Erica Hasenjager
work & play
President Jeffrey Herbst welcomed visiting students from Xiamen University by giving them his business card during a luncheon at Merrill House.
waste, and encouraging the use of locally grown food in dining facilities. After implementing several energysaving projects and investing in carbon offsets, Pumilio estimates that the university has already reduced its overall carbon footprint to about 5,000 tons, a considerable reduction from the campus’s baseline of 17,000 in 2009. According to Pumilio, Colgate has one of the lowest campus carbon
footprints in the country and is in a very good position to achieve carbon neutrality by 2019. — Laura D’Angelo ’14
Chinese students experience the liberal arts at Colgate Personal tour of the New York Stock Exchange? Check. Daily treks up the hill three times a day from 110 Broad Street? Check. Lectures by some of Colgate’s most accomplished profes-
Gabriela Bezerra ’13
The village green was a sea of blankets and lawn chairs one hot July night as people settled down to watch a performance by Symphoria. The ensemble — a new orchestra created after the Syracuse Symphony folded — performed music from popular shows such as Les Misérables, Wicked, and Phantom of the Opera for a delighted crowd. Beforehand, the Earlville Opera House hosted an instrument petting zoo where Symphoria musicians showcased their string, wind, and percussion instruments. Children and parents alike gained a better understanding of the instruments before the performance by being able to touch and even play some of them. On August 3, things got physical out on the green as
10
scene: Autumn 2013
sors? Check. This summer, 29 students visiting from China’s Xiamen University enjoyed a sampling of the Colgate experience. The three-week exchange program, the brainchild of President Jeffrey Herbst and economics professor Cheryl Long, was started in an effort to foster a closer relationship between Colgate and Xiamen and introduce Chinese students to a liberal arts education. “The liberal arts approach to higher education isn’t well known in China because all universities in China have a more research-oriented approach,” Long said. Intended to be different from other exchange programs that only focus on English language instruction and sightseeing, the Colgate program combined classroom-based discussions in English with a series of lectures that helped the Chinese students better understand American society. Topics ranged from economics and the financial system to history, sociology, and foreign relations between the United States and China. Having attended and taught at both Chinese and American universities, Long encouraged the Xiamen students to engage in more dialogue with the professors. The in-class
young girls and boys donning heavy gloves practiced their punches. As a part of the fifth annual Hamilton International Film Festival, filmmaker Jill Morley Village Green staged a boxing clinic for youngsters on the day of the screening of her film Fight Like a Girl. Morley taught some of the basics of the sport and told anecdotes of her boxing career, before posing for photos with the kids and her recently won tournament belt. “It’s great to get the little girls out there,” Morley told Radio Free Hamilton. “It gets them out of their shells, and gives them a way to express themselves in a way women aren’t normally allowed.” On August 9, hundreds of skateboarders, bicyclists, inline boarders, and street lugers careened down nearby Munnsville’s winding East Hill Road during Gravity Fest. Last held in the area in 2008, the event returned bigger than ever, with thousands coming to watch. Hurtling down the freshly paved road lined with haystacks and eager spectators, racers came from as far away as Europe to compete in the adrenaline-pumping event. — Kellyann Hayes ’16