got destroyed.” But he says it with a crocodile grin that gives his opponents their props—and relishes the prospect of a re-match. •
Top: URI Debate Union practices in the basement of Davis Hall (foreground left to right) Kyle Fendrich ’17, Lolade Ashamu ’18; (background) grad student Sebastian Reh, Tabatha Lewis ’18, Sabrina Giedekier ’17. Bottom left: Debater Alyssa McDonnell ’18 argues in favor of drafting women into military service in a weekly debate. Bottom right: president Bunmi Olatunji ’17 and vice president Arnav Doss ’17 discuss business and prepare the Wednesday meeting and debate.
“Debate is about being better intellectually,” says Bunmi Olatunji ’17, who started debating at 13 years old and is now the president of the URI Debate Union.
PHOTOS: COURTESY 1959 GRIST, NORA LEWIS
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 19
OnGuards Riptides, close calls, what it’s like to be the one with a whistle when summer fun turns dangerous—stories from the URI lifeguards who watch over us all. BY DAVE LAVALLEE ‘79, M.P.A. ‘87
L
ate summer is always a challenge. College calls lifeguards back to their dryland lives, until by the end of August, managers at Rhode Island’s 36 guarded fresh and salt-water beaches are juggling schedules to keep the chairs full. Jenna Pari ’18, a five-year veteran of South County beaches, remembers a latesummer day two years ago when a hurricane offshore was pushing big waves at Misquamicut. By then, many of the guards left at the popular beach near Westerly, R.I., were fellow URI students. “A bunch of people got stuck in a big rip,” Pari, a fourth-year pharmacy student from Exeter, R.I., recalls. “All six of us were in the water instantly.” Beachgoers pitched in, manning two tow lines. “I pulled out two people, including a 6-year-old boy,” Pari says. “People were on the shore clapping. The best feeling is when a mom is waiting on the shore, afraid, and then you get to hand her child to her.” And that is how most rescue stories end: well. The Department of Environmental Management, the state’s biggest lifeguard employer—it hired 142 to protect 15 state-run beaches last year— doesn’t keep figures, but spokeswoman Gail Mastrati says drownings “are extremely rare.” Lifeguards, she adds, wear many 20
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Sun and Shadow
Mike DeLuca ’80, M.C.D. ’88, seated, at Moonstone in the 1980s. “It was a great time in life—young, single, and learning who you are. I know that experience changed the way I look at life, made me more tolerant and patient.” To this day, when he hears of accidents, he’s haunted by the idea that “it could have been prevented.”
hats: “They are trained not only for aquatic-related emergencies, but also for emergency medical situations on shore. They are a beach’s first responders.”
Sand Dollars
Tourism research indicates beaches are the single biggest inspiration for vacationers who visit Rhode Island, and the three million people who dally along Ocean State shores each summer constitute a major economic engine. South County’s 20 beaches “are jewels in the crown,” says the region’s tourism director, Myrna George.
Lifeguards make from minimum wage to $13 an hour; those with an instructor certificate, required for beach captains, make a little more. No one’s getting rich, but from Harry Eisenberg ’66 to Andrew Lavallee ’17, it’s helped defray tuition costs for decades of students. For the University, in fact, lifeguarding is something of a cottage industry. Last year, almost 50 trainees took lifesaving classes at Tootell Aquatic Center, a mix of URI and local high school students, while another 27 working guards re-upped their two-year certification. Classes start in the PHOTOS: COURTESY MIKE DELUCA; NORA LEWIS
Care Taker
Alexander Mason ’18, a nursing major, worked at East Matunuck last year. “I will be doing clinical rotations in hospitals coming up,” he says, “and my lifeguard experience will come in handy.” He has his sights set on a master’s as a nurse practitioner or nurse-anesthetist. “When my grandmother in England was ill, it was amazing to see how the hospice workers and nurses helped her. That’s what I want to do.”
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Fit for Rescue
Matthew Cunningham ’10, a former track and field champ at URI and lifeguard at Easton’s Beach in Newport. “We have a very tight-knit group,” he says, “with a one-hour mandatory workout session each day— we swim, run, kayak, paddleboard or row.”
fall and run through the spring, with the first DEM certification test in late May. Some 90 percent of applicants pass the first time. They’ll go on to a job that’s a Rhode Island rite of passage, and that still— whether or not you remember Baywatch— holds an undeniable glamour.
Guard Life
Surf Test
You could say that Nick Neilsen ’19 entered the family business when he became an East Matunuck State Beach lifeguard at 16; his sister and brother are lifeguards too. For the King of the Beach event at last year’s state guard games, Neilsen swam, ran, rowed, paddled a kayak and paddled a rescue board; he came in last, but was happy to have finished. “Not many guards want to do this event,” he says, “but when you do, you feel really good about yourself.”
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Colleen Cray ’18 was a one-season guard when her car collided with a bus in 2012. “The Scarborough lifeguards started showing up as soon as I was out of the ICU,” says Cray, now studying secondary education and math. “They brought me my favorite foods: doughnuts and Mountain Dew.” As she tackled months of therapy for a shattered femur and ankle, she got a note from her captains: “They told me there are beach wheelchairs, and you can be the first aid guard. I was sick, but they held me closer—that’s what Scarborough taught me.” It’s a feeling that the decades do not dim. “It’s like we were a fraternity,” remembers Mike DeLuca ’80, M.C.D. ’88. “Even at my age, when I meet former lifeguards, there’s that moment of recognition—of respect.” As a 19-year-old, DeLuca’s intentions were murky, if understandable: “I took that first winter swim class to look at girls,” he laughs. “But I soon figured out I did better intellectually if I could burn off some stress.
Then after I took the water safety instructor class, I realized this could turn into a job.” A full immersion into Ocean State guard culture followed: DeLuca taught lifesaving for 10 years, ran the highly competitive state Lifeguard Tournament for another 10, and lifeguarded at Moonstone Beach from 1979–84 (yep, the nude years). His crew lost a vacationer who followed his girlfriend into a riptide, far beyond the guarded section. A boater retrieved the unconscious man and drove him precious minutes to a Coast Guard Station; he later died. Thirty years later, there’s still an edge to DeLuca’s voice when he recalls how the crew searched for the man, hoping to do CPR. Hard reckonings can come at any moment. “You need a certain mental attitude,” DeLuca says, “a maturity.” Of his guarding cadre, “many have become very successful people: judges, state reps, attorneys, doctors, teachers, triathletes, business owners. They are motivated, and they’re motivated to do good things.” Now, as community development director for Narragansett, DeLuca says he’s proud his town can boast “the best lifeguards in the state”—a reference to Gansett Surf Rescue’s two-decade reign at the guard games. But only a fraction of the state’s hundreds of licensed guards compete each
His Race Philosophy
“If you’re not throwing up, you’re not doing it right,” says Ben Sienko ’11 after competing in King of the Beach in 2015.
Not Waving, and Drowning Drowning isn’t always a splashy event. URI lifesaving instructor Stephanie Stewart trains students to look for three categories of victims: • distressed swimmers are having trouble, perhaps from fatigue, and may still be able to wave or call out • active drowning victims are taking on water while trying to stay at the surface; typically upright in the water, with arms outstretched and trying to push down on the water, they may be a minute or less from sinking • passive drowning victims are inactive, at the surface or below it
Shore Queen All Together Now
High school and University students take lifesaving class at Tootell: Mitchell Bendokas, Aidan Correll ‘20, Timothy Sheehy, and Erika Lyons.
PHOTOS: NORA LEWIS; NICOLE SCHWAB, PHARM.D. ‘19
Jenna Pari ’18, moments after finishing the Queen of the Beach event in the August 2015 guard games. “We make a lot of rescues at Misquamicut, and when we have big surf, those are my favorite days. I used to be a nervous wreck around big waves or blood. But now I am looking at getting my emergency medical technician certification or becoming a physician’s assistant after I earn my doctor of pharmacy degree. I am just way more calm in any emergency situation.”
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Inside Rips Rip currents account for 80 percent of rescues by surf beach lifeguards across the country, according to the U.S. Lifesaving Association. Sometimes sandbars create rip channels; or two trains of waves from different directions meet. In either case, rips “are fed by the energy in breaking waves,” says ocean engineering professor Stephan Grilli.
Oh,Those 80s
Tony Merlino ‘86, lifeguarding at East Matunuck. “One morning I showed up and I saw this little sand shark, dead but still in good shape,” he remembers. “Beautiful.” So Merlino posed the shark with sunglasses and a beer can. “People were taking pictures with their kids,” he remembers. “I had a name for him, Sparky the Shark. I even had a song. People think lifeguarding is easy—it’s not. But that was a good day. ”
August, while on any given day at a beach filled with 10,000 visitors, everyone wearing a red whistle needs a rare combination of skills to make it through an eighthour shift. Competitive swimmers naturally gravitate toward lifesaving—all applicants must measure up on a timed swim and other physical feats—but athleticism is only a piece. Guards need patience, focus, decisiveness; they learn to think as a team, and communicate clearly under pressure. “I can’t just be this carefree kid,” says Nick Neilsen ’19, a guard at East Matunuck State Beach for three years. “If someone is caught in a riptide and they are in trouble, you have to go for it. You can’t wait for someone else to decide.”
No Day at the Beach
At the largest state-run facility, Scarborough, lifeguards watch over 3,000 linear feet of beach frontage. “The most satisfying,” says Jameson Logiodice ’08,
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There’s scary math involved: “Their speed is proportional to the square of the breaking wave height,” says Grilli. “Hence, doubling the breaking wave height will potentially quadruple the rip current speed.” Although often confused with undertows, another surf phenomenon, rips won’t pull swimmers down. “A swimmer on the surface can be caught in it,” Grilli says, “but because these are always narrow jets, swimming parallel to shore will usually be enough to escape.”
one of three captains there last year, “are the rescues and medical emergencies that we respond to where if we hadn’t been there, the patron would have been in serious trouble.” Logiodice, a physical education teacher with the North Kingstown School Department, was a lifeguard for five years before serving as captain for seven. Last year, his two co-captains, and half of the beach’s 28 regular guards, were also URI students and alumni. “I enjoy every aspect of the job,” he says, “I guess that’s why I stay.” People can be grateful when a lifeguard helps them, but not always. Some are embarrassed—several guards describe how after the drama and exertion of a rescue, people simply hurry away. Another thing they learn: Don’t count heads. Instead, “we teach lifeguards to scan the entire volume of the water: bottom, middle and surface,” says URI lifesaving instructor Stephanie Stewart. Flags, warning whistles and other preventative tools are key. “Our main con-
cern is preventing risky behaviors in the first place,” Stewart says. If disaster strikes, guards are taught to keep calm and work as a team: “They need to know the fundamentals on how to care for a large number of scenarios, ranging from first aid to a lost child or problem at a facility.” Equipment has improved over the years, and some beaches have jet skis and robot buoys in their arsenals. But the torpedo buoy remains an anchor of ocean rescue techniques. Easy to carry, torps are also a first line of defense, a tool to both help and fend off a panicking person—so both victim and lifeguard can return safely to shore. To serve others, to protect yourself— most teens and 20-somethings never take stock of their mortality this way. “You become cautious, notice little things,” says Matthew Cunningham ’10, a lifeguard at Naval Station Newport and a summer guard captain at Easton’s Beach in Newport. “I even drive slower now. I know anything could happen in a matter of seconds.” • –with reporting by Pippa Jack PHOTOS: DAVE LAVALLEE; COURTESY TONY MERLINO
Father to Son
Hopes and fears and a family tradition BY DAVE LAVALLEE ’79, M.P.A. ’87
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hen I was a Cumberland High School student, my father, Roger Lavallee ’48, came to me with an idea for a summer job: lifeguard. “That’s a great idea, Dad,” I said, “but I can barely swim.” My dad believed my six siblings and I could do anything if we tried hard enough, so a few weeks later I found myself at Tootell, trying to swim 450 yards in under 10 minutes. I was ordered out of the water—one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. But I returned a couple of weeks later, and passed by seconds. Then came the outdoor rescue tests. I did fine with the torp, but since I had never rowed a boat, I kept going in circles. When I returned to shore after finally reaching my victim, the guy giving the test asked if I was assigned to a beach, and I said yes, Pulaski State Park in Chepachet, R.I. “Then I’ll pass you,” he said, “but you get your tail in the boat and learn how to row.” I still remember the rich pine aroma when I drove into the park that first day, and the excruciating sunburn I left with. We never had a drowning during my years there, but we made some saves, found some lost kids, put out a fire at our concession stand with a bucket brigade, performed first aid on countless kids and helped a woman in cardiac distress. A patron once asked me to find his dentures in the dark, spring-fed water. When I found them, he said, “Thanks young man; you saved me 400 bucks.” I can’t remember if he put them right back in his mouth. Another time, a bunch of kids came running to my chair, yelling about poop. Now a master of the rowboat, I went out to the offending deposit, scooped it up and disposed of it properly. I guess that was my Caddyshack moment. One day I was called to Lincoln Woods State Park on a blisteringly hot preseason weekday. I grabbed my trunks, headed over, and got a hot dog. I had finished half the dog when the call came for a swimmer down, around the corner from the marked swimming area. Two guards rowed over; another guard and I ran through the woods in our bare feet. Once we got there, we
PHOTO: NORA LEWIS
Lifeguard Andrew Lavallee and his dad, former lifeguard Dave at Scarborough Beach, Narragansett, R.I.
“Many guards never work a drowning. I hope my son never does.”
swam to the spot, and then started diving in what seemed like 15 feet of water. We were all of us gasping by the time we found the unconscious teen, fully clothed, on the bottom. We lifted him into the boat and I began mouth-to-mouth— I remember we couldn’t flatten him out to do CPR. Once we got him to shore, medics took over, and we heard that he had been revived at the hospital. We held out hope, but he later died. – Dave Lavallee It was the scariest thing I’ve ever been through, and I remember every moment. My son, Andrew ’17, is entering his sixth year as a guard at Scarborough and is a poised, confident and serious guard. I am proud that his mates and patrons like and respect him. But back when he was a tentative rookie, I made the mistake of offering guidance. He replied: “Dad, thanks for the advice. But you were just a pond lifeguard. This is saltwater, where we have dangerous surf.” •
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Human Zoo
A dark, forgotten chapter of the 1958 World’s Fair compelled filmmaker Monda Raquel Webb ’90 to explore racism and the loss of childhood innocence. BY NICOLE MARANHAS
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1958: A young girl twirls in front of her bedroom mirror,
picking out a party dress for her birthday trip to the World’s Fair in Brussels, Belgium. Cut to fairgrounds: popcorn tumbles from a kettle, a ticket booth opens. In a small dirt corral, a groundskeeper sweeps leaves from the dirt of one of the day’s exhibitions, a replica of a Congolese hut. Inside the hut, an African girl waits with her mother. The groundskeeper stakes a sign into the dirt: live feeding. Thus begins the short film Zoo (Volkerschau) by first-time filmmaker Monda Raquel Webb ’90, inspired by a reallife photograph of an African child on display in the “Negro Village” at Expo ’58, the first World’s Fair following the end of World War II. “I knew the story needed to be told,” says Webb. After seeing the blackand-white photograph posted on the internet, she was shaken by the realization that human zoos—ethnographic displays of Eskimos, Native Americans, Asians, Africans, or other “human curiosities,” especially popular in the 18th and 19th centuries—had existed. More disturbing was how recently the photograph had been taken: 1958, only ten years before Webb was born. “I had trouble processing it,” Webb says. “I instantly needed to know this little girl’s story, how it would feel to lose your innocence in that way. I heard a definitive voice, not even mine: You’re going to make a film. Even though I had no idea how I was going to do it.”
Monda Raquel Webb lives in Rockville, Maryland. Her upcoming movie Red Clay Dirt is adapted from a book of her short stories, drawing from her family history. “My main characters are female heroes. In the worlds I create, women are visible, women are heard.”
PHOTOS: COURTESY MONDA RAQUEL WEBB
As a URI undergraduate, Webb was a basketball player and track star on a full athletic scholarship. She majored in journalism and minored in English, and was a founding mother of the University’s first African American sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha. Although she loved the arts, she felt obligated after graduation to pursue a practical path. She returned to her native Maryland, working in IT and eventually real estate and the mortgage finance industry. But her heart belonged elsewhere. “The first 44 years, I worked to make sure my mother would be proud of me,” says Webb. “I decided the next 44 years are for me.” Webb had never written a screenplay, but she drew on her writing background to navigate her way to a finished script, centering her story on two young girls: a well-pampered German girl on a birthday trip to the World’s Fair and the African child who is put on display. Shot in black and white to a haunting violin soundtrack, the film follows the girls in the hours before they meet.
Since it premiered last year,
the film has screened at festivals around the world, earning audience accolades and numerous awards, including the prize for Best Script at the Filmmakers International Film Festival in Marbella, Spain, last fall. “People said it would be impossible to get the film made and into festivals,” says Webb, reflecting on the challenge of recreating a World’s Fair and 1950s Europe in her backyard, on a shoestring budget with a handful of cast and crew. “I couldn’t allow myself to get caught up in that fear. We each have our own path; one person’s journey does not need to be my journey.” This is the philosophy that also inspires her work. Through her production company, Little Known Stories, Webb hopes to shed light on other stories that history has overlooked or ignored. “If we lose our history, we lose ourselves,” says Webb. She dedicates Zoo to the unknown girl in the photograph; to Saartjie “Sarah”
Young actresses Kate Egan (left) and Erin Appiah became “instant besties,” says Webb. “When they met one another, there was a moment of shyness. Then they began running around when they weren’t on camera, jumping on the bed with little muddy shoes and having a blast.”
Baartman, the Khoisan woman stagenamed the “Hottentot Venus” as a 19-century London and Parisian “freak show” attraction; and to Ota Benga, an African pygmy who lived in captivity at the Bronx Zoo in 1906, eventually committing suicide at 32 years old. “To the extent that we don’t learn the history of the world, we are bound to repeat its mistakes,” she says. She hopes Zoo, and stories like it, can be an educational tool in classrooms for students to understand the roots of racism. “I’m convinced we don’t come into the world with cruelty and bad intentions stamped on our hearts,” says Webb. “I believe children are born with love, light, and hope.” In the final minutes of Zoo, the show begins. The birthday girl peers over the fence, startled as the African girl her own age steps out from the hut. The birthday girl is confused as the crowd points and whispers. “Mama, why is that little girl inside the fence? Will she perform acrobatics?” the birthday girl wonders aloud. “That must be what we’re waiting for.” • For more information about Webb’s work, visit humanzoos.com.
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The Tiny Tech That’s Changing Everything Brain cancer, oil pollution, stinky socks—the wildly exploding field of nanotechnology is taking aim at all of them, with thousands of consumer goods and medical applications already in use. Inside one URI lab, a researcher works at the frontier of our understanding of the physical world. BY TODD MCLEISH
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on’t tell Geoff Bothun not to sweat the small stuff, because he knows better. The popular expression suggests that we shouldn’t get stressed about the little things in life, but in Bothun’s world, focusing on the little things may be the key to improving our health, protecting the environment, keeping us safe and living longer. The URI professor of chemical engineering studies how to use nanotechnology to manipulate cells and molecules, enabling engineers to design materials, products and processes for biomedical and environmental applications like never before. Imagine tiny particles—100 times thinner than a human hair and too small to see with a classroom microscope—that can make tennis balls last longer, keep your clothing cooler, heal wounds faster, clean diesel engine exhaust, and increase a computer’s speed and memory. In the medical field, nanoparticles can be injected into the body, pass through the circulatory system, hide from the immune system, and deliver a cargo of medicine to targeted cells.
“It’s the next industrial revolution,” says Bothun, who grew up in northern California and joined the URI faculty in 2006. “The strength of a material—a tennis racket or golf club, for instance—comes from the way the molecules and atoms within the material are interacting with each other. If you can control how those atoms form the material, you can design strength or additional functionalities into a larger-scale product.” More than 1,600 consumer products use nanotechnologies in their design or manufacture. Bothun first set his sights on using nanotechnologies to improve magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a medical diagnostics tool that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to create images of anatomy and physiological processes. He believes magnetic nanoparticles could improve the imagery by increasing the contrast and resolution between healthy and diseased cells, helping doctors detect diseases at earlier stages, and offering a general platform for improved cancer treatment. But then a neighbor was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer that is difficult to treat and offers little hope of a cure. Soon after his neighbor died from
the disease, the sister of Bothun’s close friend was also diagnosed with glioblastoma. So he turned his research attention to improving the early detection of the devastating illness. “Patient prognosis for glioblastoma is quite poor, with a life expectancy of only about 12 months after diagnosis, so the key to treatment is early diagnosis,” Bothun said. “We’re aiming to design something that could target glioblastoma cells and tumors in the brain, something sensitive that would allow for early detection by MRI, and carry a therapeutic cargo to the tumor right when you’re doing the detection.” Bothun said that glioblastomas quickly develop a resistance to commonly used chemotherapy drugs, rendering them ineffective. It’s also difficult to deliver targeted treatments into the brain. “There’s a cell layer separating the circulatory system from the brain called the blood-brain barrier, and whenever you try to deliver a therapeutic to the brain, that barrier acts as a line of defense to protect it,” he explained. “A huge challenge in the field of neuroscience and drug delivery is being able to cross that barrier.”
Chemical Engineering Professor Geoff Bothun holds a vial of the magnetic nanoparticle solution he’s hoping will fight diseases such as brain cancer. The tiny particles of iron oxide suspended in water are many orders of magnitude smaller than the eye can see.
PHOTO: NORA LEWIS
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Above, Bothun and grad student Nasim Ganji ’18 examine nanoparticles using an ultra-powerful electron microscope. Ganji’s research, supported by the National Science Foundation, examines interactions between nanoparticles and lipids—the scaffolding for cellular membranes.
But researchers have found that nanoparticles with a lipid coating can make it through. So Bothun is engineering a lipid-coated nanoparticle that could be guided to diseased cells and tumors in the brain. How does that work? It comes down to how greedy cancer cells are. “Cancer cells have a lot of growth receptors,” Bothun explains. “So if you take a nanoparticle and decorate the surface with a molecule that binds with a growth receptor, you can preferentially target the cancer cells and accumulate the drug or the imaging agent right there.” Once near a malignancy, the particles can get in by exploiting a related weakness. “Tumors have to take up lots of nutrients so they can grow quicker than healthy tissue, so they’re a bit chaotic and have lots of
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leaky vasculature in them,” Bothun says. “This allows nanoparticles to migrate through the porous blood vessels and into the tumor.” Once there, Bothun plans, they will deliver a lethal payload. Not only could the nanoparticles make the cells and tumors darker on imaging to help doctors diagnose disease sooner, but by also incorporating agents for gene therapy into the nano particle, Bothun plans to fiddle with their DNA, making them more sensitive to chemotherapies. Some forms of chemotherapy could be delivered at the same time, hitting the glioblastoma with a onetwo punch. Bothun knows that research of this kind takes many years of painstaking work, but he’s up for the challenge. The early stages
have been successful, and in collaboration with URI Associate Professor Niall Howlett and Brown University Assistant Professor Edward Walsh, along with three URI graduate students and five undergrads, he is preparing to begin testing it on mice. “We’ve already shown that we can deliver the nanoparticles to cervical and lung cancer cells,” he says. Brain cells will come next. But that’s not all Bothun has on his plate. The field of nanotechnology contains untold opportunities for exploration, so he is working on several other projects as well. He recently completed a three-year study with Professor Arijit Bose to create novel approaches to cleaning up oil spills in the marine environment. Bothun’s part of the project examined how nanoparticles
could be used to stop spilled oil from forming slicks on the water’s surface, where it can threaten wildlife and wash up on beaches. He found that nanoparticles of silicon dioxide used in conjunction with conventional oil spill dispersants improve the effectiveness of the dispersants. “Dispersants work by breaking up the oil into smaller droplets that remain in the water column where they can be consumed by oil-eating bacteria,” Bothun said. “We found that those oil droplets will stick to aggregates of silicon nanoparticles, making the oil heavy enough to sink to the bottom. Having it sink into the sediment is far better than having an oil slick at the surface.” He is continuing this line of research with funds from a new three-year grant. Bothun also directs the Rhode Island Consortium for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, which brings together nanotechnology researchers from URI, Brown University and elsewhere for research collaborations. The consortium has laboratory equipment and space in Crawford Hall and Morrill Hall, where local and national companies often can be found conducting analyses of their products.
In addition, Bothun has a great interest in workforce development for the nanotechnology industry, which is expected to grow to $3 trillion by 2020. “It represents the next technological revolution, so within a decade there are going to be lots of jobs in this area,” he said. “And that means we need graduates trained in how to use the instruments to characterize products containing nanotechnology.”
“We’ve already shown that we can deliver the nanoparticles to cervical and lung cancer cells.” So where will the nanotechnology field go next? “I expect that within 10 years, we’ll have nano-medicines that are safe, specific, personalized and smart,” Bothun said. “We’ll soon get to the point where we can design systems tailor-made for specific diseases and specific individuals.” In the meantime, he is looking forward to a large state-of-the-art nanotechnology and imaging laboratory in the new College of Engineering building, which should break ground next year: “I’m really excited about the possibilities.” •
To right, nanoparticles glow yellow inside cervical cancer cells. To the left, higher magnification shows the magnetic nanoparticles themselves. They have a special lipid coating that contains polyethylene glycol ligands, creating tiny bumps on their surface. The ligands impart stealth properties that hide the particles from the immune system; they may also help protect any therapeutic cargo loaded onto the particles.
PHOTO: NORA LEWIS, COURTESY PROFESSOR GEOFF BOTHUN, ISTOCK.COM
From Sunscreen to Supplements Nanoparticles are so easy to incorporate into a wide range of materials that more than 1,600 products currently contain them, many suspended in fluids like car lubricants and skin lotion. Others are incorporated into textiles and electronics. Tiny particles of silver are used in more than 400 different products, making it the most commonly used nanotech for consumer products. Since silver is known for its anti-microbial properties, it is used in the manufacture of athletic clothing, including socks and T-shirts, to slow the development of odor-causing bacteria. It’s also used in household disinfectants. Nanoparticles of titanium dioxide are used in many sunscreens, while calcium and magnesium nanoparticles are often combined in dietary supplements. Other nano-substances in consumer goods: gold, carbon, copper, iron, ceramic and silicon.
Are Nanoparticles Dangerous? Researchers are working to understand the potential pitfalls of substances like nanosilver. Washing machines coated with it, and socks and toothbrushes infused with it, can flush small amounts daily down the drain. Once in the environment, it can travel great distances. One fear: it could alter the bacteria that live in soil, disrupting natural nutrient cycles. Another: its overuse in consumer goods could allow bacteria to become resistant, crippling the effectiveness of the silver-coated instruments that surgeons rely on to keep infection rates down in operating rooms. Another controversy: Whether the particles commonly used in sunscreen can cross the epidermal barrier, or break down in the presence of UV rays or pool chlorine to create harmful substances. It’s an emerging field, but no strong adverse effects have so far been found. “Just because you make a material small, doesn’t mean it’s going to be dangerous,” Bothun says. But, he adds, “Their small size— sometimes on the same size scale as biological molecules—means they can interact strongly with living organisms. And determining what makes nanoparticles toxic is not trivial, because the mechanisms involved are highly complex.”
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CLASSACTS
KEEP US UP TO DATE ON YOUR NEWS! Submit your class note at alumni.uri.edu/note
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Congratulations to our 2015–2016
ALUMNI OF THE GAME The Alumni of the Game program, held at every A–10 men’s basketball home game, recognizes URI alumni who demonstrate the best of what our graduates are all about—successful careers combined with service to their communities and to the University. HONOREES Christine Collins ’90 Michael Nula ’96, M.S. ’01 Mark ’81, M.B.A. ’84 and Sue Cruise ’84 Saul ’79 and Susan Kaplan ’78, M.S. ’80 Jonathan Feinstein ’77, MCP ’79 John ’85 and Cheryl Stoukides ’85 Caroline Kaull ’66 Peter Bingham ’66 Richard Beaupre ’62 Wendy Field ’74 Jack Parente ’85 Brigadier General (Ret) Paul E. Casinelli ’76
Sharon J. Danosky of Sherman, Conn., has recently been named a BoardSource Certified Governance trainer. She is the founder and president of Danosky & Associates of New Milford, Conn. She is now certified to offer governance training among nonprofit organizations using BoardSource-approved curriculum in the following areas: roles and responsibilities of nonprofit boards, board-staff partnership, board structure, board’s role in fundraising, the board-building cycle, and board performance assessment.
STAYED CONNECTED
URI Alumni Association @URIAlumniAssoc | #URIAlum flickr.com/urialumni alumni.uri.edu
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Carlton R. Bradshaw ’06, M.A. ’13 wed Amanda Allard on July 26, 2015.
QUADANGLES SUMMER 2016
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Jerry Heines of Williston, Fla., writes: “My book Road to Success is now in Kindle and print editions on Amazon. It was written to help grads develop a high tech career in private industry. I hope you enjoy or pass it onto someone about to finish school. It has been endorsed by Lockheed Martin and the University of Florida.”
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Christine Collins ’90, pictured with her family, Alumni Relations Executive Director Michele Nota ’87, M.S. ’06, and President David M. Dooley, was honored for her dedication and loyalty to the University at the March 3, 2016, Massachusetts vs. URI game.
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Alec Voight of Milford, Conn. writes: “URI gave me the tools I needed to fulfill my destiny. In 1946 I was part of the first group of WWII veterans to attend the university. We all made friendships and have wonderful memories that have lasted a lifetime. While I have settled into an enjoyable retirement for the past 20 years, I am ever thankful for the education and the opportunity to achieve my dreams through my career in aerospace. I am celebrating my 93rd birthday this summer and while a lot of my classmates and fraternity brothers are no longer here, I am honored to have walked with them and called them my friends. That is the true spirit of URI and what I treasure the most from my college experience.”
Marilyn Baker, M.A. ’76, in Imagine Magazine
Elizabeth Sarro of Cranston, R.I., has been named to the LeadingAge RI Board of Directors. Sarro is the president and administrator of Bethany Home, overseeing the 33-bed skilled nursing and rehabilitation community. She is a licensed home administrator and a registered dietitian whose work has been published in the Health Care Facilities Quarterly Journal and the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
Big Chill Weekend 2016 Thank you to everyone who attended Big Chill Weekend 2016—the events of the weekend were a huge success! All money raised directly benefits student scholarships at URI. The University of Rhode Island Alumni Association and the 2016 Big Chill Weekend Committee express sincere appreciation to Honorary Chairs: Robert ’75 and Grace Vincent Top: URI President David M. Dooley, Lynn Baker-Dooley, and Provost Donald DeHayes showed their Rhody Spirit during Bid for a Cause. Center: Honorary Chairs Robert ’75 and Grace Vincent had a wonderful time at the Blue Tie Wine Pairing Dinner at Rosecliff Mansion in Newport. Bottom: Ana Semedo and Earl Smith III bid at the silent auction to support student scholarships.
See more photos at: alumni.uri.edu/bigchill
Gold Sponsors: Cox Business and Toray Plastics (America), Inc. Bronze Sponsor: IGT A special thanks to Rhode Island Monthly, as well as our other generous sponsors and auction/raffle donors.
IT’S ALL ABOUT SCHOLARSHIPS.
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Got Rhody Pride?
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Take the Campus Quiz and join the Alumni Association! Membership has so many rewards—here is just a small sampling: INVITATIONS TO SPECIAL MEMBERS-ONLY EVENTS
Take in a play and meet the cast at one of our backstage theater experiences, or catch up with fellow alumni at a major league sports pregame party or wine tasting event. HUNDREDS OF EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNTS Enjoy discounts to alumni event registrations, like Big Chill Weekend and the Alumni Golf Tournament, as well as on car rentals, hotels, and much more. (Members also receive a 20% discount at the URI Bookstore, the Rams Zone Gift Shop at the Ryan Center, and ramszone.uri.edu!) PARTNERSHIP PERKS Our partnership with Working Advantage
provides members with discounts on gift certificates, movie tickets, entertainment attractions, and sporting events nationwide. AND THAT’S NOT ALL Members receive deep discounts at Brooks Brothers, Mews Tavern, Alpine Ski & Snowboard, W. Alton Jones Campus Summer Camps, Whispering Pines Conference Center, and more!
But membership isn’t just about getting these great deals; it’s about showing your Rhody Pride. Your membership helps us to support more than 65 programs and services for alumni, students, and the University itself.
Join today!
alumni.uri.edu/membership
Now take our Campus Quiz and put your Rhody knowledge to the test! 1
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Robert Boucher of Watertown, Mass., writes: “My father probably tore more sporting event tickets at Keaney Gym and Meade Field than anyone. Now his brick rests just outside the Ryan Center entrance. I’d like to believe that somehow I’ve made him proud by finally publishing a book on Amazon. It is a digital format—search for Robert Boucher or Boyhood at Twilight. Fourteen stories, approximately one hundred and fifty pages, all for a total of $5.99 (about the cost of a couple of burritos at Taco Bell). If you risk the investment, rumor has it (others’, not mine), that you will not be disappointed. I certainly hope that’s true. Meanwhile, enjoy the South County summer. Perhaps try to get a little reading in. See you in the fall.”
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Washburn Hall
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34 QUADANGLES SUMMER 2016
Marilyn Baker, M.A., of Warwick, R.I., is one of 14 women actors showcased in a cover article in the November 2015 issue of Imagine magazine, “Fourteen Fabulous Actors Age 50 and Over...Over Achieving, That Is.” Imagine is published in Boston and contains news and stories about film, television, and new media production, mainly in New England. Baker has a strong background in music, and has performed as a chorus and choir singer and soloist in churches, synagogues, community theater, solo programs, and the former Providence Opera Theater. Since retiring from full-time state employment, she has studied acting and has appeared in both locallyand nationally-produced films and videos.
Leora Freedman of Toronto, Canada, is publishing her third novel, The Daughter Who Got Away, released on March 15. It is about Celia, a 70-yearold sophisticate, who leaves New York after a time of loss and travels to the Canadian wilderness to visit her daughter.
’83
James Curran, M.B.A., Ph.D. ’99, of Dunnellon, Fla., has been named dean of the College of Business at USF Sarasota-Manatee. James has been the college’s interim dean since former dean Robert Anderson retired at the end of 2014. Before he became involved in education, Curran held sales and marketing positions with four large international preciousmetals companies, spent time consulting and managed his own manufacturer-representative business.
Raymond Muscat, M.B.A, of North Muskegon, Mich., has been named industry director of University of Michigan’s Tauber Institute for Global Operations. In this role, Muscat will participate in strategic planning and lead strategic initiatives for the Institute. His 37-year corporate career includes global experiences in the automotive, defense electronics, aerospace and office furniture industries. His expertise spans engineering, manufacturing, program management, mergers and acquisitions, global manufacturing strategy development and execution, and the implementation of the Toyota Production System/Lean Manufacturing principles.
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Monda Raquel Webb of Rockville, Md., has had many recent accolades for her short film “Zoo (Volkerschau)”. “Zoo” is about a day in the life of an African girl on display for the first time in a Human Zoo in 1958. Monica writes: “My social media hashtag is #letsallbehuman. My overarching goal is to get people to see all human beings as human beings. We’re asking people to trash the dogma, forget stereotype, disregard color, race, lifestyle and gender and to really SEE one another as the girls in the films see themselves; simply human.”
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Lori Viner, M.S. ’02, of Slocum, R.I., was promoted to director of operations and administration at Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ocean State. She is responsible for leading daily operations of the Donation Center program, including collections, inventory/fleet management and logistics, customer service initiatives, and business partner and vendor relations. She also is responsible for facilities management, human resources, IT systems and compliance/ workplace safety programs.
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Ramachandran “Ram” P. Menon, M.S., has recently joined Michael Best & Friedrich LLP to the firm’s Intellectual Property Practice Group as senior counsel. He brings more than 20 years of combined legal, technical, and business experience to the firm.
PHOTO: COURTESY LAWERENCE EINSBERG
CLOSEUP
To See Clearly Lawrence Ginsberg ’80
The Nicaraguan woman had one request: “I want to see the horizon.” Too poor to afford glasses, she had reached the age of 40 without seeing the mountains, a cloudless sky, a sunset. Lawrence Ginsberg gave them to her through his volunteer work as an optometrist, testing and providing free glasses to needy people in Central America and coal-mining towns in Tennessee and Virginia. “I love doing this,’’ he says. “My profession has been good to my family and me. It’s a way to give back.’’ Raised in East Providence, Ginsberg studied zoology at URI, then spent four years at the New England College of Optometry, opening his practice in his hometown in 1987. Fifteen years ago, a colleague suggested he sign up with Northeast Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity. With his two daughters older and his practice established, Ginsberg went for it.
His first trip was to Jinotepe, a small town in Nicaragua. In a clinic set up at a local school, he saw 50 patients a day. Some had such poor eyesight they couldn’t read; others suffered from diabetes-related eye conditions. After an exam, he fit them for glasses—all donated by the nonprofit—and provided eye medications. “For them, it was glasses or food on the table,’’ he recalls. Since then, he’s made 15 trips to Nicaragua, El Salvador and Panama; and through Remote Area Medical, to Appalachia. There, people eager to finally see the world slept in their cars in the clinic’s parking lot the night before. “They were huddled in fleece blankets next to fire pits,’’ says Ginsberg. “It was disturbing—hard to believe this takes place in America”. BY ELIZABETH RAU UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 35
Melissa Nassaney, M.S. ’04, of West Kingston, R.I., is newly board certified by the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialists (ABPTS). Melissa, a clinical coordinator and physical therapist, earned the women’s health clinical specialist certification. She is one of the only two ABPTS board-certified women’s health clinical specialists in Rhode Island.
landscape of war is not always comprised of tanks and helicopters. Sometimes it looks like a neighborhood in America.”
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Dominick Ciaraldi of Philadelphia, Pa., was recently promoted by Comcast Corporation to vice president, political affairs and community investment. Prior to joining Comcast in 2007, he administered political compliance responsibilities at Safeway Corporation and UST Public Affairs, Inc., managed the Federal Election Commission (FEC) electronic disclosure office via NIC Technologies, and served as a reports analyst for the FEC, in Washington, D.C. He currently serves as a board member for the Public Affairs Council and Neighborhood Bike Works.
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Brian O’Malley of North Kingstown, R.I., is a recent recipient of the Rhode Island State Council of the Arts’ 2016 Artist Fellowship Award in Film and Video. The RISCA Fellowship Exhibition is an annual event that showcases works by Rhode Island artists who have been awarded by the state for artistic excellence.
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Allison Carley-Mandel of Tiverton, R.I. was appointed president of Luca + Danni, the Rhode Island-based, American-made jewelry company. Carley, a seasoned sales veteran in the accessories space, joins Luca + Danni after serving as vice president of sales at Alex and Ani for four years.
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Colleen Mouw, M.S., Ph.D. ’09, of Houghton, Mich., has been identified as an extraordinary early career scientist by the White House and NASA. This is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.
Catherine Chenot, M.B.A., of Harrisville, R.I., is newly board certified by the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialists (ABPTS). Catherine, a physical therapist at Lifespan’s Allens Avenue facility in Providence, earned the neurology clinical specialist certification in May, 2015. She is one of the only two ABPTS boardcertified neurologic clinical specialists in Rhode Island.
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Justin Oswald of Sparkill, N.Y., is now chief of staff for U.S. Congresswoman Grace Meng of N.Y. He is the youngest Democrat chief of staff in Washington.
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Mara Trachtenberg of Wakefield, R.I., is a recent recipient of the Rhode Island State Council of the Arts’ 2016 Artist Fellowship Award in Photography. The RISCA Fellowship Exhibition is an annual event that showcases works by Rhode Island artists who have been awarded by the state for artistic excellence.
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Jose B. González, Ph.D., of Quaker Hill, Conn., writes: “Happy New Year! Just wanted to pass along that my poetry collection, Toys Made of Rock, has come out. The publisher is Bilingual Press out of ASU. The book is based on my journey from a nonEnglish speaking immigrant in El Salvador to a professor of English in the U.S. Brian Turner, author of Here, Bullet, says “González is a storyteller and truth teller, a writer who sees that which must be written, must be sung, must be witnessed. The 36 QUADANGLES SUMMER 2016
Alexandra McGowan of Warwick, R.I., has joined the brand culture and communications firm (add)ventures as a specialist, pr/strategy, to the content team. In her role, she assists in the development, management and execution of public relations, content marketing and social media campaigns. Additionally, she supports client partner events with media relations, event planning services and the coordination of photography and videography.
Weddings Carlton R. Bradshaw ’06, M.A. ’13 and Amanda Allard, on July 26, 2015.
In Memoriam Lillian Clark Sandford ’34 of Manchester, Conn., on March 11, 2016. Phyllis Staveley ’41 of Warwick, R.I., on January 17, 2016. PHOTO: ISTOCK; COURTESY MARIE ANTONETTE JUINIO-MENEZ
CLOSEUP
Fishing the Philippines Marie Antonette Juinio-Meñez, Ph.D. ’91 No ocean on earth has more biodiversity than that surrounding the archipelago of the Philippines, which is why after she finished her Ph.D. on lobsters, Marie Antonette Juinio-Meñez couldn’t wait to leave URI and go home. Since then, as a professor and, from 2013 to 2015, as director of the University of the Philippines’ Marine Science Institute, Juinio-Meñez has had one goal: To help Southeast Asia become an epicenter of tropical marine research and education. “In a developed nation like the United States, you can devote your studies to pure research,” Juinio-Meñez explains. “But in a developing country like the Philippines, you have to apply it—there are immediate needs to provide science inputs to policy, work with government and private partners, and train people in marine biodiversity conservation and resources management. The sea is very much part of sociocultural and economic life here.” After “serving her turn” as director, Juinio-Meñez is happy to be once more devoting all her time to research and development work. She focuses on ecologically and commercially valuable invertebrates such as the sea cucumber—long overfished because of a huge export market to China, where they’re believed to be aphrodisiacs. And she will have more time for mentoring graduate students and doing outreach. “One of the biggest challenges in the archipelago is that there’s a very shallow pool of people with expertise,” she says. “We must develop the next generation of marine scientists who can respond to our rapidly changing environment.” BY PIPPA JACK UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 37
Annette S. Hockman ’43 of Aventura, Fla., on November 23, 2015. Lester W. Jordan Sr. ’43 of Cranston, R.I., on February 6, 2016.
There are many exciting career opportunities that await young professionals. Building career awareness as a new professional will allow you to make confident career decisions as you advance in time and experience. In the latest Alumni Career Services article, we describe how you can make the most of your early professional opportunities by observing jobs around you, obtaining manager feedback, and joining professional networks. Alumni may call Alumni Career Services at 401.874.9404 or email our Alumni Career Advisors:
Robert G. DiSpirito, Sr. ’53 of Slippery Rock, Pa., on December 21, 2015.
Florence V. Taft ’45 of Franklin, Mass., on February 25, 2016.
Harry Hartman ’53 of Ocala, Fla., on September 5, 2015.
Doris Briden Nevens ’46 of Meredith, N.H., on March 10, 2016.
Ernest A. Christensen ’54 of New Smyrna Beach, Fla., on September 14, 2015.
Family Day at the Zoo July 8
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QUADANGLES SUMMER 2016
James R. Cardin ’49 of Raleigh, N.C., on January 21, 2016. Robert F. Poyton ’49 of Warwick, R.I., on August 12, 2015. Carol L. Robinson ’49 of Boston, Mass., on February 17, 2016. Robert W. Jordan ’50 of Washington, Pa., on December 12, 2015. Robert E. Prout ’50 of Jupiter, Fla., on January 3, 2016. Harold Schwartz ’50 of Sarasota, Fla., on March 20, 2016. Margaret Cairns Cubberly ’51 of Yorktown, Va., on September 19, 2015.
Graham S. Fuller ’52 of Portsmouth, R.I., on February 1, 2016. Lois Ibbotson Hartnett ’52 of Tiverton, R.I., on August 19, 2015.
Read more I alumni.uri.edu/careerservices
Summer Fun!
Anthony Rodi ’47, of Cranston, R.I., on March 2, 2016.
Arthur H. Levin ’51 of Phoenix, Ariz., on March 12, 2016.
Karen Rubano: krubano@uri.edu Lisa Kuosmanen: lkuosmanen@uri.edu
Gretchen Dale ’53 of Stowe, Vt., on March 2, 2016.
Virginia Brice Corwin ’44 of Bronx, N.Y., on August 28, 2015.
Tudor Jones Jr. ’47 of Walnut Creek, Cali., on January 16, 2016.
What New Professionals Need to Know
Leon C. Boghossian Jr. ’53 of Pawtucket, R.I., on March 18, 2016.
Richard A. Staats ’52 of Valparaiso, Ind., on January 31, 2016.
Frances S. Garcia ’54 of Tiverton, R.I., on February 17, 2016. Anthony J. Rose Jr. ’54 of Wakefield, R.I., on March 22, 2016. Huan-Yang Chang ’57 of University Place, Wash., on November 29, 2015. Richard A. Gammell ’57 of Providence, R.I., on July 15, 2015. Ernest A. Gencarelli ’57 of Omaha, Neb., on November 10, 2015. A. Gilbert Helgerson Jr. ’57 of Sutton, Mass., on January 7, 2016. David B. Sawyer ’57 of Weslaco, Tex., on February 11, 2016. Vincent A. Stifano Jr. ’57 of Wethersfield, Conn., on February 22, 2016. Robert A. Butziger ’58 of Albuquerque, N.M., on December 13, 2015. Janice Kaszuba Murphy ’60 of Mashpee, Mass., on February 19, 2016. George Cosmo ’61 of Amherst, N.H., on March 1, 2016.
Join us for three great events! • Visit alumni.uri.edu URI Night with the PawSox July 2
URI Night with Revolution Soccer August 13
Carole M. Olmsted ’61 of Camp Hill, Pa., on January 18, 2016.
Stephen G. Tennien ’74 of Myrtle Beach, S.C., on March 15, 2016.
David K. Welch ’61, M.S. ’66, Ph.D. ’74 of East Greenwich, R.I., on October 30, 2015.
Paul Arbor ’75 of Warwick, R.I., on February 23, 2016.
Aileen B. Capalbo ’62 of Wakefield, R.I., on January 6, 2016. Edward F. DelSignore ’62 of Bolton, Conn., on February 4, 2016. Giovanni A. Leopre ’62 of Westfield, N.J., on March 10, 2016. Dennis F. Magner ’62 of Middleboro, Mass., on March 11, 2015. Edward Stebbins Jr. ’62 of Warwick, R.I., on March 9, 2016. Kenneth L. Travis ’64 of Fairfax, Va., on February 15, 2016.
Ronald Creamer ’75 of South Kingstown, R.I., on February 6, 2016. Gilbert A. Sirois ’75, M.S. ’80, of Greenville, S.C., on January 25, 2016. Eileen J. Stukus ’75 of Grafton, Mass., on February 17, 2016. Grace E. Jerome ’76 of Mount Pleasant, S.C., on March 18, 2016. Mary F. Fox ’77 of Wickford, R.I., on January 20, 2016. Brian J. McCartin ’77 of Flint, Mich., on January 29, 2016.
William Rizzini ’65 of Bristol, R.I., on February 29, 2016.
Theresa A. Gay ’79 of North Kingstown, R.I., on December 20, 2015.
Lorraine G. D’Antuono ’66 of Warwick, R.I., on January 9, 2016.
James J. Griffin, Ph.D. ’79 of Charlestown, R.I., on March 14, 2016.
Thomas Larmon ’67 of Round Hill, Va., on August 28, 2015.
Marjorie Milligan ’79 of Providence, R.I., on February 20, 2016.
Johnes K. Moore ’67 of Marblehead, Mass., on March 13, 2016.
Eslie McAllester ’80 of Fairhope, Ala., on February 25, 2016.
Susan Mary Costello ’68 of Mansfield, Mass., on August 30, 2015.
Elaine H. O’Neill ’80 of Coventry, R.I., on January 25, 2016.
Thomas W. O’Connell ’68 of Alexandria, Va., on January 19, 2016.
Thomas F. Policastro Jr. ’81 of Providence, R.I., on November 26, 2015.
Dennis P. Murphy ’69 of Lakewood Ranch, Fla., on March 27, 2015. Richard E. Sullivan, M.A. ’69, of Charlestown, R.I., on March 1, 2016. Alice J. White, M.A. ’69 of Jersey City, N.J., on March 10, 2016. Mildred Flanagan, M.S. ’70 of Riverside, R.I., on December 12, 2015. Alexander B. Filonow ’71 of Stillwater, Okla., on January 29, 2016. Christopher Newton, Ph.D. ’72, of Vancouver, Canada, on March 9, 2016.
Pamela M. Szczsponik ’83 of Naperville, Ill., on January 11, 2016. Karen Murphy Brunelli ’87 of Bristol, R.I., on January 15, 2016. Louis E. D’Amico III ’88 of Seekonk, Mass., on October 1, 2015. Mark John David Badway ’91 of North Providence, R.I., on October 23, 2014. Fred J. Erichsen ’91 of Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., on January 28, 2016. James R. Fraher, M.S. ’92, of Warwick, R.I., on March 16, 2016.
Walter R. Peterson ’72 of Pensacola, Fla., on December 18, 2015.
Douglas P. Hauser ’92 of East Greenwich, R.I., on January 17, 2016.
Kenneth B. Schwartz ’72 of Brookline, Mass., on September 3, 2015.
Kevin M. Hylander ’98 of Taunton, Mass., on January 15, 2016.
Albert A. Sherman ’72 of Lady Lake, Fla., on September 21, 2015. Judith Anne McLellan ’73 of Webster, N.Y., on November 8, 2012. Joseph I. Thurber ’73 of Central Falls, R.I., on June 13, 2015. Meredith Browning ’74, ’04 of Narragansett, R.I., on November 17, 2015. Robert E. Reid ’74 of Waterville, Maine, on January 22, 2016.
John Waage ’01 of Brookfield, Mass., on February 24, 2016. Kelly Welsh Greene, P.M.D ’03, of Island Falls, Maine, on January 24, 2016.
Faculty and Staff In Memoriam Professor Emeritus of Philosophy William Young of Peace Dale, R.I., on June 7, 2015.
ALUMNISCENE March 9, 2016 NYC Rush Hour Midtown Meet-Up “It was so much fun to catch up with friends and meet new alumni from NYC. I had no idea how many of us were living here. It was nice to be able to escape the city for a little piece of Rhode Island for the evening.” —Nicole Aragi ’07
April 7, 2016 Alumni of Color Network Spring Panel “I love the mission of ACN. And as a panelist I was not only renengaged by my alma mater, but I was able to share my experience and perspective with current students. It was definitely a riveting and meaningful exchange of ideologies on education, career, and life!” —Chanda Womack ’04
April 9, 2016 Southwest Florida Chapter Steak-Out “The Steak-Out was a wonderful time. I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon reconnecting with other URI graduates, their spouses, and friends.” — Susan Sammataro Griggs ’74
If you attended a URI alumni event and would like to share a photo and a reminiscence, we’d love to hear from you! Please write to us at alumni@uri.edu.
Learn more I alumni.uri.edu UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 39
BACKPAGE
When the Steelers Held
Training Camp at URI
BY SHANE DONALDSON ’99
We had a good thing going with Pittsburgh, and it started with a summer fling half a century ago. Long before New England came to be known as Patriot Nation, the University of Rhode Island had a brief summer romance with another National Football League franchise. It was the summer of 1965, and the Patriots were only in their fifth season of existence. While the Pats toiled at camp— then held in Andover, Mass.—URI’s Kingston campus served as the trainingcamp site for the Pittsburgh Steelers. That’s right. Seven years before Franco Harris etched his place in NFL lore by making the “Immaculate Reception,” and nine seasons before the rise of the vaunted “Steel Curtain” defense that led Pittsburgh to four Super Bowl titles in the 1970s, Dan Rooney convinced his father, Art, to bring his franchise to Rhode Island for training camp before the start of the 1965 season. Elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000 for contributions to the game, Dan Rooney remains the chairman of the Steelers to this day. In 2015, when his franchise was celebrating its 50th anniversary at its current camp site at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., Rooney spoke with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette about the site that briefly hosted the Steelers. “I remember we wanted to see the facilities at Rhode Island because we’d talked about it a lot,” Rooney said. “I went
40 QUADANGLES SUMMER 2016
up to look at it after we played the Giants in New York one time, I remember that. Must have rented a car and drove up there. “It had great fields, but this is funny, I remember the academicians weren’t too thrilled that we were going to be there. They were like, ‘What are we doing bringing a professional football team around here?’ But I’ll tell you, when we left, they were our biggest champions. “They found out we were normal people, with college educations. They said, ‘We hope you’ll come back!’” The Steelers drafted Steve Furness ’72 as a defensive end The Steelers did return in the fifth round in 1972. for one week the following summer, but the cooler East Coast temperatures left new head coach Bill Austin unconvinced—and he Super Bowl rings as a member of the “Steel took the team back to the summer heat of Curtain” defense from 1971–80. Furness Western Pennsylvania. was joined in Pittsburgh for two seasons by Even after the Steelers left URI, the running back Rich Moser ’78, who excelled University and the NFL franchise were on special teams with the Steeler Super intertwined. Three of the best football Bowl teams of 1978 and 1979. In Super players in Rhode Island history went on to Bowl XIV, he set a then-record with five wear the black and gold of the Steelers. special teams tackles. And finally, Newport The late defensive end Steve Furness ’72— native Kevin Smith ’91, a defensive back, arguably URI’s best pro player—won four spent the 1991 season with Pittsburgh. •
PHOTO: COURTESY THE STEELERS
Invest in their dreams. Nothing demonstrates return on philanthropy better than graduation day.
Tireless in their efforts, our students worked very hard to get to this major milestone. They are ready to take the next step in life—and their dreams are huge. Our alumni and friends play a role in the success of our students by making charitable gifts that impact the academic experience and add value to degrees earned from the University of Rhode Island.
PHOTO: NORA LEWIS
URI students are going places. Make a gift today and invest in the journey. THE UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
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Homecoming Weekend • October 21–23, 2016