Colgate Magazine — Spring 2019 by Colgate University

SPRING 2019

FEATURE

Patient Zero: A student fights for her life P.34 voices

Be Happy, for the Planet P.10 Bicentennial

Merging past and present photographically P.22

SCHOLARS TO LEADERS Rep. Antonio Delgado â&#x20AC;&#x2122;99 and other past scholarship/fellowship recipients P.26

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look March Madness: 19,641 fans filled Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, to watch the Colgate Raiders take on the Tennessee Volunteers. To read the full story, see p. 13.

Read this issue and all previous issues at colgate.edu/magazine.

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MARK DIORIO

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PhotoDIORIO / Art Credit MARK

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look Ada Gao ’19 (right) works with an Art Force 5 representative to make tiles for a mosaic paying tribute to Adam Clayton Powell Jr. ’30. The 300-plus–piece mosaic honoring Powell — the first African American from New York to be elected to Congress — will be displayed in a Harlem gallery this summer. The project was co-sponsored by the ALANA Cultural Center and led by Art Force 5, a project founded at Alfred State University.

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Contents

SPRING 2019

Scholars to Leaders Rep. Antonio Delgado ’99 and other past scholarship/fellowship recipients have used those opportunities as a starting point.

President’s Message

Discover

Telling Truths Through Fiction

Letters

Voices

Nevertheless, She Persisted Laurie Adami ’81

Playwriting explores slavery’s impact on New York.

Life is about joy. Nikki Giovanni, author and poet p. 13

Ask a Professor Does double encryption strengthen security?

Slime Time Biologist Jann Vendetti ’01 finds fascination in the study of snails and slugs.

The Life Aquatic Neuroscience and biology students immerse themselves in dolphin research.

Be Happy, for the Planet Professor Peter Klepeis

Bicentennial Merging Past and Present

Finding Keats in Ecuador Lee Tremblay ’16

Patient Zero A deadly infection threatens a student and the University community.

Scene

Colgate News

On Common Ground Colgate’s living-learning communities build strong foundations for students.

Cover: Rep. Antonio Delgado ’99 is one of the fresh faces in Congress. How did a Rhodes Scholarship shape his life? Learn more about him and other past fellowship and scholarship recipients on p. 26. Photo by André Chung

A Wellspring of Support Robert Hung Ngai Ho ’56, H’11 advances science, culture, and community.

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Endeavor

Won’t Back Down An implant can resolve sacroiliac joint pain and reduce opioid use.

Vice President for Communications Laura H. Jack Managing Editor Aleta Mayne Assistant Editor Rebecca Docter

Seeing Art in Everyday Life A retrospective of work by photographer Tommy Brown ’79

Communications Director Mark Walden

Creative Director Tim Horn Art Director Karen Luciani Junior Designer Katriel Pritts University Photographer Mark DiOrio Production Assistant Kathy Jipson Contributors: Imani Ballard ’18, Bicentennial communications specialist; Gordon Brillon, web content specialist; Daniel DeVries, media relations director; Sara Furlong, advancement communications manager; David Herringshaw, digital production specialist; Jason Kammerdiener ’10, web manager; Katherine Laube, senior designer; Brian Ness, video journalism coordinator; John Painter, director of Athletic Communications; Kristin Putman, social media strategist Printed and mailed from Lane Press in South Burlington, Vt.

Rita’s, 2014

Colgate Magazine is a quarterly publication of Colgate University. Online: colgate.edu/magazine Email: magazine@colgate.edu Telephone: 315-228-7407

A Digital Update for Divorce Storey Jones ’85 makes a painful process easier.

Change of Address: Alumni Records Clerk, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346-1398 Telephone: 315-228-7453

Book Review That Savage Gaze

Alumni News

Collective Healing Through her work, Poppy Liu ’13 continues to fight stigmas.

Colgate Magazine Volume XLVIII Number 3

Salmagundi

Opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by the University, the publishers, or the editors. Colgate University does not discriminate in its programs and activities because of race, color, sex, pregnancy, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, age, marital status, sexual orientation, veteran or military status, predisposing genetic characteristics, domestic violence victim status, or any other protected category under applicable local, state, or federal law. For inquiries regarding the University’s non‑discrimination policies, contact Marilyn Rugg, Associate Provost for Equity and Diversity, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346; 315-228-7288.

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President’s Message

n March 5, Colgate celebrated Charter Day — the official anniversary of the establishment by the New York State Assembly of what would one day become Colgate University. When the University’s 13 founders met in Olmstead House, they intended to create an institution that would prepare local young men to be sent out into the world as scholars, men of letters, and missionaries and ministers. Soon, others from beyond New York and New England came to be educated and prepared for their global vocations. On this year’s Bicentennial Charter Day, faculty, staff, and students went to Memorial Chapel to support local charities, and alumni around the world supported their own communities. Our actions as a Colgate community echoed the intentions of the 13 men in Olmstead House, who boldly founded an institution to educate young people who would impact the world. One way our faculty, students, and alumni have engaged the world is through their achievements as recipients of prestigious scholarships and fellowships. In the 2018–19 academic year, the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs distinguished Colgate University as one of the nation’s top producers of Fulbright U.S. Scholars. In the past year, a record number of Colgate students have submitted more than 140 national scholarship and fellowship applications, including proposals

for Fulbright awards; Benjamin A. Gilman, Barry M. Goldwater, and Truman Foundation scholarships; Boren and Thomas J. Watson fellowships; and many more. At time of publication, 25 of the 34 Colgate Fulbright U.S. Student Program applications were identified as semi-finalists and moved to the final round for possible selection. In this issue of Colgate Magazine, you will find stories of alumni who are past recipients of prestigious scholarships and fellowships. The extension of their education through these awards is a testament to the strength and power of the Colgate experience — a sign of an institution that is confidently taking its rightful place in national and international conversations. Colgate is an essential American institution. The ways in which members of the Colgate community engage in the work of the nation and the world should continue to expand. As we progress into our third century, the research and work of our faculty and students will be recognized and noted through the increased number of awards given to them. More importantly, however, their efforts represent the application of a Colgate education for public good, for the benefit of humanity — precisely the outcome our founders intended 200 years ago. The work of our faculty, students, staff, and alumni honors the legacy of the 13, and we owe future generations our current efforts to push Colgate to new levels of excellence. —Brian W. Casey

Pictured: President Brian W. Casey congratulates Amanda Liberman ’17 on the 1819 Award. Read more about Liberman, who also received a Fulbright, on p. 32.

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Letters We hit the nail on the head I felt compelled to leave feedback letting you know how impressed I was with the reinvigoration of the University publication as a new magazine! Admittedly, I barely thumbed through the Scene, but, when the Colgate Magazine arrived, I was confused but very curious. I ended up sitting down and reading the whole thing. You hit the nail on the head: The editing, formatting, story flow, and stylistic choices all fit perfectly together. Well done, and keep up the good work! Kristen Hawley ’15

Blast from the past As a former editor of the Colgate Scene — back in the B & W days (1975–80) — I send my kudos for the University’s launch of a bright and impressive new publication to tell its great story. I noted with pleasure the memories of Mike Smith ’70, a talented filmmaker, in the class notes of the inaugural edition. He recalled his affection for the rollicking band of brothers who worked on publications and other media back in those halcyon days. Having later worked as editor of magazines and publications for three other universities and a large Boston hospital, I must say Colgate was — and still is — outstanding in the candor and engaging tales reported by

its alums in its class notes and features. The esprit de corps and sense of community is evident in the tall tales told in those pages back in the day and up to the present. So, hail and farewell to the Colgate Scene, and onward and upward to Colgate Magazine! Paul Hennessy, former Scene editor

On ‘The Newsworthiness of Police Shootings’ The article addressing the work of Professor Alicia Simmons (“The Newsworthiness of Police Shootings,” winter 2019, p. 16) prominently refers to the Trayvon Martin shooting as a factor causing crowds to fill the streets to protest police shootings of unarmed black men. Trayvon Martin was not shot by police, but by George Zimmerman, a private citizen acting in self-defense. The local police, the Florida Department of Justice, the U.S. Justice Department, and the FBI all investigated and found no evidence to contradict Zimmerman’s self-defense claim. Crowds of protesters rioting and demanding justice constitute mob rule, not the rule of law. The police stand between the mobs and the rest of us. The real tragedy for Black Lives Matter is the number of young black men killing each other, primarily in our cities. You need look no further than Syracuse, N.Y., for this, although the numbers in Chicago, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Philadelphia, Newark, etc., are more dramatic. Dave Kline ’70

He made good on his promise Thanks for the new magazine

— kudos, as they say. Great issue! My great moment with a professor (“Class Acts,” winter 2019, p. 22) pretty much changed the course of my life. After listening to advice on which professors were to be avoided in my freshman year, I ended up having to take a course with the professor who was most to be avoided: J.H. Kistler. Bad luck, I supposed. But I could not have been more wrong; he became my Svengali, and I took every course I could with him. The day before my graduation, he asked me to stop by his office, which I did. “Well, Phillips, what are you going to do now?” My brother (also Class of 1956) and I had both been accepted at a seminary. He frowned and shook his head. “I want you to promise me something, Phillips. I want you to write a novel someday.” I started to laugh and he snapped, “Promise me!” I said I would. I did go to seminary and graduated. I then picked up a British Council of Churches grant to pay for a doctorate from a seminary in Glasgow. My dissertation took me to Germany, to write about pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Hitler opponent. It was published by Harpers. I started teaching. I wrote another book, this one on the effect of the biblical “Eve” story on the image of women in the Western world. It was also published by Harpers and was listed as one of the New York Times “250 Best Books of 1984.” In retirement, I was determined to make good on my promise to Professor Kistler. It took me years, but I’ve done it! It’s to be called The Lion and the Dragonfly. A British publisher likes it, and it is now being edited. I owe all this to Jonathan H. Kistler, and it is dedicated to him. John A. “Tony” Phillips ’56

Wary of Chinese food It was with some interest that I read the article on the psychosomatic allegations as to the view of MSG in Chinese food

(“The Strange Case of Dr. Ho Man Kwok,” winter 2019, p. 35). Well before any publicity about MSG took place, I experienced the exact same physical reactions described in the article. As a result, I avoided eating in Chinese restaurants for a number of years. When the MSG controversy became public, Chinese restaurants began to offer meals with and without MSG. When I again occasionally ate in such establishments and avoided MSG, there were no further reactions. While my sample size is small (one), I find it more compelling than the arguments raised in the article. On a related matter, there is good reason to be cautious when dealing with food from China. Having made many trips to China and many Chinese friends, I have heard Chinese nationals express concern about food safety in the “People’s Republic,” which is neither a republic nor response to its people. The Chinese government’s intentional concealment of a potentially death-causing additive in milk when the Beijing Olympics were taking place resulted in the preventable deaths of many infants. Playing down the risk of food with origins in China is a great disservice to the public, and is truly disinformation. William Murphy ’62

Editor’s note: As the winter 2019 issue was being released, “The Strange Case of Dr. Ho Man Kwok” piqued the interest of the radio program and podcast This American Life. Their subsequent reporting added more twists and turns to this already bizarre tale. Listen to it on “The Long Fuse,” ep. 668.

To share your thoughts on this issue, email magazine@colgate.edu, or connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. Spring 2019 Colgate Magazine 7

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Voices reflection

Nevertheless, She Persisted Faced with incurable cancer, Laurie Adami ’81 embraces humor and grace.

approached the door of the intensive care unit, wondering if I should turn around and flee. After what I survived here, would I fall apart entering? I rang the bell and waited. Several decades earlier, I had graduated from Colgate and started my career at a financial software company in Los Angeles. I worked there for more than 20 years and had become president of the firm. My husband of 20 years, Ben, and I had a young son. All in all, I was content with my life and felt fulfilled. But on April 14, 2006 (Good Friday, no less), I was diagnosed with incurable stage IV follicular non-Hodgkin lymphoma. My son, Gus, was in kindergarten. I asked myself, how could Gus lose his mom when he was only 6 years old? From that day on, I was on a mission to stay alive. The treatment options at the time were few, lacked effectiveness, and had difficult side effects. In May 2006, I began brute force chemotherapy hoping for an extended remission. I relapsed two months after the treatment. My prognosis was now even worse. Over the next 12 years, I had five more treatments, which brought new side effects. None of these treatments fully eliminated the cancer, and any reduction in tumor size was short lived. What these treatments did do for me was buy more time for researchers to make progress on additional options. By 2017, I had relapsed for the sixth time with extensive disease, which was affecting my organs. There were no treatments left and

no way to survive without something new. In April 2018, I was out walking when a phone call with breakthrough news came from my oncologist at UCLA, Sven de Vos. He told me that the treatment I had been closely watching for six years, an immunotherapy called CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy), was now available for me in a Phase I clinical trial. I hung up the phone with a newfound excitement; maybe I could beat the disease after all. CAR-T is revolutionary because it relies only on the patient’s immune system to destroy the cancer and no man-made drugs are involved, a significant step forward. Older therapies, such as chemotherapy, attack and damage every cell, even the healthy ones, whereas CAR-T only attacks the malignant cells and leaves healthy cells alone. There would be no long-term side effects from the CAR-T treatment. The UCLA Medical Center had five open spots in the trial. I was the leading guinea pig. I won’t pretend it was a walk in the park. Commencing mid-June, I was in the hospital for 36 days, 25 of which were spent in the ICU. Due to multiple brain seizures, I was placed in a medically induced coma. Because the CAR-T cells are able to cross the blood brain barrier, my brain became inflamed, and I experienced terrifying hallucinations — more than 30, including four where I had died and was being buried. In another hallucination, Dr. de Vos told me he had learned the trial was a hoax and then he shot himself and leveled the gun on me. My brain function was monitored every

minute; the doctors and nurses did not know if I would be brain dead when I was eased out of the coma. But when I became conscious 10 days later, it was clear my brain would be fine. More importantly, the CAR-T had eliminated all the malignancy in my body — more than 9 pounds of tumor burden. For the first time since 2006, I was cancer free. Through it all, I had attempted to maintain a positive outlook, but each time I relapsed, my positivity would take a hit. While I was declared in complete remission in August, the emotional baggage of fighting this for almost 13 years was still heavy. With all the disappointment over the years, I thought, why would this time be any different? Due to the number of seizures I had experienced in the hospital, I was still on anti-seizure medicines, which can cause depression; I also faced physical challenges resulting from the duration of my hospital

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IN THE MEDIA “The condemnations of Mr. King, now in his ninth term in Congress, come only after years of ignoring his white-nationalist rhetoric — and address what is merely the tip of a vast iceberg.” — Sam Rosenfeld, assistant professor of political science, in a co-written New York Times op-ed on Congressman Steve King

“I feel a pretty strong emotional and intellectual kinship with the type of person who would declare one’s self a Satanist: the social isolation, the intellectual fun, the undeniable sense of purpose that comes with embracing the critical role of the heretic in society.” — Penny Lane, associate professor of art and art history, to Women and Hollywood about her 2019 Sundance film Hail Satan

not recognize me. When I told her who I was, she started to cry with happiness that I was alive and doing so much better than when she last saw me. I also visited several doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, and techs who had kept me alive and did so in the most caring way. Upon my return, they all initially looked at me with no recognition in their eyes, and I had to tell them who I was. They were also excited to witness my progress. I plan to visit again because it was fulfilling for me to express my gratitude to them. The ICU staff members rarely know what becomes of the people they care for — many die after leaving the ICU, and those who survive typically choose not to return. My recovery continues along with my nonstop optimism. I have set a lofty intention for spring 2020 to climb to the Mount Everest Base Camp with a group to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Stay tuned! — Lauri Adami ’81

— Rob Carroll ’15 tells the Oneida Daily Dispatch about CampusReel, which he co-founded with Nick Freud ’15 to provide video tours of college campuses

“The world has changed so much, and I want to diversify — not only with what I do but who I do it with.” LAURA AUSTIN

stay. I had lost 30 pounds, couldn’t walk, and had no physical strength in my arms or legs. So, when I returned home in August, I had to rebuild, mentally and physically. I began to relearn the basic skills I had lost during my hospital stay: walking, driving, and thinking clearly. One early morning I attempted my first post-CAR-T hike. We live in a canyon in the Hollywood Hills with a nature trail adjacent to our home. As I headed out, I noticed a coyote standing 20 feet from the driveway, contemplating me. I immediately thought, “Is it possible I survived CAR-T only to be eaten by COYO-T?” Thankfully, the coyote trotted off in search of more appetizing fare. A couple of days later, I woke up inspired to visit the ICU and stem cell transplant floors where I spent my hospital time so I could thank the staff. When I rang the ICU bell, a nurse aide named Mia opened the door. Although she was the woman who had given me sponge baths, she did

The process of picking the right school shouldn’t exclude people based on their geography or whether their parents have enough vacation days left.

— Jill Demling ’96 in Madifon by Fashion on leaving American Vogue after two decades to become the British Vogue entertainment director Spring 2019 Colgate Magazine 9

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Professor P.O.V.

Be Happy, for the Planet The Geography of Happiness takes a new approach to teaching about sustainability.

t doesn’t take long. A short walk uphill from the Quad, and you’re in the woods. Being among the trees certainly boosts my mood — perhaps because I’m focusing on the moment and not the dramas of life. I listen to the creaking branches and crunching snow. I compare the textures of bark. There is a hint of wood smoke in the air. Time in nature engages all five senses. It also has measurable positive effects on physical and mental health. There is a reason “forest bathing” is now a thing. If you commit to exploring the surrounding landscape in-depth, expanding your understanding of the diversity of organisms and how they interact, you’re likely to thrive in profound ways. E.O. Wilson argues that we have an inherent yearning to uncover the mysteries of nature, which he calls “biophilia.” Technology and modern ways of living can

isolate us from nature. But overcoming barriers to our biophilic tendency holds many rewards: enhanced creativity, a stronger sense of place, and a realization of how much nature matters to us as individuals and to society. For a decade and a half, I taught about a variety of social and environmental problems: plummeting biodiversity, widespread toxic pollution, and the crushing reality of climate change. But students’ eyes glaze over when the catalog of ills gets too long. It is not acceptable if they are left feeling hopeless instead of empowered. Addressing socioenvironmental problems is critical, but it does not have to involve a narrative of sacrifice. In fact, it can make you happier. In 2015, I decided it was time for a new approach, so I created The Geography of Happiness. In the course, students are challenged to think about their own

life paths and habits. The evidence is clear. Be outside more. Cultivate strong social relationships. Share meals. Find a job that reinforces meaning. Meditate. Express gratitude. But the course’s main goal is to help students see how they, personally, have a stake in advancing sustainability; not just materially, but in a way that gives their lives deeper meaning. Sustainability is not just about protecting the environment. It is about helping people to improve their lives. Using examples from near and far, students learn about the environmental and social conditions that are most likely to enhance individual happiness and promote overall well-being. Thoreau’s celebration of the farmer as hero. How right-to-roam laws in Europe promote health, strong relationships, and land stewardship. How investing in green energy creates jobs, reduces pollution, and leads to what Bill McKibben calls a “durable future.” And how once you've achieved a middle-class salary, more income doesn’t buy you more happiness. Recently, I took the class snowshoeing. We timed the outing perfectly — a crisp 12degree day, with deep snow and lots of sun. Getting outside as a group — in addition to meditation sessions at Chapel House and cooking and eating together in ALANA Cultural Center — has great effects on class dynamics. Such activities help build trust and lead to honest reflection in class discussion. Beyond shared experiences, students are required to spend 15 minutes in each of four landscapes around Hamilton — the Village Green, a groomed recreational space (e.g., the golf course), farmland, and deep woods — alone and without a phone. They then write about the experience, and it often leads to some powerful insights. Students are embarrassed about being seen alone. They are anxious when they can’t check their phones. Some are nervous about being in the woods by themselves. But they end up celebrating the experience. They develop mindfulness about Hamilton’s history, people, and environment. Unplugged, they slow down and notice details they had been too distracted to perceive before. They feel connected to the place. I have now taught the class four times. Some course alumni have told me that it has helped them choose alternative careers, end toxic relationships, negotiate serious illness, and develop more positive habits of mind. I hope that it also convinces them that it is possible to live the good life and conserve nature at the same time. — Peter Klepeis ’94

MARK DIORIO

VOICES

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VOICES

THE GEOGRAPHY OF HAPPINESS (GEOG 306)

making connections

Finding Keats in Ecuador Thoreau’s Country: Journey Through a Transformed Landscape David Foster (Harvard University Press) Here Richard McGuire (Pantheon Books) Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future Bill McKibben (Henry Holt & Company) The Geography of Bliss Eric Weiner (Twelve) The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative Florence Williams (W.W. Norton) Peter Klepeis ’94, professor of geography, teaches about people and the environment, often drawing on research experiences in places like Ethiopia, Mexico, and Chile. His happy habits include slow foods, hygge gatherings, and anything that gets him off a screen.

A chance encounter results in a surprising good luck charm. It’s 7:30 in the morning and I’m walking 40 minutes downhill to the closest bus stop on the Panamerican Highway, a 19,000-mile route that officially links Monterrey, Mexico, to Valparaiso, Chile. On my little stretch in rural Ecuador, it’s a basic two-lane road with potholes, pavement wearing thin, and deep drainage channels on both sides. From my house, which stands at an altitude of 10,500 feet, la panamericana cuts switchbacks 500 feet down into the river valley, through farm fields and groves of evergreen trees, before curving circuitously back up to the high school where I work. I’m almost at the traffic control booth that marks the edge of the canton (town) and my bus stop, when a tiny black kitten walks up to me and fiercely demands to be picked up. I live in Andean Ecuador — a 9-hour bus ride south of the capital city of Quito — where I’m a Peace Corps volunteer (PCV) in the Teaching English as a Foreign Language program. Due to the way the Earth bulges at the equator, I may be the closest PCV to the sun, but most of the time, it’s chilly and damp like my hometown of Seattle — not good weather for the survival of stray kittens. I’m the lone white woman living and working in my communities, which has earned me the affectionate nickname “la gringita,” little foreigner. The Peace Corps has three goals: to help interested countries train workers; to promote a better understanding of the United States among host country nationals; and to promote a better understanding of host countries within the United States, all with the overarching ideal of building world peace.

I work with high school teachers on English and teaching methods for about 30 hours per week, dividing the rest of my time between starting a leadership club for the students, hunting down reading materials for the empty English section of my school library, and rescuing stray kittens. Keats, as I eventually named him, was a very dignified 5-week-old with tufts of white fur and yellow eyes. When I couldn’t find anyone to claim him, after going door-to-door with fumbled questions in Spanish, I took the bus home, where I made him kitten formula and worked remotely. Keats was on my lap the day the Colgate Bookstore confirmed they could collect the books they can’t sell (advance readers’ copies and editors’ proofs) if I could find the funds to ship them to Ecuador. He was purring on my shoulder when the Colgate Pen Pals’ Club wrote back to me about connecting my leadership club members with college students in the United States. As I write this essay, he’s running around my apartment with the neighbors’ black puppy, his new friend. I have 12 months of grant writing, lesson planning, in-service training, and mentorship to go, and my Ecuadorian goodluck charm will be with me every step of the way. After all, if the number 13 can be lucky for Colgate, why can’t a black cat be lucky, too?

— Lee Tremblay ’16 was an English and social sciences double major who has been working in the social sector since graduation. In her free time, she goes to martial arts classes, dances, and writes for literary magazines.

Bodil Jane - Folio Art

CLASS READING LIST

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SCENE alumni news

Hockey Movie Filmed on Campus

C Njeri Jennings, Picker Gallery assistant educator, signs the Bicentennial book.

Bicentennial

Celebrating Charter Day

n March 5, as bells pealed across the Academic Quad, students, professors, and staff members streamed into Memorial Chapel. Inside, large panels displaying archival photos and a slideshow projected over the stage depicted Colgate’s proud tradition and bold ambition. The centerpiece display: an oversized reproduction of the handwritten charter granted to the Baptist Education Society of New York that formally established the institution that became Colgate — on March 5, 1819. In recognition of Charter Day 2019, the official day that

Colgate University turned 200 years old, members of the community had been invited to the chapel to make a gift of $1 (or more), symbolic of the $13 put forth by the 13 founders. By day’s end, with a matching gift from Stephen ’85 and Melissa Rock P’13’19’20, the collection totaled $8,508. Shortly after, an anonymous donation of $4,492 brought the giving total to $13,000. The contributions will benefit the Southern Madison County Ambulance Corps, Hamilton Food Cupboard, and Hamilton Fire Department. As dusk fell, the campus glowed with special lights illuminating the cupolas of Colgate’s historic and new buildings to mark this Bicentennial moment. —Rebecca Downing

olgate once again served as a movie location when producers with deep ties to the University shot a feature-length hockey film on campus. Grant Slater ’91, his brother, Todd, and friend Jonathan Black of Slater Brothers Entertainment decided to film Bill Keenan’s hockey memoir, Odd Man Rush, at Colgate and other nearby spots because of a rural landscape that resembles Swedish locations in the book — and because of their affinity for the region. The Slater brothers’ longstanding bond with Colgate dates back to 1977, when their father, Terry Slater, first took the reins as head coach of the men’s hockey team, leading the Raiders to compete in the 1991 national finals. “We knew we needed an elite institution like Colgate, and we needed arenas that paralleled the level of play you see in Europe,” says Grant, who played hockey for Colgate and later went on to play in Sweden. It also didn’t hurt that one of the locations, an old locker room in Colgate’s Reid Athletic Center, was used in the filming of the legendary hockey comedy Slap Shot, starring Paul Newman. To assist with the major undertaking, the producers

enlisted the help of more than 20 student interns recruited by Colgate’s Office of Career Services and the University’s Film and Media Studies program. The interns selected two of four production groups to join: physical filming, production and management, film festival development, and marketing. The part-time experience also included working sessions with the filmmakers, select readings, an optional script-writing workshop, and ultimately a final exam about their work. “This internship has challenged me to be creative, to think from multiple perspectives, to immerse myself in unfamiliar environments, and to step out of my comfort zone,” says Amanda Capra ’21, a marketing and production intern. Luke Jeramaz ’21 agrees. “I have been able to experience the ins and outs of producing a multimillion-dollar film, which will serve me well in the film industry after graduation,” he says. The last day of filming wrapped up Feb. 28, and the producers are aiming for a winter 2020 distribution. But, before that, the Slater brothers will be back in town for the annual Hamilton International Film Festival, July 22–28. “Eleven years ago, when we started the film festival, part of the idea was to bring more arts and culture to this area,” Todd says. “To go through that process, and now to make a terrific movie here … it’s been incredible.” — Dan DeVries

→→ Wayne Gretzky’s son and Mario Lemieux’s daughter have roles in Odd Man Rush. →→ In addition to the Class of 1965 Arena and Reid Athletic Center, filming locations included the Hour Glass and Rye Berry Bakery.

Mark DiOrio

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MLK Celebration

Poet Nikki Giovanni: ‘To be black is a wonderful thing’ hriving in the Current Times” served as the theme for this year’s two-week-long Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. “Thriving involves the wisdom of the community,” LeAnna Rice, director of the ALANA Cultural Center and chair of the MLK Committee, said during the keynote introduction. Delivering the keynote and offering her wisdom, author and

Right: mark diorio; above: Jonathan Aguilera ’21

Jordan Burns ’21 (Colgate #1)

poet Nikki Giovanni spoke to an audience of more than 300 on Jan. 31. Giovanni spoke with candor and compassion for the human condition. “Sometimes people forget that to be black is a wonderful thing,” she said. “Life is about joy; do something that makes you happy, do your job no matter how small it may seem. Our job is to make life a little better.” In keeping with this theme, the committee organized workshops aimed at promoting healing and self-care, as well as events focused on career and networking for people of color. Other events included a discussion on student activism led by Bennie Guzman ’17 and a workshop led by the Hamilton Area Anti-Racism Coalition. Participants shared their experiences in navigating race in Hamilton, N.Y., and contributed to an action plan for anti-racism work in the community. The curators of the Longyear Museum of Anthropology and the Picker Art Gallery, Christy DeLair and Nicholas West, hosted a discussion on “Envisioning Thriving Museums.” Students, faculty, and staff gathered to explore strategies for increasing diversity and creating inclusive museums. — Jasmine Kellogg

Men’s Basketball

Bringing Their A Game to NCAA

t was the first time in 23 years, and the Raiders didn’t disappoint. Men’s basketball made it to the NCAA Tournament, taking on the Tennessee Volunteers on March 22 in Columbus, Ohio. No. 15 seed Colgate was the underdog against No. 2 Tennessee. But in the nail-biter of a game, the Raiders held their own until the end — which concluded with a 77–70 loss to the Vols. “As the game got tight, I thought Tennessee managed it really well,” Head Coach Matt Langel says. “For the most part, we got to show what we can do.” The Raiders made 15 of their 29 shots from a long range. Jordan Burns ’21 alone made eight three-pointers — a career high and just one shy of a program record for a single game, which was set by Tucker Neale ’95 in 1994. Neale was one of the 500 Colgate fans at Nationwide Arena in Columbus. Also at the game were Burns’s family. “I knew Jordan would come out and play with all his heart and all his might for his team, but I never imagined he would do what he did on that stage,” his mom, Arenda Burns, told Syracuse.com. One of the Raiders’ other star players, Rapolas Ivanauskas ’21, caught a tough break when he had to sit out the second half due to eye problems. The Patriot League Player of the Year, he was also Colgate’s leading scorer this year at 16.4 points per game. For the seniors on the team, Langel told them in the locker room: “You should be really proud of the program you’ve helped build.” The Raiders finished their season with 24 wins — 13 league wins — which were the most in program history.

13 bits 1 A Day in the Life: 308 alumni offered 528 student jobshadowing experiences across 30 states and in three foreign countries (Canada, France, and Czechia)

2 Men’s club rugby qualified for their first ever Liberty League Bowl Game, playing against Fairfield University in November.

3 Students founded the Arabic Culture Club this semester, hosting events with Middle Eastern food and movies.

4 Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies Ellen Kraly is spending the semester at Sweden’s Malmö University, serving as a guest professor in international migration and ethnic relations.

5 In January, seven students from the Colgate Debate Society competed at the World University Debate Championship in Cape Town, South Africa, the world’s most prestigious speaking competition.

6 The Experimental Theater Company hosted two studentwritten, -directed, and -performed shows this semester.

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▲ 7 Haven, Colgate’s sexual violence response center, launched its inaugural ambassador program this spring, training and educating students to better support their peers.

8 Colgate’s football team won the Lambert Cup for the first time in program history.

9 Bring your friends — or foes — to the new Vietnamese restaurant in Hamilton, Friends and Pho.

Colgate beat Harvard in two of the three ECAC quarterfinal games.

11 Say goodbye to Parker Commons and hello to the Mat. The venue has been renamed and transformed for the new concert series Music at the Mat.

12 After a semester of hard work, the Community-based Study of Environmental Issues class recommended a mixed-unit supportive housing complex to combat homelessness in Madison County.

13 The last time Colgate celebrated Charter Day, in 1944, FDR wrote a letter of support. This year, Colgate received recognition from politicians including Sen. Charles Schumer, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

ice Hockey

Field hockey

In the ECAC

Players Make Academic Squad

he women’s hockey team finished 23-10-5 for the second-most wins in program history. The Raiders earned the No. 2 seed in ECAC Hockey after posting a 15-4-3 conference record. They lost 2-0 to Clarkson in the ECAC Hockey tournament semifinals after sweeping the two-time defending national champions during the regular season. This year’s Colgate senior class compiled the winningest fouryear mark in program history, going 101-36-10 (.721). Also, Jessie Eldridge ’19 was the program’s first top-10 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award, presented to the nation’s top player. Meanwhile, the men’s season came to a close after the 10thseeded Raiders lost to Union in the first round of the ECAC Hockey postseason tournament. Colgate finished 10-23-3 overall and 7-12-3 in conference, including impressive road victories at No. 3 Quinnipiac (5-4 OT) and at No. 11 Cornell (3-2 OT).

he field hockey program saw success both on the field and in the classroom in the 2018 season as seven players were named to 2018 Zag Field Hockey/ NFHCA Division I National Academic Squad, as announced by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA). To be eligible for the national academic squad, student-athletes must have a cumulative GPA of 3.30 or higher through the fall semester of the 2018–19 academic year. Overall, 940 student-athletes from 76 Division I field hockey programs were recognized this year. Maggie Lake ’20 and Iona MacKillop ’20 were honored for the third consecutive year on the national academic squad, while Katie Anderson ’21, Emma Goldberg ’21, and Nora Mulroy ’21 were recognized for the second straight season. Anderson also was named a Zag Field Hockey/ NFHCA Scholar of Distinction for her 3.98 cumulative GPA. Colgate had two first-time recognitions by the NFHCA: Meghan Minturn ’21 and Ally Yu ’22. Also, the Raiders were named a Zag Field Hockey/NFHCA National Academic Team after achieving a team GPA of 3.29 in the fall semester. — Jenna Jorgensen

Field hockey’s Katie Anderson ’21 was one of 25 student-athletes to post a 4.0 GPA for the 2018 fall semester.

justin wolford

Russell Colgate Distinguished University Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies Randy Fuller received the 2019 Distinguished Service Award from the Society for Freshwater Science.

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SCENE to beat teams that are, on paper, better than us. It drives us; it’s the underdog role. We play above our level. A lot of that is confidence. CM: The 2018 men’s tennis season brought you the most wins since 1998. How did that feel? BP: It was really rewarding. I had a lot of success early — both in my first and third years. On the men’s side, we’ve had five straight winning seasons. Last year was the culmination. Getting third out of 10 teams, plus making the semifinals and having 15 wins — it was a lot of cool milestones.

Coach profile

In His Court

t practice, Bobby Pennington won’t stay on the sidelines. Grabbing a racket, the self-described players’ coach gets in on the action, serving tennis balls and his quintessential humor to young athletes. The 39-year-old leader of Colgate’s men’s and women’s tennis teams came to the University in 2006. Through the years, he’s created a community

both on and off the court while coaching the Raiders to victory. Snag a spot on the bleachers and get to know Pennington: Colgate Magazine: How would you describe Colgate’s tennis program? Bobby Pennington: One thing I’m really proud of is, over the years, we always overachieve. We’re not scared

CM: What’s your coaching philosophy? BP: A lot of coaches get comfortable. They get burnout. Each year, I get hungrier. I have a passion for it. CM: Do the fans support the tennis teams? BP: We get a lot of fans at our matches — especially home crowds, which is exciting. Many of our guys are in fraternities, and they bring out their brothers. CM: Does the team take part in any philanthropic efforts? BP: The Heart Awareness matches have been rewarding the last few years. All the

money raised goes to Golisano Children’s Hospital. My son, Clifford, had life-saving openheart surgery there, and the match benefits pediatric heart awareness. That time was also a great example of team support. I took a leave, and when I came back, they had CliffStrong bracelets made. That meant a lot to me. CM: How do you keep tennis fun for the players? BP: We do a lot of group games with all the teams. There’s a game that they love called Space Invaders. They also love listening to music on the court — keeping it loose. But then, when it’s time to get serious, it’s time to get serious. I consider myself the epitome of a players’ coach — they call me “coachie.” I can light into them, but at the same time I try to coach them like I would have preferred to have been coached when I was in college. I was coached with a lot of pressure and seriousness. I try to blend that with innovative and interactive group games. CM: How do you attract recruits? BP: I tell them that they can get a top-notch liberal arts education and play Division I tennis. That’s huge. You don’t get that a lot of places.

— Rebecca Docter

Club sports

above: mark diorio

Skiing through Spring Break

en men and women from Colgate’s ski racing club competed in the USCSA National Championships in Jackson Hole, Wyo., over spring break. Finn Simpkins ’21 (pictured, competing in the giant slalom) and the men’s team came in 13th. Simpkins grew up skiing in Stowe, Vt., but when an injury his senior year kept him from competing at the Division I level, he found his place in Colgate’s ski racing club. “When I came here, I was happily surprised to see how competitive and fun it was.” Spring 2019 Colgate Magazine 15

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music

Uniting Sound, Silence, and the Screen The University Chorus presents Voices of Light.

he Memorial Chapel lights dimmed and a film began to play. On screen, cloaked clergymen screamed silently at a wide-eyed Joan of Arc as she bravely faced their accusations of heresy. On stage, the Colgate University Chorus, accompanied by a visiting orchestra, brought color to the haunting black and white scenes. On Dec. 7, chorus director Ryan Endris conducted composer Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light, an opera/oratio inspired by and performed in conjunction with Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc. With more than 250 performances worldwide so far, Einhorn’s multimedia event has sold out the likes of the Sydney Opera House, the David Geffen Hall at the Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center. Colgate’s performance featured more than 90 members of the University Chorus, who

intoned the writings of medieval female mystics Christine de Pizan, Hildegard von Bingen, and others while Joan faced her impending death on screen. While Endris typically focuses solely on the music, this unusual event required him to study the film itself and fill his score with visual cues. “In a sense, it had to become muscle memory,” Endris says. “I had to watch the film carefully while also making sure all the performers knew when to enter and maintaining the right dynamics. It might have been the most mentally challenging conducting experience I’ve had to date.” Justine Hu ’21, one of the more than 600 audience members, attended a lecture by Einhorn earlier in the day and thought his explanations allowed her to appreciate fully the complexity of the performance. “I was very impressed by the torture scene, particularly the intensity of the choir in contrast with the soloists,” Hu says. “The juxtaposition of the old film with the University choir, orchestra, and soloists created an extremely layered and enjoyable experience.” As Joan of Arc herself might have said, their performance would suggest that they were “born to do this.” — Lauren Hutton ’21

Arts

Fine Print Colgate’s former artist-in-residence makes headlines.

he suite of prints Brazilian artist Rosana Paulino created during her Colgate residency last spring continues to attract attention. One of the digital prints, Geometria à brasiliera (Brazilian Geometry, pictured), was featured in a winter ArtNews article that included her in “The Most Promising Museum Shows and Biennials Around.” Another print was included in a Newcity Brazil article highlighting Paulino as the first woman of color to have a retrospective at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo museum. At Colgate, the Clifford Gallery exhibition Assentamento/ Settlement showcased Paulino’s work examining the forced relocation of West Africans to Brazil.

Gospel Fest

Together in Song

andrew daddio

welve-time Grammy Award winner CeCe Winans headlined this year’s Gospel Fest, which is held annually during Black History Month. The Office of the Chaplains and the Bicentennial Committee were co-sponsors. “Anything that’s two hundred years old deserves celebration,” said Dr. Walt Whitman, who opened the show. Whitman is president and CEO of the Soul Children of Chicago. This year, he led the Colgate Sojourners’ Gospel Choir. Jazmyn McKoy ’17 and the University Chamber Singers also performed before Winans took the stage. As per the tradition of Gospel Fest, all of the performers joined together for the finale. This year’s song was “Dancing in the Spirit.”

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student organization

Coding Career Paths

ith less than 20 percent of computer science degrees obtained by women in the United States each year, the tech industry boasts one of the largest discrepancies between men and women. Colgate’s Women in Computer Science (WiCS) club, however, is working to make the field more accessible to women and create a community. In the minutes before a recent meeting, students of all years milled about the computer science lounge, eagerly discussing recent interview questions and when to take higher level computer science electives. Once underway, the meeting included reviews of a recent convention, internship advice, and details about particular courses. In addition to monthly meetings, the group holds open lab hours to enable older members to help newer ones on projects and homework, as well as registration dinners, where seniors provide information on what classes to take. “The whole purpose of WiCS is to foster a community of women,” co-president Haley Hamilton ’19 says. Formed in 2013, WiCS had previously only been funded by the computer science department. But this year, copresidents Hamilton and Naomi Gneco ’19 applied to Colgate’s Budget Allocation Committee. Now, with additional funding, the club’s aims have expanded to help members pursue computer science professionally and work with other campus organizations. “We’ve teamed up with Women in Business, we are building a pre-professional network, and we’ve been working with career services,” Hamilton says.

Alumni in computer science inform the group about internship and job opportunities, recruiters come to speak on different areas of the industry, and WiCS holds interview practice sessions. Another major benefit of additional funding is the club’s ability to attend conferences. Recently, 25 students attended Harvard’s Women Engineers Code convention. During two days in Boston, the women attended keynote speeches from those established in the tech industry, networked with speakers and attendees, participated in mock interviews, and attended events to explore different areas in the industry. While WiCS encourages national networking, the group also values the contributions members can make to Colgate’s surrounding community. This year, they used their tech skills to help community members at Hamilton Public Library. “We try to help people figure out basic things about their computers,” Hamilton says. While the skills may seem simple, their services can have life-changing effects. Hamilton cited an example where a WiCS member helped a woman create her online resume. “She was unemployed and her electricity was going to be shut down, and she didn’t know how to make a resume,” Hamilton says. On campus, Hamilton hopes women in introductory-level computer science classes or those interested in the tech industry will consider joining WiCS. She herself felt unsure of the career path as a first-year student, but her involvement in WiCS made it feel less daunting. “Having that support system of women who all are in the same boat made it feel a lot more manageable and made me stick with it.” It’s paid off. Hamilton now has a position lined up after graduation as a product and program manager at Microsoft. — Lauren Hutton ’21

Bedroom in Arles by Vincent van Gogh, recreated via computer by Hayley Jackson ’22

Academics

From Paintings to Pixels

n FSEM 131, students created works of art, but they weren’t using paintbrushes or chisels; they used graph paper, pencils, and computers. The class introduced first-year students to the ways in which picture elements in art can be defined mathematically and how they interact geometrically. Assignments ranged from electronic renditions of famous paintings to all-new digital pieces with interactive, pop-out designs. The students sketched the abstractions and designs they saw in the art and then used their sketches to structure computer programs that represented and elaborated on the art. The course encouraged interest in both programming and artistic design. Art students learned skills that opened up new design ideas; computer science students saw the fascinating intersections between mathematics and art. “The class was unique because the students came from such different backgrounds,” Hayley Jackson ’22 says. “Many had experience in either art or computer science, so it was interesting to see the ways in which the class agreed and disagreed.” It was an interdisciplinary experience, and to hear Assistant Professor of Computer Science Elodie Fourquet or her students talk about it, it was something magical. “To me, an FSEM is a place where anything can happen,” Fourquet says. “Learning early on that they have creative freedom, my students are more open to the opportunities available in a liberal arts setting.” — Max Goldenberg ’21

Renaissance painters developed the principles of perspective by using geometry to create a grid on the canvas. Professor Elodie Fourquet, who has been studying and teaching these artists’ techniques, received a two-year grant from Colgate’s Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute to continue exploring how the brain perceives perspective. Spring 2019 Colgate Magazine 17

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Discover Faculty

Telling Truths Through Fiction Playwright Kyle Bass wrestles with facts and history to make art.

1766 baptism — of Tim, listed as a “Negro child servant” to William Bennett of Connecticut — marks the first public record of Kyle Bass’s family in the United States. “The story of Tim’s maturation under northern slavery, his desire for and gain of freedom, and his settlement and life in Delhi, N.Y., haunts and inspires me as a writer,” says Bass, who has taught Colgate’s Playwriting course in the Department of Theater since 2011. Through researching and writing a work that tells Tim’s story — his own family’s history — Bass, a playwright, is bringing to light the little-explored subject of slavery’s impact in upstate New York. The Frankfort, N.Y., native holds the Gretchen Hoadley Burke ’81 Endowed Chair in Regional Studies, which supports outstanding scholarship on the upstate region, for 2018–19. Bass, who says his family “has been owning land and voting since the late 1700s,” notes that his project builds upon research conducted by his cousin, Colgate Trustee Emerita Diane Ciccone ’74, P’10. His work as a dramatist is “about wrestling with facts and history, to find an effective story to tell a wider truth. Facts are what happened. The truth is what we understand about what happened. That’s why everybody’s truth

is different about the same facts. Ask your sibling about your childhood. Your brother will tell you a very different story.” Bass’s most recent play, Possessing Harriet, is also based on real-life upstate events and tells a wider truth about race, identity, equality, and the meaning — and price — of freedom. In Peterboro, N.Y. (just 15 miles from Colgate), in 1839, Harriet Powell, a young, mixed-race enslaved woman on the run, awaits cover of darkness with her rescuers. Through impassioned, poetic dialogue with Thomas Leonard, a free black man working the Underground Railroad; wealthy abolitionist Gerrit Smith, whose attic provides temporary shelter; and Smith’s young cousin, the vocal women’s equality advocate Elizabeth Cady (later Stanton), Powell grapples with the ramifications of her escape and deciding to continue her journey to Canada. More than 200 Colgate students — from

theater, film and media studies, history, education, geography, and Core 151 classes — saw Possessing Harriet in October when it premiered at Syracuse Stage, where Bass is the associate artistic director. The play’s premiere provided perfect timing for Bass’s appointment to Colgate’s Burke Chair, which, in addition to research support, includes giving a public lecture and teaching two courses. His campus public lecture took place before students traveled to see Possessing Harriet. Two of the actors, Nicole King (Harriet Powell) and Lucy Lavely (Elizabeth Cady), performed a scene and Bass discussed his five-year writing process. Of the play’s depiction of young people — close in age to the students — “living in enormous circumstances” nearly 200 years ago, says Bass, “It seemed to resonate. It meant something to them in 2018. That was lovely to see, because there’s no reason to write

brenna merritt

Kyle Bass, wearing a T-shirt picturing his great-greatgrandfather Toliver, who escaped slavery

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about the past if you can’t do that to talk about the present.” After letting the play and his lecture marinate since the fall, students in two spring courses are delving into their own creative explorations of truth. In his Research Seminar in Dramatic Writing, Bass has students asking, “How do we look at facts to fuel our fiction? More than this date, this time, this place, these people, how do you turn facts into truth?” In Playwriting, he says, “I’m asking students to take risks, in the ways in which we express ourselves, tell ourselves who we are, and let others know who we are. Go inside yourself, and make that interior discovery exterior. When it excites you in the writing, that comes alive for the audience.” — Rebecca Downing

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ASK A PROFESSOR

If you encrypt something that is already encrypted, would that make it more difficult to crack?

SYLLABUS

THEA/ENGL 347 Research Seminar in Dramatic Writing Tues. 2:45–5:15 p.m., Dana 303 This seminar will use the author’s creative research process for the history-based play Possessing Harriet as a point of departure. Students will consider how writers like Ping Chong, Colson Whitehead, Shane McCrae, Gregory Pardlo, Robin Coste Lewis, Ocean Vuong, and Suzan-Lori Parks have brought research into their work. Through that work and conversations with regional historians, students will be inspired to conduct creative research at local historical and Colgate University archives to inform their own creative writing projects. THEA/ENGL 356 Playwriting TR 9:55–11:10 a.m., Dana 303 Plays are about the messiness of life. What makes life messy? The undying wants of the human heart. As a playwright in search of truth, you are writing, as Samuel Beckett said, to find “a form to accommodate the mess…” This course introduces the principles, practices, and processes of writing for the stage. Through writing assignments, students will develop understanding of character, dialogue, action, conflict, onstage visuals, and revision. Class discussion will address structure, language, subtext, intention, form, theatricality, and dramatic genres. Students will learn through writing prompts, exercises, and critiques; from brief lectures and class discussions; as well as by reading and discussing the craft points of published plays.

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Watch a video profile of Bass at colgate.edu/ kbassvideo

Sometimes it helps a little. But if you really want more security, use long passwords. When you encrypt something — a document, say — with a secret password, here’s roughly what happens: The document, which to a computer is just a sequence of numbers, is transformed by applying a mathematical operation to each number. A simple example is the rotation cipher, used by Julius Caesar to encrypt military memos. It converts each letter to a number, from 0 to 25, and “rotates” it a (secret) number of steps. If the secret is one step, then A rotates to B, B to C, and Z wraps around to A. An encryption algorithm is secure when the transformation is hard to undo without knowing the password; the only way to crack it is to try all possible passwords. The rotation cipher is easy to crack; just try all 25 possible rotations. So what happens when you encrypt a document twice? In some cases, it offers no

additional security. That's because for some encryption algorithms, encrypting first with password A and then with password B is equivalent to encrypting just once with a password that is a combination of A and B. This is true for the rotation cipher; rotating first with two steps and then rotating with three steps is the same as rotating the original message five steps. This is also true for the RSA algorithm, which plays a key role in HTTPS, the protocol that encrypts web browsing. For other algorithms, encrypting twice makes it roughly twice as difficult to crack. In contrast, adding just one more letter to your original password would make it about 50 times more difficult. While encrypting twice may not help much, layered security is generally a good thing. This is why many sites ask for not only your password but also a security code that is sent to you via text message. This “two-factor authentication” adds a layer of security because a hacker must not only obtain your password but also intercept your phone messages.

Michael Hay, associate professor of computer science, researches technologies for data privacy and teaches courses on discrete structures, databases, and data science. His most important account passwords can be found on a sticky note posted on his laptop. Do you have a big-picture question for a faculty member? Write to us at: magazine@colgate.edu. Spring 2019 Colgate Magazine 19

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DISCOVER onsider the slug. Slimy and slow, they are few people’s favorite animal. But look closer, as biologist Jann Vendetti ’01 does, and you may gain a whole new appreciation for these slippery invertebrates. For starters, Vendetti says, “sea slugs and certain sea snails are breathtakingly beautiful,” all riotous flares of neon pink and electric blue. And even common land slugs have some, ahem, astonishing attributes. “When you cut open a slug, its penis takes up a fourth of its body,” Vendetti says. “Some of them have elaborate means by which they intertwine their phalluses and both inseminate each other. I have learned to be in awe of their weirdness.” As a malacologist — someone who studies mollusks — Vendetti is most fascinated by the incredible biodiversity of these creatures. While the world has approximately 5,000 species of mammals — from dogs to whales — it has more than 65,000 species of snails and slugs. Vendetti’s job as Twila Bratcher Chair in Malacological Research at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is to catalog, classify, and study the museum’s incredible array of specimens. Vendetti’s work is not just an academic exercise, but has practical applications as well. Southern California imports materials from all over the world — tiles from Italy and plants from Florida — that could be carrying hitchhikers. “If certain pest snails or slugs get into our crops, it could be devastating,” she says. So, as part of her work, Vendetti has enlisted the help of Los Angeles community members to track both native and introduced species. Vendetti grew up in New Jersey, but fell in love with biology during childhood summer visits to her grandparents’ home in coastal Maine. “I would find a tidepool with 100 different living things in it. It was magical,” she says. “A lot of kids had their tidepool phase, but I never grew out of that.” At Colgate, she started out as a biology major, but due to a scheduling fluke, ended up taking Invertebrate Paleontology with Professor Connie Soja. “In the morning, I learned the history of life of echinoderms, and in the afternoon, we learned the modern diversity of that group in Invertebrate Zoology,” Vendetti remembers. The experience made her fascinated with evolution, so she double majored in geology and biology, took Evolution with Professor Damhnait McHugh, and later published a paper with Soja that classified an unknown fossil specimen. At the Natural History Museum, she is also the acting assistant curator of invertebrate paleontology, so that fortuitous scheduling conflict paid off.

Jann Vendetti '01 and Caitlyn Butze ’21 looking at fossil snails in the NHM Invertebrate Paleontology collection

research

Slime Time Biologist Jann Vendetti ’01 finds fascination in the study of snails and slugs.

chris stoltz

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DISCOVER

SLIME contribution: Otala lactea, (c) Laura Helm

extended study

The Life Aquatic Neuroscience major Gillian Schutt ’20 writes about an immersive program at the Dolphin Research Center.

ntensive scientific research is not relegated to sterile white rooms and lab coats, but can occur wherever intellectual curiosity thrives, including the lagoons of the Dolphin Research Center (DRC). As part of an extended study offered by the neuroscience and biology departments, I traveled to Grassy Key, Fla., with 12 other Colgate students to participate in a twoweek immersive Dolphin Lab program at the DRC. The first week consisted of the Basic Dolphin Lab. We attended seminars on dolphin care, behavior, and conservation. We observed training sessions, medical care, and dolphin husbandry. Most importantly, Basic Dolphin Lab allowed us to begin to build real and reciprocal relationships with each of the 26 dolphins at the facility, through interactions both in the water and on the docks. By the end of the first week, we could identify each dolphin based on its dorsal fin and tail flukes. The second week emphasized the research aspects of the DRC through the Research Dolphin Lab. The research team focuses on the cognitive and behavioral activities of their dolphins, designing experiments to test dolphin intelligence. Specifically, they are investigating how

dolphins are intelligent, not quantifying their intelligence. Participating in both observational and experimental research, we watched the dolphins at a distance from the research tower and assisted in conducting tests on dolphin cognition using thinking games from the docks. Throughout the week, we worked in small groups to develop a research proposal concerning dolphin cognition, which we presented to the head of the research department. At the end of the two weeks, it was difficult to bid our new finned friends farewell. The DRC is more than an organization; it is a family consisting of both the people and dolphins who call it home. Each day began with greeting the dolphins with a good morning and ended with wishing them a good night. As we walked along the boardwalks of the lagoons on that final morning at the DRC, we felt like part of the family. As we departed, we knew it wasn’t forever, but only for now.

— Gillian Schutt ’20, from Sutton, Mass., is a member of the cross country and track and field teams and is interested in photography. Her future plans include pursuing a graduate degree in neuroscience and continuing to work with animals.

DOlphin research center

After graduation, Vendetti attended the University of California, Berkeley to study paleontology and molecular phylogenetics, a field that uses DNA to reconstruct evolutionary relationships between species. She gravitated toward slugs and snails for their incredible biodiversity, including species that might look the same but have evolved independently, a phenomenon known as “cryptic diversity.” Using DNA, Vendetti has been able to tease out these differences and create complex evolutionary family trees. Along the way, she’s named some newfound species, and has even had a colleague name a species after her — a sea slug from the Philippines named Polybranchia jannae. In her current role at the Natural History Museum, Vendetti has shared her fascination through a project called SLIME (Snails and Slugs Living in Metropolitan Environments), which enlists community members to create a census of local landliving snails and slugs. Using the smartphone app iNaturalist, participants take pictures of snails and slugs and send them to the SLIME project where Vendetti and others identify them. Already, the project has racked up more than 10,000 observations and documented five species never seen in the Los Angeles area — including one never seen in the United States. Vendetti recently published a paper on those findings for the American Malacological Bulletin, naming some contributing project members as co-authors. She hopes this project gives participants a new appreciation for biodiversity they may have not noticed before — or worse, wrinkled their noses at. “A species may not seem interesting at first,” says Vendetti, “but after learning more about it, it can become fascinating. Evolution is amazing.” — Michael Blanding

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M ERG ING PAST A E DWA R D H A R R I S S T O N E

ortraiture represents the bulk of work by Edward Harris Stone, the University’s photographer from 1902–1958. But Stone’s career also captured numerous iconic campus buildings as they were constructed, renovated, and sometimes demolished. In addition, he — and his camera — were present for historic events: soldiers

training on Whitnall Field during both World Wars, the post-fire building boom in the village, the installation of electricity, and the rise of the railroad. The Edward H. Stone Photograph Collection has resided in Special Collections and University Archives since 1959. The bulk of the collection is negatives (numbering approximately 20,000)

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ST A ND PRESENT

The works of two photographers — more than 100 years apart — join together as one.

ANDREW M. DADDIO

Team captains of the early 1900s alongside some of today’s captains (L to R): Chelsea Taylor ’19 (lacrosse), Will Rayman ’20 and Francisco Amiel ’19 (basketball), and Erica Silverman ’19 (swimming)

— a portion of which are in the early photographic format of gelatin silver glass plates. To the naked eye, these plates appear translucent, but using today’s high-resolution scanners, they are transformed into strikingly clear positive images. So in 2017, the Special Collections and University Archives began preserving and digitizing the Stone Collection. As a result, the Case Library

exhibition Glass, Silver, and Memory: Images of Community brings Stone’s photographs back to life. Here, Andrew Daddio — the University photographer from 2008–2016 — puts a modern twist on some of the vintage pictures. — Emily Jeffres, digital history project manager

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BICENTENNIAL

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BICENTENNIAL

Above, left: A 1904 chemistry lab with Professor Roy Burnett Smith and students — including Everett Booker Jones, Class of 1905 (second from right), who later taught chemistry and biology at Florida A&M University and then became the head of the biology department at Lincoln University. Above, right: In spring 2019, Allessio “Jack” Giovannetti ’21 consults with Professor Patricia Kay Jue as he identifies an organic compound in the CHEM 264 (organic chemistry II) teaching laboratory. Left: Bird’s-eye view of Taylor Lake and Willow Path, circa 1915 and 2019. The current photo was taken with a drone at 200 feet.

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SCHOLARS Among the pivotal points in these alumni’s lives, fellowship and scholarship opportunities played an integral role.

Moved by a Moment in History

F Mark diorio

rom retirees’ uncertainty of the U.S. social security system to farmers’ dairy concerns, Rep. Antonio Delgado ’99 (D, NY-19) fielded a range of questions that constituents posed during his seventh town hall in mid-February. “I am here to serve you,” Delgado told an audience gathered in the Canajoharie High School auditorium, not far from where he grew up in Schenectady, N.Y. “Irrespective of party, I want to be in the best position to take your issues back with me to D.C. and be an advocate, but the only way I can do that is if we’re having a conversation,” he added. Advocacy has been a guiding principle for Delgado throughout his diversified career, which has included titles of hip-hop artist, lawyer, and now congressman. A political science and philosophy major at Colgate, Delgado “was always politically minded,” he says.

Rep. Antonio Delgado ’99 is the first person of either African American or Hispanic descent to be elected to Congress from upstate New York.

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LEADERS

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After graduation, a Rhodes Scholarship enabled Delgado to earn a second degree in philosophy, politics, and economics at the University of Oxford in England. Being in a foreign country on his own, so far away from his upstate New York base, helped Delgado figure out who he was. “To bury myself in knowledge, learn for the sake of learning, and get a better sense of who I am — it had a profound effect on how I came to know myself,” he says. He then entered law school at Harvard University, from which he earned his JD in 2005. “I wanted to take my background in philosophy and have it apply more practically to the real world,” Delgado explains. His next move, to Los Angeles to pursue a music career, may seem like an unexpected career decision, but “it felt very real and true to me,” he says. “I felt that it was imperative, in light of my own academic success, to elevate a conversation within hip-hop for the purpose of talking about socially, politically important matters. I followed my heart.” But, the lifestyle of a struggling artist began to put a strain on Delgado after several years. At the same time, he began reconnecting with his girlfriend, Lacey Schwartz, whom he met at Harvard. Schwartz was still living on the East Coast, so in 2011, Delgado proposed and rejoined her in the state where they both grew up (her hometown is Woodstock). Harkening back to his law degree, Delgado joined the firm Akin Gump Straus Hauer & Feld in Manhattan as a complex commercial litigator. “I wanted to understand the language of finance and capital,” he explains. In addition, Delgado took a number of pro bono cases, including a client who had been unfairly sentenced to life as a young teenager. Delgado was on track to soon become a partner in the firm. But, “that wasn’t the identity I had of myself for the indefinite future,” he says. Meanwhile, he and his wife — who, by that point, had twin baby boys — had been talking about moving upstate to be closer to their families. In 2016, the couple’s talks of future goals and dreams snapped from the realm of possibility to urgency. The presidential election, Delgado says, was an awakening. “We were already at a crossroads, and it was a moment of clarity, a moment of accountability.” He told himself, “If you have any real intentions of serving in the way you want to serve, now’s the time to live that life.”

They started by looking at towns upstate where they’d want to live — considering school districts and proximity to their families — before moving to Rhinebeck. While commuting to the city and continuing work at the firm, Delgado began assessing the possibility of a campaign. “The climate allowed for it,” he determined. “As we saw across the country, so many folks were called to action. There was a thirst for a new kind of leadership. And we were able to embrace that.” In the 2018 midterm elections, Delgado challenged Republican incumbent John Faso for the 19th District of New York. The race drew national attention because it was considered one of the most hotly contested in the country. The district’s constituents are one-third Democrats, one-third Republicans, and one-third independents. “It was a grueling endeavor, but incredibly rewarding,” Delgado says. Because his district is the third most rural nationwide represented by a Democrat (and eighth overall), Delgado requested appointment to three House committees that correlate with his region’s priorities: agriculture, transportation and infrastructure, and small business. Some of the issues he is tackling include green jobs, infrastructure, health care, water contamination, and rural broadband access. When not in D.C., Delgado has been holding town halls in the district’s 11 counties, where hundreds of people have shown up to hear the congressman speak and ask him questions. “People are frustrated with how broken the system is,” he says. “I came in during the longest shutdown in government history, and people are wondering what’s going on. The seams are coming undone, and that affects how we prioritize what we can accomplish as a country.” Back at the town hall in Canajoharie, Delgado concluded by reminding the people that he works for them. “A big reason why I thought it was important to serve politically had to do with moral imperative,” he told the audience. “We’re leaving a lot of communities behind… In this moment in our history, more than ever, we have to find out what we’re truly about as a country and what we, as individual citizens of this great country, can do to make sure it continues to live up to its promise [of] equal opportunity for everyone.” — Aleta Mayne

Rep. Antonio Delgado ’99 is Colgate’s 2019 commencement speaker and will be recognized with an honorary doctorate.

Developing New Perspectives

hether it’s whalers in the Azores, people experiencing homelessness in Seattle, or monkeys in Thailand, Gemina Garland-Lewis ’08 immerses herself in her subjects. She is a photographer-researcher-explorer who’s found her niche in the One Health field, which focuses on the intersection between the health of humans, animals, and the environment. As a multihyphenate, she has designed a career that involves juggling numerous projects. Garland-Lewis’s Watson Fellowship experience laid the groundwork for several of these projects. And another Watson Fellow, Lindsay Mackenzie ’05, connected her with National Geographic, which has supported much of her work as a photographer and explorer. Learn more from Garland-Lewis herself: I became a photographer when I was 12. My grandfather, a hobbyist photographer, gave me a camera, and I got hooked. I spent most of high school in the darkroom. I started exhibiting my work when I was 15, and that was my first, longer-term documentary project. It was of the Cerro Grande Fire in northern New Mexico, which is where I’m from. That’s where I got most of the background into the type of photography I do today and the belief that one could merge science and storytelling in a meaningful way. My degree at Colgate is biology and environmental studies. Throughout my senior year, I worked on an independent study with Professor Frank Frey to better understand human disease transmission to mountain gorillas, a critically endangered species. It was a continuation of work I started my sophomore year with Conservation Through Public Health in Uganda, which I was introduced to in my medical geography course. My Watson Fellowship was an exploration of different cultural relationships to whales and whaling. I was in the Azores, South Africa, New Zealand, Tonga, Japan, Norway, and Argentina. I worked with whale researchers, whalers, and whale-watching companies. I was looking at economic transitions from whaling to whale watching, the simultaneous existence of both whaling

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krista rossow

Even though my grant work wrapped up a number of years ago, the story continues and evolves. Gemina Garland-Lewis ’08

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People tend to be confused why I was interested in whales, given that I grew up in the high desert, but I think sometimes the absence of something can make you even more curious about it. One of my study abroad programs at Colgate was doing SEA Semester, and I had a class on maritime studies. I started reading more about the history, regulations, and controversy of whaling. The Watson has influenced my career more than anything else. My first country during my Watson was the Azores, a group of Portuguese islands that were pivotal during the American and British whaling era in the 1800s. My National Geographic grant was to return to the Azores and to do a photo-ethnography of the last living former whalers. Even though my grant work wrapped up a number of years ago, the story continues and evolves. I moved back to the Azores in late 2017 for a few months to work on a book that’s still in the works. As this

Gemina Garland-Lewis’s photo of whaleboats in the Azores

work progresses, I’ve become interested in the younger generation’s ability to maintain a cultural connection to whaling and to the whaleboat without actually hunting whales. The boats are these gorgeous 40foot wooden canoes and now the younger generation uses them for sport. I’ve spent time with the teams and sailed with them. I did a piece for National Geographic Adventure last year about that. I went to grad school at Tufts and then started working at the University of Washington (UW). One of the people who guest lectured in my master’s program started the Center for One Health Research at University of Washington. After graduation, I worked there for three years, and then a little over two years ago I was laid off when the grants I had been funded by ended. I actually appreciated it, because it allowed me to focus on photography more. I still work with that team in a parttime capacity and teach three class sessions in a mixed undergraduate/graduate-level course, for which I’ve developed case studies through integrating work as a photographer and on the research and education side. One of the main projects I am currently working on is [with] people experiencing homelessness with pets in Seattle. I have a long-term documentary

photography project on the human-animal bond in homelessness, called “Everything to Me.” Told with partner organizations, it’s visual storytelling, research, clinical care, and education all working together. One of the case studies I teach at UW is about this, which I love because these are actual people in the students’ community. [I also] run a participatory photography component where I work with people who are experiencing homelessness with their pets to show their experience through visual storytelling. Last year, I moved into Tent City 3, one of Seattle’s city-sanctioned homeless encampments, for about eight days, slept in one of the tents, and focused on people with animals. That was an important experience for me as a photographer to be around for some intimate moments and to get to know people better. But even living in a tent city, it’s still my voice sharing their experience. So, the participatory end of this is giving people cameras to document their own lived experience. We’ll have a public exhibit at the end of the project. Storytelling is a great foundation. Time and time again with this project, I’ve seen people engage with the images or the stories, and they approach me to talk about how much it has shifted their perspective and gotten them involved in important issues in their communities. — Interview by Aleta Mayne

gemina Garland-lewis

and whale watching, how whaling ended in some places, and what it was used for — subsistence, spiritual, economic, commercial. I also looked at regulations on whale watching around the world and the impacts on whale populations from these operations.

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Making His Case

mark diOrio

he insanity defense is one of the trickiest aspects of criminal law. On the one hand, a person clearly commits a serious crime; on the other, he doesn’t seem responsible for committing it. “The dominant definition is that someone lacks the capacity to tell right from wrong,” says Cornell University law professor Stephen Garvey ’87. But that explanation seems inadequate in some cases, Garvey argues in a recent research paper, in which he takes a deep dive into the philosophy of delusion. In some cases, a person may know they’re doing something wrong, but not feel like they’re the one doing it. “When people form delusions, there is a defect in their sense of agency,” Garvey says. “When someone commits a crime in that case, are they the author of what they are doing?” Those are the kinds of subtle but weighty questions Garvey has wrestled with as a scholar of criminal legal theory. At Colgate, he was inspired by a first-year seminar taught by Joseph Wagner, tackling the most controversial issues — such as abortion, the death penalty, and affirmative action in a way that went beyond political ideology of right and left. “He was especially effective and inspiring in terms of pushing you to think self-critically, with an emphasis on self,” Garvey says. “He believed that if we think long and hard and critically enough, we can come up with some answers.” Garvey continued that practice of examining big questions as a Marshall Scholar, an honor awarded by the British government to study at Oxford University. Garvey pursued a master’s of philosophy in politics, thriving on the intensity of the Oxford tutorial system, in which small classes delve into topics with rigorous discussion. He took legal and political theory classes and studied philosophers from Marx and Hegel to Hart and Dworkin. “I had the time and opportunity to read and think. That’s a real gift.” The experience convinced Garvey that he wanted to teach law, and after clerking for a judge and working at a Washington law firm, he was offered a job at Cornell in 1994. Much of Garvey’s early work centered on capital punishment, going beyond the morality of sentencing a person to death, to focus on the state of mind of those doing the sentencing. Based on surveys of nearly 200 Virginia jurors in capital cases, Garvey found a wide range in their likelihood to impose the death penalty based on race, religion,

sex, and other factors. Those eye-popping discrepancies showed how arbitrary capital punishment can be, calling into question whether the state should be allowed to impose it. Since then, Garvey has continued to look into the philosophy of criminal justice, examining questions of self-defense, the heat-of-passion defense, and alternative sentencing. He is currently working on a book examining the moral limits on the

state’s authority over the criminal law called Guilty Acts, Guilty Minds. (The book is dedicated to “two Joes” — Wagner, who passed away in 2016, and to Garvey’s father, who passed away the following year.) In all of his scholarship, Garvey has followed the methods he learned in Wagner’s seminar: diving deep into the literature on a topic and not being afraid to question his own assumptions. — Michael Blanding Spring 2019 Colgate Magazine 31

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At Colgate, Liberman was: → 1819 Award winner → Max A. Shacknai Volunteerism Award winner

Global Citizen Follow this Fulbright winner’s path around the world. Getting Into the Rhythm of Research A molecular biology major at Colgate, Amanda Liberman ’17 researched the connections between people’s circadian rhythms and mood disorders. Mentored by professors Ahmet Ay and Krista Ingram, she and some of her fellow students looked at where participants fell on scales of anxiety, depression, and morningness-eveningness. Liberman’s role was designing mathematical models to represent this relationship. The team later published their research in two scientific journals. For Nature Scientific Reports (August 2017), “we were able to show that a gene called PER3 is

related to both circadian rhythms and to anxiety,” Liberman says. In a follow-up study published in the Journal of Biological Rhythms (April 2018), the researchers found that “several circadian clock genes were linked to depression and other mood disorders,” Liberman explains. As Colgate’s first Beckman Scholar, she received 15 months of funding to support her research and present at research conferences, including the Gordon Chronobiology Conference and the European Biological Rhythms Congress in Amsterdam. A Year in Siberia Moving to Kazakhstan after graduation was “like arriving on a new planet,” Liberman says. She didn’t understand all of the cultural references, and the extreme cold froze the moisture in her eyes and eyelashes. Fortunately, Liberman had a firm grasp on the language — which is part of how

Looking for a Cure Now, as a research fellow at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), Liberman studies prion diseases, which are a type of neurogenerative conditions that are fatal and incurable. Research into these diseases also has potential applications for other neurogenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and dementia. Liberman and her colleagues are studying heat shock proteins to try to understand how they help cure these diseases in yeast, which they hope will inform a solution for humans. Her one-year research fellowship in Bethesda, Md., concludes this July. When not in the lab at the NHLBI, Liberman has continued her volunteerism on the National Sexual Assault Hotline. This is a continuation of the work she began as a Colgate student. While at Colgate, Liberman received her rape crisis counselor certification and volunteered with the Help Restore Hope Center’s sexual assault and intimate partner violence hotline.

andrÉ chung

her Fulbright Scholarship came about. Liberman speaks Russian, both because her father emigrated from Russia and because she was a Russian and Eurasian studies minor. She had previously visited Kazakhstan during an extended study with the class Authoritarian Capital Cities of Eurasia as a first-year. Still, moving there on her own was an entirely new challenge. From August 2017 until May 2018, Liberman lived in Semey, Kazakhstan, teaching 10th-grade biology. She was helping to implement a new national educational policy requiring that science classes are taught in English. “This is a major change for the country,” Liberman explained. Previously, science classes were taught in the local language of the school, usually Russian or Kazakh. Liberman also volunteered as an English teacher at the local library and as a Russian-language first aid instructor at the local Red Crescent. When the school year ended, Liberman moved to the southern town of Kaskelen to finish her Fulbright at Suleyman Demirel University. There, she taught first-year college students English for Cytology and Histology, which involved scientific vocabulary and lab terms. Learning how to adjust to a different culture was the ultimate lesson for Liberman in her current life and as she looks toward the future. “Especially when I become a doctor,” she says, “I will be dealing with people who come from cultural backgrounds that could be really different from my own.”

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Back to School In the fall, Liberman will attend Yale School of Medicine. She’s considering specializing in obstetrics/gynecology because she has a strong desire to promote women’s health. “As a rape crisis counselor, I spend a lot of time working with survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence,” she explains, “and these issues are important to me.”— Aleta Mayne

andrÉ chung

PeaceKeeper

fghanistan has seen ongoing conflict for at least the past 40 years — ever since the Soviets invaded in 1979. Despite the decades of violence, including invasion by the United States in 2001, the country may be closer now to peace than it has been in years. “The combination of fatigue about the war on all sides, and the motivation by the United States to seek a political solution, adds up to some cautious optimism that there can be a different way forward,” says Scott Worden ’96, director of Afghanistan and Central Asia Programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). It’s Worden’s job to analyze the prospects for peace in the region and to actively work to make it a reality. Established by an act of Congress as an independent, nonpartisan institution, USIP has helped to prepare Afghanistan for elections and reduce conflict on a local level, at the same time reporting on larger trends nationwide. “Writ large, we provide conflict analysis and ideas on policy as well as practical solutions that can be implemented on the ground,” Worden says. Growing up in a suburb of Washington, D.C., Worden was always close to politics. His father worked for the General Services Administration, and his mother was a civilian employee at the Department of Defense. At Colgate, Worden pursued an interest in government as a political science major and an interest in journalism as an editor of the Maroon-News. He first became fascinated with issues of international peace and conflict though participation in the semester-long Geneva Study Group in 1994, studying the Balkan conflict, which was happening at the time. Afterward, he studied with Professor Martha Olcott, one of the foremost experts on Central Asia, who suggested he apply for a fellowship at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace following graduation. There, all of Worden’s

interests came together. He was an editorial assistant for Foreign Policy magazine and took advantage of the think tank’s highlevel events and programs. “It exposes you to a broad range of policymakers and academics,” he says. “I got to sample a wide range of the policymaking environment.” The experience shaped his path at Harvard Law School, where he focused on the rule of law. Now at USIP, he spends much of his time in Washington, visiting Afghanistan for a couple of weeks per quarter. Through the organization’s field office in Kabul, he has helped to train local civil servants on how to reduce conflict in their communities, and he’s worked with the Afghan government land authority to resolve disputes over property titles, which can be a major source of violent conflict. In addition, USIP has partnered with several Afghanistan universities to teach a course on peace and conflict resolution and piloted radio shows to allow the local population to address local

corruption and bad governance. Worden sees the new effort by the United States to open direct talks with the Taliban, led by U.S. special representative Zalmay Khalilzad, as a positive step toward ending conflict in Afghanistan. “For the first time in many years, there is an opportunity to move toward a peace process that can provide a lasting settlement,” Worden says. Of course, many obstacles remain — first and foremost, the Taliban’s unwillingness to recognize the legitimacy of the Afghan government. But by facilitating talks with representatives of diverse political and ethnic factions, the United States can potentially break the stalemate between the Taliban and the Afghan government and move toward a more representative government and a sustainable peace. “The United States has changed its position in a productive way,” Worden says. “But resolving the underlying political dispute is a conversation that needs to occur among the Afghans themselves.” — Michael Blanding

For the first time in many years, there is an opportunity to move toward a peace process that can provide a lasting settlement. Scott Worden ’96

Read about some of this year’s fellowship and scholarship winners at colgate.edu/ news. Spring 2019 Colgate Magazine 33

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PATIENT ZERO A body under attack. A student fighting for her life. A community making split-second decisions to keep her alive.

By Aleta Mayne

hat night, she told her roommate she was going to bed early. The next thing Hannah Tubbergen ’20 remembers clearly is waking up five days later in St. Luke’s Hospital in Utica. “I was wondering where I was and why my parents were there,” Tubbergen recalls. “I remember thinking, ‘Was I in a car accident?’ “I kept asking them what happened. They kept telling me, and I would ask again a few minutes later. The sedation erases your memory.” Over time, Tubbergen’s parents and others would fill in the gaps. What happened starting April 1, 2018 — which was both April Fool’s Day and Easter Sunday — transpired like a play, with a full cast of people. Each had to make critical decisions, and each had a life-altering experience. “I felt a little under the weather, but just cold symptoms, like congestion,” Tubbergen says. It was a typical weekend. She went to a party with friends Friday night. Saturday, she ran errands and then had a two-hour phone call with her parents, Debbie and Tyler. It had been a busy school week since Hannah returned from a spring break trip to Martinique with the French Club eight days earlier. On her way back from the airport, the computer science major and French minor had an interview in Syracuse for a summer internship with the FBI, where she

hoped to one day start her career. During that week, Hannah had brief chats with her parents, but they weren’t able to fully catch up until Saturday afternoon. “We knew she didn’t feel well, so we were telling her to gargle with saltwater and that we’d sent her a care package,” Tyler says. “She gave us no indication that she was that sick.” → “Bacteria are all around. When someone’s immune system and their ability to fight infections are depressed, we can become susceptible to all sorts of health problems.” — Dr. Merrill Miller, director of student health services, who monitored the situation from campus and controlled the potential threat to the Colgate community

Amina Rehman ’20, Hannah’s roommate at the time, returned to campus on Sunday around 4 p.m. after visiting her family in Boonton, N.J. “I entered our room, and it was dark, so I thought she wasn’t there,” Rehman says. “But as soon as I stepped in, she popped up from her bed in the corner and told me she was sick. I didn’t think it was a big deal. Hannah usually has a lot going on, so I thought she’d come down with a cold.” Hannah complained of a headache, so Rehman gave her some Tylenol.

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There were like shooting stars of infection throughout her body. Dr. merrill Miller

→ “The brain sits inside the skull and is connected to the spinal cord; they are surrounded by a thin covering called meninges and by spinal fluid. If spinal fluid gets infected, it infects the meninges and the surface of the brain. That causes pressure on the brain because there’s a limited amount of space within the skull and spine for there to be swelling and infected fluid. Because it’s totally surrounding the brain, often, you will have a very bad headache.” — Dr. Miller

Illustrations are by Bryan Christie Design and are an artistic representation only.

Around midnight, as Rehman and their other two suitemates were getting ready for bed, Hannah told them she was going to take a shower. Rehman remembers her saying, “I really need a steam to open up.” Rehman’s concern heightened upon hearing Hannah throwing up in the suite’s bathroom. When her roommate came out, Rehman suggested they go to the emergency room. “No, no, I’m totally fine,” Hannah reassured her. “It’s probably just norovirus.” They skipped their ritual before-bed talk because Hannah fell fast asleep. Rehman woke up Monday morning for her 9:20 biology class. “Hannah, are you going to class?” she asked. “No, I’m just gonna nap,” Hannah responded. “That makes sense; she’s sick,” Rehman thought. After her 10:20 logic course, Rehman would normally go to the Coop for lunch, but Hannah hadn’t Spring 2019 Colgate Magazine 35

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responded to her text, so the roommate was concerned. She had a couple of free hours before Challenges of Modernity at 1:20, so Rehman decided to return to the room and insist that she was taking Hannah to the health center. As soon as Rehman approached the floor of their building, she was struck by a pungent odor emanating from their room. She entered the room and said, “We need to go to the health clinic.” Hannah weakly answered, “OK, OK.” Opening the curtains and seeing that Hannah was only wearing undergarments, Rehman picked her clothes up off the floor and attempted to dress her, but Hannah was unresponsive. She needed help. “Hannah went from zero to eighty overnight,” Rehman says. “She was a normal sick person the night before. She was responding. She didn’t have a temperature. And then, the next morning, she was burning up. She was delirious. She could barely speak.” → “This type of bacteria often spreads, and rapidly. When I say rapidly, I mean hours. This is full steam ahead.” — Dr. Miller

After calling campus safety and Southern Madison County Volunteer Ambulance Corps (SOMAC), Rehman continued the task of dressing Hannah. Moving the blanket aside, she noticed plum-colored, quarter-sized spots on Hannah’s legs. Maybe they were bruises from rugby practice, Rehman thought. “They call it petechiae,” explains Heather

In the United States each year, there may be between three hundred to five hundred cases of this type of meningitis. It has a very high mortality and a very high morbidity rate. Dr. Miller

Williams, a SOMAC paramedic who was one of the first responders on the scene. Hannah’s blood vessels were rupturing and

her blood was reverting to her core where it needed to be to keep her alive. Williams and two other SOMAC EMTs arrived around noon. “I was not expecting what I saw,” Williams says. Blue feet — that’s the first thing she noticed. Then she observed the mottling on Hannah’s skin and knew the blood wasn’t circulating to the extremities. “Something’s not right,” Williams thought. She quickly grabbed a mask and instructed her colleagues to do the same. An experienced EMT, Williams started cycling through the possibilities. Spring break was two weeks ago — had Hannah contracted something abroad? But when the patient reported a headache and neck pain, this was a tip-off. “I went right to meningitis,” Williams says. → “She had meningococcal meningitis and meningococcemia, which means it spread throughout the blood stream.” — Dr. Miller

Williams hooked Hannah up to a monitor to check her vitals and heart rhythm, as well as an IV with saline for rehydration. Because Hannah couldn’t walk or sit up, they folded her into a MegaMover, which looks like a canvas sheet with handles. As Rehman watched frightened, a team of people carried the 125-pound student and the attached equipment down two flights of stairs. “It’s going to be OK, Hannah,” she called after her. “It was the most traumatizing image ever,” Rehman says. After loading Hannah into the ambulance, Williams urged SOMAC volunteer Katie Steklac ’18 to “drive safely, but drive fast.” With near certainty that Hannah had meningitis, Williams knew they had to take her to a larger hospital outside of Hamilton, so they raced to Utica. “We’re going make our best time to get up there because I don’t know if she’s going to make it,” Williams told the dispatcher. → “Any infection of the brain is serious, but when it spreads to the rest of the body, then you have body-wide multi-organ disease, and it’s very critical.” — Dr. Miller

Hannah in the hospital with her dad, Tyler

As the ambulance sped northeast, Williams “started to get scared,” she recalls. But, as a medical professional — and a mother — she curbed her emotions and talked to Hannah during the 40-minute drive, reassuring her that they were going to get her help. Earlier, while waiting for the paramedics to arrive, Rehman had used Hannah’s thumb to open her phone and access the Tubbergens’ phone number. When Hannah was on the way to the hospital,

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The attack on Hannah’s organs — including her heart — caused blood clots.

Rehman called them back on her own phone to tell them their daughter might have meningitis. Debbie, a middle school teacher, left work. At home in Clackamas, Ore., Tyler was trying to find out which hospital their daughter was being taken to. He logged into her iPhone account and tracked the device to St. Luke’s. By the time the ambulance arrived, the doctors were prepared based on the information Williams had provided. Within 37 minutes, the doctors did a spinal tap, saw cloudy fluid indicating meningitis, and started administering antibiotics. → “They needed to treat the infection. She needed very high-dose antibiotics given intravenously to get throughout her entire body.” — Dr. Miller

It was now 3:30 p.m. The doctor called Tyler to say, “She’s the sickest we’ve ever seen. You need to get here.” As Debbie was

driving home, she remembers, she let her tears escape. “I told myself, get it all out now because you need to be strong for Hannah,” she says. “I knew they were trying to keep her alive long enough for us to say goodbye.” The frantic parents threw a few days’ worth of clothes into a bag, dropped off their La-Chon at the kennel, and headed to the airport, buying tickets on the way. Trying to make the next flight out of Portland, Ore., they had 90 minutes to park the car and go through security. When the Tubbergens stopped in Minneapolis for a layover, they talked to the doctors, who provided an update. They’d put Hannah on a ventilator because, although her lungs were functioning, her body was working so hard to fight the infection that the medical team didn’t want her to expend any extra energy. Back in Hamilton, a small team of Emergency Operations Center (EOC) employees was called together by Dan Gough, associate vice president for campus

safety, emergency management, and environmental health and safety. Gough identified the group’s main objectives, including: protecting the University community, conducting a public health meningitis education campaign, supporting the Tubbergens as well as the students, and ensuring limited disruption to normal University operations. → “When you have an infection that can be contagious, you like to know where it started, and that would be patient zero. And then you say, firstly, how is this type of infection spread? Is it spread by direct contact? Or through the air? Some types of bacteria can spread far and wide. So, you need to know what you’re dealing with.” — Dr. Miller

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Catholic Campus Minister Mark Shiner, administrative dean Sarah Jones, rugby coach David Chapman, and President Brian Casey waited. “To see the president there at two in the morning really floored us,” Tyler says. “Very humbling.” A nurse ushered the parents into the ICU and prepared them for what they were about to see: Their daughter was in a medically induced coma, and she was connected to approximately a dozen IV tubes. Because Hannah was still contagious, they were given gowns, masks, and gloves. “I couldn’t touch her without gloves,” Debbie remembers. Tyler composed himself, while Debbie walked into the room, sat next to Hannah, held her hand, and talked to her. Later, the parents would learn from one of the nurses that as soon as Hannah heard their voices, her breathing and heart rate calmed. A cooling blanket was on top of Hannah to lower her fever, while heating pads covered her extremities because of her poor circulation. “Her hands and feet were almost black,” Debbie remembers. That first night was a blur, Tyler says, as a constant stream of specialists flowed in and out. Although Colgate made arrangements for the parents at a nearby hotel, they understandably didn’t want to leave the hospital. Chapman had given them Hannah’s rugby jersey, which Debbie says she used as a security blanket. “It was with me everywhere I went.” The next morning, Tuesday, at 7:43, laboratory results confirmed meningococcal meningitis and meningococcemia. → “In the United States each year, there may be between three hundred to five hundred cases of this type of meningitis. It has a very high mortality and a very high morbidity rate.” — Dr. Miller

The EOC had anticipated that they would need to prepare for a case of bacterial meningitis, so staff members had already started gathering medication and the names of people whom Hannah had been near. Between her rugby team, Delta Delta Delta sisters, and other friends, Hannah has a wide social circle. “There’s a ten-day incubation period for meningococcal meningitis, so we had to find everyone who had been in close contact with her and who may have had an opportunity for transmission through respiratory secretions,” Gough says. The EOC also set up informational sessions for students who were anxious but not in immediate danger and started disease prevention in the community to ensure that there wouldn’t be an outbreak.

Coincidentally, less than two weeks prior, the EOC had practiced a public health emergency tabletop exercise, “so it was fresh in everyone’s minds,” Gough says. As part of that exercise, they used a Medical Emergency Distribution System Plan, which includes setting up a Point of Dispensing (POD) in order to deliver prophylaxis and vaccinations to numerous people within a short period of time. “That’s what emergency management is — making sure you’ve done all the training and planning,” Gough says. Hundreds of students showed up to the POD. Through an information session as well as interviews conducted by medical professionals, the health center narrowed down the pool of at-risk students. With the Madison County Department of Health, the Colgate health center administered ciprofloxacin to 170 people — such a large supply that they drained the resources of local pharmacies. In addition, the health care center offered (and continues to offer) the vaccine to students. Surprisingly, Hannah herself had received the vaccine — for both strains — but it is not 100 percent effective. It is unknown how and from

This patient zero decided to be the immovable object to meet the not-so-unstoppable force of the disease. scott eisenhower, Hannah’s brother

where Hannah contracted the infection. As the Colgate community was working to protect itself, it also extended its support to the Tubbergens. The athletics department and bookstore sent clothing to the family, who only had a few changes of clothes. Chartwells sent food to provide an alternative to hospital fare. The Tri-Delta sisters raised money for the family’s expenses. Many others whom the family did not know sent supplies, homemade cookies, and cards. “We felt we were part of the Colgate family, and that was just amazing,” Debbie says. Throughout that week, Hannah’s condition was in a state of constant fluctuation. The medical team needed to address minute-to-minute changes as they were happening. → “There were like shooting stars of infection throughout her body — through the blood vessels, causing various organs to not function. Things were churning in her body. Various chemicals get affected — sodium, potassium, all those things. Hers were bouncing around from this turmoil, and all of the blood cells were being affected. It was like a tsunami inside the body.” — Dr. Miller

Debbie posted on Facebook to keep family, friends, and concerned community members updated on the constant ups and downs. (At one point, 14,000 people were seeing her posts.) The night of Wednesday, April 4, Hannah was trying to bite through the breathing tubes, so she needed to be sedated. Consequently, the sedation was dangerously lowering her heart rate. “Vicious cycle,” Debbie posted. The attack on Hannah’s organs was causing blood clots, including one in the right ventricle of her heart. The doctors weren’t able to administer anticoagulants because her platelet count was so low (30,000; a normal range starts at 150,000) that they would cause bleeding. “For those first few days, we could have lost her at any point,” Debbie says. On Thursday, Hannah opened her eyes for the first time since Monday morning. “The nurses started crying, we started crying, and Dr. Brehaut was almost in tears,” Debbie remembers. The doctor had been cracking jokes to prompt Hannah to respond, and suddenly, they could see her grinning through her intubation. He also asked the patient to raise her hand, but she was only able to lift it slightly because her muscles had atrophied due to decreased blood flow and being bedridden. “She had been in top shape for rugby and then she was skin and bones,” Debbie remembers.

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Still, “Ain’t no mountain high enough,” Debbie posted the following day, embracing the rugby team’s mantra. The medical staff removed Hannah’s intubation, her heart and kidney functioning improved, and the antibiotics had decreased the level of bacteria in her body. Hannah’s brother, Scott (who is earning a master’s/PhD in microbiology/infectious diseases), posted on Facebook: “The first couple of patients during a meningitis outbreak are typically guaranteed fatalities, but this patient zero decided to be the immovable object to meet the not-sounstoppable force of the disease.” Hannah had always been stubborn, he went on to write. “This situation, however, takes it to a whole new level.” When Hannah was in 8th grade, she broke her elbow sliding into third base during a softball game. She kept playing through two innings until she had to stop from the swelling and immobility of her arm. A fresh cast didn’t stop Hannah from playing her trombone in the upcoming middle school band competition. She simply taught herself how to play left-handed. As far as softball was concerned, she taught herself to pitch to rehabilitate her arm and ended up being a pitcher for her high school. “Every coach, every teacher has said that she has a positive attitude. She is the hardest working person,” Debbie says. By the end of the first week in April of 2018, Hannah again proved her determination. At 3:12 p.m. on Friday, April 6, she was sitting up and eating a Popsicle. “Miracles happen!” Debbie posted. Hannah’s status started looking up when she was moved out of the ICU to the secondary care unit on April 9. Optimism was on the rise, and Tyler returned to Oregon for a few days to handle household business. But, a few days later, Hannah started having painful headaches and was sent back to the ICU. A CT scan confirmed she had a brain aneurysm that bled.

Hannah (center) tapped into her rugby training to help manage her pain in the hospital.

→ “Anything that could happen to anybody happened to her.” — Dr. Miller

Tyler was quickly back on a plane. “After everything we were feeling good about over the weekend, that was a shock,” he says. Progress and regress. Moving from one hospital unit to the next and back to ICU. In these challenging weeks, Hannah would often tap into her rugby training. During a particularly agonizing few days, the red blood cells that leaked around her brain and spinal cord were dissolving, causing pressure. Like a woman in labor, Hannah held her mom’s hand and asked her to count her down until

President Brian W. Casey and his dog, Emrys, visited Hannah as she was recovering.

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“Tubes,” as she is called by teammates, surprised them at the National Championships.

First day back on campus in autumn ’18

she made it to the next pain level. “Coach always talks about the 78th minute,” she told her mom. “When you’re exhausted and you’ve got two more minutes, give it your all.” So Debbie would count down the minutes until Hannah could have her next dose of morphine. “Watching her with that grit, knowing she had to gut it out,” Debbie says, “she’s my hero. I don’t think I could do what she did.” Moving day arrived on April 17. Hannah was released to the inpatient rehabilitation center. By that point, she’d lost 20 pounds, so she needed physical and occupational therapy to rebuild her body. Offering reassurance, a nurse told her, “Within a year, you’ll be back to normal.” Hannah responded: “I’ll be playing rugby by fall.” With the aid of a walker, Hannah could only take 10 steps at first. A week and a half later, she was taking 300 steps with the walker. Characteristic of Hannah, she’d set a goal. Colgate’s women’s rugby qualified for the national championships, which would take place April 28 outside of Pittsburgh, Pa. “Tubes,” as Hannah’s teammates call her, wouldn’t be playing on the pitch, but she’d be there. Debbie and Tyler consented to Hannah’s request that, if she were discharged in time, she could surprise her teammates. “She’d do anything for her team,” Chapman says. “Having seen Hannah throughout, I thought [her being released in time] was going to be tough, but the last two weeks, she made miraculous strides.” Driving through Pennsylvania, after all, was on the way home to Oregon. The family had been preparing for the upcoming road trip. Between Hannah’s poor circulation and doctors’ concerns about her blood clotting again, an airplane ride was out of the question. So, when Hannah was released from inpatient rehabilitation on April 27, they packed all of her campus belongings into her Subaru Outback. Before hitting the road, the family had to say some important goodbyes. They invited Williams (the paramedic) to visit because they credit her as being one of the people who helped save Hannah’s life. “I just did my job, treated her to the best of my ability, and treated her like I would any of my family,” Williams told them. Hannah then stopped on campus to say goodbye to her sorority sisters and suitemates. Seeing her for the first time since April 2, Rehman recounted that day for her roommate, filling in more of the details. She also told Hannah to not rush recovery: “This is not your slow — it’s

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supposed to be actual slow.” Rehman says, “She’s a very tough person.” The next day, the Tubbergens pulled into Founders Field in Cheswick, Pa. “It was quite the scene,” Chapman recalls. Her teammates clustered around the car, waiting for Tubes to come out. “Everyone was smiling, some were crying, and they all wanted to hug me,” Hannah remembers. The reunion was even more poignant because the players had expressed uncertainty about competing after such an emotional month. “It’s a close-knit community, so when a member of the family goes down, they rally around each other,” Chapman says. As the Raiders proceeded with the match, Chapman wheeled Hannah around the field. “Wherever we went, she was there with us.” The fly-half — Hannah’s position — in rugby is like the quarterback in football. Her job is to coordinate the team’s attack and make calls to get the ball where it needs to be. “It’s a fast-paced game, and she’s basically the general,” Chapman explains. Colgate has a reputation as giant killers, and women’s rugby is no exception. Compared to other teams, Colgate’s women’s rugby players are usually the smallest in terms of their physical stature. “So it takes a special person, with a specific mind-set, to play this game against someone who’s bigger, considering it’s a collision sport,” Chapman explains. All through Hannah’s ups and downs in the hospital, Chapman often proclaimed, “She’s a fighter” — so frequently that the Tubbergens had the saying engraved on a golf towel for him. “It’s just what I’ve seen in her,” he says. Even the burly coach gets choked up when reflecting on last spring. “When thinking of Tubes, it’s tough to not think about what happened,” he says. “And when you think about how she took it on, there’s not much difference between that and the field. The way she approaches things — it’s all heart.” With 2,968 miles to go, the Tubbergens piled back into the Subaru after the tournament and headed west. The trek was not without its own challenges. In Fargo, N.D., the car engine blew, so they had to get a rental for the remaining 1,500 miles. But, finally, on May 6, Hannah was home. Although the FBI had offered her an internship in Portland, Hannah had to decline in order to continue physical therapy. She also was gearing up to return to her studies. Despite doctors’ concerns about lingering effects on her cognitive

ability, Hannah passed the tests with ease. She decided to dedicate her summer to finishing the five weeks of coursework and finals that she’d missed. “I really wanted to graduate with my class,” she says. Professors sent Hannah assignments, which she turned to with her usual diligence. Unlike her cognitive skills, Hannah’s physical state took longer to recover. In addition to rebuilding muscle, she suffered from open wounds, scabbing, bruises, and hair loss. Debbie and Tyler would clean up clumps of Hannah’s hair from her pillows and car. → “That is how extensive this disease was in her body. It was to every last bit of her.” — Dr. Miller

As she was preparing for finals, Hannah had yet another setback when she learned she’d have to have her pinky toe amputated on June 8 because of poor circulation. “If that was the worst that was going to happen out of all of this, I’m fine with it,” Hannah says now. “She knows her good fortune,” Debbie adds. That summer, Hannah had met an Oregon State University student who lived near her hometown and also had meningitis. That woman suffered partial paralysis and permanent brain damage. → “How each person reacts to meningitis is different, so each case is different.” — Dr. Miller

Two weeks before rugby preseason, Hannah finished her sophomore year with four A minuses and a B plus. For this trip back across the country, the family flew the distance. When they met Chapman for dinner at the Colgate Inn on Aug. 19, it was the first time he’d seen Hannah since nationals. Going into the conversation, the coach was prepared to suggest ways Hannah could stay involved with the team as she continued to recover. So when the Tubbergens told Chapman that Hannah had been fully cleared, he responded, “Great. Cleared for what?” The coach was in disbelief that Hannah could return to playing the full-contact sport, but Hannah would once again prove her strength to overcome. The next day, the Tubbergens moved Hannah into the Tri-Delta house. “That’s when we left her,” Tyler says. “That was hard,” Debbie remembers. Hannah then headed to preseason practice on Academy Field, which started with a team meeting. Next: the fitness test — the dreaded Bronco, a 20-, 40-, and 60-meter shuttle run done five times.

“True to form, Hannah finished it,” Chapman says. “All I could think about was, the last time I saw her, she was in a wheelchair. Before that, she was on her deathbed, essentially.” But here Hannah was, finishing a hardcore endurance test in the August heat. “That taught me that she can’t be handled with mitts,” Chapman says, “so just take them off.” Returning to a full academic schedule, however, did force Hannah to take it (a little bit) easier. Stress built up around midterms, which brought on debilitating migraines. Hannah had to miss a handful of classes, which she’d never done before. Although she worried that professors would think she was taking advantage of her situation, she finally acquiesced to requesting extensions at times. “Her work ethic is off the charts,” Tyler says. This spring semester, Hannah participated in the Wales Study Group, taking classes on data science and human computer interaction. She also played on the Cardiff University women’s rugby team — still calling the shots as the fly-half. “You catch the first pass and then decide what happens from that point on,” she explains about her position. But through her experience last year, Hannah’s learned that she can’t always determine what happens next. “I’m hard on myself and like to have things in control,” she says. “But when a situation is so out of control that you have to rely on everyone around you, it lets you know that even if you aren’t in control, it will still be OK. Sometimes you just have to go with it.” As part of her new attitude, Hannah is reevaluating her career plan of working for the FBI in data science. “Going through this has given me time to take a step back and think maybe I don’t want to be in that field — or maybe I do,” she says. “I’m still figuring it out.” The good thing is, she has time.

Postscript: During this writing, Hannah was celebrating her 21st birthday. On her Facebook page, she started a birthday fundraiser for meningitis survivors. She intends to continue raising money to bring awareness to the condition. “I think it would be beneficial for both the people dealing with meningitis and the people around them to know more,” Hannah says. “It is really hard when no one really understands what is happening with your body.”

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ON COMMON GROUND Colgate’s living-learning communities build strong foundations for the University’s diverse student body. Meet roommates from each of the Residential Commons. By Rebecca Docter and Aleta Mayne

n the surface, they couldn’t be more different. But that hasn’t stopped Manny Cruz ’22 and Jackson Hoit ’22 from becoming friends — and compatible roommates. Cruz and Hoit do have a few things in common. They both applied early decision. Both admit to being “pretty messy” and like to go to bed late. When filling out a roommate agreement handed out by their community leader, the two took approximately a minute to fill it out. “We had agreed upon everything almost instantly,” Hoit says.

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Photography by Mark DiOrio

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Ciccone COMMONS Led by Mark (associate university chaplain, Catholic campus minister) and Rebecca Shiner (professor of psychological and brain sciences) Manny Cruz ’22 Hometown: Bronx, N.Y. Major ideas: Considering majoring in English with a minor in creative writing Extracurriculars: Indoor and outdoor track; Cruz ran the 200 and 400 meters until an injury set him back. While healing, he’s training to throw javelin. Personal interests: “I write poems.” Why Colgate: “My high school track coach coached [Colgate assistant coach] Antonio Bulagay. I had that connection, then I found out that Colgate is a smaller, rural school, which I wanted.” Brought from home: Above Cruz’s bed hangs a Dominican Republic flag, in honor of his family. Underneath rests a racing baton from when his high school team made nationals during his senior year. Jackson Hoit ’22 Hometown: Stafford, Va. Major ideas: “Chemistry is my main squeeze. I love it.” Extracurriculars: Orchestra (cello), Anglers’ Club Personal interests: Fishing — anytime, any place. “I caught more than 100 bass in Taylor Lake last semester. There is awesome trout fishing too. And, of course, there’s ice for three or four months out of the year for ice fishing.” Why Colgate: Family friend Erika Davis ’97 encouraged Hoit to look into Colgate. He found that “this place has everything I want outdoors-wise." Brought from home: Below the fishing poles on his walls, Hoit hung a fish painting above his bed, done by his girlfriend. Ciccone gatherings: One of the highlight events was a birthday party in the fall for Diane Ciccone ’74, P’10, after whom this first commons was named (see sidebar on p. 47 for more). Ciccone even joined the students for the celebration. Cruz (left) and Hoit

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ame name, same sneakers. Those are the traits that Emily Karavitch ’21 and Emily Cruz Gonzalez ’21 initially bonded over when they met during first-year orientation. As they’ve learned more about each other and spent time together, their friendship has developed and deepened. Karavitch remembers walking up to Cruz Gonzalez that first day on campus. It was the 2017 solar eclipse, families had just said their goodbyes, and the students were heading to icebreaker activities. “We were wearing the same navy Converse when I went up to her,” Karavitch recalls. “The interaction was along the lines of ‘first you steal my name, now my shoes?’ It broke the tension and then we started to become more familiar with one another.” The Emilys (as they’re often called) are both first-generation college students who became fast friends with each other and others in Hancock Commons over that fact during pre-orientation. Karavitch and Cruz Gonzalez decided to room together this year, and the group as a whole is still tight. “Many of the people who live here are closely knit because there are a lot of first-generation and OUS [Office of Undergraduate Studies] students in Parke House,” Karavitch says.

HANCOCK COMMONS Led by Antonio (associate professor of history) and Pilar Mejía-Barrera (senior lecturer in Spanish) Emily Cruz Gonzalez ’21 Hometown: Phoenix, Ariz. Major ideas: Double major in computer science and English Why Colgate: “I applied only to schools on the East Coast because I wanted to experience seasons — something I didn’t get in Phoenix. When I came to visit and stayed overnight for April Visit Days, I really liked the sense of community.” Extracurriculars: Colgate Coders, Latin American Student Organization, Office of Admission tour guide On her wall: A poster from the 2018 Grace Hopper Celebration — the world’s largest gathering of women in technology — which she attended in the fall with the coding club Hancock gatherings: “I’m part of the commons council — a group of residents from every tower that meets with our residential fellow,” Karavitch says. “We voice our opinions about what we want to see and do. Last semester, we put on movie showcases.”

Group efforts: → Both Karavitch and Cruz Gonzalez say they were interested in Colgate because of the low studentfaculty ratio. Case in point: Last year, Karavitch signed up for an advanced German course and ended up being the only student in the class. Not only did she hone her language skills, but she also provided Cruz Gonzalez with an interesting anecdote for admission tours. → A bulletin board on their wall features Karavitch’s MaroonNews clips. Cruz Gonzalez hung the board and pins up her roommate’s writings — an idea she got from the students she stayed with during April visit days. “It makes me stupidly happy,” Karavitch says.

Emily Karavitch ’21 Hometown: Scranton, Pa. Major ideas: Double major in history and German Why Colgate: “My high school German teacher was Jacquelyn Harris Schulte ’08. She was really important to me and influential. She was also a history and German major, and she suggested I look into Colgate. When I toured the campus, I fell in love. “Also, study abroad is a huge reason for why I’m here. I’m going to Freiburg next year with the German Study Group.”

Cruz Gonzalez (left) and Karavitch meet up every night for dinnertime, often at Frank (pictured here).

Extracurriculars: Picker Art Gallery student curatorial and research assistant, MaroonNews writer, research assistant in Professor Dan Bouk’s History Lab, History Club Brought from home: Threat Level Midnight T-shirt (a reference to The Office, because she’s from Scranton).

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Q&A with Paul McLoughlin II, vice president and dean of the college Colgate Magazine: What are Colgate’s Residential Commons? Paul McLoughlin II: The four Residential Commons bring first- and second-year students together with members of Colgate’s staff and faculty. The Residential Commons are integral to the University’s academic mission and to our residential liberal arts education; they help extend where learning occurs, whether in firstyear seminars, residence hall floors, or other co-curricular opportunities. They also provide intergenerational peer mentoring and leadership opportunities for upper-level students.

Mackey (left) and King show off buttons they made together in the student organization Do Random Acts of Kindness.

BROWN COMMONS Led by Jeff Bary (physics and astronomy) and Mary Simonson (film and media studies)

f you walk through the second floor of East Hall, you might hear the belly laughs of Willa King ’22 and Teagan Mackey ’22. Both having a quick sense of humor, the roommates keep their relationship fun with TV comedies. But they also connect on a more serious level, with a shared interest in social justice issues.

Willa King ’22 Hometown: Manhattan, N.Y. Major ideas: Economics Extracurriculars: Hamilton Fire Department volunteer, club field hockey On her wall: Maps from her 30-day backpacking trip through Wyoming; a print of two Volkswagen Beetles crashing — her nickname is “buggy.” Why Colgate: Having grown up playing ice hockey, King came to Colgate once to play in a tournament. The campus made a good first impression, and later, one of her best friends enrolled. King decided to visit again and apply. “I realized I had found something that was missing from every other school that I’d looked at — I loved how passionate everybody was about Colgate.”

CM: What is the philosophy of the initiative? PM: Residential colleges in American higher education are inspired by models at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge that place academic activities within a residential setting and where students are affiliates of the Residential Commons as members for their collegiate career. Colgate’s Residential Commons focus on these intellectual connections with faculty and among students by linking the first-year seminar to where students live (some are even taught within the Commons) and by forging strong co-curricular connections within these four living-learning communities. CM: What are your goals with the Residential Commons? PM: One goal is that they are inclusive in what they provide in order to meet the needs of a diverse student body. Students may join weekly dinners with faculty; perform community service; participate in the intramural programs on behalf of their Residential Commons; or take advantage of trips to places like museums or ski slopes. They should evolve as our students’ needs change. Regardless of the ways in which students connect with each other, the Residential Commons need to offer every student a foundational community. That’s critical to building an academic community where students feel that they belong, are willing to take risks, explore new ideas, and grow. CM: What are some upcoming initiatives? PM: A recent and important connection was forged between the four Residential Commons and the roughly five dozen first-year seminars taught by our teacherscholar faculty. This year, the Class of 2022 students were housed according to their intellectual interests and with their fellow seminar participants (with some exceptions for the scholar cohorts such as the Benton Scholars, Alumni Scholars, and Office of Undergraduate Studies students). While still a developing connection, this provides students with opportunities to extend the conversations that begin in seminars in the residence hall lounges. On the social side, Residential Commons are offering signature events such as coffeehouses, brunches, and weekly dinner discussions with faculty and staff. For example, a new series in Brown Commons, called “Seekers, Believers, and Doubters,” brought students together to answer important questions on identity and meaning. The two new residence halls opening in the fall will provide Brown Commons and Dart Colegrove Commons with social, academic, and study spaces on the hill. As the University deepens connections between the Residential Commons social houses along Broad Street and their residence halls on the hill, juniors and seniors will offer additional peer mentoring, leadership, and social programs for first-year and sophomore students.

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Teagan Mackey ’22 Hometown: Oneonta, N.Y. Major ideas: History Extracurriculars: University Church board of deacons, Friends First Why Colgate: “Other schools that I’d been to, people were walking by themselves or staring at their phones. But when I visited here, everybody was walking in groups, and they were talking to each other. They smiled at you when you walked by. It felt much more welcoming.” Sweet digs: “Our room setup is kind of interesting,” Mackey says. King arrived first, so she claimed the “good bed” — considered so because it’s against the wall opposite the door. So, it’s only fair that Mackey got the “good closet,” at the end of King’s bed. The result? A shared space, in the true sense of the word. Brown gatherings: The roommates have gone to several dinners at their social house. “Those are really fun because we all help make dinner and eat it together,” King says. “It’s definitely more of a home environment and somewhere we can relax as a group.”

L to R: Thomas Dunia, Edward Bass, Ebrahim Almansob, and Jack Kohler

dart colegrove COMMONS Led by April Baptiste (environmental studies) and Aurelius Henderson (assistant dean for administrative advising)

he pastime that brings four Stillman suitemates together isn’t in central New York — it’s across the pond. Jack Kohler ’22 and Thomas Dunia ’22 are fans of English Premier League team Manchester United. Edward Bass ’22 likes following along with several teams, and Ebrahim Almansob ’22 will watch if there’s a big game. When they have free time, they also play FIFA together.

Thomas Dunia ’22 Hometown: Democratic Republic of the Congo/Buffalo, N.Y. Major ideas: “I came here because of the international relations program, so possibly an international relations major. Economics is an interest of mine, so I’ll probably minor in that.” Group efforts: → Both King and Mackey are passionate about giving back to their community — they’re active members of Do Random Acts of Kindness (DoRAK), a student organization. Through DoRAK, they’ve baked cookies for strangers, made buttons with encouraging messages, and designed bookmarks to leave in books at Case Library. → King and Mackey often have deep conversations about social issues, like women’s rights. It’s an area they both want to explore after graduation, Mackey through nonprofit work and King through law. “We talk a lot about injustice and inequality, and how we want to try to fix it,” Mackey says. Who knows, maybe they’ll work together once they’re off the hill.

Why Colgate: “I wanted to go to a liberal arts school. Colgate happened to be just three hours away and a perfect fit.” On his wall: Sketches of Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, and Malcolm X. “Those are figures from the past whom I look up to. When pretty big things happened in history, they captured my attention.” Also, because he is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he has a flag from that country. Coming to America: Born in the Congo in 1998, Dunia and his family left because of the civil war. “I had to go to Tanzania, to Mozambique, and then to South Africa, and then back to Mozambique,” he says. In 2005, he and his family moved to Dallas and in 2009, they moved to Buffalo.

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Edward Bass ’22 Hometown: San Antonio/Dallas, Texas Extracurriculars: Men’s soccer Major ideas: Economics, sociology, philosophy Why Colgate: “I wanted to find a school with a good balance of academics, social life, and athletics, and Colgate really stood out.” The soccer lifestyle: In middle school, he moved to Dallas to play for the Dallas Texans USSF Developmental Academy Team. An opportunity that he says allowed him to “continue playing soccer for an intense team.” Being in Dart Colegrove: Living in the renovated Stillman Hall, the suitemates say it’s an easygoing environment — which they appreciate given their hectic schedules. “It’s been really nice living here,” Bass says. Jack Kohler ’22 Hometown: Kohler, Wis. Extracurriculars: Men’s soccer Why Colgate: I was looking for a balance with both my education and soccer, because I think after soccer, I want to go into business. Colgate had all the qualities I was looking for in a college.” Sticking with soccer: “I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin. It was a tight-knit community, and I was always playing soccer. I would commute an hour for three or four days a week to play in Milwaukee [where there were more opportunities]. I just kept pursuing it.” Ebrahim Almansob ’22 Hometown: Yemen/Brooklyn, N.Y. Major ideas: Biology, economics Extracurriculars: Afro-beat dance club, Muslim Student Association, Black Student Union Why Colgate: Both Almansob and Dunia are part of Colgate’s Office of Undergraduate Studies (OUS) program. OUS was one of the major reasons Almansob chose Colgate, he says. Coming to America: “I was born in Yemen when the civil war started. My dad brought me and my twin brother to Brooklyn in my freshman year of high school. It was challenging because I did not speak English. However, I put in the work, and everything paid off when I was accepted to Colgate three and a half years later.” Future goals: Almansob hopes to attend medical school after Colgate. On his wall: A world map with a mark on Yemen “to remind myself of my humble beginnings and my childhood stories.”

Household Names Meet the people for whom each Residential Commons was named Princeton University graduate Coleman Brown served as a Presbyterian minister in inner-city Chicago before coming to Colgate in 1970 to teach philosophy and religion. In 1974, he also took on the role of university chaplain, welcoming “believers, seekers, and doubters” to the church. He later served as dean of students, chair of the diversity committee, and chair of the department of religion and philosophy. Brown’s many accolades included the Phi Eta Sigma teaching award, the Alumni Corporation Distinguished teaching award, and the Colgate prize for inspirational teaching. Political science major Diane Ciccone ’74, P’10 was one of the first 132 women to enroll at Colgate. She is an attorney and administrative law judge as well as a documentary filmmaker, an author, and a TV producer. Ciccone is a founding member of Colgate’s Alumni of Color organization and has served on the Alumni Council and Board of Trustees. She created a fund to support the ALANA Cultural Center and established its library with books by authors of color. The documentary Path of Duty, which traces the early experiences of students and alumni of color at Colgate, was inspired by her research. The daughter of a Hamilton orchard farmer who ran the University’s boarding hall, Mabel Dart Colegrove was accepted into what was then Madison University at age 14. She took classes alongside male students from 1878–82. Despite her years of study, Dart Colegrove could not receive a degree from Madison, so she transferred her credits to Vassar College for her final semester and received a degree. She went on to work as a teacher and librarian. In 1947, Colgate recognized her as the University’s first alumna. Holding both a BA and divinity degree from Benedict College in South Carolina, Gordon Blaine Hancock came to Colgate to receive his second BA (1919) and BD (1920) as one of only two black students at the University at that time. In 1921, he received a Master of Arts from Harvard and began teaching as a sociology professor at Virginia Union University (VUU). He is credited as teaching the first-ever academic course on race relations and organized VUU’s school of race relations. He also served as a Baptist pastor and was a spokesman for African American equality.

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A Wellspring of Support The legacy of Robert H.N. Ho at Colgate builds scientific and cultural understanding, as well as community. By REBECCA DOWNING

here is a Chinese proverb for gratitude: “Drink water, remember source.” Trustee Emeritus Robert Hung Ngai Ho ’56, H’11 shared that proverb at the dedication of the Colgate interdisciplinary science center named in his honor in 2008. The Hong Kong native credits his Colgate education for helping him develop a “well-rounded worldview.” As such, Ho has included the University in his international, multifaceted wellspring of support, through which he expresses a deep commitment to advance scientific knowledge and health care, build understanding of China and its culture, and create meaningful experiences for students and communities. So, this past January, when Ho confirmed a $15 million gift to establish the Robert Hung Ngai Ho Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative, he made a significant addition to a legacy that has helped shape Colgate’s physical and intellectual landscape for more than a quarter century. 48 Colgate Magazine Spring 2019

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A renovated and expanded Olin Hall will synergize interaction in psychological and brain sciences and biology. Further, the initiative will engage faculty and students from disciplines across campus, in philosophy, computer science, physics, economics, the arts, and linguistics, to name a few. Research will address areas such as mental health, racism and prejudice, leadership, decision-making, sleep, and language learning and gesture. “We have the ability to create novel ways of thinking, through rigorous transdisciplinary research made accessible to the public,” Keating says. With additional funding still to be raised, campus teams are refining the initiative’s details — both the Olin Hall project, to be completed in summer 2022, and the development of campuswide programs. The MBB Initiative, says President Brian W. Casey, “will promote creativity across disciplines and become a point of distinction for Colgate.”

Advancing Scientific Knowledge

Robert Hung Ngai Ho Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative How do our genes influence our decision-making? What can birdsong tell us about autism? What determines voting behavior or economic choices? Can we conquer social biases we don’t know we have? With the Robert Hung Ngai Ho Mind, Brain, and Behavior (MBB) Initiative, Colgate’s faculty seeks to answer such questions by inspiring the intergenerational transfer of insight into evidence-based approaches to critical problems in human existence. Connections between mind, brain, and behavior form a complex feedback loop. “Gene-directed development gives rise to neural systems that guide perception, cognition, language, thought, emotion, and behavior,” says Carrie Keating, chair, psychological and brain sciences. “Behavior, in turn, influences the way brains and minds develop.” “Mr. Ho’s gift will establish a new genetics and genomics center and enhance brain imaging and human and animal behavior labs to allow for cutting-edge student and faculty research,” says Krista Ingram, biology department chair.

The MBB Initiative builds upon the bedrock of Colgate’s successes in the sciences, many of which are based in the Robert H.N. Ho Science Center. At its dedication in 2008, Ho himself predicted that the most enduring gift of the interdisciplinary building would be how students and faculty would use it to “explore the ever-growing challenges modern science presents.” The number of students majoring in the natural sciences division has grown by 50 percent since 2010, and the division’s departments serve 100 percent of students overall. The facility has also helped Colgate attract a new generation of professors who are committed to excellence in both research and teaching, which in turn has yielded external research funding. When Colgate tied for fourth nationally for active grants among predominantly undergraduate institutions in 2017, 26 of the 32 grants it had received (National Science Foundation [NSF], National Institutes of Health [NIH], National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA]) were in the sciences. Also a community resource, the center is a popular campus venue for special events, from lectures by visiting scholars to alumni gatherings. Each year, 2,000 school children visit the center; Colgate student volunteers lead a hands-on science program in the Ho Tung Visualization Lab, Robert Linsley Geology Museum, and the greenhouse. Spring 2019 Colgate Magazine 49

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Beyond the rigorous teaching and research conducted in classrooms and labs, the following are just two of the center’s distinctions. Ho Tung Visualization Lab With more than 80,000 visits to date, the Vis Lab is a treasured resource campuswide and in the region. At this full-dome immersive theater, students (with staff and faculty support) create original shows and learning modules for campus instruction and the public. The skills students gain include script writing, digital photography and videography, virtual reality, 3D animation and modeling, computer programming, and sound design. The Vis Lab’s first full-dome show, The Making of a Star and Her Entourage, traces the evolution of humankind’s understanding of the universe. The show’s creation involved a dozen students and Professor Jeff Bary (physics and astronomy). Funded by a grant from NASA and Chandra XRay Observatory, it has now been presented at 12 planetariums nationwide. Beyond astronomy, other original productions range from Virtual Galapagos to Socrates on Death Row. Following his 60th Reunion in 2016, Ho made an additional gift to upgrade the Vis Lab, which is named in honor of his grandfather, Sir Robert Ho Tung. “For years, I have said what my grandfather told me: ‘Before you receive, you must learn how to give,’” Ho says.

Recent courses in the Vis Lab → Galileo, the Church, and the Scientific Endeavor → Core: Middle East → Major Hispanic Authors → Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change → Experimental Animal Behavior

Research Collaborations U.S. forests are under siege by the Asian jumping worm, an aggressive invasive species whose voracious appetite is wiping out food and habitat for native wildlife. In November 2018, professors Damhnait McHugh (biology) and Tim McCay (biology and environmental studies) hosted a symposium for 21 international scientists. This group — soil scientists, population biologists, plant ecologists, and taxonomists — is collaborating to better understand ongoing invasions. According to McHugh, Colgate did not have adequate facilities to host such events before the Ho Science Center was built. Since the November gathering, they’ve submitted a major proposal to the NSF, are preparing a second proposal for a research coordination network through the NSF, and are writing a paper summarizing their understanding thus far.

Research that Feeds Teaching For David Robinson, the Robert Hung Ngai Ho Chair in Asian studies creates a virtuous cycle in furthering his scholarship and teaching. Established in 1993, the endowed professorship provides time and funding for extensive field research. Robinson studies the history of the 13th to 16th centuries in China. Gaining access to primary sources in Beijing, Shanghai, Taiwan, and provincial sites has enabled him to publish three monographs (Chinese translations of two will appear this year) and an annotated translation since his appointment in 2010. His most recent works — In the Shadow of the Mongol Empire: Early Ming China and Ming China and Its Allies: Imperial Rulership in Eurasia (both

Immersive Cultural and Language Learning The day Elizabeth Gonzales ’19 comprehended an entire page of a Chinese newspaper last summer, she knew her facility with the Mandarin language had truly blossomed. She had only begun studying it three years prior, but had immersed herself at every opportunity. “I wanted to learn a language that a lot of people speak and that would prepare me for the future,” she says. Given that her main goal is to work at the Department of State, promoting positive U.S.–China policy and relations, becoming fluent is imperative. From an extended study course in Beijing, to the semester-long China Study Group, students like Gonzales have the opportunity to study in China and travel to Hong Kong and Taiwan, supported by an endowment Ho established in 1993. “It’s part of Robert Ho’s vision that our students see all three places,” says Professor John Crespi (Chinese and Asian studies), who has led the study group three times and teaches the Beijing extended study course. “Each place has a different history, a different feel, and they do things in different ways.” While on the study group in 2016, Gonzales and her classmates interned as greeters at a fashion store. “A retail environment is perfect,” says Crespi, who designed the internship as part of a custom program with CET Shanghai at Donghua University. “A customer comes in, ‘Find me these shoes. I want green,’ and the students have to communicate with them and their Chinese coworkers.” The program was a 2017 GoAbroad Innovation Awards finalist. Gonzales, an international relations and Chinese major from Dallas, Texas,

MArk diorio

Ho Science Center laser lab

forthcoming, Cambridge University Press) — are “attempts to think about early modern China’s rich and diverse connections to neighboring polities,” he says. This spring, Robinson is teaching from documents written by the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty (Zhu Yuanzhang) to Japan, Korea, his own subjects, and representatives of the Mongols. He completed the first English translations of the documents last year while at the Academia Sinica research center in Taiwan. “This is a direct window into how Chinese leaders of the past have used history for political ends,” he says — and Robinson’s students are getting access to the documents before anyone else.

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Robert Hung Ngai Ho ’56, H’11

has returned to China twice more, for a semester with CIEE Shanghai: China in a Global Context, and the CIEE Summer Accelerated Chinese Language Program in Shanghai. After graduation, she will spend the summer as a Davis Fellow for Peace at Middlebury Language Schools and then a year on a Fulbright teaching scholarship in Taiwan. Following that, she has been accepted to the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies certificate program, with the goal of entering the master’s program there.

Two areas in Lawrence Hall named in recognition of Ho’s support provide welcoming settings for contemplation and learning. Dedicated in 1993, the Robert Ho Center for Chinese Studies includes modern classrooms and a reading room. The stately Ho Lecture Room is the site for many campus gatherings, lectures, and academic courses, including the celebrated Living Writers class.

Elizabeth Gonzales ’19, making traditional chopsticks, Taitung, Taiwan

Robert H.N. Ho’s philanthropy is rooted in a worldview shaped by his family’s and personal life experiences of both privation and privilege. His grandfather, Robert Ho Tung, rose from hardship to become one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest businessmen and philanthropists. Ho’s father, General Robert Ho Shai Lai, was a leader on the front lines of China’s war with Japan and the head Chinese military delegate to the United Nations. He was decorated by the Republic of China’s president for his civilian role in the development of Taiwan. Born in Hong Kong in 1932, Robert Ho, with his family, was forced into hiding and escaped to mainland China following the Japanese occupation in 1945. Not long after, the Chinese Communist Revolution precipitated completing his secondary education in the United States. Ho recalls his years at Colgate as among the happiest of his life. “People there took me in as one of them,” he says. He studied English and history, was a member of Sigma Chi (receiving the national Significant Sig Award), and played soccer and tennis. After graduating, he earned a master’s in journalism from Columbia University, and then worked as the White House correspondent for National Geographic and as a freelance writer, including covering the United Nations. Later, he helped his father to run the family’s Kung Sheung Daily Press, a Chinese-language newspaper group, until they closed it when the handover of Hong Kong to China was signed in 1984. Ho, who with his wife, Greta, has two sons, continued to manage family property and investments in Hong Kong, British Columbia, and the United States. Ho’s efforts to produce meaningful impact through philanthropy started with Colgate, Buddhist-related initiatives, and health care. In 2005, with his two sons, he launched the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation. Based in Hong Kong, the foundation promotes Chinese culture, art education, and Buddhist philosophy through cross-cultural programs worldwide. For his efforts, Ho has been made a member of the Order of Canada, and received the Order of British Columbia. He also received honorary degrees from the University of British Columbia, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University, and University of Hong Kong. Colgate has honored Ho, a trustee emeritus (1996–99) and charter member of the James B. Colgate Society, with a Maroon Citation (2001), the Wm. Brian Little ’64 Award for Distinguished Service (2016), and an honorary doctor of humane letters (2011).

Moments made possible by Robert H.N. Ho: → A Year of Chinese Art → His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama campus visit More online at colgate.edu/magazine Spring 2019 Colgate Magazine 51

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innovation

Won’t Back Down SI-BONE CEO Jeff Dunn ’76 touts a medical implant that can resolve back pain and reduce opioid use.

pioids — legal and illegal — kill more than 130 Americans per day. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, 11.4 percent of people who are prescribed pain medications abuse those prescriptions. Eventually, many patients move on to more dangerous drugs like heroin and fentanyl, which often ends in overdose.

But what if there were a better way to move patients off prescription painkillers — not toward dangerous street drugs, but toward a pain-free life? That’s the idea behind iFuse, a new surgical implant product from SI-BONE, the medical device company founded and run by Jeff Dunn ’76. A recent independent clinical study published in the journal Neurosurgery

Toan Nguyen

Endeavor

showed that, compared to patients who chose conservative management, like painkillers and rest, back pain patients who underwent iFuse treatment were 11 times less likely to be opioid users after six years or their last doctor’s visit. Such has been iFuse’s success in minimizing chronic sacroiliac joint back pain for patients who receive the implant — which also has the power to save lives from overdose. Most of Dunn’s business history is in the technology sector, not health care. After majoring in political science at Colgate, he helped start the first software store in America. “We built six retail software stores when everyone said, ‘Why would you need a PC in your house?’” Dunn says. “I've done a lot of things in my career where people said, ‘That's ridiculous,’ and it turned out to be quite interesting.” Other highlights of Dunn’s career leading up to SI-BONE include work in the optical robotics and computer graphics fields. He has started five companies and served as CEO of seven. “I have seen a lot of different technologies and marketing strategies,” he says. “That enabled me, when I got into the medical field, to apply different strategies that have been used in all kinds of technology areas.” SI-BONE started as a spin-off of an ankle replacement company that Dunn ran as CEO and sold in the mid-2000s. After tackling the ankle joint, Dunn and orthopedic surgeon/inventor Mark Reilly moved on to the lower back — specifically, the sacroiliac or SI joint. “It’s the largest joint in your body,” Dunn says. “That joint is responsible for twenty percent of all lower back pain, but no one could figure out the diagnosis and treatment before we came on the scene.” Previous SI joint surgeries required 6to 8-inch incisions and caused significant blood loss, according to Dunn. The iFuse can be implanted with just an inch and a half incision. “In forty-five minutes, we fuse the joint with a 3-D–printed triangular implant, which takes away the micromotion causing pain,” Dunn explains. “As a result, we change these people’s lives. We’ve had people go from being in a wheelchair to going water-skiing, running dogs in the Iditarod, or running a marathon.” So far, SI-BONE has served 36,000 patients in 34 countries around the world. There is still room to grow, Dunn says, because many doctors don’t know that an implant solution for the SI joint now exists. “We’ve educated a lot, but we have a long way to go,” he says. — Mike Agresta

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Porch Girl, 1984

exhibition

Seeing Art in Everyday Life A retrospective of work by photographer Tommy Brown ’79

estled among Picassos, Pollocks, and Kandinskys at Utica’s Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Museum, a room is dedicated to the Tommy Brown: Upstate exhibition. The retrospective of work by Tommy Brown ’79 includes photographs of upstate New York spanning the last 40 years: snapshots of children in front of proud, wooden barns; robust farm animals; and striking rural landscapes through the seasons. Although Brown spent time in New York City after graduating from Colgate, he eventually returned to central New York and settled in Sherburne, just 15 minutes from his hometown of Norwich. He says 95 percent of the photographs in the show

were taken within 10 miles of his home, and he never set out with a specific theme in mind. “When I make pictures, it is just whatever I am doing at the time,” Brown says. “I never wanted it to be work.” As an art major, Brown did not take photography until his senior year at Colgate. However, he was immediately serious about making it his career. He saved up money working at his father’s machine shop to travel across Europe to make pictures, hoping these images would serve as his gateway into an MFA photography program. Brown was resilient in pursuing his passion, which is a necessary attitude for a career in the arts. After his belongings

were stolen in Portugal, he took pictures in Italy using a borrowed camera. One of those photos, Siena, is what helped him be one of only seven students accepted into the photography program at the Yale University School of Art. Siena now serves as an introduction piece in the exhibition’s pamphlet. Nowadays, Brown doesn’t travel for his shots — unless it’s to the county fair or to see his son in Brooklyn. In fact, he met Munson-Williams-Proctor Curator Mary Murray by partaking in one of the museum’s shows for regional artists 30 years ago. He remained friends with Murray, and two years ago, she approached Brown about doing his own show. Murray chose 42 of his pieces, showcasing the intense stares of a young girl on a porch and an elderly man resting on his walker, a troupe of stoic deer hunters and a lively bar singer, and scenes depicting sunlit corn fields and snow-covered horizons. The pictures vary greatly; in black-and-white and in color, their bold characters and humbling natural beauty are the only uniting features. “I always have something to say, even when my pictures look simple,” Brown says. — Lauren Hutton ’21 Spring 2019 Colgate Magazine 53

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endeavor

Entrepreneurship

A Digital Update for Divorce Storey Jones ’85 wants to disrupt the way people get divorced.

or decades, those seeking a divorce have followed a wellworn path. They’ve spent hours compiling documents, arrived at an attorney’s office with the paperwork — and maybe a few tears — and then paid the attorney between $200 to $850 an hour to organize it all. “It’s an antiquated process,” says Jones, “that needed to be modernized.” Jones has done just that. In January of 2018, she launched dtour.life, the first Software as a Service (SaaS) divorcemanagement platform for both couples and divorce professionals. Spouses upload their documents (including assets, debts, and living expenses) onto the platform. Everyone involved has access to the documents, and each user has a dashboard to manage the information. “I call it the digital backbone of the divorce process,” Jones says. Jones hopes that creating an efficient digital workflow will alleviate some of the trauma and stress of divorce, but she believes that people also need a greater understanding of the process. So, dtour. life includes a “Knowledge Center,” where divorcing partners can find articles on everything from how to interview an attorney to creating a post-divorce parenting plan. “I want to provide clarity, efficiency, and information, because if people have a compass to navigate this, they feel more empowered,” she says. The platform grew out of Jones’s own experience. In 2003, she went through a high-conflict divorce from a tech entrepreneur in San Francisco and lost everything, including her house, savings, and retirement accounts. The ordeal, however, gave her a mission. She started Lemon Tree Advisors and worked for 12 years as a consultant to men and women going through divorce. “My favorite thing in the world is to meet people at the start of

We’re changing a whole culture. worked hard to market it. The platform is now available to the 4 million people who have access to LifeMart through their employers. In February, the platform was featured in the Startup Alley of the American Bar Association’s Techshow in Chicago. Her work has also been highlighted in Forbes.com and USA Today recently. Although Jones has encountered resistance from some attorneys — who, she says, tend to resist change — millennial lawyers have embraced her new technology. “It’s been a process,” Jones admits. “But we’re changing a whole culture. It’s going to take time.” — Laura Hilgers ’85

David Beyda

what I know is a tough road and demystify for them what is about to unfold,” says Jones, who was an English major at Colgate. Through her work, Jones quickly realized that the $50-billion-a-year divorce industry was ripe for transformation. “I would pull my hair out at the inefficiency and lack of humanity in the process,” she says. In 2015, she moved to New York with her teenaged son and began work on a platform to streamline divorce — and save money at a time when families need it most. She estimates that dtour.life — which has a monthly charge of $19 for spouses and $50 for legal professionals — will save families thousands of dollars in fees. It also drags divorce into the 21st century. “You can do all your banking on the internet. You can find a date on the internet,” Jones says. “Why not understand and prepare for divorce? This is a huge industry.” Jones raised $1 million from angel investors to launch dtour.life and has

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endeavor

film

Collective Healing Through her work, Poppy Liu ’13 continues to fight stigmas.

Storytelling has been a way for humans to understand themselves as much as each other since the dawn of time. From Scheherazade to Shakespeare, those who are able to captivate the mind through their tales — both fictional and otherwise — have been celebrated. Poppy Liu ’13, too, has been using storytelling to facilitate understanding and healing. After graduation, Liu started New York City–based Collective Sex, an organization that aims to eliminate stigmas around sex and identity through public events where people share their stories. In 2015, Liu found herself needing that supportive environment when she decided to have an abortion. Although she had support from her partner at the time and staff at Planned Parenthood, Liu struggled with the silence surrounding the procedure. “As a pro-choice person, I felt empowered in my decision and yet I felt really lonely during that period,” she says. The conversations she encountered about abortion were politicized, Liu found, and often didn’t tackle other complex emotions: isolation,

Book Review That Savage Gaze: Wolves in the Nineteenth-Century Russian Imagination By Ian Helfant, associate professor of Russian and Eurasian studies and environmental studies Academic Studies Press, 2018 That Savage Gaze is written with pace, fervor, and detail. Using extensive fictional and nonfictional sources, Ian Helfant addresses the preeminent role played by large populations of wolves in Russia’s conceptualization of

questions about the role of motherhood, and even an understanding of how to obtain an abortion. “I had this feeling that there was a huge amount missing from that narrative,” she says. While working through her experience, Liu shared her story at a live event hosted by Collective Sex. “There’s something really potent that happens when storytelling meets community organizing and conversations about intersectionality,” she says. Seeing how deeply it resonated with those in attendance, Liu wanted to reach out to a wider audience. Six months and 20,000 crowd-funded dollars later, she assembled an all-female crew to produce Names of Women, a short film about her abortion story. “I realized we’ve all been experiencing this in close proximity to each other but in silence,” Liu says. As a feminist activist, Liu has been touring the country to screen her film at college campuses in the Northeast (including Colgate) and at reproductive organizations throughout the South. “This is not a film about abortion; this is a film about women. This is a film about why a story about our bodies is often not being told by our voices,” Liu says in the film’s trailer. “[It’s a] film about how one in three American women will have had an abortion, and yet it remains a lonely and cumbersome journey.” This dedication to storytelling and representation can be traced back to Liu’s time at Colgate when she wrote This is Not a Play About Sex (TINAPAS) as the senior thesis for her women’s studies and theater majors. Student interviews about relationships, gender, sexuality, and identity became the script for

itself as an emerging nation in the 19th century. People of that time demonized wolves, and hunters purposely sought to slay as many as possible. After all, ferocious wolves in 19th-century Russia recurrently killed people, particularly children. Helfant argues that the Russian “wolf problem” was a vital factor in the development of the country’s social, cultural, and historical character during this time. Eventually this nefarious mind-set changed as Russians developed an understanding of the ecological essence of the natural world, including wolves. The humans found an integrated truth of “our own identities and our understandings of the

what is now an annually produced and highly anticipated play on campus. “I have so much love for all the students at Colgate who are involved in TINAPAS,” says Liu, who continues to work with student directors, tailoring the script to better reflect the evolving social and sexual climate on campus. Ultimately, Liu hopes that as Collective Sex takes on more projects, people can heal through sharing their experiences and hearing stories reminiscent of their own, creating a community where intersectional identities are validated and celebrated. She says: “The power is in our own stories.” — Lauren Hutton ’21

beings that surround us.” What Helfant uncovered is a paradox that is revealed by “that savage gaze” — moments when the eyes of the wolf are interlocked with the eyes of a human. Suddenly, everything segues into a whole. There is no good and evil, no right or wrong, no reason or logic. In that state of mind, a person acquires an omniscient view of the world, witnessing the complex integrity of the everyday. Such deep animal-human experiences led Russia to a slow, yet persistent transformation, and wolves

became an icon of sorts, providing a source of national identity and pride. Thus, nature, society, and culture self-organized and emerged as a deeply integrated, paradoxical truth of Russia’s animalhuman experiences. That Savage Gaze is a fascinating, masterly controlled journey through aspects of 19th-century imperial Russia that both delights and enlightens. Paul Pinet, professor of geology and environmental studies emeritus Spring 2019 Colgate Magazine 55

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SALMAGUNDI Looking Back Graduates from the Class of 1897 and their families gather for commencement on June 17. At Colgate, George William Smith had just resigned as its fifth president, due to poor health (even though, at 33 years old, he was one of the youngest college presidents in the country); the student newspaper was the Madisonesis; and Trustee Samuel Colgate had died in April. In the world, William McKinley was the 25th U.S. president; physicist J.J. Thomson announced his discovery of the electron; and Bram Stoker published Dracula.

Readers leapt at the chance to caption this vintage Colgate photo in the winter issue. Here are the winners:

“After a rash of unexplained aquatic mishaps, Colgate reinstates the mandatory swim test.” — S. Scott Perkins ’77

“Must have been an awful date…” — Alan C. Brown ’67

“Our own Gertrude McGillicuddy ’93 was an original founder of American Ninja Warrior!” — Scott Wallner P’12 Editor’s Note: Actually, Thomas Doe ’80 recognized the woman pictured as his friend Ann Ball (who left Colgate before graduation). She is “one of the most creative, talented, and fun women to ever have graced Colgate’s campus,” Doe remembers. “She and I went to the Colgate Inn as freshmen to have our first gin martinis!”

Above: special collections and university archives

13 Words (or fewer)

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13 Oak Drive Hamilton, NY 13346-1398

In This Issue

Take a playwriting class p.18

Fight meningitis p.34

Sort snails with Jann Vendetti â&#x20AC;&#x2122;01 p.20

Colgate Magazine_Spring_Cover_20190425.indd 2

Find happiness in nature p.10

Meet a principal strengthening diversity in schools p.68

Navigate the divorce process in a less painful way p.54

Improve your cybersecurity p.19

Research the connections between the mind, brain, and behavior p.48

Hide out during a Zombie apocalypse p.91

Swim with dolphins in Florida p.21

Tour with the Colgate Thirteen p.75

JILL CALDER

Sketch buildings by day, block goals by night p.72

You won a fellowship. Where did it take you? p.26

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